How Do the Aeroplan Premium Credit Card Rollover Benefits Work?

One of the key features of the premium Aeroplan co-branded credit cards is the ability to roll over unused Status Qualifying Miles (SQM) and eUpgrades to the following year.

Rolling over unused SQM gives you a boost on qualifying for Aeroplan Elite Status the next year, and rolling over eUpgrades can be helpful for flying in Air Canada Signature Class at a steep discount.

The rollover benefits are only applicable to cardholders with either the American Express Aeroplan Reserve Card, the American Express Aeroplan Business Reserve Card, the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege Card, or the CIBC Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege Card. If you don’t have one of these cards, you aren’t eligible for any rollover benefits.

We’ve noticed quite a few questions about the rollover benefits popping up in the Prince of Travel Elites Facebook group lately, so we’ll go over all of the pertinent details in this article.

What Are the Aeroplan Premium Credit Card Rollover Benefits?

The four premium Aeroplan credit cards come with a feature that lets cardholders roll over unused Status Qualifying Miles (SQM) and eUpgrades to the next year. 

Aeroplan Premium Credit Cards

Credit Card	Best Offer	Value
105,000 Aeroplan points $599 annual fee	105,000 Aeroplan points	$1,921	Apply Now
Up to 90,000 Aeroplan points $599 annual fee	Up to 90,000 Aeroplan points	$1,921	Apply Now
90,000 Aeroplan points $599 annual fee	90,000 Aeroplan points	$1,449	Apply Now
90,000 Aeroplan points $599 annual fee	90,000 Aeroplan points	$676	Apply Now

The rollover benefits are only applicable to the primary cardholder, so if you have any additional cardholders on your account, they won’t be able to roll over unused SQM or eUpgrades from their own accounts.

In addition to holding an eligible credit card, you must also have qualified for Aeroplan Elite Status organically to benefit from the SQM or eUpgrade rollover benefits. This means that you must have reached the Status Qualifying Miles or Status Qualifying Segments and the Status Qualifying Dollars threshold for any of the Aeroplan 25K, 35K, 50K, 75K, or Super Elite tiers to be eligible for rollover benefits.

If you were gifted status or if you earned status any other way, such as through Everyday Status Qualification or the Chase Aeroplan Card, you won’t be able to roll over any unused SQM or eUpgrades. 

Should you decide to close the credit card account after you’ve rolled over unused SQM or eUpgrades, the terms and conditions state that the rolled over SQM and eUpgrades will be removed from your account, and any status earned as a result of the rolled over SQM may also be rescinded. 

The good news is that if you have any SQM or eUpgrades that are eligible to be rolled over, as long as you have been approved for a premium Aeroplan credit card by December 15 of the qualifying year, you don’t need to do anything else to have the benefits rolled over. It’s a process that requires no extra effort on your part, and the rolled over SQM and eUpgrades will appear in your Aeroplan account by March 30 of the following year.

In practice, the rollover usually happens well in advance of March 30. In 2022, many members had the rolled over SQM and eUpgrades back in their accounts by the end of January. 

How Does the Status Qualifying Miles Rollover Benefit Work?

For the SQM rollover benefit, the primary cardholder can roll over up to 200,000 SQM from the prior qualification year to the next qualification year. The rolled over SQM will be helpful in requalifying for status again, as it gives you a boost for the following year.

Air Canada calculates the unused SQM to roll over by subtracting the SQM required for the status you qualified for from the amount of SQM available in your account. The difference is then redeposited in your Aeroplan account by no later than March 30 of the next year.

For example, suppose you qualified organically for Aeroplan 35K status in 2022, and at the end of the year, you wound up with 46,000 SQM, 21 SQS, and $4,500 SQD. 

Since the SQM threshold for Aeroplan 35K status is 35,000 SQM, you’d be able to roll over 11,000 SQM to the 2023 qualifying year, since there are 11,000 SQM that you didn’t use to qualify for your status. 

