Monday, April 24, 2017

Now live! IHG Rewards Club PointBreaks - Only 5,000 Points per award night at 100 hotels including 6 in Canada


We gave you the previews last week and are happy to tell you that the latest IHG Rewards Club PointBreaks hotel are now available for booking! This set has 100 hotels can now be booked for 5,000 points per award night for stays until July 31, 2017.

Remember the Pointbreaks rules are that a member can only book up to 2 reward reservations per hotel participating in the individual offer (ie 2 at Pointbreaks hotels and 2 at Last Minute Reward Night hotels).  My tip to get around this would be to book 2 reservations with one IHG Rewards Club account and then have your spouse book 2 more etc. Of course this is dependent on both accounts having enough points to redeem for these awards. Also be sure to book these ASAP as soon as the list comes out as once the allotted nights are booked at certain locations those hotels will fall off the list.


5,000 Points per night availability at the Holiday Inn Express St. John's Airport


Why are IHG Rewards Club Point Breaks such a great deal? Because they offer reward nights at participating IHG hotels Worldwide for only 5,000 Rewards Club points. For those of you not to familiar with IHG Rewards Club , normal redemption rates for Rewards Club reward nights run from as low as 10,000 points for some Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express locations to 50,000 points for ultra-luxurious InterContinental locations and even these locations can participate in Point Breaks. So as you can see you can receive a discount of 50 to 88% off the regular redemption rates. You may be thinking that the high end hotels won't participate but they do depending on the time of year! Please note that like most loyalty promotions these offers are capacity controlled so I advise to book sooner than later to ensure you get the PointBreaks rate. These offers are now bookable via the primary Pointbreaks page or via each individual hotel link below.

09:54MST Update: Some hotels are now live - others are coming online every few minutes - Keep checking to see if the hotel you want comes up soon!


Here is the list of hotels participating with the Canadian properties listed first:

CANADA

Newfoundland and Labrador


Nova Scotia

Ontario
Quebec
Saskatchewan

Hotels in Asia and Australia:

PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
INDONESIA
JAPAN
MALAYSIA
THAILAND

Hotels in Africa:

SOUTH AFRICA

Hotels in Australia:

BRISBANE

Hotels in South America:

BRAZIL

Hotels in Latin America and Mexico:

PANAMA
MEXICO
Guanajuato
Nuevo León
Oaxaca
Querétaro
Sonora
Veracruz

Hotels in North America:

UNITED STATES
Alabama
Arkansas
Arizona
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Michigan
Missouri
North Carolina
North Dakota
Nebraska
New Jersey
New York
Ohio
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming

Hotels in Europe:

CZECH REPUBLIC
FINLAND
FRANCE
GERMANY
HUNGARY
ITALY
LITHUANIA
POLAND
PORTUGAL
RUSSIA
SPAIN
UNITED KINGDOM
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Friday, April 21, 2017

Full list of 100 IHG Rewards Club PointBreaks Hotels including 6 in Canada - available for booking on Monday April 24


IHG has released the full list of the newest Pointsbreaks hotels and here they are. This set has 100 hotels included with the actual booking of the hotels at these rates opening on Monday April 24th for stays between that day and July 31, 2017.  For those who travel domestically we see the list of Canadian properties increase to 6 from the typical 5 hotels. Still wish we would see more Canadian properties participate.

Each Reward Night at these participating hotels will be only 5,000 IHG Rewards Club points during the above mentioned dates. Remember the Pointbreaks rules are that a member can only book up to 2 reward reservations per hotel participating in the individual offer (ie 2 at Pointbreaks hotels and 2 at Last Minute Reward Night hotels).  My tip to get around this would be to book 2 reservations with one IHG Rewards Club account and then have your spouse book 2 more etc. Of course this is dependent on both accounts having enough points to redeem for these awards. Also be sure to book these ASAP as soon as the list comes out as once the allotted nights are booked at certain locations those hotels will fall off the list.

Why are IHG Rewards Club Point Breaks such a great deal? Because they offer reward nights at participating IHG hotels Worldwide for only 5,000 Rewards Club points. For those of you not to familiar with IHG Rewards Club , normal redemption rates for Rewards Club reward nights run from as low as 10,000 points for some Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express locations to 50,000 points for ultra-luxurious InterContinental locations and even these locations can participate in Point Breaks. So as you can see you can receive a discount of 50 to 88% off the regular redemption rates. You may be thinking that the high end hotels won't participate but they do depending on the time of year! Please note that like most loyalty promotions these offers are capacity controlled so I advise to book sooner than later to ensure you get the PointBreaks rate. These offers will be bookable via the primary Pointsbreaks page as of April 24th.

