Aeroplan Card Adds Chase Transfer Bonus

The Chase Aeroplan Card Has a New 10% Transfer Bonus from Chase Ultimate Rewards, for those who hold both the Chase Aeroplan card and an annual fee Chase card such as the Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase Sapphire Preferred, or Ink Business Preferred. The aforementioned cards all earn Ultimate Rewards points that can be transferred to Aeroplan and other airline frequent flyer programs. Here are the transfer bonus details:

Must hold both the Chase Aeroplan card and a Chase card that earns Ultimate Rewards points
Must transfer at least 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points in a single transaction to Aeroplan
Earn a 10% Aeroplan points transfer bonus for transfers from Ultimate Rewards to Aeroplan between May 3, 2022 and 12/31/23
The transfer bonus is deposited as a separate transaction, typically within 72 hours although it could take up to 7 days
Capped at a maximum of 25,000 bonus miles per year earned this way, meaning you can transfer a maximum of 250,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Aeroplan per year that will earn the 10% transfer bonus (as above, must be in increments of 50,000 points in a single transaction)

A Nice Bonus But Not a Game Changer

The 10% transfer bonus is a nice change, which I expect to use at some point this year as part of using our Aeroplan flight reward certificates. It's especially good that it has such a long duration, through the rest of 2022 and all of 2023. That said, it's not enough to be a game changer; there's previously been an AMEX 20% transfer bonus to Aeroplan, and I don't expect to keep the Aeroplan card when it comes up for renewal.

Why? A key reason is Aeroplan's award cancellation penalty, which is $150 per ticket. Even a change to an existing award costs $75 per ticket 60 or more days prior to the flight, or $100 if within 60 days of the flight. While Aeroplan's award chart generally charges fewer points than United MileagePlus, the advantage of using MileagePlus miles is that there's no fee to make a change or redeposit an award flight 31 days or more before the flight.

Another aspect that has stymied my use of Aeroplan is how many United awards are no longer at the saver level, such that Aeroplan can't book them. Since we've needed quite a few United flights, that's meant either paying cash, when an award would get us less than 2 cents per point, or redeeming MileagePlus miles.

Of course, your circumstances may be different than ours, so if you tend to transfer many Ultimate Rewards points to Aeroplan, this is great news.

Recommended Posts

Aeroplan’s New Award Charts: Pros and Cons