Air Canada Business Class: What It’s Like and How to Fly for Less

Air Canada is one of North America’s largest carriers. It serves hundreds of destinations around the world from its major hubs in Toronto (YYZ), Montreal (YUL), and Vancouver (YVR).

Air Canada calls its loyalty program Aeroplan. It’s a hyper-useful program for U.S. travelers (even if you never fly Air Canada), which is why we rank it the second-best airline rewards program in existence. You can use its points to fly on fun partners like Lufthansa, SWISS, United Airlines, and many more at a great price.

But one of the best uses for Aeroplan points is for Air Canada’s modern business class seats. Let’s take a look at how to book the fanciest Air Canada seats for pennies on the dollar.

What to know about flying Air Canada business class 

Air Canada has a broader definition of “business class” than most other North American carriers.

Its regional premium cabin that you probably know as domestic first class (think slightly larger and cushier economy seats at the front of the plane) is called Air Canada Business Class. You’ll find these seats on shorter flights.

Formerly called International Business Class, the airline’s fanciest cabin is now called Air Canada Signature Service. These are lie-flat beds for long-haul routes within North America and beyond. You’ll find them on the following aircraft:

• Boeing 787
• Boeing 777
• Airbus A330

Air Canada also has two 767-300 planes with lie-flat business class seats available.

The best routes to fly in business class on Air Canada

Air Canada serves over 60 destinations with its lie-flat Signature Service — and a whole lot more if you count its standard recliner business class seats. Those don’t offer a true business-class experience, though.

Here’s a map of routes you can book for a lie-flat seat on Air Canada (use it as a guideline only).

Interesting routes include:

• Vancouver (YVR) to Bangkok (BKK)
• Montreal (YUL) to Casablanca (CMN)
• Toronto (YYZ) to Tokyo (NRT)
• Vancouver (YVR) to Brisbane (BNE)
• Toronto (YYZ) to Edinburgh (EDI)

Air Canada flies its stunning Boeing 787 Dreamliners on all of these routes, guaranteeing a gorgeous and (relatively) modern cabin — including those awesome window dimmer buttons in lieu of a physical shade.

What to expect when flying Air Canada business class

Air Canada business class is an elevated experience from the moment you get to the airport. Here’s what you can expect. 

Check-in and security clearance 

Whether you’ve booked the standard business class recliners or the lie-flat Signature Service seats, you’ll receive Air Canada’s Priority Services perk. This gives you a dedicated business class check-in experience when traveling from Toronto (basically a partitioned-off area with a few comfy couches and chairs for Signature Service customers). 

Traveling from anywhere else, you’ll still get to skip the regular economy check-in line with exclusive business class counters.

You’ll also have an expedited security screening experience with dedicated lanes at several dozen major airports around the world.

Luggage allowance

Business class passengers get two free 70 lb checked bags — whether you’re hopping down to Orlando or traveling thousands of miles away to Mumbai. This is considerably more generous than economy fares, which typically charge $35+ CAD for the first 50 lb bag within North America. You’ll also need to pay for your checked bags when booking an international standard reward flight (generally $75 CAD/USD). 

Business class luggage will also get a priority tag, marking your luggage as the first to appear on the baggage claim carousel. Just another small but convenient time saver.

Lounge access

Air Canada boasts an airport lounge collection of above-average quality. You can find them in 23 airports around the world. They include free food and alcohol, showers, and other standard features like free Wi-Fi and business centers.

Beyond Air Canada-owned lounges, you can enter more than 1,000 Star Alliance Lounges when flying international business class.

Seats

Air Canada’s business class doesn’t make many headlines, but that doesn’t mean its seats aren’t solid. They’re also situated in an aesthetically fresh cabin.

Seat width varies between 20 and 21 inches, depending on the aircraft. This is slightly below average when compared to U.S. carriers like American Airlines and United Airlines. But the seat pitch is fantastic at 70 to 80 inches — nearly the length of the lie-flat seat, in most cases. This translates to either:

• The flatbed seat feels less like a CAT scan than other airlines, as your legs won’t descend as deeply into the recess of the seat in front of you
• Less extreme seat angles

Air Canada’s seats also have massage and lumbar support functions that can be activated by touch screen. You can also independently adjust different segments of the seat.

Food and drink

Air Canada shines when it comes to onboard dining. They’ve partnered with award-winning chefs David Hawksworth, Jérôme Ferrer, and Vikram Vij to dream up a wide variety of region-specific meals. The airline also curates its wine list with the help of celebrated sommelier Véronique Rivest.

