Mileage Plus/OnePass mileage transfer and Elite status tools

Early last week (sorry been traveling and didn't get a chance to put this up sooner) United's official rep to Milepoint.com posted new tools for members of United's Mileage Plus and Continental's OnePass programs to transfer miles between accounts and combine elite earnings between them as well. The reason for these tools is that the two airlines frequent flyer programs are still operating as separate entities until they are combined sometime in 2012.

To access the new tools see below:
Transfer redeemable miles between your OnePass and Mileage Plus accounts at united.com/transfermymiles or continental.com/transfermymiles (both take you to the same place).

Match Elite status and combine Elite earnings for your OnePass and Mileage Plus accounts. For those of you who have Elite Qualification miles and segments/points in both OnePass and Mileage Plus, you can now combine these earnings to earn Elite status, Regional Upgrades and Systemwide Upgrades. Go to united.com/combinemyactivity or continental.com/combinemyactivity for all the details.

Aeroplan Donates 1 Million Miles to Relief Efforts in Japan

Cash donations from around the world are pouring in to many charities including the Canadian Red Cross, here is another method for you to donate (plus it counts as activity in your Aeroplan account if you don't use it often)

From the Groupe Aeroplan press release:

Montreal, QC, March 14, 2011 Aeroplan today announced that it has donated 1 million Aeroplan Miles to the Canadian Red Cross to support the emergency relief efforts in the aftermath of the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Aeroplan will also match its employees' individual cash contributions to the Canadian Red Cross while Groupe Aeroplan will match cash contributions to the Red Cross or the Red Crescent from its employees worldwide.

In addition, Aeroplan Members who wish to support the Canadian Red Cross can donate their Aeroplan Miles online at www.aeroplan.com.

"Our hearts go out to the people of Japan at this time," said Vince Timpano, President and Chief Executive Officer, Aeroplan. "We hope that our donation will assist relief efforts in the aftermath of this terrible disaster and we invite our members to join us in supporting the Canadian Red Cross."

Avianca and TACA launch new unified frequent flyer program: LifeMiles

The partnership between Avianca and TACA has grown even stronger as each airline has stopped their old FFPs (Plus and Distancia respectively) with the launch of their new unified program called LifeMiles. All miles held in the old accounts are being honored and should be in member's new LifeMiles accounts. Elite status in either program is also being honored in the new program. Apparently members old account numbers will be the same in LifeMiles.

Overall the new programs is stated as being better and they provide a chart on the LifeMiles website comparing it to the old AviancaPlus and Distancia programs. Apparently achieving elite status will be easier,  there will be a better upgrade policy and there will be many more mileage earning opportunities. To see the comparison chart click here.

Overall the program does look like a bit of an improvement over the old programs and this will be an interesting one to watch over the next year or so to see if they live up to their promises. One thing I can tell you right off the bat is their new website is much better then the old AviancaPlus or TACA Distanica sites.

You can find bonus offers for the new program on the new LifeMiles page on Rewards Canada. Our page for the old TACA Distancia program will no longer be updated.

For complete details on the program please visit LifeMiles.com

Sunwing Airlines to launch Canada-Europe flights

Already known for their flights to sunnier destinations down south, charter carrier Sunwing has announced that they will offer flights between Canada and Europe for the Summer 2011 season. Using a leased Boeing 767 the airline will offer charter flights between Montreal and Paris; Toronto and Amsterdam, Dublin, Lisbon, London (LGW), Paris, Porto and Rome. The flights will run from June 16 through to September 12.

Source: Airline Route Updates

The Frequent Traveler Awards - Voting is now open

Many of you have probably already seen that the voting for the second annual FT Awards is now open. If not, well here is your notice and your chance to go vote for your favorite airline and hotel programs in six categories to recognize the best promotion for redemption, best promotion for earning, best redemption ability, best customer service, best elite level and best loyalty credit card. A seventh award will recognize the overall airline and hotel 'Program of the Year' in each region.

The Awards will be handed out at the Frequent Traveler Awards ceremony at Citi Field in Flushing, New York on April 28, 2011.

