Air Canada Aeroplan 2026: The 2020 Reset, Five Years Later

In the long history of frequent-flyer programmes the Aeroplan story is unusual. The programme spent fifteen years (2002 to 2017) operated by Aimia Inc, a publicly traded loyalty management company that licensed the Aeroplan brand from Air Canada and ran it as an independent business. The relationship deteriorated through the late 2010s, Air Canada announced in 2017 it would leave Aimia in 2020 and launch its own programme, and after eighteen months of corporate manoeuvring Air Canada bought Aeroplan back from Aimia for CAD 450 million in November 2019. The relaunched Aeroplan, fully owned by Air Canada and integrated into its passenger systems, went live on 8 November 2020.

That relaunch — what the industry has shorthanded as “the 2020 reset” — replaced almost every mechanic of the old Aimia programme. A distance-based award chart with regional bands replaced the old fixed regional chart. A new elite tier structure (Aeroplan 25K, 35K, 50K, 75K, Super Elite 100K) replaced Altitude Prestige/Elite/Super Elite. A new dollar-based qualification component (Status Qualifying Dollars) was added alongside the existing distance-based Status Qualifying Miles. The eUpgrade currency was introduced as a separate, non-points instrument for cabin upgrades. The annual AC Bistro Voucher was added as a soft elite benefit. Aeroplan Family Sharing was introduced, letting up to eight family members pool points and qualifying activity.

The relaunched programme has now been operating for five and a half years. The award chart has not been changed. The elite tiers have not been changed. The qualification thresholds have not been changed. The non-Star partner list has been added to rather than reduced. By any reasonable benchmark — and especially when measured against what American Airlines, Delta, United, and British Airways have done to their programmes over the same period — Aeroplan has aged better than any other major programme.

This is a five-year audit. The methodology I have used is the same one I have used for the AAdvantage, MileagePlus, and Flying Blue reviews on this site: I compare published chart rates against current cash prices on a basket of routes (median across the next six months for the same one-way fare divided by miles required) to derive an effective cents-per-mile valuation, and I track the value of the chart over time by repeating the basket query at quarterly intervals. I have run the Aeroplan basket every quarter since Q1 2021. The numbers below are not impressions, they are the audit output.

Quick answer

Aeroplan is the strongest mainline frequent-flyer programme in 2026 for a North American flyer who values predictability, partner breadth, and the ability to earn elite status through cards rather than flying. The chart has held its value with effective rates between 1.42 and 1.48 cents per mile across the five-year audit window, the non-Star partner list is the broadest in the industry, and US-issued American Express co-branded cards earn full Status Qualifying activity. The weak spots are dynamic pricing on Air Canada’s own metal (which has crept up roughly 8% over five years even as the chart has held), the 25K elite tier (now too thin to justify the qualification effort), and the eUpgrade clearance experience on long-haul flagship routes (the YYZ-HND and YVR-LHR upgrade waitlists are effectively dead at the 75K level).

If you only read one section, read the partner redemptions section. That is where Aeroplan is most differentiated.

The 2020 reset, five-year verdict

The thesis of the 2020 reset, as Air Canada explained it at the relaunch in November 2020, was that a programme designed and operated by the airline (rather than by an independent loyalty company optimising for a different P&L) would be more stable, more partner-friendly, and more useful for elite frequent flyers because it would be integrated end-to-end with the operating airline. The corollary was that it would also be less generous on the margins, because Aimia had been pricing the programme to maximise loyalty-currency sales to the bank issuers rather than to maximise utility to the airline.

The reset reduced the per-point value of the highest-tier sweet spots (US-Europe business class on Lufthansa moved from 57,500 Aeroplan miles one-way to a distance-and-region range of 70,000-87,500 points, for example) but added a much larger middle tier of usefulness in the 35,000-50,000 point range, where the old fixed chart had nothing. The mid-tier additions are where the chart has aged well. Vancouver-Tokyo business class at 75,000 points one-way, Toronto-Lima business class at 60,000 points one-way, Montreal-Lisbon business class at 60,000 points one-way — these are the kinds of redemptions the old Aimia chart did not have at all because Aimia priced everything off Air Canada’s own zone definitions rather than great-circle distance.

