This post was sponsored by Amex Bank of Canada. The views and opinions expressed in this blog, however, are my own. American Express is not responsible for maintaining or monitoring the accuracy of information on this website.
It’s been a long time in the making but Air Canada®* has finally announced the completely transformed loyalty program and all the Aeroplan®* changes that will be coming soon.
Alongside the launch of the Aeroplan program, American Express® is also releasing a brand new suite of cards. Keep reading to find out these new products and why you should sign up for them.
Read more about Aeroplan and American Express
- 11 Must-Have Canadian Credit Cards for Travel Hackers
- How To Find Those Ridiculous Aeroplan Routes For Cheap
- How To Hilton Honors Gold Fast Track in 2022
How to get the best deals in travel
- Hottest deals – Bookmark the travel deals page.
- Car rentals – stop getting ripped off and learn about car rental coupon codes.
- Hotels – Use corporate codes or get Genius 2 tier with Booking.
- Flights – Have you ever heard of the “Everywhere” feature?
- Insurance – Make sure you’re covered and learn more about where to buy the best travel insurance
Here's what we're covering:
New American Express Aeroplan Cards
The launch of the new Aeroplan is certainly HUGE news but what I was actually the most excited about was the news of all the new cards that would be coming out to support the launch.
American Express is one of their partners for co-branded cards and I’m here to help break down the 3 types of cards that will be available.
Read next: If you want to learn more about these cards, we have a detailed breakdown of the new American Express Aeroplan Cards.
American Express® Aeroplan®* Card
This is the base charge card for Aeroplan. It carries a $120 annual fee which is less than the previous American Express Gold Rewards Card which is $150 (temporarily discontinued).
Main features:
- Charge card – No pre-set spending limit on purchases giving cardmembers flexibility when spending.
- Form factor – The Card is made with 70% reclaimed plastic, as part of Amex’s commitment to sustainability.
- Annual fee – $120
- Additional cards – $50 for each Additional Aeroplan®* Card to enjoy some the benefits that the Basic Cardmember receives, even when not travelling with the Basic Members, $0 for each Additional Aeroplan®* No Fee Card (though this will not have the travel benefits). Yes, this means there are two types of additional cards available now.
- No income requirement.
Travel benefit:
- Free checked bag – Enjoy a free first checked bag, up to 23kg/50lb for up to 9 people travelling on the same reservation on Air Canada flights.
Additional benefits:
- Entertainment Access through American Express® Experiences which includes Front Of The Line® presale and reserved tickets.
- Preferred Pricing on flight rewards – Basic Cardmembers can often book flight rewards for even fewer points.
Earning Aeroplan points:
- Earn 2x the points on eligible purchases made directly with Air Canada®* and Air Canada Vacations®*.
- Earn 1.5x the points on eligible Dining and Food Delivery purchases in Canada.
- Earn 1x the points on everything else.
- Earn 1,000 Status Qualifying Miles and 1 Status Qualifying Segment for every $10,000 in eligible net purchases charged to your Card. This will help you reach Aeroplan EliteTM* Status faster.
American Express® Aeroplan®* Reserve Card
For those that really want to maximize on benefits for the new Aeroplan, this is a Card you want to consider. The benefits are pretty killer.
The American Express® Aeroplan®* Reserve Card is a premium Card and thus carries a larger $599 annual fee but the perks make it worth it.
The basics:
- Credit Card – This is not a charge card meaning that it will have a preset credit limit as well as the ability to make minimum payments every month.
- Form factor – The American Express® Aeroplan®* Reserve Card is made from precision cut and engraved 13g metal.
- Annual fee – $599
- Additional cards – $199 for each Additional Aeroplan®* Reserve Card to enjoy some of the benefits that the Basic Cardmember receives, $0 for each Additional Aeroplan®* Reserve No Fee Card.
- No income requirement.
Travel benefits:
- Exclusive Benefits at Toronto Pearson International Airport – Expedited security lane, complimentary valet, save 15% on parking, and save 15% on car care.
- Other Airport Benefits – Priority Airport services such as Air Canada Priority Check-In, Priority Boarding, and Priority baggage handling and more.
- Lounge Access – Enjoy complimentary access to select Maple Leaf LoungesTM* and the Air Canada Cafes in North America with a same day ticket on a departing Air Canada or Star Alliance flight.
- Annual Worldwide Companion Pass – Receive one Annual Worldwide Companion Pass when you spend $25,000 in net purchases prior to your Card anniversary date; your Pass entitles you to buy an accompanying Air Canada economy class ticket for a companion at a fixed base fare from $99 to a maximum of $599 CAD (plus taxes, fees, charges, and surcharges).
- Free checked bag – Enjoy a free first checked bag, up to 23kg/50lb for up to 9 people travelling on the same reservation on Air Canada flights.
