Can I Sell my Aeroplan Miles?
This question has been brought up fairly often in the miles and points world. “I have no use for my Aeroplan miles, can I see my miles?
The short answer is no. Today, I will explain why, and what alternatives there are instead.
The terms and conditions section in the Aeroplan website covers most of what I will summarize here.
Rule
Aeroplan’s rules state that miles:
- have no monetary value
- cannot be exchanged for cash, assigned, traded, willed or otherwise transferred (other than with the consent of Aeroplan)
The consequence of doing so is the loss of membership or the cancellation of the affected reward, benefits or miles.
Rational
So why can’t we sell miles? Aeroplan wants to keep their members engaged into the program.
Alternatives
Even though you may not be able to sell your miles, you do have some options to consider, depending on what the situation is.
Top up
Members can top up their miles at time of booking (flight/car or hotel reward) for a fee. This can be useful, I would look at this like a cash and miles option. However, keep in mind that the cost to top up may not be worth it. You may be better off paying for the flight with cash, always do your calculations first.
Transfer
Members can transfer miles to another member for a fee. Because of the fee, I would not consider this option as the cost to transfer may not even be worth it.
Keep in mind that there is also a limit of 5 transactions per account per calendar year. A member can transfer miles to three recipient members at one time (maximum 999,999 miles and minimum 1,000 miles).
Also, transferred miles do not count towards qualifying for the Air Canada’s Altitude elite program, nor the Aeroplan elite status.
Redeem miles for someone else
For example, members can use miles to fly a family or friend to visit even if the member is not travelling with that person.
This is one of my favourite reward option and I have taken advantage of this numerous times. Furthermore, this option does not cost an extra fee, unlike the above two options.
Recommendations
Unfortunately, this is not like buying a bike, use it for a while, and then posting it on Kijiji to sell second hand. So what should you do with unused miles? Well, it depends on your situation. Personally, I like using the “redeem miles for someone else” option. It is one of the best gift that I can give to someone.
There is also the option of donating your miles to a charity. Perhaps I may write a post about that another day.
If you feel that you are collecting too slowly to redeem for anything significant, you always have the option of slowly plowing away till you get there. It is easy enough to keep your account active. In which case, treat it like a retirement portfolio. You have 20-30 years to save enough miles for a few trips during retirement.
If you had no intention of using your Aeroplan miles, make it easy on yourself, move on to another reward system instead.
I did a post over 3 years ago because I found I wasn’t using my Aeroplan either. At various times during the year when the RBC bonus is 50% (see post) you can get 1:1 Aeroplan:Avios.
That might work for some people. Also I just donated my miles I had accumulated (28,000) to a worthy charity.
We are lucky to play this “game” sometimes you should give back.
https://borderfreetravel.com/2014/04/09/switching-to-avios-from-aeroplan/
Thanks for sharing Jay!
You can buy gift cards from the Aeroplan redeem section.
Esso or Costco gift cards are almost as good as cash in my opinion.
But I have a very similar question:
I have around 5,000 AAdvantage points that will expire this year. Being Canadian the redeem options are very limited (no gift cards, no magazine subscription, etc…).
Any advice or loophole to transfer them in Aeroplan or Marriott points ?
Hi Jeff, there are not any free ways to transfer AAdvantage to Aeroplan or Marriott. You can use Points.com to trade/exchange, but with a fee.
Personally, I would just keep the account active using an AwardWallet account with its blog feature. If you do not have an Award Wallet account, feel free to email me for a referral.
I wonder if it would be cheaper to register yourself as a charity and donate to yourself.
What would be the benefit of that?
For those that need some ideas on how to pick up more Aeroplan or make the most out of limited travel they do, seems “consolidating” might work too — http://www.rewardscanada.ca/collectorseries/charlest.html
Thanks for sharing Andy!
You can go through the effort of finding the right person to book a trip for and sell for a certain amount as well as let them pay for the booking fee.
For instance I live in a remote area where a flight out is our only way to de isolate and having this aeroplan helps alot. I am thinking of starting a charity for families to travel who cant afford it from these remote northern communities. I have 2 kids and air travel for a small holiday costs alot. Tickets alone are 1600 for one base flight. So having aeroplan works great for me but i dont earn as much cos I dont travel as much. So I would love more aeroplan points to plan a mini vacation.
I would be more cautious about exchanging money for the miles. The taxes and fuel surcharges can be paid by anyone though.
You can sell your miles for money. You will get half of what you should receive from them however it is worth it. There are sites like flipmymiles.com or sellmymilesnow.com which will help make the transaction and pay you.