July 23, 2026
Points & MilesCalm Air Aeroplan Awards Are Now Bookable Online, and Winnipeg-Churchill Is an Incredible Redemption
As a Winnipegger who wants to explore more of Manitoba and Northern Canada, this is great news!
Calm Air is the regional airline connecting Winnipeg to communities across northern Manitoba and Nunavut, places like Churchill, Thompson, and The Pas, where in a lot of cases it is one of the only ways of transport in or out. As of July 22, 2026, Calm Air and Aeroplan are letting you book Aeroplan redemptions online instead of having to call in, which makes it a whole lot easier to plan a trip up north.
Before this week, redeeming points on Calm Air meant calling Calm Air Reservations directly and having an agent manually check availability for you. There was no searching online, no seeing what was open, just a phone call and some patience. Now those awards show up right on aircanada.com like any other Aeroplan partner flight.
I wanted to break down what's actually different, what to watch out for, and why the Winnipeg to Churchill route in particular is one of the best redemptions on the entire Aeroplan chart. Keep reading for the numbers.
Image Header Source: Travel Manitoba
What Changed on July 22
Source: Calm Air
Three things changed, and they all point the same direction: less friction.
You can search and book online now. Aeroplan reward space on Calm Air flights shows up directly on aircanada.com the same way any other partner award would. You no longer need to call and ask an agent to manually check.
Calm Air can now be combined with other Aeroplan partners. Before this change, a Calm Air segment had to stand completely on its own within a redemption. Now it can be built into a bigger itinerary alongside Air Canada or other Aeroplan partner flights. I found some mixed itineraries with Air Canada and Calm Air while testing, but availability isn't plentiful yet. Let's see how availability expands as time goes on.
The point of contact has shifted. Any Calm Air Aeroplan booking made before July 22 is still handled by Calm Air Reservations for changes or questions. Anything booked from July 22 onward goes through Aeroplan instead.
Note: I'm one day into this change as I write this, so it's worth searching a few different dates before assuming something isn't available. The system may still be settling in.
A Few Rules Worth Knowing Before You Book
Source: Calm Air
This isn't quite the same as booking any other Aeroplan partner award. A few things to keep in mind.
Book at least 48 hours out. Most Aeroplan awards only require a two hour buffer before departure. Calm Air needs 48 hours, so this isn't the redemption to try to pull off last minute.
There's a $39 CAD partner booking fee per ticket. This applies because Calm Air isn't Air Canada, Air Canada Express, Air Canada Rouge, or Landline. This fee isn't a surprise add-on at checkout either, it's already baked into the taxes and fees total you see when you search, alongside things like the airport improvement fee.
Calling in adds a $30 CAD fee. Booking online through aircanada.com avoids this. If your itinerary won't process online, calling Aeroplan may still work, just expect that extra charge.
The Real Reason to Care: This Redemption Is One of the Best in Canada
Here's where it gets good.
Aeroplan prices Calm Air awards using its regional Canada chart, which means the point cost is fixed based on distance, not on how expensive the cash fare happens to be that day. Routes like Winnipeg to Churchill or Winnipeg to Thompson have short flight distances but brutally expensive cash fares, because there's no road access and Calm Air is often the only way in or out.
Short distance plus high cash fare is exactly the formula for outsized point value.
Winnipeg to Churchill
Typical cash fares for this route run somewhere between $1,800 and $2,050 round trip, with this round-trip itinerary I found for $1,893 being about average.
The one way award pricing I found:
- Winnipeg to Churchill: 15,000 points + roughly $79 in taxes and fees
- Churchill to Winnipeg: 15,000 points + roughly $39 in taxes and fees
Round trip, that's 30,000 points plus about $118 in fees.
Run the math against the $1,893 cash fare and you land at roughly 5.92 cents per point, which is well above what most of us target for a good Aeroplan redemption (usually somewhere around 1.5 to 2 cents per point is considered solid). This is nearly triple that.
The best part: that 15,000 point price is fixed. It won't surge during peak polar bear or aurora season the way a cash fare will, and it won't move around the way Air Canada's own dynamically priced awards do.
Winnipeg to Thompson
Same story, slightly smaller scale. Cash round trip pricing I found came in around $1,195.
Award pricing:
- Winnipeg to Thompson: 15,000 points + roughly $89
- Thompson to Winnipeg: 15,000 points + roughly $102
That's 30,000 points plus about $191 in fees round trip, working out to roughly 3.35 cents per point. This is a very strong redemption!
The Bottom Line: Should You Book Calm Air With Points?
If you've got Aeroplan points sitting around and a trip up north on your radar, using Aeroplan points for Calm Air flights is well worth it, especially on their higher priced routes. As always, compare the cost in cash vs points before booking. Churchill in particular is about as good as Aeroplan redemptions get right now in Canada, points-wise.
Happy travels!
