Rewards Canada: Your premier points, miles & credit cards resource

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Oct 11 Update: Lots of Hotel Program news, Double Miles for Hilton Stays and tons of car rental offers

News, Tips & Tricks
All my news, tips and tricks were posted earlier today as separate posts. First was Part 3 of my "Options outside of Aeroplan and Air Miles" series, this part looks at Hotel Frequent Guest programs and funny enough the other two posts today deal with Hotel FGPs as well! Those were the increased sign up bonus for the recently revamped Marriott Rewards Premier Visa card and a detailed post on InterContinental Hotel Group's Priority Club Point Breaks which are some of the best hotel redemption rewards out on the market

Bonus Offers
AeroMexico Club Premier
- Double Club Premier Kilometers for stays at participating Hilton Hotels in North and South America, Europe and Africa. 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 USA, Canada, Europe, Australia or New Zealand. More... Until Nov 30, 12

American AAdvantage
- Double AAdvantage Miles for stays at participating Hilton Hotels in North and South America, Europe and Africa. More... Until Dec 31, 12

Avianca TACA LifeMiles
- Double Life Miles for stays at participating Hilton Hotels in North and South America, Europe and Africa. More... Until Dec 31, 12

Best Western Rewards
- 1,500 Bonus Rewards Points on qualifying rentals of 2 days or more at participating Budget locations in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Asia. More... Until Jun 30, 13
- 1,500 Bonus Rewards Points on qualifying rentals of 2 days or more at participating Budget locations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. More...Until Dec 31, 12

Emirates Skywards
- Double Skywards Miles for stays at select First Hotels in Copenhagen. More... Until Dec 31, 12
- Quadruple Skywards Miles for stays at the Jumeirah Emirates Towers, Jumeirah Creekside Hotel, Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Madinat Jumeirah and Jumeirah Zabeel Saray Dubai. More... Book by Dec 15 for stays Nov 15 - Dec 20, 12
- Double Skywards Miles for every stay at select Taj Hotels Worldwide. More...Until Mar 31, 13
- 500 Bonus Skywards Miles + Fourth day free for Avis rentals of in Australia. More... Nov 1 - Dec 15, 12
- Double Skywards Miles for Avis rentals of four days or more in Adelaide. More... Nov 1 - Dec 15, 12
- Earn up to Quadruple Skywards Miles on all Hertz rentals of 3 or more days Worldwide. More... Until Dec 15, 12

Jumeirah Sirius
- Double Sirius Points for stays on the Winter Flavours offer at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Jumeirah Zabeel Saray or Jumeirah Creekside Hote. More... Until Apr 30, 13
- Double Sirius Points for stays on the Winter Flavours offer at the Madinat Jumeirah. More.... Until Dec 23, 12
- Triple Sirius Points at the Dhow & Anchor at Jumeirah Beach Hotel on Saturdays and Sundays during football season. More...Until May 15, 13
- Double Sirius Points when you dine at the all-inclusive La Parrilla Friday Brunch. More...Until Nov 9, 12
- Double Sirius Points at Madinat Jumeirah Cake Boutique at Souk Madinat Jumeirah. More... Until Nov 15, 12 -
Double Sirius Points when you sample the signature lunch menus at Tori No Su, Brasserie Angelique, Quest and Li Beirut at Jumeriah at Etihad Towers. More... Until Nov 15, 12
- 2,000 Bonus Sirius Points for stays of 7+ nights at the Grosvenor House Apartments by Jumeirah Living London. More... Until Mar 31, 13

Marriott Rewards
- 50,000 Bonus Rewards Points when you apply for and receive the Marriott Rewards Premier Visa Card. More... Residents of Canada Only

Qatar Airways Privilege Club
- 1,000 Bonus QMiles for all Budget rentals in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE. More... Until Dec 15, 12

TAM Fidelidade
- Double Multiplus Points for stays at participating Hilton Hotels in North and South America, Europe and Africa. More... Until Dec 31, 12

