Earn up to 200 bonus WestJet dollars when flying on select WestJet flights across Canada

WestJet is looking to reward its members with some really healthy bonuses for flying on many of their longer haul flights across our country this spring! Simply register and book by March 31st and you'll be eligible to earn the bonuses on flights until May 31st. If you have an itinerary that connects to any of the eligible flights you will be able to earn the bonuses as well. So if you fly Regina-Calgary-Montreal you'll earn the bonus. Now may be the time to make some creative routings for travel, for example the very popular Calgary-Toronto route is not eligible so you may want to fly Calgary-Edmonton-Toronto or vice versa.

Offer details:
Earn up to 200 bonus WestJet dollars when you fly on select WestJet flights across Canada. Register Online (Registration is required) Register & book by Mar 31 for travel until May 31, 17

Bonuses as follows:

Eligible Routes:

• Calgary - Hamilton
• Calgary - Kitchener
• Calgary - London
• Calgary - Montreal
• Edmonton - Toronto
• Fort McMurray - Toronto
• Hamilton - Calgary
• Kelowna - Toronto
• Kitchener - Calgary

• London - Calgary
• Montreal - Calgary
• Montreal - Vancouver
• Toronto - Edmonton
• Toronto - Fort McMurray
• Toronto - Kelowna
• Toronto - Vancouver
• Vancouver - Toronto
• Vancouver - Montreal

WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard
$250 WestJet dollars Bonus + Annual Companion Flight when you sign up for and receive the WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard.
- Earn 1.5% back in WestJet dollars on every purchase you make with your card
- Earn 2% back in WestJet dollars when you purchase WestJet flights or WestJet Vacations packages with your card
- Get a complimentary round trip companion flight every year (including Plus Fares) for as little as $99 (plus taxes, fees and charges) to anywhere WestJet flies.
- First bag free for the primary cardholder up to 8 people traveling on the same reservation to anywhere WestJet flies!

February 24 Update: CIBC Aventura For Business 1st year free offer, up to 10,000 bonus miles on Jet Airways Toronto flights & more

News, Tips & Tricks
We added the CIBC Aventura Visa for Business card to our Business/Corporate card comparison chart! The chart needs a serious update for the rest on their but thought it was worthwhile to mention as the card right comes with a 25,000 Aventura Point sign up bonus and no annual fee in the first year for primary and up to three supplementary cards. See the details on the chart here!

If you are planning on flying to Amsterdam or India from Toronto check out the new Jet Airways JetPrivilege bonus. You can earn up 10,000 bonus JPMiles on all their flights include those out of Toronto! Find out more here.

Another bonus to check out is the WestJet Rewards bonus for Budget car rentals, check out the link below in the Canadian Bonus Offers section.

Posts since our last update:

• Earn up to Triple Points for stays at Novotel & Sofitel Hotels in Canada
  Right now you can earn up to Triple Le Club Accorhotels points for stays at any one of 8…
• Choice Privileges: 8,000 Points for every 2 stays Worldwide
  Choice Hotels has revealed the details of their Spring promotion and it is pretty much the same one they…
• 500 FREE Voila Hotel Rewards Points for suggesting new hotels
  Voila Hotel Rewards would like to know which hotels, cities, and countries they should try to expand to! And…

Canadian Bonus Offers
WestJet Rewards
- 5 Bonus WestJet dollars when you book a Budget car rental reservation through WestJet. More... Book by Apr 17 for rentals until Sep 30, 17

Other Bonus Offers
Aeroflot Bonus
- 3,000 Bonus Bonus Miles on your first hotel stay booked via Kaligo. More... Book by May 31, 17

Air France KLM Flying Blue
- Earn up Triple Flying Blue Miles for stays at Accor Hotels Worldwide. More... Book by Mar 30 for stays until Apr 30, 17

Jet Airways JetPrivilege
- Earn up 10,000 Bonus JPMiles when you fly on Jet Airways Worldwide. More... Until Mar 31, 17

Earn up to Triple Points for stays at Novotel & Sofitel Hotels in Canada

Right now you can earn up to Triple Le Club Accorhotels points for stays at any one of 8 Novotel or Sofitel Hotels in Canada and others across North and Central America. Weekday stays will net you double points while weekend stays are worth triple points. All eight Canadian properties are situated in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto so if you travels take you there this could an good earning opportunity for you.  Be sure your register beforehand to earn the bonus points!