Depending on your route, you can expect main course options like Chicken Piccata, Marinated Beef Satay, and Tomato Confit Gemelli Pasta.

Air Canada offers dine-on-demand (not a given with many airline business class experiences), meaning you can eat when you want. You can opt for the standard multi-course menu or an express light meal option soon after takeoff.

Service, amenities, and in-flight entertainment

Air Canada’s inflight entertainment is fueled by streaming services like Apple TV+, Disney+, and the Canadian platform Hayu.

In addition, Air Canada offers Wi-Fi, which is free for Air Canada Aeroplan members. Beginning in May 2025, Air Canada will begin rolling out Wi-Fi capable of streaming and gaming.

How much it costs to fly Air Canada business class

If you can afford to pay cash for Air Canada business class, you’ll typically spend at least $2,000 (sometimes much more) one-way for long-haul Signature Service seats.

The exorbitant prices make reserving flights through your credit card’s travel portal a bad idea. After all, you’ll only get between 1-1.5 cents per point when redeeming for flights through a bank portal – that’s potentially hundreds of thousands of points each way.

Instead, you can convert your credit card points into Air Canada Aeroplan points to book these same flights for a fraction of the price. Air Canada prices its award seats according to its (somewhat convoluted) Aeroplan award chart. Long story short, it’s based on two factors:

1. The distance you fly
2. The geographic regions of both your origin and destination airports

Depending on your exact route, you could pay as little as 15,000 points or as much as 200,000+ points each way in business class. Still, it’s almost always cheaper than booking through a bank portal. 

For example, a one-way business class flight between Toronto (YYZ) and Amsterdam (AMS) costs $5,493.

But you can reserve the same flight for 64,500 Aeroplan points and $77 CAD. That’s a value of more than eight cents per point — an astoundingly better deal than booking through a bank portal, which would cost between 366,200 and 549,300 points, depending on the portal.

You can also book seats through Air Canada’s partner airlines, including Avianca, Singapore Airlines, and United Airlines. Sometimes, the award price will be less than Air Canada, and sometimes, it will be more. Point.me will show you all your options and help you find the best deal.

How much it costs to upgrade to business class on Air Canada 

When you book an eligible Air Canada fare, whether an award flight or cash booking, you can potentially upgrade your seat to business class.

First, you can bid on an upgrade for each flight segment with either cash or Aeroplan points. You can bid between 2-10 days before departure, and you’ll be notified within 36-48 hours of departure if your bid has been accepted. Depending on how low you bid, this can be a fair use of your rewards.

It’s also worth mentioning that you may be able to upgrade your Air Canada flight even when you book through a partner airline’s loyalty program.

Air Canada also offers a “Last Minute Upgrade Purchase,” which allows you to pay cash for an upgrade within 24 hours of departure. These can be absolute steals if Air Canada is desperate to fill its vacant business-class seats.

Finally, if you have Aeroplan elite status, you can redeem your eUpgrade credits” instead of cash or points to upgrade your eligible seat. Click the eUpgrade filter on the Aeroplan website to find flights that are eligible for an upgrade. If no seats are currently available, you’ll be waitlisted.

Just note that Basic Economy fares and codeshare flights can’t be upgraded.

How to save on Air Canada business class tickets

Air Canada may wheel out a business class sale every once in a while — but cash prices even during a generous promotion typically cost more than most of us are willing to spend.

The one exception is if Air Canada publishes a “mistake fare,” a ticket mispriced by thousands of dollars. These are extremely rare, and they don’t last long. If you find one, pounce on it. Wait to make any other travel plans just in case Air Canada decides to void the ticket.

Upgrades

Instead of relying on a fire sale business class promotion, monitor sales for coach seats (not Basic Economy). Then look to upgrade these with points or cash later.

This method is a bit risky; you’re not guaranteed to get the upgrade. But the potential savings may be worth the gamble.

Travel rewards

Again, using points and miles to book an award flight is the cheapest way to secure an Air Canada business class seat. Taxes and fees are generally palatable when booking through Aeroplan.

