Aeroplan Points Value Calculator

Aeroplan points value

How much are Aeroplan points worth?

The answer: Aeroplan points are worth approximately 1.8 cents each when redeemed for award flights with Air Canada and its airline partners. Even greater value—up to 2 to 3 cents per point—can be achieved by booking premium cabins or last-minute flights.

Here's our breakdown on Aeroplan points value:

• Flights: 1.6 to 2 cents per point when redeemed for flights with Air Canada or its partners.
• Hotels: 0.8 to 1.1 cents per point when redeemed for hotel stays through Aeroplan.
• Gift Cards: 0.71 cents per point when redeemed for gift cards.
• Car Rentals: 0.6 to 0.7 cents per point when redeemed for car rentals.
• Merchandise: 0.41 to 0.65 cents per point when redeemed in the Aeroplan eStore.

Flight redemptions

The best value for Aeroplan points is achieved when redeeming them for award flights with Air Canada and its airline partners. This typically provides 1.6 to 2 cents per point on average, meaning 10,000 points are worth approximately $160 to $200.

Aeroplan doesn't have a fixed rewards chart but offers a tool to estimate the points required for flights based on distance.

• Flight Rewards Chart: Provides an estimated range of points needed for Air Canada and partner flights.
• Points Predictor Tool: Helps estimate points needed for one-way flights between two locations. Simply double the estimate for a round-trip calculation.

Despite these tools, flight costs in points can sometimes fall outside the estimated range because Aeroplan pricing is tied to the cash price of the ticket. This means in some cases you will still not know how much your points are worth until you start looking at bookings and comparing cash prices against the price in Aeroplan Points.

Maximizing Value with Short-Haul Flights

Short-haul flights within North America and between Canadian cities often provide the best value for Aeroplan points. Here are two examples:

• Example 1: A one-way flight from Toronto to New York was available for 5,500 points + $69, with a cash price starting at $199. This gives a value of 2.36 cents per point.
• Example 2: A one-way flight from Vancouver to Portland was priced at 5,700 points + CA$61, with cash fares starting at $220, offering a value of 2.78 cents per point.

Value for Domestic Flights

Flights between Canadian cities can also give your points high value. Across 12 test flights for economy:

• Average Value: Test flights typically ranged from 1.9 to 2 cents per point.
• Highest Value: A flight from Vancouver to Quebec City offered 2.5 cents per point.
• Lowest Value: A flight from Calgary to Winnipeg provided 1.6 cents per point.

Among the test flights, the only significant outlier was a route between Edmonton and Toronto, where most flights offered a lower value of around 1 cent per point. This is an example of when you would want to pay cash instead of redeeming points for such a low value redemption.

Hotel stays

Aeroplan points can be used to book hotel stays through the Air Canada portal. You'll obtain a value of about 0.8 to 1.1 cents per point when booking standard hotels, but you'll be able to squeeze slightly higher value booking hotels that falls under the Aeroplan HotelSavers program.

Aeroplan HotelSavers

The Aeroplan HotelSavers program allows you to save up to 30% in points when you book stays at select partner hotels. This includes most IHG brands, Shangri-La, Small Luxury Hotels of the World, Lowes Hotels, and many more.

The HotelSavers program follows a simple redemption chart:

Here's some examples of hotels in downtown Atlanta that falls under the HotelSavers program:

When compared to the price for booking direct, the prices shown using the Compare at feature was almost dead on after taxes and fees were added.

After running the calculations, hotels in the HotelSavers program frequently offered point values of 0.9 to 1.1 cents while those not under the HotelSavers program ranged from as low as 0.7 cents per point to as high as 1.1 cents per point. So while the HotelSavers has a higher average value, you can still get about the same value with some hotels that do not participate in the program.

Car rentals

Aeroplan Points can be used to book car rentals through the Aeroplan loyalty portal. This will give you points around 0.6 to 0.7 cents per point in value.

When searching for car rentals, you'll have the option to rent cars using all Aeroplan Points or you can pay cash and earn points on the booking itself.

Similar to booking hotels, the cost to book cars through Aeroplan is significantly higher than booking direct. For example, the cash cost of booking a Compact Car over a 2-day weekend through Aeroplan costs $234 with Budget and $243 with Avis.

You can book the same days and same vehicle type directly through Avis for $169.20 and through Budget for $160.20. That's a very, very noticeable price difference.

When testing other vehicle types and destinations, the results were similar.

Gift cards

Aeroplan Points can be redeemed for gift cards starting at 3,500 points for a $25 gift card which gives your points a value of 0.71 cents each. This will apply to most standard gift cards.

Gift Card Denomination	Cost in Aeroplan points
$25	3,500
$50	7,000
$100	14,000
$200	28,000
$250	35,000
$500	70,000
$1,000	140,000

When browsing the gift card selection, some cards will be labeled with "Sale" or "Aeroplan Partner" which means that it is listed at a discount price which equates to getting slightly more value than normal out of the redemption.

Along with gift cards, you'll also find subscriptions, event related, and other special redemptions. This includes things like 3 months of Uber Pass, Park'N Fly Airport Passes, Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge Passes, and more.

Merchandise

Aeroplan Points can be redeemed in the Aeroplan eStore for a large range of merchandise. This includes electronics, kitchen, home & garden, fashion, and many other categories.

The value you get out of the Aeroplan eStore will depend on the average retail value of the item you're buying versus the cost in points. I found items that gave values as low as 0.41 and as high as 0.65.

Aeroplan points to dollars calculator

Use our Aeroplan points to dollars calculator to determine the average cash value of points when redeemed for flights, car rentals, gift cards, and more. This will give you an idea of how much your Aeroplan points are worth.

Average redemption value

The table below displays the average dollar value of Aeroplan points for different denominations when redeemed at our valuation of 1.8 cents per point for airfare.

Aeroplan points redemption value calculator

Use our Aeroplan points redemption value calculator to calculate the exact value of Aeroplan points based on the cost in cash versus the cost in Aeroplan points. This will help you determine if a redemption is worth it or not.

Try to strive for over 1.6 cents per point when possible!

How does Aeroplan points value compare?

Here's how the value of Aeroplan points compare against rewards earned with other leading frequent flyer programs:

Finding the best credit cards for Aeroplan points

The best travel rewards cards for earning Aeroplan points in Canada will be a Membership Rewards credit card or a co-branded Aeroplan credit card.

American Express Membership Rewards credit cards

Aeroplan is a direct 1:1 transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards meaning that you can convert 1,000 AMEX Points into 1,000 Aeroplan Points. This opens up a handful of additional top-notch credit cards that you can use to rapidly build up your balance of Aeroplan points.

Here are the travel credit cards American Express offers in Canada:

Aeroplan credit cards

The best way to quickly build up Aeroplan points is through intro bonuses and everyday spending across Aeroplan credit cards. Aeroplan offers a large amount of credit cards through American Express, CIBC, and TD Bank.

If you're looking for additional benefits when flying Air Canada along with the ability to earn a solid amount of points on your spend, I recommend picking up an Aeroplan credit card.

Here are the co-branded credit cards that Aeroplan offers: