In just over a day there will be four buy miles and points bonus offers coming to an end. All four of these offers have end dates of December 31 however the Air France KLM Flying Blue offer will end sooner on December 31 since it is based on Central European Time which means you only have until 5:59pm ET to buy those miles if your like. The two that definitely stand out in this list are Hilton's and Hyatt's offers. The Hilton 100% bonus matches a frequent offer from them and is the best offer that comes from them while Hyatt's is close the being their best offer but not quite as good as the 40% bonus we do see from them on occasion.
The BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Card is part of a duo of cards released by BMO in late 2020 which represent their first foray into issuing Visa branded cards. Up until this point BMO has been strictly an issuer of Mastercard cards under their own proprietary program BMO Rewards and co-brand Mastercards for the AIR MILES reward program. The new eclipse Visa Infinite and Visa Infinite Privilege cards expand on BMO's portfolio of card offerings as they do not replace any cards but complement their existing BMO Rewards Mastercards.
The BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Card was released into a market that has seen card issuers trying to target lifestyle on top of rewards or at least that's how all the issuers are marketing the cards as such. This card falls into that category, it is being marketed as a lifestyle card with accelerated earn for select 'lifestyle' categories and an annual lifestyle statement credit. The card has accelerated earn rates that are comparable to several of their competitors and the annual $50 lifestyle credit is the first such offering for cards in Canada at this card level, that is premium cards like Visa Infinite and World Elite Mastercard. It's base earn rate is something else however and took us by surprise at being so weak for this level of card. Read on to find out more about that! In terms of benefits and insurance the card is mediocre but they do add in Mobile Device Insurance.
This offer has been extended to January 16, 2021!
Between now and January 16, 2021 when you transfer points from HSBC Rewards to your Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer account you'll receive 15% bonus KrisFlyer Miles.
If you haven't had enough of online shopping just yet then this week is another good one to get some done and rack up some bonus miles. AIR MILES is offering 10x miles site wide on AIR MILES Shops purchases made by December 31.
Welcome to another Rewards Canada Clash!
If you listened to our podcast from June entitled Clash of the Credit Cards - you'll know that we've changed our Showdown features to Clashes. The reason why is that lots of sites and blogs are using Showdown now, some are using battle so we wanted to continue to be unique so our comparisons are now Clashes!
This time we have a Clash of the Credit Cards between the only two remaining hotel loyalty program credit cards in Canada. Those cards are the Marriott Bonvoy™ American Express® Card and the MBNA Best Western Rewards Mastercard
December 22 Update: There is a new code we received in our email today that revives this post and offer! The code is HELLO2021 and it provides 30% off when you book by 11:59pm PT on December 23. The travel period is different for this offer as well as it is limited to January 12 to May 19 with black out dates listed below. You can access the offer here.
Here we have a follow up to our first Aeroplan Priority Rewards post from earlier this month where we looked at Priority Rewards from the perspective of a 50K elite member. Now, thanks to Rewards Canada reader Dat N. we have examples of Priority Rewards for a Super Elite member with an Aeroplan co-brand card. The combination of being a top tier elite member and holding an Aeroplan credit provides the biggest point discount available for Aeroplan reward flights. On top of this being a Super Elite member means the Priority Rewards received can be used on any fare class up to Business/Signature to any destination that Air Canada flies to Worldwide.
Hertz Gold Plus Rewards is offering all of their Five Star and President’s Circle members the opportunity to gift equivalent status to one family member or friend. The status that is gifted will be valid for one year from January 31, 2021 to January 31, 2022.
Here's your Rewards Canada Daily update! Your daily dose (or near daily dose) of loyalty program, credit card and travel news, bonuses, deals and more. This update is brought to you by the HSBC World Elite Mastercard!
Here's your Rewards Canada Daily update! Your daily dose (or near daily dose) of loyalty program, credit card and travel news, bonuses, deals and more. This update is brought to you by the HSBC World Elite Mastercard.
Here's your Rewards Canada Daily update! Your daily dose (or near daily dose) of loyalty program, credit card and travel news, bonuses, deals and more. This update is brought to you by the HSBC World Elite Mastercard.
We have another player in the credit card offers market and by offers we mean discounts or statement credits! By now you are probably very familiar with Amex Offers and RBC Offers as we do give them a lot of coverage here on Rewards Canada. We have also touched upon BMO who also has the occasional offer but nowhere near the extent of Amex or RBC - now we also have HSBC. They have their own offers for some of their Mastercards (primarily the higher end ones) and those offers can be found on this page on their site.
