July 27 Update: 0% balance transfer promo with the MBNA True Line Mastercard & receive $15 when you join Ampli and spend $15 at Rexall

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.

If you are in need a low interest card to carry a balance or are looking to save on a balance you might be carrying on a card right now check out the MBNA True Line® Mastercard® credit card as you could get a 0% promotional annual interest rate (“AIR”)† for 12 months on balance transfers completed within 90 days of account opening. Learn more here.

October 25 Update: Earn 10x AIR MILES via airmilesshops this weekend, Get $10 for free for downloading Ampli & more!

This is the weekend to do some online shopping if you are an AIR MILES collector! From today through to Sunday they are offering 10x the miles sitewide on airmilesshops.ca! Find out more here.

Ampli, is offering $10 for downloading their app and joining the program. Simply Download Ampli and enter code MOVIE10 during registration to get started with a $10 bonus in your Ampli account. Offer ends Dec 31. Find out more here.

Posts since our last update:

• Wyndham Rewards offers for Canadian military members – Automatic Gold Elite Status & Bonus Points for stays
  Offer details: Receive Wyndham Rewards Gold Elite Status when you confirm your military status with Wyndham Rewards.  Full details…
• October 24 Update: More confirmed Amex Cobalt Card multiplier locations & Current Bonus Mile & Point Offers for hotel stays booked via 3rd Party sites
  Thanks to the Rewards Canada community we have another update to our American Express Cobalt Card Confirmed Multiplier Locations…

Travel Deals

Enjoy up to 25% off for stays at Fairmont Hotels in North America with their Fairmont Moments offer. Book by Mar 31 for stays until Apr 30, 20 Full details & online booking

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

Canadian Bonus Offers

More Rewards
- 20x More Rewards Points when you purchase More Rewards Life Insurance coverage. More... Only available to residents of British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba Until Nov 30, 19

Other Bonus Offers

Copa ConnectMiles
- Earn up to 1,750 bonus ConnectMiles on qualifying rentals at participating Budget locations in the U.S., Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean. More... Until Jan 31, 20

Ethiopian ShebaMiles
- Double ShebaMiles when you fly on Ethiopian Airlines between Addis Ababa or Lome and Houston. More... Dec 16, 19 - Jan 14, 20
- Double ShebaMiles when you fly on Ethiopian Airlines between Addis Ababa and Athens or between Athens and Moscow. More... Dec 13, 19 - Jan 11, 20
- 500 Bonus ShebaMiles for bookings made on www.ethiopianairlines.com or on Ethiopian Airlines mobile app for trips commencing from Hong Kong. More... Until Nov 30, 19

EVA Air Infinity MileageLands
- Save up to 25,000 Infinity MileageLands Miles when you redeem for award tickets on EVA Air / UNI Air.More... Until Nov 30, 19

JAL Mileage Bank
- Earn up to Triple Mileage Bank Miles for stays of 2 or more night at The New Otani Kaimana Beach Hotel. More... Until Mar 31, 20

Le Club AccorHotels
- Triple Le Club AccorHotels Points for stays at participating Accor Hotels in Russia. More... Book by Nov 15 for stays until Jan 15, 20

Marriott Bonvoy
- Earn 1,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points per night on Thursday-Sunday nights at The Westin Arlington Gateway More... Until Dec 31,19
- Earn 1,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points per stay at the SpringHill Suites Jackson Hole. More... Until Dec 20, 19
- Earn 3,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points per stay including a Friday or Sunday night at the Manchester Marriott Victoria & Albert Hotel More... Until Dec 17, 19
- Earn 1,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points PER NIGHT at The Barcelona EDITION More... Book by Jan 31, 20 for stays Dec 12, 19 - Mar 5, 20


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May 29 Update: 30% discount on AeroMexico award tickets out of Calgary, MBNA news & Where is Ampli?

Where is Ampli? It's been nearly a year since RBC and WestJet sent out a hyped press release about a joint loyalty platform they were making called Ampli. Per the release it was due to "debut later this year" which meant sometime in 2018. Well it appears it is almost here, apparently the app is being beta tested at this time and according to their website should be in full release this summer. It does appear they have gone away from being points based per the press release and have moved to a cash back reward. Now it really reminds me of Drop Rewards and app based loyalty programs out there. Find out more here.

AeroMexico is offering a 30% discount on Club Premier award tickets between Mexico City and Calgary. It is only on their Mexican site in Spanish but getting the terms and conditions translated I couldn't find any terms stating it is only for Mexican members or that travel must originate in Mexico City. Wouldn't hurt to try calling Club Premier if you are a memebr looking to redeem your points on their flights out of YYC to see if you can get the 30% discount. Find out more here (in Spanish)

Have you been considering getting the MBNA Rewards World Elite or Platinum Plus credit card? Wait until next week if you have been.

