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Aeroplan Credit Cards: Earn 10x Bonus Miles on Air Canada!

Until the end of the month, you’ll enjoy 15% off Air Canada base fares and earn 10x bonus miles on all aircanada.com purchases if you pay with one of the Aeroplan co-branded credit cards issued by TD, CIBC, or American Express.

Written by Ricky Zhang

On September 16, 2020

Read time 11 mins

From now until September 30, the Aeroplan co-branded credit cards by TD, CIBC, and American Express are offering 10 bonus Aeroplan miles per dollar spent on any purchases made at aircanada.com, which is in addition to the miles you’d regularly earn on these purchases.

10x Bonus Miles on Air Canada Purchases

All of the major Aeroplan co-branded credit card issued by TD, CIBC, or American Express are eligible for this offer, including:

The individual promotion pages for each card issuer can be found on the Air Canada website, one page per issuer: TD, CIBC, and American Express.

There’s no need to register or anything; all cardholders will automatically be eligible. Moreover, some individuals would’ve received marketing emails from their issuer about this promotion, but you’ll be eligible even if you haven’t received an email.

The promotion is a straightforward 10 bonus Aeroplan miles per dollar spent on any purchase from aircanada.com. It’s important to note that these are 10 bonus Aeroplan miles on top of the regular miles you earn on Air Canada purchases.

For example, I currently hold a CIBC Aerogold Visa Infinite, so my standard earning rate is 1.5 Aeroplan miles per dollar spent on aircanada.com purchases. Under this promotion, I’d earn a total of 11.5 Aeroplan miles per dollar spent, since the base earning rate is additive with the 10 bonus miles. If I spent $500 on an Air Canada purchase, I’d end up with 5,750 Aeroplan miles as a result.

All flights booked directly on aircanada.com will be eligible for the promotion. Interestingly, the fine print of TD’s offer includes Air Canada Vacations packages, car rentals, hotel bookings, and other third party partner products and services that can be purchased through the Air Canada website…

…while the fine print of CIBC and American Express’s offer excludes these items.

If you plan to book an Air Canada Vacations packages or a third-party travel service that’s bookable through aircanada.com during the promotion period, then using one of TD’s co-branded Aeroplan products is the way to go.

Also note that the taxes and fees on Aeroplan award bookings are currently handled by Aeroplan, not Air Canada, so they also won’t be eligible for the 10x bonus miles. As of November 8, though, the new Aeroplan loyalty program will be rolled into the Air Canada website, so future promotions of this ilk should include any Aeroplan-related fees as well.

Additionally, one notable inclusion for all three issuers is the Infinite Canada Flight Pass that was just announced today.

Since the Infinite Canada Flight Pass is only available until September 23, you’ll definitely be making your purchase within the promotion period – and therefore qualify for the 10x bonus miles – if you buy the one-month Flight Pass.

Moreover, Air Canada has confirmed that even if you buy the two- or three-month Flight Passes as a recurring purchase and those transactions take place in October and November, you’ll still be eligible for the 10x bonus miles by paying with a co-branded credit card. 

This means that if you were to purchase the Standard Flight Pass or the Latitude Flight Pass for $2,000 or $5,000 plus taxes per month, respectively, you could earn at least 20,000 or 50,000 Aeroplan miles per month for your purchase. That’s not a bad way to sweeten the deal for that major expense, all while getting to fly around Canada on unlimited flights for the next month – and in the case of the Latitude Flight Pass, with a great shot at getting upgraded to business class every time!

Need an Aeroplan Co-Branded Credit Card?

If you’re interested in this promotion but don’t currently hold an Aeroplan co-branded credit card, then the September 30 deadline still leaves just about enough time to apply for a new card and receive it within the promotion window, if things go smoothly.

