Air Canada: Double Aeroplan Miles on flights to China (Targeted)

Just got a targeted offer sent to me by Air Canada:

Earn double Miles when you fly between Vancouver and Beijing, Shanghai or Hong Kong for every round trip or two one-way fight segments. Simply register and book by September 23, 2013 for travel between September 9 and December 27, 2013.

You also can try to register via the link above but there are no guarantees you'll get the mileage if you did not get the email but as is the case with most targeted offers it does not hurt to try and YMMV!

50,000 Point Sign Up Bonus for the MBNA Best Western Rewards MasterCard

It didn't take long for MBNA to provide a new Best Western Rewards MasterCard sign up bonus after the last offer of 60,000 points ended on August 31st. Though not as big as the previous this offer of 50,000 points is still pretty darn good.

What can those 50,000 points get you?

• One to six free nights at Best Western or
• ~$150 to $200 in Gift Cards or
• 10,000 Aeroplan (or other airline) miles

Those are just three examples for you. Getting this card is almost a no brainer as is it has no annual fee so just by funneling some of your credit card spend (only $1,000) to this card you can take advantage of this relatively large windfall for a no fee card!


Here are the details for the card and this promotion:

For more details or to apply for the card please see here. 

Sep 9 Update: Hyatt fall promo now open for registration, 1,000 Bonus HHonors Points via iPhone app, Qatar Airways entering oneworld on Oct 30

Welcome to the first day of a full 5 day week of updates on Rewards Canada in nearly a month!

News, Tips & Tricks
Hyatt Gold Passport's Discover New Possibilities promotion is now open for registration. The promotion offers up to 50,000 Bonus Gold Passport points on multiple Hyatt stays.

Qatar Airways has announced that October 30 will be their official entry date into the oneworld Alliance.

Starwood Preferred Guest Platinum Elite members can now get unlimited complimentary upgrades, and first checked bag free on Delta flights as part of their Crossover Rewards partnership. This is a nice addition to the partnership however SPG Platinum members are given priority behind Medallions, Medallion Companion, and KLM, Air France, and Alaska elite upgrades which definitely eats away at seats open for upgrades! Complete details can be found here.

Short Term Bonus Alert: Earn 2x Aeroplan Miles on Home Hardware purchases until Sep 14. Full details



Bonus Offers
Air Canada Aeroplan
- 1,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles when you join Aeroplan and fly on your next scheduled flight operated by Air Canada or Air Canada Express. More... Join by Dec 31 and fly by Mar 31, 14
- 1,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles when you stay at participating Fairmont Hotels & Resorts worldwide. More... Until Nov 30, 13
- 250 Aeroplan Miles on purchases of Oasys, TruEye and Moist brand contact lenses. More... Until Dec 31, 13

American AAdvantage
- 2,000 Bonus AAdvantage Miles when you when you shop and spend a cumulative amount of $35 or more online in the AAdvantage eShoppingSM mall. More... Until Sep 30, 13 Targeted Offer - May not work for everyone

Finnair Plus
- 40% Bonus Plus Points when you when you buy or gift Finnair Plus points. More... Until Sep 27, 13

Hilton HHonors
- 1,000 Bonus HHonors Points for every stay you book through the Hilton HHonors App for iPhone. More... Book by Dec 31, 13 for stays until Dec 31, 14

Korean Air SKYPASS
- Double SKYPASS Miles for stays at participating JAL Hotels Worldwide. More... Until Sep 30, 13

Miles & More
- 1,000 Bonus Miles & More Miles for stays at participating Accor Hotels Worldwide. More... Until Oct 31, 13
- Double Miles & More Miles for stays at Best Western hotels in Germany and Luxembourg. More... Until Dec 31, 13
- Double Miles & More Miles for stays at all Lindner Hotels in Europe. More... Until Oct 31, 13
- Double Miles & More Miles on all Europcar rentals in Germany. More... Until Oct 31, 13
- Double Miles & More Miles on your Lufthansa Miles & More Credit Cards transactions for all purchases that you make online. More... Oct 1 - 31, 13 Only available with a German banking account
- 15,000 Bonus Miles & More Miles when you apply for and receive the Lufthansa Miles & More Gold World Business Credit Card. More... Until Oct 31, 13 Only available with a German banking account

