AA/US Merger, Aeroplan Transfer Bonus, Hyatt Cashback – Miles/Points Buzz for November 12

I’ve been a bit busy lately, so if you have too, here is a quick recap of all the important news that has happened over the past few days:

Shameless Plug:

I am running for FT Talkboard! If you have an FT account, please vote for me (yerffej201) here! I am at the very bottom of the list so scroll down. I really do appreciate your support!

TopCashBack is offering 3% on Hyatt Stays.

If you don’t already have an account feel free to signup through my link or feel free to post your own.

You can stack another 10% savings on this if you have a Milepoint Premium membership and buy Hyatt Gift Cards ((limit of $5,000 in gift certificates, can be used at Hyatts in the US, Canada, and the Caribbean)

US Airways, American Airlines, and the US DOJ seems to have settled their lawsuit.

US + AA would sell slots at DCA and LGA and assets in five other airports. Here is a New York Times article on the deal.

NYT Article

NYT Article

I don’t have elite status with either, so the new airline and any changes they would make to the elite program and or flights on their metal wouldn’t be that much of an issue. What concerns me, is their combined mileage program, which sad to say I believe won’t be very lucrative at all.

We’ll see.

Aeroplan Conversion Promo up to 25%

Aeroplan is having it’s annual transfer bonus again where converted points from credit card, hotel, and car rental programs will receive a bonus of up to 25%.

Aeroplan Conversion

Aeroplan Conversion

The bonus is calculated cumulatively, so the bonus would be based on the total of all your programs converted to Aeroplan. You must reach each of the tiers to get the bonus, so converting 49,999 miles would be a bad choice.

I personally think this promo sucks as usual. I do like Aeroplan, but not enough so that I’d convert points such as spg, Marriott, Best Western, or Wyndham when they have other very good transfer partners such as USDM, Alaska, American, and United (if you burn before Feb 1) which are probably a better value even if there isn’t a promo. Note that CIBC Aventura and AMEX Membership Rewards (both Canada and USA) are excluded, so keep that in mind.

Aeroplan does have fuel surcharges on several airlines which I talk about here.

Finally, one of my Canadian readers asked me about the American Express AeroplanPlus Gold Card as he wanted to churn it. I think I’ve mentioned this, but if people don’t know about this (as my reader didn’t) the refer-a-friend offer gives a 30,000 point signup bonus, which is 10,000 higher than the public offer. It requires $500 of spend in 3 months which is very doable.

The first year fee is waived which is excellent. So definitely this 30,000 signup offer is one of the highest right now of all the Canadian credit cards with no annual fee. I do receive a referral for this, and if you want to include your links below feel free to comment.

Did I miss anything? Let me know!

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Comments

  1. Devaluation is coming to AA after the merger. I am wondering what they’d do if I needed to make changes to my US booking after the merger, especially the 90K US-Asia awards.

    • Good question! Just try and lock in awards ASAP! I’m guessing that changes would mean routing on OW metal once US leaves star, but I could be wrong.

  2. I recently referred a FT friend to the AeroplanPlus Gold and it was a definite win-win. I got my 10K referral bonus lickety-split, too!

    I voted for you on FT, Jeff! I’ve really enjoyed your posts and your blog this year – my favorite of the bunch! Keep it up! 🙂

  3. Hey Jeff, my Aeroplan Gold just got approved! Thanks for the referral and the 30K, will be using it for my YYZ-TPE-MFM BR flight in January.

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