Aeroplan has launched their new Black Friday offers from today until November 29, 2020, including the opportunity to earn a pretty effortless 5,000 Aeroplan points by completing a handful of offers in conjunction with each other.

Let’s talk about some of the most interesting individual offers in the order of how interesting they are, and then we’ll discuss some of the best strategies for stacking up those extra 5,000 Aeroplan points upon completing multiple offers.

Up to 10x Points on the Aeroplan eStore

As part of the new program’s arrival, the Aeroplan eStore has also relaunched with a brand-new look, and as in previous years, it should be your go-to shopping portal during Black Friday for all kinds of things you may or may not need.

Dyson, Lenovo, Sephora, and Indochino are the four retailers offering 10x points, with the remaining retailers varying between 1x and 7x elevated returns. Disappointingly, perennial favourite Apple is only at 1x this time around.

Plus, if you’re an Aeroplan Elite Status member with any status level starting from 25K, you’ll earn an additional 2x points on all eStore purchases (similar to how Aeroplan Status worked previously under the old program), so you could potentially unlock 12x Aeroplan points on a new vacuum, laptop, makeup haul, or three-piece suit.

There are also some discounts on redeeming Aeroplan points for merchandise through the eStore catalogue, although these do represent pretty poor value for your points, so it’s not a great idea.

Jessy and I recently experienced the misfortune of moving back in to our Toronto unit and finding an extra instant cooker pot in the cupboards, only for our tenant to ask for it back two weeks later; even then, I won’t be throwing 15,400 Aeroplan points at a replacement anytime soon.

5x Points on Air Canada Gift Cards

As part of the Black Friday event, you’ll earn up to 5x Aeroplan points if you purchase an Air Canada gift card for upcoming travel:

• You’ll earn 2x Aeroplan points if you purchase up to $750 worth of gift cards
• You’ll earn 5x Aeroplan points if you purchase $751+ worth of gift cards

For anyone planning to book upcoming paid travel with Air Canada, purchasing a gift card and then using it as your method of payment may be a good idea to earn additional Aeroplan points, keeping in mind the following:

• Air Canada gift cards are processed and distributed by Buyatab Online Inc., so they don’t code as an airline or travel purchase on your credit card.
• Using Air Canada gift cards to pay for your flight means that you won’t be able to benefit from any insurance protections that you would get if you had paid with a travel credit card instead.

Best of all, now that the new Aeroplan program has moved under one roof with Air Canada, you can use gift cards towards the taxes and fees on Aeroplan redemptions too, simply by choosing the “Use Gift Card” option on the payment page. 

Buy Aeroplan Points with a 50% Bonus

Aeroplan points are on sale with a 50% bonus over the next little while, bringing the standard purchase price of 3 cents per point (cpp) down to 2cpp. A minimum purchase of 2,000 Aeroplan points is required, which would net you 3,000 Aeroplan points after the bonus, at a total cost of $60 plus taxes.

(Remember, if you have a non-Canadian address listed in your Aeroplan profile, then you won’t be subject to sales tax on Aeroplan points purchases.)

Now, would I recommend anyone buy or gift Aeroplan points at 2cpp?

No, because savvy Aeroplan members know that the optimal way to purchase Aeroplan points is at an effective rate of 1.8cpp (equivalent to a superior 65% bonus) through one of the following ways:

• Purchasing Air Canada tickets and converting them into Aeroplan points at a 65% bonus
  • This would even count as an Air Canada purchase on your credit card (allowing you to earn up to 3x Aeroplan points on the Amex Aeroplan Reserve or the Amex Aeroplan Business Reserve), as opposed to purchasing points directly, which is handled by Points.com and does not count as an Air Canada purchase.
• Using the new Points + Cash feature to “buy back” up to 40% of your points at 1.8cpp during the process of making a redemption

Discounts on Flights, Vacation Packages, and More

Then, we have the usual discounts on Air Canada flights and vacation packages that we see around Black Friday:

• Up to 20% off base fares on select Economy, Premium Economy, Business Class flights to all Air Canada destinations for travel through June 30, 2021
• Up to 40% off Air Canada Vacations packages to Canada, USA, Europe, and Sun destinations.
• 20% off all hotel and car redemptions – perhaps useful for an unorthodox hotel redemption or two
• 1,500 bonus Aeroplan points on car rentals at Avis locations worldwide for travel through January 26, 2021

Apply for an Aeroplan Credit Card

If you haven’t applied for one of the new Aeroplan credit cards yet, then doing so will also count as fulfilling one of the Black Friday offers for the purposes of earning the bonus 5,000 Aeroplan points (which we’ll discuss below).

Indeed, for anyone contemplating upcoming trips over the winter or spring, the Black Friday promotions as a whole could represent a good time to do some careful planning.

For example, on a new TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege, you could meet the $1,000 minimum spending with a purchase of Air Canada gift cards, netting you 5x points on the purchase, while unlocking the signup bonus of 50,000 Aeroplan points plus an Air Canada Buddy Pass.

Then, you’d be able to use those gift cards to purchase a flight for the first passenger with 20% off the base fare, while redeeming your Air Canada Buddy Pass for the second passenger’s flight. How’s that for stacking the savings?

Earn an Easy 5,000 Aeroplan Points via Multiple Offers

Speaking of stacking, you’ll be able to earn up to 5,000 bonus Aeroplan points simply by taking advantage of multiple Black Friday offers.

• By taking advantage of two offers, you’ll earn an additional 100 Aeroplan points
• By taking advantage of three offers, you’ll earn an additional 1,000 Aeroplan points
• By taking advantage of four offers, you’ll earn an additional 5,000 Aeroplan points

There are some nuances as to which offers can be used multiple times:

As you can see, there’s a myriad of ways in which you could fulfill four offers and earn the extra 5,000 Aeroplan points:

• Book four separate Air Canada flights (either paid fares or Aeroplan redemptions)
• Book three separate Air Canada flights and use your Aeroplan credit card to pay for one of them
• Make three separate eStore purchases and apply for an Aeroplan credit card
• Make three separate eStore purchases and buy a $25 Air Canada gift card which you’d be able to apply to a future flight

If you aren’t looking to make any big moves, then the last option is probably the easiest way to earn those 5,000 Aeroplan points pretty effortlessly.

Furthermore, as noted by my friend Jean-Max from Milesopedia, the new Family Sharing feature is an excellent way to scale up your earnings whenever there’s easy points on the table like this.

Your spouse, children, and members of your extended family can all have their own Aeroplan accounts and qualify for this offer individually, and hey, it’s quite common for the head of the household to manage everyone’s accounts on their behalf.

With a few strategic eStore purchases at the 5x or 10x level, it’s not hard to imagine each family member racking up a total of 7,000 Aeroplan points after completing their four bonus offers.

If you had the maximum of eight family members in your Family Sharing group, that’s going to be 56,000 Aeroplan points right there – already enough for a one-way flight in business class to Japan for one member of the household! 😉

Conclusion

Aeroplan and Air Canada’s Black Friday offers are here, and you can reward yourself with bonus points on your holiday shopping or significant savings on upcoming trips by taking advantage of these offers before November 29.

Truthfully, I would’ve loved to see even stronger Black Friday offers (perhaps on par something like 50% Miles Back) to celebrate the new program’s recent launch, but I suspect those will be coming sooner or later anyway.

For now, make sure to take some time over the next week or so to grab your easy 5,000 Aeroplan points simply by clicking a few buttons and making a few small purchases, potentially totalling up to 40,000 Aeroplan points across a Family Sharing pool.