Business Platinum Card from American Express
130,000 MR points
New Aeroplan: The Winners & Losers
Share this Article
Business Platinum Card from American Express
- Earn 90,000 MR points upon spending $15,000 in the first three months
- Plus, earn 40,000 MR points upon making a purchase in months 14–17 as a cardholder
- And, earn 1.25x MR points on all purchases
- Also, receive a $200 annual travel credit
- Transfer MR points to Aeroplan and other frequent flyer programs for premium flights
- Unlimited airport lounge access for you and one guest at Priority Pass, Plaza Premium, Centurion, and other lounges
- Credits and rebates for business expenses throughout the year with Amex Offers
- Bonus MR points for referring family and friends
- Qualify for the card as a sole proprietor
- Annual fee: $799
23 Comments
Prince of Travel is the leading resource for using frequent flyer miles, credit card points, and loyalty programs to travel the world at a fraction of the price.
Join our Sunday newsletter below to get weekly updates delivered straight to your inbox.
Have a question? Just ask.
Platinum Membership
Our Platinum members get access to a Circle community, exclusive live learning sessions, and in-person gatherings with like-minded travellers.
Top Offers
Latest News
Prince of Travel Elites
I’m still rather confused with all this. So when I would fly Athens to Vancouver in Business it would cost me 57,000 points. Now it will cost me 85,000 points and from Vancouver back to Athens the same. What am I missing here? This is approximately 60,000 points more…no??
Hi Ricky I just found this site for the first time after a lengthy call with an Aeroplan manager – he actually directed me here for some reassurance that I wouldn’t lose out as much as I thought.
Pacifically, I have about 1 million points that I like to fly business class to Asia 2-3 times per year on points. Sounds like I won’t lose out as much as I had thought (Before I got to the manager the agent told me that way it used to cost 150,000 points to fly to Vancouver to Tokyo and back could go as high as 300,000 after November 8th).
I was so shocked by that I was ready to use up all my points to book flights as far out as they would allow, but now I feel like it’s OK to sit back and see how this unfolds. Please share your thoughts if you think I’m getting this wrong, and thanks again.
Glad to hear it! You are correct – flying to Tokyo will actually be a cheaper use of your points than before, especially if you can get ANA business class. Round-trips for 110,000 points will work out very nicely for you!
As a side note, I find it pretty funny that the Aeroplan managers are directing members here. Hello guys, please sort out the confusion around MPM when booking trips until November 8! 😉
It seems that SE IKK priority awards which we currently have are now gone – so that will be major loss. Yes, we might have the priority vouchers of 50% (but a very limited number) – but if most of the international J class seat I can access on AC – with the increased points requires (similar to Market fare pricing on awards now) is exponentionally more than the minimum – what good it this benefit compared to current IKK? Also how. often would anyone get access to international J class awards on partner airlines? – esp on long haul routes – that is rarely the case now with aeroplan members?
Ricky, with respect to the new program what will the EQM earning percentage be by class?… still 150% for business class?
Correct, SQM earning isn’t changing.
As a SE, this hurts! Especially mileage accumulation flying across the country (100% bonus gone). The multipliers hurt as well since flights are, in my opinion, at an all time low (YHZ – YYT return, 300$). Doesn’t help the SQD. And the limited flight rewards, only for the main traveller, will result in a higher cost to bring your SO. However, I’m hopeful that tweaks can be made with time and the SE community will provide ample feedback.
However, some good feedback for you Ricky! New site is great, and I appreciate all the homework you’ve done on this topic. I couldn’t imagine figuring this out myself 🙂
I would really like if they allowed families to designate a member to receive the Flight segments/miles flown the family. Many members of families often don’t fly anywhere near enough to earn any sort of rank in AC’s loyalty programs. Could simply be a toggle selected by each member, either to keep their own miles and segments or forward them to the selected member or family manager.
