Aeroplan to Match Donations to its Beyond Miles Partners on Day of their choice

MONTREAL, April 27 /CNW Telbec/ - Aeroplan today announced that it will match all miles donated by members to each of its nine Beyond Miles charitable partners as part of the 2011 Aeroplan Match Days.  Miles will be matched on a 1 for 1 basis up to 1.5 million Aeroplan Miles for each partner organization.  Each organization has chosen its own match day and Aeroplan will match miles for a 24-hour period.

To donate miles, members simply visit www.aeroplan.com/donate where they can choose to donate to: Air Canada's Kids' Horizons, Athletes for Africa, Earth Day Canada, Engineers Without Borders, Médecins Sans Frontières, Schools Without Borders, The Stephen Lewis Foundation, Veterinarians Without Borders and War Child Canada.  Each of these nine Canadian organizations is committed to improving lives and enriching communities across Canada and abroad.

"Last year, Aeroplan and its Members donated an outstanding 13.8 million miles to our Beyond Miles partners during Aeroplan's Mile Match Days," said geneviève bich, Vice President, People and Culture, Groupe Aeroplan Canada.  "The miles members donate to our Beyond Miles partners go towards offsetting travel costs and supporting these organizations and their projects across the world.  We're extremely proud of our members' generosity and encourage all our members to join us through donations on aeroplan.com."

"We are very grateful for the generous mile donations from Aeroplan Members that have allowed us to improve the health and livelihoods of families in developing communities around the world," said Erin Fraser, Managing Director, Veterinarians Without Borders. "These miles are critical to our work and donations made on our upcoming Match Day (April 30th) will directly support small-holder farmers in Laos; women and children impacted by HIV/AIDs in Uganda, and Mayan communities in Guatemala."

Mile Matching Days will be held on:

• Veterinarians Without Borders - April 30, 2011
  
• The Stephen Lewis Foundation - May 13, 2011
  
• Air Canada's Kids' Horizons - May 18, 2011
  
• Earth Day Canada - September 22, 2011
  
• Athletes for Africa - October 6, 2011
  
• War Child Canada - October 13, 2011
  
• Engineers Without Borders - October 14, 2011
  
• Schools Without Borders - November 1, 2011
  
• Médecins Sans Frontières - November 3, 2011

Since the program was launched in 2006, more than 200 million Aeroplan Miles have been donated by members.   Beyond Miles partners use Aeroplan Miles to offset costs related to travel by air as well as hotel accommodations and car rentals.  Aeroplan offsets 100 per cent of all carbon emissions from flights taken by Beyond Miles partners using donated miles.  In 2011, Aeroplan donated 1.25 million miles to each of its partner organizations.  Aeroplan also announced recently that members can now automatically donate 2 per cent of all miles accumulated to any Beyond Miles partner of the member's choice.  Members interested in donating 2 per cent of their Aeroplan Miles simply visit their profile page on aeroplan.com, select the donation opt-in and the Beyond Miles partner they would like their miles to go to.  More information is available at www.aeroplan.com/donate.

In addition, Aeroplan also has a Charitable Pooling program that allows members to use miles to support individuals, families or local grass roots charities in need.  Members have pooled more than 57 million miles into over 430 pooling accounts across the country.

Aeroplan's Beyond Miles program and other community investment initiatives can now be found on Twitter.  Follow us at: http://twitter.com/BeyondMiles.

About Aeroplan
Aeroplan, Canada's premier coalition loyalty program, is owned by Groupe Aeroplan Inc., a global leader in loyalty management.

Aeroplan's millions of members earn Aeroplan Miles with its growing network of over 75 world-class partners, representing more than 150 brands in the financial, retail, and travel sectors.

In 2010, over 2 million rewards were issued to members including more than 1.3 million flights on Air Canada and Star Alliance carriers which offer travel to more than 1,000 destinations worldwide. In addition to flights, members also have access to over 800 exciting specialty, merchandise, hotel, car rental and experiential rewards. 

For more information about Aeroplan, please visit www.aeroplan.com or www.groupeaeroplan.com.