Earn 80,000 Aeroplan Miles (Almost) Pain-Free

I prefer using one rewards credit card for all of my purchases so that I can maximize all the benefits of the program. But sometimes credit card offers come along that are too good to pass up. Here’s how I managed to earn 80,000 Aeroplan miles without much effort or spending.

TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite

First up in May I applied for the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite card. The promotion at the time was a 15,000 Aeroplan miles welcome bonus on first purchase. TD waived the $120 annual fee by offering a fee rebate after two months of card activation. Then I received an additional 10,000 Aeroplan miles after 90 days of opening the card.

*The card also includes an extra 5,000 Aeroplan miles if you add an authorized user to your account – but these cards cost $50/year so I considered that a wash and passed.

TD has extended this offer until December 2nd.

Since there is no spending requirement this is an easy and pain-free way to earn 25,000 Aeroplan miles.

American Express Gold Rewards Card

Next up is the American Express Gold Rewards Card – which happens to be one of the top rewards credit cards in Canada.

I applied for this card in mid-May and with the promotion received 25,000 Membership Rewards points after charging $500 to the card within the first 3 months.

The nice thing about Membership Rewards is the flexibility to transfer them one-to-one to Aeroplan, which I did as soon as the points appeared in my account.

The $150 annual fee is waived in the first year.

Bonus: Juice your rewards even more by applying for this card through Great Canadian Rebates – you’ll get an additional $50 cash back rebate.

American Express has extended this promotion, however to earn 25,000 Membership Rewards points now you’ll have to spend $1,500 in the first 3 months.

American Express Business Gold Rewards Card

As a small business owner I was eligible to apply for the American Express Business Gold Rewards Card, and so I did at the end of July.

The steep $250 annual fee is waived in the first year and you can earn 30,000 Membership Rewards points by spending $5,000 in the first 3 months.

At first glance the spending requirements seem high, but broken down it’s a reasonable $1,666.67 per month. Good timing since I had a couple of large one-time expenses to pay, including a $1,400 home insurance bill.

Another Bonus: Once again, if you apply for this card via Great Canadian Rebates you’ll get an additional $65 cash back rebate.

Final thoughts

I love taking advantage of credit card offers when I can get $200 or more in value without having to pay an annual fee. If the card is good and the program valuable then the card may be worth keeping another year despite the annual fee. If it’s not, then simply cancel the card before the annual fee comes due.

In this case I had to spend $5,500 in three months on purchases I would have made anyway. For my trouble I earned 80,000 Aeroplan miles for free, plus an extra $115 in cash back from Great Canadian Rebates.

All of this could amount to over $1,000 in value, depending what I do with the Aeroplan miles. Here’s how travel experts recommend spending 50,000+ Aeroplan miles. I think I’ll follow their lead.