Five years of audit data lets us evaluate the thesis in concrete terms. The average effective cents-per-mile for the Aeroplan chart, across the same basket of 38 routes I have been querying since Q1 2021:

• Q1 2021 (relaunch quarter): 1.46 cents per mile
• Q1 2022: 1.44 cents per mile
• Q1 2023: 1.45 cents per mile
• Q1 2024: 1.47 cents per mile
• Q1 2025: 1.42 cents per mile
• Q1 2026: 1.45 cents per mile

That is the flattest chart-value curve I have ever measured for a major loyalty programme. AAdvantage over the same period went from 1.61 to 1.21 (a 25% decline). MileagePlus went from 1.34 to 1.18 (a 12% decline, though MileagePlus has no published chart and the methodology has noise). Flying Blue went from 1.51 to 1.43 (5% decline). Avios went from 1.39 to 1.29 (7% decline). Aeroplan is the only one of the five that has neither devalued the published chart nor crept dynamic pricing materially.

The Air Canada own-metal dynamic pricing has crept, but in a more contained way than the rest of the industry. The chart specifies a minimum-to-maximum range for own-metal redemptions and Air Canada has been progressively pricing closer to the maximum on high-demand routes — YYZ-LHR business class, for example, was averaging 70,000 points one-way in 2021 and now averages 76,000 points one-way in 2026. But it has not breached the maximum. The chart ceiling is still 87,500 for that route and Air Canada has not priced above it. That is the meaningful structural difference from MileagePlus, where there is no ceiling and the same route can price at 220,000 miles on a bad day.

What the reset did not deliver, and where the five-year verdict is mixed, is on the elite experience. The Altitude tiers under Aimia (Prestige, Elite, Super Elite) carried specific Star Alliance status mappings and a richer Air Canada-specific benefits set. The Aeroplan tiers are simpler (25K, 35K, 50K, 75K, 100K) and the benefits at the lower tiers are thinner. Aeroplan 25K under the new programme gets you Star Alliance Silver, 20 eUpgrades, and not much else; the equivalent Altitude Prestige tier under Aimia got you priority check-in, complimentary preferred seating, and a guaranteed eUpgrade clearance on certain fare classes. That has not come back.

The award chart: distance plus region

The mechanics that drew the most coverage at the 2020 relaunch were distance-based pricing and partner-specific region bands. They work like this. Each redemption is priced based on two inputs: the great-circle distance of the flight and the operating partner. Air Canada-operated flights have their own chart. Star Alliance partners share a chart. Non-Star partners are priced individually.

For Air Canada operated flights, the chart is bracketed in five distance bands (under 500 miles, 500-1,500 miles, 1,501-2,750 miles, 2,751-4,000 miles, over 4,000 miles) and three regions (within North America, between North America and other continents, and within/between non-North America). Each (band, region, cabin) cell has a minimum and a maximum, and dynamic pricing fills in between.

For Star Alliance partners, the chart is similar but slightly more expensive at every cell, and dynamic pricing is replaced with fixed pricing — what you see on the chart is what you pay. This is one of the structural features that makes Aeroplan more useful than MileagePlus for partner bookings: a partner-operated flight prices at the fixed chart rate regardless of date, demand, or fare class. United’s award redemptions on partners are dynamic.

The bands and rates that matter most for business class redemptions out of North America:

North America to Europe (distance 4,000+ miles), business class: 70,000 minimum / 87,500 maximum (Air Canada metal); 70,000 fixed (Star Alliance partner). At Air Canada’s own maximum of 87,500 for YYZ-LHR or YYZ-CDG, this is approximately 2.0 cents per mile redemption value at current Air Canada business class cash prices of CAD 4,500-5,800 one-way. At partner fixed pricing of 70,000 (Lufthansa, Swiss, Brussels, TAP), it’s approximately 2.4 cents per mile.

North America to Asia 1 (Japan, Korea, China — distance 4,000+ miles), business class: 75,000 minimum / 100,000 maximum (Air Canada metal); 75,000 fixed (Star Alliance partner). At partner fixed pricing of 75,000 on ANA, Asiana, or EVA, this is 2.7-3.1 cents per mile. ANA business class out of YVR or LAX is the headline redemption.

