SPG's "Take Two" - Double Starpoints + 2,500 Bonus Starpoints for every 5 nights - Now open for registration

Starwood's latest systemwide promotion called "Take Two" is now open for registration. Here are the details on the promo along with the registration link:

SPG Take Two: Double Starpoints + up to 10,000 Bonus Starpoints on all eligible stays at participating Starwood Hotels Worldwide. Double Starpoints are awarded on all eligible stays plus earn 2,500 bonus Starpoints for every five eligible nights up to 10,000 bonus Starpoints.Full Details, online registration and booking (Registration is required) Register by Oct 31 for stays Sep 1 - Dec 15, 13

Looking to earn more Starpoints? Check out this limited time offer for the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express:

- Earn 20,000 Welcome Bonus Starpoints®* after you charge $1,000 in purchases to your Card in your first three months of Cardmembership - enough for up to 5 free nights. Apply online
- Earn 1 Starpoint for every $1 in purchases charged to the Card
- Enjoy a Free Weekend Night Award when you reach $40,000 in purchases each year
- Experience Starwood Gold Preferred Guest status when you reach $30,000 in purchases each year
- $120 annual fee (annual interest rate 19.99%)

Aug 20 Update: WestJet adds new 'Plus' fare category, Hyatt bonus in Atlanta, Accor Hotels Private Sale

Everything today revovles around loyalty promotions!

News, Tips & Tricks
WestJet has added a third price category to their fare structure. The new category called 'Plus' is their top end fare which could almost be considered a Premium Economy fare as it offers instant access to their new Premium Economy seats that offer more leg room. Over and above that there are lot of other features to the Plus fare. Here is what Plus includes:

• complimentary flight change and cancel options
• extra baggage allowance (two free checked bags)
• extra legroom (36-inch seat pitch)
• a complimentary food item and alcoholic beverages from our inflight menu
• advance boarding and overhead bin space
• priority security screening at available airports

A quick check of fares between Calgary and Vancouver reveals that the Plus option may not be a bad option even for those who may be price conscious:

You can see the price difference is $115.50 between Econo and Plus but if your were to book either the Econo or Flex fare you would have to pay $20-$23 to check a second bag (assuming you are checking a second bag), seat selection would be $10 -$11.50 assuming regular seating, but if you wanted Plus seating it would be an extra $45-$51.75 and then you get a food selection and an alcoholic beverage which would cost you up to $14 on board.

Lets do the math on this:

	Base Fare	Second Bag	Plus Seat Selection	Food & Beverage	Total
Econo	$172.33	$20	$45	$14	$251.33
Flex	$251.08	$20	$45	$14	$330.08
Plus	$287.83	0	0	0	$287.33

So even for price conscious people the Plus fare can be attractive if you meet all of the above assumptions that you have a second bag, want to eat on board and want the extra leg room. I know if I met those criteria I would consider to take on the extra $36 for the ability to have complimentary flight changes and cancellation options. For this example the only reason to consider Flex Fare would be if you did not want advance seat selection or have the need for a second checked bag.



Big Bonuses coming?
With September fast approaching and everyone ending their summer holidays, people are going to start exploring how they can earn back the miles and points they redeemed on their summer vacation and this may include switching credit cards or loyalty programs. The Credit Card companies know this are getting ready to pounce with new offers and more. We know of some new offers coming this September so be sure to follow us here on the blog, Facebook and Twitter to make sure you don't miss out these new promotions!


Travel Deals
Accor Hotels has launched their latest 'private sale' with savings of up to 50% of their regular rates. For example stays in the U.S. and Canada of at least 2 nights are being discounted by 40%. Stays must be booked by August 29. Full details can be found here

Bonus Offers
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
- Earn up to 3 Mileage Plan Miles per dollar spent when you use GroundLink car services. More... Until Sep 30, 13

China Southern Sky Pearl Club
- 2,000 SkyPearl Kilometers for stays at participating Langham properties in China. More... Sep 1 - Dec 31, 13
- Double SkyPearl Kilometers for stays of 2 or more nights at any Shangri-La hotel, resort, Traders hotel or Kerry hotel Worldwide. More... Sep 1 - Nov 30, 13

Emirates Skywards
- Triple Skywards Miles for at all Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. More... Until Sep 30 , 13

