Oct 10 Highlight: Mobile-Based Wallet To Convert Points and Miles into Cash, Priority Club Point Breaks and free Amtrak points

I want to thank everyone who has voted so far in the Canada's Choice portion of our Top Travel Rewards Credit Card rankings 2012 and want to welcome new readers and subscribers who may have only joined us today as result of the social media coverage provided by Aeroplan (Thanks AP!)

News, Tips & Tricks
PointsPay, a division of Swiss based loyalty consulting company Loylogic, is being heavily promoted as the first Mobile Payment solution for using your points and miles as cash. PointsPay launched earlier this year with the Etihad Airways Guest rewards program (if some of Rewards Canada's 10th Anniversay winners of Guest miles haven't used their miles yet, here is another option) and allows you to use your miles/points right at the point of sale. In the first few days of the program’s launch on Etihad Guest, PointsPay issued close to 1,500 PointsPay Virtual and Plastic Cards and loaded 50 million miles. For online purchases it can be done right on your phone and what is really cool is that you can order a free plastic PointsPay card that works at over 30 Million merchants Worldwide that accept Visa or MasterCard. You load the card (so like a prepaid credit card) with the currency of your choice by converting your miles and points. For Canadians, this is similar to Air Miles Cash where you can use your Air Miles Rewards Miles right at the cash register however only at several Air Miles sponsors. So this is where PointsPay is different as it treats your miles/points like true cash in that you are not limited to where you can use them. This is definitely an interesting development in the loyalty industry and I will keep a watch on it for Rewards Canada readers as right now, unless you have Etihad Guest miles, there isn't a huge market for it here. For more details you can visit PointsPay.com

Yesterday Qatar Airways announced that they are joining the oneworld alliance, which is a boost for Canadian members of American's AAdvantage program as Qatar Airways serves Canada directly with their Montreal-Doha route that has ongoing connections to many destinations in Asia, Africa and Australia. It is always good to get another option for earning and burning miles regardless of which oneworld program you may be a member of.

In the bonus offers sectoin there is an offer for free Amtrak Guest Rewards points, anyone can get them but unless you plan on earning Guest Rewards points from other methods it probably won't be worthwhile for you. Really it would only be useful to those who may use Amtrak service to the U.S. from Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver

Bonus Offers
Amtrak Guest Rewards (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- 100 Guest Rewards Points when you connect your Amtrak Guest Rewards with your Facebook account. More... Until Nov 3, 12

Ethiopian Sheba Miles
- Double Sheba Miles for flights between Ouagadougou and Addis Ababa. More... Until Dec 31, 12

InterContinental Hotels Group Priority Club
- 5,000 points per award night - Priority Club Point Breaks. Redeem only 5,000 points for stays at select hotels Worldwide. Offer and participating hotels are subject to change at any time, valid for stays thru Dec 10, 2012. More...

Miles & More
- Earn up to Quadruple Miles & More Miles on all Hertz rentals Worldwide. More... Until Dec 31, 12

Starwood Preferred Guest
- 1,000 Bonus Starpoints for stays at the Sheraton Silver Spring Hotel. More... Until Dec 31, 12
- 1,000 Bonus Starpoints on every Sheraton Club stay at the Sheraton Anchorage Hotel & Spa. More... Until Nov 30, 12

Virgin America Elevate (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Double Elevate Points on qualifying flights between Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle. More... Until Nov 15, 12

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- 100 Bonus Flying Club Miles per transaction when you book any car rental Worldwide using your Hertz #1 Club Gold® profile. More... Ongoing

1 week left to vote for your favourite Travel Rewards Credit Cards

There is only 1 week left to cast your vote in Canada's Choice for Rewards Canada's Top Travel Rewards Credit Card rankings 2012!

Be sure to navigate to Canada's Choice - Vote for Canada's Top Travel Rewards Credit Cards 2012 and place your vote.

Oct 9 Update: Travel Rewards in the Media, United 100K+ Transatlantic Bonus Offer and more

I hope that all of you had a great Thanksgiving long weekend! I know I did, although I will not return to one high end restaurant here in Calgary after trying it out on Sunday, but that really has nothing to do with our subject matter!

News, Tips & Tricks
As always the first day of the week brings little or no news. Travel Rewards are all over the media once again, Rewards Canada was featured a couple of times last week and I have completed two more interviews today, including one from the well versed Rob of Boomer & Echo fame plus I have one more scheduled for tomorrow. Keep an eye out for all the articles on how to make the most of your loyalty programs.

