RBC and British Airways bring back the 50,000 Avios sign up bonus for their Visa Infinite Card

Last seen in the spring, RBC has brought back the 50,000 Bonus Avios offer for their RBC British Airways Visa card!

The sign up bonus remains the same at 15,000 Avios however 35,000 additional Avios will be awarded to any new cardholder who applies by Oct 31, 16 and spends $9,000 within the first 3 months of card membership. That's right $9,000! Remember back in 2012 when it used to be $5,000 for that extra 35,000?

What can you get for 50,000 Avios? Just one example is 6 one way or 3 round trip short haul trips between Canada & North America in Economy Class(+taxes/fees). See how to do so here.

Offer details:
Earn up to 50,000 Bonus Avios when you apply for and receive the RBC British Airways Visa Infinite Card. Full details Until Oct 31, 16

• Receive 15,000 Avios upon approval
• Receive 35,000 bonus Avios when you spend $9,000 in the first three months account opening
• Collect 1 Avios for every $1 CAD spent on qualifying net purchases.
• Collect double Avios when you shop with British Airways and BA Holidays.
• Earn a companion voucher when you spend $30,000 CAD annually.
• 250 bonus Avios when you rent a car with Avis and pay with your RBC British Airways Visa Infinite card.
• 10% off British Airways flights when you book and pay with your RBC British Airways Visa Infinite card.

British Airways Executive Club: Earn Triple Avios on flights between Canada & Europe

British Airways has revealed their fall Transatlantic flight bonus which goes away from their typically tiered bonus for multiple flights. This time the offer is simple, Triple Avios on each flight for up to 4 return flights. This offer is better for those who only complete one flight when compared to the previous tiered bonus offer while those who fly multiple times may end up with less Avios than that previous bonus. Still Triple Avios is a decent deal no matter what and should be taken advantage of if you are flying BA or any of their partners (AA, Finnair, Iberia, OpenSkies) across the Atlantic.

Offer details
Triple Avios when you fly British Airways, American Airlines, Finnair or Iberia between North America and Europe. Bonus awarded on a maximum of 8 sectors (4 round trips). Full details, online registration and booking (Registration is required) Until Dec 11, 16

Find many more Executive Club Bonus Avios offers here!

TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite sign up bonus increased to up to 30,000 miles with 50% off the first year's annual fee

Our exclusive offer for the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card ended over the weekend but we are pleased to bring you the general offer for the next wave of up to 30,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles with 50% off the first year's annual fee. With this iteration the sign up bonus has been increased but the card is no longer first year free although getting up to 30,000 Aeroplan miles for $60 isn't that bad of deal.


TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card
• Receive a Welcome Bonus of 15,000 Aeroplan Miles with your first Purchase • You could receive another 10,000 bonus TD Points if you keep your Account open, active and in good standing for 90 days after your Account is opened • In addition, you could receive 5,000 Aeroplan Miles when you add an Authorized User to your Account by September 2nd (Authorized User must call and activate their Card by Jan. 16, 2017)
• 50% Annual Fee Rebate for the first year(Primary Cardholder only) – that’s $60 in savings!
• Offer Valid until Dec. 2, 2016
• Earn 1.5 miles for every $1 spent on eligible gas, grocery, drugstore and aircanada.com Purchases made with your Card.
• Earn 1 mile for every $1 you spend on all other Purchases on your Card.
• Earn miles twice when you pay with your TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card and present your Aeroplan Membership Card at over 150 Aeroplan partner brands and with 100 online retailers
• Your Aeroplan miles will not expire as long as you are a TD Aeroplan Credit Cardholder
• Enjoy an extensive suite of travel insurances for peace of mind on your next getaway.
Apply online

Air Canada Benefits:
• Your 1st checked bag is complimentary when travelling on an Aeroplan flight reward operated by Air Canada (for Primary Cardholder)
• You get Priority Check-in when travelling on an Aeroplan flight reward operated by Air Canada (for Primary Cardholder)
•  You’ll enjoy Priority Boarding when travelling on an Aeroplan flight reward operated by Air Canada (for Primary Cardholder)

Miles & More Award Ticket Sale - Save 50% on Lufthansa Economy Class award tickets to Europe from Toronto

As we do each month we bring you the latest set Miles & More "Meilenschnaeppchen" discounted mileage awards!  This month we see Economy Class options for flying out of Toronto on Lufthansa The offers are at the full 50% off for travel between Jan 1 and Feb 15, 17 (must be booked by Sep 30)

This means you can redeem Miles & More miles for round trip tickets on Lufthansa from Toronto to Europe for only 30,000 miles. This is a 50% discount off the normal Economy Class award ticket price of 60,000 miles. Granted all these tickets will also have fuel surcharges but this is still a pretty good deal when you look at it as a whole in terms of miles+cash outlay.

