Miles & More Mileage Bargains - Big mileage discounts of 50% or more between Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver & Europe

 

The latest set of Miles & More Mileage Bargains (Meilenschnaeppchen) discounted mileage awards are here for this month. This month we see a few more cities on the list with offers available from Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

More Rewards Free Groceries Event - Redeem points at a higher value for groceries at Save-On Foods, Urban Fare or PriceSmart Foods

More Rewards has brought back their Free Groceries Event where you can redeem your More Rewards points for you in store grocery shopping at greater value than the regular redemption rates. In fact if you have enough points to redeem at the highest level, 48,000 points for $200 off your grocery bill you'll be redeeming points at nearly the same value as travel redemptions via the program. Outside of a couple of hockey ticket redemption options in the program redeeming for travel is the best redemption option in the program in terms of value so when they run this grocery redemption option several times per year it is definitely worth checking out. This offer is available in-store only until March 30, 2022.

Save 30% on Singapore KrisFlyer award tickets between Vancouver and Singapore

 
Two years and one month after we last saw them, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Spontaneous Escapes have returned. These are their monthly discounted award flight offers that are typically open for booking for the last two weeks of the month for travel during the following in month or the case of these new offers the following two months. Typically we only covered them on our global site FrequentFlyerBonuses.com as Singapore Airlines wasn't flying to Vancouver anymore but now that they are again we'll cover the promotion right here on Rewards Canada!

Air France KLM Flying Blue Promo Rewards: Save 25% on economy class reward flights between Montreal and Europe

 
This month's Air France KLM Flying Blue's Promo Rewards once again feature cities in Canada well let me correct myself, a city. We are now into the sixth straight month of having Canadian cities featured in the promotion as this month Montreal is still on the list  Just like all the past months the discount available is 25% off economy class reward flights.

Air France KLM Flying Blue Promo Rewards: Save 25% on economy class reward flights between Canada and Europe

 
This month's Air France KLM Flying Blue's Promo Rewards once again feature cities in Canada. This is now the fifth month in a row and this month although this month we see fewer cities on tap.  Just like the past few months the discount is 25% off economy class reward flights.

Miles & More Mileage Bargains - Big mileage discounts of up to 75% on flights to Europe from Calgary, Halifax Montreal, & Toronto

As we do each month we bring you the latest set of Miles & More Mileage Bargains (Meilenschnaeppchen) discounted mileage awards.This is now the third month in a row we've seen them after disappearing for a year and a half due to the pandemic. Once again there's a lot of them in Economy and Business Class to choose from and this time we see Calgary and Halifax with huge discounts on the table. Sorry Vancouver, you've been left out of the mix this month.

Best Western Rewards: Up to a 50% discount on reward night redemptions until February 6

Not only did Best Western launch a double points offer today they also released a discounted reward nights offer taking place during the exact same time. From now until February 6 you can receive up to a 50% discount when you redeem for reward nights through Best Western Rewards. Here’s the breakdown of the offer:

BMO Rewards redemption special for any travel bookings

 

BMO Rewards, the proprietary credit card redward program from BMO is known as one of the less flexible programs when it comes to redeeming for travel. The reason behind this is that you are limited to booking travel via BMO Rewards to ensure you get the most value out of your points. BMO does have a Pay with Points feature where you can mimic other proprietary credit card program's book any travel any way you want and redeem points against charge option but with a lot lower value. Now, BMO has launched a limited time promotion where you can use less points with their Pay with Points option when redeeming towards any travel purchase.

Air France KLM Flying Blue Promo Rewards: Save 25% on economy class reward flights between Canada and Europe

 
We continue to see Air France KLM Flying Blue's Promo Rewards feature cities in Canada! This is now the fourth month in a row and this month we see all of their Canadian gateways with discounted reward flight offers. Just like the last quarter of a year the discount is 25% off economy class reward flights.

Miles & More Mileage Bargains - Big mileage discounts of 50% or more on flights to Europe from Montreal, Toronto & Vancouver

 
It's been a long time coming, since February 2020 in fact, but the Miles & More Mileage Bargains (Meilenschnaeppchen) are back with Canadian departures! Yes, after 19 months of not having them on offer due to the pandemic these discounted award flight offers have returned. And there's a lot of them in Economy, Premium Economy and Business Class! In fact a total of 540 options to redeem for!

