Air Canada Aeroplan Award Booking Instructions

Air Canada is the national airline of Canada and a member of Star Alliance. The airline also operates its own frequent flyer program, known as Aeroplan, that’s one of the highest-rated frequent flyer programs in the industry. For one, Air Canada has a ton of airline partners, both Star Alliance and non-Star Alliance airlines, with which you can redeem Aeroplan points for award flights. And, because these partner award flights are priced according to a series of distance-based award charts, you can definitely get outsized value for your points through this program.

Another great feature of the Air Canada Aeroplan program is that it’s a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards, which means you can transfer points from any of these credit card programs to the Aeroplan program at a 1:1 ratio, making Aeroplan points very easy to earn.

With how versatile and valuable the Air Canada Aeroplan program is, there’s a good chance you’ll use it at some point if you’re into travel hacking with points and miles. So, in this article, we’re going to walk you through the steps to booking an award flight through the Air Canada Aeroplan program so the process goes smoothly for you.

Joining Air Canada Aeroplan

Of course, before you redeem points through the Aeroplan program, you’re going to need to be a member of the program and earn points. So, if you haven’t yet done so, you’ll need to visit the Air Canada website and click the “Join Aeroplan” button on the top-right corner of the homepage.

Once you click this button, you’ll be asked to enter an email and password that you wish to use for your account login. You’ll then need to enter your first and last name, gender, preferred language and birth date. Finally, you’ll need to enter your home address and phone number. All of this information will be kept private and secure.

Once you click the “Create my account” button, you’ll be a member of the Aeroplan program and will be eligible to start accumulating points toward your next award flight.

How to Earn Air Canada Aeroplan Points

There are many different ways to earn points through the Aeroplan program, and some are considerably more effective than others. In general, the best ways to earn Aeroplan points are going to be transferring points from credit card rewards programs, flying on Air Canada or one of its airline partners and signing up for an Air Canada co-branded credit card.

In the following sections, we’re going to take a brief look at each of these earning methods to help you start accumulating Aeroplan points.

Transfer Credit Card Points

Perhaps the most effective way to quickly earn Aeroplan points is to transfer points from credit card rewards programs into the Aeroplan program. As mentioned earlier, American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards are all transfer partners of the Air Canada Aeroplan program. So, if you have a balance of points in any of these credit card rewards programs, you can transfer these points at a 1:1 ratio to the Aeroplan program in a matter of seconds in most cases.

For instance, if you had 40,000 points in your Chase Ultimate Rewards account, you could transfer those points to the Air Canada Aeroplan program at a 1:1 ratio and receive 40,000 Aeroplan points. You could then redeem those Aeroplan points for award flights.

Air Canada Co-Branded Credit Cards

Another way to quickly and effectively earn Aeroplan points is by signing up for an Air Canada co-branded credit card. These cards can also help you earn elite status with the Aeroplan program, so it’s probably a good idea to sign up for one of these credit cards if you fly with Air Canada often.

Air Canada has a wide variety of available co-branded credit cards issued by four different banks: American Express, Chase, CIBC and TD Bank. So, no matter what your spending patterns or budgetary restrictions are, you should be able to find an Air Canada credit card that works for you.

Italicized cards below are Canadian-issued cards. Here are all of the current credit card options available from each issuing bank:

American Express

• American Express® Aeroplan® Business Reserve Card ($599 annual fee)
• American Express® Aeroplan® Card ($120 annual fee)
• American Express® Aeroplan® Reserve Card ($599 annual fee)

Chase

• The Aeroplan® Card from Chase ($95 annual fee)

CIBC

• CIBC Aeroplan® Visa Business Card ($180 annual fee)
• CIBC Aeroplan® Visa Credit Card ($0 annual fee)
• CIBC Aeroplan® Visa Infinite Card ($139 annual fee)
• CIBC Aeroplan® Visa Infinite Privilege Card ($599 annual fee)

TD Bank

• TD® Aeroplan® Visa Business Card ($149 annual fee)
• TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite Card ($139 annual fee)
• TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite Privilege Card ($599 annual fee)
• TD® Aeroplan® Visa Platinum Card ($89 annual fee)

As you can see, only the Chase-issued Air Canada co-branded card is a U.S.-issued card.

