American Express and Air Canada have teamed up to offer an exciting promotion for co-branded cardholders, which we saw late last year reflecting the TD 20% point back promotion.
From now on 3am, July 5, 2022 American Express Aeroplan cardholders can earn Return Aeroplan points up to 25% Air Canada Flight Awards, Air Canada Vacation Packages, Hotel & Car Rental, Travel Before December 31, 2022.
Register for the offer
Three American Express airplane co-branded cards are eligible for this promotion:
American Express airplane credit card
This link requires registration, and cardholders should receive an email to register.
Although you must be an American Express Airplane cardholder to participate, there is no need to pay for any part of the flight redemption or other rewards using your Amex Aeroplan credit card.
20-25% points return on flight redemption
Upon registration, cardholders will be able to get back 20-25% airplane points on all flight rewards, depending on the Amex airplane credit card. Points will be credited back to the airplane account after the trip.
The main deadline for awareness is as follows:
- Booked by 3am on July 5, 2022.
- Must complete the trip by Eastern time 3am December 31, 2022.
Effectively, this discount is up to 25% off all the prices you see on the Flight Rewards Chart, resulting in great deals across the board:
- ~ 3,600 points For one-way transcontinental flights in Air Canada economy class
- ~ 17,500–30,000 points For one-way transcontinental flights in Air Canada Business Class (lower end of dynamic price)
- 41,250 points For Air Canada or ANA Business Class one way flights from Vancouver or Calgary to Tokyo
- 45,000–52,500 points For one-way flights from North America to Europe in business class
- 56,250 points For one-way flights from North America to Asia in business class
- 63,750 points For a one-way flight from North America to “Asia 3” in business class up to 11,000 miles
- 67,500 points For a one-way flight from US East Coast to Germany Lufthansa First Class
- 82,500 points For ANA first class one way flight from North America to Tokyo
- 90,000 points For Etihad Airways 787 First Class One-way Flights from Washington to Abu Dhabi
Needless to say, this is an incredible opportunity to lock in some travel in the second half of 2022.
The promotion combines with common airplane redemption strategies we already know:
- Aeroplan Elite Status members or co-branded credit cardholders are already enjoying lower redemption levels on Air Canada flights as part of the preferred price advantage; This promotion offers more savings on top of that.
- Adding a stopover to a one-way bound usually costs 5,000 airplane points, which will be reduced. 3,750 airplane points With this promotion.
- Applying a priority reward on a qualified redemption result in a 50% discount on the required Airoplan points for booking; The remaining 50% points will then be subject to another 25% discount, resulting in a satisfactory one 62.5% discount Overall
Interestingly, the terms of the offer say:
Offer only applies to new redemption; Previous redemptions that have been canceled and then re-booked during the offer period are not eligible for this offer.
However, I think it is unlikely that it will be applied, because a previous redemption that has been canceled and re-booked cannot be practically separated from a brand new booking.
(Indeed, previous TD 20% point back promotion data points indicate that these conditions were rarely applied.)
If you have already booked trips during the promotion period, I would recommend taking advantage of Aeroplan’s flexible change and cancellation policy and re-booking them before July 5th anyway.
In addition, the terms further state:
If the actual eligible redemption travel dates are changed, the offer will still be credited to the participating card member’s account until travel is still completed by 31:00 am EST on December 31, 2022, respecting the travel time of the offer, and redeeming points update. Will be rewarded based on the number done.
Since flight bookings made before June 30, 2022 (as things are currently standing) enjoy a one-time free change, this means that you can lock a few new bookings before June 30 on a somewhat speculative basis and then change them to confirm 31. Plan your trip anytime in December – and still get back those 25% airplane points!
Return 20-25% points on hotel, car rental, and vacation
The most exciting part of this promotion is of course the 25% chance to get back airplane points when booking a flight.
However, the same discount applies to hotel, car rental and Air Canada vacation packages if you want to redeem your airplane points here.
Since the price is almost certainly going to be less than the redemption point for the flight, I would definitely not recommend following these other redemptions even if you get an effective 25% discount – save your airplane points for flight redemption at a sweet discount instead!
Conclusion
American Express and Airplane are promoting a spectacular 25% point back in advance of the summer travel season, which will undoubtedly drive the travel community into a frenzy as we plan our remaining travels for 2022.
Depending on whether you have an original or a premium card, you will receive 20-25% of all points re-credited to their account after the trip.
To be eligible, you must book between July 4, 2022 and travel until December 30, 2022 (these are the effective deadline for the 3am Eastern Time cutoff on the next calendar day).
It’s time to start locking your travel plans for the rest of 2022 and confirm some bookings before July 5th!
