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Even if you don't plan to visit Canada, there are reasons why you should care about the Aeroplan loyalty program. Its points can provide fantastic value. And the simplest way to earn a pile of Aeroplan points is through a credit card welcome bonus, such as the Aeroplan® Credit Card.
Need help deciding if this card is right for you? In this post, we'll dig into this sign-up bonus and highlight the Aeroplan Card‘s earning rates, annual fee, and cardholder perks.
- Earn up to 100,000 bonus points
- Earn 75,000 points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months your account is open.
- Plus, 25,000 points after you spend $20,000 on purchases in the first 12 months.
- $95 Annual Fee
- Redeem points for both international and domestic flights with the Aeroplan® Credit Card.
- Fly to another continent and travel the world with the Aeroplan® Credit Card.
- Earn 3X points for each dollar spent at grocery stores, on dining at restaurants, and Air Canada directly. Earn 1X point for each dollar spent on all other purchases.
- 500 bonus points for every $2,000 you spend in a calendar month - up to 1,500 points per month.
- Member FDIC
- 3x points on dining, including takeout and eligible delivery services
- 3x points at grocery stores
- 3x points directly with Air Canada
- 1x point on all other purchases
Aeroplan Card Sign-Up Bonus
New applicants for the Aeroplan Card can earn up to 100,000 bonus points – 75,000 points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months your account is open, plus 25,000 points after you spend $20,000 on purchases in the first 12 months.
This equals the best offer we've seen on this card, which also required significant spending.
Based on recent redemptions, AwardWallet members have achieved roughly 1.89¢ in value when redeeming Aeroplan points directly for flights.
How Many Points Does the Aeroplan Card Earn?
Outside of the welcome offer, cardholders earn 3X Aeroplan points in the following categories:
- Dining, including takeout and eligible delivery services
- Grocery stores
- Purchases made directly with Air Canada
Cardholders earn 1 Aeroplan point per dollar spent on all other purchases.
Monthly Spending Bonuses
Additionally, you can earn monthly bonuses with the Aeroplan Card. Cardmembers earn 500 bonus Aeroplan points for every $2,000 spent in a calendar month — up to a maximum of 1,500 bonus Aeroplan points per month. If you maximize that $6,000 in spending across 3X earning categories, you will finish the month with 19,500 Aeroplan points. That's a 3.25x earning rate.
Aeroplan Card Featured Benefits and Perks
The Aeroplan Card provides some excellent ongoing perks and benefits:
- First checked bag is free on Air Canada flights for the primary cardmember and up to eight other travelers on the same itinerary.
- $100 credit towards Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, or NEXUS — available once every four years.
- Holders of the Aeroplan Card can score a 10% transfer bonus when converting Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Aeroplan points.
- Preferred pricing on Aeroplan flight award bookings.
- Travel protections for flight delays, baggage, rental car coverage, and more.
- Aeroplan Elite 25K status for the remainder of the first calendar year in which you have the card, plus the following calendar year. This status includes perks like priority check-in, early boarding, and potential upgrades on Air Canada flights.
- World Elite Mastercard benefits.
- Carbon offset benefit: Aeroplan will purchase carbon offsets when the cardmember redeems Aeroplan points for Air Canada flights.
You'll get all of these perks for an annual fee of just $95.
Retain Aeroplan Elite Status Through Spending
In addition to receiving elite status when signing up for the new Aeroplan Card, cardmembers can also retain, extend, or gift status in the future when hitting specific spending thresholds. To keep Elite 25K beyond the first couple of years as a cardholder, you must spend $15,000 on the card in the previous calendar year.
If you can spend $50,000 or more on your card in a calendar year, you can earn Aeroplan's Level-Up benefit. This gives you a one-level status boost. For example, if you met the flying requirements to earn Elite 35K status, Level-Up would bump you to Elite 50K status.
If you've already earned the top-tier Aeroplan Super Elite Status, you'll still be rewarded for reaching $50,000 in annual spending. Instead of Level-Up, you'll earn the right to gift Elite 50K status to another Aeroplan member.
Other Spending-Based Perks
For even bigger spenders, there are additional perks — from 50% off priority rewards to companion benefits.
At the $1 million per calendar year threshold, you can earn GLOBAL+1. This is a worldwide-companion-pass type of perk. It offers 100% of points redeemed back on all redemptions in all cabins for your designated companion for the rest of the applicable year.
These benefits also extend into the rest of the entire following year. This is an incredibly valuable perk, but the spending required puts this out of reach for all but a very few award travelers.
Pay Yourself Back
This benefit recently launched on the Aeroplan Card. Cardholders have the ability to pay themselves back using Aeroplan points towards travel purchases on any airline, hotel, or rental car. The redemption rate is a solid 1.25¢ per point with a redemption limit of 50,000 points per year.
You might already be familiar with Chase's “Pay Yourself Back” program, which allows you to request a statement credit for select purchases made with Ultimate Rewards cards. The Aeroplan Card perk will work in a similar way, but the purchases that are eligible for a statement credit are different.