- Priority Pass MembershipTM – Your American Express® Aeroplan®* Reserve Card gives you access to more than 1,200 airport lounges around the globe.
Additional benefits:
- Entertainment Access through American Express® Experiences which includes Front Of The Line® presale and reserved tickets.
- Preferred Pricing on flight rewards – Basic Cardmembers can often book flight rewards for even fewer points.
Earning Aeroplan points:
- Earn 3x the points on eligible purchases made directly with Air Canada®* and Air Canada Vacations®*.
- Earn 2x the points on eligible dining and food delivery purchases in Canada.
- Earn 1x the points on everything else.
- Earn 1,000 Status Qualifying Miles and 1 Status Qualifying Segment for every $5,000 in eligible net purchases charged to your Card. You can also rollover unused Status Qualifying Miles (up to 200,000) to qualify for Aeroplan Elite Status the following year.
American Express® Aeroplan Business Reserve®* Card
This is the business version of the American Express® Aeroplan® Reserve Card that is geared towards business needs.
As a premium business card and as a counterpart to the non-business version, this card carries a $599 annual fee.
The basics:
- Credit Card – This is not a charge card meaning that it will have a preset credit limit as well as the ability to make minimum payments every month.
- Form factor – The American Express® Aeroplan®* Business Reserve Card is made from precision cut and engraved 13g metal.
- Annual fee – $599
- Additional cards – $199 for each Additional Aeroplan®* Business Reserve Card to enjoy some of the benefits that the Basic Cardmember receives, $0 for each additional Aeroplan®* Business Reserve No Fee Card.
- No income requirement.
Travel benefits:
- Exclusive Benefits at Toronto Pearson International Airport – Expedited security lane, complimentary valet, save 15% on parking, and save 15% on car care
- Other Airport Benefits – Priority Airport services such as Air Canada Priority Check-In, Priority Boarding, and Priority baggage handling and more.
- Lounge Access – Enjoy complimentary access to select Maple Leaf Lounges and Air Canada Cafes in North America with a same day ticket on a departing Air Canada or Star Alliance flight.
- Annual Worldwide Companion Pass – Receive one Annual Worldwide Companion Pass when you spend $25,000 in net purchases prior to your Card anniversary date. Your Pass entitles you to buy an accompanying Air Canada economy class ticket for a companion at a fixed base fare from $99 to a maximum of $599 CAD (plus taxes, fees, charges, and surcharges).
- Free checked bag – Enjoy a free first checked bag, up to 23kg/50lb for up to 9 people travelling on the same reservation on Air Canada flights.
Additional benefits:
- Entertainment Access through American Express® Experiences which includes Front Of The Line® presale and reserved tickets.
- Preferred Pricing on flight rewards – Basic Cardmembers can often book flight rewards for even fewer points.
Earning Aeroplan points:
- Earn 3x the points on eligible purchases made directly with Air Canada and Air Canada Vacations.
- Earn 2x the points on eligible hotels and car rentals.
- Earn 1x the points on everything else.
- Earn 1,000 Status Qualifying Miles and 1 Status Qualifying Segment for every $5,000 in eligible net purchases charged to your Card. You can also rollover unused Status Qualifying Miles (up to 200,000) to qualify for Aeroplan Elite Status the following year.
You’ll notice that the main difference between the American Express® Aeroplan® Business Reserve Card vs. the American Express® Aeroplan® Reserve Card is that the 2x multiplier is for hotels and car rentals as compared to dining and food delivery services.
The Transformed Aeroplan
It’s official. Air Canada’s transformed Aeroplan loyalty program is launching November 8, 2020. There’s a lot to catch up on with their announcement.
Some of the new changes are pretty straightforward while others need to be dissected a little bit more to understand.
I was pretty overwhelmed with all the Aeroplan changes (can we call it Aeroplan 2.0?) so I’m going to break it down and do it in as plain language as possible.
Highlighting the important changes
Let’s start with all of the big Aeroplan changes.
No more surcharges: The much-hated fees such as the fuel surcharges are now eliminated.
More predictable pricing: You don’t need to be a travel pro to figure out how many points are required for Aeroplan reward flights – Points needed for Aeroplan flight rewards on Air Canada will be based on actual prices in the market.
New zones: Related to the above, the world is divided into 4 zones and there are new pricing tables that power the predictable pricing.
Points on any fare class: You will earn Aeroplan points with every Air Canada flight booked in cash on the Air Canada website or app, now including Economy Basic fares.
Family sharing: Pool your points together to get to your reward faster with up to 8 family members.
Every available seat is now a reward seat: Flexibility is the cornerstone of the program and so they are promising no restrictions or blackouts.
New partner airlines: Aeroplan has over 35 airline partners, including all of the Star Alliance member airlines, plus recent additions like Etihad Airways and Azul.