Hyatt Gold Passport
- 1,500 Bonus Gold Passport Points for stays at any of 15 participating hotels in Atlanta. More... Until Nov 30, 13

La Quinta Returns
- Get up to a 25% Discount when buy La Quinta Returns Points. More... Until Aug 25, 13

Royal Air Maroc Safar Flyer
- Double Safar Flyer Miles on Europcar rentals in France and Morocco. More... Until Sep 30, 13
- Earn up to Triple Safar Flyer Miles on Sixt rentals Worldwide. More... Until Sep 30, 13

Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
- 500 BonusMiles&Smiles and a free upgrade to the next room category for stays on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday night on the Best Available Rate at the Movenpick Istanbul. More... Sep 1 - Dec 29, 13

Air France KLM: Earn over 50,000 Flying Blue Miles on Avis car rentals

Here at Rewards Canada we list hundreds of car rental bonus offers each year from the 160+ programs that we track but for the past couple of years no offer has topped Air France KLM's Avis Accumulator offer. This year we originally brought it to you back in March in this post but with just a little over four months left in the year the offer deserved mention once again to either remind you of it or if you weren't aware of it to give you enough time to get to the top bonus level.

The offer is a tiered bonus that will award you with a total 50,500 Flying Blue miles when you complete six rentals of 3 more days each, which are enough miles for a classic award ticket in economy class between North America and Europe. If you haven't credited any such rentals to your Flying Blue account you better hope that you can get in 18 days (6 rentals x 3 days) with Avis in the next four months!

Here are the full details on the bonus offer as we posted it to RC's Flying Blue page back in March:

Earn up to 50,500 Flying Blue Miles on your Avis rentals of 3 or more days per rental Worldwide.
Earn 2,000 bonus miles on your second rental
Earn 5,000 bonus miles on your third rental
Earn 7,500 bonus miles on your fourth rental
Earn 14,000 bonus miles on your fifth rental
Earn 20,000 bonus miles on your sixth rental
For a total of 47,500 bonus miles plus 3,000 base miles unless you are a Platinum member in which case you'll earn 3,600 base miles.

To qualify, reservations at Avis.com must be made using a Flying Blue/Avis Worldwide Discount (AWD) number: Ivory members F982700;
Silver members F982800;
Gold members F982900;
Platinum members F983000

or with a KLM Flying Blue AWD number:
Ivory Z266200;
Silver members Z266100;
Gold members Z190300;
Platinum members K885100

or with an Air France AWD number:
Ivory members i939600;
Silver members i939700;
Gold members i939800;
Platinum members i939900.

There is no registration required for this offer, you just need to ensure that you use on of the above AWD numbers when you a book a 3 day or longer Avis rental anywhere Worldwide at Avis.com

Aug 19 Update: Air Miles Madness, Preferred Hotel Group relaunches iPrefer, plus over a dozen new bonus offers

Welcome to another week of travel rewards news, views and more here on Rewards Canada!

News, Tips & Tricks
Air Miles has a new promotion called "Air Miles Madness Back-to-School Event" that features printable/emailable coupons for use in store at select retailers like Staples, The Shoe Company, Toys R Us and more. Plus every coupon you use enters you into the contest portion of the promotion for a chance to win a trip for 4 to Cancun or Staples Gift Cards. Check it out here

Preferred Hotel Group's iPrefer officially relaunched last week with their new points based system. The program overall is extremely weak and the only real benefit that comes from joining the program is complimentary internet. Find out more about the program here.

Travel Deals
Marriott: Visit Hawaii and get an Extra Night FREE + Daily Breakfast for 2! Book by Dec 5, 13

 Bonus Offers
Air Canada Aeroplan
- 1,000 Aeroplan Miles for a minimum of two days at HotelParc Montreal. More... Until Oct 31, 13

Air Miles
- 3X Air Miles Reward Miles when you book a Transat Holidays vacation package or cruise with Marlin Travels. More... Book by Sep 5 for travel Nov 1, 13 - Apr 30, 14

airBaltic BalticMiles (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Double BalticMiles Points for stays at the Grand Rose Hotel. More... Until Oct 11, 13
- Triple BalticMiles Points when you rent a car from CaRent in Lithuania. More... Until Sep 30, 13

Delta SkyMiles
- Triple SkyMiles for stays on the Bed & Breakfast Package for Two at participating Radisson & Hotels in North and South America. More... Until Sep 30, 13

