How to earn over 147,000 Aeroplan points for free*

GREAT NEWS: According to an interview with Air Canada Aeroplan execs that Anshul at Points, Miles & Bling had over this past weekend the buddy pass conversion option is based on the date you apply not the date the buddy pass posts to your account - this means you can apply for this card by April 30 and be able to convert the buddy pass to Aeroplan points once it posts to your account. Please note there are mentions on other sites the conversion option is being extended. There is no confirmation of this just yet - we have reached out to Air Canada and should know by April 23 if this will be happening 

MAJOR UPDATE: We have been notified The Buddy Pass can only be converted by April 30th which means it is very unlikely any new applicants for the TD card will be able to get the pass in time to convert. This is likely to keep the card from having an influx of new applicants just  to convert the Buddy Pass over to points. This is an unfortunate turn of events and affects this post. That being said there is still the potential to get 118,000 Aeroplan Points + a buddy pass (with the hope that Air Canada lets people convert them beyond the April 30 date)

 Over the past week we have seen some developments in the Canadian credit card mark that hugely benefit the Canadian consumer, travelers and points & miles aficionados alike. Here at Rewards Canada we've already covered all the developments in several posts but the crazy thing is you can bring them all together to rack up a ton of Aeroplan points at no cost other than credit card spending. That's where the asterisk * in the title comes into play. * We mean free as in paying no annual fees on this list of credit cards in the first year - you simply need to make the minimum spending requirement on some or all of the cards to garner those points. Some of you may have one or two of these cards so you can jump on some of the offers to earn a portion of the points for free or are sitting at a position in the points and miles game where you can re-apply for them now and get yourself those points while some of you may not have any of the cards and can potentially score the full 147,000 points. 

The plan laid out to score 147,000+ Aeroplan points

Now how do you go about getting a portion of or the full amount of 147,000 Aeroplan points? Here's how:

Step #1 -50,000 points

 
Get yourself the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card. This card is offering a 10,000 Aeroplan Points on your first purchase plus 20,000 points when you spend $1,500 within the first 90 days of having the card. On top of that when you reach that $7,500 in spending in your first 12 months you'll be awarded with an additional 20,000 points on your card anniversary date. That means those first 30,000 points come to you at no cost other than your $1,500 in spending. You'll also earn your points on the spend which would come in at no less than 1,500 points. The offer on this card is available until January 3, 2023

Total Aeroplan points after this step: 30,000

Total spend required: $1,500

Apply for the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card here.

This offer is not available for residents of Quebec. For Quebec residents, please click here.  

† Terms and Conditions apply.

Sponsored advertising. The Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) is not responsible for the contents of this site including any editorials or reviews that may appear on this site. For complete and current information on any TD product, please click the Apply Now button.

Step #2 - 21,000 points

 
Get yourself the CIBC Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card. This card has the exact same offer as the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite card however the rules around Buddy Passes state you can only receive one from the same level of credit cards. Seeing that both the TD and CIBC are both Visa Infinite cards you would not receive the Buddy Pass from this card if you get yourself the TD card first. That's ok as we aren't really interested in the Buddy Pass from this card.  What we are interested in is the 20,000 Aeroplan points you get after spending $1,000 on this card in the first four statement cycles. And just like the TD card this card has an annual fee rebate in the first year thus those 20,000 points come to you for free again and again you earn at least 1,000 points on your spending.

Total Aeroplan points after Steps 1 & 2: 72,000

Total spend required: $2,000

Apply for the CIBC Aerplan Visa Infinite Card here.

 

Step #3 - 31,667 points

 
Get yourself the Marriott Bonvoy™ American Express® Card . This card is offering a bonus of 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points when you spend $3,000 on the card in the first three months. They will also give you a $120 statement credit if you can spend $10,000 on the card in the first 12 months. That $120 statement credit is equivalent to the card's annual fee thus making this card also a first year free card and you get those 60,000 points with spend only. Since the card earns 2 points per dollar on most spending that would be 80,000 points. You can then convert the 80,000 Marriott Bonvoy points to 31,667 Aeroplan Points (you could potentially get more as there times throughout the year where Aeroplan gives a bonus on hotel point conversions)

Total Aeroplan points afters Steps 1-3: 103,667

Total spend required: $12,000

Apply for the Marriott Bonvoy™ American Express® Card here 

 

Step #4 - 35,000 points

 
Get yourself the Marriott Bonvoy™ Business American Express® Card . Like the personal version of the card, the Bonvoy Business Card is offering a 60,000 point bonus however you get those points with a higher requirement of $5,000 in three months. You'll also get a $150 statement credit when you spend $15,000 on the card in the first 12 months which is equivalent to the card's annual fee thus making this card also a first year free card. All told hit that $15,000 in spending and you'll have no less than 90,000 Marriott Bonvoy points. You can then convert those 90,000 Bonvoy points to 35,000 Aeroplan points. 

