Will we see Amex's Shop Small promotion soon, four U.S. British Airways lounges join Priority Pass & increased interest rates on select Scotia savings accounts

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

A question I am starting to see more of right now is: when is Amex's Shop Small promotion returning? We've seen the annual Shop Small promotion already launch this month in France, Germany and the U.K.. So will Canada be next? Hopefully it will be! Over the past few years here it has launched as early as June 24 but as late as July 17 as well. American Express Canada has not given us any indication yet as to if and when the Shop Small promotion will launch but our fingers are crossed we will see it over the coming weeks. In the meantime you can brush up on Shop Small by checking out Rewards Canada's step by step guide to the American Express Shop Small Program

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!) 

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.

November 18 Update: Porter Airlines delays relaunch to February 2021, new bank account offers page & a targeted upgrade offer for TD Aeroplan Visa Platinum cardholders

 

Porter Airlines has further pushed back their re-launch of flights. The airlines is now set to start up again on February 11, 2021. Find out more here. 

Image via Porter Airlines

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