June 28 Update: Two Scotia cards you may want to grab this weekend and WestJet adds two new sun destination routes

We've received details of Scotiabank credit card offer updates that will launch on July 2. The Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite Card and the Scotiabank Momentum Visa Infinite Cards will both see their welcome bonuses lowered so if you have been contemplating getting either of these cards I would recommend applying for them by Monday! The Passport Visa will be 5,000 points lower than the current offer while the Momentum card loses the 10% welcome bonus but retains the first year free offer. Remember we are only a little over a month away from the changes coming as well to the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card (Read about those changes here)

WestJet is adding two new sun destination routes for the Winter 2019/20 season. Those new routes are Calgary to Punta Cana (on a 767) and Victoria to Los Cabos (737-700) Both routes will operate 1x weekly. (Source Routesonline)

Posts since our last update:

• IHG Rewards Club Accelerate Part 2 – Earn 500 to 40,000 or more points on your IHG stays worldwide until Oct 31
  IHG Rewards Club has launched a second version of their Accelerate offer which is something different from IHG since…
• Podcast Episode 56 is here! Should you be hoarding your credit card points? Interview with Rob Carrick
  Episode 56 - June 27, 2019 Should you be hoarding your credit card points? Interview with Rob Carrick This week…
• Hilton Honors: 100% bonus when you buy 40,000 or 80,000 points until July 4
  Hilton Honors has released another buy points flash sale promotion for their members! This one is a bit different…
• Save 3 cents per litre at Shell stations with BMO AIR MILES & Shell Mastercard cards until October 31
  BMO, Shell and AIR MILES launched a new offer on their co-brand credit cards today. This offer sees holders…
• June 27 Update: AIR MILES system outage on Canada Day and World of Hyatt adds Alila Hotels to its portfolio
  AIR MILES will be performing some system upgrades on Canada Day which means their website, the app, airmilessshops.ca and…

Travel Deals

IHG Global Sale! Book now and save up to 20% at thousands of IHG® Hotels & Resorts worldwide when you book between now and July 31st.! Full details

Remember to visit Rewards Canada's Travel Booking site to book travel directly with many of your favourite airlines, hotels and more!

Canadian Bonus Offers

N/A

Other Bonus Offers

IHG Rewards Club
- Accelerate Part 2 - Earn 500 to 40,000 or more Bonus IHG Rewards Club Points when you complete stays at IHG HotelsWorldwide. Bonus varies by member. More... Register by Aug 17 for stays Jul 1 – Oct 31, 19

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Triple KrisFlyer Miles for stays at Anantara Hotels and Resorts Worldwide. More... Until Mar 31, 20



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IHG Rewards Club Accelerate Part 2 – Earn 500 to 40,000 or more points on your IHG stays worldwide until Oct 31

IHG Rewards Club has launched a second version of their Accelerate offer which is something different from IHG since the last Accelerate offer is still going on until the end of August for many members (albeit registration closed on June 18). This version, entitled Accelerate 2 may be for those who were not targeted for the last one. As you may recall from May when Part 1 of the offer came out some people, like myself, were not able to register for the offer as we were not targeted for it. Good news is this time I am targeted and I'm guessing the others who weren't either should be able to register for this one. Once again the individualized systemwide bonus offers provides IHG Rewards Club members with opportunities to earn 500 to 40,000 or more IHG Rewards Club points on their stays from July 1 to October 31. Let us know in the comments below if you are lucky enough to be targeted for both or not and what your new offer i!

Here is the offer I received:

That's quite a few points up for grabs for me but some of the requirements are tougher to achieve then in the past (2 stays of 4+ nights for example) and I don't think I'll get any or all of them as currently the Rewards Canada family doesn't have any IHG stays lined up.

Offer details:
Earn 500 to 40,000 or more Bonus IHG Rewards Club Points when you complete stays at IHG Hotels Worldwide. Bonus varies by member. Full details, online registration and booking (Registration is required)  Register by Aug 17 for stays Jul 1 – Oct 31, 19

Find many more IHG Rewards Club bonus points offers here!

