You can convert points from the following partners:

CIBC Aventura^®World MasterCard™ Card, CIBC Aventura^® Gold Visa™, CIBC Aventura^® Visa Infinite™, CIBC Aventura^® MasterCard™ Card, American Express Membership Rewards – Canada, BankAmericard^® Power Rewards^® credit card, Diners Club^® Club Rewards^®, Starwood Preferred Guest^®, Hilton HHonors™, Marriott Rewards, Wyndham Rewards^®, Best Western Rewards, Choice Privileges^®, Coast Rewards, Club Carlson^SM, Le Club Accorhotels (Accor hotels), Golden Circle Award, Hertz Gold Plus Rewards, Points.com

Please note that while Membership Rewards^® points from U.S. American Express Cardmember accounts may be converted into Aeroplan Miles, their conversion is not eligible for the bonus promotion.

As you can see, the US Membership Rewards program is excluded from the transfer bonus.

Looking at the above bonuses, if you transfer 100,000 SPG points to Aeroplan you would get a total of 150,000 Aeroplan miles (SPG gives you a 5,000 point bonus for every 20,000 points you transfer, plus the further 25,000 mile bonus).

Anyway, given that Aeroplan miles aren’t nearly as valuable as they used to be I wouldn’t just make a speculative transfer unless you have a specific redemption in mind where the numbers work in your favor.

Still, it’s a promotion worth keeping in mind.

(Tip of the hat to Gary)

Last Friday Gary wrote about what appeared to be a glitch with the way Aeroplan was pricing award tickets, whereby first class awards were pricing at the business class cost, while business class awards were pricing at the coach cost. I didn’t write about it at the time because I figured it would be fixed within hours of it being posted, though as it turns out it wasn’t a glitch, but rather an unadvertised award sale.

It’s truly baffling to me that they would offer an unadvertised award sale. I’m not sure what they have to gain by doing that (you’d think they’d at least advertise it if they did, to create some goodwill after all the “taking” they’ve been doing lately), but then again I’ve been wondering if anyone is really awake at Aeroplan lately.

So while we don’t know how long the deal will last, there are some truly spectacular values to be had.

To start, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. First of all, Aeroplan is transfer partners with American Express Membership Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest. Points transfer instantly from Membership Rewards, while they can take about a week when transferring from Starwood Preferred Guest. Therefore I wouldn’t transfer from Statwood if you’re planning on taking advantage of this promotion, since I suspect it won’t be around by the time the points are in your account.

Second, it’s worth keeping in mind that Aeroplan is offering bonus points when transferring points from any of their partners, with the following bonuses:

The thing to understand is that the bonus points only post upon the completion of the promotion. That means you’ll need to transfer the full number of points required now, and then you’ll have extra points in your Aeroplan account in a few weeks that you can use for a future redemption.

Next, it’s worth keeping in mind that Aeroplan devalued their award chart back in July, so be familiar with their new pricing. Their Star Alliance award chart can be found here.

Next, keep in mind that Aeroplan has recently added fuel surcharges on just about all of their partner airlines, with the exception of Continental, United, and US Airways. That being said, fuel surcharges on Aegean, TAM,  TAP, and South African only kick in on December 14. So in the meantime that translates to some killer deals.

So while your strategy when redeeming miles should typically be to aim for a foreign carrier because they have better service, this is a case where it can be advantageous to fly a US carrier.

For example, for a Chicago to Tokyo award on United in business class, Aeroplan is presently charging only 75,000 miles:

Want to visit South Africa? If so, it’s only 100,000 miles on South African Airways in business class, and if you book by December 14, there are no fuel surcharges:

Want to go to Europe? Right now it’s only 60,000 miles roundtrip in business class:

Even better is that India only costs  100,000 miles in business class, while Australia only costs 80,000 miles in business class… if you can find the availability!

So if you’re in the position to book an award, you should definitely go for it. Just remember to stick to an airline on which Aeroplan doesn’t impose fuel surcharges, or your savings will be negated pretty quickly.

