esso's 50 and 100 aeroplan point bonus versus petro-canada's 50% bonus

in an e-mail i received on november 12, esso announced their new aeroplan promotion effective until december 8. you get either 100 bonus aeroplan points on supreme and extra grades of gas (91 and 89 octane, respectively) and 50 bonus aeroplan points on regular (87 octane) gas. this is on a minimum 35 litre purchase.

petro-canada, on the other hand, has a 50% bonus on all petro-point earning opportunites at stores until january 6, 2014. so which is better?

for esso, it would make sense to maximize your point earning opportunities by filling up only 35L at a time. in the lower mainland, the average rate for gas right now appears to be $1.22/L for regular grade gas and $1.32/L for supreme grade gas. for a 35L fill, this would equate to a total bill of $42.70 and $46.20, respectively. you earn 1 point per every $3 spent normally. for the regular grade of gas, you would get 14 aeroplan points plus a 50 point bonus. for the supreme grade, you would earn 15 aeroplan points plus a 100 point bonus. as i had learned from my business class reward booking to asia that i made last month, i was able to get a 4.13 cent per point return. therefore, for your fill-up, you could potentially get $2.64 to $4.75 back.

for petro-canada, after their 50% bonus, you earn 15, 10.5, and 7.5 petro-points per litre of gas, depending on the grade you get. for a 35L fill, you would get 525 petro-points, 367.5 petro-points, and 262.5 petro-points in total, depending on the grade. in my previous post, i had calculated how much each petro-point was worth.

• at the very minimum, i had calculated that each petro-point was worth 0.0625 cents, meaning that even with the highest grade of gas, your petro-points would be worth $0.32 per 35L fill.
• if you were to convert to cathay pacific's asia miles, you would earn a maximum of 52.5 asia miles with the supreme octane. assuming that an asia mile can potentially hit 4.13 cents per point like with aeroplan, then your 35L fill would potentially earn $2.17.

conclusions

• esso has a better value during this promotion period for gasoline purchases, provided that aeroplan points interest you. 
• if you're interested in using the cathay pacific transfer option, then petro-canada would be a good option outside of the esso promotion period.

and as a reminder about gas grades ...
not all cars require the 91 octane. in fact, many cars (like mine) can get away with the 87 octane. i used to be all about the 91 octane despite my owner manual saying that i only needed 87 octane. then, after seeing the cbc marketplace report suggesting that the extra octane has no real benefit, i've since switched to regular grades for a 10-12c a litre savings.