What Are the “New” Benefits of Air Canada’s Aeroplan 2.0?
Joe Cortez August 11, 2020
After re-purchasing the Aeroplan program, Air Canada is announcing the new program, set to re-launch in November 2020. The airline says they collected feedback from over 36,000 flyers to determine the direction of the new program – but does it offer value to the airline’s most loyal flyers?
Starting November 8, 2020, Air Canada Aeroplan members will see what the airline is calling a “transformed” loyalty program, directed at offering better rewards to their consumers. After consulting with over 36,000 consumers, the airline says that their “new” loyalty program is a “truly responsive and flexible loyalty program.” Here’s what’s changing about Aeroplan.
Loyalty Program Expands to Five Tiers
The biggest change in the new Aeroplan program is the expansion of five loyalty tiers. In addition to the basic member level, members can earn status after earning enough points through flying, eligible retail purchases and using Aeroplan credit cards. The new tiers include Aeroplan 25K, Aeroplan 35K, Aeroplan 50K, Aeroplan 75K and Super Elite.
Elite members can earn Priority Rewards vouchers for 50 percent off the price of an award flight in points aboard Air Canada and select partners. The airline did not announce which partners would be included. In addition, eligible status holders can share their status with friends and family, even if they aren’t traveling together.
Predictable Pricing and Points + Cash Coming to Aeroplan
Moving from a “mile” program to “points,” the new Aeroplan will feature open awards on every Air Canada flight with zero restrictions or black-out dates. In addition, all reward tickets on Air Canada will eliminate fuel surcharges. Flyers will only pay cash for taxes and third-party fees.
To help flyers figure out how many points they will need for a flight, Aeroplan will offer predictable pricing, alongside a points predictor tool. Although the award chart will be dynamic, the Montreal-based airline is adding the tools with the hopes that flyers can plan their trips “easily and confidently.” Awards aboard partner airlines will continue to be priced at a flat rate.
For flyers in the same household, the airline is offering Aeroplan family sharing. As with other airlines, the program allows flyers to combine their points with members in the same house for free, allowing them to earn rewards faster.
Finally, the “new” program will offer a Cash + Points offering, allowing members to reduce the price of flights by using points. For those who don’t collect enough points for a free flight, this option allows members to still use their points for a discount.
FlyerTalk’s Take on the New Aeroplan
On the FlyerTalk Forums, flyers have been discussing the new program since it was publicly announced. However, while the forum experts agree that it’s a good move for infrequent flyers and families, but not the best option for those who frequent the airline.
“Seems like an overall increase in points required, with the most significant (for me) being J redemption to Europe,” writes FlyerTalker pentiumvi. “Being based on the west coast, nearly every European destination falls within the 70,000/85,00 one-way price point, where previously these would have been only 55,000 [points].”
“The program looks like a big win for me based out of SFO and mainly flying ANA, Eva Air, and Singapore Airlines,” writes FlyerTalker nexusCFX. “Partner pricing to pacific plus one way stopover will leave me paying the same or fewer miles for many of my trips (SFO-TYO-SIN for example) and presumably $39 instead of fuel surcharges, although it wouldn’t have been very heavy…to begin with.”
What are your opinions on the “new” Air Canada Aeroplan? Share your opinions on the FlyerTalk Forums!
I think the biggest disappointment from the new program is not being able to obtain "elite status" with your credit card spend. They offer you points and segments towards elite status but without the $$ spend on flights makes those earnings pretty much worthless. Whenever i flew, the dollars pretty much lined up with my segments for the most part - most flights to the Ontario area so reaching 75K was possible because I was flying every week - reaching super elite would have been hard to meet the 20K spend though. Now I am not travelling as much so keeping my status will be very difficult. For the amount of griping that SE's have about allowing people to reach elite status with credit cards - doesn't hold much water. If it was me reaching 50 or 75K because of my spend, i am only travelling 3 or 4 times a year for vacation - I would hardly be impacting the SE's, and they still have priority over me!. Who knows, maybe things will change and I will be flying more in the future but I was at least hoping for a path to 50K with there new program that at least allowed for flexibility on how you can get there other than spending money on AC flights which is hard to justify - now if they included the spend that occurred for you whole family flying - maybe that would be more reasonable. We had flights to Las Vegas in may and that wasy 4K right there for four tickets, but I would only be give credit for about 700 dollars toward my spend.