Bonus Offers
British Airways Executive Club
- Double Avios when booking a group C car or above from Avis for 3 days or more Worldwide. More... Until Nov 11, 12

Garuda Frequent Flyer (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Double GFF Miles for flights in Business Class between Jakarta and Amsterdam. More... Until Dec 31, 12
- Double GFF Miles for flights in Business Class between Jakarta and Beijing, Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai, Taipei or Tokyo; Denpasar and Osaka, Seoul or Tokyo. More...Until Dec 31, 12
- Double GFF Miles for flights in Business Class between Jakarta or Denpasar and Melbourne, Perth or Sydney. More... Until Dec 31, 12
- Double GFF Miles for flights to/from Denpasar, Surabaya or Ternate. More... Until Nov 30, 12
- 1,500 GFF Miles per day on every car rental of 5 or more days with Avis in Singapore & Asia, USA, Canada, Europe, Middle East & Africa. More... Until Jan 31, 13
- 1,000 GFF Miles per day on every car rental of 3 or more days with Avis in Singapore & Asia, USA, Canada, Europe, Middle East & Africa. More... Until Jan 31, 13
- 1,000 GFF Miles per day on every car rental of 4 or more days with Avis in Australia or New Zealand. More... Until Jan 31, 13

Scandinavian EuroBonus
- Double EuroBonus Points for stays at select Rica Hotels in Sweden. More... Until Nov 30, 12

United Mileage Plus
- Earn up to 100,000+ Bonus Mileage Plus Miles when you fly on United nonstop round-trip flights between the U.S. and London/Heathrow. More... Until Jan 31, 13
- 50% bonus Mileage Plus miles when you fly nonstop between Chicago O’Hare, New York/Newark or San Francisco and Hong Kong. Offer is valid for all booking classes. More... Until Nov 30, 12 Targeted Offer - May not work for everyone
- 50% bonus Premier qualifying miles (PQM) when you purchase a ticket and fly in United Global First, United First, United BusinessFirst, United Business or full-fare United Economy. Add that to the 50% bonus PQM you already earn from purchasing these tickets, and you will receive a 100% PQM bonus. You can also earn 50% bonus PQM when you purchase a ticket and fly in discounted United Economy. More... Until Dec 7, 12 Targeted Offer - May not work for everyone

US Airways Dividend Miles
- 1,000 Bonus Dividend Miles PER NIGHT for stays at participating Conrad Hotels Worldwide. More... Until Dec 31, 12

Capital One downgrades several of their free cards

Capital One adjusted the sign up bonuses for two of their no annual fee cards today:

The Capital One® Aspire Travel™ Platinum MasterCard® which ranked #2 in the Travel Points Card with no annual fee category in our 2012 rankings has had its 10,000 bonus reward miles sign up bonus reduced to 5,000 bonus reward miles with your first purchase and the Capital One® Aspire Cash™ Platinum MasterCard® has had its $50 sign bonus has been removed

Oct 5 Update: Hilton HHonors Q4 Promo offers 1,000 points per night

News, Tips & Tricks
Hilton HHonors officially released their fourth quarter promotion today and overall the offer is so-so for a hotel promotion. If you are loyal to Hilton, you will at least get some bonus points out of your stays at participating locations but some of the other hotel reward programs do have better Q4 promos. One saving grace is the fact that it is stackable with this Virgin Atlantic Hilton promo which can in turn make your first five Hilton stays more worthwhile in the bonus offer department.

There is another free miles promo to tell you about today: an increased sign-up bonus for Southwest's Rapid Rewards program. Normally it has been at 750 points for the past few years but that has now jumped to 1,000. Its always nice to get free points although I don't know how many Canadians will really be able to make use of them unless you do some flying with the U.S. on Southwest or set your car rental/hotel earning preferences to Southwest to earn more points. You can see the offer below in the Bonus Offers section.

