If you hold the Chase Aeroplan card mainly to fly Air Canada, the refresh is roughly a wash: $100 more in fee, $100 in Air Canada credits, plus automatic 25K status. If you hold it as a bridge for Ultimate Rewards transfers, the card's core reason to exist ends December 31, 2026, and you should transfer and then reassess before your first $195 renewal.
What exactly changed
On September 10, 2026, Chase renamed the card the Chase Air Canada Aeroplan Card and changed most of its terms at once. The annual fee rises from $95 to $195. New cardholders pay it now; existing cardholders pay it at renewals on or after December 1, 2026.
Benefits added, effective immediately for everyone: automatic Aeroplan 25K status with no spending requirement (previously renewal required $15,000 in calendar-year spend), a 15% discount on eligible award itineraries that include an Air Canada segment, up to $100 a year in Air Canada statement credits split into two $50 halves (January–June and July–December), a new 3x category on broad travel (airlines, hotels, rental cars, cruises, rideshare, transit, tolls, parking), and 2x on gas, up from 1x. Pay Yourself Back for travel at 1.25 cents per point remains. From January 2027 the fourth-night-free benefit on Aeroplan point redemptions extends from hotels to car rentals.
Benefits removed: grocery and dining fall from 3x to 2x. The monthly bonus of 500 points per $2,000 spent (capped at 1,500 points per month, or up to 18,000 a year) ends. The 10% bonus on Ultimate Rewards transfers of 50,000 points or more, capped at 25,000 bonus points per calendar year, ends December 31, 2026. Frequent Miler reports that existing cardholders keep the old benefits alongside the new ones through that date.
The new welcome offer is 75,000 points after $4,000 in spend in three months, plus 40,000 more after $20,000 in total spend within twelve months. It is the highest offer the card has carried.
Who is affected and the honest math
Two groups hold this card, and the refresh treats them very differently.
Air Canada flyers. The $100 fee increase is offset only if you spend at least $50 with Air Canada in each half of the year. If you do, net cost stays near $95 and you gain status that used to require $15,000 in annual spend, plus 15% off Air Canada awards. A cardholder redeeming 100,000 points a year on Air Canada metal saves 15,000 points, which by itself covers the increase. For this group the refresh is an improvement.
Ultimate Rewards transferrers. Many people held this card at $95 purely because it added 10% to every transfer of 50,000 or more points into Aeroplan, and that bonus stacked with Chase's periodic 20% Aeroplan transfer bonuses. The current 20% bonus runs through September 30, so a 100,000-point transfer made before then still yields 130,000 Aeroplan points. From October 1 through December 31 the card bonus alone applies. From January 1, 2027, there is no card-based uplift at all. At the 25,000-point annual cap, the lost bonus is worth roughly $350 a year at a conservative 1.4 cents per Aeroplan point (our valuation inference, not Chase's figure). Add the lost monthly spend bonus and the one-point drop on grocery and dining (10,000 fewer points on $10,000 of combined spend), and this group pays $100 more for materially less.
Neither group loses the free first checked bag for the cardholder and up to eight companions, the no-foreign-transaction-fee terms, or the $120 NEXUS/Global Entry/TSA PreCheck credit every four years.
What to do
Before September 30: if you have a specific Aeroplan award in mind, transfer at least 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points now to capture both the 20% Chase bonus and the 10% card bonus in one transaction. Do not transfer speculatively; Aeroplan raised partner award prices on June 1 and its own flights are dynamically priced.
Before December 31: make any remaining transfer you want the 10% bonus on. This is the last window. Also finish any grocery or dining spend you intended for this card at 3x.
Before your renewal date on or after December 1: decide whether the card earns its $195. Use both $50 Air Canada credits if you can; a taxes-and-fees payment on an award booking qualifies. If you rarely fly Air Canada and mostly redeem for partner awards, a Sapphire Preferred at $95 transfers to Aeroplan at the same 1:1 ratio, earns 3x on dining and online groceries, and keeps your points flexible. Product-changing rather than closing preserves your account age.
Check the discount before relying on it: early reports on Frequent Miler suggest the 15% may currently apply only to itineraries fully operated by Air Canada, even though the terms say any itinerary with an Air Canada segment qualifies.
The pattern it fits
This is the third co-brand refresh this year that raises the fee, adds airline-specific perks, and trims the benefits that appealed to people who never fly the airline. United restructured earning around its cards in April, Frontier did the same in September, and Citi raised the AAdvantage Executive fee to $695 in August with a package of AA-only credits. The message is consistent: co-brands are being rebuilt for the airline's own customers, and transferable-points holders are being nudged back to the bank's own cards.
We log every entry of this kind in the Devaluation Tracker at https://www.bonuseagle.com/devaluations, including the Chase Hyatt transfer cut to 4:3 that takes effect October 1 for non-Reserve cards. For the underlying decision framework, see https://www.bonuseagle.com/insights/transfer-bonuses-explained, https://www.bonuseagle.com/insights/downgrade-cancel-or-keep, https://www.bonuseagle.com/insights/annual-fees-are-not-what-you-think, and https://www.bonuseagle.com/insights/co-branded-vs-transferable-points-cards.
The bottom line
For an Air Canada flyer this is a better card at a higher price, and the credits can bring the net cost back to where it was. For everyone else it is a $195 card that has lost the one benefit that made it worth $95. Transfer what you need by September 30 or December 31, use the credits, and make the keep-or-downgrade call at your first December-or-later renewal.
FAQ
Does the $195 fee hit existing cardholders right away?
No. New applicants pay it now; existing cardholders pay it at their first renewal on or after December 1, 2026. Chase confirmed this to View From The Wing.
Can I still stack the 20% Chase transfer bonus with the card's 10%?
Yes, through September 30, 2026, on transfers of 50,000 or more Ultimate Rewards points in a single transaction. After that, only the card's 10% remains, and it ends December 31.
Do I lose 25K status if I stop spending on the card?
No. Under the refreshed card, 25K status is automatic for the primary cardholder with no spending requirement. The card still supplies 5,000 Status Qualifying Credits a year, with more at $25,000 and $50,000 in spend.
Is the 15% award discount worth keeping the card for?
Only if you redeem on Air Canada itineraries. It does not apply to pure partner awards. At 100,000 points redeemed on eligible itineraries a year, the 15,000-point saving exceeds the fee increase; below that, do the math against your actual redemptions.
Sources:
https://frequentmiler.com/chase-aeroplan-card-new-benefits-best-ever-offer-higher-annual-fee/
https://viewfromthewing.com/chase-increases-air-canada-aeroplan-card-annual-fee-to-195-adds-automatic-elite-status-and-15-off-awards/
https://awardwallet.com/news/air-canada-aeroplan/chase-aeroplan-card-refresh/
Last updated: September 10, 2026