 

 

The crazy thing is that you can actually get the round trip economy class tickets for only $5,000 in credit card spend (and a $120 annual fee) - there aren't many cards that will get you a round trip flight to Europe for that amount of spend combined with the card's sign up bonus! .How so? As we usually mention in this post you can boost your Miles & More account with the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express. Currently the card comes with a 20,000 Starpoints sign up bonus. When you convert those 20,000 Starpoints to Miles & More SPG will award you an additional 5,000 miles. Which gives you 25,000 miles but if you spend $5,000 on the card you'll have 25,000 Starpoints and the 5,000 Miles bonus giving you the 30,000 miles required for this flight. Of course fuel surcharges and taxes are extra.

Simply book the offers seen here by September 30th
Full details on this offer can be found here

September 2nd Update: Changes coming to Scotia Rewards, CIBC Dividend Visa 4% cashback offer and Cathay Pacific to bring the A350 to YVR

News, Tips & Tricks
Scotia is making some changes to the Scotia Rewards program for those that hold Scotiabank American Express Cards. These changes will be effective as of November 7th Nothing too major really happening but highlights include redeeming points for a credit (looks like it may be for any purchases?), a new best price guarantee for flights if booked via Scotia Rewards, and a $15 booking fee is being added if you book travel via Scotia Rewards by phone (online will still be free). Find out more here.

CIBC has brought back their 4% cashback on all purchases for the first three months when you apply for a receive the CIBC Dividend Visa Infinite Card. This offer is only valid for online applications made by October 31st. Maximum of $200 cashback is awarded ($5,000 in purchases) for this promotion. The card has an annual fee of $99 so your are essentially earning $101 in cashback with this offer. Find out more here.

Cathay Pacific will be introducing their brand new Airbus A350 on their Hong Kong - Vancouver route in 2017. These will be three additional flights per week over the existing 14 flights per week for a total of 17. YVR will be the first city in Canada to receive regular A350 city. Time to make use of those Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles you've been hoarding!! (Source YVR Airport Instagram)

Posts since our last update:

• Best Western Fast Track to Gold Elite status offer
  This is an offer we just came across that appears to have been around since the start of August…
• Air France KLM Flying Blue Promo Awards - Save 25% on business class award tickets between Canada & Europe
   The newest set of Air France KLM's Promo Awards went live today and an for us Canadians this set has…

Travel Deals
KLM has some decent Business Class fares for flying out of Vancouver with many cities coming in under $2,700. Book by September 14, 2016. Travel between October 1st, 2016 and June 30th 2017. Find out more here. 

Bonus Offers
Air Canada / Aeroplan
- Earn up to 1,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles on Avis rentals of 3 or more days at participating locations in Canada and the U.S.. More...Until Dec 31, 16
- 1,250 Bonus Aeroplan Miles for Avis Signature Series rentals of 2 or more days in Canada or the U.S. More... Until Dec 31, 16
- Earn up to 4,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles for Hertz rentals in Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the U.S. More... Until Dec 31, 16
- Earn up to 4,500 Bonus Aeroplan Miles (For Aeroplan status members) for Hertz rentals in Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the U.S. More... Until Dec 31, 16
- 5,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles when you rent a vehicle for 5 or more days at participating Hertz locations in Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the U.S. More... Until Dec 31, 16
- 7,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles when you rent a vehicle for 28 days or more at Hertz in Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the U.S.. More... Until Dec 31, 16

Air France KLM Flying Blue
- September Promo Awards - Save 20% to 50% on the Award Miles usually required for an award ticket. Destinations vary by each promotional period. More... Book by Sep 30 for travel between Nov 1 - Dec 31, 16