Offer details
Earn up to Triple Le Club Accorhotels Points for stays at Accor Hotels hotels in North America and Central America. Full Details, registration and online booking (Registration is required)  Book by Apr 15 for stays until Apr 19, 17

• Earn Double Rewards points when you stay during the week, from Monday night to Thursday night. 
• Earn Triple Rewards points when you stay during the weekend, Friday night to Sunday night.

Choice Privileges: 8,000 Points for every 2 stays Worldwide

Choice Hotels has revealed the details of their Spring promotion and it is pretty much the same one they ran up until last Fall when they decided to switch to double points on all stays! That being said, it is a decent promotion as we usually see with Choice they promote it as stay twice and get a gift card or a free night. With this version they are promoting it as free nights which means you will earn enough points for an 8,000 point redemption after every two stays completed. So in reality you can redeem for higher hotel categories if you complete 4, 6, 8 stays etc.  (HT Loyalty Traveler)

Choice Hotels Privileges
Earn up to 8,000 Bonus Privileges Points (enough for a free night) for every 2 separate stays you complete at participating Choice Hotels Worldwide. Stay must be booked via ChoiceHotels.com, the Choice Hotels mobile app, or 800.4CHOICE at qualifying rates. Members will be awarded a maximum of 8,000 bonus points, depending on the number of base points earned for every (2) separate qualifying trips. Full details, online registration and booking (Registration is required) Mar 2 - Apr 27, 17
Restrictions
For residents of the U.S. and Canada only

500 FREE Voila Hotel Rewards Points for suggesting new hotels

Voila Hotel Rewards would like to know which hotels, cities, and countries they should try to expand to! And for you letting them know some of your suggestions they'll give 500 free VHR points. The survey is via Facebook and the app they use will get limited access to your profile and email. Voila Hotel Rewards has run several free points offers throughout the years so for some of you your balances may actually be getting to the point where you could redeem for something.... something small! Oh and five random members who complete the survey will win 50,000 points! If you haven't joined the program yet do so via this link to score 1,000 more points.

Offer details
500 Free VHR Points for suggesting new hotels for the Voila Hotel Rewards programs. Full details. Until Apr 30, 17

Find more VHR Bonus Points offers here!

February 23 Update: Aeroplan Match Weeks return for mileage donations, new Emirates onboard lounges & more

News, Tips & Tricks
Aeroplan's Match Weeks are returning for 2017! Match Weeks is where Aeroplan will match all mileage donations made to 10 of their charitable partners. The Match Weeks will kick of next week the The Stephen Lewis Foundation. If you were planning to donate to one or more of these foundations, of course it is good to donate at anytime but even better if you can do so during a Match Week! (Source Aeroplan)

The Stephen Lewis Foundation (February 27 ‒ March 5) ‒ The Stephen Lewis Foundation works with community-level organizations which are turning the tide of HIV/AIDS in Africa by providing care and support to women, orphans, grandmothers and people living with HIV and AIDS.
David Suzuki Foundation (March 27 ‒ April 2) ‒ The David Suzuki Foundation’s mission is to protect the diversity of nature and our quality of life, now and for the future.
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) (April 3 ‒ 9) ‒  MSF provides medical care to people caught in many kinds of catastrophes around the world, including armed conflicts, natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes, epidemics of disease and malnutrition crises.
Enactus (May 15 – 21) – Enactus is Canada’s largest student leadership development organization dedicated to inspiring students to improve people’s livelihoods through entrepreneurial action.
We June 12 ‒ 18) – WE (formerly known as Free The Children) is a local and global charity that partners with communities to help lift themselves out of poverty using a holistic, sustainable five-pillar development model and empowers youth to change the world.
War Child Canada (July 17 ‒ 23) ‒ War Child helps rebuild war-affected communities to provide the support necessary for children to experience a stable childhood.
Engineers Without Borders (September 18 ‒ 24) ‒ Engineers Without Borders Canada invests in people who can create a thriving and sustainable world, where everyone’s basic needs are met and where everyone can grow to their full potential.
Veterinarians Without Borders (October 2 ‒ 8) ‒ Veterinarians without Borders - Canada works with those in need to foster the health of animals, people and the environments in which they interact.
MusiCounts (November 20 ‒ 26) ‒ MusiCounts’ mission is to ensure that children in Canada have access to music programs in their schools and communities, and the organization focuses on putting musical instruments into the hands of children who need them most.
Air Canada Foundation (December 4 ‒ 10) ‒ Through its Hospital Transportation program, the Air Canada Foundation helps sick children reach medical treatment not available in their community allowing them to receive the best medical care possible.

