Air Canada Aeroplan Elite Status Priority Rewards explained

One of the new features that came with the revamped Air Canada Aeroplan program is the Priority Rewards benefit for elite status members. This exclusive new perk provides a 50% points discount on any flight reward that the elite member chooses to use it for. Their are limits as to what class and where the members can use them for based on their elite level. Those are as follows:

25K & 35K: Economy travel within Canada and between Canada and the U.S.
50K: Economy and Premium Economy travel within North America and to Sun destinations
75K: Economy and Premium Economy travel worldwide
Super Elite: Up to Signature/Business Class travel worldwide

As you can see the best option is reserved for the airline's best customers but even with that being said  Priority Rewards can provide great value for any level of elite member.

The Priority Reward vouchers are awarded to elite members each time they hit specific SQD thresholds:

Earn a voucher when you cross the 4,000, 7,000, 10,000 and 15,000 SQD thresholds, and for every 5,000 SQD earned above 15,000 SQD – up to a maximum of 50,000 SQD.

Vouchers do have to be used to book a flight within one year of them being awarded.

Once you have your vouchers they are really easy to use and can be redeemed on the Air Canada site or via the App. The vouchers will show up under the benefits tabs when you login to your account:

Image via Air Canada

And once you have reward booking search up you simply have to click on 'Select Priority Rewards' to see the discount applied to your search options

Image via Air Canada

Our resident 50K contributor Bill W. provided some screenshots of his Priority Rewards on how they look in his dashboard and to show them in action on a dummy booking between Vancouver and Honolulu.

 

Here's what a Vancouver to Honolulu reward flight looked like without a Priority Reward for an Air Canada 50K elite status member with an Aeroplan co-brand credit card:

and here is the same booking with a Priority Rewards voucher:

As you can see it prices out at exactly 50% of the initial points requirement for Economy Class. As Bill noted to me he wouldn't redeem it for this particular flight as the initial points requirement is big and since he is a 50K elite member he would be better off using it on a route that has Premium Economy class.  As mentioned earlier in the article if you are Super Elite you can use the voucher for business class as well for flights Worldwide so they get the full gamut of reward options to price out at 50%. As a Super Elite you most definitely would want to use the voucher for long hail international travel in business class but do watch those expiry dates on them - if long haul travel isn't in the picture due to the pandemic then look at somewhere closer where you can utilize the voucher, still in business class of course!

You can learn more about Air Canada's Priority Rewards here and also check out this video on YouTube about them:

Title Image via Air Canada