Ukraine International Panorama Club (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Earn up to Triple Panorama Club Miles on all Sixt car rentals Worldwide. More...Until Nov 30, 12

United Mileage Plus
- Double Mileage Plus Miles with every qualifying stay at all participating Choice Hotels locations Worldwide. More... Until Nov 15, 12
- Double Mileage Plus Miles for stays at participating Hilton Hotels in North and South America, Europe and Africa More...Until Dec 31, 12

Priority Club Point Breaks - Reward Nights for 5,000 Points until Dec 10, 12

I have covered Priority Club's Point Break offers for quite some time now (well since they launched) on Rewards Canada's Priority Club Bonus Points Opportunities page but have never really wrote about them to let Rewards Canada readers know the amazing value of this offer. In fact, Priority Club Point Breaks are some of if not the best hotel frequent guest redemption options out on the market today. Frequent Travellers should be well versed with this promotion but here on Rewards Canada I have all types of readers from the ultimate road warriors, to whom this post is nothing new to thousands of people who are just starting out in the travel rewards game as they want to take advantage of the value proposition from these programs and their promotions. It was due to the amazing value of Point Breaks that Priority Club had looked at removing this option but the fact that the promo won a Freddie Award and with tons of feedback from Priority Club members, the top brass at IHG have kept the promotion going.

Why are Priority Club Point Breaks such a great deal? Because they offer reward nights at participating IHG hotels Worldwide for only 5,000 Priority Club points. For those of you not to familiar with Priority Club, normal redemption rates for Priority Club reward nights run from as low as 10,000 points for some Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express locations to 50,000 points for ultra-luxurious InterContinental locations and even these locations can participate in Point Breaks. So as you can see you can receive a discount of 50 to 88% off the regular redemption rates. You may be thinking that the high end hotels won't participate but they do! In the current set of Point Breaks that run until December 10th there are 5 IC locations participating. Please note that like most loyalty promotions these offers are capacity controlled so I advise to book sooner than later to ensure you get the Point Breaks rate.

Now another question that may come from the travel reward rookies is how easy is it to earn Priority Club points? Well it can extremely easy! IHG Priority Club is one of the most rewarding programs in terms of points with tons of bonus promotions (many that state they are 'targeted' but in fact work for most people) and even the ability to earn points for credit card spending in Canada with the Priority Club® World MasterCard® from Capital One® or the Priority Club ® Platinum MasterCard ® from Capital One®. Many times throughout the year Priority Club also has surveys and other promotions where you can earn points for free (I list 4 ways to earn up 1,500 points here)

So now that you know more about IHG Priority Club's Point Breaks, here are the locations for the current set of Point Breaks offers that can be booked here.

ALBERTA
HOLIDAY INN HOTEL AND SUITES LLOYDMINSTER

BRITISH COLUMBIA
HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS AND SUITES SURREY

NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR
HOLIDAY INN STEPHENVILLE

ONTARIO
CROWNE PLAZA HOTEL HAMILTON HOTEL & CONF CENTER
HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS AND SUITES NEW LISKEARD

QUEBEC
HOLIDAY INN MONTREAL-LONGUEUIL

FINLAND
HOLIDAY INN OULU

FRANCE
HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS STRASBOURG - SUD

ITALY
CROWNE PLAZA HOTEL CASERTA
HOLIDAY INN SALERNO - CAVA DE' TIRRENI

POLAND
HOLIDAY INN BYDGOSZCZ

PORTUGAL
HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS LISBON - ALFRAGIDE

RUSSIA
CROWNE PLAZA HOTEL ST. PETERSBURG AIRPORT

SPAIN
HOLIDAY INN ELCHE
INTERCONTINENTAL LA TORRE GOLF RESORT MURCIA

TURKEY
HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS ISTANBUL - ORA

UKRAINE
HOLIDAY INN KIEV

UNITED KINGDOM
HOLIDAY INN STEVENAGE
HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS BEDFORD
HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS COLCHESTER
HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS CREWE
HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS LIVERPOOL - HOYLAKE
HOTEL INDIGO NEWCASTLE

