New Air Canada Aeroplan Booster feature - pay to multiply the points you've earned

 Aeroplan and Points.com have teamed up again to add yet another points earning initiative for the program.  Called Aeroplan Booster this new option allows Aeroplan members to pay to multiply the miles they earned in the past month with the program. We've seen similar 'Boost' initiatives where you can pay to earn more miles and points but typically only for flying - Virgin Atlantic Flying Club's Mile Booster is probably the most famous one. However this one goes in a different direction by allowing you to boost all the points you earned from non-flight activities.

Here's what Points.com provided to us:

With Booster, Aeroplan Members get a preferential rate to multiply their earned points by up to five times their value. Initially, points earned from an Aeroplan credit card, the Aeroplan eStore, or through Aeroplan’s everyday retail, car and hotel partners will be eligible for boosting. Aeroplan Members who take advantage of this exciting new product can boost up to 600,000 of their points a year, for up to 3 million additional points.

What’s more, to celebrate the introduction of Booster, Aeroplan is offering Members savings up to 30%* off the regular rate to boost their points if they take advantage of the new benefit between now and December 8, 2021.

The press release states up to 30% off savings as the discount does vary by member as I only received an up to 25% off offer since I currently don't have an Aeroplan co-brand card. My offer provided the following

• Multiply by 1x receive 5% off
• Multiply by 3x receive  15% off
• Multiply by 5x receive 25% off

My cost to multiply by 5x with a 25% discount works out to 2.25 cents per point - even with the discount this is a price I would not pay for the points unless I absolutely needed them right now.  Without the discount the price is 3 cents per point - the exact same price you pay to simply buy points from Air Canada. So with this discount until December 8 the price is cheaper than the standard rate for buying Aeroplan points however Aeroplan does run buy points promotions often where the price drops below 2 cents per point. I would only go for this new Boost Points feature if I needed the points right away to top off for an award otherwise I would wait for a Buy Points discount or just continue earning via other methods like credit cards.

This is an interesting new feature that Aeroplan has introduced and I will be curious to see what the uptake will be on it. I'm sure some people will jump right on it if they have a redemption in mind where they can get better value than what they are paying for these boosted points and that's totally doable. We here at Rewards Canada have provided examples over the past few months where redeeming for business class awards has provided value of 4 to 6 cents per point so to buy at 2.25 cents would be worth it.

What do you think of this new points buying option from Aeroplan?

Click here to learn more about Aeroplan Booster