Qatar Airways Privilege Club
- Double QMiles 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

Shangri-La Hotels Golden Circle
- Triple GC Award Points for stays on the China National Day Holiday Grand Premier Room Package at the Jing An Shangri-La, West Shanghai. Mo#re... Sep 17 - Oct 13, 13

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- Up to a 17,500 Flying Club Miles Discount on select Flying Club reward tickets between North America and the U.K. More... Book by Sep 20, 13

Save 17,500 Flying Club Miles on Virgin Atlantic Reward Tickets between Vancouver and London

Virgin Atlantic has launched another reward ticket sale between North America and London where round trip economy class reward tickets can be had for only 25,000 Flying Club miles. This is a 10,000 miles discount for most of North America but for Vancouver it is even better as these reward tickets normally cost 42,500 miles. Now, VS does charge fuel surcharges on their reward tickets and the total taxes and fees for an economy Vancouver-London reward ticket is £260 (about C$423). For more details or to book this offer please see here.  Reward tickets must be booked by Sep 20 and according to VS the best availability on this route is Sep/Oct 2013 and Apr 2014.

(The offer is only accessible on the UK version of Virgin Atlantic's site so if the link doesn't work because it automatically places you on their US/Canada site just switch to the UK site on the upper right hand corner)

Using a Travel Points or Hybrid Travel Rewards Credit Card to fly in Business Class

Enjoying AC Executive Class

You may have heard me time and time again talk about the best way to redeem for business class flights when using a credit card is via those that have ties into an airline frequent flyer program. What happens though if you don’t want a credit card tied into an airline program because of the headaches that can come along with a frequent flyer program like limited availability, having connecting flights etc. but want flexibility in your rewards and still want to fly in a premium class? You can easily use any one of dozens of travel points or hybrid cards on the market that let you book travel how you want and when you want. You may say however, that all those cards max out at around a 2% return and this is rue. So why would you redeem those points against a premium class fare with only a 2% return when an airline card could get you a much higher rate of return. Yes it is true that the highest rate of returns happen when you redeem for premium class travel with an airline program but there are assumptions behind the notion in that premium class tickets are expensive to start with and that brings up the question of when premium class fares go on sale. Which they do and then your rate of return lowers on those airline frequent flyer program associated cards. When you redeem for economy class tickets, most travel points and hybrid cards trump airline cards since they all have roughly the same rate of return (1 to 2%) but they allow for much more flexibility since you can pick the airline, the dates, the connections etc. and still possibly earn frequent flyer miles on the flight itself and low and behold this is also the case when you book a premium class ticket that is on sale.

My beautiful girls also enjoying
AC Executive Class

As you are probably well aware, Rewards Canada pretty much shut down for most of July as we took some time off and spent the better part of three weeks in Hawaii. The first part was in Maui and the flights to get there were on WestJet since Air Canada does not serve OGG during the summer and we wanted to avoid connecting in the U.S.. However the second part of the trip was on Oahu and Air Canada does serve HNL during the summer and since the have moved their old 767’s to Air Canada Rouge’s European routes, the HNL-YVR flight used their XM’d 767 we figured it would be nice to end our trip in style! When it came time to book, Aeroplan did not show availability for 4 tickets on the days we wanted to travel from HNL back to YYC in Executive Class which meant we would just end up buying economy class tickets on AC for the return flight. We went to check out the pricing and noticed that Executive Class was relatively cheap and we knew we had enough Diners Club Club Rewards points to cover the price difference between Economy Class and Executive Class (about $3000). Bingo. Just like that we treated ourselves to Air Canada Executive Class on our flight home at no extra cost to us as I booked the tickets and once the charge showed up on my statement I called up Club Rewards and redeemed my points against the charge. In the end I only ended up spending what we had budgeted for economy class. My rate of return on the Diners Club Card is a flat 1.7% and if (and that is a big if) had I been able to redeem my Aeroplan miles for the flights the rate of return would have been in the 2.5% range. Still a bit higher than the Diners Club card but in reality the rate of return was 0% since there wasn’t availability on the days that we wanted. As an added bonus, since the flights were bought outright we earned the full amount of Aeroplan miles and Air Canada Altitude qualifying miles for flying in Executive Class.


