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Qualifying for Aeroplan Elite Status - overview/FAQ

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Old Jan 4, 2023, 7:47 am
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Last edit by: Adam Smith
How can I qualify for elite status on AC?

There are four main ways to qualify for status:
  • Earn a sufficient number of SQM/SQS/SQD (sometimes collectively referred to as “SQx” on FT) to qualify for status
  • Achieve Everyday Status Qualification, which requires only earning 100K qualifying Aeroplan points (EDQ) in a calendar year to earn 25K status
  • Be gifted status from an existing member. Super Elite may choose as a select benefit to gift an E50 package and E75 can gift an E35 package
  • Through the Chase Aeroplan credit card, which:
    • Grants 25K status for the year in which it’s first obtained, and the following year; after that, 25K status can be maintained by spending US$15K on the card in a calendar year
    • Allows you to boost your status one level by spending US$50K on the card in a calendar year
There are also reports of status being given through the following methods. There is no published criteria or even rhyme or reason that has been detected given limited data points..
  • Some have received E25 through their Canadian credit card provider. TD specifically did issue some E25 packages one year

For further questions on Everyday Status Qualification or the Chase cards, please see the threads dedicated to those topics, which are linked above.


What are the levels of status?

The Aeroplan Elite program has five published levels of status:
  • 25K
  • 35K
  • 50K
  • 75K
  • Super Elite

Before the late-2020 revamp of the Aeroplan program, the 25K level was formerly known as Prestige 25K, the three middle tiers were known as Elite 35K / Elite 50K / Elite 75K, and Super Elite was Super Elite 100K. You may see the terms P25K, E35K, E50K, E75K, and SE100K on FT as references to the former branding (sometimes minus the K, e.g. P25).

Air Canada also operates an unpublished VIP program. Unlike UA GS, AA CK, and DL 360, it is not possible to qualify for VIP through flying. AC’s VIP program is targeted at a different audience that would not normally qualify for a high level of status through their own level of flying. For example, they might award VIP status to the CEO of a large corporation that buys a lot of travel from AC. Those curious about the VIP program can visit that thread; no discussion of the VIP program will be permitted in this thread.


What are the qualification requirements?

For the level you want to qualify for, it is necessary to the requirements for:
  • SQM OR SQS; and
  • SQD

The requirements are:
  • 25K: 25,000 SQM / 25 SQS / 3,000 SQD
  • 35K: 35,000 SQM / 35 SQS / 4,000 SQD
  • 50K: 50,000 SQM / 50 SQS / 6,000 SQD
  • 75K: 75,000 SQM / 75 SQS / 9,000 SQD
  • Super Elite: 100,000 SQM / 100 SQS / 20,000 SQD

Beginning in 2022, all members must meet the SQD requirements. (Prior to 2022, non-residents only had to achieve 50% of the SQD requirements).


What are SQM, SQS, and SQD, and how do I earn them?

SQM are Status Qualifying Miles. You earn them by taking flights with AC or Star Alliance airline partners. They can also be earned by spending money on certain Aeroplan credit cards.

For flights, SQM are equal to approximately the distance between the two airports, multiplied by the earning rate for the fare type purchased. For example, Aeroplan calculates the distance from YYC to YYZ as 1,669 miles. A flight in Flex would earn 100% miles, i.e. 1,669 SQM. A flight in Standard would earn 25% miles, i.e. 417 SQM.

Certain credit cards award 1,000 SQM for each $10,000 spent on Core credit cards or $5,000 spent on the Premium "Black" credit cards.

Premium credit cards allow you to roll over up to 200K SQM over the level you qualified for in the previous year. For instance, if you flew 56,700 SQM and qualified for 50K status, you would roll over 6,700 SQM to the following year. Please see this thread for more information about the rollover benefit.

SQS are Status Qualifying Segments. You earn them by taking flights with AC or Star Alliance airline partners, by using certain Aeroplan credit cards, or as a Select Benefit selection (as of 2024).