EGYPT
CROWNE PLAZA HOTEL SAHARA OASIS PORT GHALIB RESORT

BAHRAIN
INTERCONTINENTAL BAHRAIN

CHINA-PEOPLES REPUBLIC
CROWNE PLAZA HOTEL MAANSHAN
CROWNE PLAZA HOTEL ZHONGSHAN WING ON CITY
HOLIDAY INN MUDANJIANG
HOLIDAY INN SHENYANG ZHONGSHAN
HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS BEIJING AIRPORT ZONE
HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS TIANJIN DONGLI
INTERCONTINENTAL TANGSHAN

INDIA
CROWNE PLAZA HOTEL NEW DELHI ROHINI

INDONESIA
CROWNE PLAZA HOTEL SEMARANG

VIETNAM
CROWNE PLAZA HOTEL WEST HANOI RESIDENCES

FIJI ISLANDS
HOLIDAY INN SUVA

NEW ZEALAND
HOLIDAY INN ROTORUA

50,000 point sign up bonus for the Marriott Rewards Premier Visa

THIS OFFER IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE

Back in July, Chase Canada revamped their Marriott Visa card offering for Canadians with the Marriott Rewards Premier Visa. You can see my quick review of it here. Normally the card comes with a 30,000 point sign up bonus but we were quickly made aware of some 50,000 point targeted offers floating around back at the end of July. Turned out, those were targeted well and unless you had Elite Status with Marriott and were chosen to receive the offer, you could not get the 50K.

Fast forward to today and Rewards Canada Reader Dave has forwarded a new 50,000 point offer for the card that does not seem to be targeted as when you go to the landing page it states the 50,000 bonus points and can't find anywhere in the terms and conditions that it is a targeted offer (with the July offers it would automatically revert 30K unless you had the original email link). So I am led to believe that this offer should be available to anyone. If you do plan on using it, I would take screen shots of the offer page including terms and conditions prior to applying just in case Chase comes back and tries to push the 30K offer or only awards you 30K after your first purchase.

I have been contemplating this card as I need a cheaper replacement for my never used annual fee based Visa and the fact that this one has the annual fee waived in the first year makes it a good candidate. If I do go ahead with it, it will be soon to make sure I get in on the 50K before the offer is pulled and will report on the results. I encourage my readers who do apply for it with this link (I do not receive any compensation for this card) to let us know how it goes as well.

Options outside of Aeroplan and Air Miles. Part 3: Hotel Frequent Guest Programs

The majority of Canada's loyalty program market share is held by two programs, Aeroplan and Air Miles. While both programs have strong roots in travel they have grown into what the industry calls coalition loyalty programs, which in layman's terms means many earning partners and a varied rewards catalog. Its hard not to be a member of at least one of these two programs since you would miss out on some potential rewards because of their vast coverage within Canada. With that being said, I receive numerous emails from my readers on how they are fed up with Aeroplan or Air Miles or both and they want to know what other options they have, particularly for travel rewards. This piece will look at the other options Canadians have for travel reward loyalty programs and while you can take any of these routes as your primary program I would recommend keeping Aeroplan and/or Air Miles as a secondary program. One thing you will notice is that to make one of these other programs your primary one, it will require the use of a credit card to maximize your reward potential. For travel reward programs, credit card use is the easiest way to rack up points and miles outside of actual travel. I've broken out the choices into four parts and will focus on the pros and cons of making one of these choices as your primary program.

