One of the nice things about Aeroplan points is that they don’t expire… as long as you keep your account active, that is.
To keep your account active, you need to either earn or redeem Aeroplan points within an 18-month period. If you let your account lapse by having no activity for a year and a half, you lose those points!
But, what if you’re not able to travel within that time period to earn more points?
There are some options to earn points besides travelling, such as :
- – using an Aeroplan affiliated credit card allows you to earn points on every purchase you make with the card and also exempts you from the 18-month expiry;
- – shop through the Aeroplan eStore to earn points with over 150 online retailers;
- – shop in stores of partner retailers and present your Aeroplan card at the checkout.
All of the above choices involve some cost to you however, and if economic times are tough, these may not seem like ideal options.
What if you don’t want to have to sign up for a point-collecting credit card that comes with an annual fee, or don’t have extra money to spend to keep your account active?
There’s one option available that is a completely free way to earn points to help keep your account active.
The only thing it will cost you is some of your time.
Asking Canadians is an online research community that lets you earn Aeroplan points in exchange for answering survey questions.
When you sign up to participate, you’ll receive a few invitations per month to answer surveys on various topics such as consumer products and marketing. The invitation will contain a link and tell you how many points you will earn for completing the survey. In my experience, it usually varies between 50 to 150 Aeroplan points earned per survey. If you start to answer a survey and are not eligible for some reason (like not being part of their target demographic, for example), you will still earn a few points (usually around 5 points) which is still enough to trigger some activity on your account and keep it active.
You don’t have to answer a minimum number of surveys, just answering even one survey will earn you some points, and keep your Aeroplan account active.
You do have to sign up and provide your email address and Aeroplan number, but your personal information remains confidential, answers are compiled in aggregate, and your identity remains anonymous. Asking Canadians promises that they will never send you a sales pitch and will not share your information with other parties.
A free way to keep your Aeroplan account alive to earn and fly another day!
I’ll be honest, this isn’t going to be a way to earn huge amounts of points that would get you a free flight somewhere distant, but it is enough to have some earning activity so that you keep your account active and don’t lose the points you have already collected though other methods.
This is simply a free way you can help keep your account alive to give you a longer time period to accumulate enough points to get that free flight you are looking forward to one day.
Note: I do not receive any compensation of any kind for the recommendations or links in this post. This post is for information and entertainment purposes only.
