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 it’s not the best offer we’ve ever seen from the program, it still has the potential to represent 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 Wednesday, December 11, 2024, the Air Canada Aeroplan program is offering a promotion on purchased points. Officially, the program is offering up to an 80% bonus, which kicks in when you purchase at least 15,000 points in one transaction.
However, Aeroplan often has different targeted offers for members, so it’s possible that some people will see a better promotion than this.
How much does it cost to buy Aeroplan points?
Ordinarily you can buy Air Canada Aeroplan points for $0.035 CAD (~0.025 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 80% bonus, you’d receive a total of 900,000 Aeroplan points at a cost of $17,500 CAD (~$12,560 USD), which is a rate of 1.4 cents (USD) per Aeroplan 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, 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. The standard offer is for up to an 80% bonus, which would be an opportunity to buy points for around 1.4 cents each.
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?
Not much point if looking mostly for space on Thai. Space that's showing on the Thai site and United are not available on Aeroplan. Singapore is decent though.
Thank you Lucky for covering these promos, as usual... Just for clarification, Aeroplan DOES apply surcharges to their awards, beyond gov't taxes, which can be significant. Change/redeposit fees apply as well. Neither of which are charged by United MileagePlus, which also doesn't expire your miles. I engage in both programs myself, but just saying...