Dec 12 Update: Hyatt removes Platinum Extras, Air Canada Vacations 1 day sale, bonus MilleMiglia Miles at Novotel

A relatively quiet day here on Rewards Canada:

News, Tips & Tricks
Hyatt Gold Passport will be removing the Platinum Extras program at the end of the year. Apparently 75% of Hyatt's Platinum Elites did not make use of this benefit. Source: Jeff Zidell VP Hyatt Gold Passport

Travel Deals
Air Canada Vacations is having a one day sale today on 12.12.12 with some great deals including upgrading your flights to Executive for $120, some flight and cruise packages have flights for $12 and there select sun destination flights for only $120 roundtrip before taxes and fees. Full details can be found here

Bonus Offers
Aerosvit Meridian
- Double Meridian Miles when you buy Aerosvit Meridian Award miles. More... Until Mar 31, 13

Alitalia MilleMiglia
- 1,500 Bonus MilleMiglia Miles for Novotel stays Worldwide that are booked 21 days in advance. More... Book by Dec 29, 12 for stays until Jan 31, 13

Etihad Guest
- Triple Guest Miles when you stay at The Merrion Hotel, Dublin. More... Jan 1 - Mar 31, 13
- Earn up to Quadruple Guest Miles for Hertz rentals Worldwide. More... Until Feb 28, 13

Gulf Air FalconFlyer (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Double FalconFlyer Miles for stays at the Al Ghurair Rayhaan & Al Ghurair Arjaan by Rotana – Dubai. More... Until May 9, 13
- 1,500 Falconflyer Miles for all Budget car rentals in United Arab Emirates. More... Until Dec 31, 12

JetBlue TrueBlue (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Double TrueBlue Points on qualifying rentals of 1 day or more at participating Avis airport locations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. More... Until Apr 30, 12
- Triple TrueBlue Points on a qualifying rental at participating Budget airport locations in the US, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. More... Until Apr 30, 12

Qatar Airways Privilege Club
- Double QMiles for stays at all participating Golden Tulip Hotels worldwide. More... Until Feb 28, 13
- 1,000 Bonus QMiles for stays at participating Hyatt hotels within Southwest Asia. More... Until Feb 28, 13
- 1,000 Bonus QMiles for stays at 20 participating Marriott hotels in the Middle East & Africa. More... Until Feb 23, 12
- Double QMiles when you stay for a minimum of two consecutive nights at the Mövenpick Hotel Beirut or the Mövenpick Hotel Apartments The Square, Dubai. More... Until Mar 31, 13
- Double QMiles for stays of 3 nights or more at tthe Amwaj Rotana – Jumeirah Beach Residence - Dubai. More... Until Feb 15, 13
- Double QMiles when you stay for a minimum of two consecutive nights at the Best Available Rate or Corporate Rate at any of over 70 Shangri-La hotels or resorts, Traders hotels or Kerry hotels worldwide. More... Until Feb 28, 13
- Double QMiles for stays at the W Bangkok. More... Until Feb 28, 13
- Earn up to Triple QMiles for stays at at participating Swissotel Hotels & Resorts worldwide. More... Until Feb 25, 13
- Double QMiles for all Budget rentals in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany and the UK. More... Until Jan 31, 13
- Triple QMiles for every Sixt rental of 5 days or more Worldwide. More... Until Feb 28, 13

Dec 11 Update: IHG Elite Qualification changes, Hilton 50% off sale, Cathay Pacific 2x Asia Miles out of YVR/YYZ

I am slowly getting caught up on my backlog of offers and news that accumulated while I was on vacation. I also have a huge backlog of emails and requests to get to, I promise to get to them as fast as I can so please be patient (Gerald B. that includes your request!)

News, Tips & TricksIn case you missed it, I posted another Rewards Canada Special Feature, this time its about maximizing your mileage and point earning for holiday shopping. Check it our here.