Rewards Canada is now on Flipboard https://flipboard.com/@RewardsCanada

Posts since our last update:

• Canadian American Express Cards will lose non-lounge benefits from their Priority Pass Memberships
  If you happen to read any non-Canadian based points and miles blogs you may have seen the news yesterday…
• NOW LIVE: IHG Rewards Club PointBreaks – 162 Hotels (6 in Canada) for only 5,000 to 15,000 points per night until August 31, 19
  The latest IHG Rewards Club PointBreaks hotels are now available for booking! We didn’t get any previews this time…
• Marriott Bonvoy American Express cards see welcome bonus drop to 50,000 points
  As of today both the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card and the Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express Card see…

Travel Deals

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

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

Canadian Bonus Offers

N/A

Other Bonus Offers

Best Western Rewards
- Double Rewards Points or Airline Miles for Sun-Thu stays at the Best Western Valley Plaza Inn Midland. More... Until Jul 31, 19

Le Club AccorHotels
- 500 Bonus Le Club AccorHotels Points for stays at Accor Hotels in Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden or the United Kingdom. More... Book by Jun 14 for stays Jul 12 - Sep 1, 19

Marriott Bonvoy
- 5,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points per stay including a Sunday night at the London Heathrow Marriott Hotel. More... Until Aug 4, 19

SriLankan FlySmiles
- Double FlySmiles when you fly in Business Class on SriLankan between Colombo and Bangkok More... Book by Jun 13 for travel until Jul 13, 19

Voila Hotel Rewards
- Triple VHR Points & Double Elite Status Credit for every stay completed at a participating VOILÀ hotel Worldwide. More... Until Sep 30, 19

Wyndham Rewards
- Double Wyndham Rewards Points on up to five qualifying stays at Wyndham Rewards Hotels. More... Targeted Offer - May not work for everyone Until Sep 5, 19




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Ampli, the newest Canadian loyalty program from RBC and WestJet

RBC and WestJet announced a new partnership between the two companies yesterday via a new loyalty platform called Ampli. Of course the two companies already have an existing relationship and this program will go beyond that. The program, Ampli  (a play on Amplify) is set to launch later this year. The digitally based program will have merchant offers, bonuses and options to use those rewards via their participating merchants and "members who spend on RBC cards and fly with WestJet will further amplify their rewards"

We know from the press release and the media event of this news that Petro-Canada and Chapters Indigo will be involved somehow - most likely as merchant partners. We know that the loyalty programs of all these merchants are not going away. The credit cards and other associated partners within each program will not change unless that programs chooses to change them (really the same day to day business that they have already been engaged in) This means Ampli will run over and above those programs. Since it is going to be digitally based, the first thought that came to my mind was Drop Rewards. It seems to be taking a page out of their book (and other similar app based rewards programs) but it also made me think of what American Express is doing in the U.S.. They killed off their short lived Plenti coalition program to move to the next generation of rewarding loyalty. They are piloting a program that rewards their cardholders with bonus Membership Rewards points for buying specific items from specific retailers - something we have seen from loyalty programs like AIR MILES (think Sobey's):

Customers will benefit by expanding the number of ways they can earn points. The program also helps Amex, by giving merchants another reason to keep accepting American Express cards, which tend to be the most expensive for merchants to process.

Credit card companies have long been able to reward spending at particular types of merchants, using what are known as merchant codes. That’s how credit cards are able to give extra points or cash back on gasoline, travel, hotels and other broad categories.

But targeting individual items on a store’s shelf was a tough barrier to break. Merchants’ inventory systems are different from company to company. AmEx says they were able to solve the problem using blockchain technology developed by Hyperledger. It enables AmEx and merchants to generate product-targeted offers while allowing merchants to keep their own inventory management systems. (Source Associated Press)

Whether Ampli will go the blockchain route will yet have to be seen but it does seem relevant to what they are trying to achieve. I have a feeling they aren't out to sell points like their main competitors - rather it's about collecting data, amplifying their own programs and keeping consumers within their circles with this additional marketing platform. We also know that they are out to capture the Aeroplan and AIR MILES disgruntees (not a real word but one I'll invent today) as can be gleaned directly from interviews with WestJet's Ed Sims and other media mentions. Overall it seems to be a hybrid of a coalition program (a mini-coalition program as we call them now, SCENE, Triangle etc.),  an app based program (think Drop) and perhaps they'll go the blockchain way like Amex is doing.

Do we need another program in Canada? No, not really but the reality is we are seeing the evolution of our market move from the several big players to the many smaller ones. Does it saturate our market? You bet it does. Will all the programs survive? Probably not. Will Canadians join them all? Yes they will, we like to be part of the all.

The good news is that for the next four to five years the Canadian consumer will be the winner. All this competition is good for us and all the programs want you to be part of them so there will be really good offers to lure you in. Then once Air Canada launches their own program in 2020 everyone will compete for a bit and settle down, by 2022 or 2023 we'll probably see these programs scale back their value and we'll all get mad and frustrated with them. We've seen it in the credit card market over the past few years. Everyone was out with amazing offers for everyday spend value or sign up bonuses and while there are a few outliers providing more value now (think Cobalt) most have been reducing the value of their rewards or sign up offers (BMO, TD, etc.) The same will happen with these programs. It's just the natural cycle of them.

Enough from me on this for now. I'd like to hear what are everyone else's initial thoughts on this new program?