Air France KLM Flying Blue Promo Rewards return! Save 25% on Economy class reward flights from Calgary, Montreal & Vancouver to Europe

 

After 18 months we see the return of Air France KLM Flying Blue's Promo Rewards to Canada! Due to the pandemic and shut down of international travel for the greater part of that time these discounted award flight offers have mostly been limited to flights within Europe and to French/Dutch overseas possessions over the past 8-10 months. But as of this month we see the return of offers for North America as there are Canadian and Mexican cities in the mix.

Radisson Rewards: 25% points rebate when you redeem for award nights

 Now it's Radisson Hotels turn to have an award night sale! They have launched a 25% rebate offer when you redeem points for stays at Category 2 and up hotels worldwide. You do have to have the full amount of points at time of booking since this is not a discounted award night offer like Marriott’s but rather they’ll give you back 25% of the points will be credited back to you as a bonus. For those who aren’t looking to redeem for stays Radisson Rewards is also offering a 15% rebate when you redeem points for gift cards and prepaid cards.

Offer details:
25% Rewards Points rebate when you redeem for award nights for stays at category 2 and up Radisson Hotel Group hotels Worldwide. Full details & online booking. Book by Oct 25 for stays until Dec 20, 20

Here are some other Radisson Rewards offers to check out:

• Earn 5,000 Bonus Radisson Rewards points on each stay at all Radisson Collection, Radisson Blu, Radisson, Radisson RED, Park Plaza, Park Inn by Radisson, and Country Inn & Suites by Radisson hotels worldwide. Full details, online registration & booking (Registration is required)
• 100% Bonus when you buy Radisson Rewards points. Buy points here
• 3,000 Bonus Radisson Rewards points when you book your first two-night stay or more via the Radisson Hotels app. Full details
• Find these and other Radisson Rewards offers here.

Marriott Bonvoy Week of Wonders - Hotels pricing at off-peak award night rates when you book by October 15

 

Marriott Bonvoy is celebrating its members and kicking off a Week of Wonders starting today through October 15, 2020. The Week of Wonders provided numerous promotions that Marriott Bonvoy members can take advantage of - some of which are already ongoing like Marriott Bonvoy Escapes, the 50% bonus for buying Marriott points and 2,500 bonus points on stays until October 18. The new offers being provided as of today are the award night sale (which this post mostly focuses on), a sale on items purchased from the Marriott store and a free night when you book stays via Homes & Villas by Marriott International.

The promotion that is most attention worthy is the award night sale and here's what Marriott tells us about it:

Members can discover more of the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio by being able to book rooms with points for up to 33% less than standard rates at more than 7,000 participating hotels and resorts worldwide for stays through November 30, 2020.

That's right hotels around the world are being offered at their Off-Peak price for stays until the end of November when you book by October 15.  All 261 of Marriott's properties in Canada are participating. As a reminder here is the award night points requirement chart for Marriott Bonvoy (click to make larger):

Since the offer is valid for stays until the end of November most of us will be looking at stays here in Canada. I did a random search of about half a dozen hotels across Canada in various categories and they were all pricing at the off-peak price right through to the 30th of November. This can be a good time to use up some of those points you've earned off the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card and other promotions! You'll recall that when you book a five night award night stay you get one night free (the one night that prices at the lowest rate is free) so you can stay at a Category 1 hotel for 5 nights for as little as 20,000 points, a Category 2 for 40,000 and so on. And if you are lucky enough some hotels will be pricing at Off-Peak PointsSavers rates which are even less! Here's the Four Points by Sheraton Edmonton South for 5 nights in November:

It's pricing at Category 1 Off-Peak PointSavers so it is only 4,000 points per night and with one night free on a five night stay you would only have to redeem 16,000 points. The cash rate for that same stay is $480 (includes taxes and fees) which equates to a return of 3 cents per point. Take that redemption value of the 50,000 point welcome bonus on the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card and you have $1,380 value ($1500 points value minus $120 annual fee)

That brings me to the annual free night certificate from that card and with Off-Peak pricing in effect you could have a better chance right now to use that free night at a Category 6 hotel since they price out at 35,000 points for Off-Peak Pointsavers. For example here is the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre which is a category 6 hotel:

It has many nights available in November at the Off-Peak PointSavers rate of 35,000 points meaning you can use your certificate here.

