Feb 2 Update: Club Sobeys Ontario moves to Air Miles, MileagePlus accumulation changes on Air Canada, Best Western Gift Card offer

A busy start to the week and month here on RC!

News, Tips & Tricks
The last remaining hold out in the Club Sobeys Aeroplan partnership, Ontario, will be ending soon as Sobeys in this province follows the others by moving to Air Miles. Aeroplan ends on March 26 and to encourage the change Air Miles and Club Sobeys are offering 50 Bonus Air Miles for connecting your Club Sobeys account with your Air Miles account. Find out more here.

Last week United MileagePlus announced mileage earning changes for flying on their partner airlines that will take effect on March 1. This is a major change for those of you here in Canada who choose to credit your Air Canada flights to United MileagePlus after defected to the latter program due to all the Aeroplan devaluations. The news is both good and bad. If you fly in premium classes or full fare economy classes you'll actually earn more miles. However if you fly on discounted economy chances are you'll earn less miles unless your flights are to the U.S., Mexico, Central America or the Caribbean. Crediting other Star Alliance flights to United MileagePlus are also affected by these changes. To learn more visit these mileage earning pages on United.

Air Canada accumulation for MileagePlus until Feb 28

Air Canada accumulation for MileagePlus after Mar 1

As you can see, Air Canada fare classes Q,V,W,G move to 75% miles awarded from 100% and S,T,A,L,K  (on flights leaving Canada) move to 50% from 100%. However prior to Mar 1 STALK only earned 25% to the U.S., Caribbean and Central America so these routes will actually earn more miles. STALK flights within Canada remain at 25%. Executive Class (both discount and full fare) move up to 200% miles which is great for those of you who buy those fares! Full Fare Economy also grows from 125% to 150%.

Hilton HHonors looks to be following in the footsteps of IHG Rewards Club and Marriott Rewards by going away from a standard systemwide bonus to targetted offers for their members. Global systemwide offers will not go away completely, they will still offer 2 of them this year with the first starting in March but that is down from four per year as they look to move to targetted promotions. (Source FlyerTalk)

Aeroplan's Distinction Bonus on select Air Canada destinations have been updated for 2015 which include the addition of Barbados, Montego Bay, Punta Cana, St. Lucia, Palm Springs, Orlando, Bogota, Dublin, Hong Kong, Milan, Panama, and Rio. The following have been removed: London, New Orleans, New York JFK and Philadelphia. Find out more here.

Travel Deals
Another Porter Airlines sale for you! Fares from $110! Book by Jan 30 for travel well into June! Find out more here.

Bonus Offers
Air Miles
- 50 Bonus Air Miles when you set up automatic transfer between Club Sobeys and Air Miles. More... Residents of Ontario only Until Apr 9, 15

American AAdvantage
- 25% Bonus AAdvantage Miles when you convert points from select hotel partners into AAdvantage Miles. More... Until Mar 15, 15
- Earn up to 30,000 Bonus AAdvantage Miles when you buy or gift miles online. Plus receive a 10% discount if you purchase/gift miles before Feb 9. More... Until Mar 3, 15

Best Western Rewards
- Receive up to a $35 Gift Card when you complete 2 separate stays at Best Western Hotels Worldwide. Residents of South America, Asia, Africa will receive 6,500 bonus points instead. More... Until Mar 15, 15

Frontier Early Returns (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Triple Early Returns Miles per stay at La Quinta properties in the U.S., Mexico and Canada. More... Ongoing
- Triple EarlyReturns Miles with no minimum rental on a any size vehicle at participating Alamo® locations in the United States and Canada. More... Until Dec 31, 15
- 1,000 Bonus EarlyReturns Miles for Avis rentals of 3 or more days at participating Avis locations in the U.S., Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean. More... Until Jun 30, 15
- 1,000 Bonus EarlyReturns Miles for rentals of 5 or more days at participating Budget airport locations in the U.S., Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean. More... Until Jun 30, 15
- Triple EarlyReturns Miles when you rent any vehicle for one or more days at participating locations in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada. More... Until Dec 31, 15

