The Complete Guide to Aeroplan Stopovers

One of the best and most powerful features of the Aeroplan loyalty program is the ability to book stopovers for an additional 5,000 Aeroplan points.

In taking advantage of Aeroplan stopovers, you’ll be able to add more destinations to your journey and turn one trip into multiple trips for a modest extra cost.

Plus, leveraging stopovers can be a great strategic move to use when piecing together complex Aeroplan itineraries and navigating partner award availability.

A Summary of Aeroplan’s Stopover Rules

Prior to diving into the many applications of Aeroplan’s stopover feature, let’s go over the rules that govern its use.

Stopovers cost 5,000 points

You’re allowed to add a stopover at an intermediate point on a one-way journey for an extra 5,000 Aeroplan points per passenger.

On a round-trip booking, which is essentially just two one-way journeys, you’re allowed two stopovers (one in each direction), which would result in a total of 10,000 Aeroplan points per person. 

Stopovers can’t be in Canada or the United States

Stopovers are permitted everywhere other than in Canada or the United States. Booking a stopover within Canada or the United States will result in two one-way segments, so you’re better off just booking two one-ways to begin with.

Stopovers elsewhere in North America – such as in Mexico, Central America, or the Caribbean – are allowed, as are stopovers in any of the other zones on the Aeroplan Flight Reward Chart (South America, Atlantic, and Pacific). 

Indeed, this opens up some incredible opportunities to see more of the world, since Aeroplan has partner airlines in almost every corner of the globe:

• Fly from Montreal to Zurich, stopover, and then continue onward to Rome
• Fly from Vancouver to Istanbul, stopover, and then continue onward to Almaty, Kazakhstan
• Fly from Toronto to Cancun, stopover, and then continue onward to Panama City
• Fly from Toronto to Lisbon, stopover, and then continue onward to Cape Town
• Fly from New York to Singapore, stopover, and then continue onward to Australia
• Fly from Seattle to Tokyo, stopover, and then continue onward to Bangkok

Stopovers can be up to 45 days

Stopovers are limited to 45 days in duration. This means that for any stops between 24 hours and 45 days in length, you’ll only be charged an extra 5,000 points per person for the stopover.

Any stopovers that exceed 45 days in length will be treated as a separate booking, and will be priced accordingly.

A connection must be over 24 hours in duration to count as a stopover. Connections of under 24 hours in duration are treated as layovers instead, and are not subject to an extra points surcharge.

This is an important distinction to understand if you’re looking to create bespoke Aeroplan itineraries. 

Stopovers can be booked online

If you’d like to book a stopover on an Aeroplan redemption, you use the Aeroplan search engine to construct your itinerary.

Note that you’ll only be able to book itineraries with up to four flights per direction of travel online, as this is currently the maximum amount the search engine can handle.

For example, you can book Vancouver–Istanbul–Abu Dhabi–Malé (stopover)–Singapore (four flights) online, but you can’t book Vancouver–Montreal–Istanbul–Abu Dhabi–Malé (stopover)–Singapore (five flights) online.

To book a stopover online, head to the main Air Canada website, select “Multi-city” and select “Book with points”. Then, click “Add a stopover for Flight 1”, and a new search field will appear.

Note that you’ll need to sign in to your account to perform searches for Aeroplan redemptions.

You’ll then need to put in your origin, destination, stopover city, travel dates, and length of stopover.

For example, if you’d like to fly from Toronto to Panama City with a stopover in Cancun for five days, you’d enter Toronto as your origin, Panama City as your destination, and Cancun as the stopover city.

The search results will display multiple options for each flight along your journey. If you know the flights you’d like, you can use the filters to reduce the number of options you see.

Once you’ve found the flights you’d like, the extra 5,000 points for the stopover is already included in the price. For example, flights from Toronto to Panama City via Cancun price out at 25,000 points in business class, plus 5,000 points for the stopover, for a total of 30,000 points.

Note that the length of stopover is counted by nights at your destination. In the above example, you’d arrive in Cancun on the same day you departed, and then you have five nights in Cancun before heading off to Panama City.

If you’re on an overnight flight, the stopover days begin when you arrive at your stopover destination. 

For example, let’s say that you fly from Boston to Frankfurt, stopover for five days, and then continue onward to Nice. 

With a departure date of August 27, you’d arrive in Frankfurt on August 28, and then you’d fly to Nice on September 2 after spending five nights in Frankfurt. 

Stopovers can be also booked over the phone (for a fee)

If you aren’t able to book your desired stopover itinerary online, you can also choose to call the Aeroplan Contact Centre to work with an agent.

Note that there’s a non-refundable $30 booking fee associated with booking itineraries over the phone.

In my experience, the booking fee has been worth it as I’ve been able to piece together complex, bespoke itineraries that allow me to stretch the value of my Aeroplan points to the max. 

Logistics of Booking Aeroplan Stopovers

Once you have an idea of where you’d like to go, you’ll then go through the process of making the booking.

The best way to approach booking itineraries with stopovers is to do all of the planning in advance, and then go ahead with actually booking the stopover.

If you aren’t familiar with the Aeroplan Flight Reward Chart and how to price out Aeroplan itineraries, head over to our Essential Guide to Aeroplan for a detailed review of how the program works.

We’d recommend that you start by looking for award space on individual flight segments that you’d like to take. This can help you find award availability on a specific airline that you’d like to fly with, or on a particular route. Be sure to broaden your search and factor in positioning flights to help you increase your odds of success.