Each qualifying flight earns 1 SQS; there are no multipliers.

Certain credit cards award 1 SQS for each $10,000 (Core credit cards) or $5,000 spent (Premium credit cards).

Starting in 2024, a new Select Benefit is available to Aeroplan 50K, 75K and SE status holders that awards 5,000 SQM and 5 SQS. This replaces the "Lower Requalification Level" Select Benefit offered in 2023 and prior years.

There is no SQS rollover.

SQD are Status Qualifying Dollars. These are equal to the base fare plus carrier-imposed surcharges for the ticket. Or you can think of SQD as the total amount paid for the ticket minus taxes and 3rd party surcharges (e.g. airport improvement fees). On receipts from AC, the amount listed as “Air Transportation Charges” will equal the total SQD for the ticket.

On itineraries with more than one segment, SQD are allocated across the segments based on distance, regardless of what you paid for each segment. For example, if you purchase a YYC-YYZ round trip, each segment (YYC-YYZ and YYZ-YYC) will earn 50% of the SQD, even if you paid different amounts for the two segments. Let’s say you paid $300 for YYC-YYZ and $500 for YYZ-YYC (excluding GST, AIFs, etc). The total SQD would be 800, and each segment would earn 400 SQD.

SQD are earned only from flying (one-time promotions aside). Only flights themselves, eUpgrade add-ons, and unlimited flight pass monthly payments qualify. Fees for extra services (e.g. baggage fees, seat selection, on-board purchases, etc) do not count towards SQD.

There is no SQD rollover.

SQD: Air Canada Vacation / ACV: The one exception to "only from flying" for SQD is the purchase of an Air Canada Vacation Package. Air Canada will take 25% of an eligible package value and split it equally amongst all passengers over two years old. So a $10,000 package with two adults and two teens will see each passenger get 625 SQD. An “Eligible Package” refers to a vacation package consisting of a flight-inclusive vacation package or a Flight & Cruise package.

SQD: Companion Pass / Buddy Pass: If through a credit card or Aeroplan you have earned a buddy pass or companion pass that allows a second traveller at no-charge or low-charge the primary pax receives 100% of the SQD and the second pax does not receive any credit.


Do all flights qualify for SQx?

No. Many flights do not earn SQx.

Basic Economy fares on AC earn no SQx, although they do earn Aeroplan points.

Points tickets redeemed from Aeroplan or a Star Alliance partner airline do not qualify, even if paying with a mix of cash and points.

Points redeemed from 3rd party loyalty programs (e.g. Air Miles, RBC Avion) have a mixed track record. Be very cautious relying on ANY ticket you purchased through a "points" programme even if previous tickets have earned SQx or the website says it will. The companies operating this can (and have) changed the way they source tickets without notice. The Air Canada Aeroplan T&C explicitly say anything points related does not earn SQx and thus any dispute will almost certainly be denied.
  • Air Miles have generally never posted
  • RBC Avion used to consistently earn SQx but many flights booked now don't earn (see thread)
Certain fares are also ineligible, e.g. consolidator fares, K fares on Lufthansa. If the fare class is not listed on the AC website, it is not eligible for accumulation.

In recent years, AC has added a number of non-Star Alliance partners. Flights on most of these partners only earn Aeroplan points (i.e. no SQx), and some only earn Aeroplan points on certain routes (e.g. Cathay Pacific).

SQD can only be earned on:
  • Flights operated by AC
  • Flights operated by *A partners, ticketed by AC

To illustrate, let’s use an itinerary consisting of (i) YYC-EWR, operated by AC, and (ii) EWR-CHS, operated by UA. If this itinerary were purchased from AC, both flights would earn SQD. If purchased from UA, only the YYC-EWR flight would earn SQD.


How do I know how many SQx I’ll earn for a given itinerary?

AC doesn’t tell you when you book a ticket, but it’s relatively simple to calculate. The AC website lists all partners, eligible fares, and accumulation rates.