Recommended reading: 10 great Marriott Hotels in Canada to use your anniversary free night award from the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card 

This is great time to go explore our country and this sale couldn't have come at a better time! We'd love to hear from you if you are going to do some exploring of our beautiful country and let us know where and how many points you are using/saving or if you utilizing those certificates! Tell us in the comments below

Learn more about and book the Marriott Bonvoy Award Night sale here.

Save up to 50% on British Airways Executive Club reward flights when you redeem by October 13

Launched yesterday, British Airways Executive Club has taken a note from Air Canada and launched their own up to 50% off all reward flights sale! With this promotion members of BAEC can book World Traveller, World Traveller Plus, Club World or First cabins for only 50% of the normal amount of Avios required and Euro Traveller or Club Europe cabins for 25% off. The offer only runs for one week (must be booked by October 13) for flights until June 30, 2021 and those flights have to be on British Airways operated flights.

This promotion while looking good on the cover is being touted as a so-so offer for Canadians if you are looking to redeem for flights between Canada and the U.K.. The reason being is that British Airways imposes some hefty carrier surcharges on their award flights between North America and the UK or Europe and most everywhere else. There are options where countries regulate those surcharges where you wouldn't be spending as much cash on those award flights but given the current worldly travel situation it may be difficult to get onto some of those flights by next June. Some of the places that regulate surcharges include Hong Kong, Brazil, and Japan so you could look at departures from these regions to the U.K.

That being said, the value proposition for flying from Canada to the U.K. in Business Class isn't a terrible thing. Yes those surcharges suck the big.... you know what...  but when you compare such a redemption to the cash price of a ticket and if Executive Club is your main program (where you don't have tons of Aeroplan miles or other travel reward currencies) this sale is something to consider. For example here is a business class flights between Toronto and London Heathrow in March:

50,000 Avios (normally it would be 100,000) and $1,454.24 in fees and taxes. Yikes! Yes those fees and taxes are pretty insane but here is the same flight when paying cash:

 So those 50,000 Avios are saving you $3,416.97! That's a return of 6.8 cents per Avios which for many of us are earned via credit card spend. For example the American Express Gold Rewards Card's 2 points per dollar on travel, groceries, gas and drug stores would equate to a 13.6% return for this flight, the Platinum Card's 3 points on dining makes it a whopping 20.4% return. Think about it you would have only have had to spend as little as $16,667 in credit card spending to get this flight. And some will compare to Aeroplan - saying that as of November 8 you'll won't pay those carrier surcharges but in most cases would have to redeem 120,000 to 320,000 Aeroplan Points:

So let's look at the math if we compare credit card spending at the best possible rate which is the 3 Aeroplan Points or BAEC Avios with the Platinum Card's dining accelerator. The above British Airways redemption would require $16,667 in card spending and the $1454.24 in award flight fees and taxes. Total is $18,121,24. With Aeroplan you would need to spend $40,000 alone on the Platinum card not including the little bit of fees that would be on that award ticket. Based on this methodology even paying those $1454 in fees on BA makes this sale worth it. Even if you look at credit card sign up bonuses. Say you have earned 100,000 American Express Membership Rewards Points you could redeem for two round trip business class flights on BA versus not even one with Air Canada's Aeroplan (based on published rates of course) Of course every single person has different reward aspirations for their miles and points but don't be dissuaded by those out there saying you shouldn't redeem for this BA sale because of those high fees. Yes they are a bane to all of us and yes they shouldn't be charged but the reality is many programs do and you need to look at the whole big picture of how you have earned those points and miles and how you redeem them and make the comparisons as to what redemption works best for you.  

Click here to learn more about the BA 50% off reward ticket sale.

Looking to earn more Avios? Right now one of the best options is with HSBC World Elite Mastercard with it 100,000 point welcome bonus with no annual fee in the first year. That's 40,000 Avios not including your spend on the card to get the bonus.