From recent redemption data, Aeroplan points have provided an average of 1.89¢ per point for economy redemptions, 2.61¢ for regional business class, and 2.57¢ for long-haul business- and first-class redemptions.
Thus, redeeming at 1.25¢ is less than the average redemption value for Aeroplan points. However, offering creative options to redeem on other types of travel is an interesting perk. It could help you redeem against travel purchases when using points upfront isn't possible.
Application Rules
Similarly to the majority of Chase credit cards, this Aeroplan Card is subject to the Chase 5/24 rule. Chase also has a 2/30 rule, in which you cannot open more than two credit cards with Chase in a rolling 30-day period. Chase includes the following application restrictions in the T&Cs:
This product is not available to either (i) current cardmembers of the Chase Aeroplan Card, or (ii) previous cardmembers of the Chase Aeroplan Card who received a new card within the last 24 months.
Our Take
With monthly and annual spending rewards and 3X earnings in numerous categories, your ability to earn Aeroplan points extends well beyond the welcome-offer period.
New applicants can earn Elite 25K status automatically for the first year they have the card and the full year thereafter. That makes early 2023 the perfect time to apply, as you'll capture elite status for nearly two years.
With the ability to earn 25K-or-higher status through spending, this card can play a key role in your Aeroplan strategy for years to come.
Overall, this card offers a good mix of welcome offer benefits, an affordable annual fee, and ongoing perks/earning rates that more than justify keeping the card for years.
- Earn up to 100,000 bonus points
- Earn 75,000 points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months your account is open.
- Plus, 25,000 points after you spend $20,000 on purchases in the first 12 months.
- $95 Annual Fee
- Redeem points for both international and domestic flights with the Aeroplan® Credit Card.
- Fly to another continent and travel the world with the Aeroplan® Credit Card.
- Earn 3X points for each dollar spent at grocery stores, on dining at restaurants, and Air Canada directly. Earn 1X point for each dollar spent on all other purchases.
- 500 bonus points for every $2,000 you spend in a calendar month - up to 1,500 points per month.
- Member FDIC
- 3x points on dining, including takeout and eligible delivery services
- 3x points at grocery stores
- 3x points directly with Air Canada
- 1x point on all other purchases
If you're under 5/24, do you plan to apply for this card?
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Great deal—-another 100k SUB.
Will this status can be used with Star Alliance partners as well?
Kinda. Aeroplan 25K gets you Star Alliance Silver. Unfortunately that doesn’t get you many useful perks on partners (like United)
With regards to the Aeroplan Elite 25K status and this sentence… for the remainder of the first calendar year in which you have the card, plus the following calendar year… the best time to apply for this card is early (January definitely, February, maybe?) in the calendar year.
What’s the likelihood or possibility that this benefit would be changed to “card anniversary year” instead?
Absolutely the best time to apply is at the beginning of the year. Since Aeroplan bases elite status on a calendar year, I don’t see Aeroplan/Chase changing this benefit… but it could eventually happen.
Is this specific to Canadians? Is the border open yet?? Sounds like it could get better.
Tim–this card is in the US.
The grey image on the card looks more like the AA tail than the E emblem in Aeroplan…
You mean like the Southwest and United cards that Chase also have?
JAXBA–not sure what you are asking. Could you clarify?
Too bad for 5/24 with Chase. Haven’t heard anything new with Amex for a while. I wonder if Amex has given up the fight.
Wow! A one million dollar spend award. Do other cards have this? It is nice that they have a benefit for achieving this type of spend, but I think that I’d use a card that gave me better awards.
I can’t think of any others off the top of my head. Also, with $1 million, I could complete the spending offers to open over 100 credit cards (and get lucrative bonuses from those), so there is some opportunity cost here.
My husband and I think this is a great way to earn miles for use on Air Canada or to use for other things. So, I 2wil be applying for it shortly.
Nice card for gamers, assuming you can get a high credit limit from them and you’re under 5/24. Neither of which I am.
I was waitlisted and received email last week. I am under 5/24 but just to be sure, I am going to wait until my next hard inquiry expires at the end of January 2022. My offer states – apply by February 15, 2022.
The free elite status is a nice perk, but having to use miles in blocks of 50k, or lose them, is a turnoff.
I have been waiting to see just what the new Aeroplan credit will offer in value. Wow! I will definitely get this card because of all the perks it offers and because my wife and I fly on Air Canada when going on vacations to Canada and to certain places in Europe. Here’s hoping COVID and all the variants finally dissipate so we can get back to traveling again!
Wish chase would offer some US airline cards. The Aeroplan is fine, but more canadian based.
Seems like a solid card with the ability to earn recurring miles every month through attainable spend, and features like the carbon offset are quite unique and should draw some attention from environmentally aware travelers. The Pay Yourself Back feature from Chase is very valuable and seen in other cards (e.g. Sapphire Reserve/Preffered), making AeroPlan points with this card even more versatile!
With trips coming up to Toronto, might be worth seeing whether this card is worth adding to the portfolio