How To Buy Air Canada Aeroplan Miles for Less Than 1.7 Cents Each

Yesterday, I wrote about how the transfer program between Chase Ultimate Rewards and Air Canada Aeroplan is now live. When I wrote it, I realized I had never written a post about a way that you can buy Aeroplan miles for less than normally priced. Here is how you can do that and why it is important to know this.

How to Buy Aeroplan Miles for Less Than Retail

Back in the “old” days (before the new Aeroplan), you could buy Aeroplan miles at a rate of 4 cents (CAD) per mile to get the amount needed to purchase an award ticket.

After they announced the new program last year, they also launched what turned out to be a really nice sale on Aeroplan miles, a first for the program. Now, these sales do pop up from time to time. But, you don’t have to wait for one of them.

First thing to note is that various amounts will show different rates. One of the best rates I found – 1.6 cents per mile (USD) – was obtained searching for a flight from JFK – FRA. When searching LAX – AUH in first class, the cheapest came out to 1.55 cents per mile (USD).

buying aeroplan miles for less

Second thing to know is that you need to have a minimum amount of miles in your account to actually buy up in the first place. This is not a situation where you simply buy all the miles you need but is instead where you are buying the difference of the miles required with cash instead of miles. Basically, you are recreating the former Aeroplan program where they used to have fuel surcharges – except you are now deciding how much you want to pay.

This is a nice way to make the combination of miles/money that you want. Yes, you are presented with fixed options but they include paying $0 cash (not even taxes and fees, using miles to cover that instead), the standard redemption rate + minimal taxes and fees, and then two other options for supplementing cash for miles.

Why Is This Important to Know?

Now that you can transfer Chase points to Aeroplan, it is good to know that you could buy the miles you need with Aeroplan using this method for less than 1.7 cents per point. Many people value Chase points at more than that rate so if you are one of them, you only will want to transfer the minimum required for the reward and buy the rest to top it off for redemption.

Remember – you can always use American Express Membership Rewards to transfer to Aeroplan. Either way, if you want to make a hybrid miles/cash reservation, it is nice that the new Aeroplan gives a reasonable value for this method.

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