Aeroplan is expanding its partnership with DINR, a Canadian restaurant reservation platform, so that DINR Premium members now earn Aeroplan points for dining out. You’ll get 1,000 bonus Aeroplan points when you buy a DINR Premium membership, plus at least 100 points for every completed reservation.
If you haven’t come across DINR before, you’re probably not alone, so let me start with what it is before getting into the earning rules and whether the membership is worth it.
What Is DINR?
DINR is a dining and hospitality platform that was founded in Montréal and now covers restaurants across Canada. It started in 2014 as an app for last-minute, same-day tables, and Toronto wine app Somm bought it in 2022. You use its website or app to book tables at a curated list of restaurants, buy tickets to culinary events and chef collaborations, and read its editorial coverage of chefs and restaurants.
It’s also the operating partner behind Air Canada’s annual Canada’s Best New Restaurants ranking, which is how it ended up working with Aeroplan. The two companies first teamed up in October 2025, and this expansion adds points on reservations for the first time. DINR says it’s the first and only dining reservation platform to offer Aeroplan points.
You can create a free DINR account to browse restaurants, but the perks sit behind DINR Premium, which costs $95 a year plus tax. Premium members get:
- Priority reservations: same-day, last-minute, and reserved tables at select in-demand restaurants
- Event access: tickets to private dining events, chef collaborations, culinary retreats, and DINR Supper Club dinners
- Booking help: a personal booking assistant for hard-to-get tables
- Dining perks: welcome beverages and complimentary corkage at select restaurants
- Drops and partner perks: first access to DINR Drops and merchandise, plus member-only offers such as preferred hotel rates
How Aeroplan Members Earn with DINR Premium
The option to add your Aeroplan number to your DINR account only appears once you’ve joined DINR Premium, so link it as soon as you sign up. Reservations and purchases made before your Aeroplan number is on the account don’t earn points.
Once it’s linked, you can earn in three ways.
- Joining DINR Premium: 1,000 bonus Aeroplan points on your first paid year of membership
- Completed reservations: at least 100 Aeroplan points per reservation you make and complete as a Premium member
- Purchases through DINR: 1 Aeroplan point per dollar on eligible event tickets, chef collaborations, drops, and other purchases, excluding taxes, delivery fees, and deposits
Only Premium members earn Aeroplan points. In Toronto, for example, restaurants like Alobar, Arbequina, GIA, Liliana, MIMI Chinese, Miku, and PUNCH all show 100 points per reservation on DINR’s Aeroplan page.
A few details in the terms are worth knowing. The 1,000-point bonus only applies to your first paid year, so renewals, free trials, and complimentary memberships don’t qualify. Cancelled reservations and no-shows don’t earn points either.
Your DINR account also has to be in the same name as your Aeroplan account, and points can take up to 30 days to post.
If you got DINR Premium as a Wealthsimple milestone reward, which is available to clients with $200,000 or more in assets, I wouldn’t expect the 1,000-point bonus, since it’s tied to a paid membership. The 100 points per reservation should still apply, as long as your membership is active.
Is DINR Premium Worth It for the Points?
At our valuation of 2 cents per Aeroplan point, the 1,000-point bonus is worth about $20, and each completed reservation adds about $2. That leaves roughly $75 of the $95 fee to make up, which works out to around 37 reservations in a year before the points alone cover the membership.
So I’d look at the points as a nice extra rather than the reason to join. DINR Premium makes sense if you’d use the priority reservations and event access anyway, and the Aeroplan points make that decision a little easier.
You can also earn on the meal itself by paying the bill with an Aeroplan card that rewards dining. The American Express® Aeroplan®* Reserve Card earns the most, at 2 points per dollar.
The American Express® Aeroplan®* Card, the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite Privilege* Card, and the CIBC Aeroplan® Visa Infinite Privilege* Card all earn 1.5 points per dollar on dining, as do the TD® Aeroplan® Visa* Business Card and the CIBC Aeroplan® Visa* Business Card. The TD and CIBC Visa Infinite cards don’t have a dining category, so restaurant spending earns their regular rate.
A Natural Fit with the American Express® Aeroplan®* Reserve Card’s New Dining Credit
This is where things get more interesting if you hold the American Express® Aeroplan®* Reserve Card. From January 12, 2027, the card adds a $200 annual dining credit at restaurants on the Canada’s Best New Restaurants finalist list, the same ranking DINR runs with Air Canada.
Some restaurants on DINR already carry Best New Restaurants badges, including MIMI Chinese and Liliana in Toronto. If a finalist is bookable on DINR, a single dinner could earn you at least 100 points for the reservation, use up part of your dining credit, and earn 2 points per dollar on whatever’s left on the bill. It’s worth checking DINR before you book one of the finalists directly.
Conclusion
On its own, 100 or so points per reservation won’t change how most people collect Aeroplan points, and the $95 membership is hard to justify on points alone.
But between the World of Hyatt partnership, the new card benefits, and now DINR, Aeroplan is clearly building out ways to earn and use points beyond flying. If I already went out to the kind of restaurants DINR lists a few times a month, I’d sign up, link my Aeroplan account, and treat the points as a small bonus on top of the reservations.
This story originally appeared on princeoftravel
