Amex Aeroplan Cards: Groundbreaking All-Time-High Signup Bonuses (150,000 Points!)

American Express has been known for offering the best credit card signup bonuses in Canada for many years.

Today’s breaking news is no exception, as they’ve unleashed some unfathomable offers on the Platinum Card, the personal Marriott Bonvoy Card, and the Marriott Bonvoy Business Card.

Not to be outdone, the Aeroplan Reserve Card, the Aeroplan Business Reserve Card, and the Aeroplan Card have also set a new high-water mark, obliterating the old offers by an order of magnitude while also providing juicy bonuses for existing cardholders.

These offers are all available if you apply before August 3, 2021. Without further ado, I’ll let the numbers speak for themselves.

Amex Aeroplan Reserve: 150,000 Aeroplan Points!

The American Express Aeroplan Reserve Card, Amex’s flagship premium Aeroplan product, is boasting an offer of a whopping 150,000 Aeroplan points, broken down into a few separate parts:

• 70,000 Aeroplan points upon spending $6,000 in the first six months
• 5,000 Aeroplan points for each of the first six months in which you spend $1,000, for a total of 30,000 Aeroplan points
• 10x Aeroplan points on eats and drinks in Canada in the first six months, up to a maximum of 50,000 Aeroplan points (on $5,000 of spending)

“Eats and drinks” follows the “standard” Amex definition, including grocery stores, food-primary restaurants and cafes, liquor-primary bars, and food delivery services. Basically, if it earns 5x points on the Cobalt Card, it will earn 10x points on the personal Aeroplan Reserve Card with this promotion.

On the surface, it looks a bit tricky to hit all the requirements, but they’re actually incredibly easy to meet. That’s because every dollar you spend can count towards more than one part of the bonus.

So, rather than immediately spending $6,000 to earn 70,000 points, plus $1,000 each month for six months, plus $5,000 to maximize the eats and drinks, you could strategically spread out your spending. If you spend $1,000 per month on eats and drinks, you’d tick all three boxes without having to do any additional spending (although we do recommend over-spending the requirement just in case you miscalculate or have a return).

Even without the dining and grocery bonus, you could still hit 100,000 Aeroplan points on other expenses, which alone would exceed the card’s previous all-time-high signup bonus.

Also, note that the 10x earn rate replaces the base earn rate. You won’t get the regular 2x Aeroplan points on dining in addition to the promotional bonus, but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to this spectacular offer.

All in all, $6,000 spent over six months is a very doable task to earn 150,000 Aeroplan points, and it’s within reach even for low spenders. At $1,000 spent per month, that might bring this enormous points bonus within reach for those of you who are more frugal with your regular spending habits.

The annual fee of $599 is a steep but worthwhile expense for the privilege of 150,000 Aeroplan points. At our current valuation of 2.1 cents per point, you can expect to get out at least five times the value you put in, while flexible travellers should have no trouble stretching that number even further.

(Note, however, that the previous $100 first-year statement credit on the Amex Aeroplan Reserve is no longer being offered.)

As always, with a premium Aeroplan credit card, you’ll get priority airport treatment, best-in-class earn rates on daily spending, strong preferred pricing discounts on Aeroplan redemptions, and likely some offers throughout the year to offset your annual fee.

Amex Aeroplan Business Reserve: 150,000 Aeroplan Points!

The American Express Aeroplan Business Reserve Card is offering the same number of points, but with higher spending requirements:

• 70,000 Aeroplan points upon spending $10,000 in the first six months
• 5,000 Aeroplan points for each of the first six months in which you spend $2,000, for a total of 30,000 Aeroplan points
• 10x Aeroplan points on gas, eats, and drinks in Canada in the first six months, up to a maximum of 50,000 Aeroplan points (on $5,000 of spending)

This isn’t a huge surprise, as Amex has typically put higher spending requirements on its business products. To hit all of the monthly bonuses, you’d have to spend a total of $12,000, spread out evenly over six months.

In doing so, you’d overshoot the 10x cap by $7,000, earning a minimum of an additional 7,000 Aeroplan points for the trouble.

However, and this is a big caveat, “eats and drinks” follows what I’ll call a “substandard” definition. Groceries are excluded on the Aeroplan Business Reserve Card.

This is a big disappointment if you ask me, but not an entirely surprising one. Business products tend to encourage the type of spending that business owners are more likely to incur, such as client lunches and commuting costs.