Here's your Rewards Canada Daily update! Your daily dose (or near daily dose) of loyalty program, credit card and travel news, bonuses, deals and more. This update is brought to you by the HSBC World Elite Mastercard.
Image via Shoppers Drug Mart
Yet another great Amex Offers offer was released today. This one is for Spotify and it basically pays for one month of streaming if you take their individual plan. Thanks again to Rewards Canada contributor Jeff W. who let us know he received some of the offer on his Marriott Bonvoy American Express card and in our household we also received it on the Platinum Card.
THIS OFFER HAS EXPIRED
HSBC's biggest and best offer for the HSBC World Elite Mastercard that happens to be one of the best ever bonuses ever seen in Canada (definitely in the Top 5 ever in terms of value) will be ending on December 28. This means there are less than two weeks to get in on it and we have confirmation it will not be extended. The offer for all of Canada sans Quebec is up to 100,000 points which ties the highest ever points offer outside of Quebec. The PC Optimum World Elite Mastercard and ATB Gold My Rewards Mastercard have both offered 100,000 in the past but those two offers were only worth $100. On top of the 100,000 point bonus on the HSBC World Elite Mastercard this current welcome bonus also provided no annual fee in the first year for the primary cardholder. Those 100,000 points are worth $500 towards any travel and as that first year annual fee is waived you get the full value of that $500! Since Quebec doesn't allow the first year free waiver the offer there is a whopping 130,000 points (this is highest ever bonus in Canada numerically speaking) worth $650 towards travel but you do have to pay the annual fee so you end up with $501 in travel value.
BMO's complete suite of No Fee AIR MILES Mastercards have had a welcome offer of 950 AIR MILES Reward Miles since the middle of August and that offer will wrap up in less than two days. December 16th will be the last day to apply for any one of the cards and be eligible to earn the 950 AIR MILES. After this date the bonus will drop to 800 AIR MILES - not a huge difference but big enough for a no fee card.
If you haven't completed all your Christmas shopping yet take a look at getting some of it done today as AIR MILES has brought out a one day flash offer of 10x miles site wide on airmilessshops.ca!
Here's your Rewards Canada Daily update! Your daily dose (or near daily dose) of loyalty program, credit card and travel news, bonuses, deals and more. This update is brought to you by the HSBC World Elite Mastercard.
Do you have Hilton Honors Diamond status? If so you should have received an email from Hilton letting you know that you can gift Gold elite status to a family member or friend for a year. This is normally a benefit that you receive as a Diamond member after you complete 60 stays so this is a nice gift for this year where it would be tough to reach that many nights.
Air Canada Aeroplan sent out news today revealing the launch of their first extra perk that they have been highly taunting us with since the revealing of the new program earlier this fall. The perk is a new redemption option where you can now redeem Aeroplan points for Wi-Fi onboard Air Canada flights.
THIS OFFER HAS EXPIRED
If I recall correctly it has been a good six months or more since we've seen RBC push out any enhanced offers for their flagship RBC Avion Visa Infinite Card but now we finally have one albeit a targeted one. Once again a big thank you to Anik D. for alerting us to this offer!
Based on the terms and conditions from the offer landing page this offer appears to come from either an email and/or mail out being sent out to select Canadians as it states the following:
Last week on December 9th American Express re-launched their Choice Card from American Express. This was a card that was offered nearly a decade ago and shut down for new applications after only a few years of being in the market. The launch of this card marks American Express Canada's reentry into the no annual fee card space with a card that earns Membership Rewards points. The only other no annual fee cards that Amex offers currently are the SimplyCash Card which is a cash back card and the Essential card which is low interest card with no rewards.
And contrary to what you might read on some forums - this card has its place and it can provide suprisingly good value!
Here's your Rewards Canada Daily update! Your daily dose (or near
daily dose) of loyalty program, credit card and travel news, bonuses,
deals and more. This update is brought to you by the HSBC World Elite Mastercard.
Earlier this week Alaska Airlines revealed what their Elite Mileage Plan members will receive as oneworld
tier status in the global alliance. The airline officially joins
oneworld on March 31, 2021 and the matching oneworld tier status happens
automatically at that time. Here is how the status will line up:
Earlier this week Air Canada came out with another holiday offer - this time for booking flights within Canada, to the U.S. or to Sun Destinations. They provide three promo codes that you can choose from that will provide you with your choice of free checked bags, free seat selection or double Aeroplan points. Depending on what fare class, what your elite status is and even which Aeroplan credit card you hold can help you determine which promo code to choose if you are planning on booking any flights. The codes are as follows (click to make larger):
25K & 35K: Economy travel within Canada and between Canada and the U.S.As you can see the best option is reserved for the airline's best customers but even with that being said Priority Rewards can provide great value for any level of elite member.
