Earn Double A|Club Points for stays in Thailand that will help rebuild homes

Accor Hotels has taken the Double Points offer to a new level (a good one at that) with this new promo. Until the end of January when you stay at any participating Accor Hotel or Resort in Thailand you will earn double A|Club points but that is where this promo stops at being the same as all other promos. How so? Well only earn the base points for your stay will be credited to your account, the double points or the bonus as they call it will be converted into cash and donated to a special flood relief fund established by the Yim Kids Thailand Foundation. I think this is a great initiative by Accor and makes good use of their loyalty program for a good cause and those who have stays or are planning stays in Thailand can feel good knowing they helped out during this time of need in Thailand. For the complete offer details please visit A-Club.com

LifeMiles: 100% Bonus on buying miles (translates to $1800 for Business Class to Europe)

Avianca TACA LifeMiles seems to be following in the footsteps of US Airways and Delta in offering 100% Bonuses on buying miles multiple times a year. The last time we saw this offer was back in September.

LifeMiles is the FFP of Latin America's joint venture airline Avianca TACA and until December 30th they are offering double miles (ie 100% bonus) on miles purchased in the program. The program allows you to purchase up to 75,000 miles for a total of 150,000 miles if you include the bonus. Now, here is where we get to the business class for $1,800: LifeMiles is partnered with Lufthansa and to redeem for a business class from North America to Europe on LH you need 120,000 LifeMiles, which means you need to buy 60,000 (+60,000 bonus) at $30 per 1,000 plus tax or $1,800+tax for the total amount.

For complete details or to partake in this offer please visit LifeMiles (Use promo code LMAZ03 if they ask for it)

Discounted Aeroplan Business & First Class Rewards - Limited Time Offer

Late last week news starting breaking in the Frequent Flyer Blogosphere that there were mistakes in the pricing some of Business Class and First Class award tickets from Aeroplan. Learning from previous potential mistake fares and reward tickets many people starting jumping on the bandwagon and booking this lower priced tickets. A day or so after this broke Aeroplan confirmed to one of the bloggers that this was not a mistake, rather an unadvertised reward sale that could end at anytime. I have to apologize to my readers for not posting this sooner as it seems no one has really covered this in Canada for a Canadian loyalty program! All the bloggers who covered it were from the U.S. with predominantly U.S. audiences. Well, fret no more here is my post for the Canadian market.

Essentially the sale sees Business Class award tickets going for the price of Economy Class Award tickets and First Class tickets going for the price of Business Class tickets. For example some select routes to Asia in business class are 75,000 Miles instead of the usual 100,000, to Europe it is 60,000 instead of 90,000 and Australia is 80,000 instead of 100,000. For fun I checked Calgary to Hong Kong in mid January and there it was 75,000 Miles for business class.

If you were planning on booking any Business Class or First Class rewards your best bet is to do it sooner then later so that you can save yourself some miles (kind of makes up for the increased fees due to the fuel surcharges now charged Star Alliance rewards)

Hat tip to Lucky @ One Mile at a time

Get free Gold status with Accor A|Club and Best Western Rewards

So while last weeks free Platinum offer has come and gone there is another from European based Accor Hotels for free Gold Status with their A|Club program. I have to thank one of our Twitter followers @Forest412 for alerting me to this offer. Unlike the Platinum offer, this one has a known deadline date of January 31, 2012 and is meant for new members, so if you are already an A|Club member you may have to join with a different email address (assuming you don't already have some status or points with A|Club).

To join via this offer please visit this page on the A|Club website.

And taking a hint from my platinum post last week you can leverage your Accor status to get the equivalent status with Best Western Rewards. For more details on the Best Western status offer please see Best Western Status Match No Catch

Making the most of your American Express Gold Rewards Card this holiday season

Making the most of your American Express Gold Rewards Card this holiday season This is the 4th installment of my series on the American Express Gold Rewards Card, and with the holiday shopping season in full swing, we look at how to maximize the use of your Gold Rewards Card. Whether it is maximized on the earn or on the burn, using this card for your Christmas shopping can be very advantageous.

Earning
For those of you who have not followed my series on this card, I'll revisit the earning basics of the American Express Gold Rewards Card. The card earns 1 Membership Rewards point for every eligible dollar spent on the card, but where the card shines is on eligible gas, grocery, drugstore and travel purchases as Cardmembers earn 2 points per dollar spent at these locations. It is the strategic use of this point multiplier that will ensure you maximize your earning potential this festive season.

Speaking of festive, what is one of the first things that come to mind for the holidays? Food. And lots of it! Since the card earns double points on grocery purchases all the food for your festivities should be bought on the card. Of course, if you need other items for your holiday celebrations, put all of your spend on the card, as you will still earn 1 point per dollar for all of your purchases outside of gas, grocery, drugstore and travel outlets.

