Reminder: Hilton stays earn up to Triple Honors points as of today

Just a reminder to register for this offer as soon as possible as any eligible Hilton stays you make from today until the end of August will count for this promo! The summer bonus is double points on all stays Worldwide with all hotels participating. The bonus gets even better if you are a Diamond Elite member as you'll get Triple Points. Remember as well if you book via a mobile you can earn 500 more points.

Offer details
Double Honors Points on all eligible stays at any Hilton Hotels Worldwide. Diamond members will earn Triple Points. Full details, online registration and booking (Registration is required)  May 1 - Aug 31, 17

Find many more HHonors bonus offers here.

Rewards Canada Exclusive! Silver Status when you apply for and receive the WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard

We are super excited to bring you another Rewards Canada exclusive!

For the entire month of May you will receive Silver Status in the WestJet Rewards program when you apply for and receive the WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard. This offer is only available through Rewards Canada and you have to access it via this page where you complete a form and then are taken to the application with RBC.

The combination of our exclusive offer and the World Elite card make flying on WestJet rewarding, money saving and more enjoyable!

Silver Status with WestJet Rewards gives you the following:

• Free first bag
• 3% earn rate of WestJet dollars when you fly WestJet
• 1% earn rate when you book and travel on WestJet Vacations package
• 4 lounge vouchers
• 4 pre-reserved seat vouchers

Not only will you get all the benefits of Silver Status listed above you also enjoy all of the WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard benefits:

• $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
• First bag free for the primary cardholder up to 8 people traveling on the same reservation to anywhere WestJet flies!

Find out more and take advantage of this offer here!

Scotiabank Gold American Express Card - First Year Free with a 30,000 points sign up bonus!

Back on March 1st I stated that I didn't think we'd see a stronger offer for this card as 20,000 points with 1st year free that we had seen the card for sometime and that all changed when the offer got better that day. Well I'm eating my words again as the card just got even better for new sign ups! The card with some very strong category earning (Gas, Grocery, Dining & Entertainment) had a 25,000 point sign up bonus with no annual fee in the first year since the start of March. However now we see the card keep FYF but have the sign up bonus jump to 30,000 points if you spend $750 in the first three months! The offer of 30,000 points is worth $300 in travel and since it is first year free you essentially get that $300 for free!  This offer is valid until July 31, 2017!

This card ranked second in the Travel Points Card with annual fee category and fifth overall in our 2017 Top Travel Rewards Credit card rankings and you'll definitely see it in our Top 5 Sign Up offers for May.

Here are some details on the card:

Scotiabank Gold American Express Card
30,000 Scotia Rewards bonus points,with $750 in net purchases in first three months - worth $300 in travel. Apply Online
• Earn 4x Scotia Rewards points for every $1 you spend at gas stations, grocery stores, on dining and entertainment • Earn one point on all other eligible purchases
• Extraordinary travel benefits
• Flexible Point Redemption
• Comprehensive travel insurance

• Use your points to purchase travel online or over the phone through our full-service travel agency. Or book your own travel using your card and go online to redeem points for the purchase.
• Receive discounts and other special offers on hotels, airfare, car rentals, cruises and vacation packages.
• Complimentary Concierge Services
• Low price airfare alerts
• Receive up to 25% off qualifying car rentals
• Travel emergency medical coverage is automatically provided for eligible persons for up to 25 consecutive days
• Redeem points for merchandise and other rewards

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

You can also read our in depth review of the card here

New Scotia Momentum VISA Infinite card first year free offer

Up until yesterday if you grabbed the Scotia MomentumVISA Infinite card the sign up bonus was 5% cash back on purchases made in the first three months. A great deal for those who could spend lots on the card as it came with the $99 annual fee. The new offer that launches today see the 5% disappear so you'll have your usual 4%, 2% and 1% returns but now the card has the annual fee waived in the first year so it won't cost you anything to give this card a shot. This offer is valid for applications made up until July 31, 17

This card ranked third overall in our 2017 Top Cash Back  Credit card rankings.

