Aeroplan Class Action Settlement Putting Miles in Accounts

by Gary Leff

In 2006 Aeroplan announced two new points expiration rules.

  • Points expire if no activity in your account every 12 months
  • Unredeemed miles expire after 7 years regardless

In 2013 the loyalty program eliminated the 7 year rule. However you still need activity every 12 months to keep your account active. Hopefully the new loyalty program that Air Canada announces for 2020 will take a more generous stance — they’re going to want to be relevant to average consumers who don’t fly often, and relevant even to those without their co-brand credit card.

aeroplan changes will no longer be linked to air canada
Copyright: ronniechua / 123RF Stock Photo

US programs generally expire miles without account activity every 18-24 months, though Delta and JetBlue miles do not expire. British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have 36 month rules.

In 2009 a class action lawsuit was filed over the change in expiration rules. The case settled last summer, and a court subsequently approved the settlement (.pdf). Aeroplan has now posted miles to member accounts.

  • 2 billion miles were distributed
  • Members who had points expire received a proportionate share of that total.

I received 37 miles. I had long forgotten that I had Aeroplan miles expire.

If nothing else this reset the expiration of miles in my Aeroplan account. I hadn’t had activity there since December. Not as lucrative as the British Airways fuel surcharge class action but better than a hole in the head, as my grandfather used to say.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Does this mean they are no longer expiring miles at all?
    I had 20 miles expired in January, and now see this

    May 5, 2019 EXPIRED MILEAGE ADJUSTMENT 20
    Jan 31, 2019 EXPIRED MILEAGE DEDUCTION -20

  2. Still won’t fly Air Canada since their Aeroplan program cancelled all accumulated miles saved up, after the one year of no travel, out of the 14 years of 40 weeks a year I did. Saved it for my parents to enjoy. Ya right. I figure they lost more margin from business since, than they saved on the damn miles they took back.

  3. I’m not sure exact date my points expired but when I called they said lack of activity resulted in loosing 144000 points. Do I qualify for this reimbursement. I registered years ago in the classaction but see some threads that say your account had to be deactivated over a two month period

  4. My aeroplan miles expired because I was told that there was no activity for one year. I had not realized that my aeroplan card was not working as I used to gas up at Esso all the time which is not accepted there any more. They replaced my card but my 88300 aeroplan miles were never reimbursed back to me. I was hoping to visit my family in Toronto this summer but unfortunately it will not happen. There was a class action suit against them and they had to reimburse. This was in Quebec. I have written several letters but no response from them. Can somebody please help to recover our aeroplan miles. I have received another letter that my 5380 aeroplan which I have since accumulated will expire at the end of July of there is no activity.

  5. I just found out that they Aeroplan took away 32,879 miles. Same problem as Jubilee Esmail from June 12, 2019 What can I do? Got the complete run-a-round from a supervisor who told me that I can spend a couple of hundred dolloars and Aeroplan will “let” me apply them to a flight ticket.

  6. I am very sorry to hear that you also lost your aeroplan t miles as well. That is 2 tickets to Calgary. Shame on Aeroplan. I went into the aeroplan site and it had a few stores that would accept aeroplan eg. Best Buy and Banana Republic and these stores were very surprised that I wanted to use my aeroplan when I purchase items from these stores. My card was not working and I did not realize the problem until I had lost my miles. I was collecting these points for a long long time and hoping to go to Toronto with my family. WE have been aeroplan members since conception. Aeroplan issued a new card but not the miles. I lost more than 86,000 aeroplan miles. The supervisor and the managers above me gave me the same run-a-round like they did to you. I am just wondering if we should go public. What do you think we should do? There must be lots of other people like us. I will wait to hear from you. Thanks, buddy.

  7. Hello again:
    This is Jubilee again. When I had gone into the aeroplan site, there are quite a stores that are supposed to now accept our aeroplan card. However, this is not correct. I shopped at Best Buy as well as Banana Republic and both the stores informed me that was not correct. The reason I shopped there is I wanted my aeroplan account to be updated before I even loose another 5000 + points. How do you deal with that wrong information? I have not tried any other stores but there are a whole bunch of new stores. I used to gas up at Esso but they do not accept Aeroplan any more. When they did, I had used my card there several times but did not realize that it was not working. Thus I lost more than 85000 aeroplan miles.
    Thanks. Jubilee

  8. I contacted CBC and they told me to contact Marketplace and Gopublic. I haven’t done it yet but will definitely look into this. I think if more of us contact them, the better are chances are of getting more people on board. I now know of 3 others that it happened to. Has anyone been notified by mail? Just found out two of my friends received letters before their miles expired. I never received anything. Was hoping to use my miles to go visit my kids who just moved from L.A. to Miami. Have never met my second grandchild who just turned 2, other than Skype.
    Let me know what you think about contacting the 2 forums that CBC suggested.
    Thanks,
    Jackie

  9. Hello Jackie:
    I really think we all should go public and I agree with you. Don’t have any idea as how to go about it. We have always ordered stuff from amazon and I see this for the first time.
    Ready to earn miles on amazing deals? We’ve got a special offer just for you. For a limited time, earn 5X the miles when you shop at Amazon.ca. Be sure to log in to the Aeroplan eStore first to take advantage of this three day offer∆.