One-way flights rewards with stopover: For travel outside of Canada and the U.S., when you book a one-way reward, you now have the option to include a stopover for just 5,000 points.
Points for perks: Use your Aeroplan points for in-flight wifi or to bid on cabin upgrades to enjoy a more comfortable journey.
New co-branded cards: American Express is one that will get a whole new line up of cards.
Aeroplan EliteTM* Status: Air Canada Altitude will be renamed and simplified, along with some exciting new improvements in 2021 such as Priority Rewards, Status Pass and Everyday Status Qualification. Plus, all American Express® Aeroplan® cards can help members reach and maintain status more easily.
Points + Cash: You will be able to pay for flight rewards with a combination of points and cash.
Easier redemption: Everything Aeroplan will be brought back into the Air Canada ecosystem and booked on aircanada.com, or the Air Canada app.
Diving into the details
The above covers all the sweeping changes to the new Aeroplan program but several of those require a deeper dive to understand their actual implications.
No more surcharges
Hallelujah! This has always been the bane of Aeroplan reward tickets. Fuel surcharges are *poof*.
This means that ALL fuel surcharges whether it’s Air Canada or any other airline will not be passed along to you. In the past this has often amounted to several hundreds of dollars which is why so many rewards just weren’t worth it.
This is welcoming news – giving you big savings for your travel.
When you book on any airline that isn’t Air Canada, they will be introducing a $39 partner booking fee. This kicks in even if you just have one leg that’s operated by someone else.
What hasn’t changed is that there is still a $30 phone booking fee when you call in to Aeroplan to piece together a complicated itinerary. That said, they’re hoping to get rid of this with the new online booking platform which we’ll get into later.
Predictable pricing
Air Canada has created a Points Predictor Tool which will tell you how much to expect reward tickets to cost.
That said, what isn’t put into the spotlight is the fact that prices will fluctuate based on seasonality. So yes, dynamic pricing will be in effect but only for Air Canada flights.
New zones and pricing tables
This leads to the next part which are these new zones. The globe is broken up into 4 areas – North America, South America, Atlantic, and Pacific.
Travel within a zone and travelling between zones is now broken down by distance (in miles).
The hybrid of zone and miles results in a very predictable and standard set of tables that you can find on a PDF here. Note that these points are for one-way tickets
Within North America, a flight from Toronto to Los Angeles is 2,175 miles according to Great Circle Mapper. This means one-way could cost as little as 12,500 points on either Air Canada or partner airline in economy. Previously, this was 25,000 points round trip so this means no change.
If you’re looking to fly to Asia, and let’s saying from Vancouver to Hong Kong which is 6,392 mi according to Great Circle Mapper. This means one-way could cost as little as 45,000 Aeroplan points or 50,000 with a partner airline in Economy class. Previously, this was 75,000 points round trip thus 37,500 each way.
As you dig deeper with city combinations you’ll start discovering where most things cost less, the same, or more.
The tables also illustrates that you’ll now be able to book any fare family (Economy, Premium Economy, Business, First) for your reward ticket.
New partner airlines
While Air Canada is part of Star Alliance, it also has numerous partner airlines that are outside of the alliance. Including a few recent additions, you will be able to book with airlines like:
- Azul
- Canadian North
- Cathay Pacific
- Cathay Dragon
- Etihad Airways
- GOL
In fact, these relationships have already been established so you can book these even in the current “Aeroplan 1.0”.
Stopover and layover rules
Each one-way flight reward can add a stopover (a full stop where you get off the plane and stay overnight many days) for a fee of 5,000 Aeroplan points. However, stopovers are not permitted within Canada and the U.S.
What about layovers? Layover of 24 hours or less for trips that contain a destination outside of North America can be added. Trips completely in North America have 12 hours. Under the new Aeroplan, these are free.
For the travel pros out there, note that Maximum Permitted Mileage (MPM) is gone!
Altitude is out, Elite is in
This is pretty straightforward. They will be renaming the different elite status tiers to 25K, 35K, 50K, 75K, and Super Elite.
Everyone’s Altitude status in 2020 will automatically convert over to the new program since it’s a 1 for 1 match.
The qualifications for these statuses remain largely unchanged except for Super Elite, where beginning next year, you need to have 100 qualifying segments versus the previous 95.
Lastly, the elite privileges won’t change much with the exception of the new Priority Rewards and Status Pass which we’ll get into in the next section.
What about the confusing Aeroplan status (Silver, Black, Diamond) that was operated by Aeroplan exclusively and unrelated to Altitude status? That’s going to be phased out once the new Aeroplan launches.
Priority Rewards and Status Pass
This is only for the super frequent flyers out there but a pretty sweet perk if you ask me.
