Double LifeMiles on Avianca flights between Toronto and San Jose - possibly targeted

We received this email from Avianca announcing Double LifeMiles for flying Avianca between  Toronto and San Jose:

Now we're not entirely sure if it is targeted or if any one may be able to jump on this bonus as the T&Cs (which follow) are a bit vague as they state LifeMiles members with a registered E-mail who subscribe to the offer. It doesn't state the recipient of the email but rather having a registered one. So to give it a shot for your account copy and paste this link: https://www.lifemiles.com/eng/mya/prt/myaprtone.aspx?id=1&action=oto&codpro=AVND02&ftnum=XXXXXXXXXXX and replace the 11 Xs with your LifeMiles #.  Then simply book online at Avianca.com by April 8th and complete your travel by May 31. YMMV.

Here are the terms of conditions of this offer:
This promotion is exclusive to LifeMiles members with a registered E-mail, who subscribed to the promotion between April 1th and April 8th of 2015.  Promotional Code: AVND02.  Dates to buy tickets: April 1th to April 8th, 2015.  First date to begin the trip: April 9th, 2015.  Last date to complete the trip: May 31th, 2015.  The miles bonus applies only to tickets purchased and flown during the promotional period.  The member must provide its LifeMiles number during the ticket purchase, at the time of check-in or at the Airport Counter.  The tickets can be bought through Avianca.com, Avianca´s points of sales, Avianca´s Call Center and travel agencies.  Bonus miles apply between: Toronto or Chicago to San Jose, in direct flights.  Bonus miles are valid for Avianca´s route network only.  It does not apply for codeshare flights.  The miles bonus will be reflected no later than one month after the completion of the trip. The miles bonus applies only to flown miles and do not include the Elite status bonus and the fare family bonus.  Also, it does not qualify for Elite status.  The miles bonus does not apply for retroactive accruals requested after the promotional period.  The miles bonus does not apply for redeemed tickets.  LifeMiles Terms and conditions apply, for more information go to LifeMiles.com.  LifeMiles is a trademark of LifeMiles Corp.

Redemption Stories: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly. Call for stories on Aeroplan

In light of today's piece on CBC with Canadian's frustrations with the Aeroplan program we figured what better time to run the Aeroplan Redemption Stories again! Our first Aeroplan Redemption stories summary ran in March of 2012 and can be read in full here.

So here we go:
Rewards Canada's Redemption Stories: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly is where we reach out to our subscriber and viewer base to tell us their stories of reward program redemption. We want to hear good stories, bad stories and of course plain old ugly ones! We will compile the stories together and post them right here on our blog as a summary in the near future. For our latest edition of this feature we are once again asking for stories about Aeroplan

If you want to share your Aeroplan Redemption story or lack of being able to redeem story with the rest of Canada whether it is good, bad or ugly,  leave a comment below or email us at info@rewardscanada.ca. You can send us a couple of sentences, a whole story or feel free to submit a video! Then watch for our summary edition of Redemption Stories to be posted within the next few weeks.

For guidance and/or examples here are links to the past Redemption Stories
Air Miles
Aeroplan 
Capital One Aspire


We look forward to hearing your stories!!

Apr 1 Update: Wyndham Rewards Revamp, CBC News Aeroplan piece, Join Marriott Rewards & get a free night after two stays

Wyndham Rewards is the big newsmaker over the past 24 hours!

News, Tips & Tricks
Wyndham Rewards reverses the course that we have seen in the industry and does what many loyalty programs should do. Simplify! Find out more here: Wyndham revamps the Wyndham Rewards program! Kudos to them for making the program nice and simple

Lots of discussion today about people's frustrations with Aeroplan as CBC Go Public covers the topic. Read more and see the related videos at http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/aeroplan-membership-growing-faster-than-seats-available-say-members-1.3016815
This is the piece we talked about last week in our discussions on Instagram. We'd love to hear your thoughts! Is it time for us to do another Redemption Stories on Aeroplan piece? Talk to us!

Posts since our last update!

