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Aeroplan, the loyalty program of Air Canada, offers some excellent deals on award flights through its unique zone-and-distance-based award chart. However, another benefit Aeroplan offers isn't as well known: Aeroplan's stopover policy.
Adding a stopover to an Aeroplan award flight isn’t free, but it can still be an excellent deal. You’ll pay just 5,000 additional points to tack a stopover onto a one-way award flight.
Let’s take a look at Aeroplan’s one-way stopover rules, how the stopover policy works and the best ways to earn Aeroplan points.
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Aeroplan’s stopover policy
Aeroplan is one of the few loyalty programs that allows you to add a stopover to your one-way award ticket. While it’s not free to add a stopover, the 5,000-point cost can be very reasonable to see a second destination along the way.
There are some conditions you must meet to book these stopovers:
- You can have one stopover per direction of travel; this means you can have one stopover on a one-way flight or two stopovers on a round-trip booking.
- Stopovers are subject to a maximum of 45 days.
- Stopovers are not allowed within the United States or Canada.
- You cannot combine a stopover with an open-jaw ticket; your onward flight must continue from the city at which you arrived. This means that if you booked a flight from New York-JFK to Istanbul via Paris-Charles de Gaulle, you’ll need to depart from Paris-Charles de Gaulle to continue your trip to Istanbul. You can't fly out of Paris-Orly instead.
- No backtracking is permitted on a stopover, as travel must be made in one direction.
» Learn more: What are layover, stopover and open-jaw flights?
Why you might want to book an Aeroplan stopover
Points, miles and award availability can be complicated enough. Why bother booking an Aeroplan stopover? Well, because you may be able to visit two destinations for cheaper than if you were to book flights separately. Let's show you just one example of this.
First, a bit about how Aeroplan awards work. Aeroplan breaks the world into four different zones, and each zone will have different pricing for an award flight.
Let’s say you’d like to book a flight from Boston to Munich. You'll be flying from North America to the Atlantic zone. That means awards will be priced based on the appropriate North America to Atlantic zones chart.
The nonstop route from Boston to Munich is 3,851 miles. That means a nonstop partner award on this route costs 35,000 Aeroplan points in economy or 60,000 Aeroplan points in business class.
The same award pricing applies to connecting flights — but only if you keep the routing under 4,000 miles in total. For example, you can fly Boston to Munich via London for the same rate since that routing is a combined 3,852 miles.
However, connecting through Newark instead would push the distance above 4,000 miles — resulting in a higher price.
Let’s say that, instead of merely connecting in London, you’d actually like to visit London. Using Aeroplan's stopover policy, you can visit a second city for just 5,000 additional Aeroplan points (plus applicable taxes and fees). That additional points price is the same whether you're flying economy or business class.
When to avoid booking an Aeroplan stopover
Depending on the route, booking an Aeroplan stopover instead of two awards can provide significant savings. However, make sure to check the pricing of booking awards separately before booking a stopover. Due to Aeroplan's quirky award chart, some awards are actually cheaper when booked as two separate awards rather than as one award with a stopover.
For instance, take an award from Chicago-O’Hare to Male, Maldives. Booking a one-way economy award on this route costs 70,000 Aeroplan points.
The routing through Abu Dhabi requires a 14-hour overnight layover. So, why not stretch that out into a proper visit? Adding on a stopover in Abu Dhabi adds 5,000 points for a total of 75,000 Aeroplan points.
However, you can actually book a trip to both Abu Dhabi and the Maldives for just 67,500 Aeroplan points by booking the two award flights as separate awards. The award flight from Chicago-O’Hare to Abu Dhabi costs 55,000 Aeroplan points.
Then you'll only have to pay 12,500 Aeroplan points for the one-way from Abu Dhabi to Male. You actually save 7,500 Aeroplan points by booking the two separately!
Just note that this doesn't always make sense to do. When booking two separate awards, you'll need to pay an additional Aeroplan partner booking fee. Plus, you'll need to pay extra fees if you need to make changes or cancel your trip. So it's worth considering the full cost of booking one award versus two.
» Learn more: The points collector’s guide to Air Canada Aeroplan
How to book an Aeroplan one-way stopover
When Aeroplan stopovers were first introduced, travelers could only book stopovers over the phone. Thankfully, that's changed.
As of September 2022, Aeroplan members can now book Aeroplan stopover awards right on the Air Canada website. Let's show you how to do so.
You can start your search right on the Air Canada homepage. First, select the "multi-city/stopover" and "book with points Aeroplan" buttons. Enter your origin in the "from" box and your final destination in the "to" box. Select your departure date.
Then, click the "add stopover for flight 1" button. Doing so will expand the search box to add fields for your stopover city and length of the stopover. Enter your preferences and the number of passengers at the bottom of the search box. Then click the "search flights" button. You don't need to fill out or remove the "flight 2" section before doing so.
Air Canada will prompt you to log in to your Aeroplan account. You might as well do so now, as you'll eventually need to log in to book your award. Keep in mind that this will involve entering a code that will be emailed to your email address on file.
Once logged in, Aeroplan will show the results of your search plus the award rates for nearby dates. Select your preferred award, cabin and type of award to proceed.
On the next page, review your choice and select your preference between cash/points options. Finally, complete the booking process by entering the passenger(s) information and entering your payment information.
» Learn more: The best airlines for free stopovers
Earning Aeroplan points
Earning Aeroplan points is easy, thanks to Aeroplan's co-branded credit card.
Additionally, Air Canada’s Aeroplan program partners with several flexible point currency programs, meaning you can transfer your existing points from any one of these programs to Aeroplan.
- American Express Membership Rewards — transfer at a 1:1 ratio.
- Chase Ultimate Rewards® — transfer at a 1:1 ratio.
- Capital One Miles — transfer at a 1:1 ratio.
- Bilt Rewards — transfer at a 1:1 ratio.
- Marriott Bonvoy — transfer at a 3:1 ratio, with a 5,000-mile bonus for every 60,000 points you transfer.
» Learn more: Sweet spots of the new Aeroplan program
If you’re looking to book a stopover on your Aeroplan reward flight …
Aeroplan has a generous reward program as-is, and building up an Aeroplan point balance is easy. Taking advantage of Aeroplan’s stopover policy is a great way to make those points go even further.
The ability to add a stopover for just 5,000 points means you can include another destination and save yourself thousands of points in the process.
How to maximize your rewards
You want a travel credit card that prioritizes what’s important to you. Here are some of the best travel credit cards of 2026:
- Flexibility, point transfers and a large bonus: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
- No annual fee: Wells Fargo Autograph® Card
- Flat-rate travel rewards: Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
- Bonus travel rewards and high-end perks: Chase Sapphire Reserve®
- Luxury perks: American Express Platinum Card®
- Business travelers: Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card
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