Best Western Rewards
- Receive Gold Elite Status when you book 3 separate stays OR book 5 eligible nights OR earn 5,000 points for your stays at Best Western Hotels Worldwide. More... Until Sep 18, 16
- Double Rewards Points for stays at the BEST WESTERN PLUS Hotel Divona Cahors, BEST WESTERN Plus Hotel Le Rive Droite & SPA - Lourdes or the Le Saint-Antoine Hotel & Spa, BW Premier Collection - Rennes More... Until Nov 30, 16
- Double Rewards Points for stays at the BEST WESTERN Hotel Le Montmartre Saint Pierre - Paris or the BEST WESTERN Paris Saint-Quentin - Montigny Le Bretonneux More... Until Oct 31, 16

Carlson Hotels Club Carlson
- Earn up to 30% Bonus Gold Points when you buy points online. More... Until Sep 30, 16

Qatar Airways Privilege Club
- 50% Bonus QMiles on all hotel stays booked via Kaligo. More... Book by Oct 31, 16
- 1,000 Bonus QMiles for stays at Protea Hotels in Namibia. More... Oct 1 - Dec 24, 16

Starwood Preferred Guest
- 35% Starpoints Discount when you redeem for award nights at select Starwood Resorts Worldwide. More... Until Feb 28, 17



Follow Rewards Canada:

Best Western Fast Track to Gold Elite status offer

This is an offer we just came across that appears to have been around since the start of August and only has 16 days left so it may be tough to achieve but we know there are some our readers who can. This is a fast track to Gold Status in the Best Western Rewards program. Now I'm sure many of you have already status matched in Best Western since they have a really easy status match program but if you haven't and don't have status in other hotel programs now may be your chance. In 16 days you need to either complete 3 separate stays or 5 nights or earn 5,000 points on stays. The last may be the easiest especially if staying at higher end BW's that charge more per night. It is possible that your past stays since August 5th may be eligible if you go ahead and register now as the Terms & Conditions don't state that you have to register first, you just have to register during the promotion period and meet all the stay requirements in that same period.

Offer details:
Receive Gold Elite Status when you book 3 separate stays OR book 5 eligible nights OR earn 5,000 points for your stays at Best Western Hotels Worldwide. Full details, online registration and booking (Registration is required)  Until Sep 18, 16

Air France KLM Flying Blue Promo Awards - Save 25% on business class award tickets between Canada & Europe

 The newest set of Air France KLM's Promo Awards went live today and an for us Canadians this set has the most cities for us that we have seen in awhile! With promo awards the discount ranges from 25 to 50% off the regular amount of miles required to redeem for these flights. As you can see just by the discount this can be a very good offer if you get 50% off for Business Class! However for us here in Canada we don't get any 50% offers but we do get 25% and hello people in our hometown of YYC, we are finally included! It seems like it has been years since YYC has seen a promo award offer. So while 25% isn't as good as 50% of course, it still is something to look at if you were planning travel for the last two months of the year and Flying Blue redemptions were be considered for that travel.

Offer Details:
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. Full Details Book by Sep 30 for travel between Nov 1 - Dec 31, 16

Here are the Canadian offers available for booking during September for travel in November and December:

Don't have all 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.

September 1 Update: British Airways ends codesharing with WestJet, new TD Aeroplan CC offers of up to 55K coming and more!

News, Tips & Tricks
British Airways is ending their codeshare partnership with WestJet. As of October 15th BA codes will no longer be carried on more than a dozen WestJet flights within Canada. (Source Routesonline)

We knew that next week we were to see new TD Aeroplan Credit Card offers but it looks like they may actually come out on Saturday. Now these are the ones advertised on Aeroplan's website and could be different than those found in branch or on TD's public website. They state up to 55,000 bonus miles can be had, we're guessing the 55K will for the Infinite Privilege card. Now we just have to wait and see what all the offers are!