Note that the rollover benefit doesn’t apply to SQS or SQD, so you’ll need to start from scratch for those each year.

If you’ve rolled over unused SQM before, those SQM can’t be rolled over again. The rollover benefit only extends the life of the rolled over SQM by one year, and not any longer.

You can check to see how many SQM you have by signing in to your Aeroplan account. Under the “Status” tab, you can see the number of Status Qualifying Miles, Status Qualifying Segments, and Status Qualifying Dollars you’ve earned in the current and preceding qualifying year.

How Does the eUpgrade Rollover Benefit Work?

Up to 50 eUpgrades can be rolled over to the next benefit year through the premium Aeroplan credit card rollover benefit. The expiration date of the rolled over eUpgrades will be in mid-January of the following year, which essentially extends their expiration by exactly one year.

Only eUpgrades earned through Aeroplan Elite Status qualification count, which means that any eUpgrades earned through promotions or that were rolled over from the previous year aren’t eligible to be rolled over again. Note that eUpgrades earned through Threshold Rewards qualify for the rollover benefit. 

Keep in mind that your eUpgrades need to be valid for the date of travel in order to be used. A common misconception about the rollover benefit is that you can just apply eUpgrades to bookings with travel past their expiration date if you have a premium Aeroplan credit card, since they’ll eventually be rolled over. 

You have to wait until the rolled over eUpgrades are redeposited into your account to be able to use them on any bookings. They’ll disappear for a few weeks once they expire in mid-January, and then they’ll reappear once the rollover has been triggered. 

If you have more than one Aeroplan premium credit card, the total sum of rolled over eUpgrades cannot exceed 50. 

You can see the expiration date of your eUpgrades in your Aeroplan account dashboard. After you’ve signed in, head over to your benefits page, and then click on “Visit site” under your eUpgrade balance. 

You’ll then arrive at your eUpgrade dashboard, and by clicking on “View” under “My credit history”, you’ll see a breakdown of the expiration date of the eUpgrades in your account. 

The list on this page is also where you’ll see your rollover eUpgrades appear after the process has been completed.

If you have a premium Aeroplan credit card, you can essentially extend the life of up to 50 eUpgrades to up to two and a half years.

Recall that any eUpgrades earned between January 1 and June 30 are valid until January of the next year, but any eUpgrades earned on or after July 1 will be valid until mid-January of the year after the next year.

For example, if you’re a Super Elite, you can choose to have 50 eUpgrades as one of your Select Benefits. If you made your selection on or after July 1, 2022, those eUpgrades will be valid until mid-January 2024. 

If you haven’t made use of them by mid-January 2024, and if you have any of the eligible premium Aeroplan credit cards, those same eUpgrades will be rolled over to be valid until mid-January 2025. As long as you maintain your status over those years, you can extend the validity period of eUpgrades until a time where you can make full use of them.

eUpgrades can be very useful for booking flights in Air Canada Signature Class without paying top dollar or being subject to the wrong side of dynamic pricing for Aeroplan redemptions. Being able to extend their life by another year can indeed be a very valuable perk that can in part justify the higher annual fees on the premium Aeroplan credit cards. 

Conclusion

Cardholders of premium Aeroplan credit cards, such as the American Express Aeroplan Reserve Card, the American Express Aeroplan Business Reserve Card, the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege Card, or the CIBC Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege Card, can roll over unused Status Qualifying Miles and eUpgrades for another year. 

Rolled over Status Qualifying Miles can make requalifying for Aeroplan Elite Status easier the next year, and having additional eUpgrades at your disposal can wind up saving you a tidy sum of cash or Aeroplan points. 

As long as you have been approved for one of the premium Aeroplan credit cards by December 15 each year, you’ll be eligible for the rollover benefits. There’s nothing else you need to do to have your unused SQM or eUpgrades rolled over, as the process happens automatically.

The rollover benefits are some of the key features that differentiate the premium Aeroplan credit cards from the other cards, so be sure to have one in your portfolio if you think you stand to gain from the perk.