Air Canada has announced some upcoming changes to Aeroplan award flights on select airline partners. Effective March 25, 2025 the dynamically priced award chart for flights on Air Canada will be expanded to include United Airlines, Emirates, Flydubai, Etihad Airways, and the program’s Canadian regional airline partners Calm Air, Canadian North, and PAL (Provincial Airlines).
Air Canada let RWRDS Canada know that these updates reflect special arrangements the Aeroplan program has with these partners and as such will provide improved access to redemption flights, and in some cases, deeper inventory levels.
The Air Canada + select partners Flight Reward Chart
Granted, as these airline are moving to the “Air Canada Flight Reward” chart they will be subject to dynamic pricing based on the cash cost of the flight which of course will fluctuate based upon the route, time of travel and how full the flight is. This means that Aeroplan members may find that award flights with these partners will be more expensive or even less expensive than they are accustomed to.
Air Canada states “While the redemption rates under this chart can be higher than our fixed partner award chart and can vary from one itinerary to another, these changes will enable greater availability for reward seats on these airlines than before.” The last line is almost the exact same as the wording we heard from Air France KLM reward flight changes back in January as they increased rates but are promising more availability!
And that is the trade off, more availability for more points however with Air Canada Aeroplan there is the chance for paying less points than before as some partner rewards did price higher than the “Starting Amounts” on the Air Canada flight reward chart. As these changes don’t take place until March 25 we cannot provide any concrete examples of more expensive and less expensive flight awards. This is what Air Canada provided to us:
- Simplified redemption details: We’re replacing reward amount ranges with a starting amount (unchanged from the current values) and a new median amount, which will be based on historical Aeroplan member redemptions with these carriers. This change aims to give our members a better understanding of typical redemption amounts while making the charts easier to navigate. Please note:
- Median amounts will not be displayed for ranges outside North America or for First Class ranges, as lower redemption volumes in these categories could result in significant fluctuations from one update to another.
- The median amounts will be updated quarterly, based on redemptions from the previous four quarters, ensuring greater accuracy.
Here’s an example of the updated award chart for flights within North America which now lists the lowest “Starting at” and no maximum which leads me to believe Air Canada is moving away from the 80-20 rule where 80% of awards would fall between the ranges on the chart and 20% could price lower or higher.
Preferred Pricing will apply to these select partner airlines
The good news in these airlines moving to the dynamic Air Canada Flight Reward Chart is that Aeroplan Preferred Pricing for holding an Aeroplan co-brand credit card and/or having Elite Status will apply to award flights on those airlines.
Recommended reading: The new Air Canada Aeroplan reward flight pricing compared: no status no credit card pricing versus elite status + credit card Preferred pricing
Etihad Airways Business Class Rewards return on March 25
Air Canada also let RWRDS Canada know that Etihad Business Class reward inventory will once again be available systemwide as of March 25, 2025. They also note there are no changes to Etihad First Class reward availability at this time.
Wrapping it up
Today’s announcement from Air Canada will be met as both good and bad news – just like we saw with AF KLM earlier in the year. Aeroplan members may now have to fork out more points for some of the more popular airline partners which can be seen as bad news but the fact the airline is promising more availability is good news – if it means paying 10% or 20% more points to actually be able to use your points on meaningful award flight then I’m all for that. Add in the potential to actually pay less in points than we do now and also get Preferred Pricing and I would say the needle for this news may actually tip towards overall good news.
However, before I get ahead of myself the proof in the pudding will be when these go live in March and we are able to see a good proportion of the award rates. There will be that fear that a one way business class flight that was always 60,000 or 70,000 points may now push 200,000 or more like we do see for some Air Canada flights.
It should be noted all other Air Canada Aeroplan partner airlines will continue to be available with the published fixed points reward charts.