Emirates is updating the onboard lounges found on their Airbus A380 aircraft.It will start rolling out on their planes this July so you could expect to eventually see it on the YYZ route! Remember that it may relatively hard to earn Skywards miles here in Canada but you do have options with Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan and Japan Airlines Mileage Bank (think Starwood Preferred Guest with them as well) to redeem for business class flights. Here is the video introducing the new onboard lounge:

While we were on vacation WestJet announced an decent sized expansion out of Montreal. Three new routes to Halifax, Quebec City and Boston will start in March, June and October respectively. Additional flights are also being added to Calgary and Vancouver. (Source WestJet)

Posts since our last update:

• New YYC Calgary Transborder Aspire Lounge Review
  Transborder Aspire Lounge Entrance - Photo courtesy of Swissport To start our latest vacation the Rewards Canada family recently visited the…
• How to get a $5,800+ Business Class flight between Montreal & Stockholm for under $3,200!
  Last seen in December, Air France KLM's Flying Blue is once again offering a bonus on buying their miles.…

Travel Deals
CAA members can choose from a savings of up to 15%, daily breakfast for two or resort credits up to $100 at Starwood Hotels in the U.S., Canada, French Polynesia, Mexico and the Caribbean. Good for stays until Dec 31, 17. Find out more here.

Canadian Bonus Offers
Air Canada / Aeroplan
- 3x Aeroplan Miles per dollar spent on all purchases at Costco.ca More... Until Mar 12, 17

Other Bonus Offers
Air France KLM Flying Blue
- Up to 50% Bonus Miles when you buy Flying Blue Miles online. More... Until Mar 12, 17

American AAdvantage
- 1,000 Bonus AAdvantage Miles for rentals of 3+ days at participating Avis airport locations in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and Caribbean. More... Until Mar 31, 17
- 1,000 Bonus AAdvantage Miles for rentals of 3+ days at participating Budget locations in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, and Caribbean. More... Until Mar 31, 17

Le Club accorhotels
- Double Le Club Accorhotels Points for stays at participating Accor hotels in the Czech Republic. More... Until Mar 31, 17
- 300 Bonus Le Club Accorhotels Points for stays at participating Accor hotels in Russia, Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. More... Until Apr 23, 17

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Double KrisFlyer Miles when you stay at the Casa Del Rio Melaka. More... Until Mar 31, 17
- Triple KrisFlyer Miles when you stay at participating Anantara, AVANI and PER AQUUM properties. More... Until Mar 31, 17

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- Quadruple Flying Club Miles on Avis rentals in North America (excluding Latin America), the UK, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. More... Book by Mar 31 for rentals Apr 1 - Dec 31, 17
- Earn up to 400 Bonus Flying Club Miles for purchasing entries into No1 Lounges. More... Until ?


Follow Rewards Canada:

New YYC Calgary Transborder Aspire Lounge Review

Transborder Aspire Lounge Entrance - Photo courtesy of Swissport

 To start our latest vacation the Rewards Canada family recently visited the new Transborder Calgary Airport Aspire Lounge. This lounge opened up on October 31, 2016 along with the entire new International terminal at YYC. This is the only transborder lounge in YYC as the old Rocky Mountain Lounge is now closed and is one of four lounges available in Calgary. The other three are the Aspire Lounge International, Chinook Lounge (Domestic) and Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge.

The Lounge
The new lounge has a much more open feel than the old Rocky Mountain lounge with lots of seating in booth areas, bar seats and bench seating. The lounge also has some loungers in semi enclosed areas where you can watch TV. The seats in the booth areas all featured cubbies for small carry on items and more importantly individual plugs for charging all your electronics!

Here are some general photos I took of the lounge:

At the check in desk!

Middle of the lounge seating with bar stools to the back

These are the seats with the cubbies and plug ins to charge your electronics

Food & Drinks
Outside of the peace and quiet of lounges the biggest draw for many to business class lounges are the food and drink options. Previously at the Rocky Mountain lounge (and in the current Chinook lounge) the food options are quite limited, in particular the hot food options which was usually just soup. The good news that the new transborder Aspire lounge has hot food options! When we arrived the options were chicken fingers, grilled tomatoes, fried rice and carrots. The bad news was the food wasn't very good. Later on the tomatoes were replaced with hashbrowns but we didn't try those out. We ended grabbing some food from Burger King (yes, BK - don't judge) to consume in the lounge. Perhaps we were just unlucky with the food that day but if not hopefully it will be something they work on and provide some better hot food options. The drink options were decent with several beers and hard alcohol options available along with wine. For non-alcoholic drinks there were your usual cans of soda, bottles of Juice and water (still & sparkling) on tap. As a reminder then bring an empty water bottle to fill up if you used to be used to taking water bottles out of the old lounge to your plane!