And keep in mind that the above bonuses don’t factor in the bonus points you can earn if transferring points from Membership Rewards.

Good luck!

Bonus miles are awarded in the following increments:

You can earn the bonus for each of their transfer partners, meaning you could earn 25,000 bonus miles from a Starwood transfer AND 25,000 bonus miles from a Membership Rewards transfer, for example.

The promotion is hardly surprising. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a transfer bonus from Membership Rewards to Aeroplan before, given that Aeroplan used to offer the all around best redemption values of any loyalty program, in my opinion. That was before they destroyed their award chart in July and started charging fuel surcharges on partner award redemptions just last week. I’m guessing these transfer bonuses will become the norm now.

But still, there are some decent values to be had here. Transferring 80,000 Starwood points will earn you 125,000 Aeroplan miles (you get a 5,000 mile bonus for every 20,000 miles you transfer, in addition to the above bonus), and transferring 100,000 Membership Rewards points will earn you 125,000 Aeroplan miles as well.

Through November 30 Aeroplan is only imposing fuel surcharges on Air Canada and Lufthansa flights, so if you can avoid those two airlines this might just be worth taking advantage of. Business class to Europe only costs 90,000 miles and Aeroplan allows two stopovers in addition to the destination.

So there’s no way in hell I’d make a transfer “just because,” but if you have a specific redemption in mind and the numbers work out, by all means go for it.

Realizing the backfire among members they initially only rolled out fuel surcharges for Lufthansa redemptions, though now they’ve announced more fuel surcharges that are on the way, as follows:

Fuel surcharges to flight rewards on the following Star Alliance airlines will be effective as of the dates noted below:

November 30th, 2011: Asiana Airlines, Thai Airways International, All Nippon Airways, Austrian Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, British Midland Airways

December 14th, 2011: Aegean Airlines, Japan Airlines, TAM Airlines, South African Airways, TAP Portugal airlines

These are in addition to fuel surcharges to flight rewards on Lufthansa that became effective on November 9th 2011 at 7pm.

Allow me to summarize. After next month you’ll be able to redeem your Aeroplan miles on US carriers, Swiss (which never releases award space in advance out of the US) and on Singapore Airlines (though Singapore hardly releases award space, so it’s more or less a moot point).

On the plus side they’ve given advance notice, which I can appreciate.

Gary, are you ready for round three?

#TeamSapphire for the win! All the more reason to get the Chase Sapphire Preferred card.

In case you’re not up to date with the (playful) bickering going on between Gary and I, here’s a two minute summary:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Yes, I’m the whiny kid.

If you usually redeem miles with US airlines you’re probably used to only paying reasonable taxes on award tickets, while if you’ve redeemed miles of a foreign loyalty program (British Airways, Lufthansa, ANA, etc.), you’ve probably noticed that a longhaul flight can cost you $500+ in fuel surcharges/taxes.

I never understood why Aeroplan imposed fuel surcharges on Air Canada but not on Star Alliance partners, but that has been their policies for years.

Well, with absolutely no advance notice, they’ve started imposing fuel surcharges for partner redemptions, including on ANA, Asiana, Lufthansa, and Thai. So far they’re not charging them on Singapore, Swiss, and United, though that may very well change too.

Just how much will an award ticket cost you now? As an example, a roundtrip New York to Frankfurt business class award ticket will now cost you an additional $560 in fuel surcharges. And that’s just a simple roundtrip ticket from the east coast of the US to Europe.

The sad thing is that up until this year, Aeroplan literally had the best mileage redemption opportunities out there. I had taken some amazing round-the-world trips thanks to them, like this one to Istanbul and Hong Kong and this one to Singapore and Seoul.

Then back in July they literally gutted their award chart, raising the cost of many of the most popular redemptions by over 50%. Then last month they started no longer allowing one to book into domestic first class when on an international business class award ticket. And now there’s this…

Aeroplan literally went from being the best loyalty program for award redemptions to one of the worst, and it’s all in a period of five months. I understand their old award chart with low redemption costs, generous routing rules, and no fuel surcharges was unsustainable, but to make three major changes in a single year (two of them without any advance notice) is truly classless.

