Rocketmiles: 3,000 Bonus Miles/Points in the program of your choice for your first booking including Aeroplan

If you have signed up with Rocketmiles but haven't booked with them yet you would have received this email today to celebrate this Leap Day! Even if you didn't or haven't signed up with them you can take advantage of this offer to earn 3,000 bonus miles in the program of your choice including Aeroplan!

Offer details:
3,000 Miles/Points in the Rocketmiles partner program of your choice for your first stay booked via Rocketmiles. Stay must be booked via the special promotion page at www.rocketmiles.com/leapday-3k-min. The bonus can only be earned once per member. Book by Mar 3, 16

February 29 Udpate: WestJet 20th Anniversary offers, Delta Airlines becomes an AIR MILES partner, Starwood Leap Day Sale

Last update of the month but first of the week!

News, Tips & Tricks
WestJet turns 20 years old today, or are they really only 5 years old since they celebrate on the leap day every four years? Either way congratulations to WestJet! To celebrate their 20th they have two offers, a seat sale and a WestJet Rewards bonus. Check out both below!

While being added to AIR MILES a few years ago as an airline where you could redeem 'more' miles for flights, Delta Airlines has now become a full fledged partner airline of AIR MILES. What does this mean? This means Delta flights will now be priced at the award chart prices (low and high season) that many of you are used to for Air Canada, WestJet, American Airlines etc. I'm not exactly sure when this commenced so it could be old news but I just noticed it when I logged into the travel rewards section of the AIR MILES website.

We were going to have a separate post today for the latest Air France KLM Flying Blue promo awards as Edmonton is included again, however the new offers were only up for a few hours only to be pulled by AF KLM. Maybe they are adding more offers or waiting until it is actually March 1st to release them. Stay tuned for an update tomorrow.

Posts since our last update:

• Today Only: 20 Bonus WestJet Dollars on WestJet Bookings for Apr-Jun travel
  WestJet turns 20 years old today. Yes it has already been 20 years that this airline from Calgary starting…

Travel Deals
WestJet has released a great seat sale to celebrate their 20th Anniversary! Book by May for travel Apr 1 - Jun 28. Find out more here.

Starwood Hotels has a leap day sale for stays at their Canadian locations. Book today only to save up to 29% at participating hotels until Apr 30. Find out more here.

Bonus Offers
Air Canada / Aeroplan
- 500 Bonus Aeroplan Miles when you redeem your miles for a hotel stay with Best Western. More... Until Mar 31, 16
- 600 Bonus Aeroplan Miles when you redeem your miles for an Avis Car Rental. More... Until Mar 31, 16

Air France KLM Flying Bue
- March Promo Awards - Save 25% to 50% on the Award Miles usually required for an award ticket. More... Book by Mar 31 for travel between May 1 - Jun 30, 16

Air New Zealand Airpoints
- Double Airpoints when renting with Avis in New Zealand or Australia. More... Book by Mar 31 for rentals Mar 1 - Aug 31, 16

Emirates Skywards
- Earn up to Triple Skywards Miles when you stay at Jumeirah Hotel & Resorts in Dubai and the Maldives. More... Book by Mar 31 for stays until Sep 30, 16
- 1,000 Bonus Skywards Miles for stays at any one of 7 Marriott Hotels in Paris. More... Book by Apr 30 for stays until May 9, 16
- Triple Skywards Miles when you stay at the Taj Dubai. More... Until Apr 30, 16
- Triple Skywards Miles when you rent with Budget in the U.S. for 3 or more days. More... Until Mar 31, 16

Sonesta Hotels Travel Pass
- Triple Travel Pass Points for stays at the Sonesta Fort Lauderdale Beach. More... Until Mar 31, 16
- Triple Travel Pass Points for stays at the Sonesta Bee Cave Austin. More... Until Mar 31, 16

Starwood Preferred Guest
- Earn up to 1,000 Bonus Starpoints or a Free Night Award when you stay at the SLS Las Vegas. More... Until Apr 30, 16

Today Only: 20 Bonus WestJet Dollars on WestJet Bookings for Apr-Jun travel

WestJet turns 20 years old today. Yes it has already been 20 years that this airline from Calgary starting flying! To celebrate its 20th, they have launched a 20th Anniversary seat sale that is runs until March 7 for travel Apr 1 - Jun 28 and also to celebrate they have this today only WestJet Rewards offer.

Offer Details
20 Bonus WestJet Dollars on all WestJet flights systemwide when you register and book your travel on February 29th. Register Online (Registration is required) Book by Feb 29 for travel Apr 1 - Jun 28, 16

February 26 Update: Summary of buy miles bonuses, Amex U.S. Business Card changes (will it come to Canada?) and more

Last update after our first week back! It was a busy one and next week will continue to be so!

