Air Canada announced that from March 1 through June 30, if you booked an Air Canada ticket, you can make one free change. At the same time, if you cancel the ticket for any reason, you can choose to convert it into an Air Canada travel voucher with no expiration date, or into Aeroplan miles with a 65% bonus.
We have implemented highly flexible and expanded booking options. You can make a one-time change without a fee for all new or existing bookings made through June 30, 2020 for original travel between March 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021. If you booked directly with Air Canada and you need to cancel for any reason, you can convert your ticket to an Air Canada Travel Voucher that has no expiry date or to Aeroplan Miles with an additional 65% bonus miles.
Based on the math, refunding a $750 ticket would get you 57,500 Aeroplan miles, which works out to acquiring miles at 1.3c/p. Air Canada normally sells miles for 0.03CAD per point; after the 65% bonus, the cost comes to 0.018CAD per point. Converted into U.S. dollars, that means each Aeroplan mile costs about $0.013.
If you missed Air Canada's previous mileage sales and want to pick up some Aeroplan miles at a low cost, this indirect way of buying points may be worth considering. Of course, with Air Canada constantly rolling out new twists, is there a risk the airline could go under? Could the miles become worthless or suffer a major devaluation? No one can say for sure.