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Chase launched a new transfer bonus yesterday, giving a 20% increase when transferring Ultimate Rewards to Air Canada’s Aeroplan loyalty program.
The Deal
- Get a 20% bonus when transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards to Air Canada Aeroplan.
Key Terms
- Expires January 15, 2024.
- Bonus points will be awarded by Aeroplan in your Aeroplan account when your transfer is complete.
Quick Thoughts
In November last year we saw a 30% transfer bonus from Chase to Aeroplan, but this past summer when they last offered a bonus it was at this lower 20% rate. Despite not being as good as the 30% bonus, it’s still a decent offer considering the wide range of other airlines that Aeroplan partners with.
Update: Usernamechuck has made a great point in the comments that this also boosts the value of Pay Yourself Back for Aeroplan cardholders. As a reminder, Aeroplan cardholders are able to redeem points via Pay Yourself Back at a rate of 1.25cpp (cents per point) towards travel purchases and the card’s annual fee. This 20% transfer bonus therefore boosts the return on your Ultimate Rewards points to 1.5cpp (1,000 Ultimate Rewards = 1,200 Aeroplan points = $15 cashed out in this way). If you’re a Sapphire Reserve cardholder, you can get 1.5cpp of value when booking through the travel portal any day of the week, but Aeroplan cardholders being able to cash out via Pay Yourself Back is even better as a) there’s a wider range of travel-related expenses that can be covered outside of Chase’s travel portal and b) it means you can book directly with airlines and hotels. That’s particularly beneficial with hotel stays as it means you can receive status benefits, earn points and elite night credits, etc. which you wouldn’t get when booking on the Chase portal.
Update 2: Air Canada via press release and John in the comments have also highlighted another stackable benefit for Aeroplan cardholders. Cardholders get a 10% bonus when transferring 50,000+ Ultimate Rewards in a transaction as standard (with a limit of 25,000 bonus points per year) which combines with this 20% bonus for a total bonus of 30% when transferring 50,000+ points. Someone doing that would then be able to use Pay Yourself Back at 1.25cpp for a total cashout value of 1.625cpp. While it’s possible to get better value than that be redeeming Ultimate Rewards for premium flights, Hyatt stays, etc., that’s still a solid value if you’re able to print Ultimate Rewards points and would like to cash some of them out.
Things to Know Aeroplan
- How to find awards: Search for available space at Aeroplan.com (you’ll need to create a free Aeroplan frequent flyer account to search)
- Change and cancellation fees: Fees vary from $25 for a Flex fare change to $100 for a close-in saver change and from $75-$175 for cancellations.
- Key warnings: Cancellation fees can be high, particularly for close-in travel.
- Transfer from: Amex, Capital One, Chase, Marriott
Best Uses Aeroplan
- Add Stopovers for 5,000 miles: There's great value in the Aeroplan due to the ability to add a stopover on a one-way award for 5,000 additional miles, making it possible to combine two destinations on one award.
- Lap Infants: Lap infants are just $25 CAD or 2,500 miles per direction (far cheaper than what most programs charge).
- Travel within US and Canada: Aeroplan charges 6K to 22.5K miles each way in economy class or as low as 15K miles each way in business class within US and Canada
- Business Class to Asia and the South Pacific: Flights to Asia and South Pacific range from 55K-105K one-way in business class (plus 5K miles for a stopover), which can be a particularly good value for awards combining Asia and the South Pacific in one itinerary.
- Business Class to Africa (with a stopover in Europe): Flights to Africa can vary between from 60K to 100K in business class based on distance (add 5K miles for a stopover within Africa or Europe).
- Explore remote Canada for far less (Northwest territories for cheap!). In some cases, Air Canada only charges 12.5K miles one-way to remote stretches of Canada. See more here.
- See more best uses here: Best uses of Air Canada Aeroplan points
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I have the canadian aeroplan cards but never knew about the PYB how does it works exactly? Ihave chase cards (ultimate rewards) and want to transfer to Aeroplan so how can i do PYB? I don’t see this option in Aeroplan portal. please help
I’m not sure if this is an option for Canadian cardholders I’m afraid.
Hi Stephen – if I’m recalling correctly, Chase & Aeroplan are limiting the PYB after Jan 1 to 50K per year. (They’ve also said it would be “abuse” to use PYB for points that aren’t either earned on the Aeroplan card, or transferred from UR.) It would seem to me that it might make sense to use PYB before Jan 1, if that’s an option for someone.
I seem to recall that was a thing, however, they have now made it unlimited through June 30, 2024. They have added this to the terms “Only Aeroplan Points earned under the Aeroplan Program, the Chase Aeroplan Card, and Chase Ultimate Rewards® can be used for Chase Pay Yourself Back. Points converted from other programs are not eligible.”
Just a couple of notes on the updates. PYB is scheduled to expire June 2024 so don’t transfer more than you can use before then. The 10% UR transfer bonus did have a Dec 31, 2023 expiry on it, although I can’t find that date anymore, so they may have extended it indefinitely. Nonetheless, if you haven’t fully utilized it this year (transferred 250,000 points), it might be a good idea to transfer before year end.
Apparently the 10% bonus is now an ongoing feature of the card, no longer has an expiry date
To emphasize and repeat John (below), the 10 percent bonus stacks with any other transfer bonus.
Scenarios:
(10% + 20%) UR transfer * 1.25cpp PYB = 1.625cpp
(10% + 30%) UR transfer * 1.25cpp PYB = 1.75cpp
Subject to the 250k cap.
And this runs over year end, so if you have the points for it, you could do 250,000 this month and 250,000 in the first half of January.
Don’t forget the always-present 10% bonus if you have the Aeroplan card (if you transfer 50K or more). I got a proactive email from Chase confirming they will stack. So, you’ll get a total 30% boost, which means 1.3 * 1.25 = 1.625 cpp.
If you factor in the Aeroplan miles you’ll earn from putting the travel on the Aeroplan card in order to erase the charge later, it goes up to 1.646 cpp.
As an example, if you make travel purchases totaling $1000, you’ll earn 1000 miles. If you transfer 60,769 Chase points, with the 20% and 10% bonuses, it becomes 79,000 Aeroplan miles. Combined with the 1000 you earned, that’s 80,000 miles which at 1.25 cpp, can erase exactly $1000. For a total value of $1000/60769 = 1.646 cpp.
Aren’t you going to say anything about pyb? This means 1.5 cpp for travel!
That’s a great point – I completely forgot about that.
Last time they had the bonus I transferred speculatively and didn’t regret it.
I feel like the major reason Chase offers these is to get us to sign up for the Aeroplan card.. 10% bonus is nice but the card is still a dud.
Ugh…these transfer bonuses keep happening AFTER I have already transferred and booked flights
I feel you – had that happen to me this week with the Singapore transfer bonus from Amex after transferring points over the week before.
Same thing happened to me. Literally transferred 50k last Tuesday. Chase said they couldn’t do anything for me. Bummer.