Sutton Hotels Prestige cuts points earning hotels in half

The little known program called Prestige from the Sutton Place Grande Hotels group has cut the number of hotels members can earn points at in half. Now, half makes it sound huge but this little chain of hotels comprises of 4 properties in Chicago, Edmonton, Toronto and Vancouver. As of June 15, members of Sutton's FGP lost the ability to earn points in Chicago and Toronto leaving only the Edmonton and Vancouver locations as point earning properties. Members will however continue to enjoy Prestige benefits in Chicago and Toronto such as free Wi-Fi, priority rooms and free newspapers. Elite member benefits are also being met at the two properties.

Source: Sutton

American AAdvantage adjusting fees for close in rewards

American Airlines has made some changes to the fees they charge on award tickets that are issued less then 21 days before departure. Depending on when you are redeeming you may be paying more or less. See the following for clarification. As always Elite members are exempt from these fees.

AAdvantage Award Processing Charges

Ticketing less than 21 days prior to departure (Waived for AAdvantage Executive Platinum®, AAdvantage Platinum® and AAdvantage Gold® members using miles from their account)
Tickets issued prior to 8/25/11
Tickets issued 20 - 7 days prior to departure††	$50
Tickets issued 6 days to 2 hours prior to departure††	$100
Tickets issued on or after 8/25/11
Tickets issued 20 days to 2 hours prior to departureˆ	$75

Source: AA.com

3,000 Gold Points for joining Club Carlson (Targeted offer)

This offer was added to our Club Carlson page this morning and as always free points are good thing to take advantage of. However this is a targeted offer so it may not work for everyone (YMMV).

Carlson Hotels Club Carlson
3,000 Bonus Gold Points when you join the Club Carlson program using promotion code PPH611. Full details. Until Aug  31, 11
Targetted Offer - May not work for everyone

Capital One credit cards now available in Quebec and Northern territories

This is a topic I received many emails on, asking whether we knew why Capital One Cards were not available in Quebec or when would they be. Well, people in Quebec, the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and the Yukon will be happy to know that on Tuesday July 19th Capital One opened up their offerings to all residents of these provinces and territories.

RBC Avion 50% Transfer Bonus to British Airways Executive Club

In case you missed it on our main or in our newsletter, British Airways and RBC are once again offering Avion cardholders a 50% bonus on transferring RBC Rewards points to BA Miles. The offer runs until August 31 and if past years are any indication we should see it again this November.

This is a great offer to take advantage of if you are not looking at booking travel using the set RBC Rewards chart as BA provides some decent economy, business, and first class offerings to the U.K. and beyond. They also offer miles for upgrades so if you do not have enough miles for a business class or first class flight you can use miles to upgrade a paid fare in economy, economy Plus, or business class. Another good use of BA miles is with their partners from the OneWorld Alliance which means you don't have to redeem for BA flights via London but go direct on airlines like Cathay Pacific to Asia or American Airlines to the U.S. One thing to watch out for however with BA is seat availability, we have heard mixed stories of people being able to get or not get reward seats on flights plus redemptions on BA to the U.K. can carry heavy taxes and fuel surcharges.


For more details on this offer please visit British Airways

Canada's Top Travel Rewards Credit Cards for 2011

Today on RewardsCanada.ca we posted our third annual picks for Canada's top travel rewards credit cards. New for this year is Canada's Choice, where we asked Canadians to vote for their favorite travel rewards credit cards with the results to be posted along side our rankings. We have combed over 70 different credit cards offering travel rewards for Canadians and of those there are a few that really stand out. While it is practically impossible to give this question a perfect one card answer, we can breakdown the market of Canadian Travel Rewards credit cards into five major categories that these cards fall into. Without further ado, here are the top travel rewards credit cards for 2011 as picked by RewardsCanada.ca along with Canada's Choice for each category:

Top Travel Points Credit Card (with annual fee)
Rewards Canada's Pick: Capital One Aspire Travel™ World MasterCard®
Canada's Choice: American Express Air Miles Platinum Credit Card

Top Travel Points Credit Card (with no annual fee)
Rewards Canada's Pick: American Express Blue Sky Credit Card
Canada's Choice: American Express Air Miles Credit Card

Top Hybrid Travel Credit Card (with annual fee)
Rewards Canada's Pick: American Express Gold Rewards Card
Canada's Choice: American Express Gold Rewards Card

Top Airline Credit Card
Rewards Canada's Pick: CIBC AeroGold Visa Infinite
Canada's Choice: American Express AeroplanPlus Platinum Card

Top Hotel Points Credit Card
Rewards Canada's Pick: (tie) Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express and Priority Club® Platinum MasterCard® from Capital One
Canada's Choice: Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express

For the complete article, details on each card plus runners up in each category please visit the full Canada's Top Travel Rewards Credit Card for 2011 page on the Rewards Canada website

Care to comment on our choices? Want to voice your opinion on the good and the bad of all the Travel Rewards Credit Cards in Canada. Share you views and experiences by leaving a comment below.


“The interest rates, fees, rewards details, benefits and other details of the Capital One product(s) described in the article may have changed since the time of publication. Please consult the product information pages on the Capital One website for accurate product details. In the event of any conflict between the product details in this article and the Capital One website, the details on the Capital One website shall prevail.”

RBC ups the sign up bonus for WestJet MasterCards

One of the weakest components of the WestJet RBC MasterCards has been the relatively low sign up bonus. Most premium travel rewards credit cards in Canada offer a large enough bonus to get a free flight within Canada or North America (short haul or long haul depending on the card), the premium card for WestJet is the WestJet RBC World MasterCard and since the launch it has only offered a $100 WestJet Dollars sign up bonus, nowhere near a free flight. That has changed, well at least for a limited time only.

As of yesterday you can now get a $350 WestJet Dollar sign up bonus for the WestJet RBC World MasterCard, which according to WestJet's promo material is enough for a free flight in most cases (not including taxes and fees). Overall the WestJet Frequent Guest program is average however if someone is planning a flight with WestJet in the near future, then this sign up bonus would be well worth the $79 annual fee on the card as you will end up saving $271 on your flight(s). There could also be a chance of lowering that annual fee if you cancel the card before you renew and they prorate it for you and refund the difference. Some card issuers (like TD) are known to do this so RBC may do it also. (just make sure you redeem your WestJet dollars before cancelling)

The lower end WestJet RBC MasterCard has also had its sign  up bonus upped to $100 and carries a $39 annual fee. Definitely not as good of a deal like the one above.

For complete details on this promotion please see here.

Air Canada cuts service to Iqaluit

According to Airline Route Updates Air Canada is ending their service to Iqaluit, Nunavut on July 31st. The service from Ottawa utilized a CRJ705 and operated for just over a year.