Marriott Rewards
- 1,500 Bonus Rewards Points when you stay a minimum of three consecutive nights at the Cairo Marriott Hotel & Omar Khayyam Casino by the Nile. More... Feb 22 - May 15, 15
- 1,000 Bonus Rewards Points per NIGHT for stays at the AC Palacio del Carmen, Hotel AC Palacio del Retiro Hote,l AC Santo Mauro Hotel or the AC Palacio de Santa Paula Hotel. More... Until Apr 26, 15
- 1,500 Bonus Rewards Points per NIGHT at the Courtyard Valdosta. More... Until Apr 12, 15
- 2,000 Bonus Rewards Points per stay at the SpringHill Suites Houston I-45 North. More... Until Apr 27, 15
- 2,000 Bonus Rewards Points per NIGHT at the Chesapeake Marriott. More... Until Apr 26, 15

US Airways Dividend Miles
- Earn up to 30,000 Bonus Dividend Miles when you buy or gift miles online. Plus receive a 10% discount if you purchase/gift miles before Feb 9 More... Until Mar 3, 15

Today's Daily Update has been brought to you by

Last day to earn Aeroplan Miles at Sobeys in Western Canada

A six year era comes to an end today in Western Canada as it is the last day for the Club Sobeys program west of Ontario. Come tomorrow and Air Miles is the loyalty program of choice at Sobeys, Thrifty and of course Safeway which has been the Air Miles grocery store mainstay since 1992.

For me unfortunately as someone who has chosen Aeroplan over Air Miles and shops at Sobeys out of convenience (only 1.5km from my house) I will definitely miss earning those Aeroplan miles. Over the past 6 years I have earned more than 80,000 Aeroplan miles for my grocery shopping and if you include what my wife has earned in her Aeroplan account and we were well above 120,000 miles in total.

With the change to Air Miles I'm not sure if my shopping habits will change though. Sobeys is convenient which means I will probably boost my Air Miles account balance much faster than I do now (probably 10 miles per month right now!) but it won't make Air Miles my primary program. Don't get me wrong, Air Miles is still a great program for many Canadians for travel rewards but mainly other rewards. Last time I checked only about 10% of Air Miles redemptions were actually for flights while the other 90% was for merchandise, gift cards etc. I have redeemed for travel and merchandise when I had a much larger Air Miles balance and found the flight redemptions reasonable but with the recent increase mileage requirements I'm not too sure anymore. After a few months of earning Air Miles at Sobeys I'll report back and let you know what I think. At least I will still be able to use my Amex Gold Rewards Card on those purchases which ultimately translates to 2 Aeroplan Miles or 2 British Airways Executive Club Avios per dollar spent.

What are you plans with this change over? Are you going to change your shopping habits or are you excited that you may be earning more Air Miles Rewards Miles now? We'd love to hear from you! Comment below and feel free to let us know how many Aeroplan miles you earned in the six year Club Sobeys tenure!

July 31 Update: Link your Club Sobeys to Air Miles for a chance to win 5,000 Miles, new low cost carrier Jetlines hopes to break into the market

Wow a day where the news almost outnumbers the bonuses offers!

News, Tips & Tricks
Just in case you missed this email, Club Sobeys sent out a notice for linking your Air Miles account to your Club Sobeys account. The main reason you would want to do this is for the chance to win 5,000 Air Miles for doing so and also for a few days of auto conversion of Club Sobeys points to Air Miles. The points convert at a rate of 14 Club Sobeys Points to 1 Air Mile which means without bonuses your earning 1 Air Mile for every $14 spent. This auto conversion will start on September 12th and I assume will run until Club Sobeys is wound down at which point you'll just provide your Air Miles card when you shop at Sobeys. Find out more here

Jet Airways is making some slight changes to the earning structure for flights in their JetPrivilege program. They will now award a minimum amount of miles for flights under 500 actual flights miles. In most cases this should work out better for members as the previous earning schedule was strictly a percentage of the miles based on the fare paid. For example a flight between Chennai and Bangalore will now earn 500 miles on Jet Airways or 375 miles fon JetKonnect whereas under the old earning structure you could earn no more than 168 miles. Find out more here.

Jetlines has been quiet since November of last year (see our post here) but the new ultra low cost carrier has it sights on flights within Western Canada when it plans to launch next spring. Chances are it won't have a reward program initially (or ever) but if they do launch the good news for those of us who do like our Frequent Flyer programs we should see some heavy discounting from Air Canada and WestJet to compete with this new airline. (Source Global News)

Two more new Air Canada routes to let you know about: Montreal - San Salvador, Bahamas and Ottawa-Samana. Both are winter seasonal routes. (Source Airlineroute.net YUL | YOW)

Today is the last day to register for Marriott's Getaway Bonus where you can earn up to 45,000 bonus points or free nights for your Marriott stays. See more on our Marriott page

And finally a reminder of our Redemption Stories post from yesterday on how we got 4 flights on WestJet totally for free.


