The 2024 Ultimate Guide to Aeroplan Rewards

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• Air Canada's Aeroplan loyalty program offers good value for award flights if you know where to look.
• Earn and use points on Air Canada or partner airlines like United through the Star Alliance network.
• The Aeroplan® Credit Card earns points directly, or you can transfer flexible points to Aeroplan.
• Read Business Insider's guide to the best travel rewards credit cards.

Introduction to Aeroplan Rewards

Air Canada is the flagship airline of Canada, and Aeroplan is its rewards program. Earning Air Canada's Aeroplan points might not sound very useful to non-Canadian travelers, who might wonder why they should invest in a loyalty program with an airline they may never use. 

However, Air Canada's Aeroplan program is one of the world's most versatile airline loyalty programs. You can get thousands of dollars in value from Aeroplan points even if you never step foot on an Air Canada plane. Aeroplan offers excellent sweet spots on its partner airlines such as United Airlines, Lufthansa, and ANA.

Aeroplan points are remarkably easy to earn since Air Canada partners with multiple major transferable credit card points programs. Here's everything you need to know about earning and redeeming Air Canada Aeroplan points.

Earning Aeroplan points

Aeroplan members can earn points in many ways, as we'll explore in more detail below. 

Flying with Air Canada

Flying Air Canada is the most straightforward way to rack up Aeroplan points and earn Aeroplan elite status.

Travelers who purchase Air Canada flights earn Aeroplan points and Status Qualifying Miles (SQM) at the following rates based on ticket class: 

• Basic fares within Canada: 10% of miles flown
• Basic fares between Canada and the U.S.: 25% of miles flown
• Basic fares between Canada and international destinations: 25% of miles flown
• Standard fares within Canada: 25% of miles flown and 50% SQM
• Standard fares between Canada and international destinations: 25% of miles flown and 100% SQM
• Flex fares: 100% SQM and miles flown 
• Comfort fares: 115% SQM and miles flown 
• Latitude fares: 125% SQM and miles flown 
• Premium economy fares: 125% SQM and miles flown 
• Business fares: 125% SQM and miles flown 

Of course, many U.S. travelers can't quickly earn enough points for a premium-class award redemption by flying Air Canada, so we'll next explore alternative options for boosting your Aeroplan account. 

Flying with partner airlines 

Air Canada has over 50 Star Alliance and non-alliance airline partners, and you can earn and redeem Aeroplan points when traveling with these carriers.

Here's the full list:

The number of points you'll earn on Air Canada partners will depend on the fare you purchase and the distance you fly. For instance, United flights earn between 25% and 150% Aeroplan points and elite-qualifying miles based on mileage flown, while Air New Zealand flights earn between 70% and 125%.

Using Aeroplan credit cards

The Aeroplan® Credit Card is the only U.S. credit card that earns Aeroplan points directly. However, Aeroplan also partners with several major credit card programs including American Express, Bilt, Capital One, Chase, and Marriott. 

Here's how those point programs work.

Chase Aeroplan credit card

Chase's Aeroplan® Credit Card is a good card to keep in your wallet even if you don't fly Air Canada very often. New cardholders can earn 70,000 points after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening. That's worth around 105000 in flights, according to Business Insider's points and miles valuations. You can immediately use those points for flights on Air Canada or any of its 51 airline partners including United Airlines, Lufthansa, and Singapore Airlines.

New cardholders also receive automatic Aeroplan 25K elite status for the remainder of the first calendar year, plus the following calendar year.

The Aeroplan® Credit Card offers a free first checked bag on Air Canada flights for the primary cardholder and up to eight companions on the same reservation. Cardholders can also maintain or boost their airline elite status by spending a certain amount of money on the card each year. They also get reimbursed for up to $100 in application fees for Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, or NEXUS every four years.

Aeroplan® Credit Card cardholders can also redeem Aeroplan points toward any eligible travel purchase through Chase Pay Yourself Back. When you redeem points this way, they're worth 1.25 cents each — and qualifying travel includes airfare, car rentals, hotels, rideshares, and much more.

American Express Membership Rewards

If you don't want a co-branded airline credit card for an international carrier you rarely fly, consider a brand-agnostic travel credit card.

American Express offers many of the best travel rewards credit cards for consumer and business travelers alike. The The Platinum Card® from American Express and The Business Platinum Card® from American Express are two of the best-known options in this category. 

Aeroplan has long been an American Express Membership Rewards points transfer partner, so any points you earn from a card that earns Amex points convert to Aeroplan at a 1:1 ratio.

Here are some of the best American Express cards to consider:

Capital One Miles

Similarly, you can transfer Capital One rewards to Aeroplan at a 1:1 ratio if you have a card that earns Capital One miles. Aeroplan is one of over a dozen Capital One transfer partners.

Here are five cards that can help you along the way:

Chase Ultimate Rewards

Chase products are among the top choices in many Business Insider guides to the best consumer credit cards and best small business credit cards. 

