To me, the signing bonus points are a red herring. What matters is whether you can get flights to where you want, when you want. My experience has been that the Aeroplan system is designed to make it very difficult to do this. They actually want you to spend the points on mechandise, not travel, so the availability of travel awards is highly restricted.

Avion, on the other hand, makes it much easier to book travel. My success rate has been much, much higher, and the aggravation factor is an order of magnitude less.

Many years ago I dumped my Aerogold card and went to Avion. I am much happier. Every so often I think about switching back to Aerogold, and the next time I try to book award travel through AE I am reminded how happy I am with Avion.

Your experience may vary, but that's mine.