Aeroplan has frequent sales on buying points with its Buy & Gift Points feature. From now until July 3, 2025 at 11:59pm Pacific Time, you can receive up to a 30% discount on purchased Aeroplan points.
If you’re in need of a top-up to your Aeroplan balance, or if you can leverage the promotion to score premium flights at a steep discount, it’s worth taking stock of what’s on offer this time around.
Buy Aeroplan Points with a 30% Discount
Outside of sales, Aeroplan sells points at a base price of 3.75 cents per point (CAD). It appears that this baseline sale rate has risen up from 3.5 cents per point at some point in the recent past.
During this promotion, if you buy points with a 30% discount, the effective acquisition cost comes down to 2.63 cents per point (CAD).
During the current promotion, you’ll get a different discount depending on how many points you buy:
- Buy 10,000–19,000 Aeroplan points and get a 15% discount
- Buy 20,000–75,000 Aeroplan points and get a 20% discount
- Buy 80,000–95,000 Aeroplan points and get a 25% discount
- Buy 100,000+ Aeroplan points and get a 30% discount
At 2.63 cents per point (CAD), buying Aeroplan points with a 30% discount is a fair margin above our current valuation of Aeroplan points at 2.1 cents per point (CAD).
However, there are still opportunities to buy low and redeem high, especially if you’ve got a premium cabin redemption on a partner airline lined up.
But if you’re targeted for a lower bonus or don’t have an immediate use, it may be better to wait, or choose to earn Aeroplan points in a variety of other ways.
How many Aeroplan points can you buy?
Aeroplan allows each member to buy up to 1,000,000 points per calendar year. That’s quite a generous limit, and it’s much higher than what many other loyalty programs offer for buying points.
Usually, Aeroplan imposes a limit of 250,000 base points per transaction, which is the limit in play during this promotion.
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 address, it will result in sales tax 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 2.63 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 and with select partner airlines 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, 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.
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 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, with these cards, you get all the perks of being a premium Aeroplan cardholder.
Largest Aeroplan Signup Bonuses
| Credit Card | Best Offer | Value | |
|---|---|---|---|
 200,000 MR points! $799 annual fee |
200,000 MR points! | $5,616 | Apply Now |
 180,000 MR points! $799 annual fee |
180,000 MR points! | $4,001 | Apply Now |
 Up to 140,000 Aeroplan points $599 annual fee |
Up to 140,000 Aeroplan points | $3,680 | Apply Now |
 130,000 Aeroplan points $599 annual fee |
130,000 Aeroplan points | $2,682 | Apply Now |
 100,000 MR points $199 annual fee |
100,000 MR points | $2,221 | Apply Now |
 Up to 85,000 Aeroplan points† $599 annual fee |
Up to 85,000 Aeroplan points† | $871 | 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 rebate, along with a decent-sized welcome bonus. The best cost to acquire points is no cost!
TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card
- Earn 10,000 Aeroplan points† upon first purchase†
- Plus, earn 15,000 Aeroplan points† upon spending $7,500 in the first 180 days of account opening†
- Plus, earn an additional 15,000 Aeroplan points† on renewal when you spend $12,000 within 12 months of account opening†
- Earn 1.5x Aeroplan points† on eligible gas, groceries, and Air Canada® purchases, including Air Canada Vacations®†
- Preferred Aeroplan pricing and free checked bag on Air Canada® flights†
- Minimum income: $60,000 personal or $100,000 household
- Annual fee: $139 (rebated for the first year)
- Offer available for applications approved on or after January 7, 2025.
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 Aeroplan® Credit Card issued by Chase 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 75,000 Aeroplan points.
American Express 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.
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 latest promotion offers up to a 30% discount on purchased points, reducing the cost to as low as 2.63 cents per point (CAD). Considering we value Aeroplan points at 2.1 cents per point, this means you’re buying above our estimated redemption value, but it could still be a solid opportunity if you’ve got a high-value flight in mind.
As always, this promo is best used when you have a concrete plan. Don’t buy speculatively or just because there’s a sale. The offer runs until July 3, 2025, so check your targeted bonus and decide if it fits your travel goals.
