Aeroplan’s Black Friday 2021 Offers: eStore Bonuses, Gift Cards, and More

With Black Friday on the horizon, Aeroplan is putting out a series of deals and promotions to coincide with the buying frenzy of the next few weeks. 

There are discounts on flights and other travel bookings, 5x bonus points on gift cards, and the usual Aeroplan eStore bonuses with an interesting twist. Let’s take a look across everything that’s on offer. 

Up to 10x Points on the Aeroplan eStore + 5x Points with an Aeroplan Credit Card

Until November 30, 2021, the Aeroplan eStore will be putting on elevated bonuses, with select retailers like Dyson and Lenovo going as high as 10x points. Meanwhile, Apple will be offering 5x points, but only from November 26 to November 29.

But here’s the interesting twist on this year’s Black Friday eStore promotions: from November 25 to November 29, you’ll also earn an extra 5 Aeroplan points per dollar spent on any purchase made through the eStore when you pay with an Aeroplan co-branded credit card!

And don’t forget, if you have Aeroplan Elite Status of any tier from 25K status upwards, you’ll also earn a further 2 bonus Aeroplan points on eStore purchases as an elite benefit.

This means you could in theory be earning up to 18.25x Aeroplan points on your eStore purchases between November 25–29:

  • Up to 10x points from shopping through the eStore
  • 5x bonus points by paying with an Aeroplan credit card
  • 2x bonus points as an Aeroplan Elite Status benefit
  • Up to 1.25x points as the base earning rate on an Aeroplan premium credit card

(If you had taken part in the American Express referral bonanza and you pay with your American Express Aeroplan Reserve Card, you’d earn a further +3x points, resulting in an earning rate of 21.25x!)

At our current valuation of 2.1 cents per point, 18.25–21.25x are equivalent to getting a 38–45% return, respectively, on your holiday shopping!

Suffice to say, that’s an unbelievable effective earning rate that gives you the perfect excuse to get a little overzealous with your spending. 😉

And if you’re making a late push for earning Aeroplan 25K status via Everyday Status Qualification, there’s no better way to boost your progress towards the 100,000-point mark than a stacked-up earning rate of up to 16.25x–19.25x. 

In addition to bonus Aeroplan points when making purchases, there are also Black Friday discounts when you redeem Aeroplan points for select home entertainment products on the eStore catalogue. However, still represents fairly poor value for your points compared to booking flights, so I wouldn’t place too much weight on it.

5x Points on Air Canada Gift Cards

As part of the 2021 Black Friday event, you’ll earn up to 5x Aeroplan points if you purchase an Air Canada gift card for upcoming travel:

  • You’ll earn 1x Aeroplan points if you purchase up to $750 worth of gift cards
  • You’ll earn 5x Aeroplan points if you purchase $751+ worth of gift cards

Of course, by paying with an Aeroplan co-branded credit card (possibly boosted by the Amex referral bonanza), you once again have the possibility of earning up to 6.25–9.25x Aeroplan points on these Air Canada gift card purchases.

For anyone planning to book upcoming paid travel with Air Canada, purchasing a gift card and then using it as your method of payment can help you earn additional Aeroplan points, keeping in mind the following:

  • Air Canada gift cards are processed and distributed by Buyatab Online Inc., so they don’t code as an airline or travel purchase on your credit card.
  • Using Air Canada gift cards to pay for your flight means that you won’t be able to benefit from any insurance protections that you would get if you had paid with an Aeroplan credit card instead.

Don’t forget, you can also use gift cards towards the taxes and fees when redeeming Aeroplan points too, simply by choosing the “Use Gift Card” option on the payment page. 

Discounts on Flights, Car Rentals, and More

In addition, we have a few miscellaneous discounts on Air Canada flights, vacation packages, hotels and car rentals, and other minor promotions that are similar to what we’ve seen in Black Fridays past:

  • Up to 20% off base fares on select Economy, Premium Economy, Business Class flights to all Air Canada destinations for travel through June 30, 2022
  • Up to 40% off Air Canada Vacations packages to Canada, USA, Europe, and Sun destinations
  • 30% off select hotel redemptions – although the redemption value is still rather weak
  • Avis and Budget car rental deals:
    • 500 bonus points when you redeem Aeroplan points for an Avis car rental that takes place by February 22, 2022
    • 250 bonus points when you redeem Aeroplan points for a Budget car rental that takes place by February 22, 2022
    • Up to 25% off Avis base rates and earn 2,500 Aeroplan points for your next paid Avis car rental of two days or more
    • Up to 30% off Budget base rates and earn 2,000 Aeroplan points for your next paid Budget car rental of two days or more
  • Link a new Starbucks Rewards account to your Aeroplan account and earn 1,000 Aeroplan points when you make a first purchase of $10+ before December 12, 2021
  • Make an LCBO purchase of $50+ before November 28, 2021 and earn double points (i.e., 2 Aeroplan points for every $4 spent)

Conclusion

The main attraction of Aeroplan’s Black Friday 2021 promotions is the additional 5x Aeroplan points on eStore purchases when using an Aeroplan co-branded credit card on November 25–29, which combines with the eStore’s organic promotions of up to 10x points to make for some powerful earning potential on your holiday shopping.

Beyond that, however, I do find this year’s Aeroplan Black Friday promotions to be a little muted. Other than the potential for 18.25x Aeroplan points on shopping, there isn’t all that much to get us overly excited during the busiest shopping period of the year. 

I’m surprised that Air Canada hasn’t decided to put a different spin on last year’s Black Friday event, in which you could earn further bonus points by taking advantage of many separate offers during the promotion period.

Then again, the shoddy implementation that we witnessed last year might have given them second thoughts, and I hope we’ll see the Black Friday bonus points rolling in much smoother this time around. 