Didn't have to bring our own food or
buy on board!

In conclusion, don’t think that just because you have a travel points card you cannot fly in a premium class. Had I had enough Diners Club Club Rewards points we could have flown in Executive Class totally for free (now that I think about since I have up to 9 months after the charge to redeem I could use my current points to cover the remainder and make the flight totally free if I wanted too) but we did what I have stressed many times in interviews: travel rewards programs don’t have to be all about getting it for free, they can be used to make your travel more luxurious while staying on your original budget. My experience in using our Diners Club card shows the beauty of credit or charge cards with flexibility and it is not limited to the card I used. Whether it is a great Hybrid card like the American Express Gold Rewards Card or the top travel points card in Canada the Capital One® Aspire Travel™ World MasterCard®, there are many cards that have the ability to be used in almost any regard for making your travel more rewarding on your time not your program’s time. 


What is a travel points card?

"A Travel Points Credit Card earns points that can be used to book travel via that credit cards travel agency, associated reward program or with some cards the ability to book travel how you want and use those points towards the charge on your account."

What is a hybrid card?

"A Hybrid card is a combination of an airline and/or hotel card and a travel points card. You can convert your points to airline or hotel frequent travel programs or use the points to book travel via the credit card's travel agency or with some cards to book travel how you want and then redeem the points against the charge on your account."

Related articles:

• Options outside of Aeroplan and Air Miles. Part 2: Credit Card Programs  
• Which credit cards can be used to cover award ticket taxes, fees and surcharges? 
• Canadian Travel Credit Card Comparison: Travel Points Credit Cards 
• Canadian Travel Credit Card Comparison: Hybrid Credit Cards

“The interest rates, fees, rewards details, benefits and other details of the Capital One product(s) described in the article may have changed since the time of publication. Please consult the product information pages on the Capital One website for accurate product details. In the event of any conflict between the product details in this article and the Capital One website, the details on the Capital One website shall prevail.”

Sep 6 Update: United & Best Western offer for bonus miles + elite status, Aeroplan Avis Bonus, Air Miles bonus for Best Western stays

Last summary for the week, have a great weekend everyone!

News, Tips & Tricks
American AAdvantage members can now redeem their miles for flights on Brazilian airline TAM and can also now book award tickets online for Royal Jordanian Airlines. (HT: View from the Wing)

Couple of good bonus offers for Best Western stays added today to our bonus offer sections. The first is a stay bonus for the Air Miles program but the one grabbing all the attention is for United MileagePlus members. The bonus itself is ok at 500 miles but the nice part of the offer is the Gold Elite status in Best Western Rewards that is awarded after your first stay with this promotion. While Gold Status in Best Western Rewards isn't huge, it is still better than nothing. So even if you are not a United MileagePlus miles collector but would like to have Gold Status with BW I would recommend that you register for this offer (make sure you choose United as your primary earning preference in Best Western Rewards) complete the one stay to get the status and then go back to your regular earning preference for you future BW stays all the while enjoying the minor benefits that come along with Gold. Both the Air Miles and United offers can be found below in the bonus offers section.

