Dec 6 Update: 5,000 Bonus Flying Blue Miles for Canadians, up to 1,000 Free Mileage Plus Miles & Avianca TACA's 100% Buy Miles Bonus is back

I'm back from vacation but today will be my only day of 'Rewards Canada' operations this week as I have a full slate tomorrow. I have a quite a few emails from many of you and I promise to get to them as soon as I can! Other than that I'm playing catch up and will try to push out as much news, information and bonus offers as I can over the next week. The following is what I got to today:

News, Tips & Tricks
If you frequently travel to Beijing and have stays of less than 72 hours or are transiting via Beijing there is good news in that Canadians (and residents of 44 other countries) do not need to apply in advance for a visa. As of January 1, 2013 a transit visa will now be issued upon arrival into Beijing. For more details please see this article from Business Traveller.

Air France KLM's Flying Blue has a launched a nice acquisition campaign for Canadians: 5,000 Bonus Flying Blue Miles when you join the program by February 28 and fly by August 31, 2013. I have seen lots of these promos for other countries but most have not been this generous in regards to the amount of bonus miles, the time period allowed to get the first flight in and the best part? This promotion for Canadians is not limited to flights on Air France KLM only, it is open to any SkyTeam member airline flight! That means if you have upcoming Delta, Alitalia, Korean Air or anyone of the 19 member airline flights you can earn this bonus if you credit the flight to Flying Blue. See the link below for more details.

December sees the return of the amazing 100% Bonus on buying Avianca TACA LifeMiles. I don't think I need to go into much detail here, you can check out my last post on it for some of the in's and out's of this promotion otherwise you can find the link to the promotion below.

The latest set of IHG Priority Club Point Breaks is out. This is one of the best redemption promotions seen from any hotel program and allows Priorty Club members to redeem at select IHG hotels for only 5,000 points per night regardless if the original redemption rate is 15,000 or 50,000 points. See my last post for more details or just click here to see the current list of hotels that run until January 31.(2 Canadian properties are included)

Short Term Bonus offer alert: If you are planning any shopping at Home Hardware before December 15 you can earn 3x the Aeroplan miles. More...

Finally, another free miles offer. This time when you join BKSTGR.com you can earn up to 1,000 United Mileage Plus miles. This offer appears open to Canadian residents as I signed up and received the initial 400 miles for registratoin but have not seen the miles for linking my social media accounts yet. See the link below for more details.

Travel Deals
IHG is running a 2 day sale on Dec 7 and 8 for select properties in the U.K, with rates as low as £20.12! More details can be found here.

Bonus Offers
Air Baltic Baltic Miles (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Triple Baltic Miles on all purchases made via the BalticMiles Shop&Earn online shopping portal. More... Until Dec 31, 12

Air France KLM Flying Blue
- 5,000 Bonus Flying Blue Miles if you enrol in Flying Blue and fly with Air France KLM or any other SkyTeam airline by August 31, 2013. More... Register by Feb 28, 13. Residents of Canada only

Avianca TACA LifeMiles
- 100% Bonus LifeMiles when you buy LifeMiles online. More... Until Dec 28, 12 Applies only to members enrolled in the program prior to December 3rd, 2012

Frontier Airlines Early Returns (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Triple Early Returns Miles for flights between Princeton/Trenton NJ and Ft. Lauderdale, Ft. Myers, New Orleans, Orlando, or Tampa. More... Jan 31 - Feb 28, 13
- Double Early Returns Miles for flights between Denver and Fargo, Minot or Phoenix/Mesa-Gateway. More... Until Dec 31, 12
- Double Early Returns Miles for flights between Greensboro, NC or Princeton/Trenton NJ and Orlando. More... Until Dec 31, 12

InterContinental Hotels Group Priority Club
- 5,000 points per award night - Priority Club Point Breaks Redeem only 5,000 points for stays at select hotels Worldwide. More... Until Jan 31, 13

Starwood Preferred Guest
- Earn up to 2,000 Bonus Starpoints per stay at participating Le Méridien Hotels in North America and French Polynesia. More... Register by Jan 15 for stays until Feb 28, 13

United Mileage Plus
- Earn up to 1,000 Bonus Mileage Plus Miles for registering with BCKSTGR.com and linking your Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare accounts. More... Until ?

Voila Hotel Rewards
- Earn up to 50% Bonus Points for every stay at participating VOILÁ hotels worldwide. More... Until Feb 28, 13