For some time now, the biggest downside to Canada’s most popular loyalty program has been the fact that you can’t redeem your Aeroplan Miles to cover the entire cost of a flight. You could redeem a fixed number of miles for the cost of the ticket, but you would have to pay hundreds of dollars in taxes, fuel surcharges, and additional fees. This is a big reason why many bloggers, including ourselves, recommend looking at other travel credit cards when determining which credit card works best for you and your travel needs.
The day has finally come where you don’t have to do that anymore. Aeroplan recently launched cash-free flight rewards, which give you the option to pay for the entire cost of the flight (taxes and fees included) with your Aeroplan Miles. Sounds great, right? Well, not so much.
A recent article published by The Points Guy shows that though on the surface it may seem like great news that you don’t have to spend your money to pay for taxes and fees, you’re probably still better off doing just that. Aeroplan is charging nearly double the miles required for the base fare to cover these additional charges, which greatly devalues the points.
It shows a direct flight from New York to Munich to be worth 70,000 Miles, along with the option to either pay $580.30 in taxes, fees, and surcharges, or to redeem another 68,270 Aeroplan Miles. To put this into perspective, Ratehub.ca values each Aeroplan Mile at 1.2 cents. Using the numbers above, the value per Aeroplan Mile would go down to 0.99 cents. Other calculations show the value decreasing by an even more drastic margin. But no matter how you slice it, there doesn’t seem to be very much that can justify forking out double your hard-earned miles to pay for additional fees.
Other Aeroplan promotions and offers
As of July 12, Aeroplan members can now earn miles when they shop online from furniture store TheaBrick. They’ll receive one mile for every $2 spent. And beginning on Aug. 2, there will be monthly bonus miles on many products and categories, with five times bonus miles on all furniture purchases and a special bonus mile offer on select specialty mattresses.
Our favourite Aeroplan credit card:
Card details
- Receive up to 35,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles
- Earn up to 1.5 points per dollar spent on gas, groceries, and direct through Air Canada purchases
- Annual Fee Rebate for the first year ($139)
- Comprehensive suite of travel protection, including auto rental collision/loss damage insurance, travel medical insurance and trip cancellation/trip interruption insurance
- Receive VISA Infinite benefits
- This offer is not available for residents of Quebec. For Quebec residents, please click here.
- †Terms and conditions apply.
- Income required: $60,000 (personal) and $100,000 (household)
Where will you go with your bonus miles? Let us know in the comments below!
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