American Express increases the value for Use Points for Purchases for non-travel purchases - 1,000 points = $10 and it's permanent!

An offer that was heralded as one of the best during the first waves of the pandemic in 2020 and helped many Canadians out for over 5 months has returned! The big difference is that it isn't for a limited time - this time it's permanent!! That offer, which we can now say is a feature or benefit is the increased value in redeeming American Express Membership Rewards points for non-travel purchases. As of today when you utilize Amex's Use Points for Purchases redemption option you'll receive a $10 credit for every 1,000 points redeemed - whether its for travel purchase or any other eligible purchase for that matter!

20,000 Aeroplan points, first year annual fee rebate & a Buddy Pass that you can convert to 30,000 points - TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card offer extended

THIS OFFER HAS EXPIRED - PLEASE SEE HERE FOR THE LATEST OFFER ON THIS CARD

I admit it, I was wrong.  I had predicted that we'd see the welcome bonus offer on the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card change as of today to naturally expire the opportunity to convert Buddy Passes to Aeroplan points for new applicants. Well I am happy to say my prediction did not come true. TD is holding fast on all their Aeroplan co-brand card offers including the very enticing offer for their mainstay card and the primary card of the entire Aeroplan program, the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card.

May 28 Update: New welcome bonus for the Signature RBC Rewards Visa & an awesome Amex offer for the Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express 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 which is currently offering a welcome bonus of up to 70,000 bonus points and no annual fee in the first year! 

The Signature RBC Rewards Visa now has a limited welcome bonus of 7,000 RBC Rewards Points. This is a great entry level card with a low annual fee that gets you started with the RBC Rewards program where you can build yourself up to getting an Avion Visa card.  This offer ends June 26, 2021.  Learn more here.

Marriott Bonvoy modifies Points Advance booking feature - limited to a 60 day hold now

 

Points Advance, a very popular feature of the Marriott Bonvoy program underwent some changes this week. The changes while appearing negative can actually be viewed as an enhancement for members who have found it difficult to book award night stays at some of the more popular Marriott locations around the globe.

Mogo Platinum Prepaid Visa earn rate will be bumped up to a flat 2% as of June 1

 

Great news in the world of prepaid credit cards - Mogo will be increasing the cash back rate for their Mogo Visa* Platinum Prepaid Card to a flat 2% as of June 1. Currently the card earns 1% Bitcoin cashback on purchases in Canada and 2% for foreign transactions. For anyone who has this card or if you are planning on getting it, all of your purchases will now earn an extra 1%.

AIR MILES Bonus Boom returns on June 17 - earn 95 bonus miles when you use three different Bonus Boom offers

 

AIR MILES and BMO have once again sent out a teaser email about the return of the AIR MILES Bonus Boom. It definitely seems to be a monthly event now and they are giving you tons of notice seeing that May's Bonus Boom concluded yesterday! Once again it will be the standard 95 bonus AIR MILES Reward Miles when you utilize offers from three different partners between June 17 and 30, 2021.

May 27 Update: Every 2nd night free + double points at Sandman Hotels and 25% off select gift cards through RBC Rewards

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 which is currently has a welcome bonus of up to 70,000 bonus points and no annual fee in the first year!

 

Sandman Hotels have a new sale in place where you can get every second night free for stays at select Sandman hotels across Canada. On top of that RSVP Rewards members will earn double points on those stays. Simply book by May 31 for stays until June 30. Find out more here.

Time to hit the rails! Aeroplan members can now earn and redeem points for Rocky Mountaineer rail journeys

Air Canada announced an exciting new partnership today for its Aeroplan program. Members are now able to earn and redeem points plus receive premium benefits when booking scenic rail journeys with Rocky Mountaineer. The famous western Canadian luxury rail tour operator joins the ranks of new and exciting partners that Aeroplan has been adding since the program was revamped in November 2020.

Receive a 60% bonus when you buy or gift Aeroplan points by June 1st

Earlier this morning we posted about the Aeroplan Blue Skies Contest  and within the actions to earn entries for the contest is a bonus offer! That bonus offer is the return of earning extra Aeroplan points when you buy and gift points. Right now through to June 1st you can earn a 60% bonus when you buy or gift Aeroplan points.