InterContinental Hotels Group Priority Club will be making changes to how status points are earned in the program as of January 1st 2013. Currently any and all Priority Club points earned count towards elite status within the program, which has made it really easy to make it to the various levels. Now that being said, Priority Club's elite program is one of the weakest from all the major chains so perhaps the upcoming change is insight to possible changes coming to their elite program. What are the changes? Well according to IHG's Chinese website their will now be Status and Non-Status points (much like we see from airlines etc.) Basically Status points will come from qualifying room stays and partner points earned from qualifying activities.Non-status points will cover promotional points (this is the big change as there are always so many Priority Club bonus points to be earned), point vouchers, point purchases, transfers and deposits. Source: FlyerTalk

Travel Deals
Hilton is running a friends and family sale that can let you save up to 50% off the Best Available Rate at participating hotels and resorts throughout the Hilton Worldwide portfolio. The sale is valid for stays between December 14 and January 7. Visit Hilton for more details

Bonus Offers
Air Canada Aeroplan
- OFFER EXTENDED Triple Aeroplan Miles on qualifying rentals of two or more days in Canada, U.S., Mexico, Puerto Rico and Europe. More... Unitl Apr 30, 12

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- Double Asia Miles when you fly round-trip on Cathay Pacific in Premium Economy Class between Hong Kong and Australia, Europe, India, the Middle East, South Africa, Canada and the US. More... Jan 1 - Apr 30, 13
- Double Asia Miles when you book an Everyone's an Original winter rate at participating Fairmont Hotels Worldwide. More... . Until Apr 30, 13
- Double Asia Miles when you stay for a minimum of two consecutive nights at the Best Available Rate or Corporate Rate at any of over 70 Shangri-La hotels or resorts, Traders hotels or Kerry hotels worldwide. More... Until Feb 28, 13
- Earn up to Quadruple Asia Miles when you rent a car at participating Hertz locations in the US, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. More... Until Mar 31, 13

Delta SkyMiles
- Earn up to 2,000 Bonus SkyMiles on Hertz rentals in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Mexico, Canada or Europe. More... Until Mar 31, 13

Emirates Skywards
- Double Skywards Miles for stays of two nights or more at participating Marco Polo hotels in Asia Pacific. More... Until Feb 28, 13
- Double Skywards Miles and 15% off on rentals with Budget in Poland. More... Until Mar 31, 13
- Double Skywards Miles and up to 10% off on Sixt rentals worldwide. More... Book by Dec 30 for rentals until Feb 28, 13

Miles & More
- Double Miles & More Miles and a 3rd night free when booking a minimum of 2 nights at the Fairmont Makati Manila. More... Dec 15 - Jan 31, 13
- Double Miles & More Miles for all stays booked online at participating Gran Meliá, Meliá, ME by Meliá, INNSIDE by Meliá, TRYP by Wyndham, Sol and Paradisus Resorts Worldwide. More... Until Mar 31, 13

Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
- 25% Miles&Smiles Miles Discount on award tickets to Buenos Aires. More... Until Feb 28, 13
- 25% Miles&Smiles Miles Discount on all domestic award tickets in Turkey and 68 International cities. More... Until Dec 31, 12
- Double Miles&Smiles Miles on Hertz rentals of 3 or more days in Turkey. More... Until Dec 31, 12 & Jan 1 - 31, 13
- Double Miles&Smiles Miles for stays at Best Western Hotels in Turkey. More... Until Dec 31, 12

US Airways Dividend Miles
- Earn 3,000 Preferred-qualifying miles when you buy or renew an annual membership by December 13, 2012 plus get two free months in the US Airways Club. More... Until Dec 13, 12

Maximize your Mileage and Point Earning this Holiday Shopping Season

With only two weeks left to the big day for gift giving the push is on to finish your Christmas shopping. Whether it’s online or in store there are many ways to maximize the miles and points you earn holiday shopping. Ultimately you can make those reward dreams come closer by following one or more of our tips

Pay for everything with your rewards credit card
This is by far the easiest way to rack up miles outside of actual flights with the airlines or stays with hotels. Put everything that you buy on your credit cards even the pack of AA batteries you forgot to buy before Christmas and have to pick up at 7-11 on Christmas day. Be warned however, if you run a balance and pay interest on your credit cards, those miles you earn will never be worth the money you lose in paying the interest.