Here is the list of hotels participating with the Canadian properties listed first:

CANADA

Newfoundland and Labrador

Nova Scotia

Ontario
Quebec
Saskatchewan

Hotels in Asia and Australia:

PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
INDONESIA
JAPAN
MALAYSIA
THAILAND

Hotels in Africa:

SOUTH AFRICA

Hotels in Australia:

BRISBANE

Hotels in South America:

BRAZIL

Hotels in Latin America and Mexico:

PANAMA
MEXICO
Guanajuato
Nuevo León
Oaxaca
Querétaro
Sonora
Veracruz

Hotels in North America:

UNITED STATES
Alabama
Arkansas
Arizona
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Michigan
Missouri
North Carolina
North Dakota
Nebraska
New Jersey
New York
Ohio
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming

Hotels in Europe:

CZECH REPUBLIC
FINLAND
FRANCE
GERMANY
HUNGARY
ITALY
LITHUANIA
POLAND
PORTUGAL
RUSSIA
SPAIN
UNITED KINGDOM
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April 21 Update: 5 Great Marriott Hotels in Canada update, Why aren't you using a rewards credit card and more!

News, Tips & Tricks
We updated our very popular post on 5 great Marriott Hotels in Canada to use your Category 1-5 Free Night certificate from the Marriott Credit Card at. We have to remove the Delta Kingston since in jumped to Category 6. See what we replaced it with here!


We released another new feature article today entitled Why aren't you using a rewards credit card? There are only two types of people who shouldn't be and in one of them are just missing out. Read the article here!


Posts since our last update:
Travel Deals
KLM has brought back their amazing business class sale for flights from Canada to Europe and beyond! You can fly in style for as little as $2,789 all in! Simply book by May 3 for travel ALL SUMMER! Find out more and book here.


Canadian Bonus Offers
Marriott Rewards
- 2,000 Bonus Rewards Points for stays at the Calgary Airport Marriott In-Terminal Hotel. More... Booking Until Jun 24, 17
- 2,000 Bonus Rewards Points s per stay including any nights Sunday - Thursday at the TownePlace Suites Saskatoon. More... Until Jul 9, 17
- 2,000 Bonus Rewards Points for stays at the Fairfield Inn & Suites Edmonton North. More... Until May 31, 17

WestJet Rewards
- Receive WestJet Rewards Gold Elite status when you complete 10 round trip flights (or 20 one way) on select flights between Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, New York, Boston. More... Until Jun 28, 17

Other Bonus Offers
JAL Mileage Bank
- Double Mileage Bank Miles when you fly on Finnair between Helsinki and Tokyo, Fukuoka, Nagoya or Osaka. More... Register by May 15 for travel Jun 1 - Jul 31, 17

SAS EuroBonus
- 750 EuroBonus Points PER NIGHT for stays at all First Hotels in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. More... Book by Apr 30 for stays until May 31, 17


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Why aren't you using a rewards credit card?


An excerpt from the latest feature on the main Rewards Canada site:

The excuse I often hear from people if they're not using a rewards credit card is that they don't like the annual fees or they don't want to pay annual fees. But what they are unaware of is there's actually a lot of reward credit cards out there that come with no annual fees and some of them are actually really really good! For example take a look at our Ultimate No Fee Travel Rewards Credit Card portfolio, cards in here have returns of over 2%! That's pretty amazing considering a lot of cards fee or no fee can't earn over 2%.

Continue on to read the whole article on the main Rewards Canada site.

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Earn 2,000 Bonus Rewards Points for stays at the Calgary Airport Marriott In-Terminal Hotel


One of our favourite hometown hotels is offering bonus points to stay there! Right now you can earn 2,000 bonus Marriott Rewards points for stays at the Calgary Airport Marriott In-Terminal Hotel. We checked to see if this was one of those boost the rate and offer bonus points type of promotions but it is not. The bonus points rate is the same as the best flexible rate. You can get cheaper rates but those are the advance purchase non-refundable rates that many of us tend not to book unless we are 100% sure that we are completing that stay.  You can read a complete review of our stay at the Calgary Airport Marriott In-Terminal Hotel here!

