Aeroplan Devaluation 2026

With rising fuel costs we've seen many airline programs increasing their fuel surcharges, both for cash tickets and for rewards flights. To Asia for example, Cathay has increased their surcharges twice in the last month with some notice, JAL and ANA are going to increase theirs on the first of May. To Europe, Air France, KLM, and Virgin have upped their surcharges without warning. But what about programs that don't typically pass along surcharges like Aeroplan? Up till now there hasn't been any change, but it looks like something is coming soon. Edit: shortly after publication these changes were confirmed

Aeroplan's Redemption Chart Regions - Changes soon?

Referrals and Disclaimers at the bottom.

Aeroplan Reward Chart

Aeroplan is one of the few modern western rewards programs that still publishes a transparent reward chart. It divides the world into regions, then flights between those regions by distance. It further distinguishes between Air Canada and Select Partners vs. all other partners.

Aeroplan Reward Chart for NA to Atlantic as of February Update

Zooming in on this representative chart, we see that while AC/Select partners can charge almost any amount with optimistic "starting at" and still questionable "median" prices, "all other partners" have fixed pricing based on distance. Flights under 4000mi, such as YUL-ZRH on Swiss for example will price at 60k points, but those 4001-6000mi, such as YYZ-WAW on LOT Polish will be 70k.

This region and distance based approach creates some strategy for advanced redeemers who may consider tweaking their arrival/departure airports to drop to a much cheaper distance band - or conversely adding another leg to go further for nothing extra (or just 5k extra if a stopover is used). Focusing on Business class partner pricing NA to Atlantic

0-4000	60k
4001-6000	70k
6001-8000	90k
8001+	110k

For me this means my ideal Aeroplan flight to Europe is close to 6000mi to maximize the overnight sleep portion but I'm strongly incentivized to avoid a 6001mi flight as the price jumps ~29%. Some would go through the effort to get under 4k mi to save 10k points but for me it was seldom worth it starting in YYZ.

This flight chart has been pretty stable, with the primary change being a year ago when several partners became "select partners" giving them permission to increase/vary their charges. Most notable was United, which seemed to move to a higher but still fixed price scheme not represented in the chart. For example intra NA 501-1500mi on "other partners" should be 10k, and on AC/select it should be "starting at 10k, median 13.7k", but UA prices this at 15k consistently. There is a pricing anomaly, however, that has peristed since this change that we've talked about in our advanced sessions where you can combine airlines to get UA pricing back down to the partner price (ie. 10k for this distance band).

Since that change in early 2025, the only updates I've see have been changes in the reported median pricing for AC's own flights. I appreciate their attempts at transparency here, but the typical experience of someone looking for rewards will often find that ACs own prices are dramatically above the median so I don't find this information helpful.

Changes to the Chart Coming Soon

Aeroplan only has a couple of options when it comes to addressing rising costs. One would be to break their longstanding approach of not passing along fuel surcharges, and the other is to change the pricing in their chart. In my opinion, the latter is preferrable for those of us who can generate points easily via Chexy paying taxes.

It looks like today we just got a sneak look at what those changes will be.

While the official link https://www.aircanada.com/content/dam/aircanada/loyalty-content/documents/flight-rewards-chart-en.pdf shows the 2026-02 chart we are used to, there is another link that is active ending in "flight-rewards-chart-june2026-en.pdf". Confusingly, despite the link saying June, the chart displays 2026-04. Edit: Since publication these changes have been confirmed for June 1st.

Aeroplan has given us some notice, so be sure to use this month to book at old prices.

What Changed

So let's go by region and compare the charts, highlighting what changed and decide how big/small of a deal this is. The short version for most Canadian reward travellers is an increase to the 70k business transatlantic and 87.5k business transpacific bands.

Jump Ahead

Intra North America NA to Atlantic

NA to Pacific

Intra Atlantic

Intra Pacific

Atlantic to Pacific

NA to SA, Intra SA, SA-Atl, and SA-Pac

Conclusion

Intra North America

This is a bit of an odd chart as the partner options in North America are essentially non-existant (outside of the previously mentioned United pricing anomaly), a notable exception is 35k business YYZ-BOG-AUA with Avianca. In any event, the partner pricing is unchanged, same with the starting at prices for AC/Select partners. So in keeping with the past year of updates, this is just a median price update. Median prices are meant to be descriptive not prescriptive, so this is not reflective of a price change persay, just recent dynamic pricing patterns.