News, Tips & Tricks
Over on the FrequentFlyerBonuses.com blog we summarize all the current buy miles and points bonus offers. While some aren't worth your time others like Alaska's and IHG's should definitely be looked into! Read all about it here. but also look at the link below on more details for the IHG promo!

 Big news south of the border sees American Express (U.S.) changing the terms on their Business Cards to only being able to earn the sign up bonus once per lifetime just like their consumer cards. Canada has the same rule on consumer cards but not business cards, so the question will not be if Canada will follow suit but when.
That's it for today. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Posts since our last update:

• How to utilize the IHG Rewards Club buy points bonus to save money on hotel stays
  As you know yesterday we brought you the details of the IHG Rewards Club buy points flash sale. The offer…
• Choice Hotels Spring Promo: Earn A Free Night after two separate stays (up to 8,000 Bonus Privileges Points awarded)
  Choice Hotels Privileges is the next major hotel chain to release their spring systemwide promo and guess what? It's…

Bonus Offers
Alitalia MilleMiglia
- Earn up to Triple MilleMiglia Miles when you fly with Alitalia, airberlin and Niki between Milan and Frankfurt, Berlin, Düsseldorf, or Vienna. More... Book between Mar 1 - 15 for travel Mar 8 - Jun 8, 16
- Earn up to 5,000 Bonus MilleMiglia Miles for each flight on Alitalia between Rome and Mexico City. More... Jun 16 - Aug 16, 16
- Earn up to 5,000 Bonus MilleMiglia Miles for each flight on Alitalia between Rome and Santiago. More... May - Jun 30, 16

Asiana Club
- Double Club Miles for stays at participating Okura Hotels & Resorts, Nikko Hotels International and Hotel JAL City Worldwide. More... Feb 1 - Apr 30, 16

British Airways Executive Club
- Earn up to 100,000 Avios when you apply for and receive the British Airways Visa Signature® Card.. More.. Residents of the US only Until ?

Choice Privileges
- Earn between 5,000 and 8,000 Privileges Points when you complete 2 separate stays at participating Choice Hotels Worldwide. More... For residents of the U.S. and Canada only Nov 19 - Jan 15, 16

Frontier Early Returns (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Triple Early Returns Miles on participating Alamo car rentals in the US and Canada. More... Until Dec 31, 16
- 1,000 Bonus Early Returns Miles on qualifying rentals of 3 days or more at participating Avis airport locations in the U.S., Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean. More... Until Jun 30, 16
- 1,000 Bonus Early Returns Miles on qualifying rentals of 5 days or more at participating Budget airport locations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean. More... Until Jun 30, 16
- Quadruple Early Returns Miles on all rentals at participating Hertz locations in the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. . More... Until Jun 30, 16

IHG Rewards Club
- Receive a $100 MasterCard Gift Card when you stay 3 nights or more at select Holiday Inn Club Vacations resorts in the U.S. More... Feb 1 - Mar 31, 16
- Receive a $100 MasterCard Gift Card when you stay 4 nights or more at select Holiday Inn Club Vacations resorts in the U.S. More... Apr 1 - Jun 30, 16

Malaysia Airlines Enrich (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Double Enrich Miles for stays at participating Okura Hotels & Resorts, Nikko Hotels International and Hotel JAL City Worldwide. More... Feb 1 - Apr 30, 16

How to utilize the IHG Rewards Club buy points bonus to save money on hotel stays

As you know yesterday we brought you the details of the IHG Rewards Club buy points flash sale. The offer is straight 100% bonus on whatever points you buy until the end of today and this post will show you have you can use this bonus to your advantage to save you some money on your stays!

Let's take a stay at the Holiday Inn & Suites Edmonton Airport. This hotel is currently part of the IHG Rewards Club PointsBreaks offer where you only need 5,000 points to stay at the hotel. We checked a stay from Mar 2 to 3rd and found the 5,000 point rate was available:

To pay for that room, the best flexible rate is $114.49 plus fees and taxes and the non-refundable prepaid rate is $103.05

Now if you don't have any points in your IHG account you could buy 6,000 points with the current bonus (3,000 + 3,000) for US $40.50 and have 1,000 points leftover.

Convert that to Canadian dollars and add GST and you are looking around $56 for that same stay. Saving you nearly $50 of the non-refundable rate!

Need to stay 2 nights? It get's even better as 10,000 points is just over $94 for what would be over $200 if you paid cash for the stay bringing your savings to over $100.

You can bring that price down even more if you buy over 26,000 points at once, effectively making any 5,000 point redemption about C$40.

