Earn Aeroplan Miles at Thrifty foods in British Columbia

Aeroplan announced that it is expanding its partnership with Sobeys Inc. to now include its Thrifty Foods stores in British Columbia.

Starting today, Aeroplan Members can earn miles at more than 20 Thrifty Foods stores by joining Club Thrifty Foods and auto-converting their Club Thrifty Foods points into Aeroplan Miles. Similar to the Club Sobeys model, for every 2 Club Thrifty Foods points that members convert, they'll receive 1 Aeroplan Mile. Each week additional miles can be earned through in-store "bonus points" offers.

Press Release

Special 15% off discount code for between US/Canada & TLV

From Air Canada's Andrew Yiu on Flyertalk, AC is offering the following to celebrate 15 years of service to Tel Aviv

15% off (all fares) when you book your flights between Canada/USA and TLV.

Travel must be completed by Dec 15. Enter discount code 4CKJ8PA1

The promo is valid until further notice from Air Canada

US Airways Accelerated Elite Status

US Airways is offering accelerated Elite Status earning when you fly with them between Oct 1 and Dec 25, 09. Flights on US Airways and US Airways express count and the following shows the mileage/segment requirements to reach the various status levels

• Fly 7,500 miles or 10 segments and earn Silver Preferred status
• Fly 15,000 miles or 20 segments and earn Gold Preferred status
• Fly 22,500 miles or 30 segments and earn Platinum Preferred status
• Fly 30,000 miles or 40 segments and earn Chairman’s Preferred status

Find the full details on the US Airways website

American Airlines to add Vancouver/Calgary-Chicago route

American Airlines is slated to offer mainline service between Vancouver and Chicago starting in Spring/Summer of 2010 and offer American Eagle service between Calgary and Chicago starting in the same period

Source AA Press Release

Air Canada offers expanded Maple Leaf Lounge Access

In attempts to continue to grow ancillary revenue, Air Canada has now expanded the single pay per use access to its Maple Leaf lounges to passengers traveling on Tango Fares. Prior to this only Tango Plus and Latitude customers could buy the passes at the time of purchasing their tickets online through Air Canada. Of course for Tango customers the $45 entrance fee is higher then for the $35 for T+ and $30 for Latitude.

Some of Air Canada's elite flyers are already showing their disillusion to this change because to them this is a further dilution of the top tier elite benefits where they get access for free to what should be a pleasant experience. Their fear is that some MLL's (Maple Leaf lounge) are already at or over capacity at certain airports and/or certain time and that this will make them even more crowded.

For Air Canada (and most other airlines) these alternate sources of revenue have been the route to follow as airfares stay low and they look for ways to make a profit. The ancillary revenue market for airlines is now exceeding $10 billion per year worldwide and Air Canada has been a major player in this market with alternate money making streams such as offering Maple Leaf Lounge access to select ticket buyers and now by offering it to the masses.

Petro Points now offers 20 points per $ on convenience store and car wash purchases

Previously you could earn 10 Petro Points per dollar spent on convenience store and car wash purchases, now with this latest change that has doubled to 20 points per dollar. Gas purchases remain at 10 points per dollar and that is where most people do earn their Petro Points, so while this change does not seem too significant, the 20 points does equate to 2 Cathay Pacific Asia Miles per dollar spent. Nowadays there are not too many retail places where you can earn 2 Major Airline miles per dollar, usually it is only .5 to 1.5.

Rexall now offering Aeroplan miles

As of Sep 12, Rexall in Western Canada began offering Aeroplan miles for all purchases made including prescriptions. The regular earning is 1 Aeroplan Miles per $1 spent. Stores in Ontario are not included and will continue to offer AIR MILES Rewards Miles.
The Aeroplan website does not have any more details on the partnership as their link to Rexall is broken. Apparently the official launch of the partnership will be in October with full announcements and possible promotions.

Air Canada Rapidair: Triple Aeroplan Miles and free same-day standby

In what looks to be a response to WestJet's Eastern Triangle pass, Air Canada is offering triple Aeroplan miles for Rapidair flights between Toronto and Montreal or Ottawa. As well if you are flying on a Tango Plus fare or higher you standby for free at the airport for same day flights. The Triple Aeroplan mile offer runs until Dec 31 and requires registration. See the link below for more details.

Rapidair info

Aeroplan Triple Miles registration

Rewards Canada is eight years old!

Wow I can't believe that Rewards Canada has been around for eight years now. Rewards Canada was started as small hobby website in late August of 2001 partially to teach me some basic HTML programming and what better way then to do it by fulfilling my passion for airlines and frequent flyer programs.