Offer details:
2,000 Bonus Rewards Points for stays at the Calgary Airport Marriott In-Terminal Hotel. Full Details and online Booking Until Jun 24, 17

Other Marriott Bonus offers for stays in Canada:
2,000 Bonus Rewards Points s per stay including any nights Sunday - Thursday at the TownePlace Suites Saskatoon. Full Details and online Booking

2,000 Bonus Rewards Points for stays at the Fairfield Inn & Suites Edmonton North. Full Details and online Booking

1,000 Bonus Rewards Points PER NIGHT for stays at the Courtyard St. John's Newfoundland. Full Details and online Booking


Find the best list of Marriott Rewards bonus offers here.
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Thursday, April 20, 2017

April 20 Update: 5,000 Bonus Miles for your 1st Alaska Airlines flight, awesome KLM Business Class sale, 500 Bonus Marriott Rewards points in Banff

News, Tips & Tricks
In the bonus offers section be sure to check out the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan first flight bonus. If you are not a member of the program be sure to join by April 30 and then take your first flight with them or Virgin America by September 30th to earn 5,000 bonus miles. As we told you towards the end of 2016, flights between Western Canada and Seattle start at only 5,000 miles one way so the bonus covers that!


Posts since our last update:
Travel Deals
KLM has brought back their amazing business class sale for flights from Canada to Europe and beyond! You can fly in style for as little as $2,789 all in! Simply book by May 3 for travel ALL SUMMER! Find out more and book here.


Canadian Bonus Offers
Marriott Rewards
- 500 Bonus Points per stay, any night Sunday-Thursday at the Delta Hotels by Marriott Banff Royal Canadian Lodge. More... Until May 1, 17


Other Bonus Offers
Alaska Airlines
- 5,000 Bonus Mileage Plan Miles when you join the Mileage Plan program and complete one flight on Alaska or Virgin America by Sep 30. More... Join by Apr 30 for travel by Sep 30, 17

American AAdvantage
- Earn up to 115,000 Bonus AAdvantage Miles when you buy miles. More... Until Apr 28, 17

Delta SkyMiles
- 1,000 Bonus SkyMiles for each new participating SkyMiles partner you earn miles with. More... Until Jun 30, 17

Hainan Airlines Fortune Wings
- 40% Fortune Wings Discount for award flight redemptions on Hainan Airlines from Los Angeles to Chengdu and Chongqing. More... Until May 31, 17

JAL Mileage Bank
- Earn up to 100% Bonus Mileage Bank miles when you fly on select SriLankan Airlines flights. More... Until Jun 30, 17

Miles & More
- Triple Miles & More Miles for stays at participating Sofitel, MGallery by Sofitel and Pullman hotels Worldwide. More... May 1 - Jul 31, 17

Qantas Frequent Flyer
- Earn up to Quadruple Frequent Flyer Points for stays at participating Hilton hotels Worldwide. More... Until Jul 31, 17

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- 2,000 Bonus Flying Club Miles when you complete your first hotel stay booked via Rocketmiles. More... Book by Jun 30, 17


Follow Rewards Canada:
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Hotel Review: TownePlace Suites by Marriott Edmonton South

Volleyball had us back up in Edmonton again and this time we got to try out the brand-new TownePlace Suites by Marriott Edmonton South. This hotel is on the very south end of the city at the corner of Ellerslie Road and Gateway Boulevard. The hotel is only opened about 2 1/2 weeks prior to us staying here so it's very clean and has that brand new feeling.

This was our first stay at a TownePlace Suites and while not fancy, the suites themselves were very nice. Most of the team parents commented on how they liked the hotel and is perfect for teams.

We had a two queen room with lots of space, a big bathroom and if I had to stay for long time this is  very good hotel to do so. We only stayed two nights, so didn't make use of the kitchen other than the fridge to store drinks, snacks and the team's lunches.

Checking in on the Friday afternoon was a bit of a mess as there were quite a few people checking in. We have to give the check in agents credit as our team had submitted a list of names of all the girls that were to stay in each of the team rooms and somehow those got mixed up. They worked diligently to clear it all up and they did so. Not to mention we had heard this was their busiest weekend since their opening as they had our volleyball team plus a couple of lacrosse teams and all your regular guests. So it does sound like they were  quite busy.

Here are pictures of the two queen room:







Included with each stay is a complimentary continental breakfast with some hot items. Have to say like many hotels with these types of breakfasts the food is edible but nothing to write home about. Of course the best option that all the kids from the team enjoyed is the fresh waffle maker!

Overall another decent Marriott brand stay for the Rewards Canada family. We have now stayed at three of the four hotels at the intersection of Ellerslie and Gateway and probably would rank this number 2. The first being the Four Points by Sheraton and third would be the Best Western Plus. If you have plans to stay on the south side of Edmonton I can't really say anything bad about the TownePlace Suites as it served its purpose well and our stay there was enjoyable.