Here are some details on the card:

Scotia Momentum® VISA* Infinite card

• Annual fee waiver for the first year (Save $99).
• 4% on eligible gas station and grocery store purchases
• 2% on drug store purchases and recurring bills
• 1% cash back on all other
• VISA Infinite Complimentary Concierge Service – available 24/7
• Access to VISA Infinite Luxury Hotel Collection
• VISA Infinite Dining Series – Unique dining experiences in some of Canada’s top restaurants
• Special access to unique offers and experiences
• Rental car collision insurance
• Purchase security and extended warranty protection
 

April 28 Update: Stay tuned for lots of news on Monday, What will happen to loyalty rewards and Tangerine Card changes tomorrow

News, Tips & Tricks
Not much news today outside of what we already posted on the site but Monday is going to be super busy! There are several new credit card offers launching on Monday (we have alluded to these already) but the most exciting is the launch of a new Rewards Canada Exclusive promotion! We will also provide details on a new flight bonus offer that we helped develop via the consulting side of our company. Podcast 24 will be released, the Hilton Honors double points goes live and that's just Monday! Next week as a whole should be busy as the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite offer wraps up on Friday so we should get details of the new offer before that and will pass that along. Quebec may pass Bill 791 which will have huge implications on our industry. And I'm sure there will be even more going on!

Remember as well that the Tangerine Money Back Credit Card changes kick in tomorrow. Existing and new cardholders will only earn 0.5% cash back on non bonus category purchases plus be subject to higher service fees. 

Posts since our last update:

• What is going to happen to loyalty rewards in Canada if Quebec passes Bill 791 and programs have to retain point/mile value?
  The coming weeks could see drastic changes in the loyalty landscape in Canada. Earlier this year new legislation was…
• Book your everyday travel via our partners page and in turn support Rewards Canada
  Years ago and I mean pre-2012 years we had a page on the old Rewards Canada where we listed…
• What's going on with the mbna Alaska Airlines MasterCard?
  You may have noticed that as of April 26th the mbna Alaska Airlines MasterCard disappeared from the mbna website…
• IHG Rewards Club Accelerate returns for Summer 2017 - Earn 30,000 or more bonus points for your IHG stays!
  We told you that when IHG launched their one month long spring promotion a few weeks that seemed like…
• Kaligo: 1,000 Bonus Miles/Points on your 1st booking and/or 20% on all bookings
  Kaligo has launched a couple of great new bonus offers that aren't program specific. You can earn these bonuses…

Canadian Bonus Offers
N/A


Other Bonus Offers
Alitalia MilleMiglia
- Earn up to 5,000 Bonus MilleMiglia Miles when you fly Alitalia between Rome and Male. More... Book by May 15 for travel Oct 31 - Dec 15, 17

IHG Rewards Club
- IHG Rewards Club Accelerate: Earn 500 to 30,000 or more Bonus IHG Rewards Club Points when you complete stays at IHG Hotels Worldwide. Bonus varies by member More... May 15 - Aug 31, 17

Miles & More
- Earn up to Triple Miles & More miles for Budget rentals Worldwide. More... Book by May 31 for rentals until Jun 30, 17

Scandic Hotels Friends
- 2,000 Bonus Scandic Friends Points PER NIGHT for stays at the Scandic Kista Stockholm. More... Until May 31, 17

Turkish Miles&Smiles
- Earn up to 8x Miles & Smiles Miles when you rent with Europcar. More... Book by Jun 30 for rentals until Jul 15, 17


Follow Rewards Canada:

What is going to happen to loyalty rewards in Canada if Quebec passes Bill 791 and programs have to retain point/mile value?

The coming weeks could see drastic changes in the loyalty landscape in Canada. Earlier this year new legislation was proposed in Quebec that followed in the foot steps of Ontario. The Ontario legislation covered the expiry of loyalty points and was passed so that points and miles earned from programs would not expire based on time but could due to inactivity. Quebec is now wanting to do the same but are going a step further, they want to make it illegal for programs to change redemption rates (ie mile/point value) from what you get when you sign up.

Excerpt from Bill 791:

REWARDS PROGRAM CONTRACTS
“187.6. Before entering into a rewards program contract, the merchant must inform the consumer of the conditions applicable to obtaining and using rewards points.
“187.7. Subject to any applicable regulations, any stipulation of or amendment to the contract providing for an expiry date on the rewards points obtained by the consumer is prohibited.
“187.8. Any stipulation providing that the merchant may retroactively change the value of the rewards points accumulated by the consumer is prohibited.”

