What is the Value of an Aeroplan Mile?

Editors Note: The Aeroplan is undergoing a lot of changes due to the merger with Air Canada, and as such, this article will be updated as changes are announced.

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What is the value of an Aeroplan Mile? As with many other programs, it varies depending on how you redeem your points. There is a multitude of ways to redeem Aeroplan Miles: Flights, Vacation packages & Hotels, Car Rentals, Gift Cards and Merchandise. However, we have determined the best way to get good value for your Aeroplan Miles is to use them to book flights, where they should be worth about 2 cents per Mile. Below you can see all our calculations and what value was determined for each redemption. Check out our guide to the Aeroplan program.

Flights - Value: 2 Cents Per Mile

Vacation Packages - Value: 1 Cent Per Mile

Hotels - Value: 0.75 Cents Per Mile

Car Rental - Value: Varies Greatly

Gift Cards - Value: 0.65-1 Cents Per Mile

Merchandise - Value: 0.7 Cents Per Mile

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Flights

Value: 2 Cents Per Mile

Redeeming Aeroplan Miles for Air Canada (and Star Alliance) flights are at the core of the program, and as such is usually how the best value is extracted. Generally speaking, Fixed Mileage Flight Rewards are a superior use of Miles, but their availability is limited. It is important to note that these Miles do not include variable taxes and fees. Generally speaking business and first-class redemptions often provide the best cents per Mile redemption, however, we are instead focusing on economy and premium economy seats, as we feel the average reader likely cares about preserving their Aeroplan Miles instead for future flights (if you want to fly business or first class though, you should! They generally provide excellent redemption values).

We were planning to do an in-depth assessment to determine the average value of both Fixed and Flexible Mileage Flight Rewards, however, the current pandemic is of course dramatically affecting flight prices and availability. Generally speaking though, we consider a return of 2 cents per mile between the two flight programs to be a good average return.

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Vacation Packages

Value: 1 Cent Per Mile

Aeroplan Miles can be directly redeemed against the cost of an Air Canada vacations package at a rate of 1 cent per Mile (i.e. 5,000 Miles can be redeemed for a $50 rebate). Although it's not the best use of points, if you are booking a vacation package anyways and don't plan on flying anytime soon it may be worth looking into.

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Hotels

Value: 0.75 Cents Per Mile

Aeroplan Miles can be redeemed for free hotel stays at many different major hotel chains. Generally speaking, however, these redemptions are not worthwhile to pursue (but they may be worth exploring in case of an outlier). Value varies greatly, but after surveying a random variety of hotels and dates we found the value to sit at about 0.75 cents per Mile. This can be seen in our table below.

Additionally, it should be noted that hotels can be purchased with cash on the Aeroplan site to earn bonus Miles when booking hotels. However we generally do not recommend this as we found the prices on this portal are often inflated compared with the hotel's site, so we recommend booking with hotels directly, especially if you are loyal to one chain (so you earn their points and status with that hotel).

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Car Rentals

Value: Varies Greatly

We found car rental redemption values to be widely varied depending on the date and location. However, it is often possible to get a good value per mile from car rentals. Although generally worth less than 1 cent per Mile, we found some renting cards from some airport via Aeroplan could be worth up to 2 cents per Mile on select dates. If you were planning to rent a car anyways and don't need the Miles for flights, this might be a worthwhile option to explore. Additionally, you could earn additional Aeroplan Miles while redeeming for car rental.

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Gift Cards

Value: 0.65-1 Cents Per Mile

As with most other loyalty programs, gift card redemptions are rarely worth it, and it would be better to use your Aeroplan Miles on other things unless you absolutely have to. Generally, speaking most gift card redemptions will net you a value of 0.65-0.72 cents per mile spent. A $100 Cineplex gift card, for example, will cost you an overpriced 14,000 Aeroplan Miles. That's only 1,000 Miles less than a short-haul flight (excluding taxes and fees)!

The one exemption where gift cards are a slightly better deal is on redeeming for Air Canada gift cards. Each Aeroplan Mile is worth 1 cent when redeemed for an Air Canada gift card. However, purchasing flights with an Air Canada gift card also ensures that your credit card's travel insurance likely won't completely cover you (especially for trip cancellation and trip insurance purposes).

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Merchandise

Value: 0.7 Cents Per Mile

As with gift cards, merchandise redemptions are very rarely a worthwhile use of Miles. Rarely will redemptions for merchandise lead to a value of more than 0.8 cents per Miles. Below, you can see a randomly selected variety of merchandise and their calculated redemption values. As can be seen below, redemption values are variable but average at about 0.7 cents per mile.

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Conclusion

We highly recommend redeeming your Aeroplan Miles for flights when possible to get the full value out of them. At 2 Cents Per Mile Aeroplan Miles are valuable points, but what are all the ways to earn them? Check out our guide to the Aeroplan program.