It has been a little over a month since I wrote the first '
Travel Hacking 101' post and at that time I showed you how to earn 50,000+ Aeroplan Miles or British Airways Avios for free* Now two new offers have come along in the past week that up the potential Aeroplan Miles that can be earned for free outside of credit card spend to 82,000+! The two new offers are limited time, so they should done first and as such are listed as steps 1 and 2. The remainder of the steps can be spread out over time all dependent on how many hits you want on your credit rating at once and how soon you want the free miles. I recommend reading my
post from back in May for background information or if you are new to this and then you can get the ball rolling by following the steps below.
How do you get the 82,000+ Aeroplan Miles? It all revolves around credit card sign up bonuses from cards that
either have no annual fee or where the first year fee is waived. The
only ‘costs’ associated with this method are putting your everyday
credit card spend onto these cards to meet the minimum requirements for
getting the sign up bonus. Now if you don't think you can hit the
minimum spend on the cards you don't have to apply for them all at once,
you can take your time and apply for cards that aren't limited time offers once you've hit each spend
individually. All this means is that it will take a little longer to
earn your fee flights.
Step 1:
CIBC Aerogold Visa Infinite CardNormally this card has an annual fee of $120 but if you apply before June 28 and spend $500 on the card with the first three months of having it CIBC will waive the first year annual fee. Technically that means you can get 15,000 Aeroplan Mile sign up bonus for free. There are reports that if you apply in branch or over the phone you can ask to have the $500 minimum spend requirement waived. See my
post about it here or apply online at CIBC
These 15,000 Aeroplan Miles will be deposited directly to your Aeroplan account. Which means you should now be at 15,000 Aeroplan Miles
Step 2:
MBNA Best Rewards MasterCardThis no-fee card also has a limited time sign up bonus that has been upped from 20,000 Best Western Rewards points to 60,000! The 60,000 points can be earn as follows:
- Receive 20,000 bonus BWR Points after your
first eligible purchase
- Spend $1,000 before July 31, 2013 on your new card and receive additional 30,000 bonus points
- Receive another 10,000 bonus points when you spend an additional $1,000 before August 31, 2013
Apply online here for the card.
These Best Western Rewards points can then be transferred on a 5:1 basis to Aeroplan, so 60,000 Points = 12,000 Aeroplan Miles. Which means you should now be at 27,000 Aeroplan Miles
The following three steps can be done in any order:
American Express Gold Rewards Card
The number one hybrid credit card in Canada since 2011 this card normally comes with a
15,000 Membership Rewards point bonus after hitting a spend of $
500.
You can up that bonus to 20,000 Membership Rewards points by taking advantage of my ‘Refer Friends and Family’ option which also entails a spend of $500 in 3 months. The card has a $150 annual fee tied into it but this fee is waived in the first year.
Related: American Express Gold Rewards Card review
American Express Business Gold Rewards Card
Although it is a Business card many people have had success applying for and receiving the card simply by making themselves the ‘business entity’. This card comes with a 25,000 Membership Rewards point bonus after hitting a spend of $
3,000 in the first three months. You can apply for this card
here. The card has a $180 annual fee tied into it but this fee is waived in the first year.
Related: Rewards Canada Business/Corporate Travel Rewards Credit Card Comparison
These Membership Rewards points can then be transferred on a 1:1 basis to either Aeroplan or Avios. Which means you should now be at 72,000 Aeroplan Miles
Chase Marriott Rewards Premier Visa Card
This is the easiest card in the process as there is no minimum spend and This no foreign transaction fee card comes with a 30,000 Marriott Rewards point sign up bonus after your first purchase. The card's $120 annual is also waived in the first year. You can apply for this card
here.
These 30,000 Marriott Rewards Points can then be transferred to Aeroplan at a 3:1 basis (30,000 Marriott Rewards Points = 10,000 Aeroplan Miles) Which means you should now be at 82,000 Aeroplan Miles
Related: Chase Marriott Rewards Premier Visa Card Review
There you go just with these offers you will have earned 82,000 Aeroplan Miles. That's enough Aeroplan miles for three Aeroplan reward tickets within North America, two economy class tickets to Mexico or the Caribbean, one economy class ticket to Europe or Asia with miles to spare (of course taxes and fees are extra but you could use the extra points earned from your spend on the Amex cards to cover some of them)
Now do you want to keep any of these cards after the first year free is up? Personally I would keep the American Express Gold Rewards Card as it one of the strongest earning cards for both Aeroplan a and frequently offer bonuses for transferring points to them (see March 2013), the Chase Marriott Visa is good if you do lots of travelling outside of Canada or do lots of online shopping and/or importing for your business as the card has no foreign transaction fees. If not I would probably cancel it as well as cancelling the American Express Business Gold Rewards Card.
Related: Which credit card earns the most Aeroplan Miles?
You do have some other no-fee credit card options to bring your mileage totals even higher such as the current
Choice Privileges MasterCard sign up bonus of 24,000 points which equals 4,800 Aeroplan Miles to bring the total miles to 86,800!
You can also take advantage of other free Aeroplan mile offers that you can use to add even more miles to your account albeit not that many. I would recommend that you visit my
Aeroplan Bonus opportunities pages regularly and look under the ‘other offers’ section for any and all free mileage offers that may come up. At time of posting these were the only 2 'free' Aeroplan Miles offer
- 50 Bonus Aeroplan miles by registering your Costco and Aeroplan Number online by September 30. Full details
- 500 Bonus Aeroplan miles when you sign up for The UPS Store Get More card by Dec 31. Full details
* I state free as I assume you would be spending this
money anyways on these credit cards so you might as well be rewarded for
it with free Aeroplan miles or Avios
Best Western Rewards® points! 