Throughout a given year, there are numerous promotions — across many different travel providers — allowing you to purchase points or miles at a discount. However, not all of them represent a good opportunity for award travelers.
We’re here to filter through the noise for you and highlight only the very best deals so you can travel further, and more comfortably, for a lot less.
Right now, Air Canada is offering an opportunity to purchase Aeroplan points with up to an 85% bonus through May 20, 2022.
Let’s take a look at how, depending on your travel goals, this could be a great deal for you.
Purchase Aeroplan Points With Up to an 85% Bonus
Through May 20, 2022, you can receive up to an 85% bonus when purchasing Aeroplan points. Your bonus will increase as you purchase more points, according to the structure below:
- Purchase 5,000 to 19,000 points and get a 50% bonus; equal to purchasing at 1.8 cents per point
- Purchase 20,000 to 45,000 points and get a 60% bonus; equal to purchasing at 1.68 cents per point
- Purchase 50,000 to 60,000 points and get a 70% bonus; equal to purchasing at 1.58 cents per point
- Purchase 70,000+ points and get an 85% bonus; equal to purchasing at 1.45 cents per point
Keep in mind that there’s a limit of 1 million purchased points per year, not including any bonus points. In other words, you could max out this promotion by purchasing 1 million points (and receiving 1.85 million), though it would make little sense to do so unless you have a use for that amount of points relatively soon.
We value Air Canada Aeroplan points at 1.5 cents apiece — being able to purchase them for as low as 1.45 cents apiece makes this promotion quite enticing for us.
Why You May Want To Purchase Aeroplan Points
You can book Lufthansa first class with Aeroplan points. Image Credit: Cherag Dubash
In our view, the 2 primary use cases for purchasing points/miles are the following scenarios:
- You don’t already have a large balance of these points/miles, or don’t have enough transferable points (e.g. Amex Membership Rewards or Chase Ultimate Rewards).
- Doing so will allow you to purchase a business or first class ticket for far less than the ordinary cash cost.
Consider this: purchasing 100,000 Aeroplan points — and receiving a total of 185,000 points after the 85% bonus — would set you back $2,700, certainly not a small sum of cash. However, with those 185,000 points, you could fly round-trip in Lufthansa first class between the U.S. and Europe. These tickets usually cost about $7,000, so by purchasing points, you would save an incredible 60% compared to the standard cash fare!
Here’s another example: Aeroplan’s award chart lets you fly ANA’s stunning business class between the West Coast of the U.S. and Japan for 55,000 points one-way. These tickets usually cost about $4,000 apiece. With 185,000 points, you could book 3 one-way tickets and have 20,000 points leftover — all for that same $2,700. That’s a whole lot better than $12,000 if you ask us.
If we set the “leftover” points aside, this works out to paying roughly $900 for a one-way business class ticket to Japan — some people pay that to sit in economy!
Hot Tip: Discover even more ways to redeem Aeroplan points for maximum value!
Final Thoughts
It doesn’t always make sense to purchase points or miles. Usually, it’d make much more sense to use any miles you already have for your booking. However, if your mileage balances are looking bare, and you have an immediate use for these Aeroplan points, purchasing during this promotion can make a lot of sense — and save you a lot of cash in the process.
Featured Image Credit:
All Nippon Airways