Priority Rewards are based on something called Status Qualifying Dollars (SQD) that’s a cumulative total of how much you spend on flights in a calendar year.
At 4,000, 7,000, 10,000, 15,000 SQD thresholds and every 5,000 SQD subsequently, you’ll get a Priority Reward voucher which will give you a blanket 50% off Aeroplan points for a reward ticket. The type of flight reward on which you can apply the voucher will depend on your status.
Status Pass is reserved for anyone that have 50K Elite Status or higher and will be available starting March 2021.
Simply put, this allows Elite members to share their benefits with friends and family even when they’re not travelling with them. You pass along your status benefits to whomever you want and their whole party (up to 9 on the same reservation). And yes this includes Maple Leaf LoungeTM* access.
What this does not include are Star Alliance Gold benefits.
Unified system
Everything will now be brought back into the aircanada.com fold. Under the new Aeroplan changes, you’ll be able to book your rewards on Air Canada’s website and on the Air Canada app.
They’ve also promised that you’ll be able to book complicated routes through the new booking system once it’s launched so you won’t have to call into the helpline and pay the phone-in fee anymore.
Earning points
So far we’ve talked about all the perks of having status and using points but how do you accrue points?
This won’t start until 2021 but Air Canada is planning on simplify how you earn points and it will be revenue-based in stead of miles-based.
The better way to earn Aeroplan points will be through co-branded credit cards and I’ll be focusing on American Express a little further down.
Reviewing the Transformed Aeroplan
Overall, this overhaul of Aeroplan makes one thing very clear. They’ve created a program that favours flexibility and predictability.
When you start thinking about the more complicated routes, you’ll find that it may not be as cheap as before in points but you will have the option to do more with it (more fare classes, inventory, and ability to add layovers and stopovers).
I think that the new loyalty program will make earning more challenging for the casual flyer while adding a few big incentives to become a higher elite member. They’ve removed the frustrating bits of finding reward tickets and that will make most people happier.
The digital overhaul of the platform should make Aeroplan bookings more simple to understand while also allowing members to spend their points in many ways including micro-transactions (i.e. wifi, upgrade fees, etc.), revamped product store, and partner travel rewards (i.e. car rentals, Air Canada Vacations).
The rollout of the Aeroplan changes aren’t going to come out all at once so expect a bit of a transition period heading into early 2021.
There are of course a lot of other small Aeroplan changes made if you get into the weeds but this covers all of the need-to-knows.
FAQ
Yes, the points will transfer 1:1.
Any sort of activity every 18 months is required to keep your points active. This is 6 months longer than before. One way to avoid this is by holding an Aeroplan credit card.
In July 2020, Aeroplan introduced a new policy. Within six months of a member’s account becoming inactive, when they fly Air Canada or get an Aeroplan credit card, Aeroplan will then reactivate all of those recently-expired miles. They’ve also introduced some special policies related to members impacted by COVID-19.
Yes, this is something you can do today using the AC Bid Upgrade. The new change is that you can now use Aeroplan Miles instead of just cash.
This is coming in December 2020.
You can cancel flight rewards within 24 hours at no charge. You can also cancel or change up to 2 hours before your flight. A change fee will apply but you’ll get a refund of all your points along with taxes, fees, and surcharges.
No, your Aeroplan number will remain the same.
The below is a chart of the new chance and cancellation fees. Notice that the fees are now dependent on the fare class you booked.
All flight reward bookings made before November 8, 2020 will continue to be valid. Nothing changes.
The new Aeroplan website will be integrated right into aircanada.com
This will not happen right away on November 8, 2020. The switch will happen later in 2021 but the exact date has not been announced yet.
Yes, they will continue to recognize and give out Million Mile status.
The exact discounts between different groups has not been announced but so far, preferred pricing will be available to Aeroplan credit cardholders and Elite Status members
If you are an American Express Cardmember, they will be reaching out to you about how your card is changing. On November 8, your new card benefits will automatically activate.
Currently these special lounges are available in Toronto and Vancouver and only to those who paid a business class ticket with Air Canada. This will be changing to allow anyone with a Business Flexible flight reward to use the lounge as well.
This will become available March 2021. This will be available for Aeroplan 50K, 75K, and Super Elite Members as a Select Benefit. As a launch bonus, anyone with this status will receive an extra one.
Status Passes are essentially vouchers. Each Aeroplan Elite members eligible are entitled to a maximum number per year as part of their Select Benefits. Aeroplan 50K gets to choose up to 2, 75K up to 3, and Super Elite up to 4. This will determine how many you can use in a year.
What you should read next
*Trademarks
- ®, TM: Used by Amex Bank of Canada under license from American Express.
- ®*, TM*: For trademark ownership details see: americanexpress.ca/aeroplantrademarks
