December 4 Update: New Air Canada domestic routes, American Airlines brings back YYC/YVR-ORD & Cobalt Multipliers working in Europe!

Air Canada announced some more new routes for next Summer - these ones are domesitc routes that will see more flights between B.C. and Eastern Canada. The Non-stop Air Canada Rouge seasonal services start in June and will fly between Montreal-Victoria, Toronto-Nanaimo and Toronto-Kamloops. (Source Air Canada)

American Airlines is also expanding service to Canada with the return of routes between Calgary and Vancouver and Chicago. The YYC service will be 6x weekly for the summer season while YVR will be daily year round service (Source Routes Online) Both these routes will fall into British Airways Executive Club's 20,000 Avios round trip (10,000 Avios one way) award value Find out more about that here.

The 15,000 point sign up bonus for the Scotiabank More Rewards Visa card has been extended to April 30, 2018. This is the card that ranks first in our Travel Points Credit Card with no annual fee category. Find out more here.

Further confirmation from our readers that the American Exress Cobalt multipliers are global, Ciana let us know the multiplier worked in Rome!

And speaking of the American Express Cobalt card, the 10x Points have started to post:

We're going to keep this reminder going in each update until Christmas:
Check out the Give A Mile Flight Hero campaign! The charity can really use donations of miles to help provide flights to those who otherwise would be unable to travel to visit terminally ill or critically sick family and friends. Rewards Canada has pledged to raise 100,000 miles and we are half way there! We are putting the call out to all of our fans, readers and even new visitors, if you can give please do so. It can be as little as 1,000 miles! You can find out more and donate here.



Posts since our last update:

• Air Canada Altitude eUpgrade process made much more difficult?
  Commentary today from Rewards Canada contributor Bill Wheatley regarding the Air Canada Altitude eUpgrade process: With Air Canada’s recent switch…
• Two months in and the American Express Cobalt is living up to its name
  It’s been a little over 2 months since the launch of the game-changing American Express Cobalt Card and personally we've…
• Amazing new American Express Cobalt Card offer - 10 points for every $1 in the first $2,000 spent in eligible eats, drinks, and grocery purchases
  Just in time for the holidays American Express has released this amazing offer for those who have or get the…

Travel Deals
SPG Sunsational Savings Explore some of the world’s most iconic resorts in Aspen, Scottsdale, South Beach, Hawaii and beyond. Enjoy a free night, up to a $200 resort credit and a room upgrade. Full details

Remember to visit Rewards Canada's Travel Booking site to book travel directly with many of your favourite airlines, hotels and more!

Canadian Bonus Offers
N/A
 

Other Bonus Offers
Air New Zealand Airpoints
- Double Airpoints Dollars for stays of 2+ nights at Oaks Hotels in Australia. More... Book by Dec 31 for stays until Mar 30, 18
- Double Airpoints Dollars for stays at the Pacific Resort Rarotonga. More... Book by Dec 31 for stays until May 31, 18
- Double Airpoints Dollars for weekend stays at Sudima Auckland Airport Hotel, Christchurch Airport Hotel, Hamilton and Lake Rotorua. More... Until Jan 31, 18

Avianca LifeMiles
- Up to 125% Bonus LifeMiles when you buy miles. More... Until Dec 20, 17

Le Club AccorHotels
- 150 Bonus Le Club AccorHotels points and 3 nights for the price of 2 for stays at Accor Hotels in Hungary, Czech Republic, Romania, Poland, Slovakia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Bosnia Herzegovina and Serbia. More... Book by Feb 23 for stays Dec 15 to Feb 28, 18

TAP Portugal Victoria
- Double Victoria Miles for Avis rentals of 2 or more days Worldwide. More... Until Dec 31, 17

Turkish Miles&Smiles
- Triple Miles&Smiles Miles for each stay at participating Hilton hotels in Turkey More... Until Jan 15, 18

Follow Rewards Canada:

Air Canada Altitude eUpgrade process made much more difficult?

Commentary today from Rewards Canada contributor Bill Wheatley regarding the Air Canada Altitude eUpgrade process:

With Air Canada’s recent switch to offering “More Economy Flex Fare Options”, it has become much less clear whether your booked flight qualifies for an upgrade. The older method was pretty simple: If you booked Flex, you were eligible for an upgrade, if you booked Tango, you were not. (Though they have recently allowed certain Tango fares to be upgraded with an additional fee).  Now it is virtually impossible to see if your fare is eligible for upgrade without an additional fee as they have incorporated the Tango fare class (S,T,L,A,K) into the Flex category.

