Redemption Stories: Redeeming points for Best Western free nights at a value that maximizers may cringe at

Last week, the Rewards Canada family decided to head up for a small road trip to the Edmonton area and would need a hotel for one night in Stony Plain. We chose the Best Western Sunrise Inn and Suites Stony Plain as we had stayed there many moons ago and enjoyed the hotel. As with most of our hotel stays now we book two rooms for the family and here's what the two rooms were pricing out at:

A very reasonable price of only $121.49 plus taxes per room for the Best Western Rewards members rate (the AAA rate was the same). However I also saw the 20,000 points option and it triggered my memory that 'hey we have Best Western points we haven't used'. I have been sitting on 60,000+ Best Western Rewards points for years as Best Western is a brand we almost never stay at! As most of our readers may know it's Marriott, Hyatt etc. for most of the Rewards Canada family stays. The last time we stayed at a BW hotel was back in 2015. So, I decided that I would redeem points for the two rooms as the points are just sitting there not being used. It is better to use them up rather than not at all and seeing that I don't even know when we may stay at another Best Western hotel it just made sense to redeem. This was the topic of discussion for episode 56 of our podcast with guest Rob Carrick about hoarding points and something we talk about in a lot of our media interviews that it is better not to hold on to points for too long. Give it a listen if you haven't yet!

Anyways, back to the redemption. The process on the Best Western website was super easy and I was able to select the 20,000 points rate for the first room, then it went to the second room and I was able to do the same and after completing some fields in the reservation form (requesting connecting rooms etc) we had the rooms booked in less then 5 minutes.

40,000 points and no cash outlay. Nice. But for some of our readers, you are probably cringing now! Why redeem 40,000 points for a hotel stay that isn't very expensive. Yes if we paid cash it would have only been $264.84 total for the two rooms.

40,000 points for $264.84 in room cost translates to a value of only 0.66 cents per point. I would say this on the mid to lower end for Best Western Rewards where you could pull upwards of 0.9 cents per point. Don't get me wrong, I like to be able to receive as much value for my points whenever possible but I also live by my mantra that was covered in my feature The True Value in Reward Redemptions where the best redemptions are those that make you happy. This redemption made me happy, I got to use up points that have been sitting there for years and most likely would have sat there for many more years. I also got to keep almost $265 in my wallet. So in my mind this was a redemption that was well worth it.


Not only did we get the stay for free, I also earned 750 points on the stay thanks to being a Best Western Diamond member (thanks to BW Status Match No Catch) and completing the stay survey afterwards:

Overall I would say this was a great redemption for the Rewards Canada family! We'd love to hear your comments about redeeming points for Best Western stays. Do you try to maximize them or don't even bother looking at the value and just redeem for those free nights whenever you can get them? Let us know in the comments below!

Title image courtesy of Best Western

The limited time offer of 4% Cash Back on the Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card has been extended to October 31

The limited time increased sign up bonus for the Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card has been extended to October 31. This limited time offer that was originally slated to end on July 31 provides 4% cash back in two categories that you select (three categories if you choose to deposit the cash back into a Tangerine savings account) for three months. After that period the rate returns to the regular 2% in your selected categories and 0.5% on all other spending.

These are the spending categories you can choose from to earn the higher cash back rates:

Once, one of the best cash back cards out there the current version of the Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card is now somewhere in the middle of the pack for cash back cards but the earn of 4% (and then 2%) on certain categories might just make the best sense for some of you!!

The card details below show the latest offers on this card and may not be representative of the discussion above:

July 30 Update: Capital One security breach affects up to 6 millions Canadians

Capital One is the latest company to be hacked and it affected a lot of Canadians according to their press release. The security breach affected about 6 million Canadians and of those approximately 1 million Social Insurance numbers were comprised. If you are or have been a Capital One cardholder you will be contacted by Capital One to let you know if you were one of those who had their data comprised. In the mean time Capital One recommends doing the following:

We are also encouraging customers to enroll in account alerts to help them keep track of activity on their accounts. Customers can sign in to online banking and set up text or email alerts, based on their preferences.

We also encourage customers to monitor their credit card accounts for unusual or suspicious activity that they do not recognize, and to call the phone number on the back of their Capital One card or on their statement as soon as possible, if they see unusual activity.