Bonus Offers
Air Baltic Baltic Miles (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Triple Baltic Miles on all eligible stays at any property in the Hilton Worldwide portfolio of brands. More... Until Dec 31, 12

ANA Mileage Club
- Earn up to 4,009 Bonus Mileage Club Miles when you fly on ANA flight NH1009 between New York and Tokyo. More... Oct 28 - Mar 31, 13
- Earn up to 4,075 Bonus Mileage Club Miles when you fly ANA between San Jose and Tokyo. More... Jan 11 - Mar 31, 13
- Earn up to 10,000 Bonus Mileage Club Miles for new and approved applicants of the ANA Card USA Visa for ANA flights between San Jose and Tokyo. More... Apply by Mar 31, 13 for travel Jan 11 - Apr 30, 13

Japan Airlines Mileage Bank
- OFFER EXTENDED Triple Mileage Bank Miles for Alamo rentals of three or more consecutive days in the USA or Canada. More.. Until Dec 31, 12
- 1,000 Bonus Mileage Bank Miles for Hertz rentals of 3+ days at participating locations in the US or Canada. More... Until Dec 31, 12

Southwest Rapid Rewards (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Earn up to 1,000 Bonus Rapid Rewards Points when you join the Rapid Rewards program. Earn 500 for joining, 250 for signing up for your email summary and 250 for the email update. More...

Oct 4 Update: 1,000 Free HHonors Points, 1,500 Aeroplan Miles with CIBC & Speedpass, Double Miles for Fairmont stays

News, Tips & Tricks
In case you missed it earlier today, here is another free points tip: You can earn up to 1,000 Hilton HHonors points for free for a couple of simple Facebook actions with a couple of Hilton Brands. Check out my post from earlier today to see how.

Bonus Offers
Air Canada Aeroplan
- 1,500 Bonus Aeroplan Miles when you enroll for an Esso Speedpass by Nov 30, link your Speedpass to your CIBC Aerogold® Visa Card or CIBC Aerogold Visa Infinite Card and then use your Speedpass on any eligible purchase at participating Esso stations by December 31, 2012. More...
- Double Aeroplan Miles when you book an Everyone's an Original winter rate at participating Fairmont Hotels Worldwide. More... Until Apr 30, 13

American AAdvantage
- Earn up to 20,000 Bonus AAdvantage Miles for select AAdvantage® members who travel on flight 967 or 966 between New York (JFK) and São Paulo.More... Until Nov 15, 12 Targeted Offer - May not work for everyone
- Double AAdvantage Miles when you book an Everyone's an Original winter rate at participating Fairmont Hotels Worldwide. More... Until Apr 30, 13

La Quinta Returns
- 1,500 Bonus Returns Points on qualifying rentals of 3 days or more at participating Avis locations in the U.S. and Canada. More... Until Dec 31, 12

Miles & More
- Double Miles & More Miles for stays at participating Taj Hotels Worldwide. More... Until Mar 31, 13

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Double KrisFlyer Miles when you stay on the Best Available Rate for two consecutive nights at Raffles Hotel Singapore. More... Until Nov 30, 12

Turkish Miles&Smiles
- Double Miles&Smiles Miles for stays in a Swissôtel Living Suite at the Swissôtel Istanbul. More... Until Dec 31, 12

United Mileage Plus
- 500 Bonus Mileage Plus Miles on qualifying rentals of 3 days or more at participating Avis airport locations in Africa, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America, Mexico, the Middle East and New Zealand. More... Until Dec 31, 12
- 500 Bonus Mileage Plus Miles on qualifying rentals of 3 days or more at participating Avis locations in the U.S. and Canada. More... Until Oct 31, 12
- Double Mileage Plus Miles when you book an Everyone's an Original winter rate at participating Fairmont Hotels Worldwide. More... Until Apr 30, 13

WestJet Rewards
- $250 Bonus WestJet dollars + Annual $99 Companion Flight when you sign up for and receive the WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard. More... Residents of Canada only

Earn up to 1,000 Free Hilton HHonors points

Although it may not be a huge amount of points, any amount helps and it is always nice to get free miles or points. If you are not a major Hilton HHonors member then these promotions are a good way to keep your account alive as you need activity in your HHonors account once every 12 months.

Earn 500 HHonors Points for linking your HHonors account number with Doubletree Hotels on Facebook. This offer is limited to the first 40,000 members who input there number so jump on this sooner than later at http://doubletree.topguest.com/

The other offer for 500 points is also on Facebook and comes to us from Hilton's Hampton brand and requires a little more work but it is well worth it, not for the points, but for the inspiring story of TJ Elevator Fan, a young boy with Cerebral Palsy who has an affinity for riding elevators. Find the complete details and video on Hampton's Facebook page. This offer runs until Oct 12, 12

Tip of the hat to Ric, the  Loyalty Traveler

Oct 3 Update: 500 Free Aeroplan Miles, 100k Avios Transatlantic offer from Iberia and more

News, Tips & Tricks
Today there is no news but the tip of the day is in the bonus offers section, you can get 500 FREE Aeroplan Miles simply by joining the Coast Hotels Coast Rewards program and linking your Aeroplan account to it. I haven't checked the terms of the program but will definitely sign up my wife and myself and if the terms allow it (ie under 18) I will sign up both my kids as well. Be sure to check out a whole bunch of other Aeroplan promos added today plus the latest version of the 100k Transatlantic flight promotion, this time its from Iberia.

