In June of 2020, Air Canada’s contract with Aimia—Aeroplan’s parent company—ends. Air Canada announced this week that it’ll be introducing its own in-house program.
Nothing will happen to members’ miles now, but what you can buy with those points will change after June 30, 2020. Travellers purchasing flights through Air Canada and its partners (such as Air China, Lufthansa, and United) will earn points with Air Canada’s program. The airline said this week it will continue to let Aeroplan members redeem points for Air Canada flights after June. Aimia’s CEO, however, said that’s not certain.
Here’s a solid Q&A from MoneySense about the changes.
Christie’s International Real Estate released its fifth annual luxury real estate report this week in which Toronto and Victoria were tops in the luxury residential real estate markets, worldwide.
Hong Kong was tops when it came to the World’s luxury index (overtaking London because of Brexit-related issues), but Toronto was the hottest performing property market based on pace of growth because sales of homes costing more than $1 million doubled over a one-year period.
Luxury varies from market to market, but in Toronto it’s defined as properties sold over US$3 million or more—the worldwide average is $2.1 million.
Canada’s biggest banks took a bit of a hit this week, with Moody’s downgrading their debt ratings, citing concerns about exposure to increasingly indebted consumers and high home prices.
This is the second time in five years our banks have been downgraded BUT our banks remain some of the highest ranked by Moody’s. And Scotia Economics mentioned in that CBC article that this downgrade plays into market sentiment, but doubts it will have any impact on the banks’ business.