Air Canada Aeroplan offers a birthday bonus offer that arrives on every frequent flier program members birthday. We have seen this offer arrive for the past several years, although the content of the offer can change somewhat, dependent on the local travel conditions and partnerships that exist with Air Canada at the time of the offer. As. an easy way to gain some savings or Aeroplan points, I thought that I would go over the usual options and considerations when redeeming the Aeroplan Birthday Bonus offer.

Air Canada Aeroplan Birthday Bonus Explained

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For the last several years Air Canada’s Aeroplan has offered a birthday bonus to it’s Aeroplan frequent flier program members. The best part about this promotion, is that it’s not targeted towards elite members, and anyone can benefit provided they have subscribed to Air Canadas’ marketing emails and communications.

The Offer:

On an Aeroplan members birthday, you’ll receive an offer in your email account entitled “Happy Birthday, from Aeroplan”.

The offer sets out five choices of offers. The offers have to be redeemed before 30 days after your birthday.

I have an embarrassingly low Aeroplan mileage balance, thanks to my most recent redemption.

The promotional email sets out all the options of the offer, along with a button to directly access and select the offer.

The offers include:

25% off Base Fares and a Preferred Seat

Earn 5X on an Uber Birthday Ride

Up to 10% off Vacation Packages

Earn 500 Aeroplan Points via the Aeroplan E Store

Earn 100 Bonus Aeroplan Points

Overall, this is a pretty good selection of things to chose from, simply for being an Aeroplan member.

The Terms and Conditions:

For those into the fine print, the promotion offers the following for the fine print terms and conditions:

This Aeroplan Birthday Perk Promotion (the “Offer”) is sponsored by Aeroplan^®. The Offer will allow an Aeroplan Member to select a birthday perk on the Member’s birthday. 

During the Offer Period, Aeroplan will be reaching out by email to Aeroplan Members who are celebrating a birthday during each day of the Offer Period (each a “Selected Aeroplan Member”) and will give the Selected Aeroplan Member the option to choose between one (1) of five (5) perks (a “Birthday Perk”). Birthday Perks are non‑transferable, only the Selected Aeroplan Member to whom such email will have been sent will be eligible to benefit from a Birthday Perk. 

To claim and receive the Birthday Perk, Selected Aeroplan Members must follow the instructions outlined in the email they will have received from Aeroplan and click the “Select” button under the perk of their choosing before [30 days after their birthday]. Selected Aeroplan Members who have made a selection as outlined above will receive a confirmation email in the 72 hours following their selection. 

Selected Aeroplan Members may only choose and receive one Birthday Perk out of the five (5) Birthday Perks offered in the email. Available Birthday Perk options may vary. In the case where a Selected Aeroplan Member would click on multiple “Select” buttons in the email, Selected Aeroplan Member will be awarded with the perk associated with their first click. Once the Selected Aeroplan Member has clicked “Select”, the Selected Aeroplan Member will not be able to modify its first selection. 

¹ Valid on new bookings made by [30 days after their brithday] at 23:59 EST with a departure city located in Canada. Valid on any flight operated by Air Canada^® (including Air Canada Express^®and operated by Air Canada Rouge^®) originating in Canada to destinations within Canada, to the United States (including Hawaii), to Mexico and to the Caribbean, and for travel completed by February 12, 2024. Codeshare and interline flights are excluded. Blackout dates apply to this Offer: March 1, 2023 until March 31, 2023. 

Voucher code for this Birthday Perk will provide a one‑time discount of 25% off all Economy class undiscounted Air Canada published base fares only, which form part of the applicable air transportation charges, when booking on aircanada.com. Discounts will not be applied to: surcharges (which are included in the air transportation charges), taxes, fees and charges. On rare occasions, the additional discount may not be applicable on select markets as the fares are already heavily discounted on the Web. Surcharges, taxes, fees and charges apply in full to all bookings and must be paid by travelers, including children and infants occupying a seat. Maximum of five passengers per booking. One stopover en route to your final destination or one open jaw is permitted. 

Voucher code will also provide a Preferred Seat to all passengers on the booking, up to 5 passengers. As inventory is limited, Preferred Seats may not be available at time of booking. 

All flights are subject to Air Canada’s General Conditions of Carriage and Tariffs and can be found on aircanada.com. 

Due to travel restrictions, government recommendations and passenger demand resulting from the impact of COVID 19, eligible scheduled flights available for booking during the Offer Period may vary and are subject to change at any time without notice. 

