Air Canada + Aeroplan

Review by eFreeware

Most airline apps are booking tools with a flight status screen bolted on. The Air Canada + Aeroplan app is built around a different idea: that the trip itself should be visible on your phone from the moment you book until your bag appears at the carousel. It is the airline's own free app, and it ties booking, loyalty and day-of-travel guidance into one place.

That makes it a natural fit for people who fly Air Canada regularly, whether they are chasing Elite status or just want their boarding pass and bag updates in one spot. If you only fly the airline once a year, the app still covers the basics, but the loyalty side is where most of the depth sits. It has been on Google Play since December 2015 and has built a large audience, with more than 5 million installs and a 4.6 average across 46,634 ratings.

There is no charge to download it, no advertising and no in-app purchases. The value comes from what you already have with the airline: your bookings and, if you have one, your Aeroplan account.

Booking with cash, points or a mix of both

The booking flow is the part Air Canada leads with, and it offers three ways to pay for a trip. Payment options include cash, Aeroplan points, or a mix of both via Points + Cash. The developer also says points can be used to cover taxes, fees and charges entirely, which is the detail that matters most for anyone trying to stretch a points balance.

I like that the three options sit inside the same booking path rather than being split across separate tools. For someone with a modest points balance, the Points + Cash route is the interesting middle ground: it lets a partial balance do real work instead of sitting unused until it grows large enough for a full redemption. The ability to put taxes and fees on points is the kind of thing frequent flyers notice, because those charges are often what makes an award ticket feel less like a reward.

Signing in with Aeroplan is what opens this up. The same sign-in gives you your points balance, Elite status progress and recent transactions, so you can check where you stand before deciding how to pay. The app also gathers the Aeroplan eStore, car rentals and hotel bookings in the same place, which turns it into a general loyalty hub rather than a pure flight tool.

Live updates that reach your lock screen

The feature I would use most is Live Activities. Flight updates appear on your Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island, so boarding calls, gate changes and status changes show up without you opening anything. The developer's pitch is that you get the details at a glance, and that is exactly the scenario where a lock screen earns its keep: standing in a terminal with a coffee in one hand and a gate change you did not hear announced.

Bag tracking is the other half of that idea. Checked bags are followed from drop-off through to the carousel, with notifications along the way. Two moments stand out: being told to collect your bag at a connecting airport, and being told it is ready after arrival. Anyone who has stood at a belt wondering whether to keep waiting will understand why that second notification matters.

The Journey screen then pulls the day together with step-by-step guidance tied to your specific booking. It covers pre-travel tips, when to arrive at the airport and where to drop bags, plus connection and layover details. Rather than a generic checklist, it is built around the itinerary you actually hold, which is the sensible way to do it.

Boarding passes and finding your way around terminals

Both the app and Apple Wallet keep the boarding pass available offline. Push notifications update it when things change, including seat changes and upgrades, so the version on your phone should match what the gate expects. That combination of offline access and live updates is the right one for air travel, where a signal is not guaranteed at the worst possible moment.

The airport navigation feature gives turn-by-turn directions and walk times inside terminals. Airport maps are included for 12 locations, among them Toronto (YYZ), Montreal (YUL) and Vancouver (YVR). Knowing how long a walk takes is genuinely useful when a connection is tight, and a moving map beats squinting at a signboard.

The scope here is worth stating plainly: twelve airports is a real but limited footprint, and if your itinerary runs through one that is not covered, you will fall back on signage like everyone else.

What the app asks of your phone

The app requests several permissions, and each one is tied to a stated purpose. Location is used to show the closest airports for booking and flight status, to present the right boarding pass at a connecting airport, and to place you on the airport maps. Wi-Fi information is used to check whether Rouge flights have a working connection for their onboard entertainment.

Calendar permission lets the app add your upcoming flights to your calendar. Notifications carry service messages about your travel, which is how the live updates and bag alerts reach you. Camera access is for adding images to feedback you send to the airline, and device and app information such as phone model, language and version is attached to issue reports.

The developer notes that some settings may need to change for particular features to work, and that device data is collected to serve the correct software and to maintain and develop its services. Personal information handling is set out in the airline's privacy policy. None of this is unusual for an airline app, but it is a set of permissions worth granting deliberately rather than tapping through.

Getting the most out of it before you fly

The practical move is to sign in with Aeroplan early, before you need anything. Once your account is linked, your balance and Elite progress are there when you are weighing cash against points, and your bookings are attached to the app rather than living in an email folder. That setup is the difference between using the app as a reference and using it as the tool it is meant to be.

Before departure, enable notifications. The lock screen updates, gate changes and bag alerts all depend on them, and without that permission the app loses much of its advantage over checking a website. If you want your itinerary mirrored in your phone's calendar, grant calendar access as well.

During the trip, let the Journey screen set the pace: it tells you when to arrive, where to drop bags and what your connection involves. Add the boarding pass to Apple Wallet if that is where you keep things, since it works offline there. The most recent update was in September 2026 and consisted of behind-the-scenes work on reliability, so there is no new feature to learn this time around.

A practical companion for Air Canada travelers

For anyone who flies Air Canada with any regularity, this is an easy app to keep on the phone. It is free, carries no ads and no in-app purchases, and it brings booking, loyalty and day-of-travel information together instead of scattering them. The points flexibility stands out, particularly the option to cover taxes and fees with points, and the live updates and bag tracking address the two things travelers actually worry about: whether the gate changed and where the bag went.

The limits are the airline's own. The airport navigation covers 12 airports, so it will not help at every stop on every itinerary, and the app is built around Air Canada and Aeroplan rather than air travel in general. It also asks for location, notifications, calendar and Wi-Fi permissions to deliver its better features, which is a fair trade but a trade nonetheless.

My recommendation is straightforward: if Air Canada is your airline, install it, sign in with Aeroplan and turn notifications on. If you fly the airline only occasionally, it still handles the essentials, and the price of admission is nothing.

What's new in version 5.78.0

In this update, we've made behind-the-scenes tweaks for a smoother, more reliable app experience.