After a confusing series of maneuvers, Air Canada has made a deal to buy back the Aeroplan loyalty program that it sold off in 2005, while continuing to use it to reward its frequent fliers.
Over the past few months Air Canada has announced that it would stop using Aeroplan in 2020, made a hostile takeover bid, and now made a deal, with Visa and two banks that issue Air Canada-linked credit cards as its partners to buy the business.
While all that was going on, Aeroplan’s current owners scrambled to sign up other airlines to use the points, and made deals with Porter Airlines, Air Transat and Flair Airlines. It remains unclear what will happen with those deals once Air Canada takes over, since Air Canada’s announced plan is to create a new plan in 2020, and merge the Aeroplan business into it.