Posts since our last update:

• Hyatt Gold Passport: Earn up to 75,000 Bonus Points on all your Hyatt stays Worldwide
  Hyatt is the next major hotel chain to release a fall systemwide promotion. This is the same offer they had…
• Receive up to a 130% Bonus when you buy Avianca LifeMiles
  The king of buy miles has bonuses returned however! This time the offer is similar to what we have…
• Hilton HHonors launches Double Points on all stays Worldwide from September 1 to December 31
  What is essentially a continuation of their current systemwide global promotion that we have seen all year, Hilton Hotels…

Travel Deals
Fairmont Hotels Great Rates Great Dates offers are out for September and October. Great Rates Great Dates offer FPC members (free to join) great discounts on stays at Fairmont Hotels around the globe. Find out more here. 

Bonus Offers
American AAdvantage
- Earn up to 30,000 Bonus AAdvantage Miles when you fly on American Airlines between the U.S. and Hong Kong (HKG), Seoul (ICN), Beijing (PEK), Shanghai (PVG) and Tokyo. More... Register by Dec 10 for travel Sep 15 - Dec 10, 16
- Earn up to 1,000 Bonus AAdvantage Miles when you fly roundtrip beyond Tokyo to any destination in Japan. More... Register by Dec 10 for travel Sep 15 - Dec 10, 16

Avianca LifeMiles
- Earn up to 130% Bonus LifeMiles when you buy miles online. More... Until Sep 10, 16
- 100% Bonus LifeMiles when you buy miles online. More... Sep 11 - 30, 16

Hilton HHonors
- Double HHonors Points for all eligible stays at any Hilton Hotels Worldwide. More... Sep 1 - Dec 31, 16

Hyatt Gold Passport
- Earn up to 75,000 Bonus Gold Passport Points for stays at Hyatt Hotels Worldwide. More... Until Nov 30, 16

Le Club accorhotels
- 4X Le Club Accorhotels Points for stays at new Accor Hotels Worldwide. More... Book by Sep 30 for stays until Oct 31, 16


Follow Rewards Canada:

Hyatt Gold Passport: Earn up to 75,000 Bonus Points on all your Hyatt stays Worldwide

Hyatt is the next major hotel chain to release a fall systemwide promotion. This is the same offer they had going earlier this year with members having the ability to earn up to 75,000 bonus points. Registration opened today for the offer and is valid for stays starting today as well!

Offer details:
Earn up to 75,000 Bonus Gold Passport Points for stays at Hyatt Hotels Worldwide. Register Online (Registration is required) Until Nov 30, 16
Bonuses as follows:

Stay	Earn	Total Points Earned
5 Nights	+ 5,000 Points	= 5,000
10 Nights	+ 10,000 Points	= 15,000
15 Nights	+ 15,000 Points	= 30,000
20 Nights	+ 20,000 Points	= 50,000
25 Nights	+ 25,000 Points	= 75,000

Receive up to a 130% Bonus when you buy Avianca LifeMiles

The king of buy miles has bonuses returned however! This time the offer is similar to what we have now seen a few times over the past year or so. This time you can earn up to a 130% bonus if you buy miles during the first portion of this promotion until Sep 10. After that it is strictly a 100% bonus until the end of the month.

If you have followed us for sometime you'll know this is a decent option to get Star Alliance flights on the cheap especially in business class. So what should you do? If you know that you can make your travel work and get the LifeMiles redemption(s) of your choice go ahead and buy the miles however I wouldn't buy them if you don't think you'll use them over then 3-6 months just in case another award chart devaluation comes along.

If you go ahead with this offer and buy at the highest level the miles will cost you 1.43 cents a piece! So buying 150,000 LifeMiles will cost you US$4,950 but you will get a total of 345,000 miles in the end.

Normally a decent feature of LifeMiles is their Cash + Part Miles option but that was devalued over a year ago. This option only requires that you have 40% of the points for a reward but that offer has you buy the rest of the miles (the other 60%) at about 1.56 cents per mile so you are better off buying the whole amount of miles required for an award through this promo.

Some things to consider with the buy miles option before you pull the trigger is that their call center tends to be on the less helpful side so you are better off booking award tickets online which also means you are limited to the powers of that source, mixed class awards are not allowed unless you book each award ticket as separate one way flights and they have devalued the program without notice in the past so only buy these miles if you think you will use them in the next short while

Offer Details
Earn up to 130% Bonus LifeMiles when you buy miles online. Full details Until Sep 30, 16