Is buying magazines a good way to earn Aeroplan miles?

Rogers Magazines, publisher of titles like Maclean’s, has a promotion on wherein new subscriptions to their magazines can earn you Aeroplan miles.

Under the terms of the promotion, subscribing to 1 title earns 350 miles, 2 magazines earns 1,000 miles and 3 magazines earns 1,350 miles.

All other things being equal, does it make financial sense to subscribe only to earn the miles?

Let’s find out:

The cheapest three magazines one can select are Chatelaine, Loulou and Loulou (French), each of which costs $14.95 a year for a subscription.

Aeroplan allows for the purchase of up to 15,000 miles a year, and they charge 4 cents a mile. So here’s how outright purchase compares to magazine subscription cost:

It would seem that, assuming you were going to buy the Aeroplan miles anyway, it does make sense to buy magazines instead, and get the miles indirectly. Of course this is only true if you buy the cheap magazines like Lou Lou — subscribing to Maclean’s ($39.95) and Canadian Business ($34.95) would cost almost $75, so there’s no deal to be had there, unless you were going to subscribe to the magazines anyway.

Maclean’s hasn’t exactly won points in the “integrating the website with the print publication” game this week. The magazine launched a new visual identity starting with the issue dated Monday, but much of the branding on their website, including their subscription pages, still bears the marks of the old brand.