Often buying points strategically can be a good value, especially for first and business class travel. Air Canada Aeroplan has just launched its latest promotion on purchased points, and it has the potential to be quite an attractive offer, as it’s among the better deals we see from the program.
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
Between January 26 and February 16, 2026, the Air Canada Aeroplan program is offering a promotion on purchased points. This is being marketed as a mystery bonus, so different members may be eligible for different offers. However, it appears that the best version of the offer is for up to a 100% bonus, structured as follows:
- Buy 5,000-25,000 points, receive a 50% bonus
- Buy 30,000-70,000 points, receive a 75% bonus
- Buy 80,000+ points, receive a 100% bonus
Other people may very well be targeted for different offers, so you’ll want to check your account.
How much does it cost to buy Aeroplan points?
Ordinarily, Air Canada Aeroplan charges $0.0375 CAD (~0.027 USD) per point. Any purchases made with US credit cards and US billing addresses aren’t subject to sales tax either. If you purchased 500,000 Aeroplan points with a 100% bonus, you’d receive a total of 1,000,000 Aeroplan points at a cost of $18,750 CAD (~$13,680 USD), which is a rate of 1.37 cents (USD) per Aeroplan point.
How many Aeroplan points can you purchase?
While you can purchase up to one million Aeroplan points per account per calendar year, there’s ordinarily a per-transaction limit of 250,000 points pre-bonus. However, during this promotion that has been doubled, 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.
Since the purchase of Aeroplan points is billed in CAD, there is one other great option. The Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® Credit Card (review) offers 3x points on foreign purchases, so that’s a fantastic card for this kind of purchase. Beyond that, the best options would be cards that offer 2x transferable points, while having no foreign transaction fees.
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. Just keep in mind that Aeroplan now has dynamic award pricing on select partners, including Emirates, Etihad, FlyDubai, and United, among others.
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, Air Serbia, Virgin Australia, Air Dolomiti, Eurowings, Gulf Air, Oman Air, Air Mauritius, Bamboo Airways, and Emirates.
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 bonus on purchased points. While people may be targeted for different offers, it appears the best offer is for up to a 100% bonus, which kicks in as long as you purchase at least 80,000 points in one transaction. This is an opportunity to buy points for 1.37 cents (in USD) each.
This could represent a good deal, and there are plenty of situations under which the math will work out for this promotion. Still, in general I’d only recommend buying points with a short term use in mind, as there’s always risk to holding onto points for longer periods of time.
Do you plan on buying Aeroplan points with this promotion?
Please change the headline to "up to", Ben. it's starting to smart, everytime you say there's a 100% Bonus (4 times, so far) I'm personally excluded.
And another thing: why are the criteria for who gets what offer secret? Sleazy.
Not to mention some phantom availability showing.
Case in point:
PER-DOH SEP22 on Virgin Australia - showing business class availability last night (and still is).
Purchased the points, logged on to book, availability still showing YAY.
Get to 'enter passenger details' screen - error.
After over an hour on the phone to an agent advised there is in fact, no availability urgh
Maybe once they unblock all partners?
TK, ET, TG, CA, CM, EY, SN, the list keep growing.
Now even SQ has cut back
Buyer beware, unless you fancy spending 400k on crappy AC metal to Europe.
GF (Gulf Air) availability is completely gone now, too.
TK can be booked over the phone.
To recommend people spend money to buy miles on this useless program is why this blogger cannot be trusted
Air Canada is the best airline in the world.
The email to me said :
"Get up to an 85% bonus when you buy points until Feb. 16, 2026. "
Only 80% for me. I'm not a buyer unless it's 100.
Never seen an award available with Aeroplan so no
Aeroplan is not what it used to be until 31 Dec 2025 for Canadians and probably for the Americans as well. We could use Aeroplan for a return ticket to India in business class for 160K points until 2021 or until Air Canada didn't own Aeroplan. Since Air Canada takeover getting tickets on points have become a nightmare. Currently a ticket to India and back from Calgary costs almost 1 Million Aeroplan miles. So we...
Aeroplan is not what it used to be until 31 Dec 2025 for Canadians and probably for the Americans as well. We could use Aeroplan for a return ticket to India in business class for 160K points until 2021 or until Air Canada didn't own Aeroplan. Since Air Canada takeover getting tickets on points have become a nightmare. Currently a ticket to India and back from Calgary costs almost 1 Million Aeroplan miles. So we started using Aeroplan for redemption on non AC and Air India was the best. You could fly YYC YYZ DEL or YYC YVR DEL on AC/AI combination for 125K points in first class. Starting Jan 1st 2026, the same ticket costs 250K to 350K points. It is unbelievable how much Aeroplan sucks these days for flight redemption. Even on domestic routes the tickets that cost like 10K points are now 90K points one way (YYC YYZ in economy class). If you are planning to buy points, make sure to do your research otherwise you may regret in the long run.
AeroRupees. Costs just a crore to India.
Thank you for providing the dates and percentages on previous offers, it’s very helpful.
I’m targeted at 80%
Hi Ben, I’m a big fan of aeroplan and have used some great redemptions from Sydney. 90k on air India/vistara to Europe, 50k to Tokyo on ANA etc.
I’m pricing up some multi city itineraries from Syd to the USA/Europe and see some great awards for -110k miles in biz but when I go to check them out they all come with huge “air transportation charges” over 1500$ CAD. The individual legs don’t show this. Ie Syd Delhi. Delhi Ord via Europe.
Nvm. Because I don’t have any aeroplan points atm it’s quoting air transportation charges as the cost to buy points.
Disregard prior calculation - that was 2.02 Canadian, not USD.
Damn! I only got the 85% bonus offer, which changes the equation quite a bit./ I think it works out to 2.02 cents per mile.
The miles are not what they were- very,very hard to find a NY/Europe flight NONE STOP OR WITH AS MUCH AS ONE STOP ON A MAJOR AIRLINE FOR 100K OR LESS , I CHECK EVERY DAY YES CAN FIND EGYPT AIR ETC -
I APOLOGIZE FOR CAPS
Hi Bill, I totally understand your frustration and comment. I recommend using a tool like seats.aero. Ben has talked about it before on this blog here many times. Currently I see over 1600 flights from North America to Europe with business class for 100k or less per person (starting out at 60k!).