Aeroplan offers 80% bonus sale: How buying points can save you $1K on business-class tickets

20.03.2024 - 15:27 / thepointsguy.com / John F.Kennedy / Airlines

Book your dream vacation using Air Canada's latest Aeroplan promotion. The airline is offering an 80% bonus when you purchase Aeroplan points through April 5.

Aeroplan usually sells points for about 2.58 cents per point. With the new promotion offering an 80% bonus, you can now purchase Aeroplan points for roughly 1.44 cents per point, which is below TPG's valuation of Aeroplan points of 1.5 cents per point. Therefore, this sale can certainly save you some money if you're looking at a specific redemption. Keep reading for more details on this limited-time Aeroplan points sale.

Aeroplan members can buy or gift up to 500,000 Aeroplan points per transaction, with an annual purchase limit of 1 million points and a 500,000-point annual limit on gifting points. Members must purchase at least 15,000 points to get the 80% bonus, which will cost about $386 for 27,000 points.

While TPG typically doesn't recommend buying points — unless you want to top off your account or have a specific redemption in mind — because the cost is usually greater than our valuation, with this sale, you can buy points for less than our valuation. Therefore, this sale can definitely save you money, especially on high-cost business-class award tickets.

Plus, it can also be a way to score Star Alliance flights at a discount — including round-trip business-class awards from the U.S. to Europe for as low as $1,728 before taxes and fees.

That can equate to a steep discount considering round-trip flights on Swiss (a Star Alliance partner) from John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to Geneva Airport (GVA), for instance, cost just under $3,000 per person on almost all dates when booked directly with the airline (and not an unknown third-party online travel agency).

However, you can save money on your business-class tickets by using this promotion — here's how.

If you need at least 120,000 Aeroplan points (aside from paying cash for the taxes and fees), you would have to purchase at least 70,000 points. With the additional 80% bonus, you would be purchasing 126,000 points for 2,450 Canadian dollars, which would cost about $1,805 (and about $1,936 with taxes and fees). That's an incredible deal, saving over $1,000 on the cash price for the same flights.

All Aeroplan members can buy points at this rate since this is not a targeted deal. Better yet, while Canadian residents are subject to a sales tax on points purchases, U.S.-based Aeroplan members are not.

Air Canada allows members to add stopovers to one-way tickets for 5,000 miles and doesn't add fuel surcharges to any of its award tickets.

Do your own research and see if there's an opportunity for you to use this sale to get a discount on future travels. Check out our complete guide to