This seems to be a sudden announcement that Air Canada is breaking away from their partnership with Aeroplan. Not many are aware that these are two separate entities and Aeroplan has been owned and operated by Aimia since 2002.
It appears that Air Canada intend to launch an in-house Frequent Flyer program. How this will be rolled out will be interesting to see. Currently one can redeem Aeroplan on Star Alliance partners and the taxes and surcharges on some of these partners for e.g. Turkish Airline is pretty low while the taxes on Air Canada flights is pretty high. I would imagine Air Canada will have to offer generous sign up bonuses to join their new program, or offer introductory bonuses on new bookings, or offer large sign up bonuses on co-branded credit cards. Another perk they could throw in would be services at the Canadian airports i.e. priority check-in, 1st checked bag free, free seat selection, free access to Maple Leaf lounge etc.
However, the change is not immediate. There will be no change through June 2020 – to both collecting and redeeming. So, knowing that, we can all rest easy and decide how we want to burn those Aeroplan miles. What will be interesting to know is what happens if a redemption is cancelled just before the end of this partnership. Do I really want to be stuck having to redeem with Air Canada only? I might think twice now though before transferring Amex MR to Aeroplan.
One thing I am upset about is that Air Canada/Aeroplan simply posted this news on the Aeroplan website. There was no email or notification send to Aeroplan members – even those with status with Aeroplan – Silver/Black/Diamond. You can read all about it in detail here.