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Air Canada Aeroplan is one of our favorite loyalty programs in North America and gives its competitors like AA and Delta a serious run for their money in terms of earning and redemption options. Air Canada Aeroplan partnerships extend well beyond its membership in the Star Alliance, offering excellent sweet spots and great value for awards with 50 Aeroplan partner airlines.
On the downside, Air Canada still maintains an Aeroplan point expiration policy… at least on paper. But after yet another extension of its expiration pause, we're left wondering if Air Canada Aeroplan points will ever expire again.
Do Aeroplan Points Expire?
Aeroplan points expire if your account has no activity for 18 months. Here's how the policy is spelled out on the Aeroplan website:
“You have 18 months before your Aeroplan points expire if there has been no activity in your account – meaning you haven’t earned, redeemed, donated, transferred or converted any points. But so long as you stay active, your points won’t expire at all.”
However, travelers still have a temporary reprieve from this policy.
Expiration suspension
Despite its 18-month point expiration policy, Aeroplan has suspended all point expirations. This suspension was originally put in place during Covid-19 but has since been extended several times.
Currently, the Aeroplan expiration suspension is valid through November 30, 2025. So, you have some leeway to take action if you have some points that are at risk of expiration.
Track your points and miles expiration for 630+ loyalty programs and get email alerts before your miles expire by signing up for a free AwardWallet account.
How To Prevent Your Aeroplan Points From Expiring
In case Aeroplan ever reinstates its point expiration policy, here's what you need to know about generating account activity.
Earn Aeroplan points
- Credit points earned from an Air Canada or Star Alliance flight.
- Purchase something with your Aeroplan-affiliated credit card — such as the Aeroplan® Credit Card.
- Shop through Aeroplan retail partners.
- Earn points by shopping through the Aeroplan eStore.
- Transfer points from an Aeroplan bank partner such as Chase Ultimate Rewards (1:1 ratio, instant transfer time), American Express Membership Rewards (1:1 ratio, instant transfer time), Capital One Miles (1:1 ratio, instant transfer time), or Bilt Rewards (1:1 ratio, instant transfer time).
- Transfer points from an Aeroplan hotel partner like Marriott Bonvoy.
Redeem Aeroplan points
- Donate your points to a charity (minimum of 1,000 points)
- Redeem your points for flight or other non-flight activities
- Redeem your points for merchandise.
Exceptions to the Mileage Expiration Policy
The mileage expiry policy is waived under certain circumstances, including:
- Members with elite status (applies to Elite 25K and above.)
- Primary cardmembers of an Aeroplan-affiliated credit card
- In Canada, available credit cards include the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite, TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite Privilege Card, TD® Aeroplan® Visa Platinum, and TD® Aeroplan® Visa Business.
- In the U.S., there is the Aeroplan® Credit Card.
Reinstating Expired Aeroplan Points
If your points have already expired, you have a couple of options. Within six months of your account becoming inactive, you can reinstate all your Aeroplan points free of charge by either taking an Air Canada flight or opening an Aeroplan credit card.
After the six-month period, you can still reinstate your points at the cost of 1 cent per mile plus a $30 administrative fee. To reinstate your points, you'll want to call the Aeroplan Contact Center at 1-800-361-5373.
Track Your Aeroplan Points Using AwardWallet
With only an 18-month expiration window, keeping a close eye on your Aeroplan points balance would serve well. Fortunately, AwardWallet can take much of the hassle out of tracking your points expirations.
All you need to do is add your Aeroplan account to your AwardWallet account. You will then receive a timely reminder letting you know if you have any points in danger of expiration.
Related: How to Track Your Rewards Using AwardWallet
Bottom Line
Aeroplan is a great program, with plenty of excellent value in its redemption sweet spots — which include 600+ United routes for just 6,000 Aeroplan points. The program became even more valuable during a revamp in 2020 that eliminated fuel surcharges.
If Aeroplan ever lets its point expiration suspension end, travelers need to be prepared to generate activity to save their points. But until then, it's blue skies ahead.
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
“Currently, the Aeroplan expiration suspension is valid through November 30, 2025. So, you have some leeway to take action if you have some points that are at risk of expiration.”
AwardWallet is showing my points will expire in 1.5 month, as of today Aug 19,2024.
Is AW information incorrect?
Thanks for flagging this, Dave. It seems this latest Aeroplan points extension hasn’t been coded in. I passed this along to our support team who should update it shortly.
it still hasn’t been updated…. been a month since your comment @JT Genter
It’s now been two days since my comment – not a month. The support team looked into this and noted that the only time a date is displayed that’s earlier than November 30, 2025 is when Air Canada notes an earlier expiration date in that user’s account. Aeroplan has publicly stated that expiration is paused through November 30, 2025. However, we always want to use the most conservative date so that users can take action.