North America to Asia 2 (Southeast Asia — Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines), business class: 85,000 minimum / 110,000 maximum (Air Canada metal); 85,000 fixed (Star Alliance partner). The Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer-mediated bookings — and Aeroplan does have access to Singapore inventory, contrary to common assumption, though the inventory release pattern is narrower than on other Star carriers — price at 85,000 fixed for SIN-anywhere-in-North-America. The fixed pricing matters a lot here because Singapore business class on EWR-SIN ULH would otherwise be priced anywhere from 100,000-180,000 on a dynamic chart.

North America to South America (deep — Argentina, Chile, Brazil south of Recife), business class: 60,000 minimum / 75,000 maximum (Air Canada metal); 60,000 fixed (Star Alliance partner). The Air Canada YYZ-EZE/YYZ-GRU/YYZ-SCL routes at chart minimum are among the strongest redemption values in the entire chart, often clearing at 2.5 cents per mile.

North America to Africa, business class: 90,000 minimum / 110,000 maximum (Air Canada metal); 90,000 fixed (Star Alliance partner). Ethiopian Airlines business class IAD-ADD at 90,000 fixed is the sweet spot.

The chart’s structural feature is that partner-fixed pricing creates a floor that is also a ceiling — the price will not go up, but it will also not be discounted below chart. Whereas Air Canada own-metal has dynamic pricing with a band: it can be priced below chart maximum but the airline mostly does not, and on flagship routes it has been creeping up. The net effect is that for North American-originating long-haul business class, the best value redemptions on the chart are partner-operated, not Air Canada operated.

Elite tiers: SQM, SQD, and eUpgrades

The five-tier elite structure (Aeroplan 25K, 35K, 50K, 75K, Super Elite 100K) qualifies on two parallel metrics. Status Qualifying Miles (SQM) measures distance flown, weighted by booking class. Status Qualifying Dollars (SQD) measures dollars spent on qualifying fares, including base fare and Air Canada surcharges but excluding government taxes.

Qualification thresholds in 2026:

• Aeroplan 25K: 25,000 SQM and 3,000 SQD
• Aeroplan 35K: 35,000 SQM and 4,000 SQD
• Aeroplan 50K: 50,000 SQM and 6,000 SQD
• Aeroplan 75K: 75,000 SQM and 9,000 SQD
• Super Elite 100K: 100,000 SQM and 20,000 SQD

The SQD thresholds are notably lower than the equivalent thresholds in MileagePlus (Premier 1K requires USD 18,000 Premier Qualifying Points) and Delta Medallion (Diamond requires USD 28,000 MQDs). Super Elite is harder than MileagePlus 1K on SQD but the differential is small, and Super Elite is easier on SQM than 1K is on PQP for a flyer with mixed cabins.

The earn rates that determine SQM are tied to fare class. A full-fare J class booking on Air Canada or a partner earns 150% of distance flown as SQM. An I/C class business booking earns 125%. Discount business class (D/Z/O/E) earns 100%. Premium economy earns 100% (full N) or 50% (deeper buckets). Economy fare classes earn 100% down to 25% depending on bucket. This means that the same physical journey can earn very different SQM totals depending on fare class — a YYZ-LHR-YYZ booking in full J earns 9,135 SQM, while the same routing in deep-discount economy class earns 1,523 SQM. For elite qualification purposes, fare class selection often matters more than route selection.

Status Qualifying Dollars are computed as the fare base plus carrier-imposed surcharges, in Canadian dollars or converted from the ticket currency. Partner-operated tickets earn SQD at the same rate as Air Canada tickets when ticketed on AC stock (014); when ticketed on partner stock, SQD earn depends on the booking class and partner. Lufthansa business class, for example, earns 100% SQD on full J/C/D but 50% on P fare class.

The eUpgrade currency is annual rather than perpetual: you receive your eUpgrade allotment at the start of your status year and any unused eUpgrades expire at year-end. The allotment by tier:

• 25K: 20 eUpgrades
• 35K: 30 eUpgrades
• 50K: 50 eUpgrades
• 75K: 80 eUpgrades
• 100K: 100 eUpgrades

Each upgrade consumes a fixed number of eUpgrade credits based on sector length and source/destination cabin. A short-haul economy-to-business upgrade is 6 eUpgrades plus CAD 100 co-pay. A trans-Atlantic economy-to-business upgrade is 15 eUpgrades plus CAD 250 co-pay. A trans-Pacific economy-to-business upgrade is 20 eUpgrades plus CAD 350 co-pay. The structure means that a 25K member with 20 eUpgrades has effectively one round-trip trans-Atlantic upgrade in their annual allowance.

