Etihad Airways now serving Vancouver (well sort of... via a codeshare)

I thought I would bring this Etihad news to our readers since they were one of the big sponsors of our 10th Anniversary contest last year and some of you won Etihad Guest miles in that contest that perhaps you can use on this route if you have earned even more Guest miles!

Recently, Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways began a full code share agreement with Germany's airBerlin, you may have seen some of the bonus offers announced by us when the partnership launched and as some of you may or may not know, airBerlin serves Vancouver during the summer months. With the full partnership between airBerlin and Etihad that means you can earn and redeem Guest Rewards miles for this flight.

Flight No	FROM	TO	DEP	ARR	DAYS
EY 1013	Vancouver	Dusseldorf	12:30	07:10+1	Wed & Sun
EY 024	Dusseldorf	Abu Dhabi	11:50+1	20:20+1	Wed & Sun
EY 023	Abu Dhabi	Dusseldorf	02:00	07:00	Wed & Sun
EY 1016	Dusseldorf	Vancouver	09:45	10:45	Wed & Sun

Service started on May 13th, 2012 with flights every Sunday. Frequency increases to twice a week from June 13th, 2012 every Wednesday and Sunday up until October 21st, 2012.

For those of you down east, Etihad serves Toronto directly from Abu Dhabi as well.

For more details on the Vancouver connection please see here or to book flights visit Etihadairways.com

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Transfer points to Aeroplan to earn up to 40,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles

Aeroplan is going full tilt this spring with the bonus mileage promotions! From the Star Challenge to using multiple travel partners to buying a Maple Leaf Lounge membership, you pretty much name it and you can get bonus Aeroplan miles for it. The latest in their slew of offers is the return of their partner transfer bonus. Basically what it entails is transferring points out of other loyalty programs into your Aeroplan account. In the past the bonus was based on per transaction basis so the promotion wasn't as attractive as it is now since this time around it is cumulative across all participating partners. That is, you can transfer from partners like American Express, Starwood, Hertz and more and as long as the total Aeroplan miles deposited from all of them reaches one of the bonus target levels you will be awarded the respective bonus miles. What is even better is that if you complete some of these transfers before May 28 they should also count as 'stars' for the Aeroplan Star Challenge. The offer as pulled from our Aeroplan Bonus Mile Promotions page is as follows:

Earn up to 40,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles when you convert points from a wide selection of Aeroplan partner loyalty programs (hotel, car rental, credit card and points.com). Bonuses are as follows and are awarded on a cumulative basis (not per transaction like previous promotions)
Convert Points to
5,000 Aeroplan Miles to earn a 1,000 Mile bonus
10,000 Aeroplan Miles to earn a 2,000 Mile bonus
20,000 Aeroplan Miles to earn 4,000 Mile bonus
50,000 Aeroplan Miles to earn a 10,000 Mile bonus
100,000 Aeroplan Miles to earn a 25,000 Mile bonus
150,000 Aeroplan Miles to earn a 40,000 Mile bonus
Full details Valid until June 18, 12

Virgin Atlantic Business Class Vancouver-London for $1774 ALL IN!

Many airlines are starting to match British Airways' Jubilee Business Class sale in the U.S. and here in Canada Virgin Atlantic has gone even further by beating BA's Business Class price (see the post below this one for the BA offer) out of Vancouver

The Virgin Atlantic offer needs to be booked by May 18th like the BA offer and is good for travel from May 24th (the first day VS starts serving YVR) to June 10th. The total price for non-limousine Upper Class fares comes in as low as $1774 for round trip flights all taxes and fees included.

For complete details and/or online booking visit Virgin Atlantic

British Airways Business Class sale from Canada $1952 ALL IN!

To celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, British Airways is having a sale on Business Class flights to the U.K. from Canada. The price believe it or not is the same as the year that the Queen was inaugurated, 1952. Yes C$1952 including all fees and taxes for a round trip Business Class flight from any Canadian city that British Airways flies from (Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal) to London or Manchester.

The sale only runs until May 18 and is good for travel between May 26 and June 9, 2012

For complete details and/or to book please visit British Airways

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Rewards Canada now has its own co-branded page on the Priority Club website

Rewards Canada has expanded its relationship with InterContinental Hotels Group with the launch of a co-branded page on the Priorityclub.com website. The landing page welcomes visitors from our two primary websites, FrequentFlyerBonuses.com and RewardsCanada.ca.

The page can be considered your one stop starting point for everything IHG and Priority Club with information on the Priority Club program and it also provides online booking with IHG. The page may also cover various promotions in the near future. Unless you are looking for a specific promo where own Priority Club Bonus Points page is required, this page can be used for all your general IHG & Priority Club needs.

Feel free to visit the page at anytime or better yet bookmark it so you don't have to come back to this post!