Right now, the best offers are probably on the following products:

  • TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite: 25,000 Aeroplan miles (15,000 miles upon first purchase + 10,000 miles upon spending $1,500 in the first three months), First Year Free
  • TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege: 50,000 Aeroplan miles (25,000 miles upon first purchase + 25,000 miles upon spending $1,500 in the first three months), $399 annual fee
  • CIBC Aerogold Visa Card for Business: 35,000 Aeroplan miles (20,000 miles upon first purchase + 15,000 miles upon spending $3,000 in the first four months), First Year Free

Don’t Forget: Converting Air Canada Tickets to Aeroplan Miles

Even if you don’t have any upcoming trips planned for which you’re looking to book paid flights with Air Canada, this 10x bonus miles promotion could represent an easy route towards buying Aeroplan miles on the cheap, thanks to the ongoing ability to convert Air Canada tickets into Aeroplan miles at a rate of 1.8 cents per point.

(This Ready for Takeoff assurance has been extended month-by-month ever since it was launched in June. The current deadline is September 30, 2020, but it’s looking likely that it’ll continue to be extended month-by-month as long as the COVID-19-related uncertainty around travel still lingers.)

Let’s do some math here: if you purchased a $1,000 Air Canada ticket with one of the premium or core Aeroplan co-branded cards (on any route and class of service; it doesn’t really matter since this will only be a dummy booking), you’d earn 11,500 Aeroplan miles on your purchase from the credit card, as we saw above.

Instantly upon completing your purchase, you could then convert this ticket into Aeroplan miles with a 65% bonus on top of the standard rate of 3 cents per point (cpp). If your Aeroplan account is registered under a valid foreign address, then you don’t pay any sales taxes on this conversion, so it’d be a flat rate of 1.8cpp. A $1,000 ticket would therefore convert into 55,550 Aeroplan miles (since the conversion rounds down to the nearest 10 miles).

In total, you’d have earned 67,050 Aeroplan miles for $1,000 in spend, which is an effective rate of 1.49cpp (CAD). That’s not a bad rate at which to buy Aeroplan miles at all, especially if you’ve got your eye on an upcoming redemption – whether that’s to take advantage of current Aeroplan sweet spots before they go away on November 8, or to prepare for lucrative bookings under future sweet spots in the new Aeroplan program.

Of course, I never recommend that you speculatively purchase miles without a high-value use in mind, but if you did want to boost your Aeroplan account as expediently as possible with a target redemption in mind, then 1.49cpp (CAD) is the best effective rate we’ve seen since ever since the 115% bonus back in May when Aeroplan first launched the Buy Miles bonus (which resulted in an effective price of 1.4cpp) – and that only lasted for a few minutes!

Also: 15% Off Base Fares with Air Canada

Concurrently, Air Canada is also offering a blanket 15% discount on all base fares in economy class, premium economy, and business class to all of Air Canada’s destinations.

The promotion code can be found on any of the three issuers’ promotion pages as linked above, and you must book by September 30, 2020 for travel between September 16, 2020 and June 15, 2021.

If you have any upcoming paid trips with Air Canada over the next nine months or so, now may be a good time to lock in a booking, taking advantage of both the 15% discount and the 10x bonus miles for paying with a co-branded credit card.

If you change your mind, you always have the option of converting into a flexible Air Canada Travel Voucher or converting the value of your ticket into Aeroplan miles at the very favourable effective rate, as discussed above.

Conclusion

Until the end of the month, you’ll enjoy 15% off Air Canada base fares and earn 10x bonus miles on all aircanada.com purchases if you pay with one of the Aeroplan co-branded credit cards issued by TD, CIBC, or American Express. It’s the latest step in Air Canada’s ongoing efforts to stimulate demand for travel in Canada, and as long as you’re familiar and comfortable with the risks of travelling at this time, then it’s a fantastic promotion to participate in.

The best part? Even those who aren’t necessarily looking to book paid flights at the moment, but who’d rather rack up the Aeroplan miles for future bookings, can take advantage of this promotion to unlock an effective purchase price of 1.49cpp (CAD) on Aeroplan miles when paired with the ongoing Ready for Takeoff assurance policies.

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