Good news: 7-year points expiration scuttled for Aeroplan

Canada’s most popular air travel rewards points will no longer come with an expiry date.

Aeroplan announced Thursday it is cancelling its seven-year mileage redemption policy for all of its members.

The backtracking comes after a major public backlash and threats of a class-action lawsuit when the company decided to implement expiry dates on loyalty points.

Members were told miles would begin expiring on January 1, 2014.

Now, the points will never expire provided members make at least one transaction from their account every 12 months. That doesn’t mean taking a flight – it could be collecting points by getting fuel at Esso, staying at a hotel or redeeming a reward from its gift catalogue.

Members whose accounts have been inactive for more than a year still face paying a $30 charge to reinstate the account.

Aimia Inc., the company that runs Aeroplan, also announced it is slashing the number of points needed for some of its flights.

The company says it will drop CIBC as its credit card partner by the end of the year unless the bank matches contractual terms offered by TD Bank.

A spokesperson said Aeroplan is still the top rewards card in the country, but it’s facing increased competition from RBC's Visa Avion credit card and from TD's Travel Visa.