Aeroplan (Air Canada) is now selling points

[Mattg]

Air Canada's Aeroplan program will start selling miles today. To kick things off, there's a promo offering 115% bonus miles with the first 10 million miles sold.

For Altitude members registered for "travel at home", 50% of bought miles will also temporarily count towards attaining the next status tier.

Aeroplan has a reasonably competitive Star Alliance award chart and it's easy to redeem miles online. So, although I don't think now is a good time to buy miles speculatively, this could provide some good deals in the future.

https://www.aeroplan.com/buy-gift-miles.do#/

 

[Notyourbag]

Did anyone have any luck at buying miles at 115%? I was 30 minutes late to the game so only saw them at 90%. I wonder if we will see similar other miles deals coming up to boost their cash stocks.

 

[Mattg]

Did anyone have any luck at buying miles at 115%? I was 30 minutes late to the game so only saw them at 90%. I wonder if we will see similar other miles deals coming up to boost their cash stocks.

Wow, that was quick! Then again, 10 million miles isn't really that much...

I do expect that we'll continue to see some good offers from Aeroplan over the coming months. Selling miles is one way they can generate some good, immediate cash at a time when they really need it.

 

[Notyourbag]

Wow, that was quick! Then again, 10 million miles isn't really that much...

I do expect that we'll continue to see some good offers from Aeroplan over the coming months. Selling miles is one way they can generate some good, immediate cash at a time when they really need it.

I wonder if Virgin Australia ever considered doing similar mileage sale promotions?

 

[Mattg]

I wonder if Virgin Australia ever considered doing similar mileage sale promotions?

Velocity has offered things like 20% bonus points on Points Booster purchases in the past.

I think it's fair to say that running a promo now would be irresponsible, given the points can't currently be redeemed for anything.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

i was in my account at 10am exactly (US eastern time) and the system was in melt-down. Couldn't open the page. Got through about 25 past and was offered the 90%. I was doing the math while waiting to get through and there were some savings to be had vs LM... $300 or so on a one-way Europe to Asia (in business), but the risk of the devaluation (not off until the end of the year, but that news came in too late), and tying up $$$ was not appealing. The $300 saving was on Swiss, if taking Thai there were fuel surcharges of €110, which reduced the savings.

 

[Mattg]

i was in my account at 10am exactly (US eastern time) and the system was in melt-down. Couldn't open the page. Got through about 25 past and was offered the 90%. I was doing the math while waiting to get through and there were some savings to be had vs LM... $300 or so on a one-way Europe to Asia (in business), but the risk of the devaluation (not off until the end of the year, but that news came in too late), and tying up $$$ was not appealing. The $300 saving was on Swiss, if taking Thai there were fuel surcharges of €110, which reduced the savings.

Looks like you weren't the only person trying to get on....

Air Canada Aeroplan Buy Miles (Disaster) Update

Air Canada Aeroplan members who bought miles today between 11 AM - 12 PM will get a 90% bonus even if it was shown as 65% at the time of purchase.

loyaltylobby.com

 

[Notyourbag]

Velocity has offered things like 20% bonus points on Points Booster purchases in the past.

I think it's fair to say that running a promo now would be irresponsible, given the points can't currently be redeemed for anything.

Completely agree. I wonder if VA's new owners would do a similar promotion to Aeroplan to stimulate the frequent flyer program (and bring in much needed cash!) I wouldn't be surprised if there is another big LifeMiles sale in the next few months.

 

[jakeseven7]

Completely agree. I wonder if VA's new owners would do a similar promotion to Aeroplan to stimulate the frequent flyer program (and bring in much needed cash!) I wouldn't be surprised if there is another big LifeMiles sale in the next few months.

I’m not sure they’d have many takers... a company that has been just resurrected from voluntary administration..... hmmmm nah.

 

[luxury-lizard]

My thoughts on the Aeroplan sale is that now there are 1000's of Canadians (mainly I presume) with huge stashes of miles which will make *A awards even scarcer when travel resumes. I note on other AC blogs that many have immediately booked award travel for later this year (mainly Canada to Europe) - they obviously think international travel will open up a lot sooner in North American than here Down Under. (If you look at Canada's CV metrics this is quite surprising).

 

[craven morehead]

Velocity has offered things like 20% bonus points on Points Booster purchases in the past.

I think it's fair to say that running a promo now would be irresponsible, given the points can't currently be redeemed for anything.

