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Well, that escalated quickly. Last week, we got the news that Air Canada was experiencing potential-breakup regret with its long-term mileage program Aeroplan. Air Canada gathered a few friends and offered to buy Aeroplan from its current parent company Aimia for C$250 million (US$191 million) in cash, plus assuming unredeemed Aeroplan point liabilities which Air Canada says are worth C$2 billion (US$1.54 billion.) The airline won’t provide details on the number of outstanding points or the point valuation used to get to this number.
During the 10-day offer period, it seems Aeroplan may have found a few potential alternative partners. So, the Air Canada consortium upped its offer to C$325 million in cash (US$250 million.)
With hours ticking down to Thursday night’s deadline, reports emerged about Aeroplan partnering up with the Oneworld Alliance — which includes airlines such as American Airlines, British Airways and Japan Airlines. With this report out, Aeroplan’s parent company Aimia went public with its counter-offer: C$450 million (US$347 million) in cash. It seems that was a little too high for Air Canada, so the August 2 decision deadline passed and the consortium’s C$325 million offer expired.
Hours later, the saga took another twist as Aeroplan announced a new partnership with regional Canadian airline Porter Airlines. This agreement would go into place in July 2020, just as the Air Canada – Aeroplan divorce finalizes. The airline’s existing “VIPorter loyalty program will be converted into Aeroplan Miles” when the agreement becomes effective, but VIPorter would continue to exist as an elite-benefit loyalty program.
Despite this partnership, Aimia is still open to negotiations with Air Canada. In a conference call Friday, Aimia’s new CEO Jeremy Rabe confirmed the company is open to further discussions with Air Canada:
What’s next in the Air Canada-Aeroplan drama? Will Air Canada get the prize? The last two weeks have been full of twists and turns, and there seems to be no end in sight. So, grab a bag of popcorn and let’s see how this drama turns out.
Meanwhile, our advice remains: continue to use your Aeroplan miles where it makes sense to do so. The future is still very uncertain for the program — with the potential for a revenue-based program coming — so this certainly isn’t a time to hoard your Aeroplan miles.
Source: thepointsguy.com