Garuda Indonesia Frequent Flyer (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Triple GFF Miles for Garuda flights in Executive Class between Jakarta and Semarang. More... Aug 20 - Dec 20, 13

Gulf Air FalconFlyer (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Triple Falconflyer Miles for stays at the Al Ghurair Arjaan & Al Ghurair Rayhaan by Rotana More... Until Sep 30, 13
- Double Falconflyer Miles on Budget rentals of 2 days or more in UAE and 3 days or more in Kuwait and 4 days or more in Egypt. Double miles applicable on all rentals in Bahrain. More... Until Sep 30, 13
- Triple Falconflyer Miles for Hertz rentals of 7 or more days Worldwide. More... Until Sep 30, 13
- Quadruple Falconflyer Miles for Sixt rentals of 7 or more days Worldwide. More... Until Sep 30, 13

Marriott Rewards
- Earn up to 5,000 Rewards Points rent any car at participating Hertz locations in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Europe, Mexico, New Zealand and Puerto Rico. More... Until Dec 31, 13

Saudia Alfursan
- Double Alfursan Miles for stays at any participating Marriott Hotel Worldwide. More... Until Nov 30, 13

United MileagePlus
- Earn up to 100% Bonus MileagePlus miles when you fly on non-stop flights marketed and operated by United Airlines or All Nippon Airways (ANA) between Seattle and Tokyo, Narita. More... Until Nov 30, 13
- Earn up to 1,000 Bonus MileagePlus Miles per night on paid qualifying hotel stays booked through united.com/hotels. More... Book by Aug 31 for stays until Sep 30, 13




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Aug 16 Update: 30% Bonus HawaiianMiles from Diners Club, Half off China Southern Award tickets between Vancouver & Guangzhou

Everything revolves around loyalty promotions today!

News, Tips & Tricks
Today was simply an add bonus offers and other program promotions to FFB and Rewards Canada. In those additions however there are two offers that are worth more of a look here in the news, tips & tricks section.

The first offer is only good for existing Canadian Diners Club Club Rewards members and is a transfer bonus to the Hawaiian Airlines Hawaiian Miles program. The same offer is available in the U.S. and is better there as their transfer ratio is 1:1 while ours is 1.25:1 (Diners still has not responded to a question I posed to them about this since this transfer ratio was developed back when the Canadian dollar was only worth about 70 U.S. cents but now that it is at or a little below par they really should reevaluate the ratio but that discussion can be saved for another day) Now back onto the topic, for us Canadian DC holders we can redeem 1,250 points for 1,300 HawaiianMiles which isn't great but there are some decent redemption options in the HawaiianMiles program. Now Hawaiian Airlines does not serve Canada but you can redeem the miles for flights on their partners like American Airlines, Delta, Virgin Atlantic and more. If you can find availability you could get a flight within North America on Delta for only 24,038 Club Rewards points (25,000 HawaiianMiles) which is slightly better than most other programs that are also at that 25,000 mile level. Like I said, it isn't the greatest offer because of the 1.25:1 transfer ratio but it is better than not having it all! See the bonus offer section below for more details on this promotion.


The second offer is a discounted award promotion from China Southern Sky Pearl Club. They are offering Sky Pearl award flights for 50% off and that includes their Vancouver-Guangzhou route for flights between Nov 7 and Dec 7. Sky Pearl Club award flights aren't cheap to begin with as these amounts are for one way awards:

However with this promotion they do become more tolerable. Other than flying on China Southern the best way to get Sky Pearl Kilometers in Canada is via the Starwood Preferred Guest program (and its associated Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express) as you can transfer Starpoints to Sky Pearl at a rate of 1:1 plus the 5,000 bonus miles for every 20,000 Starpoints redeemed. If you were to look at redeeming for an round trip economy class flight with this promotion you would want to transfer 50,000 Starpoints and get 10,000 bonus Kilometers) for the requirement of 60,000 Kilometers. As a comparison the same type of redemption from Aeroplan is 75,000 Aeroplan miles or 60,000 Starpoints. So overall it is not a bad option if you need to get to Guangzhou during that time period but be aware that there are a limited amount of seats available at the 50% off rate. See the bonus offer section below for more details on this promotion.


