Air Canada's Aeroplan program is one of the most rewarding and lucrative programs in Canada when it comes to travel. The great thing about the program are the numerous opportunities to earn a lot of points with their co-brand credit cards and credit cards that allow you to convert to Aeroplan. As some of these cards are available with no annual fee in the first year or others with no annual fee at all, you can score a lot of Aeroplan points for free.
* By free, we mean 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. On the other hand some of you may not have any of the cards listed below and can potentially score the full 67,500 points and the Buddy Pass.
The plan laid out to score 67,500 Aeroplan points + a bonus Buddy Pass
Now how do you go about getting a portion of or the full amount of 67,500 Aeroplan points? Here's how:
Step #1 - 31,500 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 along with an annual fee rebate in the first year. 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 September 5, 2022.
Total Aeroplan points after this step: 31,500
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.
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 information on this TD credit card, please click on the Apply Now button.
Step #2 - 21,000 points + Buddy Pass
Get yourself the CIBC Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card. This card is offering 20,000 points and a Bonus Buddy Pass as its welcome bonus along with an annual fee rebate in the first year. You'll receive 10,000 points when you make your first purchase on the cards and then an additional 10,000 points + the bonus Buddy Pass when you spend $1,000 on the card in the first four months of having it. The buddy pass is good for travel in economy class (in any economy class - Standard, Flex, Comfort, or Latitude) so when you buy a ticket you can redeem the pass to have someone fly with you and you only have to pay the taxes and fees on that second ticket.We value the Buddy Pass at no less than $300.
Total Aeroplan points after Steps 1 & 2: 52,500 + Buddy Pass
Total spend required: $2,500
Apply for the CIBC Aerplan Visa Infinite Card here.
Step #3: - 11,000 points
Get yourself the American Express® Green Card. 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 directly to 11,000 Aeroplan points.
Total Aeroplan points afters Steps 1-3: 63,500 + Buddy Pass
Total spend required: $3,500
Apply for the American Express Green Card here
Step #4: 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 1-4: 67,500 + Buddy Pass
Total spend required: $3,501
Apply for the mbna Best Western Mastercard® here
And there you go! Those are the 4 steps to scoring over 67,000 Aeroplan points and Buddy Pass for free! Plus if you keep the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card and spend $7,500 in the first year of having the card you get the additional 20,000 points which would bring your total to over 90,000 points including the points earned the spend. You do however have to pay the $139 annual fee on the card in the second year for that 20,000 point bonus.
To get all these points you do have spend on your credit card 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 as it is extremely easy to achieve right now with only $3,501 in spending required over the course of 3-4 months if you get all the cards right away. You can also spread your applications out if you don't want to spend that much in a short period of time.
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 want to do step one and/or two as those have the easy $1,000 to $1,500 spend requirements and provide the most bang for your buck. The American Express Green Card and Best Western card offers? Easy peasy. Those are standard offers that are not limited so you can do it at anytime.
You could actually earn even more Aeroplan points than this if you bring the business versions of the TD and CIBC cards into the mix. Both of those cards have first year annual fee rebates as well however they both also require a huge amount of spend to get the entire bonus.
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 points reward
- 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 months with CIBC) - ideally give your self some breathing room. But don't wait too long on TD or CIBC as they are limited time offers. We know TD ends September 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 American Express Green Card and Best Western card since they aren't limited time offers. Let your credit rating come back up after applying for the other cards and then go for these ones.
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 63,000 Aeroplan points and if you both got the CIBC card that would be additional 42,000 points plus two buddy passes. Yes the points are earned in searate accounts but with Aeroplan's new Family Sharing program you can pool those points into one. Ultimately you could be looking at over 130,000 Aeroplan points if you are able to get all the cards above for each player and each spend the $3,501 that would be required.
Wrapping it up
By having so many options with credit cards in Canada it is possible to earn a swath of Aeroplan points at no cost to you other than using these cards for your day to day spending. The ability to earn over 67,000 points and buddy pass with a combined value of no less than $1,300 by only spending $3,501 is almost too good of a deal to pass up.
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