Fortunately, there’s a silver lining: you can still buy gift cards at many gas stations. That way, you’d still be able to effectively earn 10x Aeroplan points on a wider variety of your purchases.

If you can only get one, the personal Aeroplan Reserve Card is definitely a better choice, although that shouldn’t detract from this very strong offer on the business version.

Amex Aeroplan Card: 75,000 Aeroplan Points!

While the premium Aeroplan cards shine brightest, the Amex Aeroplan Card honourably pulls its weight and shouldn’t be overlooked.

The card is offering up to 75,000 Aeroplan points for new applicants. For the core tier of Aeroplan cards, this new benchmark absolutely annihilates its competitors.

Among the core cards, the previous high on the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card or the CIBC Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card was 50,000 Aeroplan points, and that’s assuming you earned and converted the Air Canada Buddy Pass into points.

The new offer on the Amex Aeroplan Card is in the same format as the bonuses on the premium Reserve cards, just with lower numbers across the board:

• 44,000 Aeroplan points upon spending $3,000 in the first six months
• 1,000 Aeroplan points for each of the first six months in which you spend $500, for a total of 6,000 Aeroplan points
• 5x Aeroplan points on eats and drinks in Canada in the first six months, up to a maximum of 25,000 Aeroplan points (on $5,000 of spending)

Note that the Buddy Pass has been removed from the core Amex card’s offer, but with so many points on the table, I can’t say I’ll miss it.

Like with the premium cards, the first two parts of the bonus line up nicely: if you hit all of the monthly spends, you’ll hit the main component by default. That would put you at $3,000 spent, but I’d plan to spend $5,000 over six months at restaurants and grocery stores to maximize the last part of the offer.

The real appeal of this offer is the lower annual fee of $120, making this offer a fantastic choice for anyone whose credit card strategy revolves around keeping annual fees down.

While there’s no first-year annual fee waiver, you’ll be hard-pressed to find 75,000 Aeroplan points for $120 anywhere else. For the holdouts who are determined to pay $0 out of pocket to earn “free” travel, I suspect this will be the offer that gets you to change your tune.

At a cost of 0.16 cents per point, the value proposition is undeniable. Personally, as I’ve already hoarded an enormous balance of points and don’t need the premium offers to pad my stats, I’m strongly tempted to apply for the core Aeroplan Card instead.

Furthermore, the core Aeroplan Card is a charge card. Unlike the Reserve and Business Reserve, which are credit cards, it doesn’t impact Amex’s limit of holding four credit cards per person at a time. If you’re already tight against the cap, you may not be able to get both (or even just one!) of the premium cards.

For that reason, this mid-tier card should appeal to just about anyone looking to add to their travel rewards, no matter what your strategy is or how far you’ve progressed in the Miles & Points game.

Refer-a-Friend: Double Bonuses for the Referrer

The bonuses for new applicants are the same no matter how you apply, whether through a referral link or via the American Express website directly. Therefore, it’s best to use a referral link to spread the love, as all things are equal for the applicant.

However, the bonus for the referrer has now improved on both personal Aeroplan cards:

• Successful referrals initiated from the Aeroplan Reserve Card will award 20,000 Aeroplan points to the referrer, up from 10,000 points previously
• Successful referrals initiated from the Aeroplan Card will award 10,000 Aeroplan points to the referrer, up from 5,000 points previously

Notably, 20,000 Aeroplan points is equivalent to the referrer’s bonus on the Business Platinum Card, at 20,000 MR Points.

Typically, Amex has kept the best refer-a-friend bonuses exclusive to cardmembers who hold their top-of-the-line business product, but now other premium cardholders will be able to benefit to the same degree.

If you collect points in two-player mode, this is an extra little bonus you won’t want to pass up. Much like the Business Platinum Card, you’ll want to start your sequence with the card that gives the highest bonus for the referrer, in this case the personal Aeroplan Reserve Card.

For example, you could apply for the Aeroplan Reserve Card for 150,000 points, then refer your spouse for their own Aeroplan Reserve Card for an additional 150,000 points for them, plus 20,000 points for yourself.

Next, you could refer each other to the Aeroplan Business Reserve Card. In total, an optimized two-player gambit would net your Family Sharing pool 660,000 Aeroplan points for $2,396 in annual fees across four cards. I’ll leave it to you to figure out just how outlandish a ticket you could fly with that kind of rewards balance!

