Air Canada Aeroplan Introduces Dynamic Pricing Tomorrow, March 25

Air Canada’s Aeroplan loyalty program is introducing dynamic pricing — at least partially.

Dynamic prices, which vary with demand, will replace a simple, distance-based award chart, though this new pricing structure will apply only to flights on Air Canada flights and some partners (including United Airlines).

Let’s see what changes and when, plus how it might affect your booking decisions.

What’s Changing With Aeroplan’s Award Charts

The award chart for Air Canada’s Aeroplan loyalty program is changing, effective March 25, 2025.

Some Aeroplan partner airlines, including United, will be part of a new dynamic chart that includes Air Canada, and this new chart will use variable pricing. Other partner airlines will still be in the current chart with fixed pricing.

Air Canada specifies that the flight reward chart for Air Canada flights will expand to include United, Emirates, flydubai, Etihad, and Canadian regional airline partners Canadian North, Calm Air, and PAL (Provincial Airlines). This is the dynamic chart, which will offer “starting” and “median” (but no maximum) award rates.

The median amounts will be updated every quarter, taking into account redemptions from the previous 4 quarters, which is 1 year. Air Canada warns that median amounts may not appear in cases of low redemption volume, such as short-hauls or when only 1 carrier provides redemption options (which is the case with long-haul first class on Emirates, which doesn’t even appear in the chart).

As often happens when airlines go from fixed charts to dynamic pricing, Air Canada said that variable prices will bring greater availability of award seats, at least on the partner airlines that will shift to dynamic pricing.

Here’s the first distance-based chart reflecting the new system, for flights within North America. Regions outside of North America will not show median prices.

You’ll see that “Air Canada and select partners” are separated from “all other partners,” which maintain fixed prices. You’ll also notice that the starting amounts for the number of points needed are the same for both categories.

It’s important to note that elite members of Aeroplan and holders of the Aeroplan^® Credit Card will have access to discounted award redemptions. Air Canada didn’t say what the discount will be — or even if it’s a fixed percentage like the 15% Delta Air Lines takes off SkyMiles award prices for some American Express co-branded cardholders.

Another bit of good news is that Etihad business class availability is back. For many U.S. flyers, another positive development may be additional award inventory available when using Aeroplan to book flights on United. Aeroplan is a program we like for booking awards on United; the ability to transfer points to Aeroplan from American Express, Bilt, Capital One, and Chase is a huge plus of the program. It will continue to be even after this change.

The most obvious negative development is that the chart does not indicate a maximum price for awards on Air Canada or its partners that now have dynamic pricing. This could mean that some premium-class awards on long flights may become prohibitively expensive, although we won’t know until actually trying to book them.

Book These Partner Flights With Aeroplan Today

Before the changes go live on Tuesday, March 25, you might want to book award flights under the current chart — before awards on Air Canada, United Airlines, Etihad, and other partners become dynamically priced. This usually means they become more expensive.

For example, most East Coast-West Coast U.S. domestic flights are within the 1,501 to 2,750-mile band. Under the current chart, they are priced at 25,000 Aeroplan points in business class. From March 25, the median price will soar to 42,100 points. That’s a jump of 68%. Granted, this is a median price, and on several dates it will likely be lower. Again, we won’t know until dynamic prices are live.

Final Thoughts

Switching from fixed to dynamic pricing for awards rarely brings good news for flyers. In this case, the Aeroplan award prices most likely to get more expensive could be those outside of North America, as well as first-class seats.

The discount for cardholders and elite Aeroplan members might be attractive, and so will increased availability of award seats, although we can’t really tell before seeing the dynamic pricing in action. This will happen starting March 25 when the new award chart for Air Canada Aeroplan goes live.