If you frequent credit card or points and miles forums on sites like Reddit and Red Flag Deals, chances are you have seen this latest development from Aeroplan. Or, perhaps you are actually one of those people who have received a letter from Aeroplan stating they are clawing back points you received as part of your welcome bonus for an Aeroplan co-brand card because you have received the bonus numerous times.
This all stems from updates made to Air Canada Aeroplan Terms and Conditions in 2022 and 2023. Here is our past coverage of those T&C updates:
- November 29, 2023: Changes to the Aeroplan program general Terms and Conditions (Effective Feb 5, 2024)
- October 22, 2022: Aeroplan Terms & Conditions update
What is the points clawback that is happening to these cardholders?
As this has not happened to me personally, all the information provided in this section is based upon what I have read primarily on Reddit and Red Flag Deals (and also a journalist who reached out to us about a work colleague who was affected as well)
On or about October 30, 2024 Aeroplan members began to see points deductions from their accounts and in most cases it was 10,000 points being removed. Several members had numerous 10,000 point deductions based upon how many cards they had applied for and received the bonus since the new terms came into effect two years ago.
Some members have also received communication as follows:
Some additional notes:
- Based on the various posts and comments across the forums this enforcement of the terms and conditions has affected roughly 17,000 Aeroplan members.
- It appears that clawbacks are happening for TD and CIBC Cards. My assumption as to why Amex is not included is the fact that TD and CIBC are both Visa card issuers and as such a person shouldn’t need both. However, Aeroplan understands that people may want to have an Amex Aeroplan (for offers, benefits etc.) in addition to an Aeroplan Visa card (we always recommend carrying a Visa, Mastercard and an Amex card) so this probably why we haven’t seen clawbacks for TD+Amex or CIBC+Amex (if you have please let me know though!) Again this is only an assumption on my part.
- They are only removing the initial welcome bonus points (typically 10,000 points) and allowing members to keep bonuses earned on the spending requirement portion of the welcome bonus. Technically speaking, they could have taken those additional points as well and could have even chosen to go further and hut down people’s accounts. At this point it does not appear they are shutting any accounts for churning credit cards but that may come next. As I mentioned to the journalist, this is “sort of” a customer friendly approach that Aeroplan has taken to this issue. It’s not like me in my interviews about PC Optimum’s woes over this past year and just telling them to kick people out of the program if they knowingly abused the program and broke the terms. But luckily (I guess) PC Optimum has not gone that route but rather chooses to put people into points purgatory, which is a whole other issue in its own right.
The term affecting new card welcome bonus offers
The primary term that is being enforced in this round of points clawbacks is:
In connection with a New Card Bonus being made available for becoming a holder of an Aeroplan Credit Card, such New Card Bonus is intended as an incentive for a Member to become a holder of an Aeroplan Credit Card where that Member is neither currently, nor was previously, a holder of that type of Aeroplan Credit Card, regardless of issuer (e.g., entry, core, premium, core small business, premium small business, or any other card that has a substantially similar level of benefits) for which the New Card Bonus is being offered. This means that a Member may be granted a maximum of one New Card Bonus for each type of Aeroplan Credit Card that the Member becomes a holder of, regardless of issuer.
As explained in my past coverage of the Aeroplan terms and conditions updates, what this means is that a member can earn a maximum of five card bonuses (one each for entry, core, premium, core small business, premium small business) over their lifetime as an Aeroplan member. And this is what we are seeing in this round of clawbacks – the points being removed are for those who have multiple cards from one tier. I do want to stress however, that even though the terms allow for up to 5 bonuses that may be pushing it as we don’t know what could be considered excessive behaviour per the terms and conditions.
The affected members are those who have now had or continue to have multiple cards in the same tier over the past couple of years from TD and/or CIBC.
Our Recommendations
If you are someone who has not been “playing the game” of trying to get as many sign up bonuses possible from a variety of Aeroplan co-brand cards but have seen some points clawed back we recommend reaching out to Aeroplan for re-consideration.
What constitutes not playing the game? It could be certain situations like the journalist who reached out to us (via another journalist) who decided they didn’t want the Aeroplan card anymore but then a few months down the road realized they really liked the benefits the card provided so re-applied for the card. Or perhaps you switched banks, say from TD to CIBC or vice versa and are someone who likes to keep your credit cards from the same place you bank with so switched from a TD Aeroplan card to CIBC Aeroplan card or vice versa.
There’s no guarantee that you’ll get your points back but I think outside of the churners and gamers, there is no harm in calling and explaining your situation to Aeroplan. The worse they can say is sorry we can’t give you back the points as they are following the T&Cs or even better, they do decide to give you the points back.
If you are someone who has been playing the game, well, there’s nothing you can really do other than being thankful more points weren’t clawed back or even worse, having your account terminated.
Wrapping it up
A small percentage of Aeroplan members have had points clawed back from their accounts for having received welcome bonuses from multiple Aeroplan co-brand credit cards.
Aeroplan seems to have been relatively fair in the enforcement of their terms and conditions by only removing the initial portion of the welcome bonus and not clawing back even more points or going a step further in terminating accounts.
Some people will feel they have been wronged by this move and should contact Aeroplan to explain their situation while others will simply chalk it up as a loss in playing credit card bonus roulette and move on to next table at the Points & Miles Resort and Casino.