Double Dip & Triple Dip
Double dipping is the term coined for earning miles twice in one purchase or transaction. This basically involves your mileage earning credit card being used for a purchase where you also earn miles in the same program as the credit card. Buying a snow blower as a gift at Home Hardware? Using your Aeroplan Visa or American Express and then swiping your Aeroplan card ensures you are double dipping.

Triple dipping involves the above but then adding in any bonuses available. Look for emails, coupons or other promotions offering even more miles. With the above example, Aeroplan members can earn triple miles on all Home Hardware purchases until December 15th 2012. So the first dip is the base miles earned on the purchase, the second is the miles earned on your credit card and the third is the bonus miles from the promotion. See the next section on some specific online shopping bonuses that can let you hit that triple dip.

Double and Triple dipping does not have to involve the same program. You can always use a credit card that earns in one program while collecting the actual miles from another program for your flights, hotels, shopping or anything else you can earn miles on.

Online Shopping Tips
I’ll focus first on online shopping since you really need to get orders in this week to ensure delivery by the 24th from most retailers. All of the tips here are bonus promotion based but be sure to read the Aeroplan tip to see how you can earn even more miles.

Most loyalty programs, whether travel based or not now have online shopping malls where you can earn miles or points for shopping at many online retailers. Some programs are just getting into the game such as RBC Rewards who just launched their online shopping mall on December 7.

Aeroplan has their eStore online shopping mall where you can earn Aeroplan miles for your online purchases. There are bonus mile offers from individual retailers in the eStore but there is also a general bonus offer from Aeroplan that will award you up to 4x the base miles on all your purchases depending on how many retailers you shop at. But what isn’t being promoted very heavily is that you can actually earn up to 5x the miles instead of 4x. How can you do this? Simply register for an exclusive Aeroplan promotion on Facebook. So the question is why settle for the 4x miles if you can get 5? Both the 4x and 5x offers run until December 20, 2012

Air Miles has their AirMilesShops.ca online shopping mall that also offer many individual retailer bonuses like the Aeroplan eStore and also like Aeroplan has a general bonus offer of 10x the Air Miles on all purchase made via AirMilesShops.ca until December 25, 2012.

RBC Rewards which just launched their online shopping mall called eMall on December 7 does not have any general bonuses but their are individual retailer bonuses. The best thing about the RBC Rewards mall is that RBC Avion Visa cardholders can hold onto the points they earn via the online shopping for conversion to British Airways Avios during the often run 1.5x transfer bonus, actually it is running right now until December 31 but you may not have your points post in time. So essentially you can earn 1.5 Avios for every point earned via RBC Rewards’ eMall.

Don’t want miles or points? You can always earn a cash back rebate by doing your online shopping via GreatCanadianRebates.ca!

Though not as popular for Canadians as Aeroplan or Air Miles, many non-Canadian programs have bonus offers for their online shopping malls like American AAdvantage and US Airways Dividend Miles. American is awarding 500 Bonus Miles for every US$250 spent until December 17 and US Airways is offering up to 1,000 bonus miles until December 31, 2012. If you are from Europe and reading this even Air Baltic BalticMiles Shop&Earn is offering triple points until the end of the year. 

