OFFER EXTENDED Scotiabank Gold American Express Card - Up to 50,000 bonus points + first year free

UPDATE: We finally received notice from Scotia about this offer and it has being extended to November 21, 21

Today is the last to apply for the The record high offer for the Scotia Gold American Express Card of 50,000 bonus points coupled with no annual fee in the first year on primary and supplementary cards has been extended. Those 50,000 points are worth $500 towards any travel that you book via any method and charge to the card. The bonus is broken up into two separate requirements. the first 30,000 points are awarded when you spend at least $1,000 on the card in the first 3 months and then you can earn an additional 20,000 points when you spend at least $7,500 in your first year of having the card. Having no annual fees in the first year is a great way to try this card out to see if it is right for you and allows you to get full value out those 50,000 points!

August 31 Update: 25 bonus Aeroplan Points with $25 Starbucks card load, Cobalt's 3x points for streaming services posting & Alaska Airlines opens new lounge at SFO

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.

Check your email in box for a targeted offer from Aeroplan and Starbucks. This promotion offers 25 Bonus Aeroplan Points when you load at least $25 in one transaction to your Starbucks card by September 12. Thanks to Josef H. for the heads up on this offer! Ideally you'll want to load $50 to earn 75 additional Aeroplan points or $75 to earn 150 points - these are the standard earn offers. Then remember that you can earn 50 bonus Aeroplan points each time you spend $15 or more at Starbucks until October 3. Click here to learn more about that last offer.

3,000 bonus points on all Best Western stays booked by Sep 3

 

Today we see the return of Best Rewards’ 3,000 bonus points on all stays bonus. This is a targeted offer (you should get the email the sent to you on the 31st) but if not you can always try to register for it via our link below. The bonus is 3,000 points per stay booked between August 31 and September 3 for stays completed by November 22.

WestJet adding new flights between Toronto and Scotland including Edinburgh

 
A new destination and and additional International routes are being added to WestJet's route map for 2022. The airline announced a return to Glasgow from Halifax but are also adding new flights from Toronto. On top of that they are also adding a new city to the map and that is Edinburgh which will be served from Toronto as well.

Earn up to 150% bonus Aeroplan points on Air Canada flights to the U.S.

 
There's a new flight bonus offer from Air Canada for those looking to fly the airline between Canada and the U.S.. The promotion awards 100% bonus points for round trip flights in Economy and 150% bonus points for Premium Economy, Premium Rouge and Business Class. You'll note the bonus is awarded is on round trip bookings (no two one-way flights like we used to see as an option) so keep this in mind when registering and booking flights for this offer. 

Earn 1,500 bonus Bonvoy points on every stay with Marriott's new systemwide promo

After a few months hiatus we see Marriott Bonvoy come out with a systemwide global bonus offer for the fall. You can register and book now to earn 1,500 bonus points per stay from September 14 to December 12. You must register by November 28. There is an additional bonus in the promotion that offers an additional 3,000 bonus points on All-Inclusive by Marriott Bonvoy stays. Both bonuses have no limits so it's really time to get hotel hopping with this one. Seeing that it is a flat rate bonus it is best for those one night stays, preferably at lower priced locations as the value of the bonus diminishes per night for longer stays. But don't let that dissuade your from plans but for points maximizers it will a mean a three night stay broken down to one night at one location, the second night at another location and third night back at the first hotel or even totally different hotel from the first two.

August 30 Update: AIR MILES awards their 100 billionth mile & some bonus offers of note to keep that tally growing

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.

 
Congratulations to AIR MILES for issuing their 100 billionth mile this month! That's a lot of miles in their 30 or so year history. Let's see if they can reach 200 billion even faster! Learn more on AIR MILES twitter feed

Which credit card earns the most Aeroplan Points? Version 2.1 (Updated)

 
There's a new card that has championed its way to being the one that earns the most Aeroplan points in Canada! Before we let you know which card it is let's step back into time - way back in 2012 we published a feature and infographic that compared how various credit and charge cards in Canada earned Aeroplan miles. Then in January of this year we released version 2.0 of that feature to capture the updated earn rates from the completely revamped suite of Aeroplan co-brand credit cards. Thanks to yet another credit card update earlier this month, namely points from the American Express Cobalt Card now being able to convert directly to Aeroplan that Which credit card earns the most Aeroplan Points feature also had to be updated!