The Aeroplan Blue Skies Calling Contest - you could win one of 35 pairs of economy class tickets

Aeroplan launched a new contest today where members can have the chance to win one of 35 pairs of roundtrip Economy class tickets to Victoria (British Columbia), San Francisco, Cancun, Athens, Lisbon, Tokyo or Bogota. The contest runs until June 1st and if you happen to win a set of those tickets you have all the way through to the end of 2022 to travel! To earn contest entries you have to register for the contest first (that registration gets you your first entry) and then you can earn additional entries by complete certain actions

The Humaniti Hotel Montreal, Autograph Collection is opening early on June 1st with some great rates!

We've been providing coverage of the Humaniti Hotel Montreal, Autograph Collection over several posts since February as it is one of the most anticipated Marriott openings in Canada this year. Last time we checked the hotel was scheduled to open on June 10 and at that time we saw prices running in the high $600 to low $700 per night range. Well we just learned the hotel will now be opening on June 1st (yay! 9 days early) and not only that, they have dropped the nightly rates by a pretty penny! You can stay at the hotel on opening night for only $195+tax (about $37 in taxes and fees). That's a huge difference over those high rates we saw in early April when we posted about the grand opening 2,000 bonus points offer.

May 25 Update: Muir Autograph Collection Halifax will be a Category 6 hotel, discussing unused miles & points plus reduced redemption rates for Amex prepaid cards

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 which is currently offering a welcome bonus of up to 70,000 bonus points and no annual fee in the first year! 

 
We have now learned what Marriott Bonvoy category the Muir, an Autograph Collection Hotel Halifax will be. As I had predicted the hotel is a Category 6 hotel which unfortunately puts it out of reach for the anniversary free night awarded on the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card - that is unless there is an Off Peak Pointsavers award available in which case you could use it for one night. We have also learned the opening of this hotel has now been pushed back to November of this year from the projected summer opening. Learn more about this and other new Marriott Hotels in Canada here.

It's time for American Express to tweak the venerable Gold Rewards Card

You may recall that early in the year I published the article "There is one very popular travel rewards credit card in Canada that is due for a major overhaul" which detailed my thoughts on how the RBC Avion Visa Infinite Card is due for a change. That article was originally planned as five cards that need an overhaul but I ended up writing so much about the RBC card that it would have been way too long of an article to read. Even to cover the next four cards in their own article may prove too long so I figured I'll tackle them one by one - well not all of them as two of the cards on my list really only need the slightest changes so I'll probably lump them together in one article. With that out of the way I'll look at the how I think the next card due for an overhaul - I guess not really an overhaul but due for some tweaking is The American Express Gold Rewards Card.

The Top 5 Mastercard Cards to use at Costco Canada

 We've updated our feature on the Top Mastercard cards to use at Costco due to the recent changes to the BMO CashBack World Elite Mastercard. The BMO card saw its earn rate at Costco drop from 1.5% to 1% which meant it dropped off this list of the best five cards to use at Costco Canada stores. That card has been replaced with the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard and we've also added an honorable mention Mastercard to the list as well. The Top 5 Cards are as follows:

Summary of global hotel systemwide bonus points promotions – May Edition

 Here is your monthly update of all the global hotel bonus points promotions that are available. One of the easiest ways to rack up lots of hotel points is to take advantage of these systemwide bonuses that come from many of the big chain programs and also from the lesser known programs. In fact, right now it should be rare for you NOT to earn a bonus. Unless you are staying at a boutique hotel or perhaps an independent hotel most other hotels out there have a bonus. So take advantage of it! These systemwide bonuses simply require you to register beforehand and they do not affect hotel pricing as long as you book a point eligible rate which are most rates out there. Of course booking through a third party site like Expedia or Rocketmiles does not count as most chains only award points on bookings that are made directly with them.  Here are all the current promotions that are available to everyone this month:

How to earn bonus miles and points on travel, shopping and credit cards

 

One thing we have done at Rewards Canada right from when we first launched in September of 2001 has been to research, track and publish bonus offers for flights, hotels, car rentals and much more. In fact it proved to be so popular on Rewards Canada with visitors not only from Canada but from abroad as well that I created frequentflyerbomuses.com in 2005 to strictly cover loyalty bonus promotions from around the world! The bonus points listings and coverage on both sites became quite well known that I even recall attending a loyalty industry conference in the late 2000s and someone commenting "Oh, you're the bonus points guy" And that was before that other site with the last two words in that comment even launched ;-)

Earn 5 points per dollar when buying gas with an Aeroplan co-brand credit card

 

Wow - Aeroplan just continues to dole out the promotional offers for their members - well, right now for their members who happen to hold one of their premium or ultra premium co-brand credit cards! Last week it was the statement credit offer for booking tickets with Air Canada and this week it is a boost in the points you earn when using your card to buy gas in Canada! This is the latest in Aeroplan's “Aeroplan Ahead” offers. These time-limited offers give members special earning opportunities on the ground and at home to help accumulate points faster for their  future travels.

