Speculating - Thought on Aeroplan taking market sharesince we are speculating anyone feel Areoplan is looking at is to increase their market share by building a plateform online with little barriers to join the program.
Any SMB could join and have their client accumulate and spend their points within this new Aeroplan "coalition". Go to a restaurant, accumulate some point that you can quickly redeem somewhere else for a discount and/or free product. It would be like converting their points into a currency of some sort. Obviously Aeroplan would sell the point to the issuer for more than they would reimbourse the redeeming company which is part of how this business plan would work. It would take away the pressure related to larger companies starting/promoting their own programs.
It would also apeal to the younger generations are the rewards can be immidiate, could be app based, can signup live and could put in place a referal program.