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

 

The latest AIR MILES Bonus Boom event kicked off today with your usual bunch of bonus miles offers for shopping or completing actions with various AIR MILES partners. Most of the bonuses are available between today and September 8 and once again if you use three different Bonus Boom offers you'll get 95 bonus AIR MILES. Just like the past few Bonus Boom events you have the ability to get the 95 bonus miles all from one retailer so long as they have multiple offers. For example Safeway has three different offers available so if you meet the criteria for those three offers you'll get the 95 bonus miles.

August 27 Update: Rent twice with Avis and earn a free day, your best bets for getting a Buddy Pass to convert to Aeroplan points & more details on Flair Airlines new U.S. routes

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.

 
Avis Car Rental has brought back their annual free day offer after a one year hiatus due to COVID. This offer provides members of Avis Preferred (free to join)with a free rental day for every two rentals of two plus days. This offer runs until Feb 28, 22. Click here to register (Registration is required) and then visit Avis.com to book your car.

August 26 Update: Aeroplan extends generous refund & rebooking policy, save 15% on AeroMexico award tickets out of Canada & a reminder to complete your Best Western stay surveys

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.

 
Air Canada Aeroplan has once again updated their refund and re-booking policy by extending it to September 30:

Aeroplan flight rewards booked through September 30, 2021, can be changed or cancelled free of charge, at any time.  Members can cancel free of charge and receive all of their points back in their account, plus a full refund of any associated taxes, fees and charges on the unused value of travel. For changes, members will pay only the difference in points, or receive a partial refund if their new itinerary requires fewer points. In addition, a difference in taxes, fees and charges may apply when changing an itinerary.

Want to leverage your airline or hotel elite status into other programs? Check out this new service!

Did you know that once you have earned elite status with an airline or hotel you can typically leverage it to obtain status with other airlines and hotels? This topic of elite status matching is one we cover with some regular frequency here on Rewards Canada - whether its reporting on new status match offers or showing you how some of them work. Some elite status matches are easier than others, in particular hotel program matches, these are usually easier to come by than airline matches with the easiest being Best Western's famous Status Match No Catch offer. It is the airline side that can prove to be more difficult and that's where statusmatch.com comes in. This new company co-founded by a former frequent flyer program head, a frequent flyer program director and the creator and operator of frequent flyer program will represent you and your status to other airlines in your quest to obtain additional elite membership.

Air Canada Buddy Pass to Aeroplan points conversion will end on November 30 plus they will extend annual worldwide companion passes

 

 Air Canada reached out to us this morning to let us know they have now put in place an end date for being able to convert Buddy Passes earned from there co-brand cards to Aeroplan points. Instituted earlier, this conversion was an unpublished benefit that Air Canada put in place due to the uncertainty in travel. The benefit allowed members who felt they could not utilize their buddy pass to call up Aeroplan and ask to have it converted to 30,000 Aeroplan points. With Aeroplan members starting to travel more and the previously announced extension of Buddy Pass expiry to the end of 2022 Air Canada felt it is right time to bring the conversion option to a close.

Here are the latest RBC Offers including a 10% statement credit for Microsoft purchases, 50% off two DoorDash orders & more!

 

RBC is really giving it a go with their RBC Offers program as they have a whole bunch of new offers added and some extended since we last provided an update at the start of this month!

Be sure to login to your RBC account right away to load these offers (if required) or get the promo codes if required. Personally I received these offers on the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard but I know most if not all should also available for RBC's most popular card the RBC Avion Visa Infinite Card and most other RBC cards.