Bonus Offers
AeroMexico Club Premier
- Double Club Premier Kilometers on all Sixt car rentals in Europe. More... Until Sep 30, 13

Air China Phoenix Miles
- 600 Bonus Phoenix Miles Kilometers per car rental when you book through Rentalcars.com. More... Until Sep 30, 13

Air France KLM Flying Blue
- Save up to 50% with Promo Awards Save 25% to 50% on the Award Miles usually required for award ticket. Destinations vary by each promotional period. More... Until Oct 31, 13

airberlin topbonus
- 1,500 topbonus Miles per rental with Sunny Cars in over 100 countries. More... Until Oct 15, 13

Carlson Hotels Club Carlson
- Earn up to 50% Bonus Gold Points when you purchase Gold Points. More... Until Oct 15, 13

China Southern Sky Pearl Club
- 50% SkyPearl Kilometers Discount on award ticket redemptions for select China Southern domestic and international routes. More... Various dates until Dec 7, 13

EVA Air Evergreen Club
- 8 Bonus Evergreen Miles for for every TWD100 spent on the HRS website. More... Until Nov 30, 13

Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)

- 30% Bonus HawaiianMiles when you convert Diners Club Club Rewards points into HawaiianMiles. More... Until Sep 16, 13 For Canadian Residents only

IHG Rewards Club
- Earn up 5,000 Bonus IHG Rewards Club points for individual hotel stays in China. More... Until Oct 31, 13
- Earn up 4,000 Bonus IHG Rewards Club points for individual hotel stays in the Middle East and Africa. More... Until Sep 30, 13

Millennium & Copthorne Hotels Loyalty Club
- Triple Loyalty Points for stays at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel Los Angeles. More... Until Dec 28, 13
- Double Loyalty Points for stays at the Millennium Hotel Minneapolis. More... Until Sep 8, 13
- 50% Bonus Loyalty Points for stays any day from Thursdays to Sundays at the ONE UN New York, Millennium Broadway Hotel New York / The Premier New York. More... Until Dec 28, 13

Aug 15 Update: IHG shutting down online shopping mall, 250 Bonus Aeroplan Miles for AC's new Red Deer route, 2x Dividend Miles for Choice Hotel stays

Here are your travel rewards news and bonuses for August 15th:

News, Tips & Tricks
Interesting news in the online shopping world for miles considering the posts this week we had on Back to School shopping and bonuses for online shopping. What is that news? Priority Club Shopping, the online shopping mall for IHG Rewards Club is shutting down as of August 20th. So if this was one of your go to places to earn points for online shopping you only have 5 more days to do so.

Travel Deals
Receive 5% off, time and mileage only, when you book on Dollar.com and rent from one of their participating U.S. locations through December 20, 2013. Use promo code LS13D.


Bonus Offers
Air Canada Aeroplan
- 250 Bonus Aeroplan Miles for every segment flown between Red Deer and Calgary. More...Register and book by Sep 10 for travel between Sep 3 and Oct 14, 13
- Triple Aeroplan Miles on any purchase of $50 or more with Bentley . More... Until Sep 8, 13

American AAdvantage
- Earn up to 3 AAdvantage sMiles per dollar spent when you use GroundLink car services. More... Until Sep 30, 13

Coast Hotels Coast Rewards
- 50% Coast Rewards Points Discount on award nights (Comfort/Superior rooms), room upgrades and/or free parking. More... Until Sep 18, 13

Iberia Plus
- Triple Avios for each weekend night you stay at participating Hilton Hotelsin Europe, Middle East and Africa. Full details, registration More... Until Dec 16, 13

Le Club accorhotels
- Receive free luggage and luggage accessories for stays at participating Accor hotels in Australia. More... Until Oct 31, 13
- Earn up to Triple Le Club Accorhotels Points and receive breakfast for 1 EUR for stays at participating Accor Hotels in Italy or Greece. More... Until Sep 8, 13

Starwood Preferred Guest
- 500 Bonus Starpoints for Starwood bookings made via the SPG Chinese Android app. More... Until Sep 7, 13

US Airways Dividend Miles
- Double Dividend Miles for each qualifying stay at any participating Choice Hotels location worldwide. More... Until Sep 23, 13

Virgin America Elevate(on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Double Elevate Points on all Sixt rentals Worldwide. More... Until Sep 30, 13

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- Earn up to 3 Flying Club Miles per dollar spent when you use GroundLink car services. More... Until Sep 30, 13



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

5x Aeroplan Miles on all eSTORE purchases until August 18th

As a quick update to our Back to School shopping post earlier in the week, the Aeroplan eSTORE is running a very short promotion that comes just in time for Back to School Shopping.

