Air Canada is eliminating blackout dates and making more seats available for redemption, but some of those seats will cost more miles.

Aeroplan, the airline’s frequent-flier points program, said Thursday that it is eliminating blackout periods and making 15 per cent of Air Canada’s seats available for reward tickets on each route, compared with 10 per cent previously.



But as few as 8 per cent of the airline’s total seats will be available at traditional reward levels. Once those are gone, customers must pay a premium of 33 per cent to 50 per cent more points to access tickets in the new “Avenue” category.