Back in 2001 we maybe had 100 visitors in the first month. now, Rewards Canada is nearing the 40,000 visitor mark each month and as many of you know we have expanded into the Worldwide markets with the Frequent Flyer Bonuses brand of websites. Although I still have a day job, Rewards Canada is no longer a hobby but a full fledged business focused on providing travel rewards information to the Canadian market.

The website is now featured quite regularily in the media and I actually just completed a full travel rewards supplement for Macleans Magazine. It is the first time I wrote something for the media rather then consulting or providing them with background information. It was fun to do and hopefully more projects like this will come along.

I want to thank all of our visitors, readers, subscribers and affiliate partners for the 8 years of support. I am looking forward to the next 8 years of Rewards Canada and hopefully you are all too.

Thanks and best regards
Patrick Sojka
CEO/Founder

Air Canada and Asiana expand codesharing on each others routes

Air Canada will be placing their code on Asiana routes within Korea and to Japan, Thailand and Vietnam while Asiana will be placing their code on Air Canada routes between Vancouver and Calgary and Vancouver to Ottawa.

Source:
Airline route updates 1 2

Bonus Page Updates Sep 3, 09

Air China Phoenix Miles | American AAdvantage | Finnair Plus | Marriott Rewards | Starwood Preferred Guest | United Mileage Plus

Highlights:
Air China: 1 Bonus Phoenix Mile per specific currency when you book online at the various Air China websites
American: Double Elite Qualifying Status Miles on all American Airlines, American Eagle or AmericanConnection flights
Finnair: Earn up to Triple Plus Points when you rent from any participating Avis location worldwide.
Marriott: Earn a Free night when you Stay twice at any of over 3,000 Marriott® properties Worldwide.
Starwood: 999 Bonus Starpoints and room upgrades, breakfast or parking for $9.99 for stays at participating hotels in the Northeast and Midwest U.S.
United: Double elite qualifying miles or double elite qualifying segments on qualifying United® or United Express® flights.

Bonus Page Updates Sep 2, 09

Aerosvit Meridian | Delta SkyMiles | Miles and More | Priority Club

Highlights:
Aerosvit - Earn Bonus Meridian Miles on round trip flights between Kiev and Athens, Stockholm, Thessaloniki or Toronto.
Delta - Earn up to 50,000 Bonus SkyMiles with the Your Bonus promotion. Earn an additional 5,000 bonus miles for each round-trip flight flown on Delta, Northwest, Air France or KLM to a maximum of 50,000 bonus miles
Miles and More - Double Status Miles for all scheduled flights within Europe operated by Adria Airways, Air Dolomiti, Austrian Airlines, Croatia Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Luxair and SWISS.
Priority Club - 5,000 Bonus Priority Club Points after your next qualifying weekend stay (Friday and Saturday nights, two nights total) at any IHG hotel worldwide

US Airways adds second bag fee for Transatlantic flights

Following American Airlines lead, US Airways (and also see our post for Continental) has added a $50 checked bag fee for the second bag on Transatlantic flights effective Oct 7. The $50 fee is applicable if you choose to pay it online when you book, otherwise it will be $55 at the airport. Also the fees for US Domestic and Canada flights are all going up by $5 for the first and second checked bags.

Source: Travel Weekly

Bonus Page Updates Sep 1,09

Japan Airlines Mileage Bank

Highlights
Japan Airlines - Double Mileage Bank Miles when you stay at any participating Swissotel Hotels & Resorts in the Americas, Asia Pacific or Europe

One of Canada's best Credit Cards is gone: MBNA Starwood Preferred Guest MasterCard

The top hotel card in our 2009 credit card rankings, the MBNA Starwood Preferred Guest MasterCard is now finished in Canada. As of Aug 31 applications were no longer being accepted by MBNA for the card and current cardholders will have until Feb 28, 2010 to earn Starpoints on the card, after that point they will be issued a new MBNA credit card.

According the William Sanders, a spokesperson from Starwood, SPG will announce a new credit card soon however no details have been provided at this time. We look forward to seeing what it will offer as the MBNA version was quite a decent card for spending up to $30,000 on. Chances are the new card will come with a fee but will have more benefits, better points earning and more. As well since SPG is tied in with AMEX in the U.S., there is the probability that the new SPG card may be an American Express. Now we just have to wait and see.

To read some comments and the official response from William, visit this thread on FlyerTalk.com

Continental adds second bag fee for Transatlantic flights

Following in the footsteps of some other U.S. majors, Continental will charge $50 for a second checked bag on certain economy class tickets. The fee is effective as of Sep 15 for all tickets bought on or after Aug 27. If you pay online when booking your ticket, the price is reduced to $45. Elite members of Continental's OnePass program, First or Business class fares, Full fare Economy (Y Class), Continental PresidentialPlus and the military traveling on official orders are all exempt from the fee