Podcast Episode 56 is here! Should you be hoarding your credit card points? Interview with Rob Carrick

Episode 56 - June 27, 2019
Should you be hoarding your credit card points? Interview with Rob Carrick

This week we welcome one of Canada's foremost Personal Finance Columnists, Rob Carrick of the Globe and Mail as a guest! Back in May he wrote an article on how he was gulity for hoarding credit card reward points. In this episode Jeff and Rob discuss the pros and cons of hoarding and in reality why you should be using your points and miles sooner than later! Image courtesy Globe and Mail

Click Here to download the podcast

Or download/subscribe via:

Links relating to this week's topic:

•  Tell me you’re not hoarding your credit card reward points (Globe and Mail paid subscription required)

Hilton Honors: 100% bonus when you buy 40,000 or 80,000 points until July 4

Hilton Honors has released another buy points flash sale promotion for their members! This one is a bit different in that you don’t have all the variety of points purchasing options. This flash sale only allows you to buy 40,000 or 80,000 points. Good news is either of those balances are doubled if you buy them by July 4. This means you are paying US$ 0.5 cents per point which can be easily redeemed at values of 0.8 cents or more!

Remember reward nights start out at only 5,000 points so you could essentially get up to 16 to 32 nights depending on which points package you buy.

 

Offer details:
100% Bonus when you buy 40,000 or 80,000 Hilton Honors points online. Buy points here Until Jul 4, 19

Can’t make use of this offer? Check out these other bonus opportunities:

• Double Honors points + additional bonus points on every stay starting on your second stay at Hilton Hotels Worldwide.   Full details, online registration and booking (Registration is required)
• Double Honors Points for stays on the Taste of New York City package at the Hilton Garden Inn New York/Times Square Central. Full details and online booking
• 5,000 Bonus Honors points when you stay at least two nights at participating Waldorf Astoria™ or Conrad® hotels & resorts.   Full details, online registration and booking (Registration is required)

Find many more Honors Bonus Points offers here!

Save 3 cents per litre at Shell stations with BMO AIR MILES & Shell Mastercard cards until October 31

BMO, Shell and AIR MILES launched a new offer on their co-brand credit cards today. This offer sees holders of BMO AIR MILES or Shell co-brand credit cards receive a 3 cents per litre discount at Shell stations across Canada when they use their card and AIR MILES card when fueling up. The offer runs until October 31st. If you don't have one of these credit cards and are a Shell fanatic who wants to save on those gas purchases, you do have time to get a card and ramp up your savings in a couple of weeks.

This promotion takes a page from the RBC Petro-Canada partnership which sees RBC cardholders get instant savings at the pump. The main differentiator here is this new promotion is a limited time offer whereas the RBC Petro-Canada offer is ongoing.

These are the cards that are part of this promotion. And remember you must be an AIR MILES collector to take part in the promotion as the 3 cents off is only applied when you use one of these cards below along with your AIR MILES card when fueling up at Shell:

• Shell CashBack Mastercard
• Shell CashBack World Mastercard
• Shell AIR MILES Mastercard
• Shell AIR MILES World Mastercard
• BMO IGA AIR MILES Mastercard
• BMO Sobeys AIR MILES Mastercard
• BMO AIR MILES Mastercard
• BMO AIR MILES World Elite Mastercard 

If I personally was to pick any of the cards listed above it would be the BMO AIR MILES World Elite Mastercard as it has one of the strongest welcome offers in the market right now of up to 3,000 Bonus AIR MILES Reward Miles along with no annual fee in the first year!

June 27 Update: AIR MILES system outage on Canada Day and World of Hyatt adds Alila Hotels to its portfolio

AIR MILES will be performing some system upgrades on Canada Day which means their website, the app, airmilessshops.ca and AIR MILES cash redemptions will be unavailable. The planned downtime is from 11pm ET on June 30 to 11pm ET on July 1. During this time you will still be able to earn miles without any issues at AIR MILES partners.

 The World of Hyatt program continues to add more hotels to its portfolio thanks to the integration of Two Roads Hospitality. The latest additions are 16 hotels under the Alila Hotels brand which has locations primarily in Asia but also one in the U.S. Find out more here.

Check your email for a new bonus points offer the American Express Cobalt Card. You can earn 5,000 bonus Membership Rewards points when you make a single or cumulative purchase of $300 or more (after taxes) on eligible pre-paid hotel or car rental bookings online with American Express Travel. Book by July 31.