Part 1: Frequent Flyer Programs
Part 2: Credit Card Programs 
Part 3: Hotel Frequent Guest Programs 
Part 4: Non-Travel Reward Programs 

HOTEL FREQUENT GUEST PROGRAMS

InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa

The third category we look at in our Other Options Series are hotel frequent guest programs. Here at Rewards Canada this one category I have been pushing onto Canadians as they are typically overlooked or even unknown to most of us Canucks. A 2010 survey conducted by American Express Canada and Starwood Preferred Guest showed only 13% of Canadians participated in hotel programs compared to much larger numbers for airline or credit card programs. To me, as someone who is entrenched in the loyalty industry, this number is surprisingly low but outside of the industry it does not surprise me. In Canada, I find the hotel programs don't advertise their loyalty offerings outside of their own hotels save for Best Western who run frequent commercials promoting their latest Best Western Rewards offers. I believe its because of this lack of marketing that many Canadians are missing out on frequent guest programs. They tend to have less restrictions than frequent flyer programs, they can provide a good rate of return, they offer flexibility in reward options and can be used to make vacations more luxurious.

Many Canadians who participate in travel reward programs seem to focus on getting that free flight but don’t realize that often the hotel they stay at can cost as much if not more than the flights themselves. The above survey also showed that more than a quarter of Canadians said that they would prefer not to travel at all than to stay at a budget hotel. This seems to stem from the general lack of knowledge that average Canadian’s have with regards to the hotel programs. Frequent travellers do have this knowledge and I would suspect they make up the majority of the 13% of Canadians who are members of one or more frequent guest programs.

Historically, for Canadians, the number one way to earn points in a hotel frequent guest program was by staying at hotels only but in the last 3-4 years we finally saw the emergence of credit cards tied to several hotel frequent guest programs. In fact five major hotel chain programs are now vying for market share in the already crowded credit card space in Canada. Those chains are Best Western Hotels (Rewards), Choice Hotels (Privileges), InterContinental Hotels Group (Priority Club), Marriott Hotels (Rewards) and Starwood Hotels (Starwood Preferred Guest).

Related: See how all the Hotel credit cards performed in our 2012 Top Travel Rewards Credit Card rankings

Which card you choose will depend on which hotel brands you like and which chain has properties in locations you tend to stay at so that you can double dip on the stay and finally where you are most likely to redeem your points for.

Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme

Why would you choose to use a hotel frequent guest program? Well have you ever been on vacation and were staying in a budget or mid-scale hotel a few blocks off the beach and wished you were able to afford the 4 and 5 star hotels right on the beach? The frequent guest program can do that for you. Same goes if you are in an amazing city like Paris, you may not be able to afford the locations closest to the Eiffel Tower or Champs-Élysées but once again you have a better chance at staying at those locations by utilizing a hotel reward program. Think of it this way: when choosing between an airline and a hotel program (knowing that you cannot maximize the value both of them) would you rather fly in business class from Toronto to Paris and enjoy 8 hours of luxury or stay at a 5 star location and enjoy, say, 7 days of luxury? This stance may get me some heat from the frequent travellers and people who want to maximize the return on their spending but while some of us can maximize both frequent flyer and frequent guest programs, the average Canadian cannot. Another good example is a family of four with the Toronto-Paris example, it would take heaps of credit card spending and/or mileage earning scenarios to get 4 business class tickets on that route but the stay at the five star hotel does not change. In most cases its the same amount of points whether you have 1,2,3, or 4 people!  

Another reason to join one or more frequent guest programs is loyalty to your favorite airline frequent flyer program. Hotel stays have always been a good source of earning extra miles in frequent flyer program and this option can make sense for those who do not stay in hotels too frequently or are staying in a city that does not have a property participating in the hotel program of their choice. So why do you need to join a hotel program to earn airline miles? Because you have to! Most hotel chains will only award you airline miles if you are a member of their frequent guest program and have selected ‘earning miles‘ as your reward option. Very few hotels or hotel chains will accept your frequent flyer card at check in unless you sign up for their program right there and then.