Air Canada is a Chase Ultimate Rewards® points transfer partner, so eligible cardholders can move points to Aeroplan at a 1:1 ratio with instant transfers.

The Sapphire Preferred Card, Chase Sapphire Reserve®, and Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to partners. If you also have one of Chase's no-annual-fee credit cards such as the Chase Freedom Flex℠ or the Chase Freedom Unlimited®, you can transfer rewards earned on those cards to the Sapphire Preferred Card, Chase Sapphire Reserve®, or the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card so you can convert those points to Aeroplan. 

Marriott Bonvoy

Marriott Bonvoy® points transfer to Aeroplan points at a ratio of 3:1. But when you transfer 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points at a time, you get a 5,000-mile airline bonus. So if you transferred 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points, you'd end up with 20,000 Aeroplan points, plus a 5,000-point bonus for a total of 25,000 Aeroplan points.

While this conversion rate doesn't work in your favor, there are times when it can make sense to use Bonvoy points for Aeroplan.

Both Chase and Amex issue Marriott credit cards:

Bilt Rewards

If you earn Bilt Points from paying rent or spending on the Bilt Mastercard®, you can transfer them to Aeroplan — and over a dozen other airline and hotel partners — at a 1:1 ratio.

Elite status

Few U.S.-based travelers are likely to earn status with Air Canada. But if you do, you can earn additional Aeroplan points per dollar spent on eligible flights, depending on your status tier. 

Inflight purchases

It's also worth noting that you'll earn Aeroplan points for onboard food and beverage purchases. You earn 25 points for spending between CAD $10 and $19.99, and 50 Aeroplan points for purchases of CAD $20 or above.

Family sharing

Aeroplan is one of the few airline frequent flyer programs that allow members to pool points among friends and family. With Aeroplan Family Sharing, up to eight members can link accounts, and any points earned are shared among all and can be used by all. If any of the family members have elite status or an Air Canada co-branded credit card, any associated benefits, such as discounted award flights, will also be applied to the pool of points.

Other partners: Hotels, car rentals, vacation packages

You can also earn Aeroplan points with a variety of other travel partners. For example, you can earn 250 Aeroplan points per qualifying stay with Best Western and Choice Hotels, and 500 points per stay with Coast Hotels and Shangri-La.

Additionally, you can transfer points from certain hotel loyalty programs into Aeroplan points. For example, ALL – Accor Live Limitless points convert at a 2:1 ratio, and Hilton Honors or Radisson Rewards at a 10:1 rate. You can also opt to earn 2x Aeroplan points per dollar spent with Wyndham or Marriott Bonvoy.

As for transport partners, including car rentals, you can save money and earn bonus points with Avis, Budget, Payless, and Park 'N Fly. Some Air Canada Vacations packages also earn bonus points – usually a fixed amount like 5,000 to 7,000 points per reservation that depends on the destination.

Retail partners

Through the Aeroplan eStore, the loyalty program's online shopping portal, members can either earn bonus points or redeem points for purchases with nearly 250 retailers including Apple and Sephora. These tend to be modest — usually around 1x to 4x bonus points per dollar, but can still add up.

Buy or transfer points

Purchasing airline miles or points is never a great deal, so in general, try to avoid it. However, if you only need to top up your account with a few thousand for an upcoming award, it can be worth it, especially if there are any discounts or bonuses to take advantage of.

Normally, though, Aeroplan points cost CAD $0.03 apiece to purchase, and CAD $0.02 to transfer between accounts.

Redeeming Aeroplan Points

Flights with Air Canada and Star Alliance partners

As with many frequent flyer programs, you typically get the most value from your points or miles by redeeming them for flights, either with the airline or its partners.

Some programs base their award prices on the regions of travel and partners you fly. Others use distance-based formulas which price seats based on how far you fly. Still others, such as Southwest and JetBlue, peg the value of their points to (nearly) fixed values that correlate to airfare — so the more expensive the ticket you want to redeem for, the more points you need.

Aeroplan has opted for a complex hybrid award system that blends region- and distance-based charts that price Air Canada flights based on availability, which means you'll see a range of mileage prices depending on the zone, cabin, and airfares. Here's how it works.

Aeroplan redemption rates

There are four major regions into which the world is divided:

• North America (including the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean)
• Atlantic (including Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and even India)
• Pacific (including most of Asia, Oceania, Australia, and New Zealand)
• South America (speaks for itself)

Then, within each region and between regions, the number of Aeroplan points required for a flight will depend on the distance flown (and, on Air Canada flights, the fare class available). 

All told, Aeroplan now publishes 11 separate award charts to keep straight. If that sounds like too much work, you can simply input your origin and destination into the airline's Points Predictor tool and price out the miles you need based on the cabin you want to fly and whether you're going to take Air Canada or partners.

Here's an example. Let's say you're based in the U.S. For flights within North America, Central America, and the Caribbean, Air Canada economy awards cost between 6,000 and 25,000 points each way based on distance, while flights on partner airlines cost 6,000 to 22,500 points.