In-Store Shopping
The main tips given at the beginning of this article of putting everything on your credit card and double/triple dipping apply primarily for in-store shopping. There are however some not-so-well-known tips that I have heralded in past interviews and on Rewards Canada that can ensure you earn even more miles and points for your in-store shopping. These tips rely on you using a credit card that offers a category spend bonus at places like Grocery Stores, Gas Stations, or Drug Stores and involve the purchase of gift cards. These credit cards with category bonuses include but are not limited to the American Express Gold Rewards Card, CIBC Aerogold and Aventura Visas, Scotiabank American Express Cards and even cash back cards like the Scotiabank Momentum Visas and the MBNA Smart Cash MasterCard.

Gift Card Tip #1
Are you a gift card giver at Christmas or you don’t know what presents to give this year so you’ve settled on a gift card? If you can, and it depends on the retailer, don’t buy the gift card straight from them as on most credit cards you will only earn your base miles or points. Buy them at a place where you can take advantage of your category bonus. For example if I wanted to give my dad a Future Shop gift card I would only earn 1 Membership Rewards points on my Amex Gold Rewards Card if I bought it at Future Shop but if bought it at Rexall or Sobeys I would earn 2 Membership Rewards points.

Gift Card Tip #2
This one is similar to above but involves a little more time and effort. This tip is for those of you who know what gifts you are buying for your kids, family, relatives and friends. The reason why it will take more time is that it requires multiple stops and purchases but if you have the time and want the extra miles then go for it! Take the Future Shop example from above, you know that your child wants a new iPod Touch for Christmas. You could go buy it directly from Future Shop and earn your base miles on your credit card but by going to a grocery store, drug store or even a gas station that sells gift cards you can go buy yourself the Future Shop gift cards, earn the 1.5 or 2x or more miles/points/cashback on the purchase and then use the gift cards when you get to Future Shop. There is only one downside to this method other than the extra time required and that is you will not be able to take advantage of the purchase protection, price protection or extended warranty offered by many of the reward credit cards. (Maybe it would be better if I used Old Navy as an example instead of Future Shop since you don’t really require any of those benefits on Old Navy purchases?)

By following some or all of these steps you will be making sure that you are maximizing the miles and points you earn this holiday shopping season! The mileage or point balances in your accounts will escalate and then those reward flights, nights or merchandise will come to you sooner!


Care to comment, have questions or other tips? Please do so below!

Dec 10 Update: Triple Points for Choice Hotel Stays, Stash Hotels Free night, Japan Airlines Bonus Miles contest

News, Tips & Tricks
Japan Airlines is running a contest where 1,000 of their Mileage Bank members will win 2,500 Bonus Miles for completing an eligible international flight on JAL and/or a oneworld airline. To enter you must register first and then complete your eligible flight by March 15, 2013. For more details and to register please see here.

For those of you in Victoria or Vancouver, this offer may be the best for you, there a potential free night at the Island Inn at 123 West in Friday Harbor via Stash Hotel Rewards.  See the post from earlier today

As an update to my daily post last Thursday, the free United Mileage Plus miles from BCKSTGR.com have posted.

and finally in case you missed my other post from earlier today Hilton will be increasing their elite status requirements in 2013.

Bonus Offers
American AAdvantage
- Triple AAdvantage Miles on rentals of one or more days at participating Avis airport locations in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Middle East, Africa, New Zealand and Australia. More... Until Jan 31, 13
- Double AAdvantage Miles on a qualifying rental of minimum one day at participating Budget airport locations in the U.S. and Canada. More... Until Jan 31, 13

Choice Hotels Privileges
Triple Privileges Points on every qualifying stay starting with your second stay at Choice Hotels Worldwide. More... Dec 13, 12 - Feb 20, 13

Japan Airlines Mileage Bank
- Double Mileage Bank Miles for Japan Airlines flights between Tokyo and Helsinki. More... Feb 25 - May 31, 13

Marriott Rewards
- 1,000 Bonus Points per stay at any of 75 AC Hotels By Marriott locations throughout Spain, Italy, Portugal and France. More... Book by Apr 19 for stays Jun 1 - Aug 24, 13
- 3,000 Bonus Points per night for stays at the Auburn Hills Marriott Pontiac at Centerpoint. Up to a maximum of 21,000 points per stay. More... Until Feb 12, 13

