Buy Aeroplan Points with an 85% Bonus

Aeroplan has frequent sales on buying points with its Buy & Gift Points feature. 

From now until May 11, 2024 at 11:59pm Pacific Time, you can get a bonus of up to 85% when you buy Aeroplan points.

Buy Aeroplan Points with a 85% Bonus

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

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

• Buy 3,000–20,000 points, get a 40% bonus
• Buy 25,000–35,000 points, get a 60% bonus
• Buy 40,000+ points, get an 85% bonus

With an 85% bonus, the effective acquisition cost comes to 1.89 cents per point (CAD). 

At 1.89 cents per point (CAD), buying Aeroplan points with an 85% bonus is a fair bit less than our current target redemption valuation of 2.1 cents (CAD).

If you have a specific use for an Aeroplan redemption where you’d be sure to get more than the cost of buying points, an 85% bonus can represent a great deal; however, it’s worth noting that we’ve also seen sales with a 110% bonus last year, which brought the price down to 1.67 cents per point. 

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 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; however, that’s been doubled this time around. Between the base points and the bonus points, you can purchase 1,000,000 points in a single transaction.

Surely, it’s a steep price to pay, but it’s not entirely unreasonable if you’re able 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 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

With a purchase price of as low as 1.89 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. 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 (including any distant uncles 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. That’s an enormous number of welcome bonuses you can collect, not to mention some strong ongoing earn rates on everyday spending.

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 ratio.

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, you’d get all the perks of being a premium Aeroplan cardholder.

Largest Aeroplan Signup Bonuses

Credit Card	Best Offer	Value
120,000 MR points $799 annual fee	120,000 MR points	$1,574	Apply Now
75,000 MR points $199 annual fee	75,000 MR points	$1,561	Apply Now
100,000 MR points $799 annual fee	100,000 MR points	$1,361	Apply Now
Up to 95,000 Aeroplan points $599 annual fee	Up to 95,000 Aeroplan points	$1,147	Apply Now
Up to 85,000 Aeroplan points† $599 annual fee	Up to 85,000 Aeroplan points†	$924	Apply Now
85,000 Aeroplan points $599 annual fee	85,000 Aeroplan points	$858	Apply Now

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 at a higher cost 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 60,000 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.

You can access the shopping portal from your Aeroplan account. Unfortunately, there have been many technical difficulties since the new website launched, and points haven’t been awarded reliably.

While this is 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 85% bonus on purchased points can represent a great 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 May 11, 2024 to take advantage of this offer.