Here we are jumping right into second post of the night with coverage what
would be considered Air Canada Aeroplan’s mainstay American Express card –
the American Express® Aeroplan®* Card
Recommended reading:
- The New Air Canada Aeroplan Program All the resources you need
- The new Air Canada Aeroplan program revealed – it all goes live on November 8!
- A closer look at the new Air Canada Aeroplan credit cards
- The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of the new Air Canada Aeroplan program
- A reminder to get on the waitlist for the new American Express® Aeroplan®* Cards to score extra Aeroplan points
The Welcome Bonus
The
limited time welcome bonus revealed today for the new American Express® Aeroplan®* Card is very similar to that of the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite card however instead of an annual fee waiver it provides more points. The total points you can earn ranges from 15,000 to 20,000 and is broken down as follows:
- Welcome bonus of up to 10,000 points consisting of 9,000 Welcome Bonus points with $1,500 in spend and 1,000 points/month with $500 spend monthly in the first six months
- Earn
an Air Canada Buddy Pass to bring anyone along to anywhere Air Canada
flies in North America, including Hawaii and Mexico.
- Those who joined the waitlist are eligible to earn an extra 5,000 bonus Aeroplan points upon approval, for a total of up to 20,000 points.
First
you see your standard welcome bonus points offer which is the lower than what was featured on this card’s predecessor the American Express AeroplanPlus Gold card. However you do have that buddy pass now.
The
Air Canada Buddy Pass is a companion pass that you can use to get a $0
base fare on any Air Canada, Air Canada Express or Air Canada Rouge
flight in North America including Hawaii and Mexico. You receive the
pass once you spend $1,000 on the card within 90 days of opening your
account. 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. The pass is valid for 12 months from date of issuance. This is
where the potential big value comes in, if you are planning on traveling
in North America, to Hawaii or Mexico and will be traveling with at
least one companion you can enjoy some big savings, especially so if you
buy the higher end economy class fare levels and as the buddy pass has
no black out date it can be used during peak season albeit peak season
in 2021 won’t be anything like pre-COVID times.
Here are a few examples of using the Buddy Pass for travel in early 2021:
Vancouver-Toronto February 2021
The
base fare is $840 per adult for the highest Economy Fare Class
(Comfort) which means the buddy pass will save you $840! Combine this
with our minimum valuation of Aeroplan points at 1.2 cents each and the
welcome bonus for this card becomes $900 in value. If you chose to go
with the lowest Economy Class fare (Standard) the base fare is $290 per
adult so the value of the buddy pass drops but is still a
really good valuation of $350 for the welcome bonus in this card.*
* The valuations here do not take into account the extra points awarded from the wait list bonus
Toronto-Honolulu March 2021
The
base fare is $949 per adult for the highest Economy Fare Class
(Comfort) which means the buddy pass will save you $949! Combine this
with our minimum valuation of Aeroplan points at 1.2 cents each and the
welcome bonus for this card becomes $1049 in value. If you chose to go
even higher and purchase a Latitude fare on this same flight the base
fare is $1633 per
adult so the value of the buddy pass is huge at $1633!!*
* The valuations here do not take into account the extra points awarded from the wait list bonus
That
is a huge value for those who do buy Latitude fares but for most
Canadians I think the buddy pass will be mostly used on those Standard
to Comfort fares.
For the most part I would value the
Buddy Pass at no less than $100 based on redeeming it for some shorter
competitive routes like Toronto-Montreal or Vancouver-Calgary. For
example here’s a really cheap fare between YYZ and YUL where the Buddy
Pass would only be worth $112:
Basics of the new card
The NEW American Express® Aeroplan®* Card, created using 70% reclaimed plastic as part of American Express’ commitment to sustainability, will offer:
- 2X the points on eligible Air Canada and Air Canada Vacations purchases
- 1.5X the points on eligible dining and food delivery in Canada
- 1X the points on everything else
- Air Canada Travel Benefits: including Free First Checked Bag, Status Qualification Boost and Preferred Pricing on flight rewards
- Access to American Express Entertainment & Experiences:
presale and reserved tickets through Front of the Line, insider access
to events through Amex Experiences, and tailored perks and discounts
through Amex Offers - A suite of travel related insurance coverages: including
Flight and Baggage Delay Insurance and Lost or Stolen Baggage Insurance
so Cardmembers have more confidence knowing you can be covered on
eligible travels abroad - $120 annual fee on the primary card and
two options for additional cards $50 annual fee card with full benefits
or $0 annual fee card to earn points only
Why a buddy pass instead of more points?
There
are several reasons why Air Canada is doing this and I do get why they
have chosen to go this route. The first is breakage – this is a term
loyalty programs love and it is where miles, points, vouchers, bonus
gift cards or in this case buddy passes go unused and they expire. Hotel
chains like Best Western are famous for this – they rather award
limited time gift cards over points since the latter never expire. It
allows loyalty companies an easy way to get rid of that debt. And here
in Air Canada Aeroplan’s case they know travel is severely curtailed
right now and by not offering as many points as the welcome bonus and
instead providing a buddy pass that has a concrete end date Air Canada
is truly hoping a lot of them go unused. Even if the customer at the
time of application has full intentions of travelling there is no
guarantee they will be able to if more travel restrictions are put in
place, the traveller becomes sick themselves and so on. So that’s the
first reason Air Canada has done this – it will cost them a lot less
than issuing tons of points that people will hold onto for a couple of
years. The second reason is to boost revenue. There are people who will
travel who may not have before if they didn’t have this buddy pass. So
for Air Canada this means a boost in revenue – sure you are giving up
two seats for the price of one but that’s better than none. Planes
aren’t flying anywhere near capacity right now so if this buddy pass can
entice someone to get out of their house to take a trip then they will
do so on Air Canada instead of WestJet or any other airlines and that’s a
win for Air Canada. The third reason they have gone the buddy pass
route is they want the cardholders to be able to experience the benefits
that come with card such as the first bag free benefit.
Final thoughts
Just like it’s compatriot card from TD I
must say this welcome bonus is not what we were expecting and it will appeal to a smaller proportion of
Canadians who are ready to travel. The airline and the loyalty programs
know very well that many Canadians are not travelling right now and
those who are considering are on the fence – they’re 50-50 whether they
will or not so they’ll take a chance with this offer but if they end up
on the no go side of the fence they lose the buddy pass and only end up
with that 10,000 point bonus. Not an ideal welcome bonus. Then you have
the solo traveler who has no need for a buddy pass and not a huge amount
of value from those 10,000 points. That person would be better off
getting a card like the HSBC World Elite Mastercard
with its 100,000 point bonus which is worth $500 in travel and using
that to book a flight on Air Canada (and earn you Aeroplan points for
the flight while doing so). In my mind the ideal bonus would be 25,000
points with the buddy pass and the annual fee rebates and allow for the
buddy pass to be used on Aeroplan economy class reward flights as well.
Still,
if you do you travel with someone else and know you will be heading to a
destination covered by the Buddy Pass then this is a good welcome bonus
that can provide some really good value seeing that you aren’t paying
an annual fee in the first year.