Mogo card to replace its 2% Bitcoin cashback with a good for the planet tree planting reward

Today Mogo announced a major change and shift in the rewards being offered on their MogoCard. Currently the card earns 2% Bitcoin cashback as the reward for your everyday spending but that will come to a close on October 1st. From August 25th onward, on Mogo will instead plant one tree for every transaction made on the card. 

August 25 Update: Awesome gas gift card redemption offer from CIBC, 5,000 bonus Be Well points for linking your RBC card & earn up to $350 with a new Scotiabank account

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.

 
Right now CIBC Aventura cardholders are able to redeem their points for select gas gift cards at up to 50% off (ie only 7,000 points for a $100 gift card). This puts the per point redemption rate for these cards at 1.42 cents each. That's an awesome redemption rate for gift cards as it is higher then the 1 cent per point you would get for their any travel redemption and is very competitive with the average redemption rate when using the Aventure airline rewards chart. This offer is available until September 15. Learn more here.  (Thanks to Raffaele F. who sent this offer to us via our Facebook page!) 

CIBC AC Conversion Visa Review - Load up to 10 currencies and earn 1% cash back until April 30, 2022

 
Earlier in the year we brought quick details of the limited time cash back offer for CIBC's AC Conversion Visa and now wanted to delve deeper into what this card is and what it offers.  The CIBC AC Conversion Visa is a prepaid Visa credit card option offered by CIBC and Air Canada that has been around now for quite a few years and is somewhat unique in that you can load multiple currencies onto to card at once to use when traveling to various parts of the world.

FREE MILES! Receive 2,020 miles when you join Emirates Skywards

Delayed by a year, Expo 2020 in Dubai is slated to start on October 1 and one of the big sponsors is the hometown airline, Emirates. To celebrate the exposition, Emirates is starting to release numerous promotions and this one here is for new members to their Skywards program. Using the invitation code EXPO2020 anyone who joins the program will automatically receive 2,020 Skywards miles and the airline is offering these new members the opportunity to redeem right away with a special Cash+Miles rate of 2,000 mile = US$20 (but you don't have to redeem they right away if you don't want to.) The new member welcome bonus doesn't have a printed end date however the other promotion on the same landing page mentions bookings must be made by September 15 and seeing how this bonus is being tied into the special Cash+Miles rate I would speculate that's the last day to join and get the miles.

New Hilton Honors promo: Double points on all stays from Sep 7 to Dec 31

 

Hilton provided us with details of the next systemwide promotion for the Hilton Honors program. This new offer launches the day after the current promo ends so there is no gap at all where you won’t be able to earn extra points on your Hilton stays. This promotion is called Power Up and it rewards 2x points on all stays for those members who have registered for the promotion. If you hold an eligible Hilton Honors credit card* you will earn 3x points on all those stays instead of double and you’ll still earn all the points that your card awards for that spend. For most Canadians we'll be stuck with the 2x points since we don't have a Hilton Honors co-brand card here but if you are playing the U.S. credit card game and happen to have one of their Hilton co-brand Amex cards you'll earn the 3x points. You can register and book now for stays from September 7 to December 31, 21

Podcast Episode 82 - How the best credit card in Canada was made even better

In this episode we take a deep dive into the best credit card in Canada - that is best travel rewards credit card which also happens to be the best cash back card in Canada and how the most recent changes to it made it even better. It is none other than the American Express Cobalt Card and this podcast episode covers those changes but can also be considered an audio review of the card. We discuss earn rates, redemption options, how it provides huge value and even tackle the downsides of the card. Give it a listen right away to find out why we think this card should be in every Canadian's wallet. 

One week left to get the best ever offer for the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card - Up to 50,000 bonus points + first year free

 

 

There is only one week left to get in on this offer that only launched back on July 2nd! It is the record high offer for for the Scotia Gold American Express Card of 50,000 bonus points coupled with no annual fee in the first year on primary and supplementary cards. Those 50,000 points are worth $500 towards any travel that you book via any method and charge to the card. The bonus is broken up into two separate requirements. the first 30,000 points are awarded when you spend at least $1,000 on the card in the first 3 months and then you can earn an additional 20,000 points when you spend at least $7,500 in your first year of having the card. Having no annual fees in the first year is a great way to try this card out to see if it is right for you and allows you to get full value out those 50,000 points!