It wouldn't be Christmas without all the shopping for gifts. By putting all your gift purchases on your American Express Gold Rewards Card, you will see your points balance grow by leaps and bounds. But the question to ask here is: How can I earn even more points on those gifts? While it can't be done on all purchases, here are two tips on how to bring in the point multiplier on some of your non gas, grocery, drugstore or travel purchases:

1) Some people (like me) are hard to buy for, so gift cards make a great present. If you want to buy a gift card to give to someone as a gift, buy it at your local grocery store and earn 2 points per dollar versus 1.

2) If you have your gifts (and the stores they come from) planned out, go buy gift cards for your purchases at the grocery store first and then use them to purchase the gifts. For example, say you want to buy a shirt at The Gap as a gift. If you went to The Gap to buy it, you would earn only 1 point per dollar, but if you bought a gift card at Sobeys or Safeway for The Gap, you would earn 2 points per dollar. Then you could simply use the gift card for the actual purchase of the shirt.

By following these tips, you can ensure that you're maximizing your points earning for the Christmas season.

Redeeming
Another way you can maximize the use of your American Express Gold Rewards Card this winter is to look at how you can use the points you have already earned to help you in your gift shopping. How do you do this? Via the Membership Rewards catalogue! With an option to redeem online or by phone, the catalogue is quite extensive - with items ranging from $25 Keg Gift Cards to 46" Toshiba LED TVs and hundreds of items in between. There are even some online-only discounted redemptions that include such items as a Canon Pixma printer for only 13,500 points (regular 29,000) until December 8. But your points don't have to be used only on merchandise or gift cards. How about concert tickets for your significant other or even utilizing TripFlex (see our TripFlex post here) to get your family a vacation to somewhere warm?

No matter how you look at it, there are many ways you can maximize your earn and burn potential this holiday season with the American Express Gold Rewards Card. I know I have and I would love to hear from our readers who also have the card on how they have used it to its fullest for their Christmas shopping and gift giving.

Click here to learn more about the American Express Gold Rewards Card

Get Free Platinum status with Accor A|Club and Best Western Rewards

December 2nd Update:  Almost as fast as I put this offer up it died, hopefully some of you were able to take advantage of it!

There is time limited offer from Accor Hotels A|Club that gives members of Air France KLM's Flying Blue program instant Platinum status in the A|Club program. Normally, it takes 60 nights or accumulating 25,000 A|Club points in a calendar year to earn Platinum status, so as you can see this is quite the fast track to this elite level. Now, that being said this promo is meant for Flying Blue members, (which is free to join, just visit Airfrance.com or KLM.com) but the actual registration form does not ask for your Flying Blue number, just A|Club membership # and email address. I did so and within 15 minutes had emails from Accor confirming my Platinum status without inputting my Flying Blue number or as the registration page suggests selecting the auto-convert option to Flying Blue. So there you have, that is how you can get free Platinum Status with Accor Hotels.

The next question may be what can I do with this status (which could be combined with "Who the heck is Accor Hotels) as here in Canada there are only a few Accor Hotel locations in Toronto and Montreal and they are not called Accor, as that is the parent company's name. The locations in those two cities are Novotel and Sofitels. Worldwide the Accor family has 10 hotel brands with most locations being in Europe and Asia. So you can definitely take advantage of this status for stays in those two Canadian cities and many more outside of Canada. But for those of you who primarily have stays in Canada and not in Toronto or Montreal may want to consider the next option:

Free Platinum status with Best Western! How do you get this? Best Western offers a promotion called "Status Match. No Catch" which means they will match your status in any other hotel loyalty program. So your first step will be to get your platinum status with Accor A|Club (don't worry, I have all the links at the end of this post) and once it is confirmed, complete the Best Western Status Match form and provide proof of your platinum status (just print off your online Accor Statement showing your Platinum Status) and send them off. I already took advantage of this status match offer not with Accor but used my Hyatt Platinum status to get the platinum status with Best Western. Within a couple of days of sending in the form I had my Best Western status.

There you have it, this is how you can free elite Platinum status in two major hotel chains! Here's a tip, don't wait to do this as Accor can pull this fast track offer for Flying Blue members at anytime.

Links
Accor A|Club Platinum Status Fast Track
Best Western Status Match No Catch

1,500 Bonus Marriott Rewards Points Per Night for stays across Canada

Marriott loves to reward Canadian's for stays at their hotels and the following is their promotion for the first quarter of 2012. Please note that this offer can be combined with any system-wide offers like Marriott's MegaBonus promotion. Depending on the hotel the bonus point rate may cost a little more then the best available or AAA/CAA rate but we have also found some nights/locations where the rate is no different, so if you are paying for the room yourself (ie not billing it out to your employer/client) make sure you check all the available rates first and see if paying a bit extra is worth the bonus points.