Posts since our last update:

• Earn up to Double Elite Qualifying Spend on select WestJet flights between Canada & the U.S.
  Another flight bonus to pass along! If you have already booked or are planning to book any of the routes…
• AIR MILES Bonus Boom - Over 1,000 Bonus Miles available from participating partners June 27-30
  AIR MILES Bonus Boom is here for the next four days! There are lots of bonus miles offers up…
• Earn up to 200% Bonus Aeroplan Miles on select Air Canada flights in Canada and to the U.S.
  We are now starting to see Aeroplan flight bonuses from Air Canada with some regularity! This is great for…

Travel Deals

IHG Global Sale! Book now and save up to 20% at thousands of IHG® Hotels & Resorts worldwide when you book between now and July 31st.! Full details

Remember to visit Rewards Canada's Travel Booking site to book travel directly with many of your favourite airlines, hotels and more!

Canadian Bonus Offers

Air Canada Aeroplan
- Earn up to 200% Bonus Aeroplan Miles when you fly from any city in Canada that Air Canada serves to select cities in Canada or the U.S.  More... Register and book by Jul 12 for travel until Sep 30, 19

WestJet Rewards
- Earn up to Double Elite Qualifying Spend when you fly on select WestJet routes between Canada and the U.S. More... Book by Jul 24 for travel Jul 1 - Sep 30, 19

Other Bonus Offers

Le Club AccorHotels
- Earn up to Triple Le Club AccorHotels Points for stays at participating Accor Hotels in Munuch. More... Book by Sep 13 for stays Sep 13 - Oct 31, 19

Marriott Bonvoy
- 1,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points PER NIGHT for stays at the t the Fairfield Inn & Suites New York Manhattan/Times Square. More... Until Aug 24, 19

Thai Royal Orchid Plus
- Earn up to Quadruple ROP Miles on Sixt rentals Worldwide. More... Until Jul 31, 19


Follow Rewards Canada:

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Earn up to Double Elite Qualifying Spend on select WestJet flights between Canada & the U.S.

Another flight bonus to pass along! If you have already booked or are planning to book any of the routes listed below be sure to register for this offer right now so that you earn that extra qualifying spend to help you get to that next WestJet Rewards Elite Status tier!

Offer details:
Earn up to Double Elite Qualifying Spend when you fly on select WestJet routes between Canada and the U.S. Econo and EconoFlex fares (excluding Basic fares): will get a 50% QS bonus. Premium, PremiumFlex fares: will get a 100% QS bonus. Register online (Registration is required) Book by Jul 24 for travel Jul 1 - Sep 30, 19

Eligible flights to/from:

Vancouver - Maui
Vancouver - Palm Springs
Vancouver - San Francisco
Calgary - Palm Springs
Calgary - Orlando
Calgary - San Francisco

Edmonton - Las Vegas
Winnipeg - Las Vegas
Toronto - Myrtle Beach
Toronto - Fort Lauderdale
Toronto - Tampa

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AIR MILES Bonus Boom - Over 1,000 Bonus Miles available from participating partners June 27-30

AIR MILES Bonus Boom is here for the next four days! There are lots of bonus miles offers up for grabs at AIR MILES sponsors across Canada. Once you get to the Bonus Boom page you can select your province to see your offers. I selected Alberta and there were 30 offers available from American Express to Rexall to Safeway Liquor.

9 of the 30 offers for Alberta

I'll probably be able to snag one or two of these offers to score 150 to 200 bonus AIR MILES. I'm sure many of you will be able to do a lot better!

Click here for complete details, the actual coupons and opt-ins!

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Earn up to 200% Bonus Aeroplan Miles on select Air Canada flights in Canada and to the U.S.

We are now starting to see Aeroplan flight bonuses from Air Canada with some regularity! This is great for travellers but based on my 18 years of tracking bonus offers this could also be bad news. Not for flyer but the general health of the country's economy. While I haven't seen any full fledged research behind it, we typically see an uptick in flight bonus offers from airlines when their planes fly less full, and more times then not they fly less full because of a poor economy. Case in point, 4-5 years ago when it seemed every country was hurting economically we were listing upwards of 700 or more route bonuses at one time on our site. For the past 2-4 years that has dwindled to as little as 100 or less globally!  Hopefully I'm wrong with this but over the past 3-4 months I have seen more airline route bonuses being released around the globe. Anyways back to this promotion!