Hotel details
TownePlace Suites Edmonton South (Book here)
Marriott Rewards Category: 2
Points required for a free night (Standard) 10,000 Points
Points required for a free night (PointSaver) 7,500 Points
Cash+Points Requirement: 5,000 Points + US$50 per night for standard rooms
You can use your anniversary bonus of a free night in a Category 1-5 hotel from the Marriott Rewards Premier Visa Card here as well.

Talk to us! Have you stayed at the TownePlace Suites by Marriott Edmonton South? What are your thoughts of the hotel? Or are you planning to and looking forward to it? Let us know below!
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Receive WestJet Rewards Gold Elite Status when you complete multiple flights between Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, New York, Boston

 WestJet is targeting business travellers out East with their latest Fast Track to Gold Elite Status offer. WestJet Rewards members who register for the promotion will be awarded Gold Elite Status when they complete 10 round trips (or 20 one way flights) on Eastern Triangle routes and to Boston and New York LGA.

If you complete the challenge you'll get Gold Elite status for 12 months. Gold Elite status brings you the following:
  • earn 5% back in WestJet dollars on future flights flown
  • free first and second checked bag
  • 10 complimentary airport lounge vouchers
  • 4 advance seat selection vouchers
  • advance boarding (Zone 1)
  • no fee for same-day flight changes at check-in
  • priority security screening (at select airports)


Offer details
Receive WestJet Rewards Gold Elite status when you complete 10 round trip flights (or 20 one way) on select flights between Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, New York, Boston. Register online (Registration is required)

Travel: To/from these eligible select routes:
  • Toronto and Boston
  • Toronto and Montreal
  • Toronto and New York LaGuardia
  • Toronto and Ottawa
  • Montreal and Boston (via Toronto)
  • Montreal and New York LaGuardia (via Toronto)
  • Montreal and Toronto
  • Ottawa to Boston (via Toronto)
  • Ottawa and New York LaGuardia (via Toronto)
  • Ottawa and Toronto 
Of course if 10/20 flights are out of your reach but want some benefits of Gold Status like the first bag checked for free we recommend grabbing the WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard.

WestJet
WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard

$250 WestJet dollars Bonus + Annual $99/$299/$399 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
- Companion flight vouchers are an annual benefit.
- First bag free for the primary cardholder up to 8 people traveling on the same reservation to anywhere WestJet flies!

Apply NowAdvertisement
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WestJet announces intent to launch ultra-low-cost carrier


In what probably can been seen as another strike at ultra low cost carrier newleaf, WestJet surprised many today with their announcement that they intend to launch a new ultra low cost airline!
WestJet today announced its intention to launch a new, ultra-low-cost carrier (ULCC) in Canada subject to agreement with its pilots and any required regulatory approvals. Service is expected to start in late 2017 with an initial fleet of 10 high-density Boeing 737-800s designed by the airline that first brought low-cost air travel to Canada in 1996. The ULCC will provide Canadians with no-frills, lower-cost travel options.
"We have built WestJet from its low-cost, regional roots into a renowned, international airline with service to 21 countries and today it's all about disrupting at the price-sensitive end of the market," said Clive Beddoe, co-founder of WestJet and Chair of the Board of the Directors. "Launching a ULCC will broaden WestJet's growth opportunities and open new market segments by offering more choice to those Canadians looking for lower fares."

"The worldview on low-cost airlines has changed since the launch of WestJet in 1996 and we are responding," commented Gregg Saretsky, WestJet President and CEO. "The complete unbundling of services and products in order to lower fares for the price-sensitive traveller has created the ULCC category and our new airline will provide Canadians a pro-competitive, cheap and cheerful flying experience from a company with a proven track record."
I really don't know what to say but if history in the Canadian airline marketplace is any indication then WestJet will have an uphill battle with this one. Remember Air Canada's Tango? Air Canada Zip? JetsGo? CanJet, Greyhound Air? They all were attempting something similar, although at the time it would have been only called low cost carriers (LCC) which WestJet was and still calls themselves but in reality they are now a full fledged regular airline.

There are still lots of questions to be answered and we'll get those when they release more details but are newleaf and Air Canada's Rouge really having that much of an impact on WestJet that they need to go this route? Other questions will be can you earn and redeem WestJet dollars on the new ULCC (the smart move would be yes, but probably at a lower earn rate), will you be able to interline between the ULCC and WestJet (probably not as that adds costs) and many more!

Read the whole press release here.

What are all your thoughts on today's announcement from WestJet?



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