Buy Aeroplan Miles For As Little As 1 Cent Tomorrow

Posted By Stephen Hoechst on May 6, 2020 | 2 comments

For those of you not familiar with Aeroplan, it’s Air Canada’s frequent flyer program. If you’ve overlooked them in the past, it’s time to take another look. The program has some really solid uses, especially when it comes to partner redemptions.

Making the program even more compelling, Aeroplan just announced their best mileage sale ever. This isn’t just one of those “we just jacked up the award prices, but here’s a mileage sale” deals. This is truly a great rate on miles.

The Promotion

Courtesy of AirCanada.com

Starting at 10am tomorrow, May 7th, Aeroplan is offering one of the better mileage sales we’ve seen in quite some time. To get the best deal, you’ll have to get in early, but the deal works in three phases:

• The first 10 million miles will be sold with a 115% bonus. This means that you’ll be able to purchase miles for as little as 1 cent per point.
• The next 100 million miles will be sold with a 90% bonus, bringing the cost to 1.1 cents per point.
• The rest of the miles will be sold with a 65% bonus, or a cost of 1.3 cents per point.

The first two levels here are definitely the most interesting to me. If you’re able to get in on either of those, purchasing miles could represent a fantastic value. We’ll walk through some potential in our next post.

The promotion runs until May 13th. If you aren’t able to get in on either of the first two rounds, then I’d make sure that you have a specific use in mind.

A Shortcut to Status

With air travel basically non-existent at the moment, Air Canada is also running a promotion called “Travel at Home” – not to be confused with our series 🙂 This promotion allows you earn status through at-home activities such as online shopping portals and mileage transfers. Where things really get interesting is the potential to earn status through this mileage purchase promotion. You’ll earn 50% of the miles purchased toward elite status, meaning you could also earn status with Air Canada just off this promotion alone.

A Word of Caution

Generally, it only makes sense to purchase miles if you have a specific use for them in mind or to top-off your account. It goes without saying that you won’t be able to use these miles for any near-term travel. At the lowest cost, it could make more sense to buy miles speculatively as I don’t see Air Canada going under. However, you should still be aware that speculative mileage purchases carry more risk than usual given the current environment.

Other Ways to Earn Aeroplan Miles

Buying miles or flying Air Canada aren’t the only ways to earn Aeroplan miles. Aeroplan is also transfer partners of American Express, Capitol One, and Marriott Bonvoy.

• American Express Membership Rewards transfer to Aeroplan at a 1:1 ratio
• Capitol One points transfer to Aeroplan at a 2:1.5 ratio
• Marriott Bonvoy points transfer to Aeroplan at a 3:1 ratio. However, if you transfer 60,000 Marriott points, you’ll receive a 25% bonus, making the effective transfer rate 3:1.25.

I wouldn’t recommend transferring Marriott points to Aeroplan unless you’re sitting on a mountain of them. If you’re using them for an airline transfer, there are just so many better programs to transfer Marriott points for better value.

Final Thoughts

This is truly a fantastic sale on miles. Typically I’m not a big fan of buying miles, but this can be a really great way to unlock some fantastic values. If you’re interested, make sure to be ready to go by 10am tomorrow.

We’ll be sharing a post later on some great ways to use Aeroplan miles, so stay tuned for the best ways to take advantage of this promotion!