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 — while better than nothing, it’s not the best offer we’ve seen 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
Through Thursday, October 10, 2024, the Air Canada Aeroplan program is offering a promotion on purchased points. Officially, the program is offering up to a 75% bonus, but some accounts are showing better offers, so you’ll want to log into your account to see what you’re eligible for. For example, my account shows a bonus of up to 85%, structured as follows:
- Buy 4,000-10,000 points, receive a 50% bonus
- Buy 15,000-20,000 points, receive a 60% bonus
- Buy 25,000-500,000 points, receive an 85% bonus
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 purchased 500,000 Aeroplan points with an 85% bonus, you’d receive a total of 925,000 Aeroplan points at a cost of $17,500 CAD (~$12,954 USD), which is a rate of 1.4 cents (USD) per Aeroplan point. Meanwhile if you purchased those points with a 75% bonus, you’d be paying a cost of 1.48 cents (USD) per point.
While some promotion is better than no promotion, it’s important to emphasize that this isn’t as good as some of the past offers that 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, 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.
In this case the best options are the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card (review) or Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (review), 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 bonus on purchased points. While the standard offer is for up to a 75% bonus, some members are being targeted for better offers, including an 85% bonus.
While this could represent a good deal, it’s not as good of an offer as some of the past promotions that we’ve seen from the program. Aeroplan points are valuable, and there are plenty of situations under which the math could work out with taking advantage of this. 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?
I have been researching how to buy and then use Aeroplan points for a first class reservation to Europe on Emirates. When I tried to make a dummy reservation on the Aeroplan site--I haven't transferred Amex points there or taken advantage of the latest purchase bonus--I find no Emirates option. Perhaps I am doing something wrong and am concerned because it is just days before flights next September/October open up. So I am resigned to...
I have been researching how to buy and then use Aeroplan points for a first class reservation to Europe on Emirates. When I tried to make a dummy reservation on the Aeroplan site--I haven't transferred Amex points there or taken advantage of the latest purchase bonus--I find no Emirates option. Perhaps I am doing something wrong and am concerned because it is just days before flights next September/October open up. So I am resigned to using cash and Amex points, which you likely know now transfer at 3 MR to 2 Skywards points. Ah well.
How i can buy
@Ben - I emailed you a month ago, you can now book EY J awards again through Aeroplan on Etihad, but mostly for Intra Gulf/MLE/Under 2k routes, like IST and ATH. But they are back at least for some routes!