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In March 2025, Air Canada ditched fixed award pricing for select partners, notably including United. Although Aeroplan advertised that it was implementing dynamic pricing, we've noticed that the new award pricing looks rather static — and much higher than before.
As soon as the new pricing took effect, United awards that previously priced at exactly 10,000 points started pricing at exactly 15,000 points. And we haven't seen any variation from that price. So, rather than being truly “dynamic,” Aeroplan simply increased award prices.
Now, we have new data on how bad it's become.
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Aeroplan Unveils New Median Award Pricing
This week, Aeroplan unveiled new median (the middle point, not the average) award prices for its own flights and those on select partner flights.
Because of this lumping-together, it's impossible to determine the effect of “dynamic pricing” on just United award flights. But the before-and-after shows that the median award pricing is as high as double that of the former fixed award chart rate.
Air Canada notes that this data is based on “member redemptions with Air Canada and select partners from January 2025 to December 2026.” However, unless Aeroplan knows the future, it's likely referring to December 2025 instead of 2026.
Aeroplan award pricing (d)evolution
First, let's set the reference. As of a year ago, Air Canada Aeroplan utilized the following award chart for flights within North America. This award chart displayed a points cost range for Air Canada flights but a fixed rate for partner flights (including United).
Then, starting in March 2025, Aeroplan published an award chart with a “starting at” price — with no upper bounds — for flights on Air Canada and select partners.
Almost immediately, we noticed United awards that used to cost 6,000 points each way suddenly cost 10,000 points. And United awards that cost 10,000 suddenly cost 15,000 points.
For example, booking a United award from Charlotte (CLT) to Newark (EWR) cost 10,000 points under the former award chart.
But now that Aeroplan has introduced “dynamic” award pricing, this route reliably costs 15,000 points:
However, those are just anecdotal data points. So, we were interested to see Air Canada's newly published median award rates to give us a better idea of how award pricing has evolved.
Flights within North America
The biggest impact on award pricing has been within the North America zone. Here's the comparison of the former award chart pricing and newly released median pricing for economy awards within North America:
| Zone | Distance | Former Award Chart Rate | Recent Median Award Price | % Increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Within North America | Up to 500 miles | 6,000 points | 12,000 points | 100% |
| Within North America | 501 - 1,500 miles | 10,000 points | 13,700 points | 37% |
| Within North America | 1,501 - 2,750 miles | 12,500 points | 15,800 points | 26% |
| Within North America | 2,751+ miles | 17,500 points | 22,500 points | 29% |
As you can see, the median price for the shortest distance band (0-600 miles) is exactly double the former fixed price of 6,000 points each way. And that's just the median price. That means half of the award prices are even higher than that.
Interestingly, short-haul awards in business/first class haven't risen as much. Instead, longer awards (over 1,500 miles) have seen the largest percentage increase for award travel up front:
| Zone | Distance | Former Award Chart Rate | Recent Median Award Price | % Increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Within North America | Up to 500 miles | 15,000 | 19,000 | 27% |
| Within North America | 501 - 1,500 miles | 20,000 | 29,500 | 48% |
| Within North America | 1,501 - 2,750 miles | 25,000 | 43,000 | 72% |
| Within North America | 2,751+ miles | 35,000 | 56,400 | 61% |
Flights across the Atlantic
Thankfully, the much-higher rates are mostly limited to flights within North America. However, Aeroplan has effectively eliminated the cheapest awards across the Atlantic.
For example, United flights between Newark (EWR) and London Heathrow (LHR) used to cost 35,000 points in economy. Now, these awards are consistently priced at 40,000 points each way.
And it seems that this isn't a one-off. Based on Aeroplan's newly released median award pricing, award flights up to 4,000 miles in length are reliably pricing at 40k points instead of 35k points.
The good news is that the other tiers of the award chart are generally still pricing at the former award chart levels:
| Zone | Distance | Former Award Chart Rate | Recent Median Award Price | % Increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| North America - Atlantic | Up to 4,000 miles | 35,000 points | 40,000 points | 14% |
| North America - Atlantic | 4,001 - 6,000 miles | 40,000 points | 40,100 points | ~0% |
| North America - Atlantic | 6,001 - 8,000 miles | 55,000 points | 55,000 points | 0% |
| North America - Atlantic | 8,001+ miles | 70,000 points | 70,000 points | 0% |
Keep in mind that this higher pricing only applies to select partners — most notably United, Etihad, Emirates, and flydubai. If you fly another Aeroplan partner, you'll still pay the lower award chart price:
Flights across the Pacific
Like awards across the Atlantic, the worst increases on routes across the Pacific are on shorter routes. The new median pricing shows that Aeroplan has sharply increased trans-Pacific awards up to 5,000 miles in distance. However, it's worth noting that these routes consist almost entirely of Air Canada-operated flights.
| Zone | Distance | Former Award Chart Rate | Recent Median Award Price | % Increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| North America - Pacific | Up to 5,000 miles | 35,000 points | 50,700 points | 45% |
| North America - Pacific | 5,001 - 7,500 miles | 50,000 points | 55,000 points | 10% |
| North America - Pacific | 7,501 - 11,000 miles | 60,000 points | 60,000 points | 0% |
| North America - Pacific | 11,001+ miles | 75,000 points | 74,100 points | (1%) |
United awards have only increased by about 10% — such as on the route from Los Angeles (LAX) to Tokyo Narita (NRT). This route used to cost 50,000 points one-way:
Now this route prices reliably at 55,000 points each way:
What About Business Class Awards?
In this post, we've focused solely on economy awards, and that's because we've seen very little United business class award availability bookable through Aeroplan.
If you're hopeful to book United business class awards through Aeroplan, make sure you're using an award search tool such as Seats.aero to uncover the few options there are.
As of publishing, Seats.aero is showing zero United business class awards across the Pacific bookable through Aeroplan — and only about a dozen United business class awards to Europe.
And in case you're wondering about that 70,000-point option. It turns out that's on Lufthansa.
Because of the limited options for booking United business class awards using Aeroplan points, the median award prices shared this week are likely almost entirely Air Canada-operated flights.
Final Thoughts
When airlines adopt dynamic award pricing, it generally means higher-priced awards. Sure, the cheapest awards might get a lot more appealing — like when Virgin Flying Club adopted dynamic award pricing. However, the average award almost always increases.
That's what we expected when Air Canada Aeroplan announced it was adopting dynamic award pricing on United. But Aeroplan didn't actually implement dynamic award pricing for United awards. Instead, Aeroplan essentially implemented a new, unpublished, more-expensive award chart for United awards.
Short hops on United that used to cost 6k now cost 10k. Awards that cost 10k now cost 15k. Short flights to Europe that used to cost 35k now cost 40k. And flights across the Pacific went from 50k to 55k. These increases of only around 5k points might not seem bad, but they effectively eliminated any advantage of booking United awards via Aeroplan.
Considering that, I guess we can hope that Aeroplan will actually implement dynamic award pricing on United one day. Then we might be able to score a deal on United awards once again.
