Aeroplan Elite Status: Double Your Priority Rewards!

Earlier this year, Aeroplan had announced a way to extend your elite status through 2023 by earning 30,000 Aeroplan points through an Aeroplan co-branded credit card.

As we enter the fall, Aeroplan has further sweetened the deal by offering one bonus Priority Reward for every Priority Reward you earn until December 31, 2022.

Earn One, Get One Priority Rewards

The premise is simple: Aeroplan will double the number of Priority Rewards you earn through your flying activity between July 1 and December 31, 2022. 

As a refresher, Priority Rewards are earned one of two ways: earning Status Qualifying Dollars (SQD) or spending on the Chase Aeroplan Card. Priority Rewards are issued at the following SQD thresholds:

• 4,000
• 7,000
• 10,000
• 15,000
• Every 5,000 thereafter, up to a maximum of 50,000 SQD and a total of 11 Priority Rewards

The only way to earn SQD is by actually flying with Air Canada. Other than when Air Canada runs Double SQD promotions or something of that nature, there’s no other way to earn SQD.

Meanwhile, Priority Rewards are also issued at the following Chase Aeroplan Card spending thresholds (USD):

• $100,000
• $250,000
• $500,000
• $750,000

With this promotion, you can think of each threshold as earning two Priority Rewards instead of one. Note that this isn’t the same as halving the requirements, as no Priority Rewards will be issued at 2,000 SQD, for example.

Between both methods, it’s possible to earn a total of 15 Priority Rewards every year; if you manage to earn all 15 between July and December this year, you’ll have accrued 30 Priority Rewards.

How to Use Priority Rewards

Each Priority Reward voucher entitles the Aeroplan member to a 50% discount on the number of points required for an eligible itinerary for one passenger, and must be booked out of the member’s account.

The “eligible itinerary” will depend on the Aeroplan member’s status at the time of earning the Priority Reward.

When running a search on the Air Canada website, you’ll see the option to “Choose Priority Rewards” at the top of the search results if your chosen origin-destination pair falls within the set of flights for which your Priority Rewards are eligible.

Depending on your Aeroplan status, the best ways to maximize your Priority Rewards are as follows:

• Aeroplan 25K and 35K members: Flights to Hawaii in Economy Latitude and utilizing the “Latitude Attitude” strategy to apply your eUpgrades and confirm business class immediately
• Aeroplan 50K members: Flights to Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean and booking widebody aircraft with a Premium Economy cabin on domestic segments, with the potential to apply eUpgrades as well
• Aeroplan 75K members: Flights across the Pacific or Atlantic oceans on Air Canada Premium Economy class, with an eUpgrade to business class
• Aeroplan Super Elite members: A business class flight redemption around the world mixing and matching airlines and destinations to your heart’s desire

Whether or not this promotion is worth pursuing via SQD or Chase Aeroplan Card spend will depend on your Air Canada travel activity year-to-date, as well as the Aeroplan status you already have, since Priority Rewards are more powerful the higher your status.

For current Aeroplan 25K and 35K members, I doubt it’s worth pursuing the SQD spend requirements solely for the purpose of receiving 50% off round-trip economy flights within North America, but it’s something you may want to pursue if you are already on the cusp of qualifying for the next Priority Reward.

But if you’re sitting at, say, 5,000 SQD for the year and can earn Aeroplan 50K status by crossing 6,000 SQD followed by a set of two Priority Rewards at 7,000 SQD, then the offer gets quite interesting.

The cumulative rewards of Aeroplan 50K benefits, Star Alliance Gold status, and a 50% discount on premium economy flights within North America on two tickets could well be worth the incremental $2,000 of spending towards Air Canada.

Remember that the Double SQD promotion encompasses Air Canada flights to Europe through September 30, 2022. If you plan a flight over the next two weeks before this promotion ends, you’ll effectively be earning Priority Rewards at four times the usual rates!

And if you’re a Super Elite member who can take advantage of a 50% discount on the points required for international business class, then even a single Priority Reward has an incredibly high value, so it would definitely be worth considering a few mileage runs to reach the next threshold. 

Conclusion

In addition to this year’s spend-based status extension, Aeroplan will double every Priority Reward earned by elite members between July 1 and December 31, 2022. 

The higher your Aeroplan status, the more potential for your Priority Reward vouchers, as Super Elite members can receive 50% off international business class flights.

For elite members of all other tiers, using Priority Reward vouchers in conjunction with eUpgrades is also effectively 50% off business class flights for the region in which their Priority Rewards are eligible.