The Chase Aeroplan Card is out with a new offer today: earn 70,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months. Personally, I think it was a smart move for Chase and Aeroplan to move away from the confusing “reward certificate” model they were previously using. I imagine that this offer will have wider appeal and indeed the card and miles can be quite valuable — though keep in mind that a devaluation is coming in just two weeks.
The Offer & Key Card Details
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
Up to 100K Points ⓘ Affiliate 75K points after $4K spend in the first 3 months and an additional 25K after spending a total fo $20K within first 12 months$95 Annual Fee This card is likely subject to Chase's 5/24 rule (click here for details). FM Mini Review: Great card for regular or frequent Air Canada flyers Earning rate: 3X Air Canada ✦ 3X grocery stores ✦ 3X dining ✦ 500 bonus points with each $2K calendar month spend, up to $6K spend per month (1,500 points max) ✦ 1X everywhere else Card Info: Mastercard World Elite issued by Chase. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Big spend bonus: Renew 25K status w/ $15K spend ✦ Status Boost w/ $50K spend ✦ Priority Reward w/ $100K, $250K, $500K, or $750K spend ✦ Free award companion for rest of calendar year and all of next with $1Million spend Noteworthy perks: Discounted award pricing ✦ Free checked bag ✦ $100 credit for NEXUS, Global Entry or TSA PreCheck every 4 years ✦ Carbon offsets on Air Canada awards ✦ Pay Yourself Back for travel at 1.25 cents per point, up to 50K points per year ✦ 10% bonus when transferring Ultimate Rewards to Aeroplan (25K max bonus/year) |
Quick Thoughts
The previous offer on this card was probably more valuable in the sense that it included both a 50K reward certificate and a large bonus on travel & dining spend for the first few months. However, I think many people were confused by the reward certificate. While that certificate didn’t expire as long as you remained a cardholder and could be topped off with points, those things just aren’t intuitive in the world of “certificates”. Furthermore, it couldn’t be split up to be used over multiple smaller trips.
This new bonus of 70,000 points is a lot easier to understand. I have really been loving Aeroplan miles as of late and the card comes with a number of interesting perks and features. For instance, points can be used to offset any travel purchases at a rate of 1.25c per point with up to 50,000 points per year. That means that this bonus could cover $625 worth of any travel expenses (including cash flights on any airline, hotels, etc) and still leave you with 20K miles left over. You can read more about the card and its unique set of benefits in this post. Of course, I’d rather use Aeroplan miles for premium cabin international travel given their strong array of valuable partner airlines.
Unfortunately, Aeroplan recently announced a devaluation coming on September 1st. Many awards will become a little bit more expensive. That’s disappointing given that the new Aeroplan program launched not even two years ago. Aeroplan’s award pricing isn’t particularly compelling for simple one-way or round trips — the real value is in being able to build complex itineraries with multiple partners and being able to add a stopover to a one-way award for 5,000 miles. Aeroplan also has the best lap infant pricing at just 2,500 miles one way regardless of class of service. Those strengths remain intact with the coming devaluation so much so that Greg and I agreed that Aeroplan is our favorite Amex transfer partner — but increasing prices obviously stand to hurt the value of this welcome bonus to some extent.
Overall, I think this card makes the most sense for those who strongly value Aeroplan for its strengths and/or who intend to spend toward an elite status bump. The new bonus is clearer, though with a devalued award chart coming, I wouldn’t feel pressure to jump on this offer. That’s particularly true given the plethora of strong offers we’ve seen on cards that earn Amex Membership Rewards points. We’ve seen plenty of ways to earn far more than 70,000 Membership Rewards points — and since those Amex points can transfer to Aeroplan 1:1, those offers would make more sense if you’re just after Aeroplan points.
H/T: Doctor of Credit
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Well yeah, this is easier to understand. It is a SUB that is one-third less valuable in points for a program that is 2 weeks away from devaluing those points.
I know you need to hawk these, but anyone who doesn’t have this and a specific immediate redemption should wait to see what the devaluation is and then wait for a better offer.
Hawk these? What are you talking about? I said that if you’re after Aeroplan points you should get other cards and at the time of writing this is not even an affiliate link for offer. We don’t write posts to “hawk” credit cards. If we did, the content of this site would be significantly different.
To your other points, this offer is not one third less valuable unless you are assuming having maxed out the 10x spending bonuses on the previous offer and you consider a 50K certificate the same as 50K points ( it isn’t – 50K points could get you a couple of shorter distance round trip tickets with points left over, whereas a 50K certificate has to be used all at once). I’d much rather see them issue points than certificates. I do wish it were more points.
In terms of waiting to see what the devaluation is, I’m not sure what you would be waiting for. They already announced the devaluation. I linked to the post about that. We know what the new prices are.
I’m not disagreeing that this isn’t a compelling offer. That’s what I said in the post I think. I also said that I like points more than the certificates and I think it was smart for them to make that change. I stand by that – I thought that the whole certificate thing was a poor marketing choice.
Yes FM isn’t Hawkers.
Frequent miler is one of the few truly objective point and Miles websites.
You can Make a Lot of Money by being Honest .It’s a new ideal to most Blogs..V Bernie
Up urs -1 did buy 2 houses with a hand shake later Lawyers..V Bernie
Is pay yourself back currently available with the Aeroplan card? I have been waiting for the feature since I received my card in January.
“points can be used to offset any travel purchases at a rate of 1.25c per point with up to 50,000 points per year.”