Air Canada’s Aeroplan Points are among the most valuable frequent flyer program currencies out there.

You can redeem Aeroplan Points to fly with 48 different airlines. These include Emirates, Virgin Australia, the entire Star Alliance network and multiple niche carriers like Air Mauritius. Plus, Aeroplan has very competitive reward flight pricing with no fuel or carrier surcharges – even with Emirates!

Booking reward flights on the Air Canada website is easy, and you can even add a stopover to most itineraries for just 5,000 points. So, it’s not hard to see why Aeroplan is such a popular loyalty program!

Unfortunately for us, it’s not that easy to earn Aeroplan Points in Australia. But it’s not impossible.

You can of course earn Aeroplan Points by flying with Air Canada and its partner airlines, by shopping with Aeroplan’s program partners or even by buying them.

Although there’s no co-branded Aeroplan credit card in Australia, you can also transfer points earned through several Australian credit cards into Air Canada’s frequent flyer program. Plus, PayRewards points are transferrable to Aeroplan.

How to earn Aeroplan Points with Australian credit cards

Admittedly, earning Aeroplan Points with Australian credit cards is not as easy as earning Qantas points, Velocity points or Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles. Nonetheless, there are several ways you can do it.

The easiest way is with a credit card that earns Star Alliance Rewards or CommBank Awards points. You can transfer points directly from either of these credit card reward programs into Air Canada Aeroplan. These are the transfer rates:

Earning Aeroplan Points via Amex Membership Rewards

There is also a roundabout way to earn Aeroplan Points with an American Express credit card. In Australia, you can’t directly transfer Amex Membership Rewards points to Aeroplan. But you can transfer Membership Rewards points to Marriott Bonvoy at a 3:2 rate.

You could then transfer your Marriott Bonvoy points to Aeroplan at a 3:1 rate. Plus, for every 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points you transfer you’ll get 25% bonus Aeroplan Points.

Using this method, you could effectively convert 90,000 Amex Membership Rewards Points into 25,000 Aeroplan Points. That’s a transfer rate of 3.6:1 from Amex to Aeroplan.

From time to time, Marriott may offer bonus points on transfers from Amex. Keep an eye out for these special promotions as they increase the value proposition substantially.

Best Australian credit cards for earning Aeroplan Points

If you’d like to earn points from your credit card spend that you’ll have the option of converting into Aeroplan Points, here are the best options in Australia in 2024.

For easier comparisons, we’ve listed the equivalent amount of Aeroplan Points you would earn per $1 spent on everyday purchases after converting the credit card reward points into Aeroplan Points.

Note: If you’re viewing this article on a smartphone, the tables below may look better if you rotate your device horizontally.

Card	Loyalty program pathway	Fee	Aeroplan Points earned per $1	More information
HSBC Star Alliance	Star Alliance Rewards → Aeroplan	$450/year ($0 in first year)	0.8 (up to $3,000/month, then 0.4 thereafter)
Amex Platinum	Amex Membership Rewards → Marriott Bonvoy → Aeroplan	$1,450/year	0.625 (uncapped)
Amex Explorer	Amex Membership Rewards → Marriott Bonvoy → Aeroplan	$395/year	0.55 (uncapped)
Amex Platinum Edge	Amex Membership Rewards → Marriott Bonvoy → Aeroplan	$195/year ($0 in first year)	0.28 (uncapped)
CommBank Ultimate Awards	CommBank Awards → Aeroplan	$0-35/month	0.25 (up to $10,000/month, then 0.125 thereafter)
CommBank Smart Awards	CommBank Awards → Aeroplan	$0-19/month	0.25 (up to $10,000/month, then 0.125 thereafter)

Although the everyday earn rates on the CommBank Awards cards are fairly low, you do get triple points when using the Ultimate Awards card for international transactions. This card also gives double points at major Australian supermarkets, department stores, petrol stations and on dining. Both the Ultimate Awards and Smart Awards cards have no international transaction fees as well.

The Amex Platinum Edge card gives triple points at major supermarkets and petrol stations in Australia.

Get 50,000 bonus Aeroplan Points

As an added bonus of the HSBC Star Alliance credit card, you’ll receive a year of complimentary Star Alliance Gold status when you apply and spend at least $4,000 on the card within 90 days!

You can choose to claim your Star Alliance Gold status with any of the seven airlines that participate in the Star Alliance Rewards program, including Air Canada.

Plus, if you apply by 3 June 2024, select Air Canada as your status airline and meet the minimum spend criteria, you’ll also receive 50,000 bonus Aeroplan Points! With no annual fee payable in the first year, this is a great deal.

50,000 Aeroplan Points is more than enough to fly Business Class from Australia to many cities in Asia. For example, you could fly Thai Airways Business Class from Melbourne to Bangkok for 45,000 Aeroplan Points + CAD117 (~AU$133).

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.