Bonus Offers
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
- 500 Bonus Mileage Plan Miles when you make a purchase of $150 at Mileage Plan Shopping. More... Until Aug 6, 14

JetBlue TrueBlue (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- 400 TrueBlue Points when you join Points for Surveys and complete your first survey. More... Until ?

United MileagePlus
- Double Premier Qualifying Miles on all qualifying roundtrips on United. More... Targeted Offer - May not work for everyone Until Sep 30, 14

Virgin America Elevate (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Triple Elevate Points on qualifying rentals of 2 days or more at participating Avis airport locations in the U.S. More... Until Dec 31, 14
- Triple Elevate Points on a qualifying rental of 2 or more consecutive days at participating Budget airport locations in the U.S. More... Until Dec 31, 14

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- Earn up to Quadruple Flying Club Miles for stays at any Shangri-La hotels, Kerry hotels or Traders hotels Worldwide. More... Until Aug 31, 14
- Double Flying Club Miles on all Sixt Car Rentals Worldwide. More... Until Aug 31, 14
- Triple Flying Club Miles on all Sixt Car Rentals of 5 or more days Worldwide. More... Until Sep 14, 14
- Double Flying Club Miles on all No.1 Traveller lounge bookings when you book their lounge in Edinburgh and one of their London lounges. More... Until Aug 16, 14

Today's Daily Update has been brought to you by

Sobeys chooses to go with Air Miles in Western Canada, Club Sobeys to be wound down

When the parent company of Sobeys announced they were buying Safeway Canada the one question many points collectors had was "who will Sobeys go with Aeroplan or Air Miles" since Sobeys in the West offers Aeroplan Miles via the Club Sobeys program while Safeway and Sobeys in Atlantic Canada offers Air Miles. We have the answer now, truth be told the answer came out on June 24th and somehow we missed it so we are bringing this news to you a bit late!

Sobeys has decided to go with Air Miles for the stores in Western Canada which of course is good news for Air Miles members but not so good news for Aeroplan members. Sobeys will actually be winding down their Club Sobeys program for their Sobeys and Thrifty Food stores in the West as they move to only awarding Air Miles. The change will take place on September 15th when they will no longer be an Aeroplan partner. However for those of you in Ontario, Club Sobeys will continue as is so you will still be able to earn Aeroplan miles shopping at Sobeys Ontario locations.

For me I am little disappointed as I am primarily an Aeroplan earner and my grocery store of convenience is Sobeys (only 2 minutes from my house) but I do value convenience so I only assume that my Air Miles balance will start growing as there won't be any grocery options for earning Aeroplan miles in Calgary. When the program winds down out West here this September I'll have earned close to or may even reach 80,000 Aeroplan miles by shopping at Sobeys

We'd love to hear your comments on Sobeys choice to go with the Air Miles program. Are you going to switch grocery stores or are you going to be like me and more than likely start increasing your Air Miles balance?

500 Aeroplan Miles for joining Club Sobeys & completing five $20 transactions

There have been numerous Aeroplan sign up bonuses since Club Sobeys launched a few years ago. I took advantage of one  when the program came to fruition, it also was 500 Aeroplan miles but I got those simply for joining.  Now they are making you do a little more work but in reality it should be difficult to earn these bonus miles if you are just joining Club Sobeys now. Here is the offer as it will appear on RC's Aeroplan Bonus Miles page later today:

Earn 500 Aeroplan Miles when you join Club Sobeys and provide your Aeroplan Number then shop for groceries and spend $20 or more on your next five shops at a Sobeys. You will be awarded 100 Bonus Aeroplan miles for each of those five transactions. Full details Until Nov 30, 13

June 13 Update: Sobey's buying Safeway, Alaska Airlines adds more partners to one way award bookings, 25% Bonus on buying Mas Rewards points

Now more than half way through the week here is what Thursday June 13th has brought us:

