Often buying points strategically can be a good value, especially for first and business class travel. The Air Canada Aeroplan program has just launched its latest promotion on purchased points, and it has the potential to be a good deal.
Aeroplan is one of my all-around favorite frequent flyer programs, thanks to the huge variety of airline partners, the ability to have stopovers on one-way awards for 5,000 points, and the generally great online booking experience.
In this post:
Promotion on purchased Air Canada Aeroplan points
Through Saturday, May 11, 2024, the Air Canada Aeroplan program is offering a bonus on purchased points. Different members are being targeted for different offers. While the basic promotion offers up to an 85% bonus, some accounts are being targeted for up to a 100% bonus, or in some cases maybe even more.
In all cases, you can unlock the biggest bonus when you purchase at least 80,000 points in one transaction (pre-bonus). You’ll want to log into your account to see what you’re eligible for.
How much does it cost to buy Aeroplan points?
Ordinarily you can buy Air Canada Aeroplan points for $0.035 CAD (~0.026 USD) each, before any discounts or bonuses. Any purchases made with US credit cards and US billing addresses aren’t subject to sales tax either.
If you maxed out this promotion with a 100% bonus and purchased 500,000 points in one transaction, you’d receive a total of 1,000,000 Aeroplan points at a cost of $17,500 CAD (~$12,813 USD), which is a rate of 1.28 cents (USD) per Aeroplan point.
We see Aeroplan promotions on buying points every so often, and most of the promotions are good deals. This deal has the potential to be among the better offers we’ve seen from the program.
How many Aeroplan points can you purchase?
While you can purchase up to one million Aeroplan points per account per calendar year, ordinarily there is a per-transaction limit of 250,000 points pre-bonus. However, during this offer period that limit has been increased to 500,000 points.
Which credit card should you buy Aeroplan points with?
Air Canada Aeroplan points purchases are processed by points.com, meaning they don’t count as an airfare purchase for the purposes of credit card spending. Therefore I’d recommend using a card on which you’re trying to reach a minimum spending requirement, or otherwise, a credit card that maximizes your return on everyday spending.
In this case the best options are the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card (review) (Rates & Fees) or Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (review) (Rates & Fees), which offer 2x miles and have no foreign transaction fees. Usually the Chase Freedom Unlimited® (review) or Citi Double Cash® Card (review) would also be good options for maximizing everyday spending, but the cards have foreign transaction fees, so wouldn’t be good options in this case.
Is buying Air Canada Aeroplan points worth it?
Aeroplan is one of my favorite frequent flyer programs out there. To cover a few of the basics:
- Award pricing is a combination of zone and distance-based
- There are no fuel surcharges for any award redemptions
- You can have a stopover on a one-way award for an additional 5,000 points
- Aeroplan has more airline partners than any other program out there, including partnering with many non-Star Alliance airlines
There are lots of phenomenal uses of Aeroplan points, and this is a program that I redeem through regularly.
On what airlines can you redeem Aeroplan points?
One of my favorite things about Air Canada Aeroplan is that the program has more airline partners than any other frequent flyer program, and you can redeem points on over 45 airlines. In addition to Air Canada belonging to the Star Alliance, Aeroplan also partners with airlines that include Etihad, Azul, Vistara, Air Serbia, Virgin Australia, Air Dolomiti, Eurowings Discover, Gulf Air, Oman Air, Air Mauritius, Bamboo Airways, and Emirates.
Unfortunately Aeroplan has been having issues with some partner awards, in particular for travel on Etihad Airways. So unfortunately at the moment those redemptions largely aren’t possible. Always look up award availability before buying points, to get a sense of what you can expect.
Are there fuel surcharges on Aeroplan awards?
Many consumers are frustrated by the practice of airlines adding carrier imposed surcharges to award tickets. In the case of Aeroplan, there are no fuel surcharges on award tickets, meaning you shouldn’t expect to pay big fees when redeeming points.
How much are Aeroplan points worth?
Everyone will value points currencies differently, but personally I value Aeroplan points at ~1.5 cents each. However, I tend to value points pretty conservatively, and there are many ways to get way more value from Aeroplan points than that.
Do Aeroplan points expire?
Air Canada Aeroplan points only expire after 18 months of inactivity. However, any account activity that leads to earning or redeeming points (including buying them) would reset the expiration.
What other ways can you earn Aeroplan points?
While buying Aeroplan points could represent a great deal, keep in mind that there are lots of other ways to earn Aeroplan points. Most significantly, Aeroplan is transfer partners with American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One, and Chase Ultimate Rewards, making the currency pretty easy to acquire.
On top of that, in the United States there’s the Aeroplan® Credit Card (review), which is pretty lucrative.
Bottom line
Air Canada’s Aeroplan program is offering a promotion on purchased points. It seems that the standard offer is for an 85% bonus, though some accounts are also eligible for a 100% bonus. This could be an opportunity to buy points for 1.28-1.39 cents each.
Aeroplan points are valuable, and there are plenty of situations under which the math could work out with taking advantage of this offer. In general I’d only recommend buying points with a short term use in mind, though, as there’s always risk to holding onto points for longer periods.
Do you plan on buying Aeroplan points with this promotion?
Your title is misleading. Most accounts I know only got a 85% bonus. Your title should say Buy Aeroplan points with an 85% - 100% bonus
This must be targeted. I've only received 85% bonus. I'll pass this time
I received an email from Aeroplan and have the 100% bonus offer.
Aeroplan is far from perfect but there is good value to be had in J very close in on UA, AV, CM and occasionally even AC.
The miles game has gotten to the point where you depending upon any one program is not a good strategy at all anymore.
Only a fool would buy miles with this crap program. BKK-DXB on EK is 180K miles which is thrice the amount you pay for buying a revenue business class ticket from Emirates directly. And all the so-called partners like GF, Oman Air, etc advertised have disappeared into thin air...
Well, then I am a fool... ;; as a long-time expat in the ME, I have been almost always able to take a value of (more) 2 cent per mile, redeeming for the combination of MS, TK, GF, Aegean (before often EY) even during the extreme high season like Eid holidays in the region. Despite of EY unavailability recently, GF B787 to CMN, BKK, MNL and LHR is an excellent option to me.
Same here, 85% bonus for me too. I feel it's disingenuous to write a headline of 100% bonus when most people only get the basic 85%. Do better, Ben.
hm... I've just checked my account, I got 100% bonus offer though.
Got 100%
No status. No credit card.
Hard pass. Partners blocked. Devaluation coming.
Immediate use only. Buyer beware.
Thanks a lot for your useful website. Just wanted to mention it is up to 85%. It typed 100% by mistake.
Again thanks a lot for all information you shared on your great website.
No it’s up to 100%. Many of my friends incl me gets 100%