Air Canada Aeroplan devalues award charts from June 2026

Air Canada Aeroplan might not be a household name in this part of the world, but it can be an incredibly useful programme nonetheless, with sweet spots for travel to Australia, Europe and the USA, no fuel surcharges, cheap infant tickets, reasonably priced stopovers, and a wide variety of redemption partners. 

Unfortunately, the programme has just announced a devaluation of its award charts, which takes effect from Monday, 1 June 2026. This will increase award costs from Singapore by up to 25%, though to be fair, some awards will also be decreasing in price. 

For what it’s worth, I can at least appreciate that Aeroplan makes no attempt to gaslight its members, saying “we don’t take increases lightly, but they’re sometimes necessary as our underlying costs rise”.  I can think of many other programmes which would have said “we devalued our award charts because our customers asked us to”!

Aeroplan award chart adjustments

Aeroplan’s award chart divides the world into four zones: North America, South America, Atlantic and Pacific (where Singapore is located). Within each segment, award prices depend on the distance flown. 

Here are the current and revised Aeroplan award charts:

• Award chart (valid till 31 May 2026)
• Award chart (valid from 1 June 2026)

I’m not going to bother reproducing the entire chart, and instead focus on the routings that will be of most interest to Singapore-based members, namely:

• Within the Pacific zone
• Between the Pacific and Atlantic zone
• Between the Pacific and North America zone
• Between the Pacific and South America zone

Before we look at the changes in prices, do remember that Aeroplan has two types of pricing:

1. For Air Canada, United Airlines, Emirates, Flydubai, Etihad Airways, Canadian North, Calm Air, Bearskin Airlines and Provincial Airlines
2. For all other partners

Again, I’m only going to focus on the changes to Category (2), because Category (1) is dynamically priced, and rarely offers good value anyway. Category (2) will be of the most interest to someone based in Singapore, as it includes Air China, ANA, EVA Air, THAI, and Singapore Airlines.

Within Pacific

Award costs for travel within the Pacific zone are increasing by up to 21%.

The key sweet spot here is travel between Singapore and Australia, Japan, and South Korea, which falls into the 2,001 to 5,000 miles band. Business Class awards currently cost 45,000 points, but will be increasing to 52,500 points. 

Between Pacific and Atlantic

Award costs for travel between the Pacific and Atlantic zones are increasing by up to 25%.

This includes travel between Singapore and Europe/Africa, which mostly falls into the 5,001 to 7,000 miles band. Business Class awards currently cost 80,000 points, but will be increasing to 92,500 points. 

Between Pacific and North America

Award costs for travel between the Pacific and North America zones are increasing by up to 17%.

This includes travel between Singapore and Canada/USA, which mostly falls into the 7,501 to 11,000 miles band. Business Class awards currently cost 87,500 points, but will be increasing to 102,500 points. 

Between Pacific and South America

There is no change to the cost of awards between the Pacific and South America zones. 

If your routing is able to sneak below the 11,000 mile mark (e.g. Singapore to Sao Paulo via Addis Ababa, on Ethiopian Airlines), then it could actually be pretty good value at 90,000 points in Business Class.

How bad is this devaluation?

Following these changes, here’s how much award redemptions on Aeroplan will cost, compared to KrisFlyer.

It’s important to highlight that 1:1 comparisons are inherently flawed, a bit like saying: this item costs S$100 in Singapore and US$95 in the USA, so it’s cheaper to buy it in the USA.

Rather, we need to factor in the relative difficulty of earning Aeroplan points in Singapore, compared to KrisFlyer miles, and when we do, Aeroplan’s advantage mostly evaporates. For example, where Business Class travel between Singapore and the USA is concerned, it’s certainly easier to earn 117,000 KrisFlyer miles than 102,500 Aeroplan points.

Of course, there are qualitative differences between the two programmes too. Aeroplan absorbs fuel surcharges while KrisFlyer passes them on, so if you were redeeming miles for travel on a partner like Lufthansa or Turkish, then Aeroplan might be the better option.

Also, Aeroplan tends to have better award availability than KrisFlyer— I’ve often seen Singapore Airlines awards available for redemption via Aeroplan, when they’re waitlisted or Advantage/Access only through KrisFlyer.

Earning Aeroplan points in Singapore

There are three main ways of earning Aeroplan points in Singapore.

• Buy Aeroplan points when they go on sale
• Transfer HSBC points
• Transfer HeyMax points

Each of these has its own upsides and downsides. 

Buying Aeroplan points is the easiest way of accumulating a critical mass, but all things equal, it’s usually better to earn miles as a by-product of spending, rather than paying for them out of pocket (1.74 cents per point during a 100% bonus sale).

HSBC points can be transferred to Aeroplan, but the conversion ratio is a relatively poor 35,000 points = 10,000 miles, compared to 25,000 points = 10,000 miles for other partners like British Airways, Cathay Pacific and EVA Air. 

HeyMax Max Miles can be converted to Aeroplan on a 1:1 ratio, but you’d usually get better value converting them to hotel points with Accor Live Limitless (3 cents per mile) or World of Hyatt instead.

Conclusion

Air Canada Aeroplan will devalue its award charts from 1 June 2026, which will see Business Class awards from Singapore increasing by up to 25%.

It’s a tough one to swallow, because Aeroplan has so many qualitative advantages over other programmes — if you’re a parent, I’m sure you’d prefer to pay a flat 2,500 points for your infant to accompany you in First Class, rather than 10% of the commercial fare!

So I’m not about to abandon Aeroplan altogether, but it’s certainly going to impact the way I view points sales, as well as where I decide to send my Max Miles.