The hot food options

The alcohol options - there is also wine but not in this picture

Access
Entering the lounge was easy as we simply provided our J Class Air Canada boarding passes. Flying AC Business Class you can also choose to go the Maple Leaf lounge first but you'll have to clear security first for that lounge and when coming back for Transborder you'll have to go through U.S. customs and then security again. Kind of a pain hence AC's access to this lounge for their Transborder flights. Had we not been in business class we would have reverted to the other options our family has and those are The Platinum Card from American Express (which provides access for the whole family), Priority Pass (from The Platinum Card) or at the very least our Diners Club Club Rewards MasterCard but the last would only have covered 2 of the 5 of us that were travelling. You can pretty much access the lounge with any lounge program as mentioned but also Dragon Pass or you can buy single entries. To find out more about all the different lounge options read and bookmark our Guide to Business Class lounge access

Thoughts
Overall this new transborder lounge is very nice, much better than the old Rocky Mountain Lounge. We look forward to using it lots and also can't wait to try out the International lounge as well. We just hope the hot food options get a working to something better!

Have you visited this lounge? What do you think of it? What do you like and what do you think could be done better?

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For the best access to this lounge no matter what airline you are flying or what fare class and want to have your family get access look no further than The Platinum Card from American Express:

How to get a $5,800+ Business Class flight between Montreal & Stockholm for under $3,200!

Last seen in December, Air France KLM's Flying Blue is once again offering a bonus on buying their miles. Usually buying FB miles isn't a great proposition but if you can tie in buying them with one of their discounted promo awards offering up to 50% off award tickets you may just be able to out some value from this promotion. The lower tiers see a higher bonus this round at 30% vs 20% and 40% vs 30%.

Offer Details
Up to 50% Bonus Miles when you buy Flying Blue Miles online. Full details Until Mar 12, 17

• 4,000 to 8,000 Award Miles – 30% bonus
• 10,000 to 28,000 Award Miles – 40% bonus
• 30,000+ Award Miles – 50% bonus

During this limited-time offer, you can earn up to a maximum bonus of 50,000 Award Miles. Ivory members can purchase a yearly maximum of 75,000 Award Miles, while Elite members can buy an unlimited number of Award Miles.


Here is an example of this buy miles bonus saving you some money:

You can buy 96,000 miles for EUR 1760. Those 96,000 miles will be enough to redeem for a discounted business class award ticket between Montreal or Toronto and Europe (with a few miles to spare)

 

 

Looking at Apr 10 - 17, 2017 in business class you can get the discounted rate between YUL & ARN for 93,750 miles and 428.80EUR in taxes and fees. To buy the miles will cost EUR1848 (including 5% GST) and add in the taxes and fees on the award flight of 428.80EUR for a total of 2276.80 EUR. Convert that to C$ and you get ~C$3,157.

To buy the same tickets outright costs C$5,821.37. As you can see buying the miles can provide you a savings of over C$2,600 on these particular flights!

If you don't live in Canada those miles will only cost you 1760EUR saving an additional 88EUR or so. And the discount for these Flying Blue tickets is only 25% at this time, sometimes its 50% off so your savings could be even bigger. However we do not recommend buying miles if you do not plan on using them within the next 6 months or so.

Find many more Flying Blue bonus offers here!

February 22 Update: rwrds.ca is Rewards Canada, WestJet continues to go after newleaf, Top Coalition Cards

News, Tips & Tricks
Our first update since going on vacation! There will be lots to catch up on over the next few days, some news you may have already read about but perhaps there is something new for you as well!