With this offer you can earn double Aeroplan miles (100% bonus) or triple Aeroplan miles (200% bonus) when you fly from any city in Canada that Air Canada serves to select cities in Canada or the U.S. (see the list below). As is usual, the terms with these promos are not the greatest, only new bookings made on or after June 25 count and only the first Aeroplan member on a reservation will receive the bonus miles. That means if you want a family of four to each earn the bonus you'd have to make separate reservations for all four people. You must register and book by June 14  for travel until October 31, 2019.

Offer details:
Earn up to 200% Bonus Aeroplan Miles when you fly from any city in Canada that Air Canada serves to select cities in Canada or the U.S.  Register Online (Registration is required) Register and book by Jul 12 for travel until Sep 30, 19


Can’t make use of this offer? Here are some other offers that might work for you!

• Earn 750 Bonus Aeroplan Miles for each stay at Best Western Hotels in Canada, the United States, or the Caribbean Islands Full details, online registration & booking (Registration is required)
• 11,500 Bonus Aeroplan Miles on qualifying Avis rentals Worldwide of 3 days or more during the week, or 2 days or more during the weekend. Book online at Avis.com
• Earn up to 50% Bonus Aeroplan Miles when you complete stays at IHG Hotels Worldwide. Full details and online booking

Find many more Aeroplan bonus miles offers here!

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June 26 Update: Technical issues ground the Amazon Mastercard temporarily, Double Dip with Air France KLM & Accor Hotels, Air Canada enhances inflight entertainment selection

We have received confirmation from MBNA/TD that a technical issue arose in the application process for the new Amazon.ca Rewards Mastercard and that is why it has been temporarily pulled from the market. As soon as it available again we'll be sure to pass that news along.

 Air France KLM and Accor Hotels have announced a new partnership that follows in line with partnerships we have seen in the past like United & Marriott, Emirates/Delta & SPG etc. At the moment it is strictly based on points/miles earning and conversion but hopefully it is expanded in the future with some reciprocal elite benefits like the other airline/hotel tie ups we've seen. This may be of interest to some Canadian's seeing that Le Club AccorHotels is now the loyalty program for Fairmont Hotels. Click here to find out more and to link your accounts.

Air Canada is expanding their inflight entertainment selection with a new partnership with Crave and and more offerings from Stingray. (Source Air Canada)

The new offerings are part of an enhancement of the airline's entertainment system that will increase the content selection by 50 per cent on certain aircraft types, including many of its longest-haul wide-body Boeing 777s and 787s, as well as Air Canada Rouge's A319s, A321s and Boeing 767s, offering enough content that a customer would have to fly around the world 22 times to consume it all. 

 We completed another major update to our American Express American Express Cobalt Card Confirmed Multiplier Locationsfeature thanks to the conributions of the Rewards Canada community! Lots more locations in Canada plus new additions for Chile, Ecuador and Peru!

Posts since our last update:

• Maximize the amount of Aeroplan Miles you earn on eats and drinks by using the American Express Cobalt Card
  There are several, if not many reasons why the American Express Cobalt Card is ranked the number one travel…
• June 22 Update: Carrot Rewards shuts down, Alaska Airlines adds award redemptions on Aer Lingus & MBNA Amazon card temporarily unavailable
  Carrot Rewards, the app that rewarded your well being and trying to promote healthier lifestyles with SCENE points, RBC…

Travel Deals

Enjoy up to a 100EUR daily hotel credit for stays at participating Marriott Hotels & Resorts in Europe! Book by Aug 25 for stays until Sep 14, 2019. Find out more here.

IHG Global Sale! Book now and save up to 20% at thousands of IHG® Hotels & Resorts worldwide when you book between now and July 31st.! Full details

Remember to visit Rewards Canada's Travel Booking site to book travel directly with many of your favourite airlines, hotels and more!