For all purchases made via the eSTORE until August 18th, Aeroplan member will earn 5x the Aeroplan Miles. No registration is required, simply shop online at the eSTORE!

[OFFER GONE] Amazing Fast Track Offer for American AAdvantage Elite Status

THIS OFFER HAS BEEN PULLED FROM AA's WEBSITE AND IS NO LONGER VALID
This is an amazing fast track to elite status offer if you are planning any American Airlines flights for the last four months of the year or can move your travels to AA and/or select AA airline partners. You cannot hold status with American AAdvantage currently and you must register by August 27 to participate. Even if you don't fully know your travel plans I would register for this if you have a slight feeling that you can meet the requirements. There hasn't been such a 'amazing' fast track to Elite Status like this in a long, long time!

Simply register by 11:59 p.m. (CT) on August 27, 2013, using promotion code H3TLI. Then, start flying on American or select airlines** to earn the required elite-qualifying miles between September 1, 2013, and December 31, 2013. Full details and online registration can be found here

And here are the mileage requirements of this fast track offer:

*This is an exclusive offer only for non-elite status AAdvantage members. AAdvantage members with Gold, Platinum, and Executive Platinum elite status are not eligible for this offer. You must register by 11:59 p.m. CT on August 27, 2013, and prior to travel in order for your elite-qualifying miles to count toward this promotion.
**Eligible airlines include American Airlines, American Eagle®, American Connection^® carrier, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines and Qantas flights, as well as eligible codeshare flights.

Aug 14 Update: Delta increases SkyMiles requirements for International BusinessElite, Hotels.com discount code, Wyndham Rewards car rental bonuses

More bad news for Delta SkyMiles members today!

News, Tips & Tricks
Delta Airlines SkyMiles is the latest frequent flyer program to increase mileage requirements on select award ticket redemptions. The announcement was made on FlyerTalk that due to significant investment and enhancements to their Business Class product they recognized the need for adjustments to our low mileage redemption levels for select international Award Tickets in BusinessElite. Serious? Not a good move in any case for a program that gets chastized a lot in the Frequent Flyer world. Most of the award affected are going up by 25% however some are less. The changes went live today for travel on and after June 1, 2014. Here are some of the increases being reported:
Canada/USA -Europe will move up to 125k from 100k
Canada/USA -Asia will move up to 140k from 120k
Canada/USA -Australia will move up to 160k from 150k
Canada/USA -South Africa will move up to 160k from 140k

They are also discontinuing their Award Ticket hold option which means if you will actually have to book an award ticket to hold the seats and cancel with their 24 hour risk free policy if you are unsure about your travel. Once again not so good for the SkyMiles members considering how many problems their online award booking engine has.


Travel Deals
Save an extra 9% at Hotels.com with code SUMMERFUN9! Book by 9/8, Travel by 11/30


Bonus Offers
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
- Earn up to Triple Mileage Plan miles on qualifying rentals of 2 or more days at participating Avis airport locations in the U.S. and Canada. More... Until Dec 31, 13

La Quinta Returns
- Double Returns Points on Budget rentals of 2 or more consecutive days at participating locations in the U.S. and Canada. More... Until Dec 31, 13

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Double KrisFlyer Miles plus 15% off the Best Available Rate when you stay at a participating Fairmont hotel or resort in China, India, the Philippines or Singapore. More... Until Sep 30, 13
- Triple KrisFlyer Miles for stays at Atlantis, One&Only or Mazagan Resorts Wordwide. More... Until Sep 30, 13
- Earn up to Triplle KrisFlyer Miles when you stay on the Best Available or Bed&Breakfast rate at any participating Mandarin Oriental hotel Worldwide. More... Until Sep 30, 13
- Earn up to Triple KrisFlyer Miles when you stay at a qualifying rate at any participating Millennium & Copthorne Hotel Worldwide. More... Until Sep 30, 13
- Double KrisFlyer Miles and complimentary breakfast when you stay for at least two consecutive nights at a participating Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts. More... Until Sep 30, 13
- Double KrisFlyer Miles when you stay for at least two consecutive nights on the Best Available Rate at any Shangri-La hotels and resorts worldwide. More... Sep 1 - Nov 30, 13
- Double KrisFlyer Miles when you stay on the Room for More package at a participating Taj Hotels & Resorts in India. More... Until Sep 30, 13
- Earn up to Quadruple KrisFlyer Miles when you rent a car on an Affordable Rate (leisure retail rate) from a participating HERTZ location in the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia or New Zealand. More... Until Sep 30, 13

