Going the Way of Yellowpages income Fund?In late 2015 I considered buying Aimia during the dip to 9.00. Instead I decided to test the reward plan first. So I ran up 80,000 points over the next few months. My conclusion is this plan is simply damaged.
Drilling down it seems the entire country has a hate on for it. It is nearly impossible to book a flight that is reasonable without massive hidden fees. Partner airline options to avoid these massive fees have shrunk significantly. Most choices on regular flights rewards often involve flight transit combinations of 20 or more hours for destinations that usually take 6 hours.
So I booked a flight. They screwed it up. I call to fix it immediately. Computers were down but would fix it. They didn't fix it. Calling 24 hours before flight to fix it again and am on hold for 83 MINUTES AND COUNTING. If you phone right now, Aeroplan has a French message telling callers their lines are overloaded and to go online. What? Really?
So IMO they have technical issues, massive customer service problems, shrinking options/product flexibility and a really, really bad reputation. Competitors like Air Miles seem to be locking in more commerical partners. If you GOOGLE "earn rewards programs" they don't even show up on the first page! Try it on google.ca. This is a quick measure of popularity I use when doing my DD.
I am a value investor so I look initally at my favorite metrics like Price to Cash flow, PE, book, etc hunting for mispriced stocks. This company reminds me of Yellowpages before it went bust. Great metrics, oversized dividend, etc. but the neighbourhood's recycling bins filled with their product.
To me Aimia offers more headache than solution. If you truly believe in the company and product then stay an investor. But look around at all the negativity on the web about this company's reward plan and you will know exactly why it is offering a high dividend (above the magical 8% "there may be something wrong with this company" trigger).
Ouch.