50K: Economy and Premium Economy travel within North America and to Sun destinations
75K: Economy and Premium Economy travel worldwide
Super Elite: Up to Signature/Business Class travel worldwide
The Priority Reward vouchers are awarded to elite members each time they hit specific SQD thresholds:
Earn a voucher when you cross the 4,000, 7,000, 10,000 and 15,000 SQD thresholds, and for every 5,000 SQD earned above 15,000 SQD – up to a maximum of 50,000 SQD.
Vouchers do have to be used to book a flight within one year of them being awarded.
Once you have your vouchers they are really easy to use and can be redeemed on the Air Canada site or via the App. The vouchers will show up under the benefits tabs when you login to your account:
Image via Air Canada
And once you have reward booking search up you simply have to click on 'Select Priority Rewards' to see the discount applied to your search options
Image via Air Canada
Our resident 50K contributor Bill W. provided some screenshots of his Priority Rewards on how they look in his dashboard and to show them in action on a dummy booking between Vancouver and Honolulu.
Here's what a Vancouver to Honolulu reward flight looked like without a Priority Reward for an Air Canada 50K elite status member with an Aeroplan co-brand credit card:
and here is the same booking with a Priority Rewards voucher:
As you can see it prices out at exactly 50% of the initial points requirement for Economy Class. As Bill noted to me he wouldn't redeem it for this particular flight as the initial points requirement is big and since he is a 50K elite member he would be better off using it on a route that has Premium Economy class. As mentioned earlier in the article if you are Super Elite you can use the voucher for business class as well for flights Worldwide so they get the full gamut of reward options to price out at 50%. As a Super Elite you most definitely would want to use the voucher for long hail international travel in business class but do watch those expiry dates on them - if long haul travel isn't in the picture due to the pandemic then look at somewhere closer where you can utilize the voucher, still in business class of course!
You can learn more about Air Canada's Priority Rewards here and also check out this video on YouTube about them:
Title Image via Air Canada
Here's your Rewards Canada Daily update! Your daily dose (or near daily dose) of loyalty program, credit card and travel news, bonuses, deals and more. This update is brought to you by the HSBC World Elite Mastercard.
Image via Air Canada
In this episode Rewards Canada's Patrick Sojka sits down with Air Canada's Mark Nasr, Vice President, Loyalty & eCommerce and Derek Whitworth, Senior Director of Loyalty Products to discuss the new Aeroplan program. Now a month old we take a look at how the new program has been performing as well as how Air Canada and its members feel this first month has gone. We talk membership, new features coming to online reward flight bookings, credit cards, buddy passes and more! We also get the first news on the extension of Aeroplan's generous change and cancellation policy. Be sure to listen in to the final Rewards Canada podcast episode for 2020 to gain more insight to the new Aeroplan program!
American Express Canada launched a new no fee card today that earns Membership Rewards Points which happen to be the most valuable points in the Canadian market today! That card is the Choice Card from American Express TM and it comes with a welcome bonus is 10,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend $1,000 in the first three months. It looks like it doesn't really offer any insurance so this is a card meant for earning those valuable points without worrying about annual fees. I have reached out to American Express to find out if these are Membership Rewards First (Platinum Card), Membership Rewards (Gold Rewards Card) or Select points (Cobalt/Business Edge) or even something else as I can't find the details on Amex's site. That being said the way everything is worded on the landing page leads me to believe these will not be MR First or regular MR which means you can't convert to Aeroplan, British Airways or their other airline partners. There is also no mention of converting to hotels like the Cobalt Card's MR Select program so I'm wondering if they have made a third Membership Rewards level for this card.
Here's your Rewards Canada Daily update! Your daily dose (or near daily dose) of loyalty program, credit card and travel news, bonuses, deals and more. This update is brought to you by the HSBC World Elite Mastercard .
Qatar Airways announced a new route between Seattle and Doha today as well as a partnership with Alaska Airlines ahead of the latter airline joining the oneworld Alliance that Qatar is already a member of. That route will launch on March 15th and will operate 4 days per week. This is of particular interest to those who live in Western Canada as once Alaska Airlines resumes more flights to the five cities they used to serve Pre-Covid you should be able to use those flights to connect to this Qatar Airways flight. There are plans to have code-sharing in place some time in the future. Of course if you live in the lower mainland you have the great option of driving to Seattle once the land borders open up to non-essential travel. One of Qatar's biggest competitors, Emirates, already had code-shared on those Alaska Airlines Western Canadian routes and promoted that partnership heavily on their website and even at conferences. I remember one of the years that I attended the Global Petroleum Show here in Calgary Emirates had their own booth and were primarily promoting the Seatte gateway with their Alaska Airlines connection. I wouldn't be surprised if we see Qatar do the same thing and invest in promoting the Seattle route to Western Canadians.