Travel Deals
Expedia.ca: Discover Hawaii! Save up to 30%! - Expires 9/28/13

Bonus Offers
Air Canada Aeroplan
- Earn 500 Aeroplan Miles when you join Club Sobeys and provide your Aeroplan Number then shop for groceries and spend $20 or more on your next five shops at a Sobeys. More... Full details Until Nov 30, 13
- Earn up to Triple Aeroplan Miles when you rent an Intermediate (Group C) or larger vehicle for 2 or more days at participating Avis locations in Canada, the U.S., Europe, Australia and New Zealand. More... Until Sep 30, 13

Air Miles
- 40 Bonus Air Miles Reward Miles for each qualified stay at Best Western branded hotels in Canada, the United States, or the Caribbean Islands. More... Until Nov 30, 13

American AAdvantage
- Earn up to 2,000 Bonus BusinessExtrAA points with American Airlines BusinessExtra Birthday promotion. More... Until Oct 31, 13
- Earn up to 30% Bonus AAdvantage Miles when you share AAdvantage miles between friends and family. More... Until Oct 10, 13

Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Earn up to 5,000 Bonus HawaiianMiles for stays at the Courtyard by Marriott Waikiki Beach. More...  Until Dec 31, 14

IHG Rewards Club
- Earn earn a $75 gift card of your choice when you stay 3 consecutive nights as an IHG® Rewards Club member at a Holiday Inn Resort® hotel in the United States, Mexico and the Caribbean. More... Until Nov 30, 13 Valid for residents of the U.S., Canada and Mexico only
- Earn earn up to a $100 prepaid MasterCard for stays at Holiday Inn Club Vacation locations. More... Until Nov 30, 13 Valid for residents of the U.S., Canada and Mexico only

Le Club accorhotels
- 100 Bonus Le Club Accorhotels Points for stays at any participating Accor Hotels property in Africa .More... Until Dec 31, 14
- Earn up to 800 Bonus Le Club Accorhotels Points for stays of 2 nights or more at participating hotels in Belgium & Luxembourg. More... Until Sep 30, 13
- Earn up to 500 Bonus Le Club Accorhotels Points for stays at any participating Accor Hotels property in Marseille. More... Until Oct 13, 13
- 4x Le Club Accorhotels Points for stays at the Novotel Phuket Kamala Beach. More... Until Oct 31, 13

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Double KrisFlyer Miles and up to 33% on rentals Worldwide of 3 or more days off during the Hertz Global sale. More... Book by Sep 30 for rentals until Mar 31, 14

TAP Portugal Victoria
- Double Victoria Miles for stays at the Altis Hotel, Altis Park Hotel, Altis Prime, Altis Suites, Altis Avenida Hotel or Altis Belém & SPA. More... Book by Oct 31 for stays between Nov 1 and Feb 28, 14
- Triple Victoria Miles for stays at the Hotel Vila Galé Collection Palácio dos Arcos. More... Book by Sep 30 for stays until Dec 30, 13
- Double Victoria Miles on Avis rentals of 2 or more days Worldwide. More... Until Oct 31, 13
- Double Victoria Miles on Europcar rentals of 3 or more days in Portugal. More... Book by Sep 30 for rentals until Oct 12, 13
- Double Victoria Miles on Hertz rentals of 3 or more days Worldwide. More... Book by Sep 30 for rentals until Dec 13, 13

United MileagePlus
- Earn 500 Bonus MileagePlus miles and Best Western Rewards Gold Elite Status when you complete a qualified stay at any Best Western branded hotel worldwide. More... Sep 10 - Nov 19, 13 Valid for residents of the U.S. and Canada only




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500 Aeroplan Miles for joining Club Sobeys & completing five $20 transactions

There have been numerous Aeroplan sign up bonuses since Club Sobeys launched a few years ago. I took advantage of one  when the program came to fruition, it also was 500 Aeroplan miles but I got those simply for joining.  Now they are making you do a little more work but in reality it should be difficult to earn these bonus miles if you are just joining Club Sobeys now. Here is the offer as it will appear on RC's Aeroplan Bonus Miles page later today:

