Aeroplan members will soon be able to redeem their miles to book seats on any Air Canada flights.

Currently, Air Canada reserves 15 per cent of their seats for Aeroplan members -- forcing some to book months in advance just to secure a flight.

With five million active members, Aeroplan's Corporate Reputation Manager Gillian Hewitt told CTV.ca that the program will be in place by the end of the year.

"By the end of 2006, (we'll be) offering our members unrestricted access to unsold seat capacity on Air Canada and Air Canada jets," Hewitt said.

Although the current 15 per cent seat cap is already higher than the industry standard, the shift is being made to keep up with demand and competition, CTV's business editor Linda Sims said Friday.

For example, Royal Bank's Avion Visa currently gives cardholders unrestricted access to any airline.

But Hewitt said these types of programs work on a fixed-price limit, meaning if the ticket price is over the program's limit, the traveller is expected to pay the difference in cash.

"If a ticket costs them too much they make you use points plus cash," Hewitt said.

But the new Aeroplan deal also has a catch. The closer you book to the departure date, the more miles you'll spend.

"It looks like the closer you book to the actual time you want to fly, the more points it's going to cost you," Sims said.

Hewitt compared the system to actually buying an airline ticket.

"Think of it in the same way as an airline ticket works, it is in a scenario that will be variable... if the seat is available on an aircraft it will be available for an Aeroplan redemption."

Aeroplan's classic rewards will continue as before costing travellers 15,000 miles for a flight from Toronto to New York and 25,000 for a trip from Montreal to Vancouver.

Air Canada's changes were also a reaction to stiff competition from low-cost carriers such as WestJet, said Michael Janigan, the executive director and general counsel at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre.

"Air Canada was able to really to take down Canadian Airlines on the strength of their Aeroplan," Janigan said Friday in an interview with CTV Newsnet. "Most observers believe that Canadian Airlines was a superior airline from a customer service standpoint -- but customer loyalty to Air Canada, reinforced by

Aeroplan, enabled it to survive."

"I think that they are going back to their strategy that worked for them in the 90s to work for them now in the case of WestJet."