Many of these credit cards offer large welcome bonuses of tens of thousands of Aeroplan points for new cardmembers, which are great for racking up a large balance of Aeroplan points quickly. For example, here’s the current welcome bonus offered by The Aeroplan Card from Chase:

As you can see, by simply signing up for one of these credit cards and meeting the requirements for the welcome bonus, you can quickly earn enough points for an award flight.

Flying With Air Canada and Partner Airlines

Of course, another way to earn Aeroplan points is to take flights with Air Canada or one of its airline partners. When you fly with Air Canada, the number of Aeroplan points you earn will depend on the distance of your flight in miles and your cabin class. You can calculate your Aeroplan points earnings on Air Canada flights by multiplying the distance of the flight by the following percentages:

For instance, if you took a 600-mile Air Canada-operated flight in Latitude class, you would earn 750 Aeroplan points (600 miles * 125% = 750 Aeroplan points). Note that after December 31, 2025 Aeroplan points will be earned based on dollars spent. 

You can also earn Aeroplan points on flights with partner airlines. The number of points you’ll earn depends on which partner you’re flying with. To find out how many Aeroplan points you could earn with each partner, you can view the list of partner airlines on the Air Canada website and click the “Details” button below the name of the partner you’re flying with.

Other Ways to Earn Aeroplan Points

There are many other ways to earn Aeroplan points aside from the methods described above. You can earn Aeroplan points for booking hotel stays, renting cars and shopping with certain retail partners.

While these earning methods probably won’t earn you a ton of Aeroplan points on their own, when used in combination with other earning methods, they can definitely help you rack up some extra points and help you get closer to your next award flight even faster.

You can also boost your Aeroplan points balance by purchasing points. However, since there are many ways to earn points for free, we typically advise against purchasing Aeroplan points (or any other airline rewards currency).

How to Book Award Flights Through Air Canada Aeroplan

Now that we’ve discussed how you can earn enough points to purchase an award flight through the Aeroplan program, let’s look at the actual process of purchasing an award flight.

First, you’ll need to visit the Air Canada website and log in to your Aeroplan account. Once you’ve logged in, you’ll be returned to the Air Canada homepage where you can search for award flights.

You’ll enter your departure airport, arrival airport, which type of flight you’re looking to book (round-trip, one-way or multi-city), your departure date, return date (if applicable) and number of passengers on your itinerary.

Then, in order to search for award flights instead of cash flights, you simply need to check the “Book with Aeroplan points” button. Once you’ve entered all of the correct information for your desired flight, click the “Search” button to view the results.

If there are available award flights that match your search query, you’ll see a list of options and their respective prices. You can also view other important information about the flight, such as the flight time, arrival and departure times, whether it’s nonstop or with layovers and the operating airline.

Once you decide on a departing flight that fits your needs, click on the cabin class you want to book for that flight. From there, you’ll typically have the option to choose between several fare types, such as Standard Award, Flex Reward and Latitude Reward, for instance. These different fare types include different baggage allowances as well as different rules for changes and cancelation, so they’re important to study carefully.

Finally, once you’ve selected your flights, cabin classes and fare types, you’ll be directed to the checkout page. Then you’ll be asked to confirm your flight details and enter payment information for any applicable taxes and fees as well as enter contact information for any passengers.

Once you’ve completed your booking, you should receive a confirmation email with your flight details. After that, you just have to check in online within 24 hours of your flight and show up to the airport.

The Bottom Line

The Air Canada Aeroplan program is undoubtedly one of the best frequent flyer programs in the industry for a number of reasons. The program allows you to redeem points at very favorable rates for award flights with Air Canada as well as its airline partners. And Air Canada has a rather extensive list of airline partners, including every member airline of Star Alliance as well as many non-Star Alliance airlines.

There are also many ways to earn Aeroplan points through this program, the most effective of which are transferring points from credit card rewards programs (Air Canada is a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards, Bilt Rewards, Capital One Rewards and Chase Ultimate Rewards), signing up for an Air Canada co-branded credit card and flying with Air Canada or one of its airline partners. That means you can easily earn enough points to purchase an award flight.

And, when you have enough Aeroplan points to book an award flight, it’s very easy to do so through the Air Canada website. Just search for flights as you normally would and click a single checkbox to search for award flights instead of cash flights. So, if you’re looking for a frequent flyer program to book your next award flight through, Air Canada Aeroplan is an excellent choice.