²5X Multiplier Offer: Earn 4 bonus Aeroplan points for every $1 CAD (based on spend before promotions and discounts, excluding taxes, fees, and tips) spent on your next Uber Premium (includes UberXL, Comfort, Premier, Premier SUV, Black and Black SUV) ride taken in Canada or in the United States through the Uber app, where available, by [30 days after your birthday] (the “Offer Period”). This offer is a bonus offer on top of the Always On Premium ride offer of earn 1 point for every $1 CAD (based on spend before promotions and discounts, excluding taxes, fees, and tips) spent on all Uber Premium (includes UberXL, Comfort, Premier, Premier SUV, Black and Black SUV) rides taken in Canada and the United States through the Uber app, where available Only Aeroplan Members targeted with this offer can qualify. This Offer can be combined with all other offers including the Always On Airport Ride offer, in which case, members who make their next Uber ride during the Offer Period that is a Premium Ride to an airport in Canada or the United States, will earn a total of 6 points for every $1 CAD spent (based on spend before promotions and discounts, excluding taxes, fees, and tips). The Uber Account and Aeroplan account must be linked at the time of the ride to qualify. Please allow up to 8 weeks after taking the ride to receive the points earned under this offer. 

³ Valid on new bookings of select vacation packages made by [30 days after your birthday]. Offer expires at 11:59 p.m. EST on the date indicated. Subject to availability at time of booking. 

This Offer is valid on new vacation package bookings made through aircanadavacations.com to Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, Hawaii, Orlando & Las Vegas. Not applicable to group bookings. Not applicable to open jaws (flying into one city and returning from another city) and to one‑way flights. 

Offer provides a 10% discount on the base fare before applicable taxes, fees and surcharges for travel until March 31, 2024, excluding travel from December 18, 2023 until January 5, 2024, and from March 1, 2024 until March 17, 2024 where the discount will be 5%. Promo code must be applied online at aircanadavacations.com during checkout for the discount to be applied. To redeem this offer, Aeroplan Members must be logged in on aircanadavacations.com. Cannot be combined with any other offer or promotion. 

Offer can be withdrawn at any time and is subject to change without notice. Subject to availability at the time of booking. Prices on the Air Canada Vacations website reflect applicable reductions and are valid if you purchase services in a same session. If you log off the website, prices may be different the next time you log on. Final prices will be displayed before confirming your payment. 

The Offer allows for Aeroplan Members travelling on the same booking to accumulate points on the eligible flight portion for their package. Aeroplan points will be awarded once travel has been completed. For terms and conditions of the Aeroplan program, visit aircanada.com/aeroplan-termsandconditions. 

⁴ To receive the 500 bonus points associated with this Birthday Perk, Selected Aeroplan Member must spend a total of at least $50 (CAD) before applicable taxes in a single transaction at any partner retailer via the Aeroplan eStore by September 11, 2023. All purchases on the Aeroplan eStore remain subject to the standard eStore Terms and Conditions, which can be found at: aeroplan.rewardops.com/terms. Bonus points will be available in the Selected Aeroplan Member’s account within 6‑8 weeks. 

Registration:

Registration is really easy, and is a one click process from the targeted email through the featured buttons.

There are cautions that once selected, the Aeroplan member is unable to go back to a different offer. As a result, you’ll have to chose your offer carefully.

I will admit that I’ve tended to leave selection of the gift towards the end of the promotion. When I’ve redeemed this offer close to the expiration, I’ve had some difficulty in actually getting the offer redeemed.

I’ve typically gotten a “you will receive a voucher / email within 72 hours“. Often, I have to follow up in order to get this fufilled. If you know what you want, make sure you redeem well in advance of the offer expiration date.

What I think of this promotion:

If you happen to have some upcoming travel plans that are around your birthday, this could represent an excellent deal.

The 25% off Base Fares and a Preferred Seat and Up to 10% off Vacation Packages represent the biggest value redemptions here. Depending on where you are headed, and if your timing is right, these can represent several hundred of dollars worth of savings off your ticket or package. The 25% off Base Fares will be the offer I intend to redeem under this promotion, once I have some travel plans lined up.

I am less excited about the Earn 5X on an Uber Birthday Ride. Uber really isn’t prevalent in my area, and there isn’t a whole lot of usage for it based on my travel patterns, in my humble opinion.

The Earn 500 Aeroplan Points via the Aeroplan E Store is handy in case you happen to be ordering yourself an after the fact birthday gift. By my calculations of Aeroplan points being worth approximately 1.5 cents a point, five hundred points represents $7.50 CAD of value.

Lastly, Earn 100 Bonus Aeroplan Points is probably the least value oriented of these redemptions. At the very least, you’ll be 100 Bonus Aeroplan points richer. This feature is even great for keeping your adult children’s accounts active to avoid expiration, if they don’t happen to be travelling as much. By my calculations of Aeroplan points being worth approximately 1.5 cents a point, one hundred points represents $1.50 CAD of value.

My Thoughts on the Aeroplan Birthday Bonus:

Air Canada Aeroplan offers its frequent flier program members a birthday bonus that arrives on your birthday. If you’re paying attention to your emails, you’ll be offered. anopportunity to seelct from five different birthday offers.

The offers represent different price points in terms of value. The high value redemptions are the 25% off promotional code and a preferred seat, in addition to gaining access to 10% off Air Canada Vacations bookings.

These offers are only valid for thirty days after your birthday, so if you have travel plans around your birthday, it might. bean idea to defer them to see if you can gain any further discounts with this promotion.

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Have you had any successes in leveraging the Aeroplan Birthday Bonus Promotion into a Great Redemption?

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