Credit cards that help you avoid those dreaded airline fees & Rewards Canada's Guide to Business Class Lounge Access both see updates

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

We've updated the popular feature Credit cards that help you avoid those dreaded airline fees to reflect the changes to the National Bank of Canada World Elite Mastercard that kicked in last week. The card's travel reimbursement benefits is now $150 instead of $250 however you don't have the category limitations in place anymore that made it tough for some cardholders to use up the entire $250. Check out the feature here.

Earning Stories: Completing a quintuple dip for purchasing gas at Shell

You'll often hear points and miles enthusiasts and those that write about the industry make reference to dipping. That is double dip, triple dip and so on. What this refers to is earning multiple points, miles or other incentives for a single purchase or action. For most transactions the double dip is most common. It is your base earn in the loyalty program (the first dip), and then earning on your credit card for that purchase (the second dip). However, add in any bonuses or other promotions and that can grow to a triple or quadruple dip or even higher. Recently a combination of standard offers and limited time promotions allowed me to complete a quintuple dip when fueling up for gas at Shell!

Achieving the quintuple dip

How did I achieve a quintuple dip? Well it took three standard offers and two limited time promotions to do so. The standard offers were the base AIR MILES earn, the base credit card earn and the discount that Shell offers to CAA members. Then, to round out the big time dip there was a bonus miles offer from Shell and an Amex Offers promotion to receive statement credits for making purchases at Shell.

Dip 1: Base AIR MILES Earn

The base earn rate for Bronze fuel at Shell is one AIR MILES Reward Miles for every 20L purchased. Seeing that I purchased right around $60 worth of gas that amounted to just over 30 litres for one base mile earned.

Dip 2: Bonus AIR MILES Earn

AIR MILES sends out monthly emails to earn bonus miles at Shell for that month and you have to click the link to opt-in. I always opt-in even though I'm not really a Shell guy but I always opt-in just in case I do stop at Shell for gas. I'm glad I did opt-in as it allowed me to earn 50 bonus AIR MILES on this purchase. (This 50 was part of total 75 bonus mile offer in place, the first 25 were earned the week before)

The base earn rate plus the monthly bonus

 

Dip 3: CAA Discount

The third dip is not points earning but rather a discount for bringing in yet another program. If you are a CAA member you can enjoy 3 cents off per litre at participating Shell stations. I have my CAA membership # set up in the Shell App so the discount is automatically applied by utilizing Shell EasyPay.

Image courtesy of the CAA

Dip 4: Points earned on the Platinum Card

My four visits to Shell during the month of June were all paid for with my Platinum Card from American Express. These visits earned the base 1 point per dollar spent that the card offers. Normally I pay for gas with my American Express Cobalt Card or American Express Gold Rewards Card since both of them offer 2 points per dollar on gas but for those four ~$60 purchases it was worth it to forego the 240 or so extra points I would have earned for the $20 in savings provided by the 5th dip!

Dip 5: Statement credits earned on the Platinum Card 

Up until June 30 there was an Amex Offers promotion where you could earn a $5 statement credit on a $60 purchase from Shell and you could earn it up to 4 times. I only received it on my Platinum Card so as you have already learned, that is why I used it for these purchases.

To ensure I maximized this offer from American Express and Shell I actually made sure to only buy around $60 of gas each time so that I could make it to Shell more often. My SUV has a 100L tank so I purchased less than half a tank on June 10 and about the same on June 11 so that I could earn the credit twice instead of only once had I filled the tank completely on the 10th:

And that is how I achieved a quintuple at Shell for the June 10 purchases. The other three purchases were all quadruple dips since they didn't earn any bonus AIR MILES Reward Miles.

The value of the Quintuple Dip in numbers:

• Dip 1 - $0.105
• Dip 2 - $5.25
• Dip 3 - $1.00
• Dip 4 - $0.60
• Dip 5 - $5.00

The total value is nearly $12 on a $60 purchase. Not bad at all! And that's taking into account the minimum value for American Express Membership Rewards points of 1 cent per point. In all honesty I will most likely redeem them for 4 to 6 cents a piece (or more) which would put my total return around $15. 