    Don’t wait – give your miles balance a boost now until July 16!
    Shop & earn
    Lets get together and do something about it.
    thank you for responding to my comments. Jubilee

  10. Thanks for responding as well. Give me a couple of days to do some research, and check to see if Marketplace and GoPlaces can help us.

    Be in touch by the weekend the latest.
    Jackie

  11. Had 205,569 aeroplan miles on my last statement (July 13, 2002), prior to it lapsing & my losing all mileage.

    Current balance (July 26, 2019): 0 miles (per my online statement)

    I had applied online to be part of the MerchantLaw class action suit, per their online form, well in advance of the settlement.

    Contacted Aeroplan’s 1-800 today. The agent said: “we (call center) don’t deal with that”; “no other department in Aeroplan”; “contact MerchantLaw.”

    I read to him the settlement PDF that (point 6) clearly states Aeroplan will reinstate. I offered to give the url, but agent said: “we don’t have access to the internet”. I explained as politely as I could the absurdity of expecting a law firm to adjust my Aeroplan account. I also read MerchantLaw’s settlement summary explaining that issues need to be addressed to Aeroplan.
    Asked to speak with supervisor: “no need, I already checked with supervisor; you’ll get the same answer”.

    Beyond frustrating. Sent an email to MerchantLaw, but I suspect I already know what their response will be.

  12. It is a shame that they have stolen these aeroplan miles from us. They belonged to us and we had earned them.
    Let us look further into as a group it please.

  14. Merchant law took the classaction and won supposedly for everyone who lost their points. The court rules in OUR favour. Merchant law takes their cut whatever that was and now leaves us out to dry. If you call their office no one can help. If they received payment for representing us they should st least ensure we get whatever judgement there was

  15. I just took a look at my Aeroplan points today. Apparently I Have a Zero Balance. I did not know points could expire. I called customer service at Aeroplan they will not reinstate. Wow, this is not right. Lost 23000 points. I read that some people have lost 100K point plus. This is stealing.

  16. this aeroplan is ass*** i placed 10 order in ebay and try to get aeroplan point . they told me that they1 did not have computer record

  17. What happened to GD Daniel is similar to what happened to me. I lost over 40,000 miles in the early 2000s. I joined the class action and only found out in May of this year that they had settled and members would receive a portion of their lost miles automatically. I was advised to contact Aeroplan if I did not receive any. When I contacted them, they told me to go to a website http://www.aeroplansettlement.com which provides no useful info whatsoever and tells us to call the lawfirm who has already made it clear that we have to deal with Aeroplan. The link to the law firm on the site is expired. What a bunch of bull….!

  18. Well,, we all seem to be in the same boat!! I recently booked a flight with AC and wanted to add the points to my Aeroplan card but it would not accept,, I logged on the Aeroplan site to get a contact number and to my surprise saw my account was at zero…I too have lost over 69000 miles due to inactivity- I went on Aeroplan facebook and left a message to get some kind of assistance as their call center were “experiencing an unusual high volume of calls,, please call back or visit our website” I tried for a week and got the same message,, what frustration… There I got back a message with the link to their rules – They are suppose to contact us 60 days prior to the expiration of my points,, I NEVER got notified! I would of preferred to give away my points or make any kind of purchase rather than lose points that took me years to accumulate. To me this is highway robbery! Also, I would use my Aeroplan card at ESSO however they no longer take this card and now take Optimum instead,,
    So where can we go from here?

  19. Hello Gary:
    I am so sorry that you also lost your aeroplan miles. It is very unfair. My Aeroplan card was not working and i did not even know. When i went to gas up at Esso i used to use it several times and did not notice that. i spoke to the manager etc. and they replaced my card but still took away my miles. I lost 86,000 aeroplan miles. We had earned these miles and it was our property. We all need to to the small courts claim under $5,000 and see if they can help us. i know people in the East had hired a lawyer and ever one got their miles back.

  20. We were already awarded air miles back from the classaction but for some reason they are not replacing the points

  21. I’ve lost 164,000 points that I saved for years so that I can have a full family trip.

    Without any notices suddenly I discovered that all my Aeroplan miles is gone. Never received any email as per they claimed.

    I’ve been following the class action and also put my name in the plaintiff’s list. As of today I did not received any points back.

    We should all get together again and file another class action lawsuit. It will be a easy win since they already have a court order to distribute the point back.

    Regards

  22. I’ve been in the classaction from day 1. I don’t understand how a court order can be ignored like this. It’s too bad someone in the tv industry wasn’t screwed over like we are. The group that represented us should not have received their award either until everyone else receives theirs. Now you can’t even get an answer back from that the lawyers that started the initial classaction.