Line 187.7 is essentially the same as Ontario's bill however line 187.8 goes that step further. It does not allow programs to change the value of reward points accumulated. This means programs cannot change redemption rates as that effectively changes the value of the rewards points accumulated. We saw last year the conclusion of a class action lawsuit against TD in Quebec when they changed their reward redemption rates in the TD Travel Reward program. TD settled and let Quebecois keep the old better redemption rates until August 31, 2017 whereas the rest of Canada had to book at higher rates. Then there was the whole AIR MILES debacle in 2016 and the risk of rates going higher with them since they aren't expiring miles and you can see why Quebec has added this line into the legislation.

This is why the mbna Alaska Airlines MasterCard will no longer be available in Quebec as we know that Alaska Airlines will want to change redemption rates in the future. But what does this hold for existing members of Mileage Plan and all other programs? What is Aeroplan going to do? Quebec is huge for them - they could get rid of Classic Flight rewards and go strictly market fare but that would kill their membership base in the province. Then there is AIR MILES, Shoppers Optimum and scores of other programs. How are programs going to deal with not being able to change the value of the points and miles earned by their consumers in Quebec? This is huge. It looks great for the consumer in the way that you won't have to worry about your points devaluing through redemption but the programs need to stay alive and changes every few years were the norm. So we'll pay for it somehow and the logical option is changing the earn rate. Will we see lower earn rates on credit card spend? Will we see AIR MILES earning go from 1 per $20 spent at merchants to 1 per $25? By changing earn rates you aren't changing the value of your point or mile which means if and when this bill passes don't be surprised if we see earn rates drop over time.

Remember this is just Quebec at this time proposing this law  however it is setting precedent for other provinces. There is nothing stopping Ontario from amending theirs to include point value retention as well and after having two provinces with reward program rules in place it won't be long before we see other provinces follow suit.

Book your everyday travel via our partners page and in turn support Rewards Canada

Years ago and I mean pre-2012 years we had a page on the old Rewards Canada where we listed all our partners that you could book travel with but that disappeared when we redesigned the site. The page was created for several reasons. First off, family and friends kept asking me how they could book travel with us and I had to explain well we are more based on travel rewards not a travel agency but yes if you go to so and so bonus offer page on our site and click a register now link for a flight bonus or hotel bonus you would be taken to that airline or hotel and you could book with them. This was a convoluted process and the landing page of a reward offer isn't usually your easiest booking page since it is a registration page. Secondly, we had our regular readers asking us how they can support the website. Someone suggested putting one of those 'Support our site with a donation via Paypal' icons but we didn't want that so we just asked years ago that if you are booking travel you book it via us as we get a small commission on those bookings. That way you are getting something for your money and in turn you help support us.

Fast forward to now and people still ask how they can help us out. Whether it is a fellow parent at a volleyball tournament, the gentlemen in the shared office space we work out of or the numerous emails with people looking for advice on credit cards and reward programs who are very thankful and ask us how they can help us out.

To answer this and make it easy we have re-created our partners page where you can go to book your travel. The great thing is that you are not booking your travel with Rewards Canada. You are booking with the end provider, so if you have status with Marriott and want to ensure you get all your points and elite status benefits on your stay you don't have to worry as that booking is made with them not us.

We have well over 100 airline, hotel, car rental and OTA partners listed on the page that you can make your bookings with and we thank you in advance for any and all bookings you do make via the page as you are helping support the site.

If you have any suggestions, comments or questions please do not hesitate to post them in the comments section below.

Other than that you can check out our Partner Booking Page here!

What's going on with the mbna Alaska Airlines MasterCard?

You may have noticed that as of April 26th the mbna Alaska Airlines MasterCard disappeared from the mbna website and even when you click on the link for the card from Alaska's website you get the following:

We talked to our contact at TB/mbna today for some clarification on what is happening.

The card is not being discontinued. It is the third most popular card in the Canadian market in terms of an airline co-brand with membership somewhere in the five figure range. Less than Aeroplan and WestJet but definitely way more than other airline co-brand cards like British Airways and Cathay Pacific, so it has a strong following. When mbna reached out to us earlier to remove all links for the card they did ask if we have geo-targeting capabilities for the card in the future so we wanted that answered as well. What we learned from that is that this card will no longer be available to residents of Quebec. Why? Well the card is being changed slightly, it is going to have higher income requirements and a minimum spend requirement which does not meet Quebec laws apparently (not sure how other World Elite MC's still work in Quebec)  Now for the rest of Canada to get the initial sign up bonus of 25,000 miles and your first year companion ticket you will have to reach a minimum spend of $1,000 on the card in the first 90 days of having it. The higher income requirement is now matching the number set by MasterCard for World Elite cards of $80,000 personal or $150,000 household. That leaves the WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard as one of the few World Elite MC's with the older lower numbers of 70k/120k.