• Wyndham revamps the Wyndham Rewards program! Kudos to them for making the program nice and simple
  Yesterday Wyndham Hotels announced that changes are coming to their Wyndham Rewards program on May 11, 2015. The new Wyndham…
• Why Capital One was smart to change their card that was one of the best in Canada
  Earlier this year Capital One decided to discontinue their number one card, the Capital One® Aspire Travel™ World MasterCard® and…

 
Don't forget to enter our first FFB10 contest!
FFB10 - The FrequentFlyerBonuses.com 10th Anniversary Celebration - Contest #1: Win a package of 50,000 Miles & points



Bonus Offers
Avianca LifeMiles
- Earn up to 6,000 Bonus LifeMiles when you earn miles with various LifeMiles partners. More... Until Apr 30, 15

Le Club accorhotels
- Earn up to Triple Le Club Accorhotels Points for stays at participating Accor Hotels in Switzerland. More... Book by Apr 30 for stays Apr 6 - Dec 31, 15
- Triple Le Club Accorhotels Points for weekend stays at pariticpating Accor Hotels in in Poland, Lithuania or Latvia. More... Until May 31, 15

Marriott Rewards
- Earn a Free Night in a Category 1-5 hotel when you join Marriott Rewards and stay twice at participating hotels More... Ongoing

Oman Air Sindbad (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- 3,000 Bonus Sindbad Miles on your first Rocketmiles booking More... Book by Aug 31, 15

Shangri-La Golden Circle
- Double GC Award Points for stays in a Horizon Club room or a suite at Shangri-La Hotel, Beihai. More... Apr 10 - Jun 30, 15
- Double GC Award Points for stays in a Grand Premier room or higher at the Jing An Shangri-La, West Shanghai. More... Until Jun 30, 15
- Double GC Award Points for stays at the Shangri-La Hotel, Chiang Mai. More... Until May 31, 15

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Earn up to 10,000 Bonus KrisFlyer Miles when you book hotels via Kaligo. More... Book by May 31, 15



Today's Daily Update has been brought to you by

Wyndham revamps the Wyndham Rewards program! Kudos to them for making the program nice and simple

Yesterday Wyndham Hotels announced that changes are coming to their Wyndham Rewards program on May 11, 2015. The new Wyndham Rewards programs takes a step that is needed in the industry. It simplifies the program for the masses and makes it very easy to understand. Along with this simplification however there is some great news and some bad news.

In the press release the core changes to the program are as follows:

• The “Go FreeSM” award: With just 15,000 points, members can redeem a free night at any of the program’s more than 7,500 hotels globally with no blackout dates.
• The “Go FastSM” award: Members who want to redeem their points sooner or stay longer for less can book a night at available hotels for just 3,000 points plus cash.
• More points for faster rewards: For every qualified stay, members now earn 10 points for every dollar spent or a minimum of 1,000 points per stay, whichever is more.

In the first point, "Go Free" award is where we find the good and bad news. The first part of the good news is the simplicity, 15,000 points gets you a free night at any hotel at anytime as long as rooms are available. No categories to worry about and no low and high season point fluctuations to consider when redeeming. The second part of the good news is that the really high end properties are now achievable by many as you'll only have to redeem 15,000 points for them rather than upwards of 50,000 points! Granted it was only a few years ago when these high end properties only cost around 16,000 points per night but were devalued in the last program change. Essentially we see 6 categories get cheaper with this new redemption rate.




The bad news is that four categories get more expensive and these are typically hotels that you wouldn't want redeem 15,000 points for! Could you imagine paying for 15,000 points for a Super 8 that goes for $79 a night when you could use those same 15,000 points for an all inclusive Wyndham Resort that goes for 5 times that.

Here are the current Wyndham Rewards redemption rates for comparison:

Point two "Go Fast" has Wyndham introducing a Cash+Points feature that we see in many hotel programs. This could be good or may not be as we aren't aware of the cash requirements yet that will go along with the 3,000 points required.

The third point or change is that as a Wyndham Rewards member you will now earn a minimum of 1,000 points per stay. The earn rate hasn't actually changed, you'll continue to earn 10 points per dollar spent but if you are staying at that $79 a night Super 8, you'll earn a minimum of 1,000 points instead of 790. Of course if you stay at a location over $100 you'll earn the 10 points per dollar amount.

Overall this is great news from the Wyndham Rewards program. We love the simplicity they are promoting and make the program stand out in the big sea of confusion that loyalty programs tend to be! One thing you can bet however is that not many people will be redeeming for Super 8 stays anymore and will be saving those points for stays at higher end hotels!

Read more about all the changes here.

What do you think of the new Wyndham Rewards program? Will you switch your loyalty from another brand to Wyndham?

Mar 31 Update: WestJet 767 YYC-YYZ schedule, Club Carlson Elite Bonus for app bookings, Aeroplan partner transfer bonus

Lots of great bonuses and news to pass along today!