Air Canada Aeroplan adds yet another airline partner - you can now earn and redeem points on Gulf Air

 
Really Aeroplan? You can stop this now. Well, actually please don't but do know you are keeping us from completing other tasks with all the news you keep dishing out.  It hasn't even been 24 hours since the last big Aeroplan announcement of their 10x points offer for TD cardholders and now we have them adding yet one more airline to their partner list! As of today Aeroplan members will be able to earn and redeem Aeroplan points on Bahrain's Gulf Air. This is the eighth new airline Aeroplan has added to their partner roster since June 2020.

Offer Extended - $0 companion fare + 350 WestJet dollars with the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard

WestJet and RBC have once again extended the offers on their co-brand credit cards. Namely, the $0 companion voucher offer on the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard has been extended for applications completed by December 5 and the card's 350 dollar bonus on first purchase and the 2x dollars on select purchases will continue to August 31. The base level WestJet RBC Mastercard also continues with its increased welcome offer of 100 WestJet dollars.

Earn 1,000 bonus points on your next Best Western stay

 
Last week you may have seen the post discussing my feeble attempt at lowering my Best Western Rewards account but in fact growing it from 26,000 to over 41,000 points (read that post here). That was thanks in part to a lot of bonus offers that BW has including a new 2,000 point offer we just posted this past Friday and now there is a new 1,000 point offer to let you know about. These offers are meant to be targeted but personally I wasn’t targeted for some of those bonuses I received on the last stay so go ahead and register, give it a shot but do remember YMMV.

August 23 Update: Air France adding Montreal-Guadeloupe flights, save an additional $50 on WestJet flights to Europe & one more Cobalt multiplier location

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.

Air France is going to offer new flights out of Montreal to their Caribbean territory of Guadeloupe. Flights between Montreal and Pointe-à-Pitre will start on November 23 and operate twice per week. Flights from Montreal will operate on Wednesday and Saturday with returning flights operating on Tuesday and Friday. If you fly on this route before the end of the year and are buying tickets you'll automatically earn Double Flying Blue XP credits. Also seeing that we just had the news that you can convert Amex Membership Rewards points to Flying Blue we checked how many Flying Blue Miles are needed for this flight and they start at 17,500 miles one way for Economy and 34,500 for Business Class plus pretty hefty taxes and fees. This means for a roundtrip economy class flight you would need 46,700 Membership Rewards points. Compare this to Amex Fixed Points for travel which is 50,000 points but only 25,000 to 35,000 round trip with Aeroplan in Economy class. So the best bet here with Membership Rewards points is to go with Aeroplan if you are looking for the best redemption option. (Source Air France)

Earn 10x Aeroplan points and get 15% off Air Canada flights when paying with a TD Aeroplan card

Air Canada Aeroplan and TD are at it again with yet another great offer holders of the TD Aeroplan co-brand credit cards. Starting today eligible cardholders can earn 10x Aeroplan points for Air Canada and Air Canada vacations purchases up to $1,000. The 10x points offer is valid on all eligible purchases made until October 1. On top of the of the bonus points members can receive 15% off base fares for travel in Canada, to the U.S. or Sun Destinations by using code promo code DH3RE8G1 for bookings made by September 6 for travel until June 30, 2022. Aeroplan members must register their Aeroplan numbers to earn the bonus points.

WestJet bringing back Calgary to Orange County flights and resuming year round San Francisco service

California is once again proving to be a popular destination for Canadians, especially for those out west! In just the past few months we've seen Flair Airlines announce flights to Hollywood Burbank, Air Canada announcing of Vancouver to Orange County service and now it's WestJet's turn as they announced today that they are bringing back Calgary to Orange County flights and moving from summer service to year round service between Calgary and San Francisco.