Canadian Bonus Offers

Marriott Bonvoy
- 2,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points when your stay includes either a Sunday or Thursday night at The Courtyard Montreal Airport More... Until Jul 29, 19

Other Bonus Offers

Federal Hotels International Gracious Rewards
- 2X Gracious Rewards Points and 2x Enrich Miles for stays at the Federal Kuala Lumpur, Hotel Capitol Kuala Lumpur and The Grace Sydney. More... Until Sep 30, 19

Le Club AccorHotels
- Quadruple Le Club AccorHotels Points for stays at participating new Accor Hotels Worldwide. More... Book by Jul 29 for stays until Sep 15, 19

Qatar Airways Privilege Club
- Triple QMiles when you rent with Sixt for 3+ days Worldwide. More... Until Sep 15, 19

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Earn up to Triple KrisFlyer Miles on Europcar rentals of 3+ days worldwide excluding USA, Canada, China, India More... Until Jul 31, 19

Stash Hotel Rewards
- 1,000 Bonus Stash Rewards Points for stays of 3+ nights at the Stonewall Jackson Hotel and Conference Center in Staunton. More... Until Aug 31, 19


Follow Rewards Canada:

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Maximize the amount of Aeroplan Miles you earn on eats and drinks by using the American Express Cobalt Card

There are several, if not many reasons why the American Express Cobalt Card is ranked the number one travel rewards credit card in Canada. One of those reasons is the card's earn rate on eats and drinks, that is groceries, restaurants, bars etc. It earns a whopping 5 points per dollar in the category in Canada and Worldwide. Another reason why is that you can then convert those points to the Marriott Bonvoy program. The conversion rate is 1 American Express Membership Rewards point to 1.2 Marriott Bonvoy Points. The beauty of Marriott Bonvoy is that those points can then be further converted to miles in over 40 different airline programs. One of those programs is one of Canada's most popular programs, Aeroplan.  Points transfer at a ratio of 3:1 from Marriott to Aeroplan.

When you convert Marriott Bonvoy points to Aeroplan you'll want to try to do so at 60,000 points at a time. Why? Well, Marriott Bonvoy will give you an additional 5,000 miles each time you do so. That means those 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points will net you 20,000 Aeroplan Miles (3:1) plus the 5,000 miles for a total of 25,000 Aeroplan miles.

Circling back to the start with the Cobalt Card allowing transfers to Marriott a 1 to 1.2 ratio means 50,000 Membership Rewards Select points would get you the 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points required. And seeing that the card earns 5 points per dollar on eats and drinks means you only need to spend $10,000 on the card to get the 25,000 Aeroplan Miles or 2.5 Aeroplan Miles per dollar spent. There is only one other card that can top that earn rate and it is only on dining - no groceries and that is also an Amex card. That card is The Platinum Card earns 3 Membership Rewards points per dollar on dining. Those convert to Aeroplan 1:1 so its earn rate is 3 Aeroplan Miles per dollar but the card also comes with a $699 annual fee versus the $120 ($10 per month) on the Cobalt Card so you can see where there could be a potential trade off between the cards. In an ideal world you would have both cards in your wallet to maximize your Aeroplan earning but for most Canadians the reality is the Cobalt Card is the way to go due to that annual fee difference and the additional miles earned on grocery store purchases.

On top of this, if you plan your points transfers out wisely you can earn even more Aeroplan Miles. Several times per year Aeroplan will give you a bonus when you convert hotel points into the program. For example, at the time of posting this article Aeroplan was offering a 35% bonus when you convert Marriott Bonvoy Points.

This boosts that 60,000 points to 25,000 miles example to 33,750 miles or 3.375 Aeroplan Miles per dollar spent on the Cobalt Card. That's a pretty amazing earn rate!

So if you are someone who collects Aeroplan Miles and the program is one of your mainstays you should really consider adding this card to your portfolio to maximize the amount of miles you can earn on all your eats and drinks. Oh and for those who say that Amex isn't well accepted so it makes it tough to use the card so why bother - well you'll be surprised at how many places do. Check out our resources such as the American Express Cobalt Card Confirmed Multiplier Locations feature where the Rewards Canada community has come together to provide a list of locations around the world that accept the cards as well as our Step by step guide to the American Express Shop Small Program a map feature from Amex that allows you to see all the non-major retailers that accept their cards across Canada.

Find out more about and apply for the American Express Cobalt Card here.

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