At the start of March Aeroplan began selling miles full time - that is not at the time of redeeming for an award rather you could buy miles at any time without an award at anytime. Aeroplan was basically playing catch up here as most airline and hotel programs allowed their members to buy points or miles at anytime. Also the majority of the programs that sell their currencies run limited time offers of buying them with either bonus points or miles or discounts on the per mile price. We had hoped when Aeroplan launched the buy miles option back on March 24 that they would also provide bonus offers and we now know they will! And their first one is pretty darn amazing with a up to a 115% bonus when you buy miles starting on May 7th! Here's how the promotion from May 7 to the 13th will work:
Starting May 7 at 10:00 am ET until May 13 at 11:59 pm ET, Aeroplan members will be able to buy miles and receive bonus miles on their purchase:
* For the first 10 million Aeroplan Miles sold, members get a 115% bonus; equivalent to $0.014 CAD/mile + sales tax OR $0.01 USD/mile;
* The next 100 million miles sold, members get a bonus of 90%; equivalent to $0.016 CAD/mile + sales tax + $0.011 USD/mile;
* All miles sold after this will get a bonus of 65%; equivalent to $0.018 CAD/mile + sales tax OR + $0.013 USD/mile
If you have knowledge of buying miles and buy miles promotions you'll know right off the bat the first 10 millions miles at 0.014 cents CAD (1 cent USD) is truly one of the best buy miles offers ever. How so? For so many Aeroplan award flight options you can easily get 1.5 cents or more in value when redeeming for economy class flights and easily 2 to 7+ cents per mile when redeeming for business class or first class flights. Even at 1.8 cents per mile with the 65% bonus there is a lot of potential to be buying future premium class flights at a discount.
When you buy miles you can buy up to 250,000 miles in one transaction and you have a 500,000 mile limit per year to buy miles - and those numbers are before bonuses. So it is entirely possible that first 10 million miles that are sold could go to only 20 people and there will be a mad rush for them on May 7 at 10am ET. Personally I probably won't be buying any miles right now as we are sitting on well into seven figures of points and miles in Aeroplan and Aeroplan equivalents (ie Membership Rewards, Marriott etc.) but for many of you who are trying to plan for travel down the road and are ready to buy some miles speculatively this is a promotion to seriously consider.
This promotion falls into Aeroplan's overarching campaign called Travel at Home which includes the current promotion where you can earn Altitude 25K Elite Status buy earning 50,000 Aeroplan Miles by May 31. It is noted by Aeroplan that when you buy miles 50% of them (including bonus) will count towards the Altitude promotion - so if you buy 50,000 miles at the onset you will also receive Altitude 25K status. It will take ~53,000 miles at 90% or ~61,000 miles to also reach the 25K status . If you already have status you could also go the route of buying 250,000 miles or miles to get the special promotion of getting a one tier level boost up to Elite 75K.
It doesn't end there! Aeroplan with their partner Points.com will be matching a portion of the Aeroplan Miles purchased and donate them to The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).
If this promotion is for you be sure to set an alarm on your phone for a few minutes prior to 10am ET on May 7 to try to get in on the 115% bonus! You can access the Aeroplan buy miles page here - be sure to bookmark and have it ready!
We have to give kudos to Aeroplan - they have really chosen to stand out over the past few months and are the loyalty program that every other airline and hotel corporation should be watching and emulating.
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