Receive a $75 Visa gift card, save some $$ and still earn points plus elite credit for stays at two Marriott Hotels in Victoria

Here we have one addition to the post we had late in July that showed some of these regional tourism board offers we have writing about are better than just getting a gift card. In that previous post we showed that they offers actually price better than the best available rates at select hotels and since you book direct with the actual hotel chain you can receive all your points earning and elite member recognition and benefits. In this post we bring you another example of just that with two Marriott hotels in Victoria

Aeroplan Availability Alert: Business Class on Austrian Airlines out of Montreal for up to 4 or more people for Winter 2022 travel

 
Spencer at Straight to the Points sent out an alert about business class tickets for up to 4 people being available on Austrian Airlines and since the airline is a Star Alliance member you can use your Aeroplan points to redeem for these flights. Availability is showing from Janaury through to March 2022 for flights to Vienna and beyond. Aeroplan charges 70,000 points each way for partner award flights in business class plus the $39 partner award booking fee.

August 20 Update: IHG Rewards Fast Track to Elite Status offer & earn 100 bonus AIR MILES when you buy a $150 Sobeys Gift 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.

 

IHG Rewards has extended their Fast Track to Elite Status promotion. This offer was set to end on August 31 but the registration period has now been extended to November 30. After you register for it you will receive Gold Elite Status after only 2 nights or Platinum Elite Status with only 5 nights. You do have to complete the nights within 90 days of registering for the offer so do keep that in mind in terms of timing your stays (ie this may not be an offer to register for right away like we usually advise). For example you could wait until November 30 to register to cover any hotel stays you would have until February 28, 2022. Learn more about and register for this offer here.

Best Western Rewards - Earn 2,000 bonus points on your next stay

 
Earlier in the week you may have seen the post discussing my feeble attempt at lowering my Best Western Rewards account but in fact growing it from 26,000 to over 41,000 points (read that post here). That was thanks in part to a lot of bonus offers that BW has and funny thing is I received an email not long after that post offering me 2,000 points on my next stay and I'm sharing it here so that you can give it a try well. These offers are meant to be targeted but personally I wasn't targeted for some of those bonuses I received on the last stay so go ahead and register, give it a shot but do remember YMMV.

It's finally here! You can now convert American Express Membership Rewards points to Air France KLM Flying Blue

 

For those who saw this several years ago the wait is over. American Express Canada has added a new airline program to their Membership Rewards frequent traveler participants! This is the part of the program where you can convert Membership Rewards points to airline programs and the two most popular up to today have been Air Canada Aeroplan and British Airways Executive Club. Now you can add in a third program that may prove to be popular and that is Flying Blue - the frequent flyer program for Air France and KLM! We say the wait is over as a few years ago Flying Blue did show up for a couple of days in Amex Canada's list of airlines probably as a test but then disappeared until now!

August 19 Update: What to do if you don't receive an Amex multiplier, Cobalt multipliers for YYC Food Trucks & a couple of AIR MILES bonuses

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.

 
Here is a reminder to everyone using an American Express card at merchants that could or should be considered part of one of their spend category accelerators but only earn 1 point per dollar instead of 2, 3 or 5 points. If this happens to you you can reach out to American Express and have them look into it, in fact American Express encourages it as this is what they asked us to pass onto our readers back in 2017:

Summary of global hotel systemwide bonus points promotions – August 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:

Earning Stories: As hard as I try, I can't get rid of my Best Western Rewards points balance!

 
Best Western Hotels are a brand of hotels we here in the Rewards Canada family don't visit very often. Typically we only stay at one here in Alberta but also ventured to one in San Francisco many years ago and it was that latter expensive stay that helped us build up a decent amount of points in our Best Western Rewards account. The problem with that was that we were sitting a nice amount of points and not many places to really use them since we don't stay with them often. There was always the option of converting to Aeroplan points or some other airline but seeing that Best Western points don't expire it was best to leave them be until the time was required to redeem for a stay or convert to an airline. So I did just that, redeemed some points for a couple of free nights several years ago (read about that here) in Stony Plain Alberta as that seems to be the only BW we stay at. Even after that redemption I still had over 26,000 points in my account so when plans had us going up to Stony this August it was ripe for us to use some more points and bring that balance down. However best I tried that just didn't happen! Read on to find out why!

