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Aeroplan stopovers are an incredible way to get even more from an already compelling airline loyalty program.
By using the stopover feature, you’re able to add multiple destinations to your award flight itinerary for as little as 5,000 Aeroplan points.
In this article, we’ll explain how to book a stopover on your next Aeroplan award flight and what rules you need to be aware of to get the most from this feature.
Aeroplan stopovers are a feature of Air Canada’s Aeroplan loyalty program that let you add a stopover to your eligible flight itinerary for only 5,000 Aeroplan points.
This means that you can theoretically get a trip to two or more destinations for the price of one (plus a few extra points).
Before we really get into it, let’s confirm a couple definitions to make sure we’re all on the same page:
Aeroplan’s stopover feature offers you the chance to add a second destination to your eligible award flight itinerary for only 5,000 Aeroplan points.
These award flights can be booked online through Aeroplan’s booking portal or by calling Aeroplan customer service. What’s really compelling about the Aeroplan stopover feature is that you’re able to create unique award itineraries with Air Canada and both its Star Alliance partners and non-Star Alliance partners.
Depending on what type of trip you hope to take, you can keep it fairly simple by adding a single stopover in a destination that’s logically between your departure and arrival airports, or you can also get creative and build a complicated itinerary that takes you further afar and may even involve multiple layovers.
Regardless of how simple or complicated you choose to make your itinerary, there are a number of rules and limitations that you need to keep in mind when booking an Aeroplan stopover, so let’s take a look at these to understand how this feature works and how you can use it to book an incredible trip.
Here are some of the key rules and limitations regarding Aeroplan stopovers:
Booking an Aeroplan stopover can be done easily by following these steps:
If the itinerary that you’ve searched follows all the stopover rules, you should get search results that show the cost in Aeroplan points, which will be 5,000 points higher than if you’d booked the same route without the stopover.
Also, keep in mind that in order to make a stopover work, you may need to do some research to confirm award flight availability, route distance, and other details in relation to the stopover rules in order to find and book the itinerary you want.
Now that we have a bit of an understanding of what is and isn’t permitted when booking an Aeroplan award itinerary with a stopover, let’s dig in to a few examples to see this in action.
Aeroplan award flight pricing is based on one-way travel between four regions (North America, South America, Atlantic, and Pacific) and each region has its own awards chart.
Each chart gives the cost in Aeroplan points based on the distance traveled between North America and the other regions. For example, here is Aeroplan’s North America and Pacific zones award chart:
To figure out the cost of your desired itinerary, you need to know the distance of the all your flights to determine which band on the chart it falls under.
To best illustrate what’s possible with the Aeroplan stopover feature, let’s see a couple real examples.
In our first example, we’re booking a flight from Washington (IAD) to Rome (FCO) with a 5-day stopover in Lisbon (LIS).
This partner airline award itinerary would normally cost 40,000 Aeroplan points, and with the extra 5,000-point stopover, the total comes to 45,000 points + $115 (CAD) in taxes and fees to visit two beautiful cities.
Of course, since Aeroplan award flights are priced as one-way itineraries, you could also choose to continue your journey onward from Rome by train to another city and then plan a similar award flight itinerary for your way home. This would give you multiple European cities for the cost of two one-way award flights plus 10,000 Aeroplan points.
Our second example itinerary involves flying from San Francisco (SFO) to Bangkok (BKK) with a 7-day stopover in Tokyo (NRT), and then returning from Bangkok to San Francisco with a 3-day stopover in Singapore (SIN).
Using the Aeroplan stopover feature, you could book economy flights to visit Bangkok, Tokyo, and Singapore, all for only 130,000 Aeroplan points plus $179 (CAD) in taxes and fees.
With the Aeroplan stopover feature, if you were so inclined, you could even build yourself a mini-round-the-world trip, with up to two stopovers and 6 layovers!
Part of what makes the Aeroplan program so appealing is how easy it is to earn points.
If you’ve got your eyes on an upcoming award redemption (with or without a stopover), the best ways to earn Aeroplan points are:
Aeroplan stopovers are an impressive and versatile feature of Air Canada’s loyalty program.
For the small fee of 5,000 Aeroplan points, you’re able to access an extra destination when you book an eligible award flight, making it easier to see more for less.
If you’re looking for some travel inspiration, why not check out our guide to the 8 best ways to redeem Aeroplan points for maximum value.
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