To make life easier, some FTers have built a tool to calculate SQM/SQD earnings, discussed in this thread: Calculator for SQM, Aeroplan miles, & SQD

Important caveat for flights involving partners: miles earned always depends on the operating carrier. This is the airline whose aircraft you are sitting on when you fly. Sticking to the YYC-EWR-CHS example from above, you would earn miles according to the AC accumulation chart for YYC-EWR, and according to the UA chart for EWR-CHS, regardless of which airline sold the ticket and whether the flight is a codeshare.

This can create confusion in several ways:
  • During the booking flow on the AC website, AC displays only the earning rates for AC flights. You may buy a Flex fare thinking you will earn 100% miles, only to find out that on a partner flight you were booked in a fare class that earned less. For instance, if you buy a business class fare involving an intra-Europe flight on Lufthansa in a P fare, the website will show that you'll earn 150% miles, but you will earn only 50% on the Lufthansa leg
  • When booking codeshares, it may be impossible to know the operating carrier's fare class. For instance, the AC website may sell you UA's EWR-CHS flight as "AC5678" and show you an M fare when you select Flex. But you may actually be actually be booked on a UA Q fare and only earn 75% miles
  • When booking AC flights through a partner airline, you may not know the fare brand (Flex, Latitude, etc). United might show you an H fare on YYC-EWR, but this could map to Flex, Standard, or Comfort, and your earning would be impacted accordingly


What are Premium and Core credit cards?

Premium cards are the highest tier Aeroplan credit cards that have an annual fee of around $600 – Amex Reserve cards or Visa Infinite Privilege cards from TD or CIBC.

Core cards are mid-tier Aeroplan credit cards with an annual fee of around $120 – Visa Infinite from CIBC or TD, the Chase card, or Amex’s basic card.
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Qualifying for Aeroplan Elite Status - overview/FAQ

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Old Oct 5, 2022, 4:11 pm
  #226  
 
Join Date: Nov 2019
Location: Toronto, ON
Programs: AC SE100K, Star Alliance - Gold, Bonvoy-Titanium, Hilton-Gold, Avis-President's Club
Posts: 158
I am currently SE, i was wondering if TD Visa Infinite aeroplan credit card can have a rollover SQM to the following year? Lets say i surpass 120k sqm this year, can the 20k sqm be carried forward to next year? It’s core credit card but not premium i think.

If not, if i apply premium credit card aeroplan today, would i still be eligible to rollover SQM for next year 2023?

Last edited by Flyingbunny88; Oct 5, 2022 at 5:34 pm
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Old Oct 5, 2022, 9:42 pm
  #227  
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Originally Posted by Flyingbunny88
I am currently SE, i was wondering if TD Visa Infinite aeroplan credit card can have a rollover SQM to the following year? Lets say i surpass 120k sqm this year, can the 20k sqm be carried forward to next year? It’s core credit card but not premium i think.

If not, if i apply premium credit card aeroplan today, would i still be eligible to rollover SQM for next year 2023?
As per the link below, you need to have the "Privilege" ($599) card to get the points rollover (as well as 50 eUpgrade rollover).

AFAIK, as long as the Privilege card is approved by Dec 31, you should get the rollover benefit, but you might want to speak with someone at TD to confirm (and have it on the record in case there are any issues).
https://www.aircanada.com/ca/en/aco/...rollover-miles
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Old Oct 5, 2022, 9:47 pm
  #228  
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Originally Posted by Flyingbunny88
I am currently SE, i was wondering if TD Visa Infinite aeroplan credit card can have a rollover SQM to the following year? Lets say i surpass 120k sqm this year, can the 20k sqm be carried forward to next year? It’s core credit card but not premium i think.

If not, if i apply premium credit card aeroplan today, would i still be eligible to rollover SQM for next year 2023?
If only this were covered somewhere...

Originally Posted by Adam Smith, in the very first post of this thread
What are SQM, SQS, and SQD, and how do I earn them?

