[LAST CALL] New Air Canada Credit Card: Up to 100K Points, 3x Earn And Elite Status

Chase and Air Canada just launched the U.S. co-brand card for the big Star Alliance airline up north: the Aeroplan Credit Card.

The offer available at this link will end sometime during the day on April 20, 2022. If you want one of the best initial bonus offers out there, for a great card, consider applying now.

They could have done the same thing as everyone else and offered 3-2-1 earning with accelerators in categories they hope you will spend in but won't really, and then throw in free checked bags and call it a day. They didn't do that. They made the card really interesting for earning elite status, and they are incentivizing continued spend on the card with big rewards.

It shouldn't be surprising. Mark Nasr, the Senior Vice President who oversees loyalty marketing at the airline, shared that priority was given to a redesign of the U.S. co-brand card during an Aeroplan executive mileage run. Mark has said in the past that it's important for executives to eat their own dog food and understand the product they're offering as well as competitor products.

Initial Bonus: 100,000 Points In Value

After you spend $4,000 in the first 3 months of your account opening, you'll get an initial bonus of 2 Flight Reward Certificates.

If you had an award that cost 65,000 points, you could apply it and spend 15,000 miles.

If you have a card, you can book two ways or two passengers to use both at the same time and maximize value.

Mark Nasr explained why these certificates were offered.

1. He was candid that this lets them offer the highest value at the lower cost, since not all certificates will be redeemed for 50,000 points each
2. They were inspired by hotel free night certificates but with improvements since those often expire and can’t be topped off (although Marriott at least is solving for that)
3. This encourages redemption as quickly as possible – and not just for an award but a for a big award, which he believes is how they get the best engagement in the program. People who redeem at high value continue to earn rapidly in the program and certificates are treated as “burning a hole in the pocket from a behavioral perspective.”

When applying for the card, those who joined the waitlist will get 10,000 bonus points and 10 eUpgrades, as well as their initial bonus.

Earning

3x earning at grocery stores, dining at restaurants, and spending with Air Canada are included in the card's offer.

Up to 1500 additional points can be earned per calendar month. If you spend in categories that are at bonus thresholds, you can earn up to 3.25 points per dollar. If you use 50% off redemption certificates that can be earned with the card, it's equivalent to earning 6.5 points per dollar in these categories at the extreme.

Benefits

The card comes with a free first checked bag for cardmember and up to 8 other people on the same reservation.

Pay Yourself Back with the card will allow members to apply points towards travel expenses charged to the card at 1.25 cents apiece in value up to 50,000 points per calendar year.

There are Mastercard World Elite Benefits that include concierge, priceless experiences, and other perks.

You can get up to a $100 statement credit for the first 4 years of the product, since it is specific to the U.S.

Elite Status

The first tier of elite status comes with the card. You can keep that status if you spend $15,000 a year. For the remainder of the year in which you're approved, you'll get the future status with the card.

You go up to an elite level if you spend $50,000 on the card.

• To 35,000 mile status based on spend alone, reflected right away.
• A member earning elite status with Air Canada spending $50,000 gets a one-level bump up starting at the beginning of the next calendar year. This even lets a member earn top tier Super Elite status which is one of the best top tiers in the world. An Aeroplan 75K member who spends $50,000 on the card becomes Super Elite in the next calendar year which is a no-brainer for them if they can manage it.

I wrote to expect status-earning opportunities with the card. Mark Nasr said that next year won't be a normal status-earning year and there will be promotions. I would expect that to be true with Aeroplan as well.

Status earned via the card is real or full status and comes with all of its benefits, including 50% off rewards and a discount on redemptions.

If you level up your status and use the points earned on this card, in conjunction with the points you might transfer in from programs like Chase's Ultimate rewards, those points are going to go farther.

The way that the spend and status are reinforcing is something first done by Frontier Airlines and then by Hyatt, where spend earns elite nights and every 10 nights drive incremental benefits. It is something that American AAdvantage is moving towards with Loyalty Points but it feels a bit more gamified and fun because of the stacking of benefits.

Spend Threshold Benefits

Are you a heavy spender? They want you to keep going even though you can get to elite status after $50,000 a year.

50% off redemption Priority rewards is available at 100,000, 250,000, 500,000, and 750,000.

• 25K & 35K members can use these for U.S. and Canada economy redemptions
• 50K members for North America up to Premium Economy
• 75K members can use them worldwide up to Premium Economy
• Super Elites can use them for up to business class worldwide.

For someone spending $1 million on the card in a year, they're offering a companion pass with 100% of points redeemed back on all redemptions in all cabins. That could be incredible.

There are 500 bonus points on the card for spending $4000, $6000, and $2000 each month. There are threshold rewards for spending over $1 million each year.

They’ll Offset Your Emissions

All redemptions on Air Canada that are redeemed by members with an Aeroplan Chase card will be offset free to the member.

If the offset efforts are real, this is cool.

Air Canada will purchase these high quality offsets with funding from Chase. Direct carbon capture is a technology that seems to have real potential and needs more investment.

I care about this and by the way I want to hang around for myself to see them grow up, I get that and applaud efforts that aren't.

Air Canada Aeroplan Is A Useful Program For Americans

Air Canada Aeroplan elite members get significant discounts on award redemption throughPriorityRewards so this program is already useful for those with big balances with Chase, American Express, Bilt or Capital One since Aeroplan is a transfer partner of all four.

Aeroplan award redemption is very useful with no fuel surcharges and access to both Star Alliance airline awards and award travel across an extensive network of partners.

Fuel surcharges have been eliminated and family accounts can pool points for free. If the whole family gets Aeroplan cards, that can be useful.

The best business class lounges in North America, the original Signature Suite in Toronto and the one in Vancouver, come with access to the best business class awards on Air Canada, a 10,000 to 12,000 point premium gets a business flex award.

Air Canada Signature Suite Toronto