It’s amazing how badly those with American Express Membership Rewards points have gotten screwed this year. First three massive Aeroplan devaluations. Then Continental was removed as a transfer partner as of September 30. And now in a week British Airways is massively devaluing their award chart for US based flyers.

What does this all translate to? There’s no way to redeem Membership Rewards points for travel on Star Alliance without paying fuel surcharges (Aeroplan and ANA both impose fuel surcharges). There’s no way to redeem miles at a reasonable rate for travel on OneWorld anymore (British Airways is devaluing their award chart). So that leaves transfers to Delta SkyPesos. Exactly what most people recommend not using your miles.

If American Express Membership Rewards wants to remain even a remotely decent loyalty program, they better get working fast, negotiating with Alaska, American, and/or US Airways.

I highly recommend tweeting Aeroplan to express your displeasure with the changes and also tweeting American Express to let them know how much less valuable this makes Membership Rewards points.

Day by day the value of the Chase Sapphire Preferred card increases, which is what I’m switching just about all of my spend to.

(Tip of the hat to Gary)

• Converting hotel points that equate to 5,000 or more Aeroplan miles earns you 1,000 bonus miles
• Converting hotel points that equate to 10,000 or more Aeroplan miles earns you 2,000 bonus miles
• Converting hotel points that equate to 25,000 or more Aeroplan miles earns you 5,000 bonus miles

Registration is required and the bonus can be earned a maximum of one time per hotel partner.

Now, Aeroplan miles aren’t quite as valuable as they once were due to their award chart devaluation that occurred on July 15, 2011.

There are still some great values, though. For example, business class from North America to most of Europe costs 90,000 miles, and they even allow two stopovers in addition to the destination, really allowing you to visit three places on a single award ticket.

In most cases hotel transfers to airline miles aren’t a good value, with the exception of Starwood points. If you transfer 20,000 Starwood points to Aeroplan you would usually receive 25,000 miles (they offer a 5,000 point bonus for every 20,000 points you transfer to an airline partner), and through this promotion you would earn an additional 5,000 miles. That makes a total of 30,000 Aeroplan miles for a 20,000 point transfer.

Not too bad at all, especially since I’m currently crediting my one night Hyatt stays to Aeroplan, thanks to the 2,500 Aeroplan miles per stay that they’re offering through September 30.

(Tip of the hat to Loyalty Traveler)

Keep in mind that Aeroplan’s call center closes at midnight eastern time, so leave plenty of time to ticket tomorrow.

Aeroplan, I’ll miss the 120,000 mile round-the-world adventures I had with you.

While Aeroplan’s award chart will soon be devalued somewhat, Aeroplan miles are still worth somewhere around two cents each, so you’re looking at about $50 worth of value in miles per stay.

Hyatt lets you earn either miles or points for any given stay, and you have to state your preference for miles at check-in by giving them your Aeroplan number if that’s your earning preference.

While you miss out on base points by choosing miles, you’re still eligible for the Diamond welcome amenity bonus, and if applicable, the 2,500 point Diamond bonus if a club lounge is closed on a weekend. While it’s not relevant at the moment since Hyatt isn’t running any “Gx” bonuses, you can’t earn those when you choose miles as your earning preference.

Anyway, in the absence of any other promotion or “Gx” bonuses, this is a great option for Hyatt stays over the next few months now that their second quarter promotion is over.

Via Milepoint:

No stay required. Member must enroll with Enrollment Code PASHN or update profile with Promotion Code PASSION and opt-in for communications by June 30, 2011.

The 500 bonus miles will only be rewarded if you opt-in to receive communications from Fairmont President’s Club.

You have to enter your Aeroplan number on the “Airline Partner Programs” tab on the enrollment page, which is kind of hidden (you have to expand it). If you’re already a member, simply go to your profile and update your “Airline Partner Programs” with your Aeroplan information.