Wrapping it up

One of the reasons behind American Express having Amex Offers is to encourage cardmembers to use their cards at places they may not regularly shop at. And it works. I'm normally a Petro-Canada person out of convenience plus I do like the value I get out of Petro-Points when redeeming for car wash cards. However for most of June I switched to Shell to earn those $5 statement credits and everything else earned was icing on the cake. Now I didn't go out of my way to go to find a Shell but strategically stopped at their stations when I could. For July, it will be back to Petro-Canada and what perfect timing as they are offering triple Petro-Points for fuel purchases this month!

Podcast Episode 90: Loyalty Lesson - The first points & miles credit card you should get

If you are new to world of points, miles and/or rewards credit cards but want to get a head start at the game as you begin to immerse yourself in research to learn the ins and out of loyalty programs, there is one credit card you should get right away. Not only is this card a great card for beginners, it is in fact the number one card to have for even the most seasoned points and miles enthusiasts and we discuss why in this episode of the Rewards Canada podcast!

New Loyalty Rewards Tools and Apps page & an Amex Offer for Oxford Properties Gift Cards

Here's your Rewards Canada Daily update! Your near daily dose of loyalty program, credit card and travel news, bonuses, deals and more. Today's update is brought to you by the HSBC High Rate Savings Account with which you can enjoy a total annual interest rate of up to 2.65% on new deposits± Click here to learn more about this offer

 

We've added a new page on the main Rewards Canada site that links to tools, websites and apps that Rewards Canada recommends to help you make the most of your loyalty programs. From award searches, to finding seats, lounge access and more this page covers it! We currently have six tools on the page but will add more shortly and if you know of any we missed or can recommend that you use let us know as we'll add them to the page as well! Check out the page here.

Introducing point.me award search tool along with a special discount offer for Rewards Canada readers

Searching for award flights with your favourite airline frequent flyer programs can be daunting task, not to mention a potentially very time consuming one. Whether you are a beginner or consider yourself a pro with points and miles, the time it can take to find award flights. Over the years various online tools have come along to help ease that task and the latest is point.me, which happens to be he reincarnation of Juicy Miles and they are on a mission to be the best award search engine and service out there. 

Loyalty Lesson: The first points & miles credit card you should get

 

We released a new feature today on the main Rewards Canada site for those of you who are new to the world of points, miles, cash back and loyalty rewards in general. This feature takes a look at the first credit card you should consider getting to get yourself started down this rabbit hole! The great thing about this card is it is perfect to get before you have even started to learn about and research loyalty programs. It covers the best of the best for earning, burning, value and more and thus it gives you a head start to collecting points while you begin to educate yourself and learn what reward or rewards will be best for you.

April 21 Update: The Ultimate Guide to Credit Card & Loyalty Programs for the All Inclusive Vacationer & Air Canada Chauffeur Service, Now Electrified by Porsche

Here's your Rewards Canada Daily update! Your near daily dose of loyalty program, credit card and travel news, bonuses, deals and more. Be sure to subscribe to the Rewards Canada News email newsletter so that you don't miss out on any loyalty program news and offers! You can subscribe to the newsletter here!

We have updated our feature The Ultimate Guide to Credit Card & Loyalty Programs for the All Inclusive Vacationer. When it comes to travel loyalty programs and credit cards, all inclusive vacations are often neglected. Think about it, have you ever seen a credit card ad detailing an all inclusive vacation? No, it’s almost always flights and to a lesser extent hotel stays. That’s because we've been trained to think that credit card and travel reward programs are just for flights. 

January 31 Update: Credit cards that help you avoid those dreaded airline fees, More Rewards adds a new pharmacy partner & new exclusive Visa Infinite Privilege 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. 

 

Over the weekend another popular feature on the Rewards Canada website received an update. That feature is Credit cards that help you avoid those dreaded airline fees. In this piece we look at cards that can save on baggage fees, seat selection fees and other charges associated with flying these days. Check it out here.