May 20 Update: Flexibility in Amex Aeroplan statement credits, Canada-US border closure extended & IHG Rewards extends points expiration

 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 which is currently offering a welcome bonus of up to 70,000 bonus points and no annual fee in the first year! 

 
As a follow up to our post last week detailing the new statement credits that are being awarded to Aeroplan co-brand credit cards for booking Air Canada flights we wanted to provide further details on the Amex statement credits. The American Express offers provide more flexibilty than those seen with the TD or CIBC cards.That is, Amex Cardmembers can earn the statement credit for every $400 spent, regardless of the number of tickets or bookings made. For example, if an American Express Reserve Cardmember was to book a $2,000 fare with Air Canada, they would receive $250 back outright. The same applies for American Express Aeroplan Cardmembers, who would receive a $125 credit outright for a $2,000 booking thought Air Canada.With the TD and CIBC offers if you bought that $2,000 fare you would only receive a $25 or $50 statement credit depending on which card you have. Just some food for thought if you are booking Air Canada flights and hold Aeroplan co-brand cards from Amex and TD or CIBC. Learn more about the statement credit promotion here

Air Canada Aeroplan flight reward calendar is here and an update to seat selection on partner reward tickets

 
When Air Canada launched the new Aeroplan program in November there were quite a few action items left for them to implement as time went on. Now that we are seven months into the new program we've seen quite a few of the promised updates come to fruition and today we see a couple more becoming available. One item that Air Canada has promised and has been much awaited by the points and miles community is a flight calendar that shows the lowest price in points across a few days so that you don't have to re-do your search day by day. Well that calendar has been partially implemented today as well as the ability to select seats on some partner airlines during the reward ticket booking process.

WestJet further extends companion voucher expiry to the end of 2021

WestJet has announced a further extension of the expiry of companion pass vouchers that come from the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard and WestJet RBC Mastercard. This marks the third such extension of the vouchers since the onset of the pandemic. The last update was from late December which extended the expiry of companion vouchers to the end of June 2021. That end date is now being moved to December 31, 2021. Here are the details from WestJet:

New! Earn 4% cash back in the first 6 months on the no fee SimplyCash Card from American Express

 

Today we see American Express boost the introductory welcome bonus on their great no fee cash back credit card, the SimplyCash Card from American Express. As of today the welcome offer jumps to 4% cash back on all purchases (up to $200 cash back) for the first 6 months. Typically the offer is 2.5% for up to $150 total in cash back before the card reverts to its standard earn rate.

Receive a 100% bonus when you buy Hilton Honors points

It has only been a week since we last saw Hilton run their 100% bonus for buying points and it’s back again! You can earn a 100% bonus for buying Hilton Honors points right through to July 8, 2021.This time you can buy up to 160,000 points which is doubley the amount of points you can typically buy annually. That 160,000 cap does not included the bonus points so if you max out this offer and buy 160,000 points you’ll receive 3200,000 into your account. Hilton however has increased the lower purchase threshold of 5,000 points seen during the last promotion to 15,000 this time.

The best credit cards for everyday non-category bonus spending

A lot of the focus on Rewards Canada is about credit cards as they are the easiest and number one way to earn loyalty points and miles in Canada. When it comes to spending your hard earned money on credit cards most of what we discuss revolves around the category bonuses awarded on those cards. Five times points this, three times points that but what about non-category bonus spending? Which cards stand out when it comes to your spending outside of things like groceries, gas, travel and other typical categories that are bonused? That's the focus of this feature and hopefully it can help you out especially if you are someone who does have a lot of spend on your card(s) that don't fall into category bonuses. 

May 18 Update: New Amex Offer for lululemon and five new hotel & airline bonus offers

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 which is currently offering a welcome bonus of up to 70,000 bonus points and no annual fee in the first year! 

