Air Canada has introduced new cancellation options retroactive to March 1, 2020, for flights until June 30, 2021.
There are two main new polices added.
No changes fees for bookings made up to June 30, 2020 for original travel dates retroactive to March 1, 2020 until June 30, 2021.
In cases where Air Canada cancels flights due to COVID-19, refundable tickets will continue to have the option of refunds.
Even though Air Canada is taking a beating in the news about layoffs, its frequent flyer program, Aeroplan, is offering some fairly competitive bonuses.
Shopping Portal eStore
First up, its shopping portal, eStore has been offering 5x to 7x promotions. This is in addition to the 5x miles per dollar that you can with any of its co-branded credit cards (American Express, CIBC, TD) until May 31, 2020.
I have been debating whether to write about this topic for a while now. At Pointshogger, we try to focus on positive topics rather than negative.
That being said, I think this is a very important topic to discuss, so I will try to be thorough. But more importantly, we would like to hear from our readers in the comment section below.
I recently provided an aggressive cash back churning strategy. Today’s post is almost a continuation of that post. Basically, if you want to have a strong cash back strategy, you will want to continually keep track of new and ongoing offers that you can take advantage of.
Note that this post focuses on temporary offers. Our Top Cash Back Credit Cards page continues to list current offers that are not exclusive to limited time offers like this post.
Air Canada (Aeroplan) continue to stay as active as possible while travel has, for the most part, been grounded. There are different ways to earn and redeem your miles.
The Buy Miles promotion has been extended until Friday, May 15 at 11:59 pm ET.
Keep in mind that we a frequently updated COVID-19 page.
With so much negativity surrounding the news, I would like to share some positive airline and hotel company YouTube videos. We posted a list a few weeks ago, so you can see the previous videos on that list. Today’s list are more recent videos since then.
Keep in mind that Aeroplan and Air Canada are still running their Travel at Home campaign, where you can fast track to Air Canada elite status.
For example, Aeroplan members who earn 50,000 miles, between April 20, 2020 and May 31, 2020, will receive an Air Canada Altitude Prestige 25K status valid through 2021.
Today we are updating the current status of all the major Canadian based airlines. I keep wondering if all of them will survive past this pandemic.
Each airline have taken their own approach on how to handle the pandemic. Several airlines have completely halted all flights. Some airlines have minimal flights.
Note that we have a COVID-19 Updates page that is continually updated.
Greyhound is a bus service that runs across Canada. They continued their service for as long as they could during the COVID-19 pandemic. But due to a reduction in service, they will be suspending their service, effective May 13, 2020, indefinitely (i.e. until passenger travel demand recovers).
So if you have any upcoming trips, be sure to make necessary alternative arrangements.
Aeroplan is offering a bonus promotion on its Buy/Gift Aeroplan Miles feature. Starting today (from May 7, 2020 until May 13, 2020) Aeroplan members will be able to buy miles and receive bonus miles on their purchase:
Receive 115% bonus for the first 10 million Aeroplan Miles sold
Receive 90% bonus for the next 100 million miles sold
Receive 65% bonus for all miles thereafter (until May 13, 2020)