Tag Archives for aeroplan.
Aeroplan shared that there is going to be a 35% bonus on transfers from the Marriott programs (Marriott Rewards, Starwood Preferred Guest, Ritz-Carlton Rewards) running September 13-17. The offer will not appear on the Aeroplan website until Thursday, September 13 but the information is solid and hopefully this extra day gives you more time to think through whether you want to take advantage of this.
On or about August 25 Aeroplan, the frequent flyer program that was spun off from Air Canada that the airline is buying back, began having issues booking award tickets on several Star Alliance partner airlines.
I reached out to Aeroplan to find out why redemption on carriers such as Thai, Swiss, Air New Zealand, and LOT Polish has become unavailable.
Assuming the transaction closes Aeroplan members will still have an Air Canada relationship in two years, and access to Star Alliance in two years. And this gives Canadian members more of the certainty they’re looking for.
There’s a 30% bonus on transfers from Amex to Virgin Atlantic right now and Virgin offers the cheapest US-Asia first class awards on their partner ANA.
So it seemed worth taking a look at ANA first class availability. And right now the Houston and Chicago routes especially have great availability beginning in 2019 through end of schedule.
American Express tells me that their Membership Rewards program will be adding Aer Lingus as a 1:1 points transfer “at the end of this month.”
Here’s what that will mean for your redemptions
When Air Canada announced that it would drop Aeroplan and start a new frequent flyer program, Aimia (the company that owns the Aeroplan) saw its stock fall from about CAD$8.80 down to as low as about CAD$1.50 per share.
Activist shareholders replaced Aimia’s leadership, and they quickly announced aggressive plans to offer a competitive program that might continue to be attractive to customers. That gave the stock a bit of a bounce. But when Air Canada made their offer to buy the Aeroplan program from Aimia, Aimia’s stock shot up.
This gives Aeroplan an airline partner, but Porter Airlines is no Air Canada. They operate of a fleet of 29 Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 turboprops with 74 seats. They fly to 16 destinations in Canada and 7 in the United States (although half a dozen of their routes are seasonal). And it doesn’t appear that they’d even be the exclusive frequent flyer program for Porter, which presumably will continue to operate the VIPorter program.
Air Canada spun off its frequent flyer program Aeroplan into a separate company. Aimia owns Aeroplan along with other loyalty programs including a 49% stake in Aeromexico’s Club Premier.
Last year Air Canada announced they weren’t going to renew their exclusive partnership with Aeroplan after their 15 year deal expires at the end of June 2020. Now Aeroplan is confirming partnership discussions with oneworld .
Aeromexico which is in some sense a vassal of Delta these days doesn’t own their own frequent flyer program in its entirety. Aimia owns nearly 49%.
And following on Air Canada’s public offer to buy Aeroplan, Aeromexico came in with a lowball offer to buy back their stake in the Club Premier program. It was an offer that was already rejected, but included a kicker straight from the Air Canada playbook.
Air Canada along with Aeroplan’s financial partners has made an offer to buy Aeroplan, the spun-off frequent flyer program with which Air Canada has an exclusive agreement through June 2020.
The market seems to like this deal, or at least believes that the move signifies some deal will occur at a price premium over prior-day trading.
Aeroplan has now issued its response.
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 »
