Aeroplan has just announced a significant improvement to its mileage expiration policy. This developments comes ahead of the new Aeroplan loyalty program launching in the fourth quarter of this year.
Aeroplan miles expire after 18 months of inactivity
Effective immediately, Aeroplan miles expire after 18 months of inactivity. Prior to this, Aeroplan miles expired after 12 months of inactivity, so this means that Aeroplan miles will be valid for six months longer than before.
Keep in mind that almost any sort of mileage activity will extend the expiration of your miles. This doesn’t just include crediting a flight to Aeroplan, but even booking an award ticket, purchasing miles, donating miles to charity, using Aeroplan’s shopping portal, transferring points from a partner (like American Express or Capital One), etc., would qualify.
Back in the day, Aeroplan miles would expire after seven years, regardless of any activity. Both the 12 and 18 month policies are significantly better, since your miles never expire as long as there’s at least some qualifying activity.
Aeroplan miles now expire after 18 months of inactivity
Aeroplan adds more ways to reactivate miles
Aeroplan allows you to reinstate your miles within six months of them expiring by paying a fee. Going forward, Aeroplan will let you reinstate your miles at no cost if you fly on an eligible Air Canada ticket, or get any Aeroplan credit card. All your miles will then be reactivated at no fee.
Furthermore, due to coronavirus, Aeroplan will reinstate miles for anyone who purchased a ticket for travel anytime since January 2020, who was forced to cancel.
I love redeeming Aeroplan miles on Star Alliance partners
Bottom line
Most significantly, Aeroplan miles now expire after 18 months of inactivity, rather than after 12 months of inactivity. That’s a fantastic development. The reality is that no one who cares should have miles expire.
At an absolute minimum you can just donate 1,000 miles to charity to avoid them expiring, or there are all kinds of other efficient ways to prevent expiration.
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