August 18 Update: Receive a $75 Visa gift card when you stay 2 nights in Victoria and another Cobalt Multiplier for those in Manitoba

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.

We came across another one of those regional tourism offers! This one comes is from Tourism Victoria and it offers a $75 Visa gift card when you book and stay two or more nights at participating hotels in Victoria.  This offer is good for new bookings until September 30, 2021 Click here to learn more about and book this offer We have also added it to our post that covers all these offers from coast to coast. See all those offers here.

Air Canada Aeroplan partners with LCBO - members will be able to earn and redeem points for LCBO purchases

Back in February LCBO made headlines as they announced they were leaving the AIR MILES program after participating in it for 23 years. At the time they mentioned a plan for a future loyalty program. Thoughts were they might start they own program but that doesn't appear to be the case with today's news. LCBO will now partner with AIR MILES' biggest competitor, Air Canada's Aeroplan! The multi-year partnership will launch later this year and provides one more avenue for Aeroplan members to earn more points for their future travels.

Top 5 Cash Back Credit Card Sign Up offers for August - 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 August 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.r

Receive a 100% bonus when you buy Hilton Honors points

 
Hilton’s bonus for buying points is back again! You can earn a 100% bonus for buying Hilton Honors points until September 30, 2021. This time they have doubled the annual limit of points you can buy up which means you can buy 160,000 points. That 160,000 does not included the bonus points so if you max out this offer and buy 160,000 points you’ll receive 320,000 into your account. As well to earn the bonus you must buy a minimum of 10,000 points in one transaction.

August 17 Update: Amex Offers galore, new increased TD Aeroplan & First Class Visa offers and Hyatt acquires ~100 resort properties

  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.

Earlier today we posted about the Shangri-La Hotels Amex Offer and in that post we said there were a lot of new offers released this week. Here are the others that came out over the past few days:

Amex Offers: $100 statement credit for stays at Shangri-La Hotels in Canada

 
A bunch of new Amex Offers were released this week that we'll cover in a couple of posts here on RC but as usual the travel offers get their own billing! This one that came out yesterday provides a $100 statement credit if you spend $500 at Shangri-La Hotels in Canada.  I actually received this offer for my American Express Cobalt Card which I was a little surprised by as the majority of offers have been coming to my Platinum Card and let's be honest Shangri-La are considered luxury hotels and the Platinum Card is considered a luxury card so you would think the offer would be on that card but I digress. Let us know if you have the Platinum Card and did receive this offer for it.

[OFFER EXPIRED] New best ever welcome offer for the TD First Class Visa Infinite Card - Up to 100,000 welcome points + first year free

THIS OFFER HAS EXPIRED AND IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE. IT HAS BEEN LEFT HERE FOR REFERENCE PURPOSES. PLEASE THE CARD MATRIX AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST FOR THE LATEST OFFER.

The third and final card from TD to receive a best ever welcome bonus offer is their proprietary rewards card the TD® First Class Travel® Visa Infinite* Card. As of today we see its bonus jump from 60,000 to 100,000 points! This is 10,000 more than the previous 90K high seen on the card in 2019 and 2020. Technically speaking this offer is actually 20K higher since those 90K offers required adding a supplementary card to earn 10,000 points. That's not the case here. This time the bonus is awarded strictly on the first purchase as 20,000 points and 80,000 more points when you spend $1,000 in first three months. On top of this there is an annual fee rebate for the primary and additional cardholders for the first year. This offer runs until December 5, 2021.

Receive up to a 50% bonus when you buy Marriott Bonvoy Points until September 25

 
A buy points bonus for Marriott Bonvoy has returned and it is a mystery bonus that will vary by member. Personally I received a 50% bonus offer. 50% is at a level where it can make sense to buy Marriott Bonvoy points for some free night stays. Sure it isn’t the 60% we saw in November 2020 but it is better than the 40% some people received earlier this year. The bonus is awarded on purchases from 2,000 to 100,000 points and that 100,000 is a doubling of the typical 50,000 point annual limit for buying points. This is also lower than the 150K we saw with the 60% bonus in November.