Registration for Radisson Big Night Giveaway & Country Inns SOGO now Open

Per last week's FFB post about the latest version of Radisson's Big Night Giveaway, the promotion to earn 50,000 Club Carlson Gold Points for one qualifying stay is now open! The offer of 50,000 points is open to the first 100,000 registrants after which the bonus drops to 15,000 for anyone after the 100K mark. To be awarded the bonus points you must complete your qualifying Radisson or Radisson Blu stay between May 15 and  July 15. Last fall it took a couple of weeks for the first 100,000 spots to fill up and I am guessing that it will go much quicker this time round as more blogs pick up on the promo and the shear success of the first one. So your best bet is to not leave registration to the last minute but rather do it right now at

Radisson Big Night Giveaway

And thanks to Ric Garrido, the Loyalty Traveler, we have learned that this time around Club Carlson is not only running one promotion but three in total. The second is for stays at Country Inns & Suites that awards the first 35,000 registrants a 44,000 Gold Points for a qualifying Country Inns & Suites stays. To be awarded the bonus points you must complete your qualifying Country Inns & Suites stay between May 15 and  July 15.Just like the promo above once the registration limit is reached anyone registering after will receive a 15,000 Gold Points bonus. Once again register now to get in on the promotion at:

Country Inns & Suites SOGO

Once you have registered for these two promos you can book online at Radisson or at Country Inns & Suites. You will still earn your online booking bonuses on top of the big bonuses awarded with these promos.

The third promo is for stays at Park Inns. Just like the above two offers it provides enough bonus points for one free night within the same brand (although the points can be used for other brands, just wording it like they do :-) ) This offer also awards 44,000 Bonus Gold Points however it is only for the first 20,000 registrants after which...you guessed it....people will be awarded 15,000 Bonus Gold Points. To be awarded the bonus points you must complete your qualifying Park Inn stay between May 22 and  July 22. You don't have to worry about me registering for this one as my travels during the promo period does not have me going near a Park Inn. Registration for this offer starts on May 22.

Star Alliance 15th Anniversary Frequent Flyer Bonus

As you may or may not recall, on my Daily Bonus Offer Highlight for April 25 one of the offers highlighted was Miles & More's 15,000 mile bonus to whomever flies the most with Star Alliance to celebrate the 15th Anniversary of the Star Alliance. Well it looks like that bonus offer is being made available to every Star Alliance airline. So the top 15 people in each individual frequent flyer program that flies the most Star Alliance airlines during the promotional period will earn 15,000 bonus miles in that program.

Over and above this some airlines are offering even more miles. For example, Air Canada will award an additional 50,000 Aeroplan miles to all members who fly on 10 or more Star Alliance airlines during the promotional period.

Complete details on Star Alliance's 15th Anniversary promo can be found here. The promotion runs from today (May 14) to November 14, 2012.

WestJet makes further enhancements to its WestJet Rewards Program

This past Wednesday saw WestJet make further positive enhancements to their WestJet Rewards frequent flyer program. This newest enhancement shows WestJet’s push make to their FFP more competitive and attractive not only to semi frequent leisure traveler but to frequently flying business travelers. The change further rewards members with tier spending bonuses over and above existing tier bonuses and jetaway bonuses.



What is the newest enhancement? It is a $25 WestJet dollar bonus that is awarded after every $1,500 in WestJet spending that is not capped like the other bonuses. The program retains the $35 bonus at the first $1,500 in spending but every $1,500 after that will see the $25 bonus with no limit on how many times that can be earned in your 12 month earning period. To see how much you can now earn with the program I have attached the following graph from WestJet’s website:



The past 8 months have seen WestJet make real strides to turn their program into a true frequent flyer program and not one that was almost solely reliant on their credit card relationship with RBC. I believe WestJet has figured out that running a loyalty program is not a marketing expense but rather a profit center. When I first met with WestJet upon the launch of their program back in 2010 I was told they did not want to spend much on the program (hence the implication they originally thought of it as a cost center), they wanted it to be revenue neutral (which is still should be) and my impression was that they wanted RBC to pay for most of the WestJet dollars doled out.. But as WestJet grows and their partnerships grow with airlines like Delta, American, and more recently Korean Air they seem to be realizing the potential of having a full fledged reward program and with this latest enhancement they are starting to reward their frequent flyers handsomely.

What else is in store for WestJet’s rewards program? We’ll have to wait and see but I predict some hotel partners will come onboard soon (I would think IHG first), more airline earning partnerships outside of Delta Airlines and perhaps, just perhaps, the ability to redeem those hard earned WestJet dollars for business class flights on their partners that offer premium cabins.

For more details on this change visit WestJet Rewards

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

Avianca TACA LifeMiles is once again offering a 100% Bonuses to existing members who buy miles. The last time we saw this offer was back in December and  September of 2011

LifeMiles is the FFP of Latin America's joint venture airline Avianca TACA and until May 31st 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 ticket 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.

The only catch to this promo? You had to be a member of the LifeMiles program as of May 1, 2012.

For complete details or to partake in this offer please visit LifeMiles

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Radisson Big Night Giveaway is coming back

You may recall Club Carlson's awesome 1 night stay offer of 50,000 bonus Gold Points for a one night stay at a Radisson or Radisson Blu hotel from late last year (see our post). Well the good news for those who did and didn't take advantage of it, its coming back!

The promo landing page which has a countdown timer to when registration opens states that if you stay one night in a Radisson or Radisson Blu hotel you will get one night free. We can guess from the hidden T&C's of the promo that it is pretty much the same as they state the first 100,000 members to register will receive 50,000 bonus points when completing a qualifying Radisson or Radisson Blu stay worldwide by July 15. If you are outside of the 100,000 registrants you will receive 15,000 bonus points.  We will confirm the bonus once the promo is live. So be sure to register for the promo when it goes live on May 15! Full details can be found at Radisson Big Night Giveaway

May 11 Update: There will also be big offers from Country Inns and Park Inn this time round. Watch the blog on Tuesday for more info!

(HT: One Mile at a time)