Up to 40,000 Bonus Miles With Aeroplan Partner Transfer Promotion

Between now and June 18, 2012, Air Canada's Aeroplan mileage program is running a promotion that could mean up to 40,000 bonus miles for transferring points from their partners.

Here's how it breaks down, per the chart below. When you transfer enough points from a partner to get 5,000 Aeroplan miles, you get a bonus of 1,000 miles. When you transfer enough for 10,000 Aeroplan miles (a 20% bonus), you get a 2,000-mile bonus and so on. However, it gets more lucrative when you start transferring higher amounts of miles. With enough points to transfer into 100,000 Aeroplan miles, you earn 25,000 bonus miles (so 25%), and if you transfer enough points to get 150,000 Aeroplan miles, you get a bonus of 40,000 miles, almost a 27% bonus. 40,000 bonus points is the maximum per account. I got excited to potentially transfer Amex Membership Rewards points to Aeroplan, but this promo only works for those with Canadian Membership Rewards accounts. Finally our Canadian friends get an offer that we aren't eligible, instead of the other way around!

Is that a huge bonus? Not particularly considering most hotel transfer ratios to Aeroplan are not worthwile, but 27% is nothing to sneeze at, and what might make this deal worth it to you is that you don't get the bonus based on each individual transfer, but on the final number of miles you accrue through transfers for the promotion period, so you can take advantage of all those errant points you have sitting around in accounts with balances too small to put to use on their own to score a bonus here.

I would have been a little more excited about this, but recently Aeroplan increased their award levels and started levying substantial fuel surcharges to certain Star Alliance partner awards. That being said, there are still great values to be had (like 90,000 mile roundtrip business class tickets to Western Europe), especially if you can maximize their lax routing rules and allowance of two stopovers.

Here is a list of participating partners:

Credit Cards: CIBC Aventura^®World MasterCard™ Card, CIBC Aventura^® Gold Visa™, CIBC Aventura^® Visa Infinite™, CIBC Aventura^® MasterCard™ Card, American Express Membership Rewards - Canada, BankAmericard^® Power Rewards^® credit card, Diners Club^® Club Rewards^®.
Hotels: Starwood Preferred Guest^®, Hilton HHonors™, Marriott Rewards, Wyndham Rewards^®, Best Western Rewards, Choice Privileges^®, Coast Rewards, Club Carlson^SM, Le Club Accorhotels (Accor hotels), Golden Circle Award (Shangri-La Hotels).
Car Rentals: Hertz Gold Plus Rewards.
Other: Points.com

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Starwood Scenarios
Let's think about this strategically for a moment, though. Notice that Starwood is a preferred partner. Let's say you transferred 20,000 SPG points to Aeroplan. Then you'd have 25,000 Aeroplan (including the 5,000 miles SPG will give you for the transfer bonus), plus the 4,000 bonus miles from this promo, making it a 16% bonus (or 45% if you count the Starwood standard bonus).

If you were to transfer 80,000 SPG points to Aeroplan, you'd end up with 100,000 Aeroplan miles thanks to the SPG bonus. Then that means you'd qualify for 25,000 promotional bonus miles leaving you with a balance of 125,000 miles, or a 25% bonus. Not bad, especially if you want an Around The World ticket—you'd pretty much be there—or first class to Europe from North America (and business class to Asia).

Here's how you score the bonus according to the promotion page.
1. Select which partner you want to transfer points from and follow the directions on their website for doing so.
2. Repeat with as many partners as you like. Aeroplan will calculate your bonus on the total miles combined that you end up with.
3. Watch the bonuses hit your account within 7-10 business days.

They're tedious, but because they are also important, here are the rest of the terms and conditions:

Maximum 40,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles can be earned per Aeroplan Member. Bonus offer valid only on conversions made between May 21 and June 18, 2012 (11:59 EST). Bonus Aeroplan Miles will be issued by Aeroplan as follows: 1,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles will be deposited into the member's account when the total Aeroplan Miles earned by converting points from any combination of eligible partners programs during the promotion period is between 5,000 and 9,999 Aeroplan Miles; OR 2,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles will be deposited into the member's account when the total Aeroplan Miles earned by converting points from any combination of eligible partners programs during the promotion period is between 10,000 and 19,999 Aeroplan Miles; OR 4,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles will be deposited into the member's account when the total Aeroplan Miles earned by converting points from any combination of eligible partners programs during the promotion period is between 20,000 and 49,999 Aeroplan Miles; OR 10,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles will be deposited into the member's account when the total Aeroplan Miles earned by converting points from any combination of eligible partners programs during the promotion period is between 50,000 and 99,999 Aeroplan Miles; OR 25,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles will be deposited into the member's account when the total Aeroplan Miles earned by converting points from any combination of eligible partners programs during the promotion period is between 100,000 and 149,999 Aeroplan Miles; OR 40,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles will be deposited into the member's account when the total Aeroplan Miles earned by converting points from any combination of eligible partners programs during the promotion period is 150,000 or more Aeroplan Miles. Conversion of Membership Rewards® points from U.S. American Express Cardmember accounts into Aeroplan Miles are not eligible for this promotion. POINTS.com: Aeroplan Miles procured via a Trade transaction with another member on Points.com are not eligible towards the conversion bonus threshold. BONUS MILE CREDITING: Bonus miles are credited 7-10 days following successful receipt by Aeroplan of a conversion transaction from the partner. Note that some partners may take up to 2 weeks to submit point-to-mile conversions to Aeroplan. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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