Here are some more BAEC bonuses to check out:

• Earn up to 18,000 Bonus Avios when you subscribe to The Economist. Full details
• 20% Bonus Avios on your first transaction when shop online via the British Airways eStore. Full details
  

Air France KLM Flying Blue Promo Awards - Save 25% on Business Class award tickets between Calgary and Europe

The newest set of Air France KLM's Promo Awards were released last week and this time we only see one Canadian city included. With promo awards the discount ranges from 25 to 50% off the regular amount of miles required to redeem for these flights. As you can see just by the discount this can be a very good offer if you get 50% off for Business Class! However for us here in Canada the 50% offers are few and far between but we do get 25% off which can definitely be utilized by some! While 25% isn't as good as 50% of course, it still is something to look at if you were planning travel to Europe for May or June. We also show you below how you can utilize the current Flying Blue buy miles promotion to get the miles for this offer and save some cash over the full purchase price of an equivalent ticket.

The offer are for March is:
Calgary to Europe: 25% off Business Class on KLM

Offer Details:
March Promo Awards - Save 20% to 50% on the Award Miles usually required for an award ticket. Destinations vary by each promotional period. Full Details Book by Mar 31 for travel May 1 - Jun 30, 18

Here are all the details on this single offer:

Don't have all the miles? You could always consider transferring Starpoints earned via the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express to Flying Blue. The card has a 20,000 Starpoint bonus right now which translates to 25,000 Flying Blue miles and a nice way to top off your account for one of these awards.

Another option to pad your Flying Blue account to get these award flights would be to take advantage of Marriott's Travel Packages where you can get 7 nights and miles as follows (although these packages are less valuable than Package #1 options):

However as we mentioned in the very first paragraph, there is another way to get the miles for this offer. Right now through to March 19 you can earn up to 75% bonus Flying Blue miles when you purchase miles. You can buy enough miles for the round trip business class flight including all taxes and fees add for around C$3100.00. So ideally you'd only want to buy miles if the value of the ticket is more than $3,100 which many times it can be in the high $4,000 or $5,000 range (or higher as seen below)

Here is an example:
Calgary to Amsterdam departing May 8 and returning May 15:

Booking with promo awards brings the following (93,750 miles + 419.94 EUR):

or booking direct with KLM:

or any other airline:

What would you rather pay? $7,112.96 at a minimum or a little over $3,100 via the buy miles/promo awards avenue? I know lots wouldn't do either but this is an example of how buying miles can be advantageous especially if you do need to fly to Europe and have the budget to do so in business class.

Miles & More Award Ticket Sale - Save 50% on Economy Class award tickets between Toronto & Poland!

As we do each month we bring you the latest set Miles & More "Meilenschnaeppchen" discounted mileage awards!  This month we see a lot less offered than we saw last month as the only options are the economy class offers on LOT to Poland. That being said it is a great offer and we even show you how to get these for free outside of the award ticket taxes/fees/

These offers are good for travel until Dec 31, 16 (must be booked by Nov 30)

You can redeem Miles & More miles for round trip tickets on LOT from Toronto to Poland for only 30,000 miles. This is a 50% discount off the normal Economy Class award ticket price of 60,000 miles. As to LOT, it is well known they have low taxes and fees so this makes it a great deal!!

Here are the offers:

The crazy thing is that you can actually get the round trip economy class tickets when you grab a couple of credit cards and a $120 annual fee! - there aren't many cards that will get you a round trip flight to Europe for that amount of spend!  How so? As we usually mention in this post you can boost your Miles & More account with the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express. Currently the card comes with a 20,000 Starpoints sign up bonus. When you convert those 20,000 Starpoints to Miles & More SPG will award you an additional 5,000 miles. Which gives you 25,000 miles. Yes but I need 30,000 points for the ticket right? Right then you get yourself the Chase Marriott Rewards Premier Visa card with the 30,000 or 50,000 point sign up bonus. You can then convert those to SPG at a rate of 3:1 so you have now added 10,000 to 16,000+ more Starpoints to you account. So now you would convert 25,000 Starpoints to Miles & More as they'll give the 5,000 extra for that 30,000 miles and still have 5,000 to 11,000 Starpoints left over. Now with only 21 days left to book these offers it is highly unlikely all the points from the credit cards will post in time but you can grab them now to see what offers will come out next month or beyond

Simply book the offers seen here by November 30th
Full details on this offer can be found here