How to understand Canada Air Passenger Protection Regulations: Air Canada and United

Canada's Air Passenger Protection Regulations are not described in the Air Canada and United pages cited here. Those pages do not establish the regulation's scope — which flights it covers — and they publish no disruption categories, no compensation amounts and no rebooking, refund or assistance entitlements under the regulation. This article therefore sets out what the cited pages do and do not contain rather than restating figures. [3] [5] [6]

Facts checked: 18 October 2026

Key takeaways

The Air Canada and United pages cited here publish no disruption categories, no compensation amounts and no rebooking, refund or assistance rules under the regulation, and they do not establish the regulation's scope, so no figure, entitlement or scope statement is given here. [3] [5] [6]
The cited pages describe operations rather than legal entitlements: United's Air Canada page tells travellers to download the Air Canada app for flight updates, including gate information and any disruptions. [3]
Air Canada's own site navigation lists a Flight Disruptions page under Flight Information and, under Customer Support, a Customer Service Plan, Refund Services and a Customer Relations contact. [5]
Aeroplan points follow a separate inactivity rule: they expire only if an account has been inactive for 18 months, and Air Canada says points expiry is temporarily paused. [5]

Disruption categories, and what the cited pages publish

The question this article was built around is how a disruption is classified under the regulation, and what compensation, rebooking, refund and assistance follow from each class. The pages cited here — United's page on earning MileagePlus miles on Air Canada, Air Canada's Aeroplan inactivity policy and its Aeroplan Elite status page — do not describe how disruption categories are defined, and do not publish the entitlements attached to them. [3] [5] [6]

That gap matters because the value of a claim depends on how a disruption is classified. No amount is given in this article, because the cited pages contain none. The cited pages are not a substitute for the regulation or the airline's own published disruption policy, neither of which is cited here. [3] [5] [6]

The cited pages do not discuss the regulation's reach, including whether it varies by carrier, fare type or programme. The Air Canada pages describe Air Canada's own customer-support and flight-information structure, and the United page describes how MileagePlus members earn on Air Canada-operated flights; neither says anything about who is entitled to statutory compensation. [3] [5]

Where the cited pages send you

The most concrete operational advice in the cited material comes from United's Air Canada page, which tells travellers to download the Air Canada app to get updates on flight details, including gate information and any disruptions. [3] That is a practical tip about information flow, not a statement of entitlement, and it is specific to Air Canada-operated travel. [3]

Air Canada's own site navigation, as it appears on the Air Canada pages cited here, is more useful as a map of where the airline puts disruption material. Flight Disruptions sits under Flight Information; a Customer Service Plan, Refund Services and a Customer Relations contact sit under Customer Support; and an "On My Way" service is listed under Peace of Mind. [5] The contents of those pages are not part of the cited material, so this article does not summarise them. [5]

For the procedural side of a claim — how a complaint moves from the airline to a reviewer — the companion page on flight complaint escalation covers the sequence, and the page on refund versus travel credit sets out why the form of a repayment matters. The airline's contract of carriage is the document that sits alongside the regulation.

Points, status and a disrupted trip

A disrupted trip raises two separate questions: what the passenger is owed under the regulation, and what happens to the points and status attached to the booking. The cited pages answer only the second. [5] [6]

On Aeroplan, points expire only if an account has been inactive for 18 months, and a member stays active by earning or redeeming at least one Aeroplan point within an 18-month period. [5] Air Canada says points expiry is temporarily paused, and says it emails members up to 60 days before points would expire. [5] Expired points can be bought back for a fee, or reinstated if the member flies with Air Canada within six months of expiry, with travel inside that six-month window. [5] Missing points can be claimed for a hotel stay or car rental within the last six months, or for a flight booking within 11 months of the departure date, and Air Canada notes that some exceptions apply. [5]

On status, Air Canada's Aeroplan Elite page describes a single qualification path through Status Qualifying Credits accumulated within a calendar year, and carries a notice that how Aeroplan points are earned with Air Canada has changed for travel on or after 1 January 2026; it states that flights booked in the Economy Basic fare option accumulate no SQC. [6] The page explains earning from flown spend, partners and credit cards; it does not describe any adjustment for flights that are cancelled, delayed or rerouted. [6]

How a claim is valued, and whether a passenger chooses compensation or a rebooking, is covered in involuntary denied boarding compensation compared.

Exceptions, limits and what is not covered

Carrier tiers. The cited pages say nothing about whether the regulation varies a carrier's obligations by its size, so this article describes no such tier. [3] [5] [6]
Amounts and entitlements. No APPR compensation figure, rebooking standard, refund rule or assistance standard appears in the cited pages. [3] [5] [6]
Airline pages not cited. Air Canada's Flight Disruptions page, its Customer Service Plan and its Refund Services page are listed on the airline's site but are not among the pages cited here, so their content is not summarised. [5]
A temporary pause. Because Air Canada describes the pause on Aeroplan points expiry as temporary, any date calculated from the 18-month inactivity rule may move. [5]
Claims with carve-outs. The missing-points windows are stated with the caveat that some exceptions apply, and the reinstatement route requires travel within six months rather than booking within six months. [5]
Carrier-specific advice. The app tip comes from United's Air Canada page, is given for Air Canada-operated travel, and does not describe how any other carrier communicates a disruption. [3]

Sources

Sources accessed on 18 October 2026. Only Air Canada's Aeroplan pages and United's Air Canada earning page are cited; the text of the regulation itself and the regulator's published guidance are not cited here, so the regulation's scope, its disruption categories and its amounts are not established in this article. The frequent flyer programmes of other Canadian and foreign carriers, and the disruption policies of carriers other than Air Canada, are also not cited here.

United Airlines: Earn United miles on Air Canada, checked 18 October 2026
Air Canada Aeroplan: Keeping your Aeroplan account active, checked 18 October 2026
Air Canada Aeroplan Elite Status, checked 18 October 2026