To cast your vote please visit FTAwards.com today! Voting is open until Mar 31, 11

Capital One launches dedicated Rewards site

Holders of the Capital One Aspire Travel™ World MasterCard® and Capital One® Aspire Travel™ Platinum MasterCard® now have their own dedicated rewards site for the Reward Miles they earn on the cards. The site provides cardholders information on how and where they can redeem their miles (I know this was a complaint for those looking to get the card as originally the Capital One site did not provide much information on this). It also allows cardholders to redeem their miles against the travel charges put onto their cards from any travel vendor. This is a feature I really like and not many other travel anywhere cards are offering this feature yet (TD, Amex, Diners you have to call in to redeem points against your travel charges). Some do have online booking engines like BMO's Elite World MasterCard but the difference with them is that you have to book with them and not with whomever you like.

For non-cardholders they provide a demo on the site as to how it works and it looks quite plain and simple. I applaud Capital One for taking this step in addressing cardholder and non-cardholders concerns with wanting more information on the redemption process. To visit the new rewards site for Capital One please click here.

“The interest rates, fees, rewards details, benefits and other details of the Capital One product(s) described in the article may have changed since the time of publication. Please consult the product information pages on the Capital One website for accurate product details. In the event of any conflict between the product details in this article and the Capital One website, the details on the Capital One website shall prevail.”

Qatar Airways confirms Montreal - Doha service

On February 27th, Qatar Airways has formally announced the launch of their much anticipated Montreal - Doha route. The route will begin June 29 and will initially run three times weekly. Montreal is QR's fourth North American destination and first in Canada. We are pleased to be affiliated with Qatar Airways (you can book flights via this link) and with the launch of any new airline to Canada we have added a bonus offer page for the Qatar Airways' Privilege Club program (http://www.rewardscanada.ca/privilegeclub.html) Although it has not been confirmed yet we should be able to expect a bonus Privilege Club mileage offer for this route shortly as QR almost always has route launch bonus offers.

Flight Timings
Montreal-Doha Dep 2315 Arr 1840+1
Doha-Montreal Dep 0830 Arr 1450

Source: Qatar Airways

Westjet, American Airlines expand relationship with code share agreement

Following an earlier interlining announcement in October 2010, WestJet and American Airlines have announced a new code share agreement between the two airlines. The agreement will allow each airline to place their codes on the other airlines flights. At this point this means American customers will be able to connect to up to 20 cities in Canada that AA or American Eagle does not serve while WestJet customers will be able to fly on WestJet coded American Airlines flights from Canada to Boston and Chicago. Future arrangements should see the WestJet place their codes on American flights to more cities.

For our readers, the biggest perk here is the reciprocal frequent flyer benefits in the agreement. This means members of either airlines frequent flyer programs will be able to earn AAdvantage miles or WestJet dollars on the code share flights. What is unknown at this time is whether you have to fly a connecting flight on your actual airline to earn miles/dollars or if you will be able to earn those miles for the code share flight only. In most other agreements as long as the flight has your main airline's code then you get the miles/dollars but on some occasions some programs have made it more restrictive that you have to connect to/from a flight flown with your airlines own metal. Hopefully  that will not be the case here as they may attract a few more business customers to the WestJet frequent guest program primarily out east with the numerous flights that AA has from Eastern Canada to Boston and Chicago.

Source: WestJet

Earn up to 1,000 bonus Aeroplan Miles per night at Fairmont Hotels

This is a great bonus mile offer for hotel stays as it awards you on a per night basis rather then the standard per stay basis. Also, we could not see a maximum number of nights restriction so technically speaking you can earn this bonus many times over until it ends on May 31. The offer is as follows: (as pulled from our Aeroplan page)

Earn up to 1,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles per night for stays at participating Fairmont Hotels Worldwide.
- Earn 500 Bonus Aeroplan Miles PER NIGHT for eligible stays in a standard room.
- Earn 1,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles PER NIGHT when you book our GOLD FLOOR or a SUITE at participating Fairmont locations
Full Details & Online Booking

Porter Airlines adds new service to Windsor and Sault Ste. Marie

Porter Airlines continues their expansion out of the Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport with an announcement today that will start new flights to Windsor and Sault Ste. Marie.

The Windsor service starts on April 27 and will offer up to 3 flights daily while the Sault Ste. Marie service starts up on May 4 with up to 2 flights per day.

Included in the announcement was Porter's plans to double their existing service to Sudbury on April 27.

Source: Porter Airlines