Starwood Preferred Guest
- OFFER EXTENDED 500 Bonus Starpoints for stays at participating Starwood Hotels in Florida. More... Until Sep 30, 13

United MileagePlus
- Earn 10,000 Bonus MileagePlus miles when you fly nonstop roundtrip in Economy or Business class between Houston and Lagos, Nigeria. More... Until Oct 15, 13

Virgin Australia Velocity Rewards(on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Double Velocity Points on all eligible stays at participating Meritus Hotels worldwide. More... Until Oct 31, 13

Wyndham Rewards
- Quadruple Wyndham Rewards Points for Alamo rentals of any car class in the United States and Canada. More... Until Nov 15, 13
- Double Wyndham Rewards Points and up to 30% off Budget rentals at participating locations in the U.S., Canada & Puerto Rico. More... Until Sep 15, 13
- Quadruple Wyndham Rewards Points for National rentals of any car class in the United States and Canada. More... Until Nov 15, 13

Maximize your Mileage and Point Earnings on Back to School Shopping

With less than a month left before school starting it is time to kick your back to school shopping into high gear! Whether it’s online or in store there are many ways to maximize the miles and points you earn for back to school shopping. Ultimately you can make those travel reward dreams come closer by following one or more of Rewards Canada’s 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 that last $1.99 pen you forgot to buy and have to pick up at 7-11 on your way to dropping kids off at school. 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 school supplies a gift at Staples? Using your BMO Air Miles MasterCard or American Express Air Miles credit card and then swiping your Air Miles 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, Air Miles members can earn bonus miles on purchases of tons of different Back to School items at Staples. Just check out Staples weekly flyer to see which items have bonuses. 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 as well.

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
Our first focus is on online shopping since you really need to get orders in soon to ensure delivery before school starts.

Many loyalty programs, whether travel based or not, now have online shopping malls where you can earn miles or points for shopping at hundreds of online retailers. Currently some of them are not running bonus offers over and above the base miles/points they award for the online purchase while some others are. Whether or not there is a bonus, you are best off using the online shopping mall of your program(s) of choice as moving your shopping to a program that may be offering 5x miles on purchases but is one you rarely use may leave you with some stranded miles that you’ll never redeem. In many cases you can also combine coupons/free shipping offers to these orders to not only ensure you are earning miles but are also saving money wherever you can.

Aeroplan has their eStore online shopping mall where you can earn Aeroplan miles for your online purchases. There is no bonus for any purchases in general like the Air Miles program but there are bonus mile offers from individual retailers in the eStore. It you have earned status in Aeroplan’s new Distinction program you can earn even more miles as follows:


• dDiamond members will receive 3X the miles per transaction.
• dBlack and dSilver members will receive 2X the miles per transaction.

Air Miles has their AirMilesShops.ca online shopping mall that also offer many individual retailer bonuses like the Aeroplan eStore but has a general offer of 15x the Air Miles on all purchase made via AirMilesShops.ca until Sep 9, 2013 plus an additional one time bonus of 100 Air Miles Rewards Miles if you make a single transaction of $50 or more before taxes.

RBC Rewards which is one of the newer players on the block for online shopping malls has their RBC Rewards eMall, exclusively for their credit card holders with card that earn RBC Rewards points. The RBC Rewards eMall currently has a general bonus offer of 3x the points on all purchases made from select retailers. See here for details on this offer.

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. See the bonus offer chart below for a listing of those bonus offers.

Mileage Shopping Tools/Search bars, some programs are offering a bonus for downloading and/or shopping with their downloadable shopping tools. These tools allow you to forgo visiting the program’s online shopping mall first before going to the retailer’s site to shop. Be careful however with these tools bars as they may override your attempts to shop at an online retailer via another travel program. You may have to uninstall or disable any downloaded shopping tools before using another program’s online shopping site. Currently the only toolbar bonus is from Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Club. See the chart below for more details on this offer.

