Use Aeroplan Points With Pay Yourself Back, How it Works

Aeroplan Cardholders, Redeem Points for Travel with Pay Yourself Back

Update: The end date for travel redemption was previously listed as 12/31/25, but it has now changed to 12/31/24.

  Update: Starting July 1 through December 31, 2024, you can also Pay Yourself Back for grocery store and dining purchases (redeemed at a rate of .8 cents per point which means you can get a $160 statement credit for 20,000 points).

Starting today, January 13, 2023, Chase Aeroplan cardholders can redeem Aeroplan points for a statement credit using Pay Yourself Back (PYB). The card is already a solid product, but PYB option makes it even more interesting.

The redemption rate 1.25 cents per point, for purchases in the travel category made with your Chase Aeroplan Card within 90 days. That a surprisingly good rate, especially when considering that Chase recently cut the value of the PYB program for Sapphire and Ink cards.

Use Aeroplan Points With Pay Yourself Back

You can redeem Aeroplan points for a statement credit using Pay Yourself Back for purchases in the travel category made with your Chase Aeroplan Card within 90 days from the redemption date. There’s no limit on how many points you can redeem through December 31, 2023. But for the following years there’s a cap of 50,000 points.

Each point you redeem for a statement credit towards qualifying purchases with Pay Yourself Back is worth $.0125 (one and a quarter cents), which means that 100 points equals $1.25 in redemption value. Chase says it has the right to change redemption values at any time and reserves the right to determine which purchases qualify for a statement credit.

Statement credits will post to your card account within 3 business days and will appear on your credit card billing statement within 1-2 billing cycles. Statement credits will reduce your balance but you still need to make at least your minimum monthly payment.

What Counts as Travel?

Merchants in this category include airlines, hotels, motels, timeshares, car rental agencies, cruise lines, travel agencies, discount travel sites, campgrounds and operators of passenger trains, buses, taxis, limousines, ferries, toll bridges and highways, and parking lots and garages.

Some merchants that provide transportation and travel-related services are not eligible. Some examples include real estate agents, educational merchants arranging travel, in-flight goods and services, on-board cruise line goods and services, sightseeing activities, excursions, tourist attractions, RV and boat rentals, merchants within hotels and airports, public campgrounds and merchants that rent vehicles for the purpose of hauling. Purchases from gift card merchants or merchants that sell points or miles will not qualify in the travel category.

Transferring Points to Aeroplan for PYB

It’s interesting to see how Aeroplan will implement Pay Yourself Back. Aeroplan is a transfer partner for Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One Miles, and Bilt Rewards. That means that you should be able to transfer your points to the Aeroplan program, use the Chase Aeroplan Card for travel purchases, and then redeem the transferred points through PYB. It basically provides a 1.25 cash-out option for all those programs. But will it really be that easy?

Under the Aeroplan program, the terms say that the “intention of permitting conversions from a Conversion Program into Aeroplan Points is so that the resulting Aeroplan Points under any such conversion arrangement are thereafter used by the Member for redemptions within the Aeroplan Program and Aeroplan reserves the right, at any time, to impose limitations on the ability of a Member to engage in conversions from a Conversion Program into Aeroplan Points and on the use of such Aeroplan Points upon conversion.”

That seems to suggest that points your transfer into Aeroplan are mainly for redemptions within the Aeroplan program. But that seems to have been there even before the introduction of PYB on the Chase Aeroplan Card. 

I would think that you will be able to transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One Miles, or Bilt Rewards to Aeroplan and then redeem them through PYB (Update: This is already working for Amex points at least, giving you the best cash-out option). But I doubt Aeroplan will allow this to go on for long with no cap.

Aeroplan Pay Yourself Back: Guru’s Wrap-up

The Chase Aeroplan World Elite Mastercard is a good product that currently has a 70,000 points bonus and a $95 annual fee. It gets even better starting today, with the addition of Pay Yourself Back. You can now redeem Aeroplan points at a value of 1.25 cents each, to cover travel purchases made with the card.

This could possibly open up the opportunity to also redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One Miles, or Bilt Rewards for 1.25 cents for travel purchases, since all those programs have Aeroplan as a transfer partner.

I reached out to Chase and Aeroplan for more details about Pay Yourself Back and how it will work in regards to transferred points. I’ll update the article when and if they provide any relevant information.

Update: I was told that “Air Canada and Aeroplan’s intention is that the Pay Yourself Back feature be used for points earned with Chase, through the Chase Aeroplan Card or Ultimate Rewards Points Transfer.”