As I had predicted on July 25th, the consortium led by Air Canada, CIBC, TD and Visa have officially purchased Aeroplan and its associated liability of Aeroplan points.
The deal was originally tabled for $250MM along with the Aeroplan liability and has since been increased to $450MM, as was demanded by Aeroplan’s Jeremy Rabe and the investors of Aeroplan.
While we will never know the severity of Air Canada’s inability to stand up their own loyalty program, one can readily assume that capitulating to AIMIA’s demand of $450MM surely indicates AC’s desperation.
It sure will be interesting to see American Express’ reaction to this as they have been left out in the cold.
More to come.
With all the new Air Canada / Aeroplan & SPG changes, what would you suggest for AMEX users to do with their points? I have mainly been using Aeroplan points to travel now that the SPG program has changed. Do you suggest converting all my MR points into Aeroplan?
Mike, I personally would keep your MRs as MRs until you have a reason to convert. With AC taking over Aeroplan, you know that your existing points are safe. There is the writing on the wall that Amex and AC might not have a relationship past 2020 but I think they’ll provide enough warning that you can convert your MRs prior to the relationship ending
Hoping we will see some better TD & CIBC Aeroplan credit card offers as a result.
Amex will surely bring some other interesting partners to stay in the game like Flyingblue that was available for a few days at 1:1…