  23. Have posted previously. If anyone wants to start another class action suit, I’m in. What do we have to do?

  24. I know this is not a solution that fits everyone, but what I ended up doing was ordering a no fee Aeroplan Visa. It does not earn a lot of miles because I rarely use it, but I try to use it to buy gas or other small items every month. By earning miles every time I use the card, I extend my miles expiry date by a year from the last time I used the card. Like many others, I lost thousands of miles in the 90’s and I vowed I would not let that happen again.

  25. I had also ordered the Aeroplan visa prior to seeing that I had lost all of my miles and now have no interest in it at all,, haven’t even activated it yet because of the pathetic service they have to offer- I too was one that lost all of my miles without prior notice,, when I inquired via FB messenger as I could never get through by phone they simply said I had been notified on April 2nd,, I checked all of my emails again to be sure and never received this notice,,, again,, who in their right mind would not respond when getting a notice that they will be losing all of their points,, strange that I get all of their other advertisement but this very special notification went astray?
    They also mentioned in the chat that they were giving me my points for an upcoming trip yet I do not see these points in my profile,, so again,, how credible are they?
    I cannot see how they can get away with this,, Airmiles had gone through the same issue and they no longer have an expiry date,, how can Aeroplan get away with it?

  26. I too never saw any miles reinstated even though I was a part of the class action. I read that Aeroplan has awarded the members of the class action with points, but I never saw one point reinstated to my account. I called them, but I was referred to the web site that states the points should be been awarded. I also tried emailing them to no avail. I called the law firm that was involved and they have nothing more to do with the former class action.

  27. They are simply hiding behind their website and their links- It is a true scandal! How they can get away with it is just unreal.
    Years of accumulation and dreams all down the drain.

  28. I never did receive any reimbursement and went to the vp of aircanada a few years ago and told it was Aeroplan and unfortunately out of their hands. I had over a million miles from pure air travel. So much for a good reward system. I was never informed of the settlement and how it was handled.

  29. I’m very confused how a court order can be ignored. Also how can a company that is suppose to be representing us all that have been screwed over just take their award and leave us out on our own. When Merchant law was originally looking to take out this classaction they are looking for us to sign up. Now they’ve disappeared. Maybe our classaction should be looking into Merchant law.

  30. I also lost 107,000 Aeroplan miles. None of the points were reinstated even after the court settlement with Merchant Law. I spoke to Aeroplan and they said that I did not qualify to get any points back. I also wrote an e-mail to Merchant Law and they said that they could not do any thing for me but I could hire a lawyer (not from Merchant Law) to sue Aeroplan in order to get my points back. Overall, this means that even though Merchant Law won the case, Aeroplan does not have to reinstate our points back. We need to hire a lawyer to enforce the settlement. This is ridiculous. I am sure Aeroplan and Merchant Law are laughing at us.

  31. I wish I had a contact at 20/20 or some other news station this is crazy. I was one of the first to signup for this suit and I ended up with nothing.

  32. Anyone want to create a facebook group – bringing attention to many customers – that they may in fact think they are earning Aeroplan points when the card is swiped – but they are NOT. I have recently found out my purchases @ HomeHardware – are declined. My card wont work. If you do not get a receipt from the vendor – ask for one going forward. You. may “think” you are getting points but in fact you are NOT, thus your inactivity will cause you to once again LOSE miles. I LOST 25000 and am about to lose another 5000 if I can’t get my card to work. The helpcenter person suggested I apply for a credit card that helps you earn aerpolan miles. HMMM not when they are crooks.

  33. I’m game to do whatever I’m still trying to get my points back from the original classaction. I thought we won the classaction but I guess a select few and the lawyers won.

  34. I gave up on them,, had over 69000 points that I lost,, when I inquired they told me that they had given me a notice via my emails,, I told them I never received anything and could they send me a copy,, never heard back from them,, So what is 2 points going to give me now,, nothing.

  35. I just found out my points expired during Covid. I thought everyone even hotels were not expirying your points while we were all being told not to travel. I lost 80 000 points at the same time Air Canada was getting a massive bail out with my tax dollars.
    I am going to write to Marketplace and my Federal member of parliment. It is wrong to be getting money because you cannot run your buisness and at the same time expire your areoplan points because we haven’t been flying.

  36. Good luck with that I thought I was awarded my expired points back from the original class action but once the lawyers got their $$ I can’t get a hold of anyone now and I had 170000 points that went by by

  37. Is this still being pursued? Someone who is an account should look at their books. hey will undoubtedly have a line for “expiring” or aged liabilities. this means they have an active plan to steal airmilesnot. Thieves This is a unloyalty programme. Shysters
    I saved for over a decade stopped for one year and they took all points. 75,000.
    They said I could buy them back for $750! ARRRRRRGH

  38. They resolved this in court and won but the catch is they only replaced some people’s points. I was in the class action from the start but still lost 156000 pts.

  39. My husband and I were collecting our miles for a family trip. We had about or over 450,000 miles and suddenly- they vanished. We’re told that they “expired” and Aeroplan won’t even offer a solution about all the point they robbed us.
    Are we too late to join a lawsuit?
    Should I go to the media?
    We appreciate any feedback.
    Thanks,
    Harold & Ana Watson

Comments are closed.