Buy Aeroplan Points with a 30% Discount

Aeroplan has frequent sales on buying points with its Buy & Gift Points feature. From now until November 18, 2024 at 11:59pm Pacific Time, you can buy Aeroplan points with a 30% discount.

While this isn’t the best promotion we’ve seen Aeroplan offer for purchased points this year, as long as you can get more value from your redemption than what it costs, it can still be worth considering.

Buy Aeroplan Points with a 30% Discount

Normally, Aeroplan sells points at a base price of 3.5 cents per point (CAD).

During the current promotion, you’ll get a different discount depending on how many points you purchase:

• Buy 10,000–19,000 points, get a 15% discount
• Buy 20,000–75,000 points, get a 20% discount
• Buy 80,000–95,000 points, get a 25% discount
• Buy 100,000+ points, get a 30% discount

With a 30% discount, the effective acquisition cost comes down to 2.45 cents per point (CAD). 

At 2.45 cents per point (CAD), buying Aeroplan points with a 30% discount is above our current target redemption valuation of 2.1 cents (CAD). It’s also one of the lower offers we’ve seen in the last year or so.

However, if you already have a specific Aeroplan redemption in mind where you’d only need a top-up or where you’re sure to get higher value, buying points with a 30% discount is clearly better than buying points at full price.

As usual, buying or gifting points doesn’t contribute to your Aeroplan Elite Status. We’ve previously seen a promotion for buying points which also counted towards Status Qualifying Dollars (SQD), but that’s not the case this time around.

How many Aeroplan points can you buy?

Since the launch of the Buy & Gift Points feature, Aeroplan has been allowing each member to buy up to 1,000,000 points per calendar year. That’s an enormously generous limit, much higher than other loyalty programs offer for buying points.

(Note that gifting points here refers to buying points for another Aeroplan member, not transferring your existing points. You can gift up to 500,000 points per year.)

Usually, Aeroplan imposes a limit of 250,000 base points per transaction, as is the case with this current promotion. However, the limit is sometimes doubled.

Surely, paying hundreds or thousands of dollars for points can be steep, but it’s not entirely unreasonable if you’re only topping up your balance to secure long-haul routes in business class or First Class at a discount from what you’d otherwise pay in cash.

Which credit card should you use to buy Aeroplan points?

As Aeroplan points purchases are processed by Points.com, you won’t be able to earn category accelerators on Air Canada or travel purchases.

When buying or gifting Aeroplan points with a Canadian credit card, it will result in GST/HST being added to the total, eroding some of the value of your purchase.

Therefore, the ideal way to make your purchase would be to use a US credit card with a US billing address, in which case GST/HST isn’t levied. You could use this opportunity to make progress towards a minimum spending requirement on a new US credit card; otherwise, use a card that offers a strong return on everyday spending.

If you must use a Canadian credit card, you’ll be acquiring Aeroplan points at a higher rate, depending on your provincial tax rate. With taxes included, the value proposition further weakens, and you may be better off earning Aeroplan points in other ways.

Who Should Buy Aeroplan Points?

There are some situations in which buying Aeroplan points can be beneficial.

Travel on Long-Haul Partner Airlines

Even with a purchase price of as low as 2.45 cents per point, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re guaranteed to get the same value for your booking.

Before buying points, it’s important to consider Aeroplan’s dynamic pricing model, where award ticket prices on Air Canada flights can be a bit unpredictable. Points costs rise and fall, more closely mirroring cash costs, so there isn’t as clear an advantage to buying points and making a points booking.

Instead, you can benefit by flying on Air Canada’s partner airlines, where award tickets are at a fixed points price based on distance and region. With partner airlines, there are certainly many more sweet spots to be had where you can stretch the value you get for your up-front cash costs.

In general, you shouldn’t speculatively buy points if you tend to travel on dynamically priced routes. There’s a lot more risk in making a speculative points purchase if you can’t guarantee the value you’ll get – in that case, you should try to earn points the slow way.

On the other hand, if you’re confident that you’ll often have opportunities to redeem points above the price you pay, you can stand to benefit from a points purchase under this promotion.

Families Who Share Points

With Aeroplan’s Family Sharing feature, you can easily purchase points on multiple accounts within a household and use them together.

That’s especially the case if you want to purchase more than the maximum of 1,000,000 Aeroplan points per account per year.

You can purchase points on up to eight Aeroplan accounts under the same Family Sharing pool (which can include any distant uncles you have if you don’t have a partner or kids), and redeem them out of your own account for your own trips. Across all linked accounts, your family could purchase up to 8,000,000 points per year.

Keep in mind that the Family Sharing feature has been temporarily closed off for the creation of new groups since Summer 2023. However, if you have a Family Sharing pool already set up, you can continue to use it as per usual.

Other Ways to Earn Aeroplan Points

Despite this being an opportunity to buy points for less than usual, there are no shortage of other easy and affordable ways to earn Aeroplan points. You should always consider if you can reach the balance you want, on the timeline you need it, in other ways.

Credit Cards by TD, CIBC, and American Express

By our count, Canada has no less than 20 credit cards that either earn Aeroplan points directly, or earn points that can be transferred to Aeroplan.

In particular, the main cards you should be looking at are any co-branded Aeroplan credit card from TD, CIBC, or American Express, or any American Express card that earns Membership Rewards, which can be transferred to Aeroplan at a 1:1 rate.

Generally, signup bonuses are the most affordable way to “buy” points. The fastest way is via premium cards with high fees and higher bonuses. Plus, with these cards, you get all the perks of being a premium Aeroplan cardholder.

On the other hand, if you prefer to keep costs down and earn points more slowly, the TD Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card and the CIBC Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card are great choices. Both are almost always offering a first-year annual fee waiver, along with a decent-sized welcome bonus. The best cost to acquire points is no cost!

It’s worth noting that some Aeroplan credit card offers distribute the welcome bonus on a monthly basis, not all at once. Therefore, if you need the points right away, it might be better to take advantage of this Buy & Gift Points promotion, even if the cost is higher than a new credit card.

US Credit Cards

The Chase Aeroplan Card is one of the best ways to earn award travel at a great price. For an annual fee of $95 (USD), you’ll get a welcome bonus worth up to 100,000 Aeroplan points.

American Express US Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Capital One Miles can also be transferred 1:1 to Aeroplan. However, all of these programs have a much wider variety of unique transfer partners that are otherwise unavailable to Canadians.

With so many other ways to earn Aeroplan points in Canada, you might want to save your US transferable rewards for other purposes and perhaps only transfer them to Aeroplan as a last resort for a quick top-up.

Aeroplan eStore

You may also turn to the Aeroplan eStore for bonuses on online purchases at many popular retailers, ranging from technology to sportswear companies.

High bonuses can often be found around big shopping days. Keep an eye out for things like Back to School promotions, and then dates like Thanksgiving and Christmas/Boxing Day.

While this is potentially a good way to pad your balance, I wouldn’t count on it for an urgent top-up. Even if you were to take advantage of the latest promotion, the bonus points may not arrive in your account immediately.

Previous Promotions

As you decide whether this promotion is a good opportunity for you to meet your travel goals, here’s a look back at Aeroplan’s past bonuses on purchasing points:

Conclusion

Aeroplan‘s promotion to get up to a 30% discount on purchased points can represent a good deal in specific circumstances, especially if you need an urgent top-up to your account or have an immediate use for a specific high-value redemption.

If you’re interested in buying points, make sure you purchase before November 18, 2024 to take advantage of this offer.