Aeroplan has recently announced some changes to its loyalty program. The loyalty plan members need to make note of two points that negatively affect them:

  1. At least one transaction in the last 12 months to avoid expiry of all miles in the account.
  2. Miles accumulated on or after January 1, 2007 will expire in seven years.

Aeroplan also graciously reinstates expired miles for an administrative fee of just $30 plus 1¢ per restored mile. Of course, you almost never want to reinstate expired points because each mile has an economic value of about 0.83¢.

We don’t have many miles in our accounts (we fly very infrequently and we used to collect AirMiles but almost always use a cash-back credit card now), so I don’t feel the same outrage that some members who have been patiently collecting points for many years feel at this change. It is also fairly simple to get around the first restriction: you can just fill up your tank at an Esso gas station every once in a while. To get around the second restriction, I think I will just request some FutureShop gift certificates sometime before my current miles expire in 2013.