Buy Aeroplan Points with an 80% Bonus or a 45% Discount

Aeroplan has frequent sales on buying points with its Buy & Gift Points feature. The loyalty program has developed a reputation for creative promotions, with past offers including Status Qualifying Dollars (SQD) on purchased points, a gifting bonus, and some very high bonuses of 100% or more.

For this round, there are two options to choose from, which is again a unique approach. From now until March 29, 2023 at 11:59pm Pacific Time, you can earn up to an 80% bonus or up to a 45% discount when you buy or gift Aeroplan points.

Buy Aeroplan Points with an 80% Bonus or a 45% Discount

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

This time, you can choose to receive a bonus or a discount on Aeroplan points. Of the two, the better option for buying points is to receive up to a 45% discount on purchased points.

The discount on your purchase increases as you buy a greater number of points: 

• Buy 4,000–29,000 points and get a 30% discount
• Buy 30,000–55,000 points and get a 40% discount
• Buy 60,000+ points and get a 45% discount

(Note that there isn’t an option to purchase between 55,000–60,000 points).

With each of these bonus levels, the effective cent-per-point (cpp) acquisition costs are as follows:

• 30% discount: 2.45 cpp
• 40% discount: 2.10 cpp
• 45% discount: 1.93 cpp

Comparing the above costs, the 40% discount is the exact same as our current target redemption valuation of 2.1 cents per point (CAD), and the 45% discount comes in at lower than the target value at 1.93 cents per point.

With the other option on this promotion, you can get a bonus of up to 80% when you purchase a certain threshold of Aeroplan points.

The bonus on your purchase increases as you buy a greater number of points: 

• Buy 4,000–29,000 points and get a 45% bonus
• Buy 30,000–55,000 points and get a 65% bonus
• Buy 60,000+ points and get a 80% bonus

(Note that there isn’t an option to purchase between 55,000–60,000 points).

With each of these bonus levels, the effective cent-per-point (cpp) acquisition costs are as follows:

• 45% bonus: 2.41 cpp
• 65% bonus: 2.12 cpp
• 80% bonus: 1.94 cpp

Comparing the above costs, the 65% bonus is more or less equivalent to our current target redemption valuation of 2.1 cents per point (CAD), and the 85% bonus comes in at lower than the target value at 1.94 cents per point.

If you have a specific use for an Aeroplan redemption, when you’d be sure to get more than the cost of buying points, the 80% bonus and the 45% discount represent good deals. Keep in mind that we’ve recently seen bonuses of up to 100% or more and cents-per-point costs as low as 1.63 cpp, but there’s no guarantee if or when we’ll see another such promotion. 

Between the two offers this time, the 40–45% discounts give you a very slight edge on purchased points in terms of cost. 

For example, purchasing 180,000 points with an 80% bonus costs $3,500 (CAD), while purchasing 180,000 points with a 45% discount comes in at $3,465 (CAD). 

Therefore, if you’re going to take advantage of this offer, it’s in your best interest to use the discount instead of the bonus, as long as you’re buying at least 30,000 points. If you’re buying less, then the bonus points will give you a slightly better deal.

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, the limit has been doubled under this offer.

You can purchase up to 500,000 points in a single transaction, which would give you an additional 400,000 points as a bonus if you choose the bonus over the discount.

On the other hand, you can buy up to 500,000 points at a 45% discount, too, which is a better deal.

Surely, these are steep prices to pay, but they’re not entirely unreasonable if you’re able to secure long-haul routes in business 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.

Note that buying or gifting Aeroplan points with a Canadian credit card will result in GST/HST being added to the total, which would erode the value of your purchase.

Therefore, the ideal way to make your purchase would be to use a US credit card, in which case GST/HST is not 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 where buying Aeroplan points can be beneficial.

Travel on Long-Haul Partner Airlines

With a purchase price of as low as 1.93 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 are still 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, I wouldn’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, I’d prefer to earn 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.

Other Ways to Earn Aeroplan Points

Despite this being a possible great deal for buying Aeroplan points, 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’ll need it, in other ways.

Credit Cards by TD, CIBC, and American Express

By my 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.

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 100,000 Aeroplan points. That’s a spectacular rate for acquiring points, at roughly 0.095 cents per point (USD).

American Express US Membership 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, I prefer to save my US transferable rewards for other purposes. I’d 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 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 an 80% bonus or up to a 45% discount on purchased points represents a good deal in specific circumstances. Unless you need an urgent top-up for a specific high-value redemption, there are better and cheaper ways to acquire points for discounted award travel.

With a higher base price on purchased points introduced last year, we’ve also seen higher bonuses more frequently. Therefore, these promotions can offer a much stronger opportunity to buy points when better deals come around.

If you’re interested in buying points, make sure you purchase before March 29, 2023 to take advantage of this offer.