Oddly, you can refer from the Aeroplan Reserve Card to itself or to the Business Reserve Card, but not to the core Aeroplan Card. That might dampen your earnings a bit if you’d hoped to have your partner open both personal Aeroplan cards, but the elevated referrer’s bonus is a great consolation.

Spend-Based Offers for Existing Cardholders

As with today’s new Platinum and Bonvoy card offers, the spend-based portion of the welcome bonus will also be available to existing cardholders of the two personal Aeroplan cards:

• Amex Aeroplan Reserve Card: Earn 10x Aeroplan points on eats and drinks in Canada until September 23, 2021, up to a maximum of 50,000 Aeroplan points (on $5,000 of spending)
• Amex Aeroplan Card: Earn 5x Aeroplan points on eats and drinks in Canada until September 23, 2021, up to a maximum of 25,000 Aeroplan points (on $5,000 of spending)

That’s fantastic news for those of us who steadfastly kept paying annual fees through a down year, without many opportunities to use our premium credit card benefits.

There are a few key differences compared to the welcome offer. First, you’ll only have until September 23 to maximize the offer. But with a vaccinated two-dose summer of endless patios, I challenge you to rack up $5,000 on eats and drinks in the next three months.

Also, unlike the new cardholder incentive, Amex Offers are cumulative. As an existing cardholder, you’ll earn 10x Aeroplan points on top of the base rate, pushing your total to 11 or 12 points per dollar spent on eats and drinks.

Make sure you’ve activated the 10x eats and drinks bonus in the Amex Offers on your online dashboard before you begin spending. New applicants, however, will receive the boosted earn rate automatically, with no action necessary on their part.

Everyday Status Qualification: Instantly Reach Aeroplan 25K

Here’s an interesting wrinkle: with two premium credit cards, you’ll be able to automatically earn Aeroplan Elite Status in a way that wasn’t previously possible!

With Everyday Status Qualification, you can earn Aeroplan status without flying, through everyday points activities. However, not all points-earning transactions will qualify for status.

In particular, points earned on spending do count, whereas points earned from welcome bonuses don’t count.

Interestingly, while the initial spending bonus and monthly bonuses are treated like welcome bonuses, the 10x points on eats and drinks are treated like regular spending. That means that you can rack up 50,000 everyday-qualifying points on both the Aeroplan Reserve and Aeroplan Business Reserve cards, just for spending $5,000 on each (in the appropriate categories) within six months.

In total, with both cards, you could pay $1,198 in annual fees, achieve the maximum welcome bonuses, and you’d already have 100,000 everyday-qualifying points, enough to reach Aeroplan 25K status without breaking a sweat. I can’t think of a more appealing way to spend your way to status.

As the lowest status tier, Aeroplan 25K won’t dramatically transform your travel experience, and you still can’t spend your way to higher tiers, where the real valuable benefits kick in. Instead, 25K merely guarantees you a baseline level of perks, like preferred pricing on award tickets, 20 eUpgrade credits per year, two Maple Leaf Lounge passes per year, and free checked bags on Air Canada flights.

Still, it’s great to have in your back pocket to maintain a modicum of travel comfort, in case you decide against renewing your co-branded credit cards. Also, this would be a great opportunity for Miles & Points newcomers to jumpstart your way to Aeroplan 25K Status, if you missed out on the plethora of status-earning and extension opportunities last year.

Conclusion

With travel in our sights after far too long, American Express has stunned the Canadian credit card market with the most lucrative incentives we’ve ever seen for new and existing cardmembers alike.

Amex’s new offers today are full of hits upon hits upon hits all around, and I must say I like the Aeroplan offers the most. For a comparable premium annual fee, you can earn the full bonus within six months, without an obligation to pay a subsequent annual fee if you later decide not to keep the card long-term.

On the other hand, the new offers on the Platinum Card and the Marriott Bonvoy cards don’t award the full points bonus until after the second-year fee has been charged. While there’s lots of value to be found in holding both cards year over year, with ongoing offers throughout the year and annual free hotel nights, I’d want to be more certain of my long-term strategy before applying with confidence.

Whether you’ve been eyeing a premium credit card, a new American Express product, or more Aeroplan points, I can’t imagine a better time to apply than right now. I hope you’ve kept an Amex credit card slot open as I have, so you can take advantage of these outrageous offers before they end on August 3, 2021.