Play around with the filters on the search results page to find the specific flights you’d like. Your hard work will have paid off when you find the perfect itinerary at the price point you’re looking for.

As you’re constructing an itinerary, make sure to calculate the total distances using Great Circle Mapper, to ensure that you aren’t crossing into a farther distance band and unnecessarily spending more points.

When you find flights that work, note down the dates and the flight numbers, and begin the process of making the booking. You’ll also want to calculate the number of days required for your stopover, as this is the least intuitive part of the search.

If you can book your itinerary online – great! If not, give the Aeroplan contact centre a call and work with an agent to build your custom itinerary.

Once it’s all booked, you’ll be able to select your seats on all segments of the journey, and then begin looking forward to actually flying on it.

If you’d like some expert advice on how to maximize Aeroplan redemptions, be sure to check out our Points Coaching service. You’ll receive one-on-one guidance from one of our Aeroplan experts over the course of four sessions, and you’ll fast track your way into becoming a pro at Aeroplan redemptions in no time!

Examples of Booking Aeroplan Stopovers

To better understand how to maximize Aeroplan stopovers, let’s take a look at a few sample routings.

It’s worth noting that the below examples focus on business-class redemptions, since that’s one of the best ways to get the most value out of your Aeroplan points. However, finding business class award availability with partner airlines, or rates at the “Starting at” prices for Air Canada and/or Select Partners, requires a fair bit of effort. 

If you’re happy to fly in economy, then piecing together a booking with stopovers at a great price is much easier.

Stopover on a one-way

Let’s consider a routing Boston–Istanbul–Jakarta. If you didn’t want to stop in Istanbul for more than 24 hours, this would price out at 87,500 Aeroplan points in business class as per the North America–Pacific award chart.

If you wanted to add a stopover of over 24 hours and less than 45 days in Istanbul, the cost would increase by 5,000 points, paying a total of 92,500 Aeroplan points for the entire journey.

For example, if you load up your cities in the search engine, along with your stopover length and departure date, you’ll see the results price out with the stopover included.

The itinerary prices out as we had expected, and you can proceed to book it by simply clicking through.

Two stopovers on a round-trip

Suppose that you’d like to visit Seoul, Bangkok, and Munich on a holiday next year. You’re flexible with routings, and consider flying via Asia on your outbound flights and across the Atlantic on your return to make it a true round-the-world trip.

After doing some manual research for award flights, you set up your Aeroplan search as in the screenshot below:

For your outbound flight, you hop on Air Canada from Montreal to Seoul. After staying in Seoul for a week and a bit, you then proceed onwards to Bangkok, this time with Asiana and Thai Airways (with an overnight layover in Tokyo).

Booked separately, these flights would cost 120,000 Aeroplan points in business class. When booked as a one-way with a stopover, however, the cost drops down to only 92,500 points: 87,500 for the flights and 5,000 for a stopover.

Similarly, on the way back, you could fly from Bangkok to Munich via Frankfurt with Thai Airways and Lufthansa, add a stopover for up to 45 days, and then continue back to Montreal on a non-stop with Lufthansa.

Booking these flights as two one-ways would cost 140,000 Aeroplan points, while booking them as a one-way with a stopover drops the cost to 92,500 points: 87,500 for the flights and 5,000 for a stopover.

In total, your round-the-world routing would cost 185,000 Aeroplan points.

Further applications of adding stopovers are almost endless, and they’re only limited to how adventurous you can get within the limits of what’s possible with Aeroplan’s routing rules.

Is the Aeroplan Stopover a Good Deal?

Across airline loyalty programs, it’s fairly rare for stopovers to be permitted on a one-way booking. Other programs, such as The British Airways Club, simply cumulatively add up the distance and charge you accordingly. 

Others, like Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, don’t allow stopovers on one-way Saver redemptions (but do on higher-priced Advantage awards), and others yet (such as Cathay Pacific Asia Miles) don’t allow stopovers on one-way bookings at all.

A few other programs, like Atmos Rewards (formerly Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan) or Air France KLM Flying Blue, do allow you to add a stopover on a one-way flight for no additional charge, which is more favourable than Aeroplan’s stopover fee of 5,000 points. 

However, it’s worth noting that Aeroplan’s flexible routing policy allows travellers to cover a lot of ground en route to their destination. This is what makes it possible to stop in Europe on the way to Asia, or stop in the Middle East (or even Mauritius!) on the way to Australia, all while mix-and-matching Aeroplan’s 45+ partner airlines.

Indeed, Aeroplan’s constantly expanding network of partners adds more clout to an already strong program. In addition to Star Alliance-member airlines, external partners such as Gulf Air, Virgin Australia, Etihad Airways, and Emirates, amongst others, add to the extensive global network accessible through Aeroplan points.

If you’re looking to see more of the world and get the most of your Aeroplan points, the stopover feature should certainly be something that you take advantage of whenever possible.

Conclusion

Aeroplan’s stopover rules permit travellers to squeeze in an extended stay on a one-way trip to most places in the world for only 5,000 extra points.

Personally, I’ve used stopovers on many Aeroplan bookings ever since the feature was first launched. I appreciate how I can visit multiple countries on one trip, without being unduly penalized for it by having to book separate itineraries. 

Being able to book stopovers online gives Aeroplan members more power to construct their ideal itineraries without picking up the phone. The last step in the search engine’s rollout is the ability to create fully customized itineraries, which we’ll hopefully see at some point in the near future.