Now lets look at a non PointBreaks hotel, the InterContinental London Park Lane.  May 12-13  has the non-refundable rate is 296GBP or 60,000 points

To buy 60,000 points with the bonus is US$345.00. Convert that to Canadian and add GST and you are looking at about C$500 versus the approx C$555.70 for the non-refundable rate for a savings of almost $55 on that one night! Even bigger savings are achieved if you compare apples to apples and look at the Best Flexible rate of 369GBP as that rate can be cancelled like the reward night can.

Overall the 100% bonus on buying IHG Rewards Club points can provide great value! The offer brings the price of a point down to 0.575 of a U.S. cent if you buy over 26,000 points. This per point price is less than the Points+Cash trick of buying points for 0.7 cents. If you choose to buy the maximum number of points, 60,000, it will cost you US$690 but of course you'll end up getting 120,000 points. That's 24 nights at IHG hotels if redeeming via the PointBreaks option which works out to only US$28.75 per night!

YOU HAVE TO BUY POINTS BY TONIGHT BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO USE THEM RIGHT AWAY. However we do recommend that you don't buy points if you don't think you'll use them in the next 3-4 months are you always run the risk of the program raising redemption rates for stays.

Offer Details
100% Bonus IHG Rewards Club Points when you buy points online. Full details. Until Feb 26, 16

Choice Hotels Spring Promo: Earn A Free Night after two separate stays (up to 8,000 Bonus Privileges Points awarded)

Choice Hotels Privileges is the next major hotel chain to release their spring systemwide promo and guess what? It's the same promo we saw in fall, summer, spring and so on and so forth!! They word the promotions differently in terms of get a free night, get a $50 gift card etc. however the gist of the promos are the same, they will award you enough bonus points after you complete 2 separate stays to have 8,000 points after those stays. In this case it is the Free Stay offer in that you can use those 8,000 points to redeem for one night at over 1,500 of their locations that are at the 8,000 point redemption level.

Offer Details:
Earn up to 8,000 Privileges Points when you complete 2 separate stays at participating Choice Hotels Worldwide. Stay must be booked via ChoiceHotels.com, the Choice Hotels mobile app, or 800.4CHOICE at qualifying rates. Members will be awarded a minimum of 5,000 bonus to a maximum of 8,000 bonus points, depending on the number of base points earned from the two (2) separate qualifying trips. Full details, online registration and booking (Registration is required) Mar 3 - May 5, 15
Restrictions
For residents of the U.S. and Canada only

February 25 Update: New Holiday Inn Express in St. John's, Alaska Mileage Plan redemptions on Hainan coming on March 30th!

Here is your Tuesday update!

News, Tips & Tricks

InterContinental Hotels Group opened up a new hotel in St. John's last week. The Holiday Inn Express & Suites St John's Airport is now open for business! If you want to redeem IHG Rewards Club points for stays at this new location it will cost you 20,000 points per night. Find out more about this hotel here.

The hotel features an indoor pool, 24-hour fitness and business centers as well as 1,800 square feet of meeting space that can comfortably accommodate up to 115 people. Guest rooms feature SMART TV’s with Netflix, Facebook, and YouTube apps pre-loaded, USB charging stations in all lamps and desk areas, modern décor with local artwork, comfortable queen or king-sized beds, a sitting area with a lounge chair and an in-room coffee machine featuring complimentary coffee.

The complimentary Express Start™ breakfast bar offers a full range of breakfast items including a variety of healthy options, such as Oikos® yogurt, whole wheat English muffins, Kellogg’s® breakfast cereals, Quaker® oatmeal and a toppings bar for yogurt, cereal and pancakes. Additionally, the breakfast bar offers a wide variety of options including a rotation of egg and meat selections, fruit, the brand's proprietary cinnamon roll and Smart Roast™ 100% Arabica coffee.

Soon you will be able to use your Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles for award ticket redemptions on Hainan Airlines. Hainan currently only serves Toronto but will start Calgary flights this June as well. For those in southwestern B.C. the airline also serves Seattle. According to Alaska you will be able to start redeeming on March 30. Award tickets prices are still unknown (Source One Mile at a Time)

Posts since our last update:

• American Express Membership Rewards - Limited Time Fixed Price Redemptions via Amex Travel
  Just as we saw last summer, American Express Membership Rewards have brought back their fixed price redemptions on select…
• IHG Rewards Club Buy Points Flash Sale! 100% Bonus for two days only
  The buy miles/points offers just keep coming out like crazy! This one however is short compared to the rest. Get…

Travel Deals
KLM has released a great business class promotion for flights over the busy summer season! You can fly in stlye to Europe and beyond for as little as $2799 all in! t. Book by Mar 9 for travel Jun 1 - Aug 31! Find out more here.