News, Tips & Tricks
WestJet has released the schedule of their Boeing 767 runs within Canada so that the airline can become accustomed to the planes and also achieve ETOPs ratings for the planned winter Hawaii flights. The 767's will run between Calgary and Toronto from August right through to October and beyond. (Source Airlineroute.net)

02AUG15 – 01SEP15
WS683 YYZ0800 – 1012YYC 76W D
WS668 YYC1300 – 1836YYZ 76W D
02SEP15 – 24OCT15
WS655 YYZ0900 – 1112YYC 76W x34
WS668 YYC1300 – 1836YYZ 76W x34
25OCT15 – 29MAR16
WS655 YYZ0905 – 1126YYC 76W x346
WS670 YYC1340 – 1923YYZ 76W x346

Check your email for a special offer from Club Carlson if you happen to be an Elite member in the program. They are offering 5,000 Club Carlson points for booking via the Club Carlson app. Book by April 5th for stays anytime in April.

Not really a bonus offer but an example of how SCENE is expanding their program. Members of Cineplex's programs can save 25% at Sport Chek today and tomorrow. Find out more here.

As we mentioned last week, US Airways Dividend Miles is now officially gone and DM accounts should have been or will be merged into your AAdvantage account. When you go to the US Airways site, Dividend Miles is no longer as it is replaced by AAdvantage.

A few weeks ago we mentioned that Air New Zealand will be running a short service between Vancouver and Auckland at the end of this year. That service has now been expanded to start earlier on December 7th instead of 21st and runs until January 31st. (Source Airlineroute.net)

Posts since our last update:

• Air France KLM Flying Blue - Save 25 % on Business Class award tickets between Edmonton & Europe for Jun/Jul Travel
  After a few good months of deals for Canadians the  with Air France KLM's Promo Awards we see a slow…
• Transfer points to Aeroplan to earn up to 25,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles
  Aeroplan has once again brought back their partner transfer bonus that we saw in November 2014, April 2014,  November…
• WestJet Rewards: Double WestJet Dollars for flights between Calgary & Penticton
  Here is a new flight offer from WestJet for their Rewards members looking to fly between Calgary & Penticton.…

 

Don't forget to enter our first FFB10 contest!
FFB10 - The FrequentFlyerBonuses.com 10th Anniversary Celebration - Contest #1: Win a package of 50,000 Miles & points



Bonus Offers
Air Canada Aeroplan
- Earn up to 25,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles when you convert points from a wide selection of Aeroplan partner loyalty programs (hotel, car rental, and points.com). Bonuses are as follows and are awarded on a cumulative basis. More... Valid until Apr 27, 15

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... Book between Apr 1 - 30 for travel between Jun 1 - Jul 31, 15

Etihad Guest
- Earn up to Triple Guest Miles on all Etihad partner flights Worldwide More... Register and book by Apr 10 for travel Apr 4, 15 - Feb 28, 16
- 1,000 Bonus Guest Miles on your first Gilt purchase of $50 or more. More... Until ?
- Double Guest Miles when you transfer Heathrow Rewards points to Etihad Guest. More... Until Apr 30, 15

Miles & More
- Earn up to Triple Miles & More Miles for stays at Best Western hotels in Germany and Luxembourg. More... Apr 1 - Jun 30, 15
- 500 Miles and More Miles per night for stays at participating Falkensteiner Hotels. More... Apr 1 - May 31, 15
- Double Miles and More Miles for stays at Lindner hotels in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Spain and Switzerland. More... Apr 10 - Jun 17, 15
- Double Miles & More Miles for stays at all participating Steigenberger Hotels Worldwide. More... Apr 15 - May 31, 15
- Double Miles & More Miles for stays of 2 or more nights at any Swissôtel Hotels & Resorts worldwide More... Apr 1 - Jun 30, 15
- Double Miles & More Miles on all Wyndham Rewards Hotels Weekday stays Worldwide starting with your 1st stay. More... Until May 29, 15
- Double Miles & More Miles on Hertz car rentals of 1 or more days Worldwide. More... Book by May 31 for rentals Apr 1 - Jun 30, 15

Qantas Frequent Flyer
- Triple Frequent Flyer Points for stays at participating Jumeirah Hotels Worldwide. More... Until Sep 30, 15

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- 3,000 Bonus KrisFlyer Miles on your first Rocketmiles booking More... Book by Aug 31, 15

