Aeroplan Family Sharing: Pool Points With Others

When the new Air Canada Aeroplan program was introduced in late 2020, Family Sharing was rolled out, whereby members could pool points with others. At the time, it was made clear that this could be suspended in the future if there was lots of abuse.

In mid-2023, we saw new enrollments in the Aeroplan Family Sharing feature temporarily suspended for exactly this reason. Well, there’s now an update, as enrollment has reopened.

How the Aeroplan Family Sharing feature works

The Aeroplan Family Sharing feature allows members to pool their points, so that they can redeem for rewards faster. As you’d expect, there are some details to be aware of:

• Up to eight verified family members can join together to share points, while keeping their own Aeroplan accounts
• All points earned, including existing points balances, are added into the shared pools
• Members must be part of the program for six months before they can join a pool, and they must stay in that pool for at least three months, and not have been in another pool in the past six months
• Family Sharing is open to family members, including spouses, partners, children, siblings, in-laws, parents, and grandparents
• Members with redemption privileges can use points from the shared balance to redeem rewards
• If there’s a primary Aeroplan credit card holder in the pool, then everyone can use the preferred pricing benefit
• Family sharing doesn’t impact the expiration of Aeroplan points; members still need some individual account activity every 18 months to keep their balance active
• In some cases, additional identity verification steps are required, to provide extra protection against unauthorized use under the terms

I’m happy to see this Aeroplan feature return!

I’m a huge fan of loyalty programs that allow points pooling, and I think that Aeroplan’s execution with this program is excellent. For obvious reasons, it’s great to be able to combine rewards between accounts, so that you can get enough points for your next redemption sooner.

In the case of Aeroplan, there are couple of additional advantages that make this especially valuable:

• I like how credit card preferred pricing and voucher benefits can be used by anyone in the Family Sharing pool, which adds even more value
• Aeroplan of course partners with major transferable points currencies, so for situations where you can’t combine rewards directly, it’s nice to at least be able to pool them toward a common reward with a useful program

Bottom line

Aeroplan has once again opened enrollment for its Family Sharing feature. This allows Aeroplan members to combine points with family members, so that they can redeem for rewards faster, and even take advantage of preferred credit card pricing. Just be aware of the (fairly limited) restrictions. This could be a good opportunity.

What’s your take on Aeroplan’s Family Sharing feature reopening for enrollment?