Link: Apply now for the Aeroplan® Credit Card
The Aeroplan® Credit Card is among the most compelling co-branded airline credit cards. In this post, I will cover the details of this offer.
In this post:
Aeroplan Credit Card 70K points welcome bonus & more
The Aeroplan Credit Card offers a welcome bonus where you can earn 70,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 within the first three months.
I value Aeroplan points at 1.5 cents each, so to me, the base part of this offer is worth $1,050, which is an excellent bonus, especially given the reasonable spending requirement.
Chase’s standard application rules apply. This card isn’t available to those who currently have the card or who have had the card in the past, but eligibility is otherwise independent of whether or not you have any other Chase cards.
Why the Aeroplan Credit Card is worth getting
The $95 annual fee Aeroplan Credit Card is one of the most well thought out co-branded airline credit cards we’ve seen. There are significant incentives for holding onto the card, and also significant incentives for spending money on the card.
Among other things, the Aeroplan Credit Card offers the following:
- The card offers 3x Aeroplan points on dining, grocery stores, and on Air Canada spending, which are some lucrative bonus categories
- The card offers 500 bonus Aeroplan points for every $2,000 spent in a calendar month, up to 1,500 bonus Aeroplan points per month
- The card offers priority reward vouchers for reaching certain spending thresholds; for example, if you spend a million dollars on the card in a calendar year, you’ll get a companion voucher (Global +1) that lets you take a companion with you on award tickets at no extra cost (the points redeemed for them will be reimbursed, and this even works on partner airlines)
- The card offers Aeroplan Elite 25K status for the remainder of the first calendar year in which you get the card, plus the following calendar year; you can maintain that status by spending $15,000 on the card per year in subsequent years
- If you spend $50,000 on the card in a calendar year you’ll get a one-tier Aeroplan status upgrade, which could even be used to earn top-tier status with Air Canada
- If you have the card, you can redeem your points for 1.25 cents each toward virtually any travel purchase using the Pay Yourself Back feature, for up to 50,000 points per year; you can even transfer points from Chase Ultimate Rewards and use them that way
- Those with the card receive an ongoing 10% transfer bonus when moving points from Ultimate Rewards to Aeroplan; this applies when transferring 50,000 or more points, and you can receive up to 25,000 bonus points per year this way
- The card offers a free first checked bag on Air Canada flights for the primary cardmember and up to eight other travelers on the same itinerary
- The card offers a credit toward Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, or NEXUS, once every four years
- The card offers World Elite Mastercard benefits, plus travel protection for flight delays, baggage, and more
This really is an incredibly valuable card, especially given that it has such a reasonable annual fee. The card is worth considering even if you don’t fly Air Canada often.
Not only does Air Canada belong to the Star Alliance, but Aeroplan has more airline partners than any other frequent flyer program, so there are so many options for redeeming Aeroplan points. Furthermore, the unique Pay Yourself Back feature on this card makes this lucrative even for those who don’t want to redeem points on Aeroplan partners.
Read a full review of the Aeroplan Credit Card.
Bottom line
The Aeroplan Credit Card has a solid welcome bonus where you can earn 70,000 points after spending $3,000 within 3 months.
This is a great offer for anyone who is eligible for the card but hasn’t yet applied. Those points can be redeemed on partner airlines for amazing first & business class redemptions, or you can redeem using the Pay Yourself Back feature.
Do you plan on picking up the Aeroplan Credit Card, if you don’t have it already?
VFTW reports that if you apply for your first Aeroplan card from July 8 – July 17, 2024 you can also earn 40% bonus points on purchases for 40 days on up to $40,000 spent.
@ Art_Czar -- Yep, that's also in this post, and was the whole reason I published since, since that's what's new (the 70K bonus was there before, the 40% bonus on spending is the latest update). :-)
My bad Ben :-) skipped over that part! Also checked my initial excitement over the 40% bonus, which works out to 1.4 miles/$ spent ( other than AC, dining & groceries). Venture X (2x) and Freedom Unlimited (1.5x) transfer to AC and offer better earning opportunities.
@Ben What about points transferred from Capital One? I literally transferred like 200k+ points for an awards and then the prices went up so I'm stuck with 200k+. Would be nice if I can use it for 1.25 credit since I don't have any other awards in mind.
@ Jerry -- Chase Pay Yourself Back on the Aeroplan Card isn't supposed to work with points transfered from anything other than Chase Ultimate Rewards, so that includes Capital One.
@Ben, are purchased miles eligible for Chase Pay Yourself Back?
@ SBS -- I would assume not, because the purchase is processed by points.com.
@Ben, thanks. I guess it would've been too good to be true - buy points at 1.14 cents and immediately redeem at 1.25. But I suppose if you already have X points earned via eligible ways, you can use it to Pay Yourself Back at 1.25 and then buy them right back at 1.14. Potentially a big can of worms - if you have a mix of points from eligible and ineligible sources, then redeem some of them for award flights, how would they treat remaining points?
@Ben - Is the Aerplan cc the only airline-branded card that offers 3x category bonus points for non-airline (grocery, dining) purchases?
Alaska's does for dining (3x) and gas (2x), I believe.
@ Art_Czar -- It's definitely one of the better co-branded airline cards when it comes to spending bonuses.
Can transferred points from Membership Rewards also be used towards Pay Yourself Back?
@ bo -- They're not supposed to be used that way, so there's the risk of your account being shut down if you do redeem that way. You can use points transfered from Chase, but not points transfered from Amex.