Earn 500 Aeroplan Miles when you join Club Sobeys and provide your Aeroplan Number then shop for groceries and spend $20 or more on your next five shops at a Sobeys. You will be awarded 100 Bonus Aeroplan miles for each of those five transactions. Full details Until Nov 30, 13

Sep 5 Update: 1,000 Free Ethiopian Sheba Miles, Hertz Global sale bonus offers, BA & Qatar Airways frequent flyer partnership

Here is your Thursday update:

News, Tips & Tricks
FREE Miles!
You can get 1,000 free Ethiopian Airlines Sheba Miles simply for liking them on Facebook. If you are not a Sheba Miles member then you are in luck as you will get 1,000 miles just for joining the program which means in the course of just a few minutes you can have 2,000 Sheba Miles. Whether you will actually use these miles is up to as Ethiopian is a Star Alliance member but for most they may go unsused unless Sheba Miles joins a site like Points.com. See the bonus offer section below for details

Much like the Aloft Hotels news from a few weeks ago, Marriott has launched mobile check in at 300 of their North American locations. Mobile Check-In is now available to Marriott Rewards members exclusively at Marriott Hotels® in North America. With the app, you can:
• Check in from anywhere
• Receive an alert when your room is ready
• When you arrive, go directly to the Mobile Check-In desk, and we'll have your key waiting
More details can be found here. (Thanks to RC Reader Bill W for the details)

British Airways and Qatar Airways announced a frequent flyer partnership that came into effect on September 2nd ahead of Qatar Airways actually joining the oneworld alliance. The partnership offers reciprocal earning and redeeming benefits and I assume once Qatar is officially in oneworld, status recognition for lounge access and priority boarding.

Travel Deals
Another Air France sale, this time its called 'Back to School. Here are some sample Toronto fares for departure from October 16 to December 10, 2013 or December 25, 2013 to May 6, 2014. Tickets must be booked by Sep 17 at airfrance.ca
France, Spain, Sweden,  Denmark    $ 849
Israel, Lebanon    $ 1049
Senegal, Mauritius, Vietnam, China, Singapore, Guinea    $ 1249



Bonus Offers
Air Canada Aeroplan
- Earn Double Aeroplan Miles when you park your vehicle at Vancouver International Airport’s Economy Parking Lot or jetSet Parking. Earn triple miles instead when purchasing your parking online. More... Until Nov 30, 13

Air France KLM Flying Blue
- Double Flying Blue Miles and up to 33% off Hertz rentals Worldwide during the Hertz Global sale. More... Book by Sep 30 for rentals until Mar 31, 14

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- Double Asia Miles for all stays booked on eligible rates at any Meritus Hotels & Resorts property in Singapore, Malaysia, China or Indonesia. More... Until Nov 30, 13
- Double Asia Miles when you stay for a minimum of two consecutive nights at the Best Available Rate at any Shangri-La hotel or resort, Traders hotel or Kerry hotels. More... Until Nov 30, 13
- Double Asia Miles when you stay at qualifying rates in eligible room types at any participating Sino Group property. More... Until Nov 30, 13

Ethiopian Sheba Miles
- 1,000 Bonus Miles for 'liking' Ethiopian Airlines official Facebook page. More..Until Sep 21, 13

EVA Air Evergreen Club
- Double Evergreen Miles and up to 33% on rentals of 3 or more days off during the Hertz Global sale. More... Book by Sep 30 for rentals until Mar 31, 14

Gaurda Frequent Flyer (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Earn up to Triple GFF Miles on Avis rentals in Europe, Middle East, Africa, USA, Canada, Asia, Singapore, Australia or New Zealand. More.... Until Nov 30, 13

US Airways Dividend Miles
- 1,000 Bonus Dividend Miles when you make your first purchase on RocketMiles. More... Book by Dec 14, 13 for stays until Mar 31, 14





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Sep 4 update: BMO Rewards World Elite Update, Aeroplan & Volvo partnership offers more than 250 free miles, more bonuses!