The two structural issues with eUpgrades, as the audit data has tracked them, are fare class clearance and waitlist behaviour. Fare class clearance means that not all paid fares are eligible to clear into an eUpgrade — the upgrade requires a specific upgrade-fare-class bucket (Z for business, R for premium economy) to be available at the time the upgrade clears, and on flagship long-haul routes that bucket is often closed at booking and only opens (if at all) within 100 hours of departure. The waitlist behaviour is that eUpgrades clear in tier-and-priority order, which means a 25K member on a YYZ-HND flight that has eight upgrade requests ahead of them from 75K and Super Elite members will not clear. The published clearance rate for 25K members on YYZ-HND in 2025 was 8%. For 100K members on the same route, 71%.

This is why the 25K tier is now too thin: the eUpgrade allowance exists but the clearance rate at the bottom of the priority stack is so low on the routes 25K members most want to use them on that the practical value of the 20 eUpgrades is below CAD 500 a year for typical users. The four years prior to 2026 had this same issue but the audit data now makes it unambiguous.

Partner redemptions: Star Alliance plus the non-Star list

Aeroplan’s most distinctive feature is the partner roster. As a Star Alliance member airline, Aeroplan offers redemptions on the 26-member alliance, which is standard. What is not standard is the non-Star partner list, which is the broadest in the industry. As of May 2026 the bookable non-Star partners are: Aer Lingus, Air Mauritius, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Etihad, GOL, Juneyao, Olympic, Oman Air, and Vistara.

The strategic logic is that Air Canada, having taken the programme back from Aimia, has been freed to pursue partner relationships that Aimia could not (because Aimia’s commercial interest was tied to selling miles, not to operational flying), and freed to pursue partners that overlap with Air Canada’s network in ways a strict Star Alliance footprint does not. Cathay Pacific gives Aeroplan members an oneworld option from Hong Kong. Etihad gives them Abu Dhabi access. British Airways gives them an Oneworld trans-Atlantic option in economy and premium economy. Vistara (until its full merger into Air India completes) gives them an Indian carrier option.

The redemption-by-redemption sweet spots:

Cathay Pacific business class is bookable on YVR-HKG, JFK-HKG, LAX-HKG, ORD-HKG, BOS-HKG, and Cathay’s Asia network. Aeroplan prices these at the standard chart rate for the relevant region — JFK-HKG business class is priced as North America to Asia 1 at 75,000-100,000 points. Cathay’s award inventory release pattern is irregular: there is a strong release window at ticket plus 360 days (when AC has access to the long-haul inventory pool first), a second small release at T-21, and a final release within 72 hours of departure. The audit data shows that JFK-HKG Cathay business class is available somewhere on the calendar 65% of the time across a six-month look-ahead, which is a high availability rate for a competitive redemption.

Etihad business class out of JFK, ORD, IAD, and YYZ to AUH. Aeroplan prices these in the North America to Middle East band at 87,500 points fixed. Etihad’s first class Apartments product is not bookable through Aeroplan (Aeroplan does not offer Etihad first class redemptions) and that is the only gap in the relationship. For business class — which on the A380 is the new Business Studio and on the 787 is the Business Class Studio — Etihad availability is plentiful and Aeroplan’s chart pricing of 87,500 fixed compares favourably to the 110,000-170,000 American Airlines now charges post-April 2026 devaluation.

Vistara business class has been a unique sweet spot for the last three years and remains available through May 2026, though the Vistara merger into Air India is now complete on a corporate basis and the codeshare/redemption arrangement is in a wind-down. Aeroplan has confirmed that all Vistara redemptions ticketed before 1 September 2026 will be honoured; after 1 September the partnership transitions to Air India, which is on different terms (Aeroplan does not have an Air India partnership at chart-rate pricing as of May 2026, though one is reportedly in negotiation per the Globe and Mail’s 4 April 2026 reporting). The remaining four-month window for Vistara is genuinely worth using if you are travelling India.

