The Best Short-Haul Aeroplan Sweet Spots

As a distance-based program, Aeroplan charges fewer points for flight redemptions that cover a shorter distance.

If you can strategically plan your flights to remain within the first few distance bands for travel within one of Aeroplan’s geographic zones, there are plenty of sweet spots to be found.

As a reminder, the Aeroplan Flight Reward Chart divides the world into four zones: North America, South America, Atlantic, and Pacific. The Atlantic zone covers Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent, and the Pacific zone covers most of East Asia and Oceania.

Let’s take a look at sweet spots for short-haul travel with Aeroplan within each of the four geographic zones. 

Within North America

The North American zone naturally includes all of North America, including Hawaii, Alaska, Central America, and the Caribbean islands. There are four distance bands for travel within this zone.

For brevity, let’s assume the lower end of the dynamic range for flights with Air Canada and the fixed cost in points for redemptions with partner airlines. 

For each hub city in the below examples, we’ll map out the first two distance bands using Great Circle Mapper to visualize which airports may fall within those ranges on direct flights. 

For the below maps, the innermost band represents the first distance tier (0–500 miles), the next band represents the second distance tier (501–1,500 miles), and so on.

1. Vancouver

For Vancouver-based travellers, flying out to Sandspit (YZP) in majestic Haida Gwaii remains within the first tier at 468 miles. This also includes flights via Vancouver from Nanaimo (YCD), but connecting flights from anywhere else pushes the distance to over 500 miles.

Flights to Calgary from Vancouver, Nanaimo, and Victoria all fall within the 500-mile threshold, too. South of the border, both Portland and Seattle are in the first distance band, making a quick weekend trip easily at your fingertips.

In theory, the above destinations should price out at 6,000–10,000 Aeroplan points with Air Canada. Expect this to be the case for most routes, with the exception of flights to Haida Gwaii, which appear to be consistently priced around 20,000 points throughout the year.

In the second tier, which should price at 10,000 or 20,000 Aeroplan points in economy or business class, you’ll find Los Angeles, San Francisco, Palm Springs, Phoenix, Denver, Saskatoon,…