WestJet Rewards
- Double WestJet Dollars when you fly WestJet between Calgary and Penticton. More... Register and book by Apr 30 for travel until Jun 24, 15



Today's Daily Update has been brought to you by

Air France KLM Flying Blue - Save 25 % on Business Class award tickets between Edmonton & Europe for Jun/Jul Travel

After a few good months of deals for Canadians the  with Air France KLM's Promo Awards we see a slow down for the upcoming busy summer travel season. These award ticket deals are bookable as of tomorrow (April 1) and are good for award travel for June and July of 2015.  The offer this time is only for  25% off Business Class on KLM's new route out of Edmonton to anywhere in Europe! This is an OK deal for those in Alberta however keep an eye out on schedules as the Edmonton flight was already postponed from May 8th to the 19th due to labour relation issues and it could be pushed back further. Don't fret however, if you do redeem KLM has to get you to Europe in Business Class so if the schedule does change they will more than likely throw you onto WestJet to Calgary or Vancouver to hop on the KLM flights out of those cities.

Don't have the miles? You could always consider transferring Starpoints earned via the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express to Flying Blue. The card has a 20,000 Starpoint bonus right now which translates to 25,000 Flying Blue miles, which gets you close to at least one way in biz class between Edmonton and Europe!
 
What are the promo awards? The promo awards are a discount of 25-50% off the regular Flying Blue mileage requirement for select Air France, KLM, Air Europa and Kenya Airways award tickets in select cabins.  To take advantage of this deal you must book your promo award ticket between Apr 1 and 40  for travel between June 1st and July 31st, 2015. More details can be found here.

Transfer points to Aeroplan to earn up to 25,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles

Aeroplan has once again brought back their partner transfer bonus that we saw in November 2014, April 2014,  November 2013, April 2013,  November 2012 and so on. Basically what it entails is transferring points out of other select loyalty programs into your Aeroplan account. Just like in November, the offer is once again cumulative across all participating partners and the bonus maxes out at 25,000 miles again. (We haven't seen the 40,000 miles bonus since April of 2013 so it looks like it may have gone the way of the dodo bird...) and there are no financial partners involved this time as well, for Canadians that is, Americans get Diners Club Club Rewards in that category. Basically you can transfer from partners like Starwood, Hertz and more (see the last graphic) and as long as the total Aeroplan miles deposited from all of them reaches one of the bonus target levels you will be awarded the respective bonus miles.

And just like the last three versions of this offer, American Express Membership Rewards is unfortunately not included. so chances are I will not use the promo this time (again).

If you are a Starwood Preferred Guest collector you can really up the bonus by taking advantage of their 5,000 Mile bonus offer when you convert 20,000 Starpoints into Aeroplan. Which means in this promotion you can get 29,000 Aeroplan Miles for 20,000 Starpoints or if you transfer 20k four times, you'll get 125,000 Aeroplan Miles for 80,000 Starpoints. Of course I like to keep Starpoints for award nights or cash+points stays within the Starwood family but some of you may like this transfer option.

If you collect Coast Hotels Coast Rewards points NOW IS THE TIME TO TRANSFER as they are offering up to a 75% discount on transfers! They'll award you 50,000 Aeroplan Miles for only 12,500 Coast Rewards Points! Then you'll get this bonus on top of that. See this post for details

Offer Details:
Earn up to 25,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles when you convert points from a wide selection of Aeroplan partner loyalty programs (hotel, car rental, and points.com). Bonuses are as follows and are awarded on a cumulative basis. Convert Points to
5,000 Aeroplan Miles to earn a 1,000 Mile bonus
10,000 Aeroplan Miles to earn a 2,000 Mile bonus
20,000 Aeroplan Miles to earn 4,000 Mile bonus
50,000 Aeroplan Miles to earn a 10,000 Mile bonus
100,000 Aeroplan Miles to earn a 25,000 Mile bonus
Full details Valid until Apr 27, 15

WestJet Rewards: Double WestJet Dollars for flights between Calgary & Penticton

Here is a new flight offer from WestJet for their Rewards members looking to fly between Calgary & Penticton. The offer is for Double WestJet dollars on non-stop flights between the two cities. Connecting flights will earn double on the YYC-YYF legs only.

Offer Details
Double WestJet Dollars when you fly WestJet between Calgary and Penticton. Register Online (Registration is required) Register and book by Apr 30 for travel until Jun 24, 15

Mar 30 Update: British Airways accounts hacked, TD First Class Visa Increased Sign Bonus + 1st Year Free, Aeroplan & AIR MILES Redemption Issues

Happy Monday everyone! Quite a bit going on for the second last day of March!