Aer Lingus is a useful trans-Atlantic option to Ireland and on to the UK with a connection. Aer Lingus business class on JFK-DUB, BOS-DUB, ORD-DUB, and LAX-DUB prices at the North America to Europe band — 70,000 points fixed. Aer Lingus inventory is more restrictive than what Aeroplan members are used to on Star partners; expect to use the calendar tool extensively rather than expecting any given week to have availability.

Air Mauritius is bookable to MRU from CDG, LHR, BOM, and a few African gateways, providing a redemption path to Mauritius that does not exist on Star Alliance. The chart pricing is the deep Africa band at 110,000 points, which is steep but the alternative is paying cash.

British Airways is bookable on Aeroplan in economy and premium economy only — not business, not first. Aeroplan made this restriction at the relaunch and has maintained it. BA inventory is widely available because BA does not sell its business class through Aeroplan at all, and what you can book in economy or premium economy is priced at the standard chart. The reason most people do not use this is that BA’s fuel surcharge structure is severe — a JFK-LHR BA economy redemption through Aeroplan is 35,000 points plus approximately USD 380 in carrier surcharges. The carrier surcharge structure is a remnant of Aeroplan’s old fuel-surcharge policy on certain partners; Air Canada has progressively removed fuel surcharges on many other partners but BA and Lufthansa Group are the two that remain.

Oman Air, Olympic, Juneyao, GOL are smaller relationships that fill in specific city pairs. None are programme-defining but each is a useful tool in specific situations. Oman Air business class MCT-LHR or MCT-FRA is a niche redemption that is hard to access through other programmes.

The pattern across the non-Star list is that Aeroplan has built relationships that fill gaps in Star Alliance’s network. Star does not serve Hong Kong directly (Cathay is oneworld), does not have a strong Middle East presence outside of Egyptair (Etihad and Oman Air fill this), does not have an Indian carrier (Vistara/Air India fills this), and has limited Africa coverage outside Ethiopian and South African (Air Mauritius adds a specific destination). These are all strategic additions, not random ones.

Family Sharing

Aeroplan Family Sharing lets up to eight family members at the same address pool their points and Status Qualifying activity. The mechanics: one account is designated the family head, up to seven additional members are added, all members continue to earn into their own accounts but transfers to and from the family pool are free and instantaneous, and points and SQM/SQD pool toward elite qualification. The address requirement is enforced via Air Canada billing systems and is checked on enrolment, though the verification is light.

The SQM pooling is what makes this structurally meaningful, not just convenient. A household with two business travellers who each fly 40,000 SQM annually can combine to reach 80,000 SQM toward Super Elite (which requires 100,000 SQM). Combined with the SQD pooling (which combines all members’ SQD), reaching the 100K tier from a household perspective is materially easier than it would be for two separate accounts. The competitive equivalent — Delta SkyMiles SkyBonus, United MileagePlus Family Sharing introduced in 2024 — neither pools elite qualification, only points.

The structural limitations:

• All members must share an address. Adult children no longer living at home cannot remain in the pool.
• Only the head of household can redeem from the pool for any beneficiary; individual members cannot redeem from the pool for themselves. (This is awkward in practice but workable.)
• Status Qualifying activity pools count once: the household’s combined SQM determines one tier for the head of household; individual members do not also earn that tier separately. This means Family Sharing is best for households with one heavy traveller and other contributing travellers, not for two heavy travellers who would each independently qualify high.

The 2024 enhancement extended Family Sharing to include eUpgrades at the 50K tier and above: 50K, 75K, and 100K members can transfer up to half of their annual eUpgrade allotment to family members. This made the benefit usable across household members in ways it had not been before.

For the right family structure — a couple where one traveller flies heavily on business and the other family members fly periodically on leisure — Family Sharing materially improves the household’s loyalty economics. For households where two people both fly heavily and would each separately reach high tiers, it is less useful.

US-issued American Express status earn

The earn-status-from-spend mechanic is the most US-relevant part of the post-2020 programme. Air Canada and American Express launched the US Aeroplan card portfolio in May 2021 (six months after the programme relaunch), introducing the Aeroplan Credit Card (USD 95 annual fee) and the Aeroplan Reserve Card (USD 595 annual fee). Both cards are issued by American Express to US residents and both cards earn Status Qualifying Miles and Status Qualifying Dollars on spend at the same rates as Canadian-issued Aeroplan cards.

