Originally Posted by
The YVR Guy
Hi all,
Just wondering if anyone else has received this offer sent out in an email to buy Aeroplan miles at 2.5 cents per mile.. seems like it’s a targeted promotion. Dunno if it’s worth pulling the trigger and buying some miles for my next big trip. Would like to hear your thoughts on whether it’s worth!
Generally I'd advise against buying miles at 2.5cpm, with the following four main exceptions:
1. if you have a specific (premium cabin) redemption in mind and are missing a small portion of the miles (e.g. if you had 280k miles and wanted to book two J mini-RTW tickets at 155k miles per person)
2. if you'd otherwise be willing to pay for int'l First class
3. if you often redeem for last-minute domestic (short-haul) awards where award availability can be quite decent while paid fares are often insanely inexpensive
4. if you have SE status and want/need to redeem for IKK awards
Or more generally speaking, buying miles makes sense if you can get more than 2.5cpm in value from the awards, after deducting the opportunity cost of not earnin miles and accounting for capacity controls, while using realistic figures for alternative options (vs. some of the "I could $20k in value for my mini-RTW award" nonsense).