RE:RE:New Aeroplan "Prime" Membership Category? For credit card consumers, there are various factors in choosing a credit card.
Switching to an Aeroplan financial partner credit card may not be convenient for many Aeroplan members.
Furthermore, the annual fee for an Aeroplan partner credit card would be significantly more ($39 to $399) than the proposed Aeroplan "Prime" annual membership fee ($19 to $29).
Of course, an Aeroplan partner credit card has many benefits, including the ability to earn bonus points, various travel insurance coverages etc.
However, the Aeroplan "Prime" membership category would be a cost effective alternative for those members who do not have a dedicated Aeroplan partner card, and would like to protect their accounts from being "de-activated".
Most importantly, why would Aimia/Aeroplan "Ignore" an opportunity to generate approx. $60 million/yr in potential membership fees??
For your reference, below are some examples of the annual fees for Aeroplan partner credit cards.
Annual fees for various Aeroplan credit cards
TD Aeroplan:
$89 - Visa Platinum
$120 - Visa Infinite:
$149 - Visa Business
$399 - Visa Infinite Priviledge
CIBC Aeroplan:
$39 - Visa Platinum
$120 - Visa Infinite
$180 - Visa Business
$399 - Visa Infinite Priviledge
American Express:
$60 - Basic
$120 - Gold
$499 - Platinum
$899 - Reserve
flamingogold wrote: If you want so-called "prime" benefits at almost the same cost as Amazon Prime you can apply for a dedicated Aeroplan credit card. You will collect points at 2x-3x the rate of a regular member plus get additional perks when reaching Silver, Black or Diamond status. I know because that's how I collected hundreds of thousands of points for years allowing me to travel to many parts of the world. Best of all for your sake your points will never expire because you are using the card to pay for your annual fee.
You should stop now.
justbull4u wrote: Here's a suggestion for Aeroplan to address the issue of "deactivating" Aeroplan members' accounts for inactivity.
A premium Aeroplan membership category....perhaps called Aeroplan "Prime".
A modest annual membership fee would apply for this Aeroplan "Prime" status.
The appeal to an Aeroplan member to pay a modest annual membership fee, say $29 (or $19 when bundled with Amazon Prime), would be that the points would not expire.
Other perks could be offered as well to the Aeroplan "Prime" members.
The Aeroplan "Prime" annual membership fee would be optional.
Aeroplan "Basic" members could continue with their exisiting membership status, but risk having their accounts "de-activated" due to inactivity.
Even if only 50% of the 5 million Aeroplan members opt for the "Prime" status, it could generate approx. $62 million per year in Aeroplan Prime subscription revenue.