Using the shopping portal, it takes you to .ca sites, like petsmart .ca. Can we switch to .com site and still get the miles?
Hi Josh, I emailed Air Canada to ask.
I have lost contact with Aeroplan. How do I get my Aerop;an number activated
Hi Berkley, you can try contacting them here: https://www.aircanada.com/ca/en/aco/home/fly/customer-support/contact.html
What is the source of your information that Air Canada Aeroplan points expiration has been extended to May, 2023? On my account, it STILL states that my points expire in January 2023.
Here’s Air Canada’s website stating the extension: https://www.aircanada.com/ca/en/aco/home/aeroplan/news/points-expiry-suspended.html#/
My son lost all this miles that we had been accumulating for years. Impossible to get them back. However I still like the program: for Canadians it is easy to accumulate points and if you reserve early, you can get good value.
j’ai la carte Visa CIBC aéro or Aeroplan.. Je l’active toujours en payant mes achats mensuellement et totalement avec cette carte. Je veux connaître mon nombre de points Aeroplan. Impossible d’avoir information pertinente au no de tél. 1 800 361 5373. Veuillez me donner l’information en français à mon adresse courriel. Merci Janette Gaulin insatisfaite..,,
Malheureusement, on ne peut pas vous donner cette information. Veuillez contacter Aeroplan.
Need to know how many points I have on my account
I’m not sure why I received a notification from AwardWallet about expiring Aeroplan miles as I have been using my Aeroplan credit card on a regular basis (at least 2x per week) for the last several years.
During lock down, it’s impossible to get anyone to answer phone at Home Hardware to order and get aeroplan miles, I think during covid that Miles should not expire as we are all told to stay home
Over 200,000 of my miles “expired” and I can’t get them back. No email was sent to me (not even in junk file). I have no emails from Aeroplan in the year 2019 (lots from 2008 – 2018). NO MORE TRAVEL WITH AIR CANADA…..EVER !
I was worried about my miles expiring soon but I also found out that they posted 1 mile as last transaction last month so Im glad i have 18 months to use them :))))
Recently Air Canada posted 1 mile in my account and my expiration date was reset for a year and a half, thank you Air Canada
The customer service call is really too difficult to get through. Even if it gets through, They might say that you need to change to another customer service. I sincerely hope that Air Canada can enhance the customer experience.
As with calling any large companies with world wide branches, always try to call the phone number that is not in your time zone. It’s much easier to get through in my experience.
There is a survey panel called Asking Canadians that gives you Aeroplan points for completing surveys. As with any survey panel, most of the time you get screened out. This one gives you 5 Aeroplan points even if you screen out, so it is a great way to keep my Aeroplan miles alive. Every once in a while, I even get to complete a survey. You need a Canadian address to qualify to join the panel.
The CA plan good at can be avoid dreaded fuel surcharges on award tickets. The BA have expensive fuel surchanges to redeem BA flight. But there have a good news is Cathay Pacific cancelled Fuel Fee.
Donating miles may be a good choice. I don’t have a website where I can participate in shopping award miles, and there is no credit card that can accumulate Air Canada miles.
Miles shouldnt expire period. Hope Aeroplan learns from programs like skymiles.
18 months is not long enough in my opinion, especially given the current climate and how much travel will change going forward.
Still waiting for details on the new air canada loyalty program.
Aeroplan is on the way out soon, but good sign that Air Canada intends to have at least a slightly more generous expiration policy in their new rewards program.
Being able to restore expired miles within 6 months of inactivity at no charge is great. I do not know if this already existed, but if it is a new benefit, good for Air Canada.
Sometimes you don´t need to travel or you find cheaper ways of doing it than doing it with miles. I think airlines should think about extending the expliration time, specially in this covid time.
I understand AC has not refunded people who bought tickets on flights that never even left the ground… I agree with your thinking but their current covid strategy is not earning a lot of goodwill from me.
The real question is, are they worth supporting as a company after the way they treated so many Americans during the pandemic.
I wish they should follow all of the other major airlines that have no expiration on their mileage programs. This is similar to money which does not have an expiration.
Aeroplan has been my go to in the past. Easy to redeem online and when needed, the CSR are knowledgable and very pleasant.
About time! My favorite way to keep miles from expiring are using shopping portals for small purchases.
18 months is a reasonable time. This is good news and should help Aeroplan retain members.
Hello. I am an Aeroplan member and have a TD Aeroplan Visa card. From what I have read, because I have a TD Visa card, my points will never expire. And, if that isn’t the case, then just using my Visa card once every 12 months is enough to keep my points active.
Could you confirm that please?
Thank you,
Janelle
Janelle,
Yes, it should help according to their rules:
https://www.aeroplan.com/helpcenter/expired-miles#/
But I would recommend to contact Aeroplan representatives to figure it out.
I have been calling for days to speak with customer service… I have spent HOURS waiting to talk with someone. This is unnacceptable.