Miles & More
- Double Miles & More Miles for stays on the 'Linger Longer for Less' offer at participating Langham Hotels Worldwide. More... Dec 14, 12 - Feb 22, 13
- Double Miles & More Miles for stays at participating Radisson Blu hotels in Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Norway, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden and Switzerland. More... Until Jan 31, 13



Remember to follow Rewards Canada on Facebook and Twitter or subscribe to our Newsletter and RSS feed

Another Stash Hotels Rewards Sale: Free night at The Island Inn (Friday Harbor) is possible!

This summer the independent boutique hotel loyalty program Stash Hotel Rewards starting running flash sales for very cheap reward nights.

This continues tomorrow where 10 one night awards will be available at The Island Inn at 123 West in the Pacific Northwest's San Juan Islands for only 1,000 points. The best part is that you can join Stash Hotel Rewards via FFB's link and you will earn 1,000 points for free. That is enough for this flash sale. You just have to pray that you will be one of the lucky 10 to get in on the deal.

Details on this limited, first-come-first-serve offer will be announced on Tuesday, December 11th at 9am-ish PST, exclusively on Stash’s Facebook and Twitter pages.

Hilton to increase elite qualification requirements in 2013

For some of you this is old news as you may have caught it on other blogs or forum but I as I play catch up on items and clean out my email I was reminded of this change from the email I received from Hilton:

So as of January 1, 2013 most of the elite qualifying requirements to achieve Hilton status in 2014 are increasing.

Currently to achieve Gold Status the requirement is 16 stays, 36 nights or 60,000 points. Those are going up to 20 stays, 40 nights or 75,000 base points.

For Diamond Status the current requirement is 28 stays, 60 nights, or 100,000 points. In 2013 it will be 30 stays, 60 nights or 120,000 base points.

For those of us in Canada this definitely made it tougher to achieve status without finding a fast track option. I do list some of those options on RC's HHonors page. In the U.S. they have it easier as their HHonors credit cards typically come with elite status. Perhaps Hilton will follow suit and launch a credit card here in Canada like 5 of the other major hotel brands have.

Dec 6 Update: 5,000 Bonus Flying Blue Miles for Canadians, up to 1,000 Free Mileage Plus Miles & Avianca TACA's 100% Buy Miles Bonus is back

I'm back from vacation but today will be my only day of 'Rewards Canada' operations this week as I have a full slate tomorrow. I have a quite a few emails from many of you and I promise to get to them as soon as I can! Other than that I'm playing catch up and will try to push out as much news, information and bonus offers as I can over the next week. The following is what I got to today:

News, Tips & Tricks
If you frequently travel to Beijing and have stays of less than 72 hours or are transiting via Beijing there is good news in that Canadians (and residents of 44 other countries) do not need to apply in advance for a visa. As of January 1, 2013 a transit visa will now be issued upon arrival into Beijing. For more details please see this article from Business Traveller.

Air France KLM's Flying Blue has a launched a nice acquisition campaign for Canadians: 5,000 Bonus Flying Blue Miles when you join the program by February 28 and fly by August 31, 2013. I have seen lots of these promos for other countries but most have not been this generous in regards to the amount of bonus miles, the time period allowed to get the first flight in and the best part? This promotion for Canadians is not limited to flights on Air France KLM only, it is open to any SkyTeam member airline flight! That means if you have upcoming Delta, Alitalia, Korean Air or anyone of the 19 member airline flights you can earn this bonus if you credit the flight to Flying Blue. See the link below for more details.

December sees the return of the amazing 100% Bonus on buying Avianca TACA LifeMiles. I don't think I need to go into much detail here, you can check out my last post on it for some of the in's and out's of this promotion otherwise you can find the link to the promotion below.