Bonus Offers
Alitalia MilleMiglia
- Earn up to 50% Bonus MilleMiglia Miles when you buy or gift MilleMiglia miles. More... Until Mar 7, 16

Avianca LifeMiles
- Earn up to 10,000 Bonus LifeMiles when you book hotels via Kaligo. More... Book by Mar 31, 16
- Triple LifeMiles when you rent with Avis in the US, Europe or Latin America for 3 days or more.More... Until Jun 15, 16
- Triple LifeMiles when you rent with Budget in the US or Latin America for 4 days or more. More... Until Jun 15, 16

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- Earn up to Triple Asia Miles for stays at Harbour Plaza Hotels & Resorts in Hong Kong. More... Until Apr 30, 16
- Earn up to 20,000 Bonus Asia Miles when you book hotels via Kaligo. More... Book by Apr 8 for stays until Dec 31, 16
- 20% Bonus Asia Miles when you book hotels via Kaligo and pay with your American Express Cathay Pacific Elite Credit Card or American Express Cathay Pacific Credit Card. More... Book by Apr 19, 16
- Double Asia Miles for stays at any Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts property Worldwide. More... Until Apr 30, 16
- Double Asia Miles for stays at any PARKROYAL Hotel Worldwide. More... Until Apr 30, 16
- Earn up to Quadruple Asia Miles on Hertz rentals Worldwide. More... Until Apr 30, 16

Japan Airlines Mileage Bank
- Earn up to 100% Bonus Mileage Bank Miles when you fly on SriLankan between Tokyo(Narita), Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Delhi, or Chennai and Colombo as well as Colombo to Male. More... Apr 1 - Jun 30, 16

Marriott Rewards
- 1,000 Bonus Rewards Points per night at the Courtyard by Marriott London Gatwick Airport. More... Until Apr 9, 16

Stash Hotel Rewards
- Double Stash Rewards Points on the Spring Into Stash package when you stay 3+ nights at the Lakehouse Hotel & Resort San Marcos. More... Book by Mar 31 for stays Mar 1 - Jun 30, 16
- Double Stash Rewards Points for stays at The Bristol Hotel San Diego. More... Book by Mar 27 for stays Mar 1 - 31, 16
- Double Stash Rewards Points for stays at The Lenox Hotel Boston More... Mar 1 - 31, 16
- Double Stash Rewards Points for stays at the Magnolia Hotel Houston. More... Until Mar 31, 16
- Triple Stash Rewards Points for stays at the Hotel Andra Seattle. More... Book by Mar 31 for stays until Apr 30, 16

American Express Membership Rewards - Limited Time Fixed Price Redemptions via Amex Travel

Just as we saw last summer, American Express Membership Rewards have brought back their fixed price redemptions on select routes until May 31, 16. Unlike last year where there were only four routes available, Amex has greatly expanded this offering to include routes in North America, to Sun Destinations, Europe and other spots around the globe!

These redemptions are along the same line as RBC Avion or CIBC Aventura you can redeem a set amount of points up to a maximum ticket price then pay for taxes and fees with your card or points. Now if you recall nearly a year ago we released our special feature on flexibility and called out programs like Avion and Aventura as being the least flexible with charts like these as you can potentially lose value if the ticket price is way lower than the maximum set out. Same thing goes here, if you redeem points for a really cheap ticket on one of the eligible routes, you're losing value. However, where American Express differs is they allow you to choose to the fixed points redemption or the TripFlex option. So if we take the Vancouver-Calgary option and the base ticket price is more than $200 you would use the Fixed Point Redemption but if the base ticket price is less than $200 you would just charge the flight to your American Express Gold Rewards Card or The Platinum Card from American Express and then when the charge shows up on your account you then use the TripFlex option to redeem points against it. Whereas Avion and Aventura your stuck redeeming the fixed rate of points regardless of the price of the ticket.


Some of the offers are so-so when compared to other reward programs (ie converting Membership Rewards points to Aeroplan or British Airways) however you should have a better chance at getting actual availability with the Amex flights as you are not limited to select airlines of other programs. The real stand out offers are Vancouver to Los Angeles for 20,000 points and all the European routes for 50,000 points.

Oh yeah, one final note, the flights booked via these fixed price redemptions should earn frequent flyer miles as long the fare class is mileage earning eligible!

Learn more about American Express Membership Rewards Fixed Price Redemptions here.