We do not call customers asking for personal information and customers should be mindful of the possibility of phishing emails and calls due to this incident. Tips on how to spot fraudulent emails / messages are on the Capital One website at https://www.capitalone.ca/help/fraud-protection/

Phishing is an attempt to acquire personal information, sometimes to compromise online banking accounts by posing as a legitimate company in an electronic communication. These emails are not from Capital One. If you believe you have received a fraudulent email that claims to be from Capital One:

• Do not reply to the email.
• Do not click on any of the links embedded in the email.
• Forward the email to abuse@capitalone.com.
• After forwarding the email to Capital One for investigation, delete it.
• Be sure to monitor your account and call us if you notice any unusual activity.

You can learn more about this incident here

Posts since our last update:

• A look at how the current TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card sign up offer of up to 25,000 miles can provide huge value!
  Back in June TD revised the offer for the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card. The offer provides an awesome welcome…
• Reminder: Increased sign up bonuses for the MBNA Rewards World Elite & Platinum Plus Mastercards
  This is a reminder post about the not so well publicized limited time offers for MBNA's proprietary rewards cards. …
• July 25 Update: Canada's Top Cash Back Credit Cards for 2019, join EIA Rewards for a chance to win a trip to Zagreb & more!
  The big news for today is the release of our Top Cash Back Credit Card rankings for 2019! Check…

Travel Deals

Hilton Asia Pacific 100th Anniversary Sale – Save up to 20% for stays through to February 2020

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

Aegean Miles+Bonus
- Earn up to 1,000 Bonus Miles+Bonus Miles when you stay at Marriott Hotels & Resorts in Europe. More... Book by Aug 31 for stays until Dec 31, 19

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
- Earn up to 1,500 Bonus Mileage Plan miles when you shop online via the Mileage Plan Shopping portal. More... Until Aug 11, 19

Best Western Rewards
- Double Rewards Points or Airline Miles for stays at the Best Western Hotel Achim Bremen. More... Aug 1 - Dec 31, 19
- Double Rewards Points or Airline Miles for stays at the Best Western Huddersfield Pennine Manor Hotel. More... Until Sep 1, 19

Emirates Skywards
- Double Skywards Miles for stays of 2+ nights at any participating Shangri-La Hotel Worldwide. More... Book by Aug 31 for stays until Mar 31, 20

Iberia Plus
- Earn up to 18,000 Avios when you subscribe to The Economist. More... Until Sep 30, 19

Le Club AccorHotels
- 300 Bonus Le Club AccorHotels Points for stays at participating Accor Hotels in Austria, Germany or Switzerland. More... Book by Sep 2 for stays Aug 15 - Nov 15, 19

Marriott Bonvoy
- Earn up to 3,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points for stays at the Sheraton Grand Incheon Hotel.  More... Until Aug 24, 19
- 10,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points per stays at the Cotton House Hotel, Autograph Collection Barcelona. More... Until Aug 31, 19
- 10,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points for stays of 3+ nights in a deluxe studio or 1, 2 or 3 bedroom villa at the Koloa Landing Resort at Poipu, Autograph Collection  More... Until Aug 24, 19

United MileagePlus
- Double MileagePlus Miles when you convert your Wyndham Rewards points to United MileagePlus miles. More... Until Aug 15, 19
- Earn up to 2,500 Bonus MileagePlus miles when you shop online via the MileagePlus Shopping portal. More... Until Aug 18, 19

World of Hyatt
- 2,000 Bonus World of Hyatt Points for stays at participating Hyatt Hotels Worldwide. More... Targeted for Google Employees but it may work for anyone Aug 1 - Nov 15, 19


Follow Rewards Canada:

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A look at how the current TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card sign up offer of up to 25,000 miles can provide huge value!

Back in June TD revised the offer for the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card. The offer provides an awesome welcome bonus of up to 25,000 Aeroplan Miles and a first year annual fee rebate for the primary card. Sure it isn't the 30,000 Aeroplan Miles we saw earlier in the year but this 25,000 mile bonus still provides some huge value. The welcome bonus is split as 15,000 miles upon your first purchase and another 10,000 miles when you spend $2,000 on the card within the first 90 days of opening your account. For most people this shouldn't be too hard as that will equate to $666.67 in spending per month.no fee etc. This offer ends on September 3, 2019

The questions is after you get the card and receive the miles,  how can you get really good value from them?

