Winners & Losers

If you like racking up big credit card debt in exchange for a free trip to Fort Lauderdale, there’s never been a better time to hit the mall. Aeroplan, the popular air miles rewards program, is being wooed by TD Bank to leave its longtime partner CIBC. TD put up $100 million to steal away Aeroplan, off ering a 15% higher fee per reward mile than CIBC currently pays when customers use one of its Aeroplan-branded credit cards. CIBC has until Aug. 9 to respond, but Aeroplan says it plans to accept TD’s off er. Aeroplan had been trying to make itself look as pretty as possible to attract a new banking partner with deep pockets, making changes that just also happen to benefi t its customers. In 2006, the program announced its reward miles would begin to expire after seven years if not used, a change that angered many of its members. Aeroplan has now reversed that decision, angering only those who didn’t quite have enough points for their dream vacation and spent all their points on Alouettes tickets the day before the announcement, expecting their miles to begin expiring on Jan. 1, 2014. After Aeroplan slapped an expiry date on its points, so did its competitors such as Air Miles. That company has put on a tough face and stated they have no intention of backtracking now just because Aeroplan is, and no, if Aeroplan jumped off a bridge they wouldn’t do it too.