Note: American Express is one of the most lenient when it comes to getting Business cards - there are numerous data points showing people getting the cards even without having a business. They use their SIN as the business numbers since that is the number utilized for sole proprietorships. 

Total Aeroplan points afters Steps 1-4: 138,667

Total spend required: $27,000

Apply for the Marriott Bonvoy™ Business American Express® Card here 

 

Step #5: - 5,000 points

 
Get yourself the Choice Card from American Express™ This card is offering 10,000 Membership Rewards Select points when you spend $1,000 on it in the first three months and it is a no fee card! With the spend you'll have 11,000 points can be converted to 13,200 Marriott Bonvoy points which can then be converted to 4,400 Aeroplan Miles.  

Total Aeroplan points afters Steps 1-5: 143,067

Total spend required: $28,000

Apply for the Choice Card from American Express™ here

 

Step #6: 4,000 points

 
Get yourself the mbna Best Western Mastercard®. You earn 20,000 points with the card after your first purchase. The card has no annual fee so those points come to you with as little as a $1 purchase. Those Best Western Rewards points convert to Aeroplan at a 5:1 ratio so if you transfer these over you have another 4,000 Aeroplan points.

Total Aeroplan points afters Steps 1-6: 147,067

Total spend required: $28,001

Apply for the mbna Best Western Mastercard® here

And there you go! Those are the 6 steps to scoring over 147,000 Aeroplan points for free!  Yes you do have spend on your credit card to get them and that's pretty much the case with any new credit card welcome offer these days. The question is can you do it and should you do it? The answer is yes if you have the means - that is, being able to spend that much on your credit cards without going beyond your means. In all likelihood for most Canadians you'll do a portion of the above to score a decent amount of points. If anything, you would do step one or two as those have the easy $1,000 spend requirements. The Best Western card offer? Easy peasy. That's a standard offer that's not limited time so you can do it at anytime and you literally only have to spend $1 to get those points. I think the major sticking point in the above list of cards would be the Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express card - adding in that $15,000 in spending to get the statement credit could be the tough one for some people. If you pull that card out of the mix you're still going to come out with over 80,000 points with the rest of the cards.

Tips, Tricks & Warnings

If you are going to go for it and try to score as many of those points as possible you'll want to utilize some tips and heed some warnings:

• Go for the TD card first, it has a low spend requirement with the greatest reward and since the conversion of the Buddy Pass is not a published benefit it could potentially be removed at any time so you'll want to get that spend completed as quickly as possible so the pass posts to your account and you can call in to convert it
• Make a plan/schedule for applying for the cards - if you get a whole bunch at once it may be difficult to reach the spending requirements on them in those first three months (four with CIBC) - ideally give your self some breathing room. But don't wait too long as other than the Best Western card these are all limited time offers. We know TD ends August 16 but the rest don't have published end dates!
• Take screen shots of the offers on the bank/issuer page in case any discrepancies come up in having the points awarded
  
• Don't get a card if you don't think you can meet the spend requirement in time. 
• Don't spend beyond your means - make sure you plan and budget and that your regular monthly spending can make those minimum spend requirements. 
• If credit rating is a concern and you can have two people in your household to spread the applications across you can have one person apply for a couple of the cards and the other person to apply for some of the others and then combine the points via Aeroplan's Family Sharing (see Doubling up below)
  
• You can wait for the Best Western card since it isn't a limited time offer. Let your credit rating come back up after applying for the other cards and then go for this one
  

Doubling up

You can get even more points than this! How so? If you and your partner take on the game you can get multiple combinations of the cards. Of course you'd want to both start with the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite card as between two people that would mean 42,000 Aeroplan points and two buddy passes alone. Yes it would place 21,000 in each of two accounts but with Aeroplan's new Family Sharing program you can pool those points into one. Ultimately you could be looking at nearly 240,000 Aeroplan points if you are able to get all the cards above for each player and each spend the $28,000 required.

Wrapping it up

Thanks to the ability of being able to convert Buddy passes to Aeroplan points and the new increased welcome bonuses with statement credits on the Marriott cards there hasn't been a better time to in on the Aeroplan points game! Even if you can't get all the cards just a combination of a couple can have you earning enough points to be redeeming for award flights with the Aeroplan program in few short months. 

Recommended reading:

• Now's the time to grab an Air Canada Aeroplan credit card - get up to 50,000 points at no cost other than card spending!
• You can now convert Air Canada Buddy Passes into 30,000 Aeroplan points! 
• Awesome new increased welcome bonuses on the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Cards - 60,000 points + statement credits