Please contact me right away as this is a barbaric way to conduct business nevermind treat your customers. Hire more phone reps!!!
I was notified by an aeroplan agent that I need to use my points or they will expire–in trying to get back to the caller, I cannot reconnect. Please help! at 250-386-9063
Thank you,, B Marilyn Ferguson
Please contact Aeroplan representatives to get it resolved. We at AwardWallet are not related or affiliated with the programs we support.
@Mary @Roger
If you guys have an avis car rental from before the expiration it can generate activity and reinstate your account for free. If you don’t have there are forums on the web where people sell them also.
Good luck guys!
I can tell you what a disappointment today, when I called Areoplan and found out that for real my 80,000 vanished as they do not honour dormant accounts if no activity over a one year period. My heart is just aching right now. Through my ups and down over the last few years, I was hoping that maybe this could eventually help us to take a trip. Unforgiving they are!
Does RTW or mini-RTW literally you have to travel around the world in one direction to return to your original departure point? Or is it just a trip to multiple countries in any direction?
Usually, there are some backtracking restrictions prohibiting you from crossing the same ocean or going east, west, then east.
Aeroplan no longer offers RTW awards (see our post on recent Aeroplan changes)
I’d consider hiring a booking service if you don’t have time to dig into all the rules.
Have been a loyal customer of Aéroplan for over 35 years and lost close to 200,000 miles due to a technicality. The notification email went to my spam. Inform them of the issue and they would do nothing about it except telling me that I can purchase them back for 1 cent a mile. You know what it’s not worth it. I would spent $2000 in buying them back but I would not get $2000 worth of marchandise. Their ad says a mile is worth 2.5 cents is bullshit. Each mile is worth at best a penny. Air Canada have just lost a loyal customer for life.
I agree I had 300 thousand miles didn’t fly for year because of job and lost them all
Good by aircanada I will never fly with them again
… and you did nothing to keep them like wasting some of them on an overpriced suitcase?
A loyalty program that shows its members no loyalty.
And kicks you while you’re down not giving refunds for canceled flights despite DOT stating multiple times that is required by law.
My wife and I reside in the UK and are both Aeroplan members. Can anyone please advise me, is there is anywhere in the UK where we can collect Aeroplan points
If you fly a partner airline, you can select AC every so often as the rewards number to earn some miles in that program.
Have my aeroplane miles expired and if not when do they do so
How can I get them back
You should check your Aeroplan account. You usually can’t get them back, but it never hurts to call and ask for an exception.
Why is it advertised that 25,000 points is worth $625 at Cosco but when I get onto the aeroplan site it shows 67,500 points for a $500 cash card?
Where are you seeing this information? I’m not sure what you’re referencing.
My Aeroplan miles are expiring. I went on the site to spend some reward miles, and the system shut down when I was in the middle of purchasing saying they’re doing maintenance and come back tomorrow at 10:00 am. My concern is my deadline is at 10:00 am tomorrow morning, and I’m afraid I’m going to lose all of my miles???
If you have Amex Membership Rewards or Capital One points, you can transfer to Aeroplan to reset your expiration instantly.
I have 60,000 miles which I am going to lose very soon, if I do not keep my account active.
If I donate a portion, say 5000 mile to an aeroplan charity does this count and the balance of 55,000 miles is safe for another year.
As the post says, yes.
Why not buy something on Aeroplan shopping instead?
What is mini RTW?
RTW = Round The World — e.g. a trip that has you flying completely around the planet.
Aeroplan is basically MileagePlus Minus
Kinda, but not really. Prices with Aeroplan can really beat MileagePlus on redemptions, especially if you can avoid surcharges.
Did not know about the exception to minors. Great tip
To keep Aeroplan account alive we can answer some survey to get points for free.
What survey precludes A miles from expiring?
@Gail, it looks like there are 2 options: https://www.askingcanadians.com looks ongoing, whereas https://www.aeroplan.com/opinion.do#/ is available from time to time.
They are not the easiest to use miles for upgrades
Very interesting about the exception for minors and credit card holders. I don’t know if other plans have that, who have an expiration on the miles. Plus letting you reinstate…very interesting. Is the phone number that’s published and well known? Or is this something that you guys found?
The phone number is publicly available on Aeroplan’s website.
I’ve got some Aeroplan miles to use up.
MiniRTW is one of the best option with Aeroplan. if you really have to fly Air Canada then get the Amex rewards which transfers to Aeroplan 1:1 and redeem for MiniRTW. Other wise better to stick with United to credit the miles as a star alliance member.
I love the Aeroplan program as they are a star alliance partner. However, I will say that the flights tend to cost 2500 – 5000 more miles for the same leg booked through United.
but United doesn’t charge any fuel/carrier-imposed fees on Award tickets. A huge value.
It is difficult to establish Aeroplan as a preferred program knowing that AirCanada will leave it.