Aeroplan Miles: Use Them Or Lose Them
Aeroplan miles don’t accumulate forever. After seven years, they take them back.
WASTE NOT | I used to use my Aeroplan miles all the time. Then my son graduated from university so I no longer had to fly him and us between here and Montreal, my husband stopped taking business trips that I would accompany him on, and there was no longer any urgency to travel.
My credit card is linked to Aeroplan, so I let the points build up—until a few weeks ago when my sister received a letter from Aeroplan reminding her that miles expire seven years after the date of accumulation. They gave her plenty of notice—she has until the end of 2013 to use the miles she earned in 2006—but it prompted me to look into using my miles.
More Than One Way To Go
My husband and I had been planning a road trip to Palm Springs, and when I logged onto the Aeroplan website, I realized we didn’t have to fly: we could use Aeroplan miles to rent a car rather than put actual mileage on our own. Renting a car from Avis for a week would start at 34,000 miles. We could also use Aeroplan miles for a hotel room. In Palm Springs, that means staying at a Best Western, but Aeroplan offers a choice of locations including downtown, which in November starts at 72,000 miles for a week.
Actually, there are heaps of ways to use your miles that are a lot easier than trying to get the flight you want. Covet a Michael Kors Hamilton Messenger Bag? Yours for 34,000 miles. An Apple Mac Mini? That’s 83,000 miles.
To find out how long you have to use your miles, sign in to aeroplan.com and click on the “Request mileage status” link found on the overview page in the “Your Account” section. Aeroplan will send you an email showing how many miles you must use by what date.
Note also that you can lose all the miles in your account if there are no Aeroplan transactions in a 12-month period. You can keep your account active by simply using a credit card linked to Aeroplan or use your Aeroplan card when buying gas. —Felicity Stone
my husband lost his 250,000 miles when he changed jobs & didn’t fly like he used to. Needless to say this was pretty upsetting. At that time, they did not warn you that you were about to lose them, so there have been some pretty bad feelings. Before we lost them, we did find a way to use them as a family of 4 all flying on the same plane, which had been a problem with them previously. We went to “Air Canada Vacations” on the aeroplan site and booked an all inclusive in the Dominican Republic. There were an amazing amount of choices even with short notice. Lots of hotels available, except 5* and 1*. We ended up at a 4* and had a great trip.
Wow! What a story. So glad you were able to find a way to salvage your miles. —eds
111010 461330Merely a smiling visitor here to share the adore (:, btw outstanding design . “Audacity, much more audacity and always audacity.” by Georges Jacques Danton. 675331