IHG Rewards Club Buy Points Flash Sale! 100% Bonus for two days only

The buy miles/points offers just keep coming out like crazy! This one however is short compared to the rest. Get a 100% bonus when you buy IHG Rewards Club Points by February 26th!!

This offer brings the price of a point down to 0.575 of a cent when you buy between 26,000 and 60,000 points!. This per point price is less than the Points+Cash trick of buying points for 0.7 cents. If you choose to buy the maximum number of points, 60,000, it will cost you US$690 but of course you'll end up getting 120,000 points. That's 24 nights at IHG hotels if redeeming via the PointBreaks option which works out to  only $28.75 per night!

Offer Details
100% Bonus IHG Rewards Club Points when you buy points online. Full details. Until Feb 26, 16

February 24 Update: Book award flights via the Aeroplan app, use La Quinta points for PointsHound bookings, KLM Summer Biz Class sale

Wow another busy day in the world of travel rewards!

News, Tips & Tricks
Lots of Aeroplan news, primarily the update of their app that now allows you to search and book award flights on your mobile device. Find out more here.

Aeroplan is changing the mileage earned for flying on Shenzen Airlines as of March 27. Most classes are going down in earn rates save for a few. Find out more here.

Also if you were someone who redeemed Aeroplan miles for hotel stays please note that as of Feb 1. you can no longer redeem for Delta Hotels since that brand is now fully integrated with Marriott Rewards (Source: Aeroplan)

You can now use your La Quinta Returns points to redeem for stays at thousands of hotels Worldwide via PointsHound. Not huge news for us since there are only 2 LQ's in Canada but maybe some of you road warriors frequenting the U.S. have built up balances with LQ Returns where you can make use of this new redemption option (Source FrequentFlyerBonuses.com)

And finally even though Virgin America doesn't fly to Canada anymore I'm sure some of you are members of their Elevate program from when they did or by using them for domestic flights in the U.S.. Good news is that you can earn points for joining the program or referring friends to the program. See all the details in the bonus offers section below


Posts since our last update:

• The Platinum Card from American Express cardholders now get Hilton HHonors Gold Elite Status
  As we've seen with the Platinum cards in the U.S. and U.K. this new automatic elite status option for holders…
• Now book Aeroplan award flights through the Aeroplan Mobile App!
  Great news from the team at Aeroplan! You can now book your Aeroplan award tickets via their app for…

Travel Deals
KLM has released a great business class promotion for flights over the busy summer season! You can fly in stlye to Europe and beyond for as little as $2799 all in! t. Book by Mar 9 for travel Jun 1 - Aug 31! Find out more here.

Bonus Offers
Gulf Air FalconFlyer (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Double FalconFlyer Miles when you stay at Mövenpick hotels in Africa, Jordan and Lebanon. More... Until Mar 31, 16
- Triple FalconFlyer Miles for Sixt Car Rentals Worldwide. More... Until Mar 31, 16

IHG Rewards Club
- 1,000 Bonus IHG Rewards Club Points per stay at IHG Hotels Worldwide. Stay must be made within 90 days of registering. More... Until ? Targeted Offer - May not work for everyone

Jet Airways JetPrivilege
- 4,000 Bonus JPMiles on your first Rocketmiles booking More... Book by Mar 31, 16
- Minimum of 5,000 JPMiles awarded on all Rocketmiles Bookings More... Book by Mar 31, 16

JetBlue TrueBlue (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Earn up to 50% Bonus Points when you buy TrueBlue points online. More... Until Mar 11, 16

Saudia Alfursan
- 500 Bonus Alfursan Miles when you stay at any Marriott Hotel in Dubai. More... Until Apr 30, 16
- 1,000 Bonus Alfursan Miles for stays at the Renaissance Sharm El Sheikh Golden View Beach Resort, Sharm El Sheikh Marriott Resort or the Hurghada Marriott Beach Resort. More... Until Mar 31, 16
- Double Alfursan Miles for stays of 3 or more nights at Millennium & Copthorne Hotels Worldwide. More... Until ?
- Double Alfursan Miles when you stay at the Radisson Blu Istanbul Atakoy. More... Until Mar 31, 16

Virgin America Elevate (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Up to 50% Bonus Elevate Points when you buy points online. More... Until Mar 8, 16
- 500 Bonus Elevate Points when you join the Elevate program. More... Until Mar 31, 16
- 500 Bonus Elevate Points for each friend you refer to the Elevate program. Max of 5 referrals. More... Until Mar 31, 16

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- 30% Bonus Flying Club Miles when you buy Miles Booster Miles on your Virgin Atlantic flight. More... Until Mar 9, 16
- 30% Bonus Flying Club Miles when you buy Flying Club miles online. More... Until Mar 9, 16