The latest set of IHG Priority Club Point Breaks is out. This is one of the best redemption promotions seen from any hotel program and allows Priorty Club members to redeem at select IHG hotels for only 5,000 points per night regardless if the original redemption rate is 15,000 or 50,000 points. See my last post for more details or just click here to see the current list of hotels that run until January 31.(2 Canadian properties are included)

Short Term Bonus offer alert: If you are planning any shopping at Home Hardware before December 15 you can earn 3x the Aeroplan miles. More...

Finally, another free miles offer. This time when you join BKSTGR.com you can earn up to 1,000 United Mileage Plus miles. This offer appears open to Canadian residents as I signed up and received the initial 400 miles for registratoin but have not seen the miles for linking my social media accounts yet. See the link below for more details.

Travel Deals
IHG is running a 2 day sale on Dec 7 and 8 for select properties in the U.K, with rates as low as £20.12! More details can be found here.

Bonus Offers
Air Baltic Baltic Miles (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Triple Baltic Miles on all purchases made via the BalticMiles Shop&Earn online shopping portal. More... Until Dec 31, 12

Air France KLM Flying Blue
- 5,000 Bonus Flying Blue Miles if you enrol in Flying Blue and fly with Air France KLM or any other SkyTeam airline by August 31, 2013. More... Register by Feb 28, 13. Residents of Canada only

Avianca TACA LifeMiles
- 100% Bonus LifeMiles when you buy LifeMiles online. More... Until Dec 28, 12 Applies only to members enrolled in the program prior to December 3rd, 2012

Frontier Airlines Early Returns (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Triple Early Returns Miles for flights between Princeton/Trenton NJ and Ft. Lauderdale, Ft. Myers, New Orleans, Orlando, or Tampa. More... Jan 31 - Feb 28, 13
- Double Early Returns Miles for flights between Denver and Fargo, Minot or Phoenix/Mesa-Gateway. More... Until Dec 31, 12
- Double Early Returns Miles for flights between Greensboro, NC or Princeton/Trenton NJ and Orlando. 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. More... Until Jan 31, 13

Starwood Preferred Guest
- Earn up to 2,000 Bonus Starpoints per stay at participating Le Méridien Hotels in North America and French Polynesia. More... Register by Jan 15 for stays until Feb 28, 13

United Mileage Plus
- Earn up to 1,000 Bonus Mileage Plus Miles for registering with BCKSTGR.com and linking your Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare accounts. More... Until ?

Voila Hotel Rewards
- Earn up to 50% Bonus Points for every stay at participating VOILÁ hotels worldwide. More... Until Feb 28, 13

Nov 30 Update: Best Western bonus in CA, HI & NV, Frontier Double EQMs Systemwide & CardSwap Winner

This will be the last Daily Update until December 6th as my family and I are off for a small vacation to relax and do some shopping. We're going to do our best to help bolster the U.S. economy: three ladies and a guy who is known to enjoy shopping on ocassion equals hefty spending!

News, Tips & Tricks
Melia International Mas rewards now offers an option to buy or gift Mas Points. To celebrate the launch they are offering a 20% bonus on all points purchased. The program allows you to buy up to 100,000 points before the bonus in a calendar year. I'm still looking at their redemption options to see if this can be worthwhile promo to take advantage of and will report back if there is anything that stands out.

The winner of Rewards Canada's Cardswap.ca giveaway was @BremerVan Congratulations!