SQM are Status Qualifying Miles. You earn them by taking flights with AC or Star Alliance airline partners. They can also be earned by spending money on certain Aeroplan credit cards.

For flights, SQM are equal to approximately the distance between the two airports, multiplied by the earning rate for the fare type purchased. For example, Aeroplan calculates the distance from YYC to YYZ as 1,669 miles. A flight in Flex would earn 100% miles, i.e. 1,669 SQM. A flight in Standard would earn 25% miles, i.e. 417 SQM.

Certain credit cards award 1,000 SQM for each $10,000 (Core credit cards) or $5,000 spent (Premium credit cards).

Premium credit cards allow you to roll over up to 200K SQM over the level you qualified for in the previous year. For instance, if you flew 56,700 SQM and qualified for 50K status, you would roll over 6,700 SQM to the following year. Please see this thread for more information about the rollover benefit.

Last edited by Adam Smith; Oct 6, 2022 at 6:12 am Reason: Corrected typo
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Old Oct 6, 2022, 8:57 am
  #229  
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Originally Posted by Adam Smith
If only this were covered somewhere...
In fairness to the poster, her answer was not clearly covered in that first post. "Premium" means different things to different folks. Many would likely consider a Visa Infinite credit card to be "premium" when in fact it is not premium enough to offer that benefit.
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Old Oct 6, 2022, 9:31 am
  #230  
 
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Originally Posted by The Lev
In fairness to the poster, her answer was not clearly covered in that first post. "Premium" means different things to different folks. Many would likely consider a Visa Infinite credit card to be "premium" when in fact it is not premium enough to offer that benefit.
Agreed ... and the credit card companies don't make it easier with their subtle naming. Is the premium card the one named "privilege" or "infinite"? (Yes, I know ... but it's easy to understand why that confuses so many people)
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Old Oct 6, 2022, 11:18 am
  #231  
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Originally Posted by The Lev
In fairness to the poster, her answer was not clearly covered in that first post. "Premium" means different things to different folks. Many would likely consider a Visa Infinite credit card to be "premium" when in fact it is not premium enough to offer that benefit.
It's addressed in the very same post:

Originally Posted by Adam Smith
What are Premium and Core credit cards?

Premium cards are the highest tier Aeroplan credit cards that have an annual fee of around $600 – Amex Reserve cards or Visa Infinite Privilege cards from TD or CIBC.

Core cards are mid-tier Aeroplan credit cards with an annual fee of around $120 – Visa Infinite from CIBC or TD, the Chase card, or Amex’s basic card.
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Old Oct 6, 2022, 3:37 pm
  #232  
 
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Singapore Airlines

Originally Posted by 18wheeler_vanrekt
Hi all, I recently had the pleasure of flying business class on Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines about a week ago, which I credited to Aeroplan (and my boarding passes had the AC *G tag as a 50k to confirm this). How long do these flights usually take to post? I have my last Canada trip for the year coming up late this month, and although I can run the numbers myself it would be nice to see the SQM from these flights show up before buying a higher fare class in order to hit 35k rather than 25k. After xxx days, would I have to contact support or email my boarding pass copies to support in order to expedite this?
I flew SIN NRT using singapore airlines on monday 2355hrs and its now posted to my aeroplan account.
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Old Oct 24, 2022, 10:33 am
  #233  
 
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I find it odd that while eUp co-pays qualify for SQD, LMU and cash bids do not count for SQD. Even if they're processed by a third party, AC can still access that info, no? Does anyone have an idea of how AC justifies this?
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Old Oct 24, 2022, 10:47 am
  #234  
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Originally Posted by fbrdky
I find it odd that while eUp co-pays qualify for SQD, LMU and cash bids do not count for SQD. Even if they're processed by a third party, AC can still access that info, no? Does anyone have an idea of how AC justifies this?
They don't justify anything to anyone, they just do whatever they want to do. There are plenty of inconsistencies. Why do change fees - which are 100% revenue for AC - not count towards SQD? Why does co-pay but not seat selection fees? And so on. The co-pay on eUps is the only thing other than base fare and YQ that does count though, so if they were to try to be more consistent, the easiest way to do that would be just to stop counting that...
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Old Oct 24, 2022, 9:12 pm
  #235  
 
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Originally Posted by Sk9
I recently got my Amex Aeroplan Reserve card. This was timely as I need to make a trip, with my family of 4, in Feb from Toronto to Vancouver. I was looking forward to efficiently begin collecting miles and progress towards elite status.

