Aeroplan’s Family Sharing Feature Is Back. Here’s How You Can Start a Pool.

Making a single reservation for everyone you’re traveling with makes sense. You only need to check in once online, everyone has the same reservation number, and you’ll be kept together if there are changes or cancellations.

But that gets complicated when you’re trying to book an award flight and don’t have enough points in your account account to make the reservation. Enter points pooling, through which some airline and hotel programs let you combine points with friends and family members for free — letting you add up the points you need for a reservation.

Air Canada’s Aeroplan program offers a family pooling feature, though it went offline in August 2023. Now, it’s back.

Here’s how you can use Aeroplan’s “Family Sharing” feature to share points with relatives.

Why Family Pooling Features Are Great

Dozens of airline and hotel programs allow you to share points with other members, though the rules for each program vary. You may be able to share points with anyone you like, though you may have to pay for it in some programs. Other programs only allow you to share points with close relatives, and a handful of programs require you to have a credit card or elite status in their program to unlock the sharing feature.

The great thing about points sharing is that you can add your points together to create a redemption for an upcoming trip. Rather than transferring more credit card points to your loyalty account, you may already have enough Aeroplan, Hilton, or Marriott points when you work together with friends and relatives.

How To Use Aeroplan Family Sharing

You can create a Family Sharing account here. The person who creates the pool is referred to as the Family Lead. This person must be a verified Aeroplan member who’s at least 18 years old. Additionally, this person’s Aeroplan account must have been open for at least 6 months before starting the pool.

The Family Lead can invite up to 7 other Aeroplan members to join the Family Sharing pool, but not just anyone can join. These people must be related to the Family Lead. Members must be verified to join a pool and must stay in the pool for at least 3 months after joining. Either the member or the Family Lead can contact Aeroplan to exit the Family Sharing group.

If anyone in the family has an Aeroplan co-branded credit card, everyone redeeming points from the pool can enjoy the preferred pricing benefit.

If you exit a Family Sharing pool, you can’t join another one for 6 months.

Once members join the group, they can contribute their Aeroplan points into a shared balance. Those points can be used to book award flights for anyone in the pool. It’s worth noting that all of your points will automatically be added to the shared pool after you accept the invitation from the Family Lead.

To create a pool, follow these simple instructions. Log in to your Aeroplan account and click on “My Aeroplan” in the top right corner. On your account page, click on “Family Sharing.”

If you haven’t completed account verification, you’ll be prompted to do that. Aeroplan will send a text message with a one-time passcode to the number on your account. Then, you’ll verify your identity using a government ID and by taking a selfie. This took me about 3 minutes to complete, with the slowest part of the process being my walk to the other room to get my passport.

Once the pool is created, the Family Lead can manage each member’s redemption rights. Any member who is allowed to redeem can use the entire points balance of the pool, so carefully consider who has redemption privileges.

Additionally, your full name, points balance, and Aeroplan account number will be visible to other pool members — including prospective members who receive invitations to the pool after you’ve joined.

To invite a member to your Family Sharing pool, provide their name, Aeroplan number, and relationship. You’ll also choose their redemption setting at this time, though it can be changed later.

Final Thoughts

Aeroplan has brought back its useful Family Sharing feature, letting you combine points with relatives. This handy feature means you can add your points together, more easily reaching the number of points you need for a redemption.

The Family Lead can start the pool and choose members’ redemption privileges. This way, parents can have access to their kids’ points but ensure the kids don’t redeem them when they shouldn’t.

The biggest negative to Aeroplan’s pooling feature is that members can’t decide how many points they want to contribute to the pool. It’s all or nothing.