As I had predicted on July 25th, the consortium led by Air Canada, CIBC, TD and Visa have officially purchased Aeroplan and its associated liability of Aeroplan points.
The deal was originally tabled for $250MM along with the Aeroplan liability and has since been increased to $450MM, as was demanded by Aeroplan’s Jeremy Rabe and the investors of Aeroplan.
While we will never know the severity of Air Canada’s inability to stand up their own loyalty program, one can readily assume that capitulating to AIMIA’s demand of $450MM surely indicates AC’s desperation.
It sure will be interesting to see American Express’ reaction to this as they have been left out in the cold.
More to come.