Top 5 Ways to Keep your Aeroplan Account Active without Flying

With all the negativity surrounding Air Miles, Aeroplan has actually become much more valuable to me. So today, I will write a post about the 5 easiest ways to keep your account active without flying. For the options that I will list, I will focus on the least hassle and most cost effective way of keeping your account active.

I did not put credit cards as an option, because they currently do not have any co-branded credit card that has no annual fee. Only first year fee waived promotions. It would take a no annual fee version to make the list.

Expiry Policy

You need to have some sort of activity once every 12 months to prevent your miles from expiring. If you keep up the activity, you miles remain in your account indefinitely. With that being said, below is a list of the top 5 activities to help keep your account active.

1) AskingCanadians

Without a doubt, this is the least hassle way to keep your account active. You can do this from anywhere without spending a penny. Worse case scenario, you get kicked out of a survey and you are credited with 5 miles, allowing your Aeroplan account to stay active for another 12 months.

2) Esso Gas Station

If you have a car, just present your Aeroplan card when you fill up gas. You have the following options to earn:

• Earn 3 points for every $3 spent on Esso Supreme Grade gasoline;
• Earn 2 points for every $2 spent on Esso Extra Grade gasoline; or
• Earn 1 point for every $3 spent on purchases of Esso Regular Grade gasoline or car washes

If you do not have a car, you can always walk into the convenience store and earn 1 point for every $3 spent on store items.

3) Home Hardware / Uniprix

Aeroplan has many other retailers to choose from, but I believe that these two are ones that you have a higher chance of going to at least once a year to make a minimal purchase of something that is useful around the house. Both are quick and easy ways to keep your account active.

• Earn 1 Aeroplan Mile for every $1 spent at Uniprix
• Earn 1 Aeroplan Mile for every $2 spent at Home Hardward

4) Toyota or Volvo

Driving a Toyota myself, this has become one of my favourite ways to earn Aeroplan miles. It also takes the sting out of the maintenance bill. This one is easy to remember because you will do some maintenane on your car at least once per year.

But if you do not own a Toyota or a Volvo, at the very least, you can still go for a test drive to earn miles!

With Volvo, you can:

• Earn 250 miles for a test drive of any new vehicle
• Earn 1 mile per $1 spent on after-sales service
• Earn 1 miles per $1 spent on parts and accessories

With Toyota, you can:

• Earn 5,000 miles on a new new vehicle purchase/lease
• Earn 250 bonus miles per qualifying test drive
• Earn 1 mile for every $2 spent on qualifying service at Toyota dealerships

5) Online Shopping

This option would make more sense for people who already do online shopping. Get familiar with the term Shopping Portal. The next time you need to buy something online anyway, be sure to check out the Aeroplan eStore. This is one of my favourite ways to also rack up bonus miles. Furthermore, you do not need to have an Aeroplan co-branded credit card to take advantage of this option. You can use any credit card to make it happen. The only extra step that you have to take is go through the eStore portal before reaching your desired retailer.

Conclusion

So there you have it! My top 5 easiest ways to keep your Aeroplan account active. Do you agree with the list? Do you have any alternative suggestions instead? Please share in the comment section below!