In fact, according to the chart below, all of the Fare classes are now shown in both Flex and Tango. How is it that certain Tango fares have less of an add-on fee than a Flex fare? And why should a Flex fare have an add-on fee at all? Air Canada has stated that there are now “New lower Economy Flex fares” available for booking.  But the add-on fee for that is $100.00.  The majority of the flying public do not have any status and will pay the price that is listed. Are we to believe that Air Canada lowered the cost of a Flex flight by $100.00, the price that 95% of passengers booking will pay, in order to put an add-on to persons attempting to upgrade? I think not.

When booking online, you are clearly shown the fare type, but not the fare class.

So you really don’t know if you will be requested to pay an additional fee for upgrading until you actually try to upgrade after you have made your purchase.

I am travelling to Whitehorse (YXY) on Wednesday and booked through the company travel agent. I specifically requested Flex fare and asked them to clarify the fare class for me. I was told that my bookings were in the “W” and “G” class. Both of those fare classes allow for eUpgrade without additional charge. That seems to correspond to the first letter of the “Fare Basis” below.

However, when I access my eUpgrade account, it shows me that “The purchased fare class for this flight does not allow for upgrades”. This flight is less than 48 hours away, so I am well within my booking window of 10 days for Elite50. I also don’t see how my itinerary is “Not eligible for upgrade” when each and every Fare class on the chart above says you can upgrade (unless they have fare classes that are not listed, which I highly doubt).

Air Canada has made a simple and easy to understand process into a convoluted and difficult booking procedure. It is probably a safe bet that a lot of people who purchased a Flex fare thought they would be able to utilize their eUpgrade to Business Class as usual, only to find out they now had to pay an additional fee. And how many of those people paid that fee, which has resulted in additional income for Air Canada.

In addition, I will now have to call Air Canada to try and get the answer as to why my fare is not eligible for upgrade. I anticipate that I will be on hold for an extended period of time and would not be surprised to find out that I will have to pay a fee to have this clarified. (Speculation on my part, but…..)

Two months in and the American Express Cobalt is living up to its name

It’s been a little over 2 months since the launch of the game-changing American Express Cobalt Card and personally we've had it in our hands for a little over a month.

Related: Introducing the American Express Cobalt Card - this card is simply amazing

Its one thing to talk about a card based on what is written on paper and another to talk about it when you actually have it. What follows is my take on the card so far and all I can tell you is that it does live up to the billing of being a game-changing card. 

Earning Points
Earning points has been extremely easy on the card thanks to the 5x Points earned on Eats & Drinks! I would say that the majority of my purchases have been in the Eats & Drinks category so the points have been racking up super quick. In fact, in the first month of having the card I earned over 30,000 Membership Rewards points. 15,000 in sign up bonuses and over 15,000 from around $3,000 in purchases like dining out and grocery shopping. That means at this point I have achieved around a 10% return on the spending if I was to redeem for travel via the Use Points for Purchases option.

As you can see my Sobeys purchase came with the 10,000 point bonus which is awarded if you hit $3,000 in spending within the first three months of having the card.  That bonus is available to all approved applicants as long as you apply by January 30, 2018.

This purchase also triggered my second 2,500 points for spending $500 per billing cycle in the first 12 months:

Redeeming Points
I haven't redeemed any of the points yet from the card but will be doing so very shortly. I did mention above that the points in my account to date are worth over $300 in travel for the Use Points for Purchases, but my intentions are to redeem the points via the Frequent Traveller Participants option for Starwood Preferred Guest. The transfer rate is 1,000 Membership Rewards points to 500 Starpoints.

Here is an example of some of the value from transferring. I could convert 24,000 Membership Rewards points to get me 12,000 Starpoints. A room at the W Ft. Lauderdale costs 12,000 Starpoints or US$301 with taxes in or close to C$360. That's not bad at all, getting $360 in value for the 24,000 points! As you can see this option pulls a lot of value out of the Cobalt Card as well.

Lifestyle
The card is marketed not only as a card for Millennials but also as a lifestyle card and that's where the non-reward perks of the card kick in with exclusive offers and of course the well-known American Express Invites programs.
 
In its short lifespan the American Express Cobalt Card has already had exclusive offers for its Cardmembers. Currently, this includes a 10X points accelerator for every $1 in the first $2,000 spent in eligible eats, drinks and grocery purchases and 5 points for every $1 over $2,000 on additional eligible purchases. This offer runs until December 31, 2017

There is also another current offer with H&M:

And then there was the exclusive early access to J.Crew's Black Friday offer for all American Express cardholders:

I always like the J.Crew offers and others that we have seen for having other American Express cards in our wallets but if the H&M offer is any indication I'll be looking forward to more Cobalt exclusive offers in the near future! You too can check the Cobalt website for additional offers.

