Aeroplan Membership Growing Faster Than Available Reward Seats

Though I may have been slightly late with reading about this news, I think it’s a little obvious that the number of Aeroplan members are constantly growing, but not the number of reward seats. Aeroplan reported that they now have 5 million members.

The article talks about how members are unable to find any reward seats to the destinations that they are hoping for. Aeroplan responded by saying that they have grown exponentially and cannot get the space allocation.

To me, this is a simple case of supply and demand. Think about it this way. Aeroplan’s goal is to grow the number of members, and not grow the number of rewards available. If they can maintain the same number of rewards, but continually grow is membership base, then why would they need to increase the number of rewards?

This article just tells me that business is good with Aeroplan and they have no incentive or need to improve its business model. Maybe if business stagnates or they start losing members, then they will have some motivation to find ways to keep its customers happy. Until then, I doubt we will see many changes happening because business is good from their perspective.

Here are some suggestions:

If you are unhappy about Aeroplan’s business model, then speak up. Call their customer service line and voice your displeasure. Let them accumulate more complaints so that they will eventually have to do something.

Take your business elsewhere. For example, if you prefer flying with Star Alliance, then sign up for a membership with one of its other member alliances and whenever you fly with Air Canada, you can bank your points with that other member airline instead of Aeroplan.

Go with cash back. My primary credit card is the Capital One Aspire Travel World Elite MasterCard, which earns me 2 points for every $1 spent. Each point is worth 1 cent, if leverage to its potential, so you are essentially getting 2% cash back on all purchases. There are many options of other cash back credit cards with an annual fee or without an annual fee.

Personally, I’ve started shifting my focus to British Airways’ Executive Club. I am a fan of Oneworld alliance. So all the American Express Membership Reward points and Avion points that I earn are transferred to Executive Club to stock up on Avios points.