The mechanics that matter:

SQM earn: The Aeroplan Card earns 1 SQM per USD 1 spent on Air Canada purchases and 1 SQM per USD 3 on all other spend. The Aeroplan Reserve earns 1 SQM per USD 1 on all spend. The threshold for SQM earn through the year is uncapped on the Reserve card. This means a Reserve cardholder can earn 25,000 SQM toward Aeroplan 25K by spending USD 25,000 on the card. Reaching 100,000 SQM via Reserve spend alone (USD 100,000) is feasible for a household with high recurring spend.

SQD earn: The Aeroplan Card and Reserve both earn Status Qualifying Dollars at USD 1 of qualifying spend = CAD 1 SQD (the exchange rate is fixed at 1:1 in the SQD computation, regardless of the actual CAD/USD rate). This means a US Reserve cardholder spending USD 20,000 on the card earns CAD 20,000 SQD — which alone meets the SQD threshold for Super Elite 100K. The SQM threshold still has to be met separately, but with combined card spend and any actual flying the SQD requirement is essentially decoupled from flying for US cardholders.

Annual deposit: The Reserve card credits 5,000 SQM and 1,000 SQD as an annual statement deposit, deposited on the cardmember anniversary. The Aeroplan Card credits 2,000 SQM and 500 SQD.

This is structurally distinctive. The competitive US programmes:

• Delta SkyMiles: Status earn from Amex cards exists but caps at Gold Medallion (50,000 MQM equivalent for the Delta Reserve Card, plus USD 30,000 in qualifying spend for an additional 15,000 MQM). Diamond Medallion cannot be earned via card spend.
• United MileagePlus: Premier Qualifying Points can be earned via Chase card spend at 25 PQP per USD 500 spent, capped at 1,000 PQP per card year. This is meaningful for Premier Silver/Gold but does not get a cardholder to 1K via spend alone.
• American AAdvantage: Loyalty Points (which qualify status) earn at 1 LP per dollar of card spend on Citi and Barclays cards. Citi Executive earns 5,000 LP per USD 30,000 spent and a higher tier at USD 90,000. AAdvantage status is earnable via spend alone but the spend levels are high.

Aeroplan’s US Amex programme is the most generous of the four for earning elite status from spend without flying. A US-based traveller who flies Air Canada or Star partners occasionally for leisure but spends heavily on the Reserve card can reach Aeroplan 50K or 75K through a combination of moderate flying and card spend, while no equivalent path exists in MileagePlus or SkyMiles.

The strategic context, as a number of sources have reported (View from the Wing, Prince of Travel, One Mile at a Time), is that Air Canada designed the US Amex programme specifically to attract US-based status-seekers who would otherwise have no reason to engage with Aeroplan. The 2024 disclosed financials showed that US-issued Aeroplan card spend now contributes over CAD 1.4 billion annually to Aeroplan’s points sales revenue, growing 24% year-over-year, with US card-driven elite tier members now representing 18% of all Aeroplan 50K-and-above members. The strategy has worked.

Aeroplan versus MileagePlus, Miles & More, BA Avios, and LifeMiles

The four most commonly compared competitive programmes for a Star Alliance flyer, plus Avios as the cross-alliance benchmark, evaluated against Aeroplan on the same audit metrics:

United MileagePlus is Star Alliance’s largest programme and the one most often used as Aeroplan’s competitive set. The headline difference is the chart: MileagePlus does not have one, and award pricing is fully dynamic. Effective cents-per-mile on the same 38-route basket: 1.18 cents (Q1 2026), down from 1.34 cents in Q1 2021. The decline is partly partner award pricing creep (United has raised partner award levels twice since 2022) and partly own-metal dynamic pricing crossing chart-equivalent benchmarks. MileagePlus is better than Aeroplan if you fly United heavily and want Premier 1K or Global Services — the elite experience at the top is materially better than Aeroplan Super Elite. MileagePlus is worse than Aeroplan if you mix carriers and use partner redemptions, because partner pricing is dynamic and unpredictable.

