Virgin Atlantic Specials from Vancouver

To tie into the up to 15,000 Bonus Flying Club miles offer from Virgin Atlantic, here are some of their specials on the new flights that start from Vancouver on May 24th:

Vancouver - London Specials
Economy
from $530* May 24, 2012 - Aug 23, 2012
from $399* Aug 24, 2012 - Oct 25, 2012
Premium Economy
from $806* May 24, 2012 - Aug 23, 2012
from $674* Aug 24, 2012 - Oct 25, 2012
Upper Class
from $4404* Jun 22, 2012 - Sep 9, 2012
Fares are each way based on round trip purchase. Prices do not include government imposed taxes and fees of up to $350 CAD. The above advertised fares from Vancouver in Economy include air carrier security and fuel surcharges of $206 CAD each way ($412 CAD round trip).

Worldwide Specials from Vancouver
Economy
Delhi from $1,151* May 24 - Jul 6 & Oct 13 -27, 2012
Dubai from $1,440* May 24, 2012 - Jun 18, 2012
Dubai from $1,840* Jun 19 , 2012 - Sep 10, 2012
Dubai from $1,140* Oct 16 -27, 2012
Johannesburg from $1,884* May 24 - Jun 18 & Sep 11 - Oct 15, 2012

Upper Class
Delhi from $3,071* Jun 22, 2012 - Sep 9, 2012
Dubai from $3,051* Jun 22, 2012 - Sep 9, 2012
Johannesburg from $3,276* Jun 22, 2012 - Sep 9, 2012
Nairobi from $3,746* Jun 22, 2012 - Sep 9, 2012
Fares are each way based on round trip purchase. Prices do not include government imposed taxes and fees of up to $350 CAD. The above advertised fares from Vancouver in Economy include air carrier security and fuel surcharges of $249 to $655.50 CAD each way ($412 CAD round trip).

Stay at the Shangri-La Hotel Vancouver, get a free night at the new Shangri-La Toronto

I added this offer earlier this week to the main Rewards Canada site on our Shangri-La Golden Circle page but feel it is a good enough offer to warrant its own blog post.

The promotion is for Shangri-La Golden Circle members (free to join) and offers Double GC Award Points for stays of two consecutive nights in a Deluxe Room or above at Shangri-La Hotel, Vancouver until June 15, 2012. As a bonus members will also receive One complimentary night’s stay at the new Shangri-La Hotel, Toronto which opens on 7 August 2012. The free night voucher is valid until December 31, 2012. To receive the double points and the free night, stays must be booked online via Shangri-La's website using promo code GCSLV9. More details and online booking can be found here.

SATA Imagine: Toronto-Azores award tickets for 10,000 miles

SATA Imagine members can fly round trip between Toronto and Ponta Delgada for an amazing 10,000 Imagine miles. Normally Imagine members need 50,000 miles for this award redemption! Flights must be booked by April 30 for travel on select dates in May. Full details can be found here

Redemption Stories: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Rewards Canada's Redemption Stories: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly is where we reach out to our subscriber and viewer base to tell us their stories of reward program redemption. We want to hear good stories, bad stories and of course plain old ugly ones! We will compile a few of the stories together and post them right here on our blog. For our second edition of this feature we are asking for stories from Canada's largest loyalty program, Air Miles.

If you want to share your Air Miles Redemption story with the rest of Canada whether it is good, bad or ugly,  leave a comment below or email us at info@rewardscanada.ca. You can send us a couple of sentences, a whole story or feel free to submit a video! Then watch for our second edition of Redemption Stories to be posted within the next few weeks.

Air Canada Rewards for Small Business

I have to apologize to my readers for not posting this sooner, I have had the email from Air Canada for nearly a month on their Air Canada Rewards for Small Business program and somehow missed posting it. I have to thank U.S. based frequent flyer blogger The Points Guy for reminding me about the offer.

The program rewards small businesses who do not have corporate contracts with Air Canada and it also offers an online tool to manage travel expenses. The rewards earned can be shared within the business  all the while individual travellers will continue to earn their personal Aeroplan Miles and Air Canada Status miles. The program rewards a company each time it reaches a revenue threshold with rewards like:
Air Canada flight booking discount.
Complimentary upgrades, lounge access and seat selection.
Discounts on hotel stays, car rentals and Air Canada products & services.

When you join your company will enjoy:
One-time 15% flight booking discount
Up to 10% discount on Maple Leaf Club memberships
One-time complimentary Maple Leaf Lounge access
Five (5) prepaid OnBoard Café vouchers

On top of this Air Canada is offering some more perks for those who sign up before May 31 (I know I will be signing up after I post this!):
Two eUpgrade Credits offering access to the comforts and luxury of our Executive Class® or Executive First® service
One Avis reward day for every 10 qualifying rental days for the first year, once you join the Avis Corporate Awards Program

For more details on the program visit Air Canada Rewards for Small Business

Double the sign up bonus for the MBNA Choice Privileges MasterCard

THIS CARD IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE

For a limited time (until Jun 13, 12) MBNA is doubling the sign up bonus for the MBNA Choice Privileges MasterCard to 16,000 Privileges points. The bonus is enough points for 2 free nights at over 1,500 Choice Hotels locations in North America. For a list of Canadian properties that have reward nights at the 8,000 points or less level please see here. Considering there is no annual fee and if you don't mind an inquiry on your credit rating this isn't a bad offer to go for just to get the 2 free nights.

Other features of the card include
- 2 points for every $1 qualifying net retail spent on everyday purchases‡
- Plus you get automatically upgraded to Elite Gold status – earning you more points for every eligible stay
- No annual fee
- Enhanced security and protection with Chip & PIN technology and PayPass

For more details or to apply for the card please visit MBNA Canada

Which Credit Card Earns the Most Aeroplan Miles?