Pros of Hotel Frequent Guest Programs and Hotel Frequent Guest Credit Cards: 
1. Most of the redemptions can give you a mid to high rate of return on your credit card spending. As an example some numbers I have seen show up to a 7% return for certain Starwood Hotel redemptions. 
2. Cash + Points: Some chains likes Starwood and IHG offer a cash+points option that allows you to redeem partial points for a stay and pay cash for the difference. This is a good benefit if you don’t have enough points to redeem for the full stay.
 3. Elite Status: When you achieve elite status in a hotel program you stand to benefit from more points, complimentary room upgrades, meals, check-in amenities and more depending on the program
 4. Convert to Airline Miles: All the hotel programs allow you to convert the hotel points to various airline frequent flyer programs.
5. Many hotels give their members (Elite or not) extra perks likes free wi-fi and in the case of Kimpton InTouch, minibar credits of up to $15.

Cons of Hotel Frequent Guest Programs and Hotel Frequent Guest Credit Cards: 
1. They are less flexible than Travel Points Credit Cards (ie TD Visas, Amex Gold Rewards Cards, etc) as you are limited to only one or several brands of hotels and/or frequent flyer transfer partners 
2. If the brand you are being loyal to has no properties in a location you are travelling to, you will lose out on earning points or you won’t be able to redeem for that area. A good example is Banff and Canmore Alberta. Huge travel destinations in their own right but you are limited in major hotel brands that have loyalty programs, in particular some of the higher end chains like Starwood, Hyatt, Marriott, or Hilton have no presence in the Canadian Rockies.

Hotel Frequent Guest Programs available to Canadians
Accor Hotels Le Club
Best Western Rewards (formerly Gold Crown Club)
Canalta Hotels Rewards
Carlson Hotels Club Carlson
Choice Hotels Privileges
Coast Hotels Coast Rewards
Delta Hotels Privilege
Executive Hotels Executive Rewards
Fairmont President's Club
Global Hotel Alliance (GHA) Discovery
Golden Tulip Flavours
Hilton HHonors
Hyatt Gold Passport
InterContinental Hotels Group Priority Club
JAL Hotels My JALHotels
Jumeirah Sirius
Kimpton InTouch
La Quinta Returns
Leading Hotels of the World Leaders Club
Loews Hotels YouFirst
Marriott Rewards
Melia International Mas Rewards
Millennium & Copthorne Hotels Loyalty Club
NH Hotels & Resorts World
Preferred Hotel Group I Prefer
Red Lion Hotels R&R Club
Red Roof Inns Redicard
Ritz-Carlton Rewards
Rotana Rewards
Scandic Hotels Guest Programme
Shangri-La Golden Circle
Qube Hotels Q Club
Starwood Preferred Guest
Stash Hotel Rewards
Sutton Place Hotels Prestige Guest
Swissotel Club Swiss Gold
Taj Hotels InnerCircle
Travelodge Guest Rewards
Trident Hotels Privilege
Voila Hotel Rewards
Wyndham Rewards

Hotel Frequent Guest Program Credit Cards for Canadians
Chase Marriott Rewards Premier Visa
MBNA Best Western Platinum Plus MasterCard
MBNA Choice Privileges MasterCard
Priority Club® World MasterCard® from Capital One®
Priority Club ® Platinum MasterCard ® from Capital One®
The Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express

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Wednesday, October 10, 2012

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.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

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

Friday, October 5, 2012

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...

Thursday, October 4, 2012

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

TRENDING
Scene+ is not just for movies anymore - it's become a versatile powerhouse for all types of rewards

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Oct 11 Update: Lots of Hotel Program news, Double Miles for Hilton Stays and tons of car rental offers

Priority Club Point Breaks - Reward Nights for 5,000 Points until Dec 10, 12

50,000 point sign up bonus for the Marriott Rewards Premier Visa

Options outside of Aeroplan and Air Miles. Part 3: Hotel Frequent Guest Programs

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

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

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

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

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

Capital One downgrades several of their free cards

Friday, October 5, 2012

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

Thursday, October 4, 2012

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

Top 5 Travel Cards in Canada

TRENDINGScene+ is not just for movies anymore - it's become a versatile powerhouse for all types of rewards

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Friday, October 5, 2012

Thursday, October 4, 2012

TRENDING
Scene+ is not just for movies anymore - it's become a versatile powerhouse for all types of rewards