One word of note, many of the online shops are from the U.S. and they will charge you in U.S. dollars which means with most cards you will encounter the foreign exchange transaction fee of 2 to 3% depending on your credit card. Even with this you will probably find the prices from the U.S. better than many Canadian retailers so it can be worth it even with that fee but if you want to bypass that fee, Chase Canada is the only bank to offer no foreign transaction fee cards to the Canadian public and the best of the Chase bunch is the Marriott Rewards Premier Visa.

Here are the current online shopping mall bonuses that cover purchases from all of their respective retailers. Many of the malls also have individual retailer bonuses which are not listed here (last updated August 13)

Provider	Offer	Validity Date
Air Miles	15X Air Miles Reward Miles on qualifying purchases of $20 CDN or more, excluding shipping, duty and taxes, made in a single transaction plus earn 100 Bonus Air Miles Reward Miles when you make a single qualifying airmilesshops.ca online purchase of $50 CDN or more excluding shipping, duty and taxes. Full details	Until Sep 9, 13
Delta SkyMiles	Earn up to 2,500 Bonus SkyMiles when you shop online via SkyMiles shopping. Earn 250 bonus miles for every $100 spent up to a maximum of 2,500 bonus miles. Full details	Until Aug 31, 13
Southwest Rapid Rewards	Earn up to 800 Rapid Rewards points when you shop online via Rapid Rewards Shopping. Full details Spend $100 get 200 bonus points Spend $200 get 400 bonus points Spend $400 get 800 bonus points	Until Aug 28, 13
United Mileage Plus	500 Bonus MileagePlus Miles when you spend $75 online via MileagePlus Shopping. Full details	Until Aug 18, 13
Virgin Atlantic FlyingClub	250 Bonus Flying Club Miles when you download the Download the ShopsAway toolbar. To access the offer, log into your Flying Club account and navigate to Shops Aways under earning miles. Once at the ShopsAway site click on "Shops Away Mile Finder" Full details	Until ?

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 is however a not-so-well-known tip 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. This 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 Visa, Scotiabank American Express Cards and even cash back cards like the Scotiabank Momentum Visa and the MBNA Smart Cash MasterCard. Of course you can bypass the whole category bonus option by using a card that earns a straight 2 miles per dollar spent on all eligible purchases like the Capital One® Aspire Travel™ World MasterCard®.

This tip takes a bit more time out of your schedule because  it requires multiple stops and purchases but if you have the time and want the extra miles then go for it! Whether it is for school supplies from places like Staples or Wal-Mart or clothing from the Gap or Old Navy this method will ensure you earn more miles. You could always go directly to these or other stores 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 buy a gift card for anyone of those retailers and earn the category bonuses of 1.5 or 2x or more miles/points/cashback on the purchase. Then you simply go to that start and use your gift card for the purchase and swipe your loyalty card if the store happens to partnered with a program (ie Staples and Old Navy with Air Miles) 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 if you are buying electronics or other higher priced items for school.


Here is a comparison of the credit card category bonuses:

Card	Gas	Grocery	Drug Store
American Express Air Miles Credit Card	1 Mile per $10	1 Mile per $10	1 Mile per $10
ATB Platinum Cash Rewards MasterCard	3% Cashback	3% Cashback	3% Cashback
CIBC Aerogold Visa Infinite	1.5 Miles per dollar	1.5 Miles per dollar	1.5 Miles per dollar
CIBC Aventura Visa/MasterCard	1.5 Points per dollar	1.5 Points per dollar	1.5 Points per dollar
MBNA Smart Cash MasterCard	5% for the first 6 months, 2% thereafter	5% for the first 6 months, 2% thereafter	1% Cashback
RBC Cash Back MasterCard	2% Cashback	1% Cashback	1% Cashback
Scotia Momentum VISA Infinite card	4% Cashback	4% Cashback	2% Cashback
Scotiabank Gold American Express Card	4 Points per dollar	4 Points per dollar	1 Point per dollar
Scotiabank American Express Card	2 Points per dollar	2 Points per dollar	1 Point per dollar
Sears Voyage MasterCard	1.5 Points per dollar	1.5 Points per dollar	1 Point per dollar

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!




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