Often buying points strategically can be a good value, especially for first & business class travel. The Air Canada Aeroplan program has just launched its latest promotion on purchased points. While it’s not as good as some past offers, it still has the potential to be valuable, especially with how strong the USD is compared to the CAD.
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 booking experience.
In this post:
Promotion on purchased Air Canada Aeroplan points
Through Sunday, October 9, 2022, the Air Canada Aeroplan program is offering a bonus on purchased points. Aeroplan is offering a tiered bonus of up to 85%, as follows:
- Buy 5,000-29,000 points, receive a 50% bonus
- Buy 30,000-55,000 points, receive a 65% bonus
- Buy 60,000+ 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 (~0.0255 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 maxed out the 85% bonus and purchased 500,000 points in one transaction pre-bonus, you’d receive a total of 925,000 Aeroplan points at a cost of $17,500 CAD (~$12,776 USD), which is a rate of 1.38 cents (USD) per Aeroplan point.
While this is better than not seeing a promotion, we did see a 100% bonus this summer, which was an opportunity to acquire points for 1.34 cents each. Then again, the USD has strengthened compared to the CAD, so this actually isn’t a huge difference.
How many Aeroplan points can you purchase?
While you can purchase up to one million Aeroplan points per account per calendar year (pre-bonus), there is a per-transaction limit of 500,000 points pre-bonus. You’d need to buy points in multiple transaction if you wanted to get to your purchase limit.
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 minimum spending, 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.
- Earn 1% cash back when you make a purchase, earn 1% cash back when you pay for that purchase
- $0
- Earn 3% Cash Back on Dining
- Earn 3% Cash Back at Drugstores
- Earn 1.5% Cash Back On All Other Purchases
- $0
- Earn 2x Venture miles on every purchase
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- 10,000 bonus miles every account anniversary
- $395
- Earn 2x Venture miles on every purchase
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
- Global Entry/TSA Pre-Check Credit
- $95
- 2x points on purchases up to $50k then 1x
- Access to Amex Offers
- No annual fee
Is buying Air Canada Aeroplan points worth it?
Aeroplan is one of my favorite frequent flyer programs out there. The new Aeroplan program was launched in late 2020, and it’s completely different than before:
- Award pricing is a combination of zone and distance-based
- There are no more 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 40 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, and Air Mauritius.
I expect Aeroplan’s list of airline partners will only continue to grow over time, and to me that’s really exciting.
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, 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 has launched its latest promotion on purchased points. You can buy points with up to an 85% bonus, which is an opportunity to acquire them for around 1.38 cents each (in USD).
This has the potential to be a great deal, though we have seen better deals in the past. Also keep in mind that there are other ways to acquire Aeroplan points, like transferring them from one of Aeroplan’s partners, like Amex, Capital One, and Chase.
Do you plan on buying Aeroplan points with this promotion?
I’m in Europe now with my family and heading to Dubai and asia next. Some decent redemptions available on aero plan that just don’t exist on United. Especially in the Middle East. Eg Dubai to muscat and on to Asia. Pretty sweet. Although sometimes I see less seats than United (eg madrid to Cairo) but I don’t know if that’s because it’s phantom on United.
Might buy points for Dubai to Bangkok. Via Addis abbaba lolll