Love it or hate, the Aeroplan rewards program is one of the best travel programs in Canada. And I mean that: not only are Aeroplan points easy to earn, but with the new Aeroplan flight charts, flight redemptions are fair, economical, and put most other travel programs to shame.
But every now and then, Aeroplan gives me another reason to sing their praises. And for March, that praise is this: until March 22, you can get up to a 100% bonus on all Aeroplan points.
What does that even mean? Let’s take a look.
Aeroplan’s March mega-bonus
Right now, Air Canada is selling Aeroplan points with up to a 100% bonus, which basically means you can get two points for the price of one. In order to get the full 100%, you have to purchase at least 100,000 miles, with other miles triggering smaller bonuses.
| Points | Bonus |
| 5,000 – 19,000 | 50% |
| 20,000 – 55,000 | 65% |
| 60,000 – 95,000 | 80% |
| 100,000 + | 100% |
For instance, if you’d bought 19,000 points from Air Canada, you would get 9,500 points in return. If you’d bought 95,000, then you’d get 80% of 95,000, or 76,000 in return. And if you’d bought 500,000 miles? Well, then — you’d have one million points to use.
How do you buy points from Air Canada?
To buy point from Air Canada, you need to be an Aeroplan member. And that’s about it. As long as you have an Aeroplan membership, you should have no problem buying points and scoring this bonus.
You should note, however, that is promotion ends on March 22 at midnight. As long as you buy your points before that date and time, you’ll get the bonus.
It seems too good to be true: What’s the catch?
To be sure, this is a hot deal, especially if you buy 100,000 or more. Scoring a 100% bonus on 100,000 points is extremely rare, and there’s no guarantee Air Canada will repeat it in the near future.
So, there’s no catch. Unless, of course, you don’t plan on flying this year. In fact, it’s likely that Air Canada is promoting this deal in order to lure people back into planes and out of a pandemic-induced “staycation.”
If you don’t plan on flying this year, and you buy points from Air Canada, you can save your points for later. But you might run into one obstacle: devaluation.
Basically, Aeroplan could choose at any time to devalue your points by changing their rewards program or adjusting it for inflation. You might buy 100,000 points, hoping that those 100,000 (or 200,000 with the bonus) will get you two plane tickets to Europe. And, as things stand right now, you should have no problems redeeming 200,000 points for flights to Europe. But if Aeroplan decided to require more points for European tickets, those points that you bought could be worth less than you thought.
Oh, and the worse part: Aeroplan doesn’t have to tell you about devaluations.
If you do plan on flying this year, or at least buying tickets, this mega-bonus is certainly worth it. But you have to act fast — buy your points before midnight tomorrow, March 22, to get your bonus.