Here is what Wednesday looked like on Rewards Canada and the world of travel rewards in Canada

News, Tips & Tricks
I posed this question to BMO yesterday and got an answer from BMO Corporate (the helpful Jerry305 on Flyertalk was able to provide the answer even faster):
"With the changes made to the BMO World Elite MasterCard will existing cardholder's accounts be doubled for points earned up to August 31st"

The answer is yes! So contrary to my guess yesterday, if you did sign up for the World Elite MasterCard with the 15K/20K sign up bonuses and had those points posted by August 31st those will be doubled due to the new redemption rate enacted on September 1. Had they not done this all existing cardholders would have essentialy lost nearly half the value of their points but now they are actually roughly ~5% with the doubling.

Also if you missed it earlier, Aeroplan and Volvo announced a new partnership and I mentioned in the post that you can 250 free Aeroplan miles for test driving a new Volvo. Well I read the terms and conditions closely and you can actually receive the bonus once every 30 days so technically speaking you can test drive once a month and earn 3,000 Aeroplan miles in year.

Travel Deals
Air Canada has 15% off promo code for flights to South America as part of their promotion of the Amazing Race Canada. Flights need to be booked by Sep 9 for travel Sep 16-Dec 16. More details can be found here

Bonus Offers
airberlin topbonus
- Earn up to 3,000 Bonus topbonus Miles for stays at Best Western hotels in Germany and Luxembourg. More... Until Dec 31, 13

Air Canada Aeroplan
- Earn 5x Aeroplan Miles (2,500 miles per stays) on every qualifying stay at IHG Hotels Worldwide. More... Sep 1 - Nov 30, 13 


Air Miles
- Earn 1,200 Bonus AIR MILES reward miles with the American Express® AIR MILES®* Platinum Card. More... Until Nov 30, 13

American Express
- Earn 25,000 Bonus Membership Rewards Points with the American Express Gold Rewards Card. More... Ongoing

Germanwings Boomerang Club (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com)
- Double Boomerang Miles when you book and fly on a BEST fare on select Germanwings routes. More... Book by Sep 30 for travel until Nov 30, 13

Qatar Airways Privilege Club
- Earn up to 6,000 Bonus QMiles for Qatar Airways flights between Doha and Addis Ababa. More... Sep 18 - Nov 30, 13

SAS Scandinavian EuroBonus
- Double EuroBonus points on all Budget rentals Worldwide. More... Until Sep 30, 13

Ural Airlines Wings (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com)
- Double QMiles when you rent a car for 4 days or longer at Sixt locations Worldwide. More... Until Nov 30, 13

Aeroplan Volvo Partnership: 250 Free Aeroplan Miles for test driving a Volvo (and more if you buy/service one!)

Aeroplan has just announced a new partnership with Volvo Canada whereby members can now Aeroplan miles with the car company. If you are looking for free miles or need to keep your account active then this partnership is great as it offers 250 Aeroplan Miles simply for test driving a Volvo. Aeroplan members can also earn miles for buying/leasing a Volvo, accessories and even on servicing your Volvo.

Here is the earning structure as detailed in this morning's press release from Aeroplan:

• Test Drive – Earn 250 miles for a test drive of any new Volvo vehicle;
• Vehicle Purchase/Lease – On an ongoing basis members will be able to earn a minimum of 25,000 miles on all qualifying Volvo vehicles. In addition, from September 4th - October 31st, members can earn up to 75,000 miles for the purchase of a qualifying Volvo vehicle. See full details on specific models; 
• Vehicle Accessories – Earn 1 mile for every $1 spent for the purchase of Volvo parts and accessories;
• Vehicle Servicing – Earn 1 mile for every $1 spent on vehicle servicing.

Also from the press release: "To celebrate the launch of this exciting new partnership, Volvo will be offering Aeroplan Members some exclusive offers throughout September 4th – October 31st, including double Aeroplan Bonus miles for every $1 spent on all after sales vehicle services. "

For more details on the new partnership visit www.VolvoAeroplan.ca