If you were thinking about this card you'll have to wait for perhaps a week or so (maybe less) to apply for it again or in the meantime if you are looking for a credit card that can earn Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles (mainly for those of you in Quebec) we'd recommend the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express as Starpoints convert 1:1 to Alaska (and they throw in 5,000 more miles when you convert 20,000 points at a time)

UPDATE:
We have learned more about the reasoning behind the Quebec issue. It is due to Bill 791 which should be introduced shortly in Quebec that follows the legislation set in place by Ontario but goes even further than just banning expiry dates but is also including the provision that you cannot change redemption rates on consumers! So this is why you won't see this card in Quebec anymore because it would prevent Alaska Airlines from making changes to their award charts! And now the bigger question is, outside of all the cash based programs (like proprietary credit card programs, WestJet, Petro) what is going to happen to them in Quebec? Aeroplan is huge in Quebec, what will happen to their classic flight rewards and merchandise catalogs?

IHG Rewards Club Accelerate returns for Summer 2017 - Earn 30,000 or more bonus points for your IHG stays!

We told you that when IHG launched their one month long spring promotion a few weeks that seemed like a stop-gap measure until the next Accelerate offer came out and we were correct! As soon as the spring bonus ends the summer Accelerate offer launches! As we have seen before, each Accelerate promotion they come out with has new personalized offers for each member. The total bonus available per member ranges from a minimum of 30,000 points to well past 100,000. You can register for Accelerate here.

Here is the offer I received (the same as every time for me since I didn't have any IHG stays)

This is the baseline offer that any IHG Rewards Club member should receive however many of you will receive more rewarding offers. From past experience it does appear the more active you have been in the program the better the offer you'll receive. Let us know in the comments section what offer you received.

If you receive the above offer you'll need to complete three stays with four nights to get the bonus and you'll want to have them all at Holiday Inn Hotels.  These are the stays in no particular order:

• Stay 1: Holiday Inn for a Friday and Saturday or Saturday and Sunday nights on a member exclusive discount rate. This will complete the 'A Bonus Weekend Stay' and earn you 2,000 bonus points. It will also cover off 1 of 3 hotel requirements for 'Comfort Seeker', 1 of 2 requirements for 'Your Rate' and 2 of 3 nights for 'Stay More, Earn More'  
• Stay 2: Holiday Inn for one night on a member exclusive discount rate. This will complete the 2nd requirement of 'Your Rate' and earn you 2,000 bonus points. It will also cover off the third night of 'Stay More, Earn More' so you'll earn 2,000 more points. It will also cover off the 2nd of 3 hotel requirements for 'Comfort Seeker'  
• Stay 3: Holiday Inn for one night on a member exclusive discount rate. This will complete the 3rd of 3 hotel requirements for 'Comfort Seeker'  and get you the 2,000 bonus points. You have now hit all your achievements and you will get 21,500 bonus points.

If you could keep your costs to $100 per night you are looking at $400 in stays to earn the 30,000 bonus points. Not great but not bad at all, you are actually looking at about a $150 return with those 30,000 points.  Of course if you have a different offer you may get even better value out of the promotion!

Let us know what offer you get in the comments below!

Offer details
IHG Rewards Club Accelerate: Earn 500 to 30,000 or more Bonus IHG Rewards Club Points when you complete stays at IHG Hotels Worldwide. Bonus varies by member  Full details, online registration and booking (Registration is required) May 15 - Aug 31, 17

Kaligo: 1,000 Bonus Miles/Points on your 1st booking and/or 20% on all bookings

Kaligo has launched a couple of great new bonus offers that aren't program specific. You can earn these bonuses into the airline or reward program partner of your choice.  Of course if have not booked via Kaligo before take advantage of the 1,000 mile first time booking bonus then take advantage of the 20% bonus on all your other bookings. Both offers must be booked by May 8 for stays right through 2017 and 2018

Offer details:
1,000 Bonus Miles or points in the program of your choice on your first hotel stay of US$300 or more booked via Kaligo. Full details and online booking

Offer details
20% Bonus Miles or points in the program of your choice on all your hotel stays booked via Kaligo.  Full details and online booking

Here are all of Kaligo's partners: