aeroplan maintains its relationship with cibc and td; aeroplan's new earn your wings promotion

1) aeroplan maintains its relationship with cibc and td
there's been a lot of talk recently about the recent contract talks between cibc and aeroplan. td offered a better deal when it came time to for cibc to renew its relationship with aeroplan, and cibc chose not to match. in today's press release found here (and greatly discussed on flyertalk here). in short, it appears that td has essentially paid to buy out 50% of the cibc-held accounts, and individual cardholders are free to move between cibc and td (which i don't see as something new). they promise new benefits and privileges, so we'll see how cibc and td's respective cards will compete with each other.

2) aeroplan's new "earn your wings"-like promotion
based off of the amazing race, you receive "racewings" for your air canada, air canada express, air canada rouge. you receive 500 racewings for registering before september 24 (250 racewings for registering afterwards). you receive 200 racewings for every take off or landing (i.e., 400 points per segment). there are opportunities to earn more points via various "pit stops", all of which will be revealed on september 24, 2013.

2,000 racewings = 1,000 aeroplan points, and for every 10,000 racewings earned, you receive an additional 5,000 aeroplan points. i took advantage of approximately zero "stars" from flying during their last promotion, but i thought i'd mention this here.

registration and details are located here.