With Black Friday on the horizon, Aeroplan is putting out a series of deals and promotions to coincide with the buying frenzy of the next few weeks. 

There are discounts on flights and other travel bookings, 5x bonus points on gift cards, and the usual Aeroplan eStore bonuses with an interesting twist. Let’s take a look across everything that’s on offer. 

Up to 10x Points on the Aeroplan eStore + 5x Points with an Aeroplan Credit Card

Until November 30, 2021, the Aeroplan eStore will be putting on elevated bonuses, with select retailers like Dyson and Lenovo going as high as 10x points. Meanwhile, Apple will be offering 5x points, but only from November 26 to November 29.

But here’s the interesting twist on this year’s Black Friday eStore promotions: from November 25 to November 29, you’ll also earn an extra 5 Aeroplan points per dollar spent on any purchase made through the eStore when you pay with an Aeroplan co-branded credit card!

And don’t forget, if you have Aeroplan Elite Status of any tier from 25K status upwards, you’ll also earn a further 2 bonus Aeroplan points on eStore purchases as an elite benefit.

This means you could in theory be earning up to 18.25x Aeroplan points on your eStore purchases between November 25–29:

• Up to 10x points from shopping through the eStore
• 5x bonus points by paying with an Aeroplan credit card
• 2x bonus points as an Aeroplan Elite Status benefit
• Up to 1.25x points as the base earning rate on an Aeroplan premium credit card

(If you had taken part in the American Express referral bonanza and you pay with your American Express Aeroplan Reserve Card, you’d earn a further +3x points, resulting in an earning rate of 21.25x!)

At our current valuation of 2.1 cents per point, 18.25–21.25x are equivalent to getting a 38–45% return, respectively, on your holiday shopping!

Suffice to say, that’s an unbelievable effective earning rate that gives you the perfect excuse to get a little overzealous with your spending. 😉

And if you’re making a late push for earning Aeroplan 25K status via Everyday Status Qualification, there’s no better way to boost your progress towards the 100,000-point mark than a stacked-up earning rate of up to 16.25x–19.25x. 

In addition to bonus Aeroplan points when making purchases, there are also Black Friday discounts when you redeem Aeroplan points for select home entertainment products on the eStore catalogue. However, still represents fairly poor value for your points compared to booking flights, so I wouldn’t place too much weight on it.

5x Points on Air Canada Gift Cards

As part of the 2021 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 1x 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

Of course, by paying with an Aeroplan co-branded credit card (possibly boosted by the Amex referral bonanza), you once again have the possibility of earning up to 6.25–9.25x Aeroplan points on these Air Canada gift card purchases.

For anyone planning to book upcoming paid travel with Air Canada, purchasing a gift card and then using it as your method of payment can help you 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 an Aeroplan credit card instead.

Don’t forget, you can also use gift cards towards the taxes and fees when redeeming Aeroplan points too, simply by choosing the “Use Gift Card” option on the payment page. 

Discounts on Flights, Car Rentals, and More

In addition, we have a few miscellaneous discounts on Air Canada flights, vacation packages, hotels and car rentals, and other minor promotions that are similar to what we’ve seen in Black Fridays past:

• Up to 20% off base fares on select Economy, Premium Economy, Business Class flights to all Air Canada destinations for travel through June 30, 2022
• Up to 40% off Air Canada Vacations packages to Canada, USA, Europe, and Sun destinations
• 30% off select hotel redemptions – although the redemption value is still rather weak
• Avis and Budget car rental deals:
  • 500 bonus points when you redeem Aeroplan points for an Avis car rental that takes place by February 22, 2022
  • 250 bonus points when you redeem Aeroplan points for a Budget car rental that takes place by February 22, 2022
  • Up to 25% off Avis base rates and earn 2,500 Aeroplan points for your next paid Avis car rental of two days or more
  • Up to 30% off Budget base rates and earn 2,000 Aeroplan points for your next paid Budget car rental of two days or more
• Link a new Starbucks Rewards account to your Aeroplan account and earn 1,000 Aeroplan points when you make a first purchase of $10+ before December 12, 2021
• Make an LCBO purchase of $50+ before November 28, 2021 and earn double points (i.e., 2 Aeroplan points for every $4 spent)

Conclusion

The main attraction of Aeroplan’s Black Friday 2021 promotions is the additional 5x Aeroplan points on eStore purchases when using an Aeroplan co-branded credit card on November 25–29, which combines with the eStore’s organic promotions of up to 10x points to make for some powerful earning potential on your holiday shopping.

Beyond that, however, I do find this year’s Aeroplan Black Friday promotions to be a little muted. Other than the potential for 18.25x Aeroplan points on shopping, there isn’t all that much to get us overly excited during the busiest shopping period of the year. 

I’m surprised that Air Canada hasn’t decided to put a different spin on last year’s Black Friday event, in which you could earn further bonus points by taking advantage of many separate offers during the promotion period.

Then again, the shoddy implementation that we witnessed last year might have given them second thoughts, and I hope we’ll see the Black Friday bonus points rolling in much smoother this time around.