Ends Tonight! Get A 30% Bonus When You Transfer Hotel Points Into Air Canada Aeroplan Miles

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Update: This offer ends tonight!

Originally posted 11/5:

Get A 30% Bonus When You Transfer Hotel Points Into Air Canada Aeroplan Miles

If you transfer hotel points to Air Canada’s Aeroplan mileage program by 12/3 you’ll get a 30% bonus.

Hotel point transfers to airlines are typically not worthwhile even with a 30% bonus, with the exception of Marriott.

-You can transfer 60K Marriott Rewards points (20K Starpoints) into 25K Aeroplan miles. Aeroplan will add 30% more miles in January, leaving you with 32,500 miles. That’s a transfer ratio of 0.54 miles per Marriott point (or 1.625 miles per Starpoint).

Note that even 2 months after the merger, Marriott’s mileage conversion tool still doesn’t account for the 15K bonus Marriott points they add onto a transfer when you transfer in increments of 60K points, but those points will be added. The tool calculates 60K points as converting into 20K Air Canada Aeroplan miles at the 3:1 ratio (or 20K miles with other airlines at the 3:1 ratio) but you’ll actually get 25K Aeroplan miles for every 60K points transferred thanks to the 15K bonus Marriott points that will be added onto that transfer.

The bonus miles will post to your account in January.

There is no limit to the number of bonus miles you can earn.

The bonus does not apply to Marriott travel packages.

A breakdown of Aeroplan policies:

The good:

• Air Canada has one of the best lap child policies out there. You pay a flat fee of just $50 in coach, $75 in premium economy, $100 in business, or $125 in first for a lap child. Compare that to 10% of the paid fare with other airlines and you can save a small fortune, especially if you are flying in business or first class.
• Aeroplan’s Star Alliance award chart has some bright spots, though not as many as it used to. A business class flight from North America to Europe or South America is 55K miles each way while first class is 70K miles each way.
• Air Canada generously allows for a free stopover within North America and 2 free stopovers when flying to another continent, so you can check out up to 2 cities for as long as you want in addition to your final destination.  If used properly you can create for yourself a mini round-the-world trip, all for the single award rate of flying to your final destination. So for just 110K/140K miles you can fly in business/first to 3 European cities and stay in each for as long as you want. Or for 160K/220K miles you can fly to Australia in business/first, with stops in Europe and in Asia along the way for example.
• There are no expedite/close-in fees.

The bad:

• There is a C$100 charge to change or cancel an award ticket and a C$250 charge to cancel within 21 days of departure.
• Awards can’t be held.
• Premium class travel to Israel and the Middle East is pricey at 165K for business and 230K round-trip for first class. That’s higher than every other region in the world. Some agents may allow you to stopover in Israel on the way to another region for the lower cost of flying to the other region.

The ugly:

• Air Canada charges a fuel surcharge if you redeem their miles for travel on the following carriers: Adria, Air Canada, ANA, Asiana, Austrian, LOT Polish, Lufthansa, TAP Portugal, and THAI. (There is no fuel surcharge if you redeem their miles for travel on the following carriers: Aegean, Air China, Air India, Air New Zealand, Avianca/TACA, Brussels, Copa, Croatia, EVA, EgyptAir, Ethiopian, SAS, Shenzhen, Singapore, South African, Swiss, Turkish, and United)
• Air Canada miles require activity every 12 months to keep them active.
• There is no 24 hour grace period to cancel an award ticket.

Will you transfer points to Aeroplan with this bonus?

HT: a good yeshiva bachur, via DDF