2078 Miler

I guess I need to wait and see how much cheaper the "predicted" business class rewards to Asia are relative to buying a ticket with cash and adjust that reward based on the rate of earn between an Aeroplan credit card and a Cashback credit card. Although Aeroplan cards should be preferred by Altitude members, with a 1% Cashback card you can earn one 'Bank of Canada reward point' (a cent) with every dollar spent and 50,000 cents being enough to for a $500 credit on any airline with no restrictions. At present, If I use my reward cents to buy a ticket with Air Canada, I get AQM, AQS and AQD for that applicable fare, which helps build my Altitude status, whereas buying Aeroplan points fare does nothing for status accumulation. Non-Aeroplan fares also usually preferred calculations for eupgrades.

However, as pointed out above, it looks like Air Canada is trying to make Aeroplan credit card holders somehow have better access to Altitude benefits than those who rely on cashback cards. That's clever, because to date I was only collecting Aeroplan miles/points to be used for fixed business class rewards, which if booked right, come at a significant discount to what I would have to pay if I was earning and using cents. That "value proposition" is apparently being devalued, but it is not clear to me by how much.