Chase Aeroplan Card Pay Yourself Back Feature: Redeem For Travel

Is this permanent or is it still expiring at the end of the year unless they extend it?

@Henry, this appears to now be "permanent", however, they have amended the terms to say that they can change the maximum amount of redemptions anytime they like.
Bit of a beef with this as it is hard to plan when you have no idea how many points can be used for this. Last year I purchased about half a million points (at 1.14 cents each) with the full intention of using PYB at 1.25 cents each to pay for business travel (on AC). While I was cognizant that they could restrict the amount used for this in 2025, I was hoping there would at least be a warning so that I could use what was needed. Luckily, I am down to about 175,000, so my plans weren't foiled but a warning would have been nice. Now, there can be no advance planning as they can change it whenever they want

Couple of comments:

1. As noted by @farnorthtrader, sometimes it is possible to buy Aeroplan points for less than 1.25 cents, essentially getting a discount on prepaid travel. Discount is not huge, especially if you factor in the opportunity cost of parking money in points when even the no-risk return rate was around 5% last year. Also, Aeroplan sells point in CAD while pay yourself back is in USD, so this will keep working as long as the exchange rate doesn't go back too much.

2. With the current transfer bonus (20% + 10% if moving at least 50k points), direct redemption value of Ultimate Rewards points becomes 1.3*1.25=1.625 cents (up to the max amount). Why would anyone want to use them at 1.5 cents and deal with the extra layer of buying through Chase Travel (which is handled by Expedia, with their "computer says no" customer service).

This is a pretty painful nerfing of what has been my favorite way to redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards points. I have been able to transfer to Aeroplan with a 30% bonus when doing so strategically, and this means I'm getting 1.625 cents per Ultimate Rewards point in value when redeemed for travel. This has come in handy for booking the independent local hotels I prefer vs. international chains, especially given the much lower cost in points terms.

I get why Chase is doing this. It can't be profitable for them vs. spending my points unoptimally. Still, this takes a lot of incentive out of participating in the Ultimate Rewards ecosystem which is a lot less competitive than in the past. My Chase points balance is <100k. I'll be dropping below 5/24 this year, but for the first time, I'm wondering whether it's really worth passing up other offers in order to preserve Chase optionality.