The New Aeroplan Program, Explained - Part 1: What's New?

The new Aeroplan program has been public for a week or two now, and there are several great DEEP dives into the details. I would suggest visiting the good folks over at Prince Of Travel, they've launched an official partnership with Air Canada to provide coverage - I think the first of its kind - and they get WAY into the details.

Meanwhile, here on my personal site, I'm not looking to re-do what others have already done well, so I’m focusing on what a lot of my friends and colleagues have been asking for offline; an expert summary to get you familiar with the new program - and how it'll affect your travel looking forward - in 5-10 minutes.

Here in Part One, we’ll go over how the new program is designed; next door in Part Two, I’ll walk you through several examples designed to show you how to do the math and plan ahead to use the new program most effectively.

The New Concept 

In the pre-2026 Aeroplan program, status was determined by a combination of how often or how far you flew (Status Qualifying Miles & Segments, or SQM & SQS) and how much you spent with Air Canada (Status Qualifying Dollars or SQD).

The new program uses one metric: Status Qualifying Credit (SQC), which combines (mostly) how much money you spent with Air Canada, plus spending with partners like Aeroplan-branded credit cards and associated hotels / car rentals / etc.

Qualifying For Status By Flying Air Canada

The new program affects the way status qualification is earned, which is pretty straightforward:

-       If you buy a Basic fare, you earn no SQC.

-       If you buy a Standard fare, you earn 2 SQC for every dollar spent.

-       If you buy a Flex fare or higher, you earn 4 SQC for every dollar spent.

“Dollars spent” includes all base airfare and airline surcharges, but not things like Airport Improvement Fees and government taxes. See the example below, for a flight from Ottawa to Vancouver:

With that in mind, here’s what you’ll need to hit to earn each tier of Aeroplan Elite status for the current 2025 program and the new 2026 program, including the amount you’d need to spend on airfare to qualify for each tier on flights alone:

Status Level	2025 metric	2026 metric	Cost for 2026
25K	25,000 SQM or 25 SQS, and $3,000 SQD	25,000 SQC	$12,500 (Standard) $6,250 (Flex or more)
35K	35,000 SQM or 35 SQS, and $4,000 SQD	35,000 SQC	$17,500 (Standard) $8,750 (Flex or more)
50K	50,000 SQM or 50 SQS, and $6,000 SQD	50,000 SQC	$25,000 (Standard) $12,500 (Flex or more)
75K	75,000 SQM or 75 SQS, and $9,000 SQD	75,000 SQC	$37,500 (Standard) $18,750 (Flex or more)
100K / SE	100,000 SQM or 100 SQS, and $20,000 SQD	125,000 SQC	$62,500 (Standard) $31,250 (Flex or more)

As you can see in the chart above, the spending requirement goes WAY up for nearly everyone, but as you’ll read below, there are now other ways to earn towards this total outside of just flying.

Qualifying For Status By Flying Partner Airlines

Under the new program, earning toward Aeroplan status by flying on Star Alliance partner airlines like United, Lufthansa and Singapore Airways has been severely curtailed. It still counts for something, but as you’ll see in the examples in Part Two, it’s been reduced by around 80%.

Previously, you'd earn SQM based on how far you flew, with a multiplier (or divider) based on how expensive (or cheap) your ticket was. Now, it's that same math BUT that number is divided by 5 to get the total amount of SQC earned from the flight.

Qualifying For Status By… NOT Flying

Earning status by just flying is harder now, but more things earn toward status than before, and the new program is designed to entice you to pick up an Aeroplan-branded credit card, link your Aeroplan account when taking an Uber, renting a car, getting coffee at Starbucks, etc.

You can earn up to 25,000 SQC from Aeroplan branded credit-cards – though this will take $125,000 CAD in spending, even on a premium-tier card, and up to 25,000 SQC more from partners like Uber and Starbucks. Again, as you’ll see in Part Two, that would require huge spending with those partners, but at least things will now count that didn’t used to earn towards status at all.

If you ARE someone who runs a ton of money through an Aeroplan-branded card – for example, lots of contractors and small-business owners have run their business through an Aeroplan card to rack up huge balances of Aeroplan miles – then this would allow you to earn 25K or 35K status without ever setting foot in an airport.

While the Aeroplan premium credit cards did previously also offer a SQM/SQS bonus, until now, this HAD to be paired with some actual flying to allow earning status.

Earning Rewards

There are no changes in this update that affect the way Aeroplan points are spent on free flights, but it does change the way points are earned. Starting in 2026, you earn 1 Aeroplan point per dollar spent, plus a multiplier if you have Aeroplan elite status: 2x for 25K, 3x for 35K, 4x for 50K, 5x for 75K and 6x for 100K / Super Elite.

So, for example, if my colleague and I book matching $2,000 fares from Ottawa to London, he’ll earn 2,000 Aeroplan points as a no-status member, and I’ll earn 12,000 points as a Super Elite.

Analysis

Long story short; in exchange for the same level of frequent-flyer Elite status, from now on Air Canada wants more of your money and more of your engagement.

If you were someone who used to earn status by flying lots of $200 short-hauls, like commuting Ottawa-Toronto or Vancouver-Calgary, or a couple of Economy trips to Asia each year, you’re probably going to drop down or lose status altogether.

If you buy lots of business-class fares on your Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege card, you’re probably going to continue to be Super Elite.

The smart move now is to sit down and do the math to figure out whether your 2026 travel will put you into the same position, better, or worse, under the new program. Next door in Part Two, I'll walk you through some simple examples on how to do this math quickly, and gain the ability to estimate whether your travel patterns make it worth sticking to Air Canada / Aeroplan moving forward.