Generally, I am not a fan of recommending that people buy miles unless they are planning to spend a good chunk on a ticket anyway (especially in coach!) or the cost is just too good, or they need to top up their mileage account for an award.
Top Up Deal: How to Buy Aeroplan Miles for 1.75 Cents Each
The bonus deal for buying Radisson Reward points expires today so you would need to buy today to get this price.
This deal falls into that last category – topping up for an award. You could scale it a bit more if you are an elite member with Radisson Rewards (wait, what?!) but it would likely not be worth it for most.
Putting it Together
Buy Radisson Reward Points with 100% Bonus
Link: Purchase Radisson Reward Points
This deal actually involves buying Radisson Reward points and then transferring them to Aeroplan. Aeroplan charges much more than this to top up for an award so it makes it worth it to take an extra step or two to get the miles for less.
First step, Radisson Rewards, through the end of today, is offering a 100% bonus on purchased points. You are allowed to purchase up to 40,000 points in a calendar year (but you can transfer points from another account for free if you are in the same household or an elite member). With this bonus, that would give you a total of 80,000 points.
Buying the full 80,000 points would cost you $280 (40,000 points plus the 40,000 point bonus).
Transfer to Aeroplan
Link: Transfer to Aeroplan
Aeroplan is also offering a bonus where they are giving 30% extra to match a bonus Radisson has that is for a 70% bonus on transferred points. That means you will get double the normal amount of miles when transferring to Aeroplan.
To do this, you would simply go to the link above to start the transfer. You need to “order” how many points you want to transfer. They go in blocks of 2,000 Radisson points, 50,000 Radisson points or 100,000 Radisson points. They all transfer at the same rate and you can select many different packages.
This means you could transfer the full 80,000 points to Aeroplan and get 16,000 Aeroplan miles. If you purchased those Radisson points, you would be paying $280 for 16,000 Aeroplan miles, or 1.75 cents per mile.
It takes from a few days up to a couple of weeks for the transferred points to show up. The 100% bonus will likely take a little while longer as well (the 70% should post the same time but the 30% from Aeroplan’s side could take up to the full time – 4-6 weeks following the December 3 end date).
Should You Do This?
Is that a great deal? Probably not a great deal if you want to buy up to an award from scratch. But, it can be a great deal if you were needing to top up your Aeroplan account for an award. Yes, you can transfer American Express Membership Reward points to Aeroplan but if you value your Amex points at a higher value than 1.75 cents per point, you could just buy these and save those Amex points for something else.
Remember, you are limited to buying 40,000 points in a calendar year. So, if you actually wanted to buy some points for a hotel stay, you won’t be able to buy anymore this year. This deal is likely just a deal for those people that do want to top up their account.