To start, here is a broad example of what 25,000 Aeroplan Miles can get you:

• 3 one way economy class short haul flights in Canada & Continental USA
• 1 round trip or 2 one way economy class long haul flights in Canada & Continental USA 
• 1 one way economy class ticket from Canada to Hawaii, Mexico, Caribbean, Central America, or Northern South America
• 1 one way business class long haul flights in Canada & Continental USA

That's great but what is the value of those 25,000 miles? With so many great welcome offers available right now on a variety of travel rewards credit card why would I want to pick the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card over others? You would want to because this card has the ability to get value from as little as $300 to almost $2,000 just from the points - not any additional benefits like we see added into 'value' propositions from other cards. You have to remember as well - the card is first year free - so outside of the minimum spend requirement, these miles are coming to you for free.

Enough blabbing! Let's look at some examples!

All of the examples below require miles that are at or below the sign up bonus of this card:

Let's look at Toronto to Boston for Christmas from December 22 to 28:

This round trip flight is 15,000 miles + $197.71 in taxes and fees. To buy the flight outright with Air Canada would cost $371.01. The savings is $173.30 or 1.15 cents per mile. Taking that 1.15 cents per mile value means the 25,000 Mile sign up bonus from the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card would be worth $287. Not bad but we can do better!

Lets look at Toronto-San Francisco in economy class for September 11-18

This round trip flight is 25,000 miles + $197.71 in taxes and fees. To buy the flight outright with Air Canada would cost $639.81. The savings is $442.10 or 1.76 cents per mile. This means the 25,000 Mile sign up bonus from the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card would be worth $442.

Ok those are so-so offers and they are ones that many Canadians would typically book but lets look another popular route. I know some of you like to see higher value per mile redeemed and sometimes you get can real out-sized value from the program. Here is one of those, Vancouver to Calgary for a Christmas visit:

This round trip flight is 15,000 miles + $155.66 in taxes and fees. To buy the flight outright with Air Canada would cost $465.41. The savings is $309.75 or 2 cents per mile. Taking that 2 cents per miles value means the 25,000 Mile sign up bonus from the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card would be worth $500!  But wait, we can do even better....

How about doing a one-way in business class between Toronto and San Francisco - and there's a bonus - it is on Boeing 787-9 with lie flat seats:

This round trip flight is 25,000 miles + $123.69 in taxes and fees. To buy the flight outright with Air Canada would cost $2063.60. The savings is $1939.91 or 7.75 cents per mile. That means the 25,000 Mile sign up bonus from the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card is worth $1,939! 

Are you starting to get the picture here? Sure people like to nitpick on airline frequent flyer programs on how seats aren't available, dates aren't available, too many miles are required. And this isn't false - this is true in many cases when you need to travel when everyone else does. But as we have preached for 18 years, if you can be flexible in your travel (ie you don't need to travel during Spring Break or Christmas and can move your vacations around by a few days) then the best bang for your buck are always going to be frequent flyer and frequent guest programs.

Related: A look at how The Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card provides huge value!

If this isn't you then you are probably still best suited to take part in proprietary credit card reward programs

Related: Why proprietary credit card reward programs are the best option for most Canadians 

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Disclaimer: Our goal at RewardsCanada.ca is to present readers with reliable financial advice and product choices that will help you achieve your financial goals. Rewards Canada receives compensation from some companies issuing financial products, like credit cards and bank accounts, that appear on this site. Unless a post is clearly marked “Sponsored”, however, products mentioned in editorial articles and reviews are based on the author’s subjective assessment of their value to readers, not compensation. For full details and current product information click the Apply now link / learn more link.

Sponsored advertising. The Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) is not responsible for the contents of this site including any editorials or reviews that may appear on this site. For complete and current information on any TD product, please visit the TD site.