News, Tips & Tricks
Potentially big news on the shopping side of loyalty programs coming out late yesterday with the announcement of Sobey's buying the Canadian operations of Safeway. No word yet on what exactly is going to happen to the 200+ Safeway stores out west but chances are they will eventually be re-branded as Sobey's which would also mean the integration of the Club Sobey's program into all these stores. If this happens the big loser will be Air Miles as Safeway has been the place to be for earning hundreds if not thousands of Air Miles Rewards miles since 1992! In fact Safeway has been the one of if not the most lucrative partner for Air Miles Rewards Miles. Back in the day it wasn't unheard of to earn hundreds of Air Miles when buying a few dollars worth of Safeway brand dish sponges! I've scoured the news sources and such but have not heard mention of what will happen to the Safeway stores and as a result the Air Miles earning. There is talk of integrating management, distribution etc. but maybe one of our readers has found these details, if so please let us know!

On a great news note, Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan has added many more of their airline partners to their online award ticketing and it includes the ability to book one way tickets on those partners for exactly half the cost of the round trip award ticket. The online booking engine now includes AeroMexico, Air France, Air Pacific, Emirates, KLM, and Qantas. This change makes the Alaska Airlines program even more lucrative because of certain redemptions like First Class on Emirates and Qantas and even though Alaska only flies to Alberta and BC you can see that through their partners you can redeem for flights out of other Canadian cities like YYZ (Emirates, AF KLM), YUL (AF KLM) etc. Outside of flying on Alaska and their partners the best way to earn Mileage Plan miles in Canada is via credit card spend. The best cards for this are the MBNA Alaska Airlines Platinum MasterCard, the Starwood Preferred Guest Card from American Express and the Diners Club Club Rewards MasterCard (well for those of us who hold this card). For details on redeemind Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles see here.
Over on the FFB Blog I explain how you can use the bonus for buying Melia International Mas Rewards points to get a $2500+ Business Class ticket on airberlin for only $1140.


Travel Deals
Emirates is offering summer flights from Canada to India, Africa, the Middle East and Asia from $1425 all in.  Tickets must be booked by June 14 for travel until July 31. Visit emirates.com/ca for more details.

Bonus Offers
Air Baltic BalticMiles (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Double BalticMiles Points when you book a stay of two nights or more at prepaid rates at least 20 days in advance at participating World Hotels locations Worldwide. More... Jul 1 - Aug 31, 13

Emirates Skywards
- Double Skywards Miles when you travel in First Class or Business Class between New York JFK and Milan Malpensa. More... Register and Book by Jul 20 for travel Oct 1 - Nov 30, 13

La Quinta Returns
- Earn up to Triple Returns Points for stays at participating La Quinta locations in the U.S. More... Until Jul 11, 13

Le Club accorhotels
- Double Le Club Accorhotels Points for stays at participating Sofitel Hotels in Australia, New Zealand, or Fiji. More... Until Jul 31, 13
- 500 Bonus Le Club Accorhotels Points for stays at the ibis Barcelona Centro (Sagrada Familia) or Mercure Barcelona Augusta. More... Until Jul 31, 13

Malaysia Airlines Enrich (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Double Enrich Miles for stays at the G Tower Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. More... Until Jul 31, 13
- Double Enrich Miles for stays of 2 or more nights at participating Mandarin Oriental Hotels worldwide. More... Until Jul 31, 13
- Double Enrich Miles for stays of 2 or more night at the Pan Pacific Singapore. More... Until Jul 31, 13
- Earn up to Quadruple Enrich Miles when renting a Group C or higher car with Avis for 3+ days in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the USA, Canada, Australia or New Zealand. More... Until Jul 31, 13
- Earn up to Quadruple Enrich Miles when you rent a car on an Affordable Rate (leisure retail rate) from a participating HERTZ location in the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia or New Zealand More... Until Jul 31, 13

Melia International Mas Rewards
- 25% Bonus Mas Points when you buy Mas points online. More... Until Jun 28, 13

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- Double Flying Club Miles when you book a stay of two nights or more at prepaid rates at least 20 days in advance at participating World Hotels locations Worldwide. More... Jul 1 - Aug 31, 13

Earn bonus Aeroplan miles for buying I-Tunes gift cards at Sobeys

This week Club Sobeys if offering bonus points for buying I-Tunes Gift Cards of for 50 points for $15, 100 for 25 and 250 for $50 which translates to 25, 50 and 125 Aeroplan Miles respectively.

So if you spend money on I-Tunes or know someone who does why not earn some Aeroplan miles while your at it.