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.
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 May 14 and May 31, 2026, the Air Canada Aeroplan program is offering a promotion on purchased points. Different members may be eligible for different offers, so you’ll want to log into your account to see what you’re eligible for. However, it appears that the standard version of the offer is for up to a 90% bonus, structured as follows:
- Buy 4,000-25,000 points, receive a 40% bonus
- Buy 30,000-60,000 points, receive a 60% bonus
- Buy 70,000+ points, receive a 90% bonus
How much does it cost to buy Aeroplan points?
Ordinarily, Air Canada Aeroplan charges $0.0375 CAD (~0.0273 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 90% bonus, you’d receive a total of 950,000 Aeroplan points at a cost of $18,750 CAD (~$13,668 USD), which is a rate of 1.44 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 standard offer is for up to a 90% bonus, which kicks in as long as you purchase at least 70,000 points in one transaction. This is an opportunity to buy points for 1.44 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?
I'm trying to find decent redemptions for all the points. I got already in Aeroplan. It's been tough to find anything decent.
Weird, after I log in on Air Canada it clearly shows the offer for me to buy prints with up to 90% bonus, but then when I get to the purchase page it only shows me an offer with up to 75% bonus. I wonder what's going on and if there is a way to fix it.
Nope. I only buy when there is at least a 100% bonus. But they can be great value - Swiss business class (yeah it’s mediocre) YUL-ZUR for 70,000 points is a still a steal.
I wouldn't; you can buy aeroplan miles at final point of sale on award bookings for around 0.0139 as long as you have at least 60% of the miles required for an award ticket.
Yep, also can be some compelling partial points / cash deals on that last page (although they become a bit less compelling when a transfer bonus is on). As always, figure out what flight you want, then figure out if buying miles this way, buying miles on last screen, or transferring miles into Aeroplan is the best deal.
Yep, also can be some compelling partial points / cash deals on that last page (although they become a bit less compelling when a transfer bonus is on). As always, figure out what flight you want, then figure out if buying miles this way, buying miles on last screen, or transferring miles into Aeroplan is the best deal.
No mention of the pending devaluation?
@Ben covered it already
It really SHOULD be mentioned in this article as it's key info.
Skeptical side of me thinks it's deliberately not mentioned as it would affect his affiliate profits....
I wouldn't mind about United space being dynamic, just any availability at all would be acceptable.
As much as we complain about AA, they are the only remaining airline who cares about a frequent flyer program with global benefits.
As someone who does this personally and professionally, I gotta say that Aeroplan availability is a shell of what it used to be. Air Canada virtually never releases any space on their own metal except at extortionate, Skymiles-esque prices, and *A partner space markedly diminished.
So I really wouldn't buy anything speculatively
Yeah, anything on AC's own metal makes me cry.