Lately we haven't been too impressed with Air Canada and Aeroplan, unless you count being impressed with the speed of Aeroplan's devaluation. Now, surprise surprise, Aeroplan is offering up to 25,000 bonus miles when you transfer points from one of their partners, such as SPG, Membership Rewards, Hilton HHonors, etc.
As Ben points out, you could earn the bonus for each of their transfer partners. For example, you could transfer 80,000 SPG points, receiving 100,000 Aeroplan miles (each 20,000 increment in SPG points gets you a 5000 bonus) and also earning the 25,000 bonus Aeroplan miles. You could also transfer 100,000 Membership Rewards points (which transfer 1:1, no bonus for 20,000 increments) to earn another 25,000 bonus Aeroplan miles.
Now, you might be thinking to take advantage of the transfer bonus before November 30, when Aeroplan will start applying fuel surcharges to partner airlines' award tickets, including Asiana, Thai, ANA etc. The problem is that you may not actually get the bonus miles posted in time. SPG can take 1-2 weeks to transfer miles, and the bonus Aeroplan miles will only post after the transfer of points to miles is complete.
Even if you transfer Membership Rewards points, which is near instant, read this in the Terms and Conditions:
“Bonus miles will be credited into the member's account by Aeroplan as each threshold is reached, and may take up to eight weeks from the date the member makes his/her request with the partner.”
[Emphasis is mine]
So, you may only receive the Aeroplan transfer bonus long after partner fuel surcharges have already gone into effect. If the fuel surcharges either aren't an issue for you and the award price makes sense when taking the transfer bonus into account, by all means take advantage of the offer, as Aeroplan transfer bonuses are rare. Then again, they didn't need to run them back before they devalued…
So thanks, but no thanks, Aeroplan–I'll sit this one out.
Need Award Booking Help? Our fee is as low as $75 per ticket if you book your hotel through us.
If you enjoyed this, join 100,000+ readers: please follow TravelSort on Twitter or like us on Facebook to be alerted to new posts.
Become a TravelSort Client and Book 5-Star Hotels with Virtuoso or Four Seasons Preferred Partner Amenities!
Hat Tip: Ben