Often buying points strategically can be a good value, especially for first and business class travel.
The Air Canada Aeroplan program will shortly be celebrating its 40th anniversary. In recognition of this, the program has announced a promotion it plans to have in the coming days. I wanted to post a heads up about this, as it’s one of the best deals we’ve seen on buying Aeroplan points in a very long time, so it’s worth planning for, if interested.
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.
Next week, Air Canada Aeroplan plans to offer a great bonus on purchased points:
- Between July 8 and July 11, 2024, it’ll be possible to buy Aeroplan points with up to a 125% bonus
- Between July 12 and July 19, 2024, it’ll be possible to buy Aeroplan points with up to a 100% bonus
Once again, this offer isn’t yet live, but rather it launches next Monday.
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 a 125% bonus, you’d receive a total of 1,125,000 Aeroplan points at a cost of $17,500 CAD (~$12,842 USD), which is a rate of 1.14 cents (USD) per Aeroplan point.
We see Aeroplan promotions on buying points every so often, and most of the promotions are good deals. This upcoming deal will be the best offer we’ve seen from the program in a long time.
How many Aeroplan points can you purchase?
While you can purchase up to one million Aeroplan points per account per calendar year, ordinarily there is a per-transaction limit of 250,000 points pre-bonus. However, during this offer period that limit will likely be increased 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) (Rates & Fees) or Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (review) (Rates & Fees), 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
On Monday, July 8, 2024, Air Canada’s Aeroplan program will be offering a 125% bonus on purchased points, which will be an opportunity to acquire points for as little as 1.14 cents each. This is among the best offers we’ve seen from the program, so I’ll post again once the deal is live.
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 upcoming promotion?