Reminder: Increased sign up bonuses for the MBNA Rewards World Elite & Platinum Plus Mastercards

This is a reminder post about the not so well publicized limited time offers for MBNA's proprietary rewards cards.  These are the cards that underwent some changes earlier in the year and late last summer. The cards were very popular up until the middle of 2018 as the points there earned could be redeemed for travel or cash back at the same rate. Some of the value was eroded when the annual fee on the World Elite Version was bumped to $120 per year from $89. This was with no increase in benefits or sign up bonus. It was also announced at that time that the redemption rate for cash back was changing in February 2019 from 2% to about 1.67%. The good news was the redemption rate for travel was not changing which meant it was still a really good 2%. The Platinum Plus version is essentially a 1% back version of the World Elite when redeeming for travel however it does offer 2 points per dollar (2%) on eligible gas, groceries and restaurant purchases on the first $5,000 in spending in each category, which is pretty good for a No Annual Fee card.

If really flexible travel rewards are key for you and you are not interested in cash back or a ton of extra benefits these cards are ones you could consider, especially with these new limited time welcome bonus increases:

For the MBNA Rewards World Elite® Mastercard® the welcome bonus has been doubled to 20,000 points, which is worth $200 towards any travel redemption. The MBNA Rewards Platinum Plus® Mastercard® also sees its welcome offer double to 10,000 points worth $100 towards any travel redemption. To take advantage of these new increased welcome offers you have to apply for either card by October 31, 2019.

The card details below show the latest offers on these cards and may not be representative of the discussion above:

July 25 Update: Canada's Top Cash Back Credit Cards for 2019, join EIA Rewards for a chance to win a trip to Zagreb & more!

The big news for today is the release of our Top Cash Back Credit Card rankings for 2019! Check out what we picked as the top 5 cards here!

Are you from the Edmonton area or fly from or via Edmonton's International Airport? Be sure to join their EIA Rewards program to receive discounts on shopping, parking and dining or if you are a connecting passenger you can get lounge passes, discounted hotel rates and more. If you join the program by July 31 you'll be entered to win a trip for 2 to Zagreb! Find out more here.

Posts since our last update:

• Earn 10x Aeroplan Miles when you shop online at the Apple store until July 26!
  Right now if you shop online at the Apple store via Aeroplan's eStore you will earn 10 times the…
• Rewards Canada reveals the Top Cash Back Credit Cards for 2019
   Today we released Rewards Canada's third annual Top Cash back Credit Card rankings! The rankings this year see a shift…
• Up to a 50% Bonus when you buy Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles until August 30!
  Alaska Airlines has brought back their best bonus for buying Mileage Plan miles! Right now you will get up…
• Hilton Asia Pacific 100th Anniversary Sale – Save up to 20% for stays through to February 2020
  Hilton Honors members can save up to 20% on stays at Hilton’s Asia Pacific locations with their 100th Anniversary…
• July 23 Update: WestJet releases winter schedule, includes new Calgary-Punta Cana flight + 6 new bonuses for you
  WestJet has released their winter flying schedule which sees heavy increases on flights out of Calgary, Toronto and Vancouver…

Travel Deals

Hilton Asia Pacific 100th Anniversary Sale – Save up to 20% for stays through to February 2020

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

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
- Receive up to 50% Bonus Mileage Plan Miles when you buy miles online. More... Until Aug 30, 19

Le Club AccorHotels
- Earn up Triple Le Club AccorHotels Points for stays at participating Accor Hotels in Russia. More... Book by Aug 31 for stays until Sep 30, 19

World of Hyatt
- 40% Bonus World of Hyatt Points when buy 5,000 or more points. More... Until Aug 27, 19

Wyndham Rewards
- Double Wyndham Rewards Points on rentals of 1 or more days at participating Avis locations worldwide. More... Until Dec 31, 19


Follow Rewards Canada:

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Earn 10x Aeroplan Miles when you shop online at the Apple store until July 26!

Right now if you shop online at the Apple store via Aeroplan's eStore you will earn 10 times the Aeroplan miles. That means, you can earn 10 Aeroplan Miles per dollar spend (pre-tax) on almost all Apple products. And if you are in a rush for those items you don't even have to wait for them as long as they are in stock at a physical Apple store. Simply access the Apple Store online via Aeroplan's eStore and select in-store pick up for your item(s) and you'll still earn the 10x Aeroplan miles. The last few times they have had these promotions (10x and 7x miles) I did exactly that and the miles posted and I didn't have to wait to have the items to be shipped to me. This offer only runs until July 26 so don't procrastinate!

