The main appeal of Aeroplan points is their value that’s so much higher than other reward currencies, but some Aeroplan credit cards also offer interesting travel benefits with Air Canada. The American Express Aeroplan Card is the only card that offers the popular free checked bag benefit AND has no minimum income requirement, so let’s look at it more closely.
For years, we’ve had our ranking of the best credit cards in Canada with many sub-categories, but we’ve recently shared a new, more detailed page with the best Aeroplan credit cards in Canada.
So here’s our review of the American Express Aeroplan Card, as it’s one of the very best for many travelers.
Overview of the American Express Aeroplan Card
Here’s our usual summary table with all the key information.
Getting 54,000 Aeroplan points so easily is truly a great deal!
You’ll get:
- 30,000 points (welcome bonus after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months)
- 20,000 points (renewal bonus after spending $1,000 in the first month after renewal)
- 4,000 points (minimum earn on the $4,000 minimum spend requirement)
Based on our Flytrippers Valuation, that’s worth ≈ $810, but it can be worth $1000+ easily if you want — Aeroplan points are rewards of the more lucrative type, with a value that is literally unlimited!
You get those 54,000 points for just a $120 fee (twice due to the renewal bonus), giving you a great valuation of ≈ $570 for the American Express Aeroplan Card’s welcome bonus.
That’s an amazing ≈ 14.3% return on $4,000 in spending! A lot better than the pathetic 1-2% earn rate you might have thought was good before you knew the most important thing about travel rewards: welcome bonuses are the key!
Apart from that great welcome bonus, the American Express Aeroplan Card has a few very interesting benefits for Air Canada flights:
- Free first checked bag for you and up to 8 other travel companions
- Preferred pricing (discounts) on Aeroplan point redemptions
If you prefer getting those benefits and additional luxury benefits like unlimited access to Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounges, priority boarding, priority check-in, perks for elite members, and more (including an even bigger welcome bonus), check out our review of the best premium-level Aeroplan card, the American Express Aeroplan Reserve Card.
While other Aeroplan credit cards of the same level like the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card have this same free checked bag benefit, the American Express Aeroplan Card is the only one with no minimum income requirement (Amex Bank is the only one that never discriminates based on income; all their cards are available to all incomes).
It’s also the only Aeroplan card of this level with Amex benefits (like Amex Offers, Amex Experiences, and The Hotel Collection), but to be fair, you can (and should) easily get those by having another (or many others) of the best American Express credit cards in Canada.
Now, I’ll share more details about the highlights below, but as always, you also have 10+ tabs with all the information you could want about the card on our Flytrippers resource page for the American Express Aeroplan Card.
Welcome bonus structure
The American Express Aeroplan Card has a great welcome bonus.
While it’s true that there are cards with higher welcome bonuses right now, most of them are for points of the more simple type that can’t give you outsized value and don’t have the Air Canada free checked bag benefit.
And other cards with points of the more lucrative type currently require a lot more spending to get the same amount of points (especially for Aeroplan points specifically) or have a much higher fee (premium cards).
You’ll get 33,000 points after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months (30,000 bonus + 3,000 at base earn rate of 1 pt/$). Then, after renewing your card in 1 year, you’ll get 21,000 points after spending $1,000 in the first month (20,000 bonus + 1,000 at base earn rate of 1 pt/$).
Aeroplan points
We’re finalizing our updated and very complete guide about the Aeroplan program, but in the meantime, you can read the basics in our post about the 40+ Aeroplan partner airlines.
Aeroplan points are the most valuable because a flight’s price in points is NOT tied to the cash price, giving you unlimited potential value — at least on partner airlines. That means there’s obviously a limited amount of available seats since the price is limited and fixed by the price charts.
You can also use the points for any seat on any Air Canada flight, but then the value is often lower since it’s much simpler obviously. For everything in life, you either get more simplicity or more value.
Here is the value of the 54,000 points you’ll have by unlocking the American Express Aeroplan Card’s welcome bonus:
- ≈ $1134 to UNLIMITED: Specific flights in premium cabins (partners and Air Canada)
- ≈ $810 to ≈ $1134: Specific flights in economy class (partners and Air Canada)
- ≈ $594: Any flight on Air Canada
- ≈ $540: Taxes on reward flights
- ≈ $540: Seat upgrades
- ≈ $540: In-flight Wi-Fi
- ≈ $540: Vacation packages
- ≈ $540: Hotels
- ≈ $351: Rental cars and activities
- ≈ $351: Merchandise and gift cards
You can see concrete examples of 18 good redemptions of Aeroplan points if you want some inspiration and our 2 extreme examples that give you $4000+ in value if you want to maximize.
Free first checked bag benefit
This benefit alone can save you a lot of money if you usually bring checked bags on Air Canada!
It’s very simple: you and up to 8 other travel companions on the same booking get the first checked bag free of charge on all flights where you check in with Air Canada.
No matter when you booked the flight (even if it was before having the American Express Aeroplan Card) and no matter how you paid for the flight (even if it was in points or in cash without using the American Express Aeroplan Card).
It’s a benefit offered to you as a cardholder; it’s really not more complicated than that.
It’s an Air Canada benefit, though, so you won’t get a free checked bag if your itinerary starts with a partner airline and you check in with the partner airline. If you check in with Air Canada, you’ll get the Air Canada free bag benefit.
We’ve shared a teaser about this free checked bag benefit and we’ll have a detailed guide very soon.
Preferred pricing
You’ll get slightly discounted prices for flights booked with Aeroplan points on Air Canada only. As I just mentioned, the price of flights on partner airlines is fixed and guaranteed by the price charts, so that’s already a better deal most of the time.
But prices on Air Canada are dynamic and generally tied to the cash price, and by having the American Express Aeroplan Card you’ll get a discount of a few hundred to a few thousand points on many flights.
It varies, so it’s hard to quantify this benefit’s value, but it’s for sure better than not getting a discount at all by not having the card.
Questions about the American Express Aeroplan Card
Please first check our card resource page, which has 10+ tabs with the answers to 99% of the many questions we receive about cards.
If your question is not answered there, it’ll be my pleasure to answer it; just fill out the question form at the bottom of that page!
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Summary
The American Express Aeroplan Card is one of the best Aeroplan credit cards for many travelers. It is the only card to offer the free checked bag benefit that has no minimum income requirement. Thanks to the welcome bonus, you can earn 54,000 points of the more lucrative type for just $4,000 in spending. That’s an excellent return of ≈ 14.3%, much higher than the sad 1-2% that many get!
What would you like to know about the American Express Aeroplan Card? Tell us in the comments below.
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Valuation ≈ $420