Chase Aeroplan Cardholders Can Now Earn up to 25K Status Points Annually With the Card

Updated: January 1, 2026, 9:24am CST

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Table of Contents

Overview of Aeroplan’s New Path to Elite Status
Earn up to 25,000 SQCs Annually With the Aeroplan Card
Final Thoughts

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Air Canada’s Aeroplan program underwent a significant shift for 2026, abandoning the traditional methods of earning elite status and transitioning to a revenue-based system. That change also has an impact for those with the Aeroplan^® Credit Card, issued by Chase in the U.S.

Now, these cardholders can earn up to 25,000 Status Qualifying Credits (SQC) annually, the only metric for earning elite status (more on that below). Even better, cardholders start the year with a 5,000 SQCs boost to help them reach their elite status goals.

Let’s take a closer look at changes for the Aeroplan card and what these mean in practice.

Overview of Aeroplan’s New Path to Elite Status

As of January 1, 2026, the Aeroplan program looks completely different.

The only thing that matters now for earning elite status is SQCs. This 1-element system replaces the need to track Status Qualifying Miles, Status Qualifying Segments, and Status Qualifying Dollars.

You now earn SQCs based on how much you spent on your Air Canada flight, not how far you flew or what class of travel it was in. Plus, those with elite status will receive bonus multipliers, pushing their earnings as high as 6x.

Earn up to 25,000 SQCs Annually With the Aeroplan Card

Those with Chase’s Aeroplan card can earn up to 25,000 Status Qualifying Credits each calendar year by holding this card.

The best part is that you start the year with 5,000 SQCs automatically, just because you have the Aeroplan card. Then, you’ll earn another 10,000 SQCs after spending $25,000 on your card, plus another 10,000 SQCs after $50,000 of purchases on your card in a calendar year. All told, that’s 25,000 SQCs from your card annually.

Aeroplan Card Upgrded Points LLC — Image Credit: Upgraded Points

While those 25,000 SQCs are helpful if you’re looking for Milestone Rewards or want to reach higher status tiers, you actually don’t need to spend $50,000 on your Aeroplan card to reach 25K status annually.

Cardholders receive complimentary 25K status for the remainder of the year in which they open the card, as well as the full calendar year after it. For example, someone opening an account on May 15, 2026, will receive 25K status through the end of 2027.

After this introductory period, cardholders can retain 25K status by making $15,000 in purchases on their card annually. Reaching 35K status is possible with $75,000 in annual card spending. Plus, cardholders can unlock Priority Rewards at the following spending thresholds: $100K, $250K, $500K, and $750K, and they’ll unlock the Global +1 Benefit at $1 million in account spending in a calendar year.

Hot Tip:

Starting in 2027, Aeroplan will no longer offer the Elite Status Level Up benefit as of 2027. Details about this discontinuation are available in the footnotes of this page.

Final Thoughts

Among the many changes to Aeroplan’s program for 2026, the Aeroplan card from Chase is also undergoing some changes. Cardholders can spend to earn status, unlock Milestone Rewards from SQCs earned via spending, and even start the year with 5,000 complimentary Status Qualifying Credits.

While cardholders will lose the Elite Status Level Up benefit in 2027, there’s time to plan for the changes — and the up-to-2-year introductory status perk remains a valuable element of this card’s benefits package.