In this extremely hectic week of new and updated credit card welcome bonus from no less than four banks we also see American Express update the offers on their duo of Aeroplan Reserve Cards. Both the American Express Aeroplan Reserve Card and the American Express Aeroplan Business Reserve Card have seen their bonuses updated to up to 85,000 and 90,000 points respectively.
The Amex Aeroplan Reserve Cards are cards targeted towards Canadian consumers who love to travel with Air Canada and want to avail of benefits that can make that travel better. From providing the airport lounge access including Maple Leaf Lounges in North America to Priority Boarding and the ability to earn an annual companion pass, these cards were developed with the Air Canada traveller in mind. That being said you don’t have to be a frequent Air Canada traveller to have either of these cards – if you do fly Air Canada even just several times per year the card could make sense for earning Aeroplan points and taking advantage of the travel benefits for those flights.
American Express Aeroplan Reserve Card up to 85,000 points
The new bonus on the consumer version of the card offers up to 85,000 points which is awarded as follows:
- Earn 60,000 Aeroplan points after spending $7,500 in purchases on your Card within the first 3 months
- Plus, earn an additional 25,000 Aeroplan points when you spend $2,500 in purchases in month 13
Technically this offer is 5,000 points less than the last offer however up to 10,000 points of the old offer was for adding supplementary cardholders which meant its core bonus was 80,000 points versus this offers of 85,000 points. In addition to that the initial portion of the bonus in the new offer can be achieved much quicker and with less spend as it requires $7,500 of spend in the first three versus the old offer of $2,000 in spending in each of the first six months.
The additional bonus in the second year also sees less spend required at $2,000 versus the previous offer of $6,000.
The card’s annual fee is $599 per year so if we look at absolute baseline value of the bonus it works out to $77. We value Aeroplan points at a minimum of 1.5 cents each so the 85,000 points works out to $1,275 in minimum value but you have to subtract two years of annual fees which works out $1,198.
Click here to apply for the American Express Aeroplan Reserve Card
American Express Aeroplan Business Reserve Card up to 90,000 points
The new bonus on the business version of the card offers up to 90,000 points which is awarded as follows:
- Earn 65,000 Aeroplan points after spending $10,500 in purchases on your Card within the first 3 months.
- Plus, earn an additional 25,000 Aeroplan points when you spend $3,500 in purchases in month 13.
Technically this offer is 5,000 points less than the last offer however up to 10,000 points of the old offer was for adding supplementary cardholders which meant its core bonus was 85,000 points versus this offers of 90,000 points. In addition to that the initial portion of the bonus in the new offer can be achieved much quicker and with less spend as it requires $10,500 of spend in the first three versus the old offer of $3,000 in spending in each of the first six months.
The additional bonus in the second year also sees less spend required at $2,000 versus the previous offer of $9,000.
The card’s annual fee is $599 per year so if we look at absolute baseline value of the bonus it works out to $152. We value Aeroplan points at a minimum of 1.5 cents each so the 90,000 points works out to $1,350 in minimum value but you have to subtract two years of annual fees which works out $1,198.
Click here to apply for the American Express Aeroplan Reserve Card
Wrapping it up
It’s good to see American Express make the welcome bonuses on the Aeroplan Reserve Cards easier to achieve in this latest update. With lower spend requirements and the elimination of requiring a set amount of spend per month, newly approved cardmembers can see the majority of the welcome bonus points in their Aeroplan accounts much sooner than seen with the previous offer.