30% transfer bonus from hotels to Aeroplan….with one big exclusion

Air Canada’s Aeroplan is out with its latest transfer bonus — they are offering a 30% bonus on hotel points converted into Aeroplan miles. That’s a nice bonus if you’re transferring a small block of points to top off an award (or a really nice bonus if you’re transferring Starpoints in blocks of 20K). However, the most lucrative use of these transfer bonuses has long been Marriott Travel Packages….and this time they have excluded Marriott Travel Packages from qualifying for the bonus. Read on for more.

The Deal

• Get 30% more miles when you convert hotel points to Aeroplan miles
• Direct link to promotion

Key Terms

• Offer ends 12/11/17
• Marriott Travel Packages are excluded from this bonus
• Total number of Aeroplan miles received on conversion must be 5,000 Aeroplan miles or more in order to be eligible for the 30% bonus
• Bonus miles will be based on total points transferred during the bonus period (11-6 to 12-11) and will post within 4-6 weeks of the end of the promotion

Quick Thoughts

Aeroplan runs bonuses like this a few times each year. Their most recent promotion ended August 21st and offered a 35% bonus, which was the biggest bonus I recall. Their transfer bonuses are more typically 25-30%.

As a reminder, here are the Aeroplan hotel partners from which you can convert:

Transfer ratios can be found here, but they aren’t very good and generally aren’t worthwhile except to top off for an award or when you have hotel points that are likely to expire unused.

Starpoints are an exception. Starwood’s Starpoints transfer 1:1 to Aeroplan and when you transfer Starpoints in increments of 20,000 points, you always get a 5,000 mile bonus for a total of 25,000 Aeroplan miles. With the 30% bonus on top of that everyday conversion ratio, you would get 32,500 Aeroplan miles. Converting Starpoints at a rate of 20,000 to 32,500 Aeroplan miles is a solid deal. With the current sale on SPG points that Greg wrote about last week (Buy Marriott points for 0.7 cents each), it might even be worth buying points if you have a strategic redemption in mind.

If you’re considering a conversion, a glance at Aeroplan’s award chart might be helpful. Here are the rates for round trip travel from the Continental US and Canada (a one-way is half the cost of a round trip).

Keep in mind that Aeroplan does pass on fuel surcharges with some partners. You can conveniently search availability on their website.

Unfortunately, the bad news on this transfer bonus is that they have explicitly excluded Marriott Travel Packages. These packages have historically been a great use of transfer bonuses (and in fact Greg wrote last week about his intention to probably do one with the current United MileagePlus transfer bonus, which does not exclude Marriott Travel Packages). I’m very disappointed to see this exclusion added as Travel Packages have not been excluded in the past. I hope this is not a change that we will see applied to future transfer bonuses.

Bottom line

This is a decent transfer bonus. It likely only makes sense in large numbers if you’re converting Starpoints. Furthermore, it’s a big bummer that Marriott Travel Packages have been excluded. Hopefully, that change will not carry over into future hotel point transfer bonuses with other programs. We have added this transfer bonus to our Current Point Transfer Bonuses page.

H/T: One Mile at a Time

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