One more new Amex Offers offer to let you know about! An offer for lululemon has returned - I received on my Platinum Card and provides a $20 statement credit when you spend $100 or more online. Find this offer and all others in our Guide to American Express Canada 'Amex Offers'

 

Earn 10% cash back for first three months & get your 1st year free on the Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite card

 
Right now with cash back rewards being king in Canada most of the major card issuers continue to battle it out with their 10% cash back and first year free offers. One of those cards is the Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite Card. Heralded as one of the best cash back cards in Canada (we rank it #4 overall) the card is definitely one to look at if you are considering heading down the cash back route. If you are, you're not alone. Scotia recently provided the following statistics on what they have seen happen during the pandemic:

Best Western Rewards - Earn a $20 Best Western gift card for each night you stay (up to 5 nights total)

 
Best Western's next major promotion is out and it's a pretty good one. You'll also notice it's the exact same as one of the elite offers that were available last week in BW's Choose Your Own Adventure offers. The offer that came out of those to become available to all Best Western Rewards members is the $20 Best Western Gift Card for each night you stay for up to 5 nights. Those five nights do not have to be consecutive. You can have 5 one night stays, 2 two night and 1 one night and so on. The only thing missing from this general promotion from all members that the elite's got last week is the 5,000 bonus after every 5 nights. So hopefully if you do hold BWR Elite Status you registered during last week's offer as that closed on May 16.

Earn 10x points + an additional 10,000 points with the More Rewards Pile Up The Points Event

 

For the next week More Rewards members can earn 10x points for shopping with most More Rewards partners and if you shop at 3 or more (taking a hint from AIR MILES' Bonus Boom) you'll receive 10,000 bonus points on top of that! The offer started on May 13 and runs until May 19.

May 13 Update: Two new rewards credit cards from Canadian Western Bank, Mobile Service Provider offer for Amex Aeroplan Card & one more confirmed Cobalt multiplier

Here's your Rewards Canada update! Your near daily dose of loyalty program, credit card and travel news, bonuses, deals and more. 

 
Rewards Canada reader Daylen S. alerted us to a pair of new rewards credit cards in Canada. Canadian Western Bank has partnered with Brim Financial to offer the CWB Rewards Mastercard® and World Elite® Mastercard. Both cards are very similiar to those offered by Brim themselves with just a couple minor changes. For example the CWB Rewards World Elite Mastercard is only $120 insteand of $199 but it does not feature No Foreign Transaction fees like the Brim version. It does have the same earn rate of 2% back on all purchases up to $25,000 annually, the same insurance benefits and the standard World Elite benefits like Mastercard Airport Experiences by LoungeKey. Right now you can try out the WE card for free as they are waiving the annual fee in the first year. You can learn more about the new CWB cards here. Watch for them to be added to various parts of Rewards Canada over the coming weeks.

AIR MILES Bonus Boom is now live - earn bonus miles with participating partners + 95 bonus miles when you collect three different Bonus Boom offers

 

The latest AIR MILES Bonus Boom event kicked off today with a whole bunch of bonus miles offers for shopping or completing actions with various AIR MILES partners. Most of the bonuses are available between today and May 26 and once again if you use three different Bonus Boom offers you'll get 95 bonus AIR MILES. Just like the last offer that ended in April you have the ability to get the 95 bonus miles all from one retailer so long as they have multiple offers. For example Sobeys has three different offers available so if you meet the criteria for those three offers you'll get the 95 bonus miles.

Changes coming to the insurance benefits provided on Scotiabank Credit Cards including the loss of price protection

 

Rewards Canada Twitter follower iLive2Eat alerted us to some changes coming to the insurance benefits on their Scotia Passsport Visa Infinite Card so we went to Scotia's site to check out if there are any details about the changes and there are. These changes actually affect more cards than just the Visa Infinite Card and are effective as of July 1, 2021. 

Earn up to $250 in statement credits when booking Air Canada flights with an Aeroplan co-brand credit card

Air Canada and their credit card partners revealed a nice booking bonus for future travel! That bonus is in the form of statement credits on any of their premium and ultra premium cards from TD, CIBC and American Express. All you have to do is simply register for the offer by June 30, 2020 (so there is time to get one of these cards if you don't have one yet) and then book flights on Air Canada by December 31, 2021 for travel right through to the end of 2022. The cash back credit is $25 per booking for the premium cards and you can earn up to 5 credits for a total of $125 cash back while the ultra premium cards see a $50 per booking credit for up to 5 bookings for a total of $250 cash back.

Buy Marriott Bonvoy points with a 30% discount until June 20

 Marriott launched a new buy points promotion today that is a little different than we are accustomed to. Instead of offering a bonus when buying they have gone the route of discounting the points purchases. This discount is 30% which means means you are buying points for 0.875 cents (US$) each. This is an alright price but not as good as the 50% bonus (0.83 cents each) or 60% bonus (0.78 cents each) we had seen recently over the past few months. Still with many Marriott free night awards easily coming out with a value of 1 cent or more per point it can be worth it to buy points at this price - for example in our review of the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card  we provide an example where you can redeem for a stay with a value of 2.7 cents (US$) per point!

