Up to 40,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles by Converting Points from Other Loyalty Programs

Through May 13, 2013, you can convert your points from many loyalty point programs to Aeroplan miles and earn up to 40,000 bonus Aeroplan miles.  Unlike the current US Airways transfer offer, this is not a one time bonus, and you’ll earn the bonus miles cumulatively based on all the points that ultimately are transferred.

You can transfer points from the following programs:

• Financial credit cards: CIBC Aventura^® World MasterCardâ„¢ Card, CIBC Aventura^® Gold Visaâ„¢, CIBC Aventura^® Visa Infiniteâ„¢, and Diners Club^® Club Rewards^® (although American Express is a transfer partner, they are not part of this bonus point promotion) – look at the transfer values here.
  
• Hotels/Car Rental: Starwood Preferred Guest^®(1:1) Wyndham Rewards (2.5:1), Best Western Rewards (5:1), Choice Privileges (5:1), Coast Rewards (1:1), Club Carlson (8:1), Hilton HHonors (10:1), Le Club Accorhotels (Accor hotels) (2:1), Golden Circle Award (1:1), Hertz Gold Plus Rewards (6:5) – look at the minimum transfer values here.
• Points.com: Includes – Alaska Airlines, Audience Rewards, Best Buy Rewards, Cathay Pacific, TACA, Frontier, Esso, HawaiianMiles, Midwest Miles, MySmart Rewards, Priority Club Rewards, S&H Greenpoints, Icelandair Saga Club, Trident Privilege Program, Virgin America, US Airways

Out of all of those programs, you’ll find the best value in SPG points as they transfer at a 1:1 ratio and for every 20,000 points you transfer to a partner airline you’ll earn a 5,000 mile bonus. This could also provide some value if you took advantage of the nice Amex transfer bonus opportunity about a year and a half ago and you have some left over Aeroplan points you need to top off. You can go ahead and transfer some of those orphaned points that you have no usage for and combine them all into Aeroplan.

If you do the straight math, the US Airways 50% bonus promotion is far better, but does not include Starwood as an option where this promotion does. So let’s say you are looking to go to Hawaii in business class, it will cost you 80,000 miles.

I will be honest, I’ve never earned or redeemed an Aeroplan mile. They are a Star Alliance partner and you can check our their award chart here. A few things to note with Aeroplan (the good and the bad): 1) One way awards are NOT allowed when redeeming on Star Alliance partners, but are allowed on Aeroplan metal; 2) on partner award flights fuel surcharges can be hefty; 3) When redeeming miles you are allowed two stop-overs.

I personally will not be taking advantage of this promotion as I value my Starwood points too much and the other partners have a horrible redemption ratio. Some might be looking to take advantage of this with Wyndham, but I personally will be transferring those to Southwest to help my companion pass status come January 1st. I also typically redeem for economy class tickets and that is where this definitely doesn’t worth in my favor. If you are looking for business or first you might find more value with the SPG transfer option.