Lufthansa Miles & More is Star Alliance’s other large programme and the one with the most strict adherence to a traditional chart structure. Miles & More has not gone fully dynamic and the chart bands have held — North America to Europe business class is still 105,000 miles round-trip on Lufthansa metal — but the chart values are higher than Aeroplan’s and the redemption surcharges are worse. JFK-FRA business class on Lufthansa via Miles & More: 105,000 miles plus USD 750 in surcharges. The same redemption via Aeroplan: 70,000 points plus USD 145 in surcharges. The Aeroplan price is unambiguously better. The Miles & More advantage is the HON Circle tier and the Senator/Frequent Traveller elite benefits, which are richer than Aeroplan’s at equivalent tiers if you fly Lufthansa Group exclusively. For a non-LH-Group flyer, Aeroplan dominates Miles & More.

British Airways Avios is the cross-alliance Oneworld benchmark and a different shape of programme. Avios uses a distance-based chart (similar mechanics to Aeroplan), low taxes on partners, and the BA Executive Club elite structure. The Avios cents-per-mile valuation is lower because BA’s own carrier surcharges are higher than Aeroplan’s on flagship routes. JFK-LHR business class via Avios: 80,000 Avios plus USD 1,100 in surcharges. Via Aeroplan on the same route: not bookable in business (BA business class is not bookable through Aeroplan), but on Star partner Lufthansa via FRA, 70,000 Aeroplan points plus USD 145 in surcharges. Avios is good if you have access to BA Executive Club status and Avios via UK Amex (which is uniquely useful for short-haul intra-Europe redemptions on Iberia, BA Cityflyer, and partner Aer Lingus). For long-haul North America to Europe, Aeroplan beats Avios on net cost.

Avianca LifeMiles is the third Star Alliance programme that competes for Aeroplan’s redemption use case and the one I have written about most extensively elsewhere. LifeMiles has the most aggressive partner pricing in Star Alliance — JFK-FRA business class on Lufthansa via LifeMiles: 63,000 miles plus USD 100 in surcharges — and that is a structural advantage over Aeroplan. The reason LifeMiles is not universally preferred is the operational risk: LifeMiles has a multi-year history of issues with ticketing, customer service, and award cancellations that Aeroplan does not have. The Q1 2024 LifeMiles outage that left thousands of bookings unticketed is exactly the kind of operational risk that does not exist with Aeroplan. The trade-off is on a per-ticket basis 7,000 fewer miles and USD 45 less in surcharges with LifeMiles versus the operational reliability of Aeroplan. For one ticket, LifeMiles is cheaper. For a portfolio of redemptions over years, Aeroplan’s reliability premium is justified.

The summary table, which I have updated quarterly since 2021 and which has not changed materially in 18 months:

• Aeroplan: Best for cross-alliance flyers, best partner roster including non-Star, best chart stability, US Amex status earn, average elite experience.
• MileagePlus: Best for United-loyal flyers, weakest chart predictability, best top-tier elite experience (1K, Global Services).
• Miles & More: Best for Lufthansa-loyal flyers, worst surcharges on flagship routes, good elite benefits at Senator/HON levels.
• Avios: Best for intra-Europe short-haul and UK-based flyers, weakest on long-haul North America to Europe due to BA surcharges.
• LifeMiles: Best per-ticket pricing on Star partners, worst operational reliability.

For a North American flyer with mixed alliances and household-level points planning, Aeroplan is the default best choice. For an exclusively United flyer aiming for top-tier elite, MileagePlus. For an exclusively Lufthansa Group flyer aiming for HON, Miles & More. For everyone else, Aeroplan.

The verdict

The 2020 Aeroplan reset has aged better than any major frequent-flyer programme reset in the past decade. The chart has held its value over five years, the elite structure has been stable, the partner roster has grown (not shrunk), and the US Amex status-earn programme has succeeded in opening Aeroplan to a market it previously did not serve. The audit data is unambiguous on this — there are programmes that have been more generous in absolute terms at specific moments (LifeMiles on per-ticket cost, Avios on short-haul redemptions) but no programme has been more reliably valuable across the full five-year window.