Credit cards that help you avoid those dreaded airline fees - Updated for 2022

 
The next long running Rewards Canada feature to get its yearly update and also be moved to the new format on our site is article on Credit cards that help you avoid those dreaded airline fees.

Car Rental redemptions have returned to AIR MILES and they retain great value!

When the revamped AIR MILES launched in fall of 2021 one redemption that disappeared, temporarily that is, was car rentals. We are happy to tell you that is option is back, based on a tweet from AIR MILES the car rental option returned on January 19, 2022. The car rental option has been added to the AIR MILES Travel Hub which is the same portal you can use to book hotels.  In the past incarnation Car rentals had typically been one of the best and most valuable redemption options in the program and we'll test it out to see if it still is.

Guide to Credit Card Emergency Medical Insurance Coverage - Updated for 2022

The one good thing about doing a website redesign and updating pages on a one by one basis is that it allows us to also bring the content of those pages up to date. Such is the case with this feature we first published back in February 2013. It has had a few updates along the way but definitely needed to be a thorough brushing up for 2022. 

December 27 Update: Expiry and Inactivity Rules of Canadian & International Loyalty Programs, 1,000 free points from More Rewards & one more Cobalt multiplier

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. This update is brought to you by the HSBC World Elite Mastercard which is currently offering a welcome bonus of up to 100,000 bonus points worth $500, has no foreign transaction fees and no annual fee in the first year! 

 
As a follow up to our Loyalty Laundry post from last week about checking your loyalty accounts for points or miles that are set to expire we have updated our popular feature Expiry and Inactivity Rules of Canadian Loyalty Programs. In fact it is now titled Expiry and Inactivity Rules of Canadian & International Loyalty Programs as we have added many popular international programs to the list as well. This update sees more Canadian programs like Tims Rewards, MyMcDonalds Rewards and Journie Rewards on the list, an extra column that details any COVID-19 extension and of course a list of airline and hotel programs from outside of Canada that are popular with Canadians. Click here to check out the feature!

November 15 Update: McDonald's will keep the on-cup sticker program, RBC extends the 35,000 points offers on the Avion cards & top 6 tips for maximizing miles & points earning on your holiday shopping

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. This update is brought to you by the HSBC World Elite Mastercard which is currently offering a welcome bonus of up to 100,000 bonus points worth $500, has no foreign transaction fees and no annual fee in the first year! 

 
Our post on the new MyMcDonald's Rewards has proven very popular with our readers and a lot of the comments and responses we have received are those unhappy with the coffee side of things. That is, in the old program you could buy 7 coffees (typically at $1 each) and then get one free. In the new program via the app that will now take 20 coffees at $1 a piece. That's a big devaluation but there is a way around this! We have confirmation from McDonald's (and via their T&Cs as well) the on-cup sticker program will remain in place for the foreseeable future except in Manitoba and Northwest Ontario. That means you'll still be able to earn a free hot drink after only buying seven. And I would be led to believe you'll still earn your 100 points per $1 spent via MyMcDonald's Rewards as I don't see them giving one type of cup for orders via the app and another with a sticker for non Rewards orders. I'm thinking McDonald's is keeping this in place because of Tim Hortons, whose program still offers a free drink after seven purchases. However, if you can technically double dip with MyMcDonald's Rewards it actually works out better than Tims! Read more about the MyMcDonald's Rewards program here.

Podcast Episode 84 - See who Canada chose as their favourite credit cards and loyalty programs

 

Four credit cards that can make flying with Flair Airlines even cheaper!

