Aeroplan points in accounts with no activity for 18 months start expiring on November 30, 2026.Check an account’s expiry date →
For years the honest answer to "do Aeroplan points expire?" was "technically, but the rule is paused." That grace period is ending. Points are protected through November 29, 2026; on November 30, the 18-month inactivity rule resumes. And on that day, any account with no qualifying activity in the previous 18 months loses its entire balance at once. Not gradually. All of it.
If you or someone in your household has a dormant Aeroplan account, this is the deadline to care about. Our expiry checker works out any account's date from when its points last moved.
The rule
Eighteen months without qualifying activity expires the whole balance. One qualifying transaction (of any size) resets the clock for everything. Activity means points moving in or out of the account:
- Earning: a flight, credit-card spend, a purchase through the Aeroplan eStore, a retail or fuel partner, a transfer in from Amex Membership Rewards or a hotel program.
- Redeeming: any award booking, or even a small merchandise redemption.
- Transferring, converting, or donating any amount.
Logging in and checking your balance does not count. The clock cares about transactions, not attention.
How to check your expiry date
Air Canada shows it in your account: log in to Aeroplan, open the Activity tab, and scroll down to your points inactivity date, the day the balance expires if nothing moves before then. Air Canada also says it will email you up to 60 days before your points expire, but don't count on an email reaching an address nobody checks.
Don't want to log in to every account in the household? Our Aeroplan expiry checker works it out from the date points last moved, and tells you what the balance is worth. For household accounts, check each one; the date is per member, not per family (unless you pool; see below).
Who never has to think about this
Two groups are exempt while their standing lasts:
- Primary cardholders of Aeroplan co-brand credit cards: TD, CIBC, and American Express Aeroplan cards. While the card account is open and in good standing, points don't expire. Any card on our Aeroplan ranking does it, including the no-fee tier. (Additional cardholders aren't covered; Air Canada names the primary cardholder.)
- Elite status members (Aeroplan 25K and up): status year by status year.
There's also a structural fix: Family Sharing. Pool redemptions deduct proportionally from every member's account, so one family award booking resets the inactivity clock for the entire household, including the uncle who hasn't flown since 2023.
The five-minute fix for a dormant account
Any of these, once every 18 months, keeps a balance alive indefinitely:
- Buy something small through the eStore (a few dollars at a participating retailer earns points and counts).
- Transfer a small amount in from Amex MR or a hotel program.
- Redeem a token amount for anything.
- Or, structurally: put an Aeroplan card in the wallet, or join the family pool.
If points have already expired
Air Canada's policy page says expired points can be reinstated within six months: by flying Air Canada, getting an Aeroplan credit card, claiming missing points from a past booking, or buying the points back for a fee. The buy-back fee isn't published on that page; under the pre-pause policy it ran about 1¢ per point plus a $30 charge, so treat that as indicative and confirm with Air Canada. At 1.9¢ per point, paying ~1¢ to reinstate a large balance can actually be worth it, which tells you how much value expiry destroys in the first place.
The bottom line
Aeroplan expiry is the most avoidable loss in Canadian loyalty: the reset costs nothing, the exemptions are cards most Aeroplan collectors already hold, and the deadline (November 30, 2026) is public. Check the dormant accounts in your household now, and if the balance is worth anything, spend five minutes making it move. What it's worth is exactly what our Aeroplan points value guide computes.
Policy details first verified July 11, 2026; re-verified September 26 and October 5, 2026 against Air Canada's inactivity-policy page (18-month rule, exemptions, the Activity-tab inactivity date, six-month reinstatement) and its "Points expiry suspended" notice (normal policy applies from November 30, 2026). The buy-back fee should be confirmed with Air Canada.