May 12 Update: Amex Aeroplan Reserve Card mobile service provider bonus points & Platinum Card replacement annual travel credits are posting

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.

Joshua C. who regularly provides us with some tips let us know there is also an Amex Offer that just launched this week for American Express Aeroplan Reserve Cards. This offer is for Mobile Service providers as follows:

Air Canada adding new Hawaii flights for Winter 2022 season including new direct service from Montreal

 
It looks like Air Canada is well aware the next winter season will see more Canadians travelling thanks to more of the population being vaccinated and regions slowly starting to open up to more travel. That being said I believe Air Canada also realizes much of that travel for Canadians may be limited to select regions and with that knowledge we see Air Canada reveal news today on their plans for a major expansion for flights to Hawaii for Winter 2022.

Video: How to earn 97,000+ British Airways Executive Club Avios for free

Today we released another 'How To' video on our YouTube channel. This one takes a look at how you can earn over 97,000 British Airways Executive Club Avios simply by applying for five credit cards that all have offers where you don't end up paying the annual fee in the first year. That means you essentially get all those Avios for free outside of the spend requirements to receive those welcome bonuses.

Earn up to Triple Aeroplan Points on Air Canada flights within Canada this summer

 

Air Canada knows that Canadians who are looking to travel this summer will be primarily doing so within Canada so why not entice them to travel with them with a bonus points offer! All Aeroplan members who register and book flights between May 12 and 15 for travel within Canada from June 1 to September 6 will earn up to 3x points on those flights. Economy class fares will earn 2x points while Premium Economy and Business Class fares will earn 3x points.

New Best Western Elite Offers - $20 Best Western Gift Card per night or 5,000 bonus points per night (Targeted offer)

 

Best Western is emailing select elite members with targeted offers for stays at their hotels this Summer. Each member who gets the email will be able to choose their reward. That reward is a $20 Best Western Gift Card for each night you stay for up to 5 nights in total (they do not have to be consecutive) or 5,000 bonus points per night for up to 3 nights (again they do not have to be consecutive) On top of this both offers award 5,000 bonus points after every 5 nights completed with no limit on those. So if you stay 15 nights you'll get 15,000 bonus points plus either 5 $20 Gift Cards or another 15,000 bonus points.

HSBC makes applying for their credit cards and bank accounts easier with HSBC EasyID

When HSBC ran their amazing offer to earn 100,000 bonus points for their HSBC World Elite Mastercard in late 2020 there was one issue that some of our readers brought to our attention several times. That issue was that HSBC wanted some applicants to confirm and complete their applications in branch. Well this could be a difficult task for many considering a lot of people were staying home due to the pandemic and did not want to venture to a bank in person. It also proves to be a difficult task on another whole regard in which one of readers pointed out - HSBC doesn't have a lot of branches spread out across Canada for people to go to. In fact our reader stated the closest branch to him was 7 hours away - yes that would be quite a drive to do on its own right let alone during the pandemic! The good news is right around that time HSBC began testing an new application process which has now been fully implemented and available to all applicants.

May 11 Update: 10,000 bonus Be Well points for spending $40+ at Rexall and Priority Pass announces a 20% portfolio expansion for its members

 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.

 
You can earn 10,000 bonus Be Well points when you spend $40 or more at Rexall until May 13. Simply log in to your account or the app to load the offer to your card.

Clash of the Credit Cards! TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card vs. WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard

 Welcome to another Rewards Canada Clash! This time in our Clash of the Credit Cards we pit the two best airline credit cards in Canada from Canada's two largest airlines against each other! Those cards are the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card and the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard

Top 5 Small Business Credit Card Sign Up offers for May - These cards provide the best value out of their welcome bonuses

Here are the Rewards Canada Top 5 Small Business Credit Card Sign Up offers for this month! This is not a 'best' credit card list like our Top Travel Rewards Credit Card rankings but instead a look at cards for small businesses that have very good acquisition (welcome/sign up) offers. As always when choosing a card you should always take other factors into account other than the just sign up bonus, but when some of these cards are first year free, they can and do pay off even when you grab them strictly for the sign up rewards. This month we see four first year free cards on the list! And remember this list is based on minimum value towards travel which we calculate as the minimum value of the welcome bonus less the annual fee. It is entirely possible to receive more value out of the welcome bonuses on some the cards below namely those like Aeroplan and Marriott. 