If you follow us on Facebook or Twitter you'll notice we have a new short url for our links to make them more identifiable and to maximize space for those 140 character limits. It is rwrds.ca and you can actually use it to get straight to Rewards Canada, if you type rwrds.ca into your web browser it will take you to rewardscanada.ca

WestJet continues to go after newleaf! They just announced new flights between Winnipeg and Abbotsford - one of newleaf's original routes! Any wagers on whether newleaf will survive 2017? WestJet's flights start on April 30. (Source WestJet)

Posts since our last update:

• The Top 4 Coalition Program Credit Cards for Aeroplan, AIR MILES, More Rewards & SCENE members
  There are so many credit card options in Canada that it can get really confusing for the consumer. At Rewards…
  
• Best Western Rewards: $10 BW Gift Card with every stay until April 30
  Best Western Rewards has extended their systemwide promotion where you can earn a $10 Best Western Gift Card with…
• Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan - Up to a 40% bonus when buying miles until April 6
  The Alaska Airlines buy Mileage Plan miles promo returns and is a good one and exactly the same as…
• Canada's Top Travel Points Credit Card with no annual fee now has a 15,000 point sign up bonus!
  In our 2017 Top Travel Rewards Credit Card rankings we crowned a new winner in the Travel Points Credit…
• Marriott and Starwood provide 2017 Hotel Category Award Night changes - 60+ hotels in Canada affected
  You may recall from earlier this year that we already mentioned the category changes for IHG Rewards Club and that…

Canadian Bonus Offers
Marriott Rewards
- 1,000 Bonus Rewards Points for stays at the Delta Hotel by Marriott Saint John. More... Until Mar 30, 17

More Rewards
- Earn up to 15,000 Bonus More Rewards Points when you apply for the Scotiabank® More Rewards®* Visa* Card. More... Until Mar 31, 17

WestJet Rewards
- 15% Bonus WestJet Dollars when you convert RBC Rewards Points  to WestJet Rewards. More... Until Mar 20, 17

Other Bonus Offers
Air China PhoenixMiles
- 1,000 Bonus PhoenixMiles Kilometers on your first hotel booking via the Kaligo mobile apps. More... Until Apr 10, 17

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
- Up to 40% Bonus Mileage Plan Miles when you buy or gift Mileage Plan miles online. More... Until Apr 6, 17

Best Western Rewards
- Receive a $10 Best Western Gift Card with every stay at Best Western Hotels Worldwide. More... Valid for North American residents only Until Apr 30, 17

British Airways Executive Club
- 800 Bonus Avios for Avis rentals of 3 or more days Worldwide. More... Until Apr 7, 17

Delta SkyMiles
- 5 Bonus SkyMiles per Dollar spent on Delta or Virgin Australia flights between Los Angeles and Sydney, Brisbane or Melbourne. More... Until May 31, 17

Icelandair Saga Club
- 30% Bonus Saga Club Points when you buy points online. More... Until Feb 28, 17

Le Club accorhotels
- 4X Le Club Accorhotels Points for stays at new Accor Hotels Worldwide. More... Book by Apr 11 for stays until May 14, 17
- Earn up to Triple Le Club Accorhotels Points for stays at Accor Hotels hotels in North America and Central America More... Book by Apr 15 for stays until Apr 19, 17

Marriott Rewards
- Double Rewards Points + a free day on Hertz rentals of 6 or more days at participating locations in the US, Canada and Puerto Rico. More... Until Jun 30, 17
- 3,000 Bonus Rewards Points for stays on Thursday-Sunday nights (Friday or Saturday required) at the Karuizawa Marriott Hotel Tokyo. More... Until Mar 31, 17

MEA Cedar Miles
- Double Cedar Miles for stays at the Gefinor Rotana - Beirut. More... Until Mar 31, 17

Miles & More
- Double Miles & More Miles for stays at Leonardo Hotels in Europe and Israel. More... Until Mar 31, 17


Follow Rewards Canada:

The Top 4 Coalition Program Credit Cards for Aeroplan, AIR MILES, More Rewards & SCENE members

There are so many credit card options in Canada that it can get really confusing for the consumer. At Rewards Canada we do our best to help guide you to the right card for you with our Guide to choosing a travel rewards credit card and features like our Top Travel Rewards Credit Card rankings. We tell you to join multiple loyalty programs and earn more miles or points by tying in a credit card that co-brands with that program. In Canada we have some very large loyalty programs that fall under the coalition program banner and all Canadians should join at least one of these programs if not all of them. What is a coalition program? It is a program where you have lots of ways to earn potins or miles and lots of ways to burn them. That means many partners to earn points or miles at and a large varied reward catalog where you can use those points or miles. For many Canadians joining a coalition program makes a lot of sense since you can earn miles or points pretty much everday. Although we didn't invent the coalition program, Canada sure did develop them in to what they are today globally thanks to AIR MILES and Aeroplan. AIR MILES made the coalition program and loyalty programs in general main stage for Canadians and made them part of our everyday lives. No longer was it a world for frequent travellers or high spenders, loyalty was now the game for all merchants and all consumers.

Continue to the main Rewards Canada site to read the whole article!