UPDATED FOR 2014: See our new post here

Occasionally I get asked the question: "Which credit card can you earn the most Aeroplan miles with?" What better way to show to answer to that question than in Rewards Canada's first Infographic. This Infographic pulls data from the full Rewards Canada feature with 10 different spending scenarios which can be found here. As always feel free to leave your comments below.

You can find more spending scenarios on our site here. For more information on all of the cards please follow the links!

Links to the cards
CIBC Aerogold / Aventura Cards
American Express Gold Rewards Card
Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express
The Platinum Card from American Express
MBNA Best Western Rewards MasterCard
Chase Marriott Rewards Visa

Earn up to 15,000 Bonus Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Miles between Vancouver and London

On May 24th Virgin Atlantic will inaugurate their new route between Vancouver and London. The route will operate four times per week on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday and while there have not been any specific bonuses or offers set out for the route, Virgin Atlantic did release this systemwide promo a few days ago that you can register for and earn bonus Flying Club miles for the Vancouver-London route along with almost all other Virgin Atlantic routes. For the best fares (which start at $798+tax at time of posting) or to book this new service please visit Virgin Atlantic

Here is the offer as pulled from the main Rewards Canada website:
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
Earn up to 15,000 Bonus Flying Club Miles on all Virgin Atlantic routes Worldwide (Except Accra and Shanghai).
5,000 bonus miles in Economy (2,500 per sector)
10,000 bonus miles in Premium Economy (5,000 per sector)
15,000 bonus miles in Upper Class (7,500 per sector)
Full Details, Online Registration and Booking (Registration is required) Register by May 13 for travel until Jun 15, 12

Save 20% on Priority Pass memberships extended to April 30

Priority Pass, the independent airport business class lounge access program is celebrating its 20th Anniversary and as part of that celebration they are offering 20% off all their memberships until April 30, 12. For more information please visit Priority Pass

Here is the promotional pricing for the three levels of membership:

BMO World Elite MasterCard added to our Travel Anywhere Spend Comparison Chart

The BMO World Elite MasterCard has been added to our Travel Anywhere Credit Card Spend Comparison (Non-Airline/Frequent Flyer) chart. This chart looks at ticket prices to various regions around the world and shows how much you have to spend on these cards. Travel Anywhere (our Travel Points & Hybrid Cards) cards are the cards that let you book any travel travel either via the credit card's travel rewards agency or in the case of some cards with any travel provider and then you redeem the points against the charge.

To see how the BMO World Elite MasterCard stacks up against the others see the updated chart here.

Updated Credit Card Charts: Sears Voyager and RBC British Airways Cards added

I recently updated our very popular travel rewards credit card comparison charts by adding the Sears Voyager MasterCard and updating the RBC British Airways card from the now discontinued Platinum card to the new Infinite version of the card.

You will find the updates on the following charts
All Canadian Travel Rewards Credit Card Comparison

Travel Points Credit Card Comparison

Airline (Frequent Flyer) Credit Card Comparison

Fast Track to Silver Elite Status at the Toronto Marriott Downtown Eaton Centre hotel

The Toronto Marriott Downtown Eaton Centre hotel is running a Marriott Reward promotion that fast tracks you to Marriott Rewards Silver Elite status after just 3 stays with them. Achieving Silver Elite Status within the Marriott Rewards program normally requires 10 qualifying nights. A quick check of rates at this hotel show that the offer does not increase the price of the Best Available rate although the CAA/AAA can be a little cheaper although the price difference to fast track to Silver may be worth it. This offer is valid for stays up until May 31, 2012 so if you have multiple upcoming trips to Toronto you may want to steer your way to this hotel.  For more details or the book online visit Marriott.com

FFB Insider: Now Earn Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Miles on all Fare Classes

For quite some time now, many airlines, in particular those outside of the U.S. moved away from awarding miles or points on their lowest economy fare classes as those fares were seen as the 'competitive fares' against Low Cost airlines that had no FFP programs. Fast forward to October 2010 and the tide slowly starts turning as British Airways goes back to their old model and offers 100% earned miles on all economy class fares. And in March 2012 when many airlines are still hold outs, one of the most stingiest programs in terms of awarding miles in Economy Class will become a little less stingy: Singapore Airlines. One reason why Singapore Airlines may be doing this is that those previously mentioned Low Cost airlines are now launching their own FFP's and in particular for Singapore Airlines case would be AirAsia's new Big program.

On April 1st, Singapore Airlines will move to award KrisFlyer miles in all fare classes. Now they are not going to be as generous as British Airways but the move is in the right direction nonetheless.

From Singapore Airlines:

When you book an Economy Class flight on Singapore Airlines under ‘Sweet Deals’ and ‘Super Deals’, you will receive 50% and 10% of applicable KrisFlyer miles respectively.  When you book an Economy Class flight under ‘Hot Deals’ on SilkAir, you will also receive either 50% or 10% of applicable KrisFlyer miles, depending on your booking class. These promotional fares will, however, not be eligible for the additional tier bonus. 

RBD	SAA Fare Families	MI Website Fare Families	Percentage of KF miles accruable
Q	Sweet Deals	Hot Deals	50%
N
V	Super Deals		10%
T

Any takers on which major airline will be next to start giving back?

About FFB Insider
This article is part of the FFB Insider, our corporate/B2B newsletter for those who work in the travel, travel rewards and/or loyalty industries. It offers insights into bonus offers and other loyalty promotions found in the world of travel. It also features updates and news on the FFB Group. The FFB Insider is sent once every few months and you can subscribe to it here.