But there’s no good reason why someone who flies 4 people 3 times should receive less than a single person who flies solo 4 times. Clearly AC comes out ahead in the former scenario having sold 12 seats. Obviously there would need to be some rules to prevent/limit any abuse.
Interesting thought, Nicolas. Pooling members’ status-qualifying activity, not just redeemable points, would be a significant departure from anything we’ve seen in the loyalty space before. I’d agree that it wouldn’t work with the current “honour system” of Family Sharing and would need to be controlled much more strictly. Maybe submit it as feedback to get it on AC’s radar.
Aye, I haven’t seen anything quite like what I’m suggesting but I think the way they will handle families would work well enough with that idea. I did suggest it after reading another of your post suggesting to give feedback. Left in both in French and English just in case :P.
I may be among the minority of SE who are pleased, depending on the details. Depending on rules on booking multiple bounds on one reward, possible could have 3 return trips per reward at 50% J, each leg priced individually). Also the earning model (apparently still will have ability to select increase points, some estimate would be 11X for SE similar to United) this makes domestic flights significantly more valubale as they are oftern highly priced from a points earning stand point. Devil will be in the details.
Another winner: anyone doing a lot of intra regional flights in Europe, Asia, of the caribbean/US.
Europe’s minimum: 25000 —> 15,000 for under 1000 miles
Asia minimum: 40,000(!) —> 16,000 For under 1000 miles
Caribbean and US: 30,000 —> 12000/20000 on partner flights, for up to 500 and up to 1500 miles respectively.
Add the ability to do stopovers on one ways in Europe and Asia and there are interesting possibilities, assuming availability is decent.
Absolutely. We’ll delve into more of the new sweet spots, including Avios-style short-haul flights around the world, sometime next week.
Great analysis. The bottom line is that, like with any other change in rewards programs, we all need to adapt our strategies to continue to get the most value. Plus ça change.
Oh – and residents of St. John’s are called “Townies.”
Thanks Justin – I knew that somewhere in the back of my mind! Reminds me of the Sims.
On family pooling, are we limited to only redeeming for the members in the family pool are are we still able to book flights for anyone?
On earning points from paid flights. We travel premium economy on most of our long haul flights. So a ticket for $2,000 will net me 8k instead of 17k/21k, quite a difference. I assume we are still allowed to deposit the miles into other star alliance partners (i.e. Asiana)? This is disappointing. AC used to be on the top of my fly list, seems like OW has accelerated to take its place.
You’re still able to book flights for anyone; however, the points would be deducted from all family members’ accounts proportionally to their balances.
Yes, you’ll still be able to credit flights to partners of course. However, you’d need to associate your Aeroplan number with your ticket in order to make use of many of the new credit card benefits (first free checked bag, lounge access, priority services, Status Pass if you’re a recipient, etc.) It’s a tricky tradeoff.
Apparently there are ways to attach one frequent flyer number for the purpose of benefits and another frequent flyer number for the purpose of earning miles, but I’ve never figured this one out myself.
Thanks Ricky, as always, very helpful 🙂
Didn’t think about the tricky tradeoff, points aren’t everything (ha!). I guess AC will remain on my list, just more to consider now when booking flights 😉
Still excited about the new program.
Hmm. So as an Nova Scotian who loves to travel to Europe on a not-so-flexible schedule, I’m potentially the biggest loser out here ! If YHZ-LHR doesn’t return, looks like I can get ALL the way to (wait for it) Amsterdam or Brussels or Paris via YUL >4000mi. Via Toronto ? The Azores…
will there be select privileges upon status, if so do you know what they are?
Yes, Select Privileges will remain. There aren’t many planned changes to it; you can learn about the few changes that are planned here: https://princeoftravel.com/blog/new-aeroplan-elite-status/#privileges
Some privileges may change cosmetically as the new program rolls out, but I’d expect we’ll learn more about this closer to the 2021 status year.
Will we be able to redeem on CX flights finally?
CX flights will still be limited to the few routes between HKG and select destinations in Asia that they are currently.