Amex Offers: 5 bonus points per dollar spent or a $10 credit on grocery delivery or pick up

 

Another day another awesome Amex Offer to relay to our readers. This one appeared on my Platinum Card this morning and it also came out on the SimplyCash cards (Source RFD). It provides bonus points for the Platinum Card and statement credits for SimplyCash cards for qualifying grocery delivery and/or pick up purchases. Here are the offers:

Top 5 Cash Back Credit Card Sign Up offers for May - These cards provide the best value out of their welcome bonuses

 
Here are Rewards Canada's Top 5 Cash Back Credit Card Sign Up offers for the month of May 2021. This is not a 'best' credit card list like our Top Cash Back Credit Card rankings but instead a look at cards that have very good acquisition (welcome/sign up) offers. As always when choosing a card you should always take other factors into account other than the just sign up bonus, but when some of these cards are first year free, they can and do pay off even when you grab them strictly for the sign up rewards.

May 7 Update: 5x multiplier locations in Iqaluit and receive a statement credit for shopping at William Ashley

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.

 
After yesterday's American Express confirmed Cobalt Multipliers update we received details on even more locations from our readers! And I love that they come from every corner of our awesome country! This time a shout out and thank you to Thomas who gives us some multiplier locations in Iqaluit and online:

May 6 Update: More Cobalt Card Confirmed 5x, 2x, 1x Multiplier Locations and there's one new Marriott Hotel opening this year in Kelowna!

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.

 
Another big update to our American Express Cobalt™ Card Confirmed Multiplier Locations! Hopefully you were able to grab the card over the past few months when it had the 45K bonus offer on it if you didn't have the card already and can start racking up those true 5x points! Whether you got the card recently or are a veteran of the card you should always be checking our multiplier locations feature so you know which places you can use the card and earn 5x, 2x or 1x points. This time again we have to give a big shout out to FM out in the Vancouver area who consistently provides us with new Cobalt Multipler locations in the lower mainland! Below are the new locations added based on their spending. Be sure to check our American Express Cobalt™ Card Confirmed Multiplier Locations for these and many more locations!

Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for May - These cards provide the most value out of their welcome bonuses

 
Here are the Rewards Canada Top 5 Travel Credit Card Sign Up offers for the month of May 2021! This is not a 'best' credit card list like our Top Travel Rewards Credit Card rankings but instead a look at cards that have very good acquisition (welcome/sign up) offers. As always when choosing a card you should always take other factors into account other than the just sign up bonus, but when some of these cards are first year free, they can and do pay off even when you grab them strictly for the sign up rewards. This month we see three first year free cards on the list

Aeroplan Everday Status Qualification is officially here - earn status without flying

 

When the first news of the revamped Aeroplan program came out last August one feature that was being touted was being able to earn elite status from home. Unlike the limited time promotion early on during the pandemic this feature would be a full time everyday benefit of the Aeroplan program. Appropriately named Everyday Status Qualification, that benefit has officially launched now. 

May 5 Update: Earn up to 3x points on Hilton stays, Save 25% on food gift cards with RBC Rewards & new hotel openings in Canada update!

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.

 

A few weeks back we let you know about Hilton's new systemwide promotion that offers up to 3x Hilton Honors points on all stays. That offer went live on Monday so be sure to register for it if you haven't done so already so that you can earn Double Points on stays of 1 or 2 nights and Triple Points when you stay 3 nights or more until September 6. Register and book online here.

20% bonus on Fairmont gift cards for the next three hours! (May 5 - 2pm to 5pm EST)

 

Fairmont Hotels has brought back their famous flash sale that provides a 20% bonus on all gift cards purchased between 2pm and 5pm EST.  You can buy gift cards for Fairmont Hotels or their Willow Stream Spas from $25 to $2,000 per card and you can buy up to $5,000 worth of cards in one transaction. For example if you buy a $1,000 gift card you'll end up with $1,200 to spend at Fairmont Hotels.

Wow - a Marriott Bonvoy Category 5 hotel in the Maldives provides an amazing redemption value for this fall!

 

If you happen to follow any U.S. points & miles blogs you may have seen this new redemption option making waves across so many of those sites! From what we can tell this news was broke by Mile Value and it is simply awesome! That news is that the new Le Meridien Maldives that will be opening this September is only a Category 5 hotel in the Marriott Bonvoy program. That's right! A Category 5 hotel when pretty much all their other hotels in that region are Category 8! So what does that mean? Read on to find out!