Last December Air Canada and Chase announced plans for a new co-branded credit card and participation in the Ultimate Rewards program, to be launched in late 2021. Now the first half of that partnership officially takes off.
Starting today, eligible Chase cardmembers can transfer Ultimate Rewards points to Aeroplan, and redeem for travel and flight rewards with Air Canada and their more than 40 airline partners, including the entire Star Alliance network.
With Aeroplan, cardmembers will enjoy a seamless point transfer experience when they are ready to travel and have the flexibility to redeem for flights, upgrades and more with Air Canada’s extensive network of partners.
– Matt Massaua, Head of Ultimate Rewards and Loyalty Solutions at Chase
Aeroplan is a 1-to-1 transfer partner for the Ultimate Rewards program. Transfers must occur in 1,000 point increments.
Credit card coming soon
The US-issued Aeroplan Mastercard from Chase is coming soon, but not quite ready yet. In a somewhat unique approach to the market (and potentially a blow to card affiliates), Chase is getting ahead of the game with an advance signup list.
Waitlists to access a new co-brand card are uncommon, but in this case it also comes with upside to the customer. Cardholders who sign up via the waitlist today at aircanada.com/chase get an an extra 10,000 points when it finally does go live.
We’re excited to become a Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer partner and to give our U.S. members more opportunities to engage with Aeroplan… [T]he newly transformed Aeroplan program has something for everyone and truly is the program that enables you to travel more and travel better.
– Scott O’Leary, Vice President, Loyalty Planning and Development at Air Canada
The new Aeroplan program, launched nearly a year ago, “is a program being run by loyalty geeks, airline geeks, folks that are airline obsessed.” At least that’s how one executive described in when explaining the details to media. That is particularly reflected in the lack of routing rules and competitive award point rates for long-haul itineraries. With a far more flexible online booking engine than most other Chase transfer partners, the Aeroplan program might be the best value option for many of the crazier reward trips.
It might be hard to think about that today, given the closed borders and routes that have disappeared around the globe. But when the time comes along that those redemptions can happen again, this is one more way may points fiends will choose to make it so.
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