Earn 1,500 Bonus Rewards Points PER NIGHT for stays at 14 participating hotels across Canada. Maximum bonus per stay is 7,500 points. Full Details and Online Booking  Valid for stays Jan 1 - Apr 16, 12
Participating Hotels
Calgary Marriott Downtown Hotel
Montreal Airport Marriott Hotel
Edmonton Marriott at River Cree Resort
Residence Inn Gravenhurst Muskoka Wharf
Halifax Marriott Harbourfront Hotel
Residence Inn Montreal Downtown
Ottawa Marriott Hotel
Vancouver Airport Marriott Hotel
Toronto Marriott Downtown Eaton Centre Hotel
Toronto Marriott Bloor Yorkville Hotel
Renaissance Toronto Downtown Hotel
Toronto Airport Marriott Hotel
Vancouver Marriott Pinnacle Downtown Hotel
Renaissance Vancouver Harbourside Hotel

RBC Avion 50% Transfer Bonus to British Airways is back

British Airways and RBC are once again offering Avion cardholders a 50% bonus on transferring RBC Rewards points to BA Avios points. The offer runs until January 31, 12 and the only difference we can see this time around is that you have to transfer a minimum of 10,000 RBC Rewards Points.

Despite the change to British Airways program (from Executive Club to Avios) this can still be  a great offer to take advantage of if you are not looking at booking travel using the set RBC Rewards chart as the new BA Avios program has seen a reduction in the number of miles required to fly from Montreal/Toronto to London and huge reductions in some short haul flights in North America. See our post on the new Avios program here.  They also offer miles for upgrades so if you do not have enough miles for a business class or first class flight you can use miles to upgrade a paid fare in economy, economy Plus, or business class. Another good use of BA miles is with their partners from the OneWorld Alliance which means you don't have to redeem for BA flights via London but go direct on airlines like Cathay Pacific to Asia or American Airlines to the U.S. One thing to watch out for however with BA is seat availability, we have heard mixed stories of people being able to get or not get reward seats on flights plus redemptions on BA to the U.K. can carry heavy taxes and fuel surcharges.

For more details on this offer please visit British Airways

Book an Award Stay with Club Carlson and receive 9,000 bonus Gold Points

The latest and greatest in the slew of promos coming out of the Club Carlson camp is this offer on award night stays called Redeem Points, Earn Points

Redeem Points, Earn Points.
Register and stay at any of our more than 1,000 Carlson℠hotels, on a Award Stay between December 1, 2011 and January 31, 2012, and earn 9,000 Gold Points, enough for a future Award Night at select hotels worldwide. Points + Cash reservations are not eligible for this offer.
Full details and registration

Avios is now the official program for British Airways and Iberia

It had been announced awhile ago that the FFPs of British Airways (Executive Club) and Iberia (Plus) would be merged into one big loyalty program which also would bring in the Air Miles UK program. When the announcement came out the news hit many North American's members of BA's Executive Club hard as some of the great redemption opportunities in that program (North America to Asia and South America) were lost as the new redemption schedule is based on distance and not to a set reward chart. All day today I have been reading various frequent flyer blogs looking at the new Avios system and while those great offers mentioned above may be gone there are some new gems to be had within the program, in particular for flights within North America on BA's partners.

Since the Avios program now works on distance rather then the set reward chart a lot of the shorter haul redemptions have actually gone done in price. For example a one-way flight between Toronto and New York can be had for only 4,500 Avios points (9,000 round trip) and used to be 12,500 miles (25,000 round trip), compare this to 15,000 Aeroplan Miles, 25,000 AAdvantage Miles etc.. Toronto to London has also become cheaper as it used to 50,000 miles for a round-trip redemption in economy and that is now 40,000. These lower redemption rates make the semi annual RBC Avion 50% transfer bonus to BA even more attractive (that is if they keep the bonus around)

Another issue that seems to arise in addition to the redemptions that became more expensive is the fact the if you want to build an itinerary with a connection (think stopover in previous Executive Club terms) you have to price out each connection separately. So where you used to be able to get a round trip flight Calgary to Paris for 50,000 miles with a connection in London (and the option to stopover in London for a few days) now has to be priced at Calgary-London for 50,000 miles and London-Paris for 9,000 miles so in the new program it will cost you 9,000 more points.

What do you think of the changes to the program? For those of you who are BA flyers will it make you shy away from BA and take your business to another airline or will you take it as it is and continue with your loyalty to BA?

To see some more news on the good and the bad of the new Avios program here are some other blog posts made today (bear in mind all of these are U.S. based but do hold some merit for Canada):
Dan's Deals has a good run down of redemptions that have gone down, stayed the same and increased
View from the Wing - it always good to hear Gary's take on programs
One Mile at a time had numerous posts today: Post 1 | Post 2 | Post 3