I purchased some with the 20% bonus only a month before the cough hit the fan

 

[luxury-lizard]

Resurrecting an old topic here - just received an e-mail from AC and they are now selling miles at 100% bonus which brings the cost to about $A0.015 per mile. With AC now a partner with Ey and VA (and all *A of course) could this be a better option than LM miles which are just so hard to use / deal with (also LM seems to limit award on some *A partners which have availability on other * programs).

I still mulling this over as I am sitting on a bundle of LM's and AA miles. however I can see EY flights which are not showing on AA when in theory they should.

 

[Mattg]

Resurrecting an old topic here - just received an e-mail from AC and they are now selling miles at 100% bonus which brings the cost to about $A0.015 per mile. With AC now a partner with Ey and VA (and all *A of course) could this be a better option than LM miles which are just so hard to use / deal with (also LM seems to limit award on some *A partners which have availability on other * programs).

I still mulling this over as I am sitting on a bundle of LM's and AA miles. however I can see EY flights which are not showing on AA when in theory they should.

Yes, quite possibly!

With award flights available across the Star Alliance network, as well as Etihad (which has great availability) and VA for domestic connections, Aeroplan is now a really good option. No fuel surcharges either - just taxes and a CAD39 partner airline booking fee.

For example, it's 100,000 Aeroplan points for a business class award from Australia to Europe. 130,000 miles in F, e.g. flying Etihad.

With the current 100% bonus offer, it costs around $1,556 to buy 100,000 Aeroplan points or $2,023 to buy 130,000 points (that's in AUD). The annual purchase limit is 500,000 Aeroplan points, so that's not an issue. Some good value there, and the points are much easier to redeem on the Air Canada website than with LifeMiles where you often have to play screenshot roulette.

 

[Prof Henry]

I've kept my Aeroplan points "live" for ages in the past by converting a few smallish parcels of not-very-useful Hotel Loyalty Points to Aeroplan every now and then. I find them to be good value when I use them

My question this time is: Does purchasing points qualify as "account activity" for the purpose of avoiding "expiry of points" after the (now more generous) 18 months period??

 

[Mattg]

I've kept my Aeroplan points "live" for ages in the past by converting a few smallish parcels of not-very-useful Hotel Loyalty Points to Aeroplan every now and then. I find them to be good value when I use them

My question this time is: Does purchasing points qualify as "account activity" for the purpose of avoiding "expiry of points" after the (now more generous) 18 months period??

Yes, buying points counts as activity.

 

[Prof Henry]

Many thanks, Matt.

That's good news

cheers

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I think I gotta mark this as a 'buy'!

Redemptions on Air Canada metal can be eye-wateringly expensive due to the dynamic pricing, but partners - at the fixed rate - can offer some really good value. The low CAD is a bonus.

There *are* reports of phantom EY availability on Aeroplan. There have been several reports of that back in 2020. So it might be worth keeping that in mind - don't know if that has been resolved or not.

@ luxury-lizard: there are reports of EY availability on Aeroplan and through EY's program that is not visible by AA either online or through their call centres (although I understand there may be work-arounds depending on the call centre and agent you get?)

 

[luxury-lizard]

I think I gotta mark this as a 'buy'!


There *are* reports of phantom EY availability on Aeroplan. There have been several reports of that back in 2020. So it might be worth keeping that in mind - don't know if that has been resolved or not.

@ luxury-lizard: there are reports of EY availability on Aeroplan and through EY's program that is not visible by AA either online or through their call centres (although I understand there may be work-arounds depending on the call centre and agent you get?)

Hum - thanks for the input - I tried the AA forum re EY not showing up on AA and did not get any responses other than "I have the same issue". Before I jump on the AC bandwagon - I'll call AA and see if I can get a resolution / workaround. I'd prefer to use the points I already have with AA and LM before investing in any more 'futures'.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Here's one discussion thread of a recent example:

https://www.reddit.com/r/awardtravel/comments/l7gn32

(sorry, it won't post just the link!)

 

[MEL_Traveller]

For anyone booking with Aeroplan you may encounter an issue when it comes to the payment screen. I got repeated 'mismatch' error messages, with the problem indicated as the Aussie postcode (all fields were set to Australia, including the choice of states, so it wasn't an issue with a US or Canadian zip code).

It had however created the booking and generated a booking reference. The stated number to call is for Air Canada, but they will transfer you to Aeroplan regardless. I got cut off twice, so just call Aeroplan direct. You'll also need a tele-PIN. Set one up in your account before calling.

Agent couldn't initially find the booking, and when they did there was a bit of a delay with processing the CC (agent was saying something about 'a foreign address'). CC payment processed just fine.

In this case the EY availability was not phantom, and I had cross-referenced availability on EY's site before attempting to book.