Earn up to 50,000 welcome bonus points when you get the best credit card in Canada - the American Express Cobalt Card

This is crazy and totally unexpected news for the American Express Cobalt® Card! As you know American Express announced some amazing changes to their Cobalt Card not too long ago that make this the best credit card in Canada even better. Yes they are charging more for it which has made some people unhappy but for the most part everyone seems ecstatic about the changes even with paying $2.99 more per month. So what if you don't have the card yet? Well you're in luck as American Express has just revealed the best ever welcome bonus offer for the card in it's four year history. That's what makes this crazy and unexpected - I don't think any of us thought American Express would come out with such an offer seeing how compelling and valuable the card is with its up to 5x points earn rate, its new 3x streaming services earn rate and most importantly now having the ability to transfer 1:1 to Air Canada Aeroplan and British Airways Executive Club.

Canadian Government to make COVID-19 vaccine mandatory for air, rail and cruise ship travel

 

Our federal government announced today that they intend to make COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory for air, interprovincial rail and cruise ship travel. On top of this all federal public service employees will be mandated to get the vaccine. 

Offer extended! Limited time welcome bonus on Tangerine Mastercards - 10% cash back for the first 2 months

 

Originally slated to end on Monday the limited time welcome offers for the Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card and the Tangerine World Mastercard have now been extended to September 14, 2021. When you apply for and are approved for either of these Tangerine cards you will earn 10% cash back on all purchases in the first 2 months. The 10% is capped on $1,000 of purchases for a total cash back reward of $100. After that 10% cap is hit or after 2 months the regular earn rate of up to 2% cash back kicks in.

Air France KLM unveils their newly renovated business class lounge at Montreal's Trudeau International Airport

August 11th saw the opening of the newly renovated Air France business class lounge at Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau airport. The refreshed lounge near gate 57 in the international concourse is accessible to those flying in Business Class with Air France or KLM, to Flying Blue Gold and Platinum members, SkyTeam Elite Plus Members and drum roll please.... any one receiving or purchasing access via Plaza Premium! That's right the lounge is being operated by Plaza Premium so you can access the lounge without flying business class or having elite status!

You can now purchase annual benefits for flying on Emirates with Skywards+

 
Dubai based Emirates Airlines who flies to Toronto 5x weekly has introduced a new subscription based program that provides additional benefits when flying with the airline. Entitled Skywards+, the new program has three tiers ranging in cost from C$502 to C$1,256 per year with each higher level progressively adding more benefits. Those benefits range from bonus Skywards miles, discounts on flight rewards, lounge access passes and more - much of what you would see if you held elite status with the Skywards program. So with this program you are kind of buying yourself a hybrid elite status with the airline.

August 12 Update: Canadian airport business class lounges reopening update, another confirmed Cobalt multiplier location & Wayfair returns to Amex 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.

Here's a small update to the reopening of some airport business class lounges across Canada that has happened over the past few weeks:

• National Bank Airport Lounge at Montreal reopened on July 26
• Toronto Plaza Premium Lounge Domestic Departures Terminal 3 reopened on July 28
• Calgary Airport Aspire Lounge International reopened on August 10
• Montreal Air France Lounge operated by Plaza Premium Group opened on August 11 (we'll have a separate post coming about this lounge!)

RBC Avion to British Airways Executive Club transfer bonus has returned!

 

The transfer bonus to British Airways Executive Club for RBC Avion cardholders has made a come back after a long hiatus! Last seen in November/December of 2019 when the bonus was 50% (see our post here) it has now returned for the next month and half albeit with a 30% boost. This is the bonus level we had become accustomed from about 2015/16 on as prior to that it was almost always 50%. Even though it is only 30% this time it is still a very good offer to consider taking advantage of.