Problem is that i see that there are flights as low as $400 available for a total cost of return flight for 4 people, But if I filter to star alliance flights, then the same route gives me flights from air canada for more than $2000! I could have perhaps tried to absorb a bit of premium over $400.. but 400 vs 2000 is a huge difference. Do people pay such a huge premium to gather status progress?? I am sure I am missing something as I am very new to travel points scene.
Many of frequent flyers got their status on other people's money, aka, business travelers. It is a grey area, but sometimes make sense. For one thing, many companies does not allow the business traveler to book "inflexible" fares or low cost carriers, because the potential forfeit of the whole ticket should schedule change. This will exclude most of the low prices showing up in flight searches. Moreover, companies may know that some business travelers will book higher fares to fly his/her favored airline, but most of time, the business trip itself is worth way more than the ticket price, and companies may not care. Actually, it can be seen as a part of "hidden" benefit from the company, which is not taxable and actually show as expense in the company's book, whereas the traveler can recoup the benefit when reclaiming the status for personal enjoyment. It can be said the company "bribes" the traveler to be less resistant for business trip. That explains a lot of the dynamic of the loyalty program of various airlines.

If you primarily pay air tickets out of your own pocket, it may not make sense to pursue status by paying premiums because any status benefit may be cheaper by paying as you need it for less frequent flyers.
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Old Oct 30, 2022, 11:11 am
  #236  
 
Join Date: Nov 2021
Location: YYC
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Qualifying for SE - SQD's

I have noticed a lot of posters on these boards have no problem getting the SQD's for various levels, but my issue is exactly that. I have over 120'000SQM but I am short $500 SQD to reach SE by EOY.

Is there a tactic I'm missing here, or is this mainly route dependent?

My primary routes have been YYC-YYZ, with some international family trips thrown into the mix.

Tips appreciated, thanks.
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Old Oct 30, 2022, 11:18 am
  #237  
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Fly more. Or buy more expensive tickets.
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Old Oct 30, 2022, 11:21 am
  #238  
 
Join Date: Nov 2021
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Programs: AC-75K, Marriott-Titanium Elite
Posts: 4
Originally Posted by canadiancow
Fly more. Or buy more expensive tickets.
Thanks for the prompt response, so basically when flying econ, chose flex/comfort over say standard?

YYC-YYZ flight can be so cheap sometimes, and I suspect I'll have a SQD problem running into EOY 2023, so probably best to book Flex/Comfort has minimum?
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Old Oct 30, 2022, 11:23 am
  #239  
 
Join Date: Oct 2013
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Originally Posted by canadiancow
Fly more. Or buy more expensive tickets.
/thread.

But seriously, the only thing I'd add here is to keep an eye on your SQD spending throughout the year. You don't necessarily just have to start spending more on every flight you buy, just monitor your progress and adjust accordingly.

For example, in your current situation, you could probably solve the problem by up-faring one of your remaining YYC-YYZ flights to paid Business.
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Old Oct 30, 2022, 11:44 am
  #240  
 
Join Date: Oct 2022
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Originally Posted by n2410155
Thanks for the prompt response, so basically when flying econ, chose flex/comfort over say standard?

YYC-YYZ flight can be so cheap sometimes, and I suspect I'll have a SQD problem running into EOY 2023, so probably best to book Flex/Comfort has minimum?
Economy Standard only gives you 50% SQM. I would be rather impressed if you accumulated 120K SQM by flying primarily economy standard ...
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