Here is just one example of how many miles you can earn if you needed a new laptop

At $1699 for this model, you would earn 16,990 Aeroplan Miles for the purchase and if you paid for it with a TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite card, you would be adding over 1,700 more miles (the price plus taxes) for over 18,000 Aeroplan Miles. With just that purchase you have earned enough miles for a short haul economy class flight (round trip) between Vancouver and Calgary or Toronto and Montreal for example!

Find out more about this offer here

Rewards Canada reveals the Top Cash Back Credit Cards for 2019

 

Today we released Rewards Canada's third annual Top Cash back Credit Card rankings!

The rankings this year see a shift in the second to fifth spots which means only the top spot remained the same! That top spot goes to the SimplyCash Preferred Card for the third year in a row! Featuring a very strong welcome bonus, 2% return on everyday spending and a really good insurance package keeps this card in first place. The card that challenged it, and challenged it closely is the Rogers World Elite Mastercard. Last year's number three card, this card now moves to second place thanks to having no annual fee, the ability to cash out anytime your balance hits $20 and a straight 1.75% return on most spending made on the card.

 

What are the rest Canada's Top Cash Back Credit Cards for 2019? Click here to find out!

Up to a 50% Bonus when you buy Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles until August 30!

Alaska Airlines has brought back their best bonus for buying Mileage Plan miles! Right now you will get up to a 50% bonus when you buy 40,000 or more miles. The bonus offer depends on the member and the maximum bonus is 50%.

If you reveal the 50% you'll definitely want to consider buying the miles as you are buying Mileage Plan Miles under U.S. 2 cents a piece although as Canadians we also have to pay GST/HST on the amount since Points.com, who processes the transaction is a Canadian company.

Seeing that you can redeem miles for premium class flights on British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Hainan, Korean Air and more, there are lots of options for you to use these miles. Remember it only takes 70,000 Mileage Plan miles to fly Cathay Pacific First Class from North America to Asia and that flight alone will cost a lot more than US$1,478.13!

Here is one example of a redemption you could use this bonus offer on. Flying Japan Airlines business class from Vancouver to Tokyo:

Visit Japan in April for a week - 120,000 miles round trip for business class + $116.73 in fees/taxes. To purchase 120,000 miles would cost you around C$3,200, add in the fees and you are looking at $3,316. To pay cash for the same flights on Japan Airlines' website came in at C$6,488.

Remember Alaska has set in place a maximum amount of miles you can buy in a year if you don't hold MVP status.  Non-Elite members can only buy 150,000 miles per year now.  MVP, MVP Gold, and MVP Gold 75K member are not subjected to this limitation. Seeing that Alaska has never offered more than a 50% bonus this is definitely the time to buy if you were targeted to get that amount.

Offer details
Receive up to 50% Bonus Mileage Plan Miles when you buy miles online. Buy miles here Aug 30, 19
The bonus offer varies per member and 50% is the maximum bonus. Here is an example of the tiered 50% bonus:

• Buy 10,000 - 19,000 miles = 20% bonus
• Buy 20,000 - 39,000 miles = 35% bonus
• Buy 40,000 - 60,000 miles = 50% bonus

Find many more Mileage Plan bonus miles offers here

Hilton Asia Pacific 100th Anniversary Sale – Save up to 20% for stays through to February 2020

Hilton Honors members can save up to 20% on stays at Hilton’s Asia Pacific locations with their 100th Anniversary sale!

This offer must be booked by September 6, 2019 for stays  all the way through to February 2, 2020. 

Remember that you should also be earning Double HHonors on these stays with the current summer Hilton Honors promotion (as long as it is your 2nd stay) that runs until Sep 8. Find that and all other Honors bonuses here..

Blackout dates may apply and vary by property. Rates are valid for single/double occupancy and are exclusive of all taxes, incidental charges, gratuities, and resort fees where applicable.