Air Canada flights in business class across the same geographic region will cost between 15,000 and 70,000 points, while partner tickets will require 15,000 to 35,000 points.

From North America to destinations in the Atlantic Zone (including Europe and Africa), you could be paying 35,000 to 100,000 points for an economy ticket on Air Canada (35,000 to 70,000 on partners), or 60,000 to 220,000 in business class on Air Canada (60,000 to 110,000 on partners).

The key to using these charts effectively will be to shop around and know which awards will price out better according to the new system than using miles from a partner program like United MileagePlus.

Aeroplan award sweet spots

Let's look at a few Aeroplan award chart sweet spots. In general, you'll want to keep your routing as short as possible to avoid being charged higher mileage prices since they are now based on distance.

Aeroplan will let you add one stopover on one-way award tickets, or two on round-trips, for 5,000 extra points each. However, there are some rules to be aware of, like you cannot add them in Canada or the US — and you can't "backtrack" through an airport you've already traveled to or transited. Still, this can be a great way to wrap two trips up in one without paying for two separate award tickets.

With that out of the way, here are a few examples of when you might want to use Aeroplan points:

• Short flights within North America cost between 6,000 and 10,000 points for an economy ticket on flights under 500 miles, or 10,000 to 15,000 points for flights between 501 and 1,500 miles.
• Fly United business class from the West Coast to Hawaii for 25,000 points each way.
• Fly Seattle or Vancouver to Tokyo on All Nippon Airways for just 55,000 points each way in business class.
• Fly from most of the US to Frankfurt in Lufthansa first class for 90,000 to 110,000 points each way.

Points + Cash awards

Aeroplan allows you to book award tickets using a mix of points and cash. You can use points to pay the tax portion of a ticket, for instance, or to shave up to a few hundred dollars off your fare. Rather than a sliding scale that lets you select the exact amount of points you want to redeem, though, you're stuck to preset increments.

From a few sample bookings, this tends to yield a value of about CAD $0.01 to $0.014 per point. That's decent, but you probably only want to use this option if you don't have quite enough points in your account to book the award outright.

Upgrades and inflight Wi-Fi

Among two of the more interesting ways to redeem your points are upgrades on Air Canada flights and inflight Wi-Fi purchases.

For upgrades, you'll need to log into your specific reservation and bid on an upgrade offer using points, so your value may vary. For the Wi-Fi, just log into the network on your next flight and choose a plan that has points pricing to select that option instead of paying cash.

Lower fees and partner charges

One bright spot in all these changes is that Aeroplan has removed carrier-imposed surcharges from its award tickets. These would add up to hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars on some flights, making it pointless to redeem rewards.

What made them even more confusing was that they only applied to certain airlines. Now, however, Aeroplan is charging a flat CAD $39 partner booking fee for tickets on other airlines, and no such surcharges on Air Canada's own flights (though you still have to pay taxes and third-party fees like airport charges).

Priority Rewards

Aeroplan has introduced a rather unique benefit for elite members called Priority Rewards. These are vouchers good for 50% off the price in points of a flight reward. Now, you have to hit some pretty high spending requirements to earn vouchers — you get one at CAD $4,000, $7,000, $10,000, and $15,000 then for every $5,000 above that up to $50,000 maximum per calendar year. (Note these are all in Canadian dollars, so the range in USD is $2,988 to $37,350 based on exchange rates at the time of post writing).

There are also some complicated limitations to how you can apply these. For example, if you have 25K or 35K status, you can only apply your Priority Rewards to economy flights within the US or Canada. If you have 75K status, you can use yours worldwide on tickets in economy and premium economy, but not higher. So it takes some strategy, but depending on how you apply these, shaving half off the points price of your ticket can amount to tens of thousands of points in savings.

Hotels, car rentals, vacation packages, and unique experiences

Finally, you can cash in your Aeroplan points with other travel and retail partners. In general, this is not the way to go since you can usually squeeze a lot more value from points when booking flights.

But if you have an Aeroplan stash and nothing to do with the points, you can now use them to book stays at over 300,000 hotels, reservations at over 11,000 car rental locations, entire Air Canada Vacations packages, directly for merchandise or gift cards via the Aeroplan eStore, and for activities and travel experiences. 

From various searches, the value you tend to get with any of these options is just around CAD $0.007 to $0.012 per point, so it might be best to avoid them.

Aeroplan Rewards frequently asked questions

How can I earn Aeroplan points without flying?

Earn points through everyday spending with Aeroplan-affiliated credit cards, shopping at partner retailers, dining, and booking travel services through Aeroplan partners.

What's the best way to use Aeroplan points?

Redeeming points for flights typically offer the best value, especially for long-haul or international business-class tickets. Points can also be used for upgrades, hotel stays, and car rentals.

Do Aeroplan points expire?

Aeroplan points will not expire as long as you earn or redeem at least once every 18 months, keeping your account active.