News, Tips & Tricks
Late last week British Airways Executive Club suffered an attack by some hackers. There are reports of some BAEC member's accounts having 0 Avios when they had thousands of Avios in their account prior to the hack. Be sure to check your accounts ASAP to see if you can login or if your account was one of those affected. Many accounts are also appearing as frozen for the time being as a safety concern. I checked my account and was fortunate to see that neither my Avios gone or my account frozen. I did however change my password right away and we recommend that you do the same if you can access your account. Keep an eye on this and make sure you contact BAEC if you have one of the accounts which lost Avios.

On Friday we were interviewed by CBC for an Aeroplan & AIR MILES award flight story they are working on. They were contacted by some Aeroplan members who are frustrated with the lack of availability and the fuel surcharges being charge on Aeroplan tickets. We've covered this topic in the past in our Redemption Stories series and now have extended a small discussion on our Instagram feed. Why not join in if you are on Instagram  or comment below with your thoughts.

Post(s) since our last update:

• TD First Class Visa Infinite: 40,000 Bonus Points and first year free!
  TD must have seen a drop off in applications for their proprietary card when then launched the TD Aeroplan…

Don't forget to enter our first FFB10 contest!
FFB10 - The FrequentFlyerBonuses.com 10th Anniversary Celebration - Contest #1: Win a package of 50,000 Miles & points

Travel Deals
Etihad Airways is offering up to 30% off their flights out of Toronto during their 96 hour Super Spring Sale. You can also earn up to Triple Bonus Miles on these flights depending on the class you fly in! Find out more here.

KLM has had to push back the launch of their Edmonton service due to some labour issues but in return we are seeing really low fares on their flights for when they do launch to appease YEGers! You can fly from Edmonton to Athens for only $740 all in! Book by March 31 for travel until May 6 or from October 16 - December 10th. Find out more here. 

Bonus Offers
airberlin topbonus
- Elite Status Match (Silver or Gold) to select frequent flyer programs of other airlines (outside of the oneworld alliance). More... Ongoing

Alitalia MilleMiglia
- Earn up to 40% Bonus MilleMiglia Miles when you buy MilleMiglia Miles. More... Until Apr 30, 15

Garuda Indonesia GarudaMiles (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Double GarudaMiles for stays of 2 or more nights at Regal Hotels or iclub Hotels in Hong Kong and Mainland China. More... Until May 31, 15

Le Club accorhotels
- Triple Le Club Accorhotels Points for stays at participating Mercure Hotels in Belgium, the Netherlands or Luxembourg. More... Book by May 9 for stays until Jun 16, 15
- 4X Le Club Accorhotels Points for stays at new Accor Hotels in the Middle East. More... Until Jun 25, 15
- 1,000 Bonus Le Club Accorhotels Points for stays at the Sofitel St James, Sofitel Heathrow or Sofitel Gatwick. More... Until Aug 31, 15

Marriott Rewards
- 2,000 Bonus Rewards Points PER NIGHT at the Chicago Marriott Southwest at Burr Ridge, Cincinnati Marriott at RiverCenter or the Detroit Metro Airport Marriott. More... May 1 - Jul 23, 15

Shangri-La Golden Circle
- Save up to 50% GC Award Points for Room Award redemption stays and Room Upgrade Award redemptions at any Shangri-La hotel, Kerry hotel, Traders hotel and Hotel Jen with Club rooms. More... Until Apr 30, 15



Today's Daily Update has been brought to you by

TD First Class Visa Infinite: 40,000 Bonus Points and first year free!

TD must have seen a drop off in applications for their proprietary card when then launched the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card - 25,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles and First Year Free back in January as now they have increased the sign up bonus for the TD First Travel Visa Infinite Card to 40,000 points and no annual fee in the first year! The 40,000 worth $200 in travel is awarded in two parts: 20,000 upon approval and 20,000 more points when you spend $1,000 within 90 days of activating the card.  The first year free is  a nice incentive seeing that many of this card's direct competitors offer or have offered the first year free.

This card, while only achieving fourth place in our current Top Travel Rewards Credit Card rankings is still a great card for many giving a minimum of 1.5% back to you when you redeem for any travel anywhere (you don't have to book via TD).

 You can find out more about this offer and apply for the card here. (ends May 8)