Click here to take advantage of the Hilton APAC Resorts sale 

Here’s just a small sample of the offers available in Japan:

July 23 Update: WestJet releases winter schedule, includes new Calgary-Punta Cana flight + 6 new bonuses for you

WestJet has released their winter flying schedule which sees heavy increases on flights out of Calgary, Toronto and Vancouver to cities Canada, the U.S. and sun destinations! New routes include Calgary to Punta Cana and Vancouver to San Jose Del Cabo. Also flights to Paris from Calgary will start up again in March 2019 instead of May. Find out more here!

Highlights of WestJet's 2019/2020 winter schedule include:

• Calgary-Halifax, from seven times weekly to 10 times weekly
• Calgary-London, Gatwick, from three times weekly to four times weekly flights
• Calgary-Fort Lauderdale, from once weekly to twice weekly
• Calgary-Honolulu, from two times weekly to three times weekly
• Calgary-Varadero, from once weekly to twice weekly
• Calgary-Paris, seasonal service beginning March 12, 2020
• Calgary-Nashville, seasonal service beginning March 16, 2020
• Calgary-Portland, extension of daily summer route through winter
• Calgary-Maui, 787 Dreamliner service
• Vancouver-Winnipeg, from 13 times weekly to two daily flights
• Vancouver-Orange County, from six times weekly to daily
• Vancouver-San Jose del Cabo, from five times weekly to daily
• Vancouver-Puerto Vallarta, from eight times weekly to nine times weekly
• Vancouver-Huatulco, from once weekly to twice weekly
• Vancouver-Cancun, from seven times weekly to nine times weekly
• Toronto-Fort Myers, from 10 times weekly to 11 times weekly
• Toronto-Aruba, from twice weekly to three times weekly
• Toronto-Kingston, from three times weekly to four times weekly
• Toronto-London, Gatwick, daily service offered on WestJet's 787 Dreamliner
• Ottawa-Fort Myers, from once weekly to twice weekly
• Edmonton-Saskatoon, from 18 times weekly to 23 times weekly
• Victoria- San Jose Del Cabo, new weekly service beginning November 5, 2019
• Calgary-Punta Cana, new weekly service beginning December 14, 2019

Posts since our last update:

• Step by step guide to converting points from your American Express Cobalt Card to Marriott Bonvoy
  In this post I cover the details on how to transfer points from your American Express Membership Rewards account…
• Canadian North and First Air to merge - Aurora Rewards will remain as the new airline's frequent flyer program
  On July 10 the Government of Canada approved the merger of Canada's two major airlines of the north, First…
• July 19 Update: Canalta Rewards members can enter to win Roughriders tickets for tomorrow and a flashback to the Canada Dry Aeroplan promo from the 2000s
  Canalta Rewards is offering up a chance to win two tickets to the Saskatchewn Roughriders versus B.C. Lions game…

Travel Deals

Hilton Asia Pacific 100th Anniversary Sale – Save up to 20% for stays through to February 2020

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

Avianca LifeMiles
- 50% Bonus LifeMiles when you book qualified stays at IHG Hotels Worldwide. More... Book by Nov 15 for stays until Dec 15, 19

Emirates Skywards
- Earn up to 30% Bonus Skywards Miles when you buy or gift Skywards miles. More... Until Aug 5, 19

IHG Rewards Club
- Earn Double IHG Rewards Club Points for stays at any one of the 13 EVEN Hotels in North America or China starting with your second night. More... Register and book now for stays Aug 1 – Oct 31, 19

Marriott Bonvoy
- 3,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points for stays in a Suite at the Sheraton Grand Sydney Hyde Park. More... Until Sep 26, 19

Radisson Rewards
- Earn up to 50% Bonus Points when you buy Radisson Rewards points. More... Until Jul 28, 19

Wyndam Rewards
- 1,000 Bonus  Wyndham Rewards Points on your next stay at a Wyndham Rewards Hotel Worldwide. More... Unknown end date Targeted Offer – May not work for everyone



Follow Rewards Canada:

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Step by step guide to converting points from your American Express Cobalt Card to Marriott Bonvoy

In this post I cover the details on how to transfer points from your American Express Membership Rewards account to your Marriott Bonvoy account as I recently completed the first such transfer since the integration of Starwood Preferred Guest into Marriott.  You may recall our very popular post from 2018 covering almost the exact same subject entitled Step by Step guide to converting points from your American Express Cobalt Card to Starwood Preferred Guest. That post covered the transfer from Amex to SPG when the ratio was 2 Membership Rewards Points to 1 Starwood Preferred Guest points which then converted to Marriott at a 1:3 ratio. That was an amazing transfer ratio which I feel we were very lucky to get as Marriott did not have to value SPG points as such.

