It may feel like the end of summer is fast approaching, but there’s still plenty of time to squeeze in a getaway.

If you’re thinking about a last-minute road trip that includes a car rental, Aeroplan is offering members the chance to get up to 50,000 points back when they book and redeem on Aeroplan’s member-exclusive platform.

To be eligible for this offer, Aeroplan members must register and book their car rental on the Aeroplan platform by September 3, 2024, for travel taking place between now and March 31, 2025.

Aeroplan Car Rental Offer: Up to 50,000 Points Back

Until September 3, 2024, Aeroplan is running a new points back promotion for car rentals, which gives Aeroplan members up to 50,000 points back when they book car rentals through Aeroplan for travel occurring from August 12, 2024, to March 31, 2025.

The promo also gives members with Aeroplan Elite Status an extra 2,500 points back, for a total of up to 52,500 points back when booking a car rental through Aeroplan.

Aeroplan members can reserve car rentals in more than 150 countries through brands like Avis, Budget, and more.

By booking your car rental using Aeroplan points, you can receive the following through the current points back promotion:

• Get 10,000 points back when redeeming 40,000 Aeroplan points or more
• Get 25,000 points back when redeeming 80,000 Aeroplan points or more
• Get 50,000 points back when redeeming 150,000 Aeroplan points or more

All Aeroplan members are eligible for this promotion, but you’ll need to register for the offer before September 3, 2024.

The Aeroplan bonus points that you get back through this promo will be credited to your account within six weeks after completion of a qualifying car rental, and keep in mind that this offer can’t be combined with any other offer or promotion.

Is Booking a Rental Car with Aeroplan Points a Good Deal?

Aeroplan members can redeem their points for flights, hotel stays, vacations, car rentals, gift cards, merchandise, and more.

At Prince of Travel, we believe that the best way to redeem Aeroplan points is for flights since it tends to yield the best value for your points.

However, not everyone wants to redeem their points for flights, and having all of these other options available for redemptions provides more flexibility than many other points programs.

We value Aeroplan points at 2.1 cents per point (all figures in CAD), which is what we suggest Aeroplan members use as a guideline for a target minimum redemption value.

When it comes to using Aeroplan points for car rentals, the value you’ll get per point will fluctuate depending on the redemption.

For example, let’s say you rent a car in Seattle, drive down the Pacific Coast Highway, and then drop it off in San Francisco.

In this example, there are three booking options for this seven-day rental:

• 166,500 Aeroplan points
• 83,375 Aeroplan points plus $615.50
• $1,231

Based on the above prices, you’d get a value of 0.74 cents per point by redeeming 166,500 Aeroplan points for this rental ($1,231 / 166,500), which is well below our target value of 2.1 cents per point.

With the current promotion, you’d get 50,000 of those points back (52,500 points back if you have Aeroplan Elite Status), which would raise the effective value to 1.06 cents per point (without status) or 1.08 cents per point (with status).

As you can see, even with the points back from this offer, the value (in this example) still falls well below our target; however, it is an improvement over what you’d get without the points back offer.

As we mentioned above, by redeeming your Aeroplan points for flights, you’re more likely to get greater value for your points versus using them for car rentals. Given this, if you think you could use your Aeroplan points for a flight in the future, it likely makes sense to hang on to them for now.

However, if you’re someone who doesn’t redeem points for flights, preferring to use them for other options instead, Aeroplan’s points back promo will let you net more value for your points than you otherwise would when redeeming for a car rental.

Conclusion

Until September 3, 2024, Aeroplan is running a new points back promotion, which gives Aeroplan members up to 50,000 points back when they book car rentals through Aeroplan for travel from August 12, 2024, to March 31, 2025.

All Aeroplan members are eligible for this promotion, but make sure you register for the offer before September 3, 2024, if you’d like to participate.