Flair Airlines has been making a big return to flying and even expanding as we slowly emerge from the pandemic. Touted as Canada's only independent Ultra Low Cost Carrier, Flair Airlines offers rock bottom prices on flights within Canada and shortly to the U.S.. Those rock bottom prices are for bare bones tickets - no carry on bags, no check bags, no seat selection and so on. Basically outside of the base ticket price you can pick and choose what services you want for your flights and pay for those accordingly. So while the base fares are cheaper than the competition once you start adding the extras the price can creep up to being equivalent to what Air Canada and WestJet are charging. So how can you save yourself some money - either just on the insanely cheap base fares or even those fares that include add ons? By utilizing a credit card that has high points earning value that can be redeemed for Flair purchases and cards that provide credits for additional fees charged by airlines.

Your August points & miles agenda - these offers are all slated to end this month

 
Here is a new monthly feature we'll have on the Rewards Canada blog and that is a list of promotions, offers and more that are slated to end during the month. Whether its stay bonuses, registering for offers or signing up for a limited time credit card offer we'll have it here if it expires in this month.

* Note all offer end dates were current at time of posting this however some offers do get extended so there expiry date may change. We will do our best to update this list frequently to note those changes. Also note that your mileage may vary with credit card offers - just because they are ending on the date listed below does not mean the next offer will not be as good as the offers can be extended or the issuer may come out with an even better offer.

Some regional tourism board offers for hotel stays are even better than just getting a gift card!

 Back on July 20th we had a post that detailed tourism board offers that provide gift cards and/or discounts for stays at select hotels within those tourism board regions. From Vancouver to Quebec City and several  cities in-between you can receive $75 visa gift cards, $100 visa gift cards and discounts for dining just to name a few. What is good about some of these offers allow you to actually book the stay via the actual hotel chain so you may earn points, receive your elite status benefits and more. It appears Ottawa, Richmond & Vancouver are the cities where you cannot book direct with the hotel chain.

Book Review: Mileage Maniac: My Genius, Madness and a Touch Of Evil To Amass 40 Million Frequent Flyer Miles

 

Since the inception of frequent flyer programs in the early 80s there have been very few mileage and points stories that garner the attention of the world. Whether it is The Pudding Guy who has been enshrined in Adam Sandler's Punch-Drunk Love or George Clooney playing Ryan Bingham in Up in the Air who is trying to break the 10 million mile mark in the American AAdvantage program, the mainstream coverage of making the most of frequent flyer programs is pretty minimal. It seems like we get some story every few years (like The Great Canadian Mileage Run by the now fallen from grace Marc Tacchi) but one story other than the pudding guy that always seems to re-emerge is the Baht run. Made famous by Steve Belkin the Baht Run and many of his other mileage travel hacking records are often referred to as to crown jewels in finding that elusive loop hole to earning a ton of miles. Well rather than have other people write about him Steve has put pen to paper and wrote a book about all his amazing mileage earning journeys over the past few decades.

How to score flights to Ireland for as little as $120 plus taxes and fees

With news that Ireland reopened to vaccinated Canadians with no quarantine or testing requirements as of July 19 (Source Canadian Travel News) I thought it would be the perfect time to bring one of the easiest, most achievable transatlantic economy class redemptions back to the forefront. We discussed this redemption quite a few years ago and frequently bring attention to it but figured it would be best to update it for 2021.

That redemption option is using British Airways Executive Club to redeem for flights on Aer Lingus between Toronto and Dublin. Back in 2017 the redemption option (well any redemption on Aer Lingus) became part of BA Executive Club's off peak award pricing. With off-peak In the off season, which is actually the majority of the year, you can fly round trip on Aer Lingus' Toronto-Dublin flight for only 26,000 Avios (13,000 one way) which is a steal in the points and miles world!
 

Loyalty Lesson: Why hybrid rewards credit cards are the best bet for most Canadians

Whether you are a frequent flyer, a points & miles junkie or just someone who wants to have the utmost in flexibility with your travel rewards then there is one type of credit card that is the best for most of you and in reality for most Canadians. That type of card is the Hybrid Card. Hybrid cards are the moniker for these cards that Rewards Canada instituted many moons ago. Also known as Flexible Points card, Hybrid cards give the cardholder the best of all worlds when it comes to being rewarded from their credit card spending and welcome bonuses.