Here is the schedule of the new route:
Seattle Flight Schedule: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Friday
Doha (DOH) to Seattle (SEA) QR719 departs: 08:00 arrives: 12:20
Seattle (SEA) to Doha (DOH) QR720 departs: 17:05 arrives: 17:15+1
The partnership will also include reciprocal earning for Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan and Qatar Airways Privielge Club members for flights as of December 15. Then on March 31st (when Alaska joins oneworld) there will be reciprocal redemption and elite status recognition.
Image via Qatar Airways
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Be sure to set a reminder for tomorrow if you want to score some free World of Hyatt points. Tomorrow is the Global Day of Gratitude and to celebrate Hyatt will give you 500 points for spending time with Headspace in the World of Hyatt app. Here's how it works:
| • | Open the World of Hyatt app. If you don’t have it already, download it here. |
| • | Complete one of our custom Headspace exercises — Unwind, Reflect or Sleep. |
| • | Enjoy 500 Bonus Points just for nurturing your wellbeing. |
Image via Hyatt
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Give A Mile 2020 Flight Hero Christmas Campaign: Help Rewards Canada raise 50,000 points for flights of compassion We are now up to 30,000 points - thank you to everyone who has donated so far! Now we only need 20,000 more points!
HSBC Premier Chequing Account Get up to $1,000* in cash back and rewards when you switch over to us by December 28, 2020 Find out more here.
Earn $300 cash when you open a new Scotiabank Ultimate Package! Plus earn Scotia Rewards or SCENE Rewards points. Find out more here.
If you aren't using the Ampli Cash Back app yet you can get $5 when you download the app and join today with promo code AMPLI5 Find out more here
SkipTheDishes - Sign up with this link to get $5 off your first order over $15. Find out more here
WealthSimple Trade: Receive $5 when you deposit and trade at least $100 worth of stock with WealthSimple Trade. Find out more here (We will also receive $5 when you receive $5)
Rewards Canada receives a small commission when you use any of the above offers. You don't have to chose to use our links but we thank you in advance if you do.
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Aeroflot Bonus
- Double Bonus Miles when you book hotels via Booking .com More... Book by Dec 31, 20 for stays until Jan 31, 21
Alitalia MilleMiglia
- Up to a 50% discount when you buy or gift MilleMiglia miles online. More... Until Dec 24, 20
British Airways Executive Club
- 200 Bonus Avios per night for stays at IHG Hotels Worldwide. More... Until Mar 31, 21
Emirates Skywards
-
25% Bonus Skywards Tier miles when you convert miles/points
from Air Miles (UAE), FAB, ADCB, Standard Chartered Bank UAE, and at
Marriott Bonvoy™, Shangri‑La, Hyatt, and All – Accor Live Limitless
hotels worldwide. More... Until Jan 31, 21
Marriott Bonvoy
- OFFER EXTENDED 2,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points PER NIGHT for stays at all
participating Courtyard Hotels in the U.S., Canada, Caribbean and Latin
America More... Until Apr 4, 21
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Double KrisFlyer Miles when you rent a car with Avis for 3 or more
days in North America (USA and Canada, excluding Alaska), Europe, Middle
East, Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Asia More... Book by Jan 31 for rentals until Feb 28, 21
Follow Rewards Canada:
Emirates Skywards has offered an array of bonus offers during the
pandemic for transferring points, buying miles and more. The latest is
this one to boost your tier miles balance. When you convert points or
miles from select coalition, bank or hotel programs they will give 25%
bonus tier miles as well. This means you’ll earn 1 Tier Mile for every 4
Skywards Miles you receive in your conversions. The great news with
this offer is that the coveted conversion partner of many airline
programs is included – that is Marriott Bonvoy. Marriott Bonvoy points
convert 3 to 1 to Skywards Miles and when you convert 60,000 Marriott
points at once Marriott will kick in an additional 5,000 miles. This
means for 60,000 points you’d receive 25,000 Skywards Miles plus 6,250
Tier Miles. If you don’t have any status at all with Skywards and
convert enough points/miles to receive the full 25,000 Tier Miles you’ll
receive Silver Elite status in the program which includes business
class lounge access in Dubai. For us Canadians we can't really take advantage of the financial partners (unless of course you have credit cards/bank accounts in the UAE) but can definitely use the four hotel programs that are part of the transfer bonus.