Rewards Canada had a bunch of media mentions in Septemeber. check them out here:
Sep/Oct 12 Moneysense "Best cash-back cards 2012"
Sep 26, 12 Ottawa Citizen "Reaping the rewards"
Sep 26, 12 Edmonton Journal "Canadians value flexibility, range of choice in rewards programs"
Sep 25, 12 The Globe and Mail "Carrick’s reader: Homebuying - get over it"
Sep 19, 12 The Globe and Mail "Carrick’s reader: Uncle Sam’s home for retired Canadians"
Sep 14, 12 Canada.com "Travel Website of the Week: Rewards Canada"
Sep 5, 12 Sympatico.ca "How to collect more points and faster"

Bonus Offers
Air Canada Aeroplan
- Earn up to Triple Aeroplan Miles on every eligible roundtrip flight (or 2 one-way segments) between Toronto (Pearson) or Vancouver and Sydney, Australia. More... Dec 14, 12 - Jan 31, 13
- Triple Aeroplan Miles for stays at any participating Coast Hotels in Canada and the U.S. More... Until Dec 31, 12
- 500 Bonus Aeroplan Miles for free when you join Coast Rewards More... Until Dec 31, 12
- Earn up to 50,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles with the American Express AeroplanPlus Platinum More... Until Nov 6, 12 Canadian Residents Only
- Triple Aeroplan Miles on your eligible purchases when you shop at any Esso station three or more times. More... Until Nov 4, 12

Air China Phoenix Miles
- 50% Phoenix Miles Kilometers for Air China flights between Beijing and Delhi. More... Until Dec 31, 12
- 50% Phoenix Miles Kilometers for Air China flights between Tianjin and Shenzhen, Chengdu, Guangzhou, or Shanghai. More... Until Dec 31, 12
- 50% Phoenix Miles Kilometers for Air China flights between: Guangzhou and Chengdu, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Guiyang, Tianjin, Wuhan, Hohhot or Beijing; Zhanjiang or Shantou and Beijing; Zhuhai and Beijing. More... Until Oct 17 and Nov 15 - Dec 31, 12

American AAdvantage
- Earn up to 10,000 Bonus AAdvantage Miles when you buy AAdvantage miles online. More... Until Oct 31, 12

Iberia Plus
- Earn up to 100,000+ Bonus Avios when you fly round trip on British Airways, American or Iberia between the U.S. or Canada and Europe on First Class, Business Class or select Economy Class fares. More... Register by Dec 31, 12 for travel until Jan 31, 13

Olympic Air Travelair Club (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- 3,000 Bonus Travelair Miles when you fly 3 round trip flights on Olympic Air aircraft throughout the Olympic Air network. More... Until Oct 31, 12

Don't forget to vote for Canada's Top Travel Rewards Credit Cards!

I have been blasting this all over the place but I just wanted to remind my own readers to vote for your favourite Cards in Rewards Canada's 2nd Annual Canada's Top Travel Rewards Credit Cards.

Companies like American Express have jumped on the bandwagon encouraging their Facebook followers to vote and now Aeroplan has it on their homepage encouraging Aeroplan members to vote as well!

So I encourage all Rewards Canada readers and fans to vote as well! Get your vote on here!

Oct 2 Update: Up to 100K+ Avios for Canada-Europe Flights, Aeroplan Transfer bonus, up to 6K Gold Points per night and more!

News, Tips & Tricks
Today was a crazy day for new bonus offers, so that is where my focus was. In fact I can't recall the last time that so many new offers were released at the start of the month. I tried to get to as many as I could today but there are still tons more where these came from! Be sure to take your time with the entire list of promos below as there are tons of good offers like the increased sign up bonus for joining Aegean (half way to Star Alliance Silver status with the promo!), the Aeroplan bonus on Points.com transfers (better than no bonus if you know what I mean and want to get rid of orphaned miles/points), ANA's Double Miles between North America and Asia, a couple more Hilton Airline offers and Emirates' October Miles Accelerator offers which includes Toronto to Dubai..