Unfortunately this changed with the integration of SPG into Marriott (see: Amex Membership Rewards to the new Marriott Rewards/Starwood Preferred Guest program conversion rate is here!) and American Express made the new ratio 1 Membership Rewards points = 1.2 Marriott Bonvoy points. This is still nothing the balk at - seeing that the majority of my Membership Rewards points earned, roughly 99%, with my Cobalt card are in the 5x points for eats and drinks category. That means I am effectively earning 6 Marriott Bonvoy points per dollar spent on the card and with my personal valuation of Marriott Bonvoy points being 1 cent per point means I achieved an amazing 6% return on that spending. This is just one of the reasons why we rank the Cobalt Card as the number one travel rewards credit card in Canada (see our rankings here). And that's my minimum valuation - if you recall my post looking at pulling value out of the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card, you'll see you can get more than 1 cent per point when redeeming these points for hotel stays!

Now on to the transfer process!

The first thing that is required to complete this transfer is to add your Marriott Bonvoy member number to you American Express Membership Rewards account if you haven't done so already.  If you have multiple American Express cards, such as The Platinum Card and Cobalt Card, you will have two separate Membership Rewards accounts. The Cobalt Card comes under Membership Rewards Select Tier. This means when you are on the Membership Rewards website and logged in you'll want to click on 'Your Points Account' and choose 'Switch Account' to access the right one - in this case "MR Select Tier' for the Cobalt Card.

As seen above, in the latest update of American Express' website the menu no longer delineates between Membership Rewards and MR Select Tier like it used to:

The old menu actually told you which tier

This means you'll have to guess which menu item is MR Select Tier, which for me is the bottom option.

Once switched over you'll want to click on the 'Travel' tab and select 'Frequent Traveler Participants'  

At this point you should see the following:

Click on Marriott Bonvoy and you'll find the following on the next page:

Click on Add Another Account and complete the following: 

Note that for Canadian American Express Membership Rewards accounts the name from the other loyalty programs must match that on your credit card so you cannot transfer to family or friends. Once you add that the account must be verified by American Express and this can take a couple of days before you have access to transfer.

Once confirmed, go back to your Membership Rewards account and follow the first couple of steps to get to your MR Select Tier account and click through to Frequent Traveller Participants and then underneath Marriott click on 'Transfer my points'

 

  You'll then input the transfer amount and your security details for the card:

Then you'll have one more step to confirm and click on 'Complete Transfer':

  and your confirmation:

The website states up to 5 business days to complete the transfer however the points were transferred and completed in roughly 24 hours.

There you have it - a pretty simple process.  As you can see I transferred 107,000 Membership Rewards Select Tier points to 128,400 Marriott Bonvoy points. Here is a screenshot from my Marriott account confirming the points were deposited:

I will follow up with another post showing how I will be transferring 100,000 of these Marriott Bonvoy Points over to my wife as Marriott does allow family pooling up to that amount per year. This is one change from the old SPG program that isn't as good as SPG was unlimited points transfers versus this 100,000.

As I mentioned at the start of this piece if you are thinking of making this transfer option from your Cobalt Card (or any other Membership Rewards card)  I would start planning it out now and complete it soon. Given that it can take a few days to have your Marriott Bonvoy account confirmed and up to 5 days for the points to transfer you'll want to make sure you have leave enough time to have the points in your account to make a booking.

Have you completed this transfer? Let us know how it worked out for you! Or are you considering it here in the next month? Let us know as well in the comments below! Oh yeah, I'm sure you may ask why did I transfer 107,000 points, not 100,000 or some even number like that - I did so to clear out my account as I haven't been using my Cobalt card of late, instead I have been using an additional card for my wife's account to boost her Membership Rewards balance.

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This post was not sponsored. The views and opinions expressed in this review are purely my own.