NA to Atlantic

Here we see the first partner changes, with one small decrease and a couple increases

NA-ATL Econ	Old Price	New Price	Change
0-4000mi	35k	32.5k	-7.1%
4001-6000	40k	42.5k	+6.3%
6001-8000	55k	60k	+9.1%
8001+	70k	75k	+7.1%

NA-Atl Biz	Old Price	New Price	Change
0-4000mi	60k	60k	0%
4001-6000	70k	75k	+7.1%
6001-8000	90k	90k	0%
8001+	110k	110k	0%

NA-Atl First	Old Price	New Price	Change
0-4000mi	90k	90k	0%
4001-6000	100k	120k	+20%
6001-8000	130k	150k	+15.4%
8001+	140k	165k	+17.9%

Theres several important things to consider when looking at these changes.

First is the change from previous years. For economy, we see a slight drop in the shortest distance, but otherwise across the board increases of 6-9% range. Business was largely unscathed with a single band incrfeasing 7.1%. First class was particularly impacted with large 15-20% increases to all except at its shortest band. As an aside, NA-Atlantic First is primarily available with Lufthansa and Air India, as a result BOS-FRA is one of the few untouched at 3670mi (sub 4k mi is still 90k pts).

Second is to look at is how this changes the breakpoints - how much you're hurt or benefited by going up or down a distance band. For economy, the incentive to drop to the lowest distance band is stronger than ever, what used to save you 14% now saves you 30%.

For Business, instead of being 60/70/90/110, it's now 60/75/90/110. My favourite Aeroplan redemption for Europe has shifted into more of a midpoint pricing at 75k, the benefit of dropping down to the shorter band used to be saving ~15%, but now it is saving 25%, this is much more meaningful for larger groups. But on the other side, bumping into the third band used to cause a massive ~29% price increase, and now it is 20%. Overall this seems more balanced and allows them to charge more for what are likely the most common Europe redemptions from yyz, yyc and yvr. Those who live in yul and yhz can rejoice, and everyone else can consider if its now worth it to reposition a bit to the east. The price change incentivizes targeting the shorter NA-EU distance band and reduces the relative penalty of going furher.

For first class the breakpoint changes are particularly dramatic, it used to only be 11% more for a 4001-6000mi flight versus sub 4000mi, now it is 33% more. I imagine this will make the BOS route more popular than ever.

NA to Pacific

NA-Pacific Econ	Old Price	New Price	Change
0-5000mi	35k	32.5k	-7.1%
5001-7500	50k	50k	0%
7501-11000	60k	65k	+8.3%
11001+	75k	70k	-6.7%

NA-Pacific Biz	Old Price	New Price	Change
0-5000mi	55k	55k	0%
5001-7500	75k	75k	0%
7501-11000	87.5k	102.5k	+17.1%
11001+	115k	115k	0%

NA-Pacific First	Old Price	New Price	Change
0-5000mi	90k	90k	0%
5001-7500	110k	120k	+9.1%
7501-11000	130k	140k	+7.7%
11001+	150k	150k	+0%

Again first looking at the change from previous, economy sees a couple decreases, the shortest distance band (which covers YVR-Tokyo with ANA) saw a small drop which is a pleasant surprise. Business 3rd distance band is the most hurt, this will impact people primarily who have connecting itineraries deeper into Asia, with flights involving SIN being most notable as even LAX-SIN is 8770 mi. First class on this route is typically only from ANA and is incredibly competitive to book. I don't think the extra 10k points will meaningfully change the demand vs supply here. Second looking at breakpoints, the most notable change is in business. Prior to this change, the 7500mi threshold used to represent a +16%/-14% change, now it is at +37%/-27% breakpoint. Now more than ever you should try to keep your NA-Pacific itineraries under 7500mi if possible. But on the other hand the 11000mi threshold is much less meaningful, it used to mean a +/- of 30k points, now its just 12.5k. Its no longer as beneficial to try to squeeze under 11k mi on a NA-Pac itinerary.