Bonus Offers
Best Western Rewards
- 1,000 Bonus Rewards Points PER NIGHT for every qualified night you stay for up to 4 nights at participating Best Western Hotels in California, Nevada or Hawaii. More... Until Jan 31, 13
- 500 Bonus Rewards Points for stays at th Best Western Hotel Restaurant Stadskanaal. More... Until Dec 31, 12

Carlson Hotels Club Carlson
- 3,000 Bonus Gold Points for each eligible stay at Carlson Rezidor hotels worldwide booked through Carlson Wagonlit Travel. More... Until Dec 31, 12

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- Double Asia Miles when booking the special rate ""Double Miles for Early Birds" 20 days in advance at participating World Hotels Worldwide. More... Dec 1, 12 - Feb 28, 13

Delta SkyMiles
- Double SkyMiles on weekend rentals of 2 or more days, or rentals of 5 or more days, at a participating Hertz airport or off airport location in the U.S., Puerto Rico or Canada. More... Until Jul 31, 13

Frontier Airlines Early Returns (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
Double Elite Qualifying Miles on all Frontier Airlines flights systemwide. More... Dec 1 - 31, 12

Melia International Mas Rewards
- 20% Bonus Mas Points when you buy or gift Mas Points online. More... Until Jan 9, 13

Nov 29 Update: Air Canada new routes, Singapore Airlines Saver Awards expanded, Bonus Aeroplan Miles for Marriott Canada stays

At the end of each month loyalty program news and bonuses tend to fizzle out and November has been especially so. So not too much to bring you today:

News, Tips & Tricks
Air Canada announced some changes to their summer 2013 flight schedule which should appeal to Air Canada Top Tier and Aeroplan members alike. The new routes include 3x weekly service between both Toronto and Istanbul and Toronto and Seoul. Increases to Calgary-Tokyo (Daily serivce from 5x weekly), Vancouver-Beijing (11x weekly from 7x) and Toronto-Beijing (10x weekly from 7x). More details can be found on Airline Route Update

Aeroplan and all Star Alliance partners welcomed the newest member to their fold, Shenzhen Airlines. Another option for you to earn and burn Aeroplan (and other *A) miles.

The Alitalia MilleMiglia program is burdened by some obscure Italian law that makes it 're-invent' itself every few years and the 'current' version of MilleMiglia will end on December 31. This means members have until Jun 30, 13 to redeem their miles (usually Alitalia runs some sort of promo that allows you to keep or renew your miles) but if you are holding some and are afraid to lose them you can now redeem them for coupons that can be used towards future Alitalia flights. The coupons range in value from 100EUR to 4,000EUR with a cost of 17,000 to 400,000 MilleMiglia miles. The coupons are good for flights in all of 2013. More details can be found here.

Singapore Airlines sent out an email to its KrisFlyer members with further enhancements to their program that continue to be on the good side. The latest enhancement is that the lower mileage value Saver Awards are now available for the Singapore Airlines Suites on their Airbus A380 aircraft. Here is the wording from the SIA website:

Redemption bookings for Saver Award flights in the Singapore Airlines Suites on board the Airbus A380 are now available.

With the launch of this latest initiative, PPS Club and KrisFlyer members will have the choice and flexibility to redeem all award types in all cabin classes across the Singapore Airlines network.  We will be revising our award charts to include the Singapore Airlines Suites, which will be categorised together with First Class award levels for ease of reference.

Despite this change there will not be an increase in the current Saver Award levels for First Class.  All Saver Awards are also now valid for one year instead of six months.
There will, however, be an increase in selected Standard and Full Award levels for First Class which will also apply to the Singapore Airlines Suites. For members who have made a prior Standard or Full Award booking for First Class, the original award levels will be honoured for bookings made on or before 28 November 2012 and ticketed by 12 December 2012. Please contact KrisFlyer Membership Services for assistance.
Please click here to view the revised award charts.

Today is the last day to enter my giveaway of a $100 credit to CardSwap.ca which is good for $100 worth of gift cards. You can read the review of their reward program here or follow these instructions to enter:
1. Follow @RewardsCanada on Twitter 

2. Visit CardSwap.ca and find a gift card you think you would use the credit on

3. Tweet us the card you would pick, include @RewardsCanada @CardSwap and Hash tag #rewardscanada in your tweet 

Copy, paste and complete this to make it easier:


@RewardsCanada @CardSwap I would choose the (INSERT MERCHANT NAME) Gift Card #rewardscanada
4. Wait to see if you are chosen as a winner

!