Here’s a snapshot of Air Canada’s business class prices to/from the U.S.:

Distance (miles)	Within North America	Between North America and Atlantic zones	Between North America and Pacific zones	Between North America and South America
0-500	15,000-25,000 points
0-2,500				40,000-150,000 points
0-4,000		60,000-160,000 points
0-5,000			55,000-150,000 points
501-1,500	20,000-35,000 points
1,501-2,750	25,000-60,000 points
2,501-4,500				50,000-175,000 points
2,751+	35,000-70,000 points
4,001-6,000		70,000-180,000 points
4,501+				60,000-200,000 points
5,001-7,500			75,000-175,000 points
6,001-8,000		85,000-200,000 points
7,501-11,000			85,000-200,000 points
8,001+		100,000-220,000 points
11,001+			105,000-250,000 points

We (of course) recommend only booking Aeroplan award flights when prices are on the low end of these ranges. Unless you’re flush with points, you generally shouldn’t consider dropping 250,000 points on a single award flight. That’s where point.me can help you out — if there’s a cheaper way to fly your desired route, we’ll find it for you. Just enter your details into the search box and we’ll do the hard stuff.

How to book Air Canada business class with points

There are a few ways to book Air Canada business class with points. And not all of them are good deals.

How to book Air Canada business class using your credit card portal 

Remember, cash prices for Air Canada business class are a nonstarter unless you’ve got thousands to spend. Booking these fares through a travel portal is a good way to zero out your reward balances in a hurry.

Bank points like Chase Ultimate Rewards are worth between 1 cent and 1.5 cents each toward airfare, depending on the card you hold. In other words, you’ll likely need hundreds of thousands of points to reserve a seat. For example, if a business class flight costs $4,000 in cash, you’ll pay:

• 400,000 miles through Capital One Travel if you hold the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
• 320,000 points through Chase Travel if you hold the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
• 266,667 points through Amex Travel if you hold The Business Platinum Card® from American Express

There is no scenario where Air Canada would charge this much for an award seat.

Which credit card points transfer to Aeroplan?

You can transfer the following credit card rewards to Aeroplan:

• American Express Membership Rewards® points
• Chase Ultimate Rewards® points
• Bilt Rewards
• Capital One miles

You can also transfer Marriott Bonvoy points to Air Canada at a 3:1 ratio. And when you transfer in increments of 60,000, you’ll get a 5,000-point bonus.

How to book Air Canada business class using Aeroplan points

To book Air Canada award flights with Aeroplan points, you’ll first need to sign into your account. Then, simply enter your travel info and tick the “Book with Aeroplan points” box to begin your search. You can filter the results by airline, number of stops, etc.

If you don’t have enough Aeroplan points, you can transfer one of the previously mentioned transferable rewards currencies to Aeroplan nearly instantly.

What other loyalty programs can you use to book Air Canada business class? 

Air Canada is a member of the Star Alliance, a collection of 25 carriers. You can use many of these partner airline loyalty programs to book Air Canada business class, including:

• All Nippon Airways (ANA)
• Avianca
• Lufthansa
• Singapore Airlines
• Turkish Airlines
• United

How to book Air Canada business class using points from a partner airline

You can book Air Canada business class using the airline miles of Air Canada’s partners. Again, it won’t always be a better deal — but if you’ve got more miles in one program than another, you may prefer to burn those rewards instead of Aeroplan points.

For example, a flight from Toronto (YYZ) to Santiago, Chile (SCL) costs 58,300 Aeroplan points.

The same exact seat, when booked through United Airlines, costs considerably more at 88,000 miles. That’s still a good deal when you consider the cash price of this business class flight is more than $2,000. If you have lots of United miles burning a hole in your pocket, don’t feel guilty about booking through United MileagePlus instead of Aeroplan.

Tips for finding business class award availability on Air Canada 

Searching for award flights via Aeroplan’s website can sometimes test your patience — especially because the airline lists mixed-cabin awards as business class options. If you’re not paying attention, you may book a “business class” fare for which more than 90% of your travel is in economy class.

For example, your itinerary to Paris may consist of:

• A business-class flight from Montreal to Toronto
• An economy flight from Toronto to Paris

You can use a bit of strategy when searching for your flights to help weed that stuff out. For example, you can search exclusively for nonstops between your origin and destination. The Aeroplan website gives you a helpful filter for this. You can also stipulate that you only want results for Air Canada flights.

Should you book Air Canada business class? 

Air Canada business class is a delightful way to spend a handful of hours at 37,000 feet. Its Signature Class seats found on long-haul flights are on par (better, in some cases) with the best seats offered by North American carriers — and it often charges fewer points for the experience.

Air Canada award prices can vary greatly depending on demand. If you can find one priced at the lower end of the spectrum, it’s absolutely worth the redemption.