The best bonus offers to look out for however are Carlson Hotels' fall promo that will award up to 6,000 bonus points per night and the British Airways 100,000+ Bonus Avios promo for premium class fares between Canada and Europe.

WestJet and RBC have officially released the World Elite version of their MasterCard which replaces the World version. I will have more details on it tomorrow or you can check it out on the RBC website here.

Elite Status tip of day: Another Accor Hotels Le Club instant status promotion is out, the page doesn't state it specificaly but if you complete the registration process you should be awarded Platinum status with the program. These offers come around every once and while and dissappear pretty quick so jump on this sooner than later. Apply for it here. Then you can leverage that Platinum Status to get yourself status with Best Western Rewards with their Status Match No Catch offer. (Tip of the hat to View from the Wing)  Offer is dead

Bonus Offers
Aegean Miles&Bonus
- 2,000 Bonus Miles when you join the Miles and Bonus program. More...

airBerlin topbonus
- Double topbonus Miles for stays at tall Gran Meliá, Meliá, ME by Meliá, INNSIDE by Meliá, TRYP by Wyndham, Sol and Paradisus Resorts Worldwide. More...Until Oct 31, 12

Air Canada Aeroplan
- 15% Bonus Aeroplan Miles when you trade or exchange other loyalty program points for Aeroplan miles. More... Until Nov 15, 12
- Triple Aeroplan Miles on hotel bookings and car rentals through aircanada.com. More... Until Nov 12, 12
- Double Aeroplan Miles on select purchases made through the Air Canada eBoutique. More... Until Oct 31, 12

ANA Mileage Club
- Double Mileage Club Miles for flights between the U.S. and Asia (excluding flights to/from Japan). More... Nov 1 - Dec 31, 12 Valid for residents of North America only

Belavia Leader (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Double Leader Points for Belavia flights between Minsk and Riga (flights B2 841/B2 842), London, Stockholm, Helsinki, Prague (flights B2 861 / B2 862), Amsterdam, Ekaterinburg or Novosibirsk. More... Until Oct 31, 12

British Airways Executive Club
- Earn up to 100,000+ Bonus Avios when you fly round trip on British Airways, American or Iberia between the U.S. or Canada and London/Europe on First Class, Business Class or select Economy Class fares. More... Until Jan 31, 13
- Earn up to 50,000 Bonus Avios Points when you apply for and receive the RBC Royal Bank British Airways Visa Infinite card. More... Until Nov 30, 12

Carlson Hotels Club Carlson
- Earn up to 6,000 Bonus Gold Points PER NIGHT for eligible nights at Carlson Rezidor hotels worldwide. More... Until Dec 31, 12

China Airlines Dynasty Flyer
- Earn up to Triple Dynasty Flyer Miles on Avis rentals of 3 or more days in US, Canada, Europe, Middle East & Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Guam and Taiwan). More... Until Dec 31, 12
- Double Dynasty Flyer Miles on Avis rentals of 4 or more days in Australia or New Zealand. More... Until Dec 31, 12

Delta SkyMiles
- Earn up to 100,000+ Bonus SkyMiles when you fly on Delta marketed/operated or KLM marketed/Delta operated nonstop round-trip flights between the U.S. and London/Heathrow on First Class, Business Class or select Economy Class fares. More... Until Jan 31, 13
- Earn 250 Medallion Qualification Miles (MQM's) + Double SkyMiles when you book and complete a two-night stay at any participating hotel or resort within the Hilton Worldwide portfolio. More... Until Dec 15, 12

Emirates Skywards
- Earn up to 16,000 Bonus Skywards Miles with Emirate's October Miles Accelerator offers which enables you to earn more Skywards Miles when you fly with Emirates, irrespective of the fare you pay or where you buy your ticket. More... Until Oct 31, 12
- 5,000 Bonus Skywards Miles when you complete your second qualifying stay at any participating hotel or resort within the Hilton Worldwide portfolio. Additionally, new Hilton HHonors members that sign up whilst registering for the promotion will instantly receive 1,000 Hilton HHonors bonus points More... Until Dec 31, 12

Miles & More
- Earn up to Quadruple Miles & More Miles for stays at any participating hotel or resort within the Hilton Worldwide portfolio. More... Until Dec 31, 12

Southwest Rapid Rewards (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Double Rapid Rewards Points with every qualifying stay at all participating Choice Hotels locations Worldwide. More... Until Nov 15, 12