Bonus Offers
Air Canada Aeroplan
- 1,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles with every stay at 33 participating Marriott hotels across Canada. More... Until Mar 31, 13
- 250 Bonus Aeroplan miles for parking at the Vancouver International Airport’s Economy or Long-Term Parking Lot. More...Until Jan 6, 13

Amtrak Guest Rewards (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Double Guest Rewards Points on weekend rentals of 2 or more days, or rentals of 5 or more days, at a participating Hertz airport or off airport location in the U.S., Puerto Rico or Canada. More... Until Jul 31, 13

Asiana Club
- Double Club Miles when booking the special rate ""Double Miles for Early Birds" 20 days in advance at participating World Hotels Worldwide. More... Dec 1, 12 - Feb 28, 13

Carlson Hotels Club Carlson
- 5,000 Bonus Gold Points PER NIGHT for stays at the Country Inn & Suites I-240 Tunnel Road Asheville. More...

Stash Hotel Rewards
- 500 Bonus Stash Rewards Points when you book the “Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale” package at the Riverside Hotel Fort Lauderdale. More... Book by Dec 30, 12 for stays until Apr 30, 13
- 500 Bonus Stash Rewards Points for stays at Larkspur Landing Hotels in California, Oregon, Washington. More... Until Jan 13, 13
- Double Stash Rewards Points for stays of 2+ nights at the Williamsburg Hospitality House. More... Until Dec 31, 12

Remember to follow Rewards Canada on Facebook and Twitter or subscribe to our Newsletter and RSS feed

Nov 28 Update: Trip Reports, AAdvantage bonus for Hertz Rentals, JAL Status Point bonus offer extension

At the end of each month loyalty program news and bonuses tend to fizzle out and November has been especially so. So not too much to bring you today:

News, Tips & Tricks
No news to bring to you today but do have a reminder tip. Be sure to check out Rewards Canada's route bonus listing before you book a flight to see if you can earn more miles on your planned route. This is an invaluable tool that everyone should consult before you book. You can find it here.

I posted two trip reports today, one for some recent Air Canada flights and one for my stay at the Westin Harbour Castle.

Bonus Offers
American AAdvantage
- Double AAdvantage Miles on weekend rentals of 2 or more days, or rentals of 5 or more days, at a participating Hertz airport or off airport location in the U.S., Puerto Rico or Canada. More... Until Jul 31, 13

ANA All Nippon Mileage Club
- Double Mileage Club Miles when booking the special rate ""Double Miles for Early Birds" 20 days in advance at participating World Hotels Worldwide. More... Dec 1, 12 - Feb 28, 13

Czech Airlines OK Plus
- Earn 3,000 Bonus OK Plus Miles for flights in Business Class or Economy Flex between Prague and Bucharest. More... Until Jan 31, 13

Japan Airlines Mileage Bank
- OFFER EXTENDED 400 Bonus Fly On Points (Status Qualifying Points) on all Japan Airlines flights Worldwide. More... Until Dec 31, 13

Scandinavian EuroBonus
- 50% Discount on the transaction fees when you transfer EuroBonus points to friends or family. More... Until Dec 21, 12

Shangri-La Golden Circle
- Double GC Award Points + 3rd night free for stays in a Horizon Club Suite at the Shangri-La Hotel, Shenzhen. More... Dec 1 - Feb 28, 13
- Double GC Award Points for stays in a Horizon Club Room at the Golden Flower Hotel, Xian. More... Dec 1 - Feb 28, 13
- Double GC Award Points for stays in a Horizon Club Room at the Futian Shangri-La, Shenzhen. More... Dec 1 - Feb 28, 13
- Double GC Award Points for stays in a Club Suite at the Kerry Hotel Pudong, Shanghai. More... Dec 1 - Feb 28, 13