25 Comments
  1. bob R

    I received amex reserve statement with black friday spend- no 5x points on any purchases under the promo. Hope they post on next billing cycle. Many estore purchases did not post yet (amazon) or have multiplier applied. This promo is starting to feel alot like the black friday promo last year. May be the last time I bother with this.

    1. Chris

      I finally received – not sure if it is because submitted a request or they just posted. they are all dated in november, so cant seen on the bad dashboard, but wen through with the agent and they are all there

  2. Lawrence Yu

    anyone see their 5X Aeroplan points when using Aeroplan Co-brand cards through Aeroplan estore points post yet?

    1. Ali

      3 months later and still nothing! Did you get yours?

  3. Chris W YCD

    I am so excited for this. I hit the 100K everyday spend bonus from the e-store this year for 25K, which means with the 10K promo I will hit 35K for 2022. I think an under appreciated perk of Elite status is the 2X bonus points on e-store. With my CIBC VIP at 1.25 + 2X status bonus + buying at even 1x points adds up rather quickly. Using e-store for gifts or business purchases for clients as an IT consultant netted me 180K points since May, not bad for a couple of extra clicks and some good timing.

  4. Ray

    Where I can find this promotion on Air Canada’s Website? “From November 25 to November 29, you’ll also earn an extra 5 Aeroplan points per dollar spent on any purchase made through the eStore when you pay with an Aeroplan co-branded credit card!”

    1. Gary H

      I can’t find it either. Ricky, could you provide the link?

      1. Josh M

        I second that. Where can I find details on that?

        1. Chris

          was also looking like crazy and now I found it:
          https://www.aircanada.com/en-ca/black-friday#retail
          Terms and Conditions at the bottom, article 1
          “Offer starts November 25, 2021 and ends November 29, 2021 (the “Offer Period”). During the Offer Period, the primary cardholder of an eligible Aeroplan Co-Branded Credit Card (the “Account”) will earn 5 additional Aeroplan points for every qualifying Aeroplan point earned on purchases charged to the Account and completed at http://www.aircanada.com/estore.”

  5. May

    Does anyone know how many gift cards we can redeem for 1 booking

    1. Ricky YVR

      Two maximum.

  6. Miguel

    I was excited for the apple promo but the exclusions suck. I was interested in the new m1 macbook pros 🙁

    Please note the following items are not eligible for the accumulation of Aeroplan points: AirPods (3rd generation), MacBook Pro M1 and M1 Max 14-inch and 16-inch, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPad (9th generation), all-new iPad mini, Apple Watch Series 7, Apple Pro Display XDR, gift cards, gift wrap, Apple Developer Programs, Employee Purchasing Programs and shipping.

    1. Shug

      Par for the course. If you can wait it out, give it ~6 months and most of these products shouldn’t be excluded. I don’t bother buying anything from Apple unless absolutely needed until there’s a 5x+ bonus. Hoping to stack promos in the summer when they hit 7-10x + back to school.

  7. Reda Shanghai

    We can basically buy 2000$ gift card (or any gifft card abode 750$) get 6.25points on every $ if we have no status yet, redeem it for a flight, cancel the flight with a 65% extra bonus on points before December 31 with the AirCanada flexible booking policy. Basicaly buying aeroplan at a cost 1.03 cent which is not bad at all if everything else hold true. I may use those strategy to help me reach 10k$ spend on my Aeroplan reserve and 100K from everyday purchase.

    1. Miguel

      I didn’t quite understand the math here for 1.03 cents per point

      2000$ gift card would give you 13,000 points(2000*6.5 black friday promo and credit card earn rate of 1.5).
      Plus the 65% conversion from the Flexible policy (assuming ontario taxes) would give 97120 points back approximately.
      2000/(97120 + 13000) = 1.849 cpp

      Am I doing the math correct?

    2. Vibhor

      Is the flexible booking policy still good? Are we getting 65% bonus points for cancellation?

  8. Cecil Liu YYZ

    I am wondering how do they track the purchase using co-branded credit card for 5X points…retailers would not share the credit card info with aeroplan right..

  9. Santhosh Chakkungal

    Does the transaction needs to be posted between 25th to 29th to earn 10x and 5X points. If ordered from Lenovo their delivery times are one month and the transaction is posted only on before the shipping date.

    1. Paulk YYZ

      I’ve done a lot of purchasing through e-store and the points corresponded to the program of the purchase date, not delivery date

      1. Santhosh Chakkungal

        Not sure with Dell and Lenovo..purchased laptop on Oct 28th. It shipped yesterday and got posted into account as of yesterday date. It was in pending status all through..

        1. Paulk YYZ

          I purchased an expensive alienware laptop (Dell) for one of my clients approximately eight weeks ago. The only item that shipped was the mouse. The expected date of delivery was Nov 30th for the laptop; the points posted about a month ago even though the laptop is still not delivered. The number of points earned corresponded to the expected amounts 5X multiplier + 2X elite multiplier. Very gratifying as it was purchased using an Amex Business Edge card with 3X MR points that can now convert 1:1 to AP.

          1. Santhosh Chakkungal

            That’s strange.which card did you use. I used Aeroplan Amex Reserve. Will call Amex anyway.

            1. Chris W YCD

              same with me – I purchased a few items from Dell and Lenovo during points multipliers, a 30″ Dell Ultrasharp Monitor that shipped 3 months after I ordered it – points were posted as per the date purchased, and included the multipliers – Dell does however take FOREVER to post points in my experience, especially compared to most other retailers

  10. moe

    Ricky, do you know if Microsoft will be offering similar earning to apple as they’re listed as a black friday promo but currently have a standard x1 earn rate?

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