Intra Atlantic

Intra Atl Econ	Old Price	New Price	Change
0-1000mi	7.5	7.5	0%
1001-2000	12.5	15	+20%
2001-4000	25	30	+20%
4001-6000	35.5	42.5	+19.7%
6001+	50	50	0%

Intra Atl Biz	Old Price	New Price	Change
0-1000mi	15	12.5	-16.7%
1001-2000	25	22.5	-10%
2001-4000	45	40	-11.1%
4001-6000	60	70	+17.7%
6001+	80	90	+12.5%

Intra Atl First	Old Price	New Price	Change
0-1000mi	25	25	0%
1001-2000	40	40	0%
2001-4000	65	75	+15.4%
4001-6000	90	100	+11.1%
6001+	130	130	0%

For me the big story here is that with large relative increases to economy repositioning flights in europe, and business price decreases, the upgrade gap has shrunk significantly at the 2nd and 3rd distance band. What used to be a 12.5k and 20k upgrade is now a 7.5k and 10k upgrade respectively. This makes it much more viable to instead book business for the sake of luggage and lounge access on these intra pacific flights.

Intra Pacific

Intra Pac Econ	Old Price	New Price	Change
0-1000mi	8	8	0%
1001-2000	12.5	15	+20%
2001-5000	25	30	+20%
5001-7000	37.5	35	-6.7%
7001+	55	50	-9.1%

Intra Pac Biz	Old Price	New Price	Change
0-1000mi	20	20	0%
1001-2000	30	30	0%
2001-5000	45	52.5	+16.7%
5001-7000	60	72.5	+20.8%
7001+	90	85	-5.6%

No changes to First pricing here

I don't have as much experience with intra pacific flights to quickly come up with examples of flights in each band, but some of these increases are quite large, and the decreases are only for longhaul economy (which I try to avoid!) and quite long haul business.

Atlantic to Pacific

Atl-Pac Econ	Old Price	New Price	Change
0-2500mi	25	25	0%
2501-5000	40	40	0%
5001-7000	50	60	+20%
7001+	65	75	+15.4%

Atl-Pac Biz	Old Price	New Price	Change
0-2500mi	40	47.5	+18.8%
2501-5000	60	75	+25%
5001-7000	80	92.5	+15.6%
7001+	110	120	+9.1%

Atl-Pac First	Old Price	New Price	Change
0-2500mi	50	55	+10%
2501-5000	80	95	+18.8%
5001-7000	100	120	+20%
7001+	140	150	+7.1%

It appears as though the Atlantic/Pacific chart is the hardest hit with widespread changes up to 25% increase, only the shortest haul economy spared, and no decreases at all. This certainly makes it more important than ever to consider flying NA-Pac with an Atlantic stopover instead of flying separate NA-Atl and Atl-Pac.

NA to SA, Intra SA, SA-Atl, and SA-Pac

No changes

Conclusion

It looks like Aeroplan is changing their public reward chart. These changes are not yet live but have been confirmed for June 1st. Whether or not this is due to increasing fuel surcharges is unknowable, and overall the changes to common routes are relatively small. The most notable changes for Canadians are to the 70k atlantic business and 87.5k pacific business bands. Big changes with flights between the Atlantic and Pacific regions make these itineraries less appealing, but they were not frequented by my readers. Also, while large changes were seen for some First class routes, the availability of these flights is quite limited to begin with and the value still remains very strong versus cash.

It's not all doom and gloom, with decreased pricing on multiple economy routes and intra atlantic business. Better still, there is no indication as of yet of changes in Aeroplan's approach to partner surcharges, which means that aeroplan cards and amex cards remain appealing, as does the use of Chexy for taxes. I prefer these small increases in points with moderate warning over Air France and KLM increasing their surcharges dramatically overnight. Would you rather pay 75k + $100 via AP or 60k + $400 with AF/KLM?

Referrals

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Disclaimer

This should not be taken as financial advice and details are subject to change. I have made good intentioned efforts to be accurate but ultimately consult card terms and conditions