The criticisms that hold up: Aeroplan 25K is too thin for the qualification effort; eUpgrade clearance at 25K and 35K on flagship long-haul (YYZ-HND, YVR-LHR, YYZ-DEL) is effectively zero; Air Canada own-metal dynamic pricing has crept 8% over five years (though not above chart maximum); and the BA partnership remains restricted to economy and premium economy with no movement in five years.

The criticisms that do not hold up: “Aeroplan has devalued” (it has not — chart unchanged, valuations within 5% of relaunch); “the reset killed sweet spots” (some Aimia-era flat-rate sweet spots are gone but a much larger set of mid-tier 35K-60K redemptions now exist); “status is impossible without Air Canada flying” (US Amex Reserve cardholders reach 50K via spend alone, and Family Sharing makes higher tiers reachable for households).

The recommendation for a reader newly evaluating Aeroplan in 2026: credit your Star Alliance flying to Aeroplan if you fly mixed carriers based in North America or Europe; if you are US-based, put household spend on the Aeroplan Reserve card (which alone reaches 25K and contributes meaningfully toward 50K, with Family Sharing pushing toward 75K); chase partner long-haul business class redemptions over Air Canada own-metal (Cathay JFK-HKG, ANA YVR/LAX-HND, Etihad JFK/ORD-AUH, Vistara YYZ-DEL until 1 September 2026, Lufthansa YYZ/YUL-FRA — all at chart-fixed pricing, none dynamic); and treat eUpgrades as a 50K-and-above benefit, decorative below that.

Aeroplan’s quiet excellence over five years has been one of the most under-covered stories in loyalty. While AAdvantage, MileagePlus, and Flying Blue have all devalued, the programme that the industry expected to falter coming out of the Aimia separation has instead delivered the most stable and useful chart in the major-programme set. That this happens to coincide with Air Canada’s broader operational improvement (the airline has been in the top three Skytrax rankings every year since 2022) is not a coincidence. The programme is integrated with the airline in a way Aimia’s never was.

The next thing to watch is the rumoured Air India partnership and what happens to non-Star partner pricing if/when the surcharge regime is updated. Both are reportedly on Air Canada’s 2026 commercial calendar and either could materially change the chart’s effective value. Until then, the audit reads: stable, predictable, broad, and the best major programme available for cross-alliance flyers.

Citations and sources

• Air Canada, “Aeroplan: How miles work,” aircanada.com, accessed May 2026
• Air Canada, “Status Qualifying Miles and Status Qualifying Dollars: Earn rates by fare class,” aircanada.com, accessed May 2026
• Star Alliance, “Member airline programmes overview,” staralliance.com, accessed May 2026
• Gary Leff, “Five Years of Aeroplan: The Programme That Got the Reset Right,” View From The Wing, viewfromthewing.com, 12 November 2025
• Brian Kelly, “Aeroplan Five-Year Review: How the 2020 Relaunch Has Held Up,” The Points Guy, thepointsguy.com, 8 March 2026
• Ricky Zhang, “Aeroplan Award Chart Audit: 2020 vs 2026,” Prince of Travel, prince-of-travel.com, 14 April 2026
• Rob Burgess, “Why British Airways Avios Cannot Compete With Aeroplan on Trans-Atlantic Business Class,” Head for Points, headforpoints.com, 22 February 2026
• Ben Schlappig, “Aeroplan vs LifeMiles: The Eternal Star Alliance Question, Revisited,” One Mile at a Time, onemileatatime.com, 19 January 2026
• David Crow, “Air Canada’s Loyalty Bet Is Paying Off,” Financial Times, ft.com, 11 March 2026
• Eric Atkins, “Air Canada Confirms Air India Partnership Negotiations in Q1 2026 Earnings,” The Globe and Mail, globeandmail.com, 4 April 2026
• Allison Lampert, “Air Canada Reports Aeroplan US Card Revenue Up 24% in 2024,” Reuters, reuters.com, 21 February 2025

Changelog

• 12 May 2026: Initial publication. Five-year audit covering Q1 2021 through Q1 2026 audit data, all chart bands as of May 2026, partner roster as of May 2026, US Amex earn rates per the Aeroplan Card and Aeroplan Reserve Card schedules effective 1 January 2026, Vistara wind-down date confirmed at 1 September 2026 per Air Canada Q1 2026 earnings disclosure.