Wrap Up
The card is definitely living up to the billing of being a game-changing card. It has only been out for two months and in my hands for only one and literally made me $300+ in that month. But it’s not just the points that it is living up to. It's living up to the Lifestyle nature of the card. To come out with an exclusive offer like the H&M offer this early in the life of the card shows that American Express really does mean to do business with Millennials and anyone looking to enhance their lifestyles.

Click here for complete details and to apply for the American Express Cobalt Card

Amazing new American Express Cobalt Card offer - 10 points for every $1 in the first $2,000 spent in eligible eats, drinks, and grocery purchases

Just in time for the holidays American Express has released this amazing offer for those who have or get the American Express Cobalt card! For the month of December, the category multiplier for eats & drinks is being doubled to 10 points per dollar for the first $2,000 in spending!

Cobalt Cardmembers earn 10 points for every $1 in the first $2,000 spent in eligible eats, drinks, and grocery purchases and 5 points for every $1 over $2,000 on additional eligible purchases

This offer runs from December 1 to December 31st and is open to existing Cardmembers and new Cardmembers. To ensure you get in on this offer and you don't have the card you'll want to apply sooner than later for the card as you should get it within 10 business days if you are approved immediately. That will still give lots of time to get the 10x bonus!

What are 10 points per dollar worth with the American Express Cobalt Card?

• Use Points for Purchases (Travel): this is equivalent to a 10% return - so if you make the $2,000 limit your points are worth $200 towards travel
• Use Points for Purchases (non-travel) this is equivalent to a 7% return - worth $140 towards any non-travel purchases if you hit the $2,000 level
• Transfer to Starwood Preferred Guest: 10 points equals 5 Starpoints. 5 Starpoints per dollar spent is simply amazing! Considering the hotels you can redeem these points for or you have the option of converting Starpoints to 30+ airlines. When you convert 20,000 Starpoints to an airline partner SPG will throw in an additional 5,000 miles which means this 10x multiplier will net you 6.25 miles per dollar as long as you have other Starpoints to meet the 20k redemption amount! There is no card on the market today that can provide you with 6.25 Aeroplan Miles, Avios or whatever airline currency SPG converts to at a 1:1 for each dollar you spend up to that $2,000 level!

American Express continues to make this the most sought after card in the Canadian market today! I know that both my wife and I should have no problem hitting that $2,000 level each for eats and drinks with Christmas and New Years coming up!

How about you? Are you excited for this offer and will you try to max it out to get 20,000 Membership Rewards points on that spending?

---

November 30 Update: SWISS First Class was available for booking - we missed it, Plum Rewards added to bonus offers, Stay 2 Get 3 with Hyatt & Amex

If you read a lot of other frequent flyer/miles/points blogs your RSS feed may have exploded with this anomalous offer just like ours did. Overnight SWISS First Class became available to redeem for with Aeroplan Miles, MileagePlus miles and most other Star Alliance programs! Normally SWISS First Class is not available as an award to anyone but Miles & More Senator members but for some reason it opened up. We've seen it happen earlier this year and once back in 2016.

We did our best this morning to find availability but couldn't find anything leading us to believe that this amazing redemption offer was caught by SWISS and corrected by the time we got to work hence no post from us about it. It does tell us one thing - you shouldn't sleep at all. You need to be awake 24hrs a day to catch these offers! Just kidding, what you should be doing is making sure you follow many blogs so that you don't miss out on any potential offers.  By the way, in our search for the SWISS First Class we did come across some Lufthansa First Class availability out of New York City on Aeroplan and this was a few months out - not 14 days like you typically see when trying to book LH First.  Were you able to get in on this? Let us know below!!

 In a further expansion of our bonus offer coverage we have now added a Chapters Indigo Plum Rewards page to our bonus offers section. Check it out here.


We're going to keep this reminder going in each update until Christmas:
Check out the Give A Mile Flight Hero campaign! The charity can really use donations of miles to help provide flights to those who otherwise would be unable to travel to visit terminally ill or critically sick family and friends. Rewards Canada has pledged to raise 100,000 miles and we are half way there! We are putting the call out to all of our fans, readers and even new visitors, if you can give please do so. It can be as little as 1,000 miles! You can find out more and donate here.



Posts since our last update:

• Air France KLM Flying Blue Promo Awards - Save 25% on Business Class award tickets between Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver & Europe
  The newest set of Air France KLM's Promo Awards were released last night (you would have seen our post…
• Best Western Rewards: Earn a $10 Best Western Gift Card with every stay worldwide
  Best Western Rewards next systemwide promotion is the return of the $10 Best Western Gift Card with every BW…
• Last day to register for Marriott's MegaBonus and Starwood's Explore More promotions
  Today is the last day to register for two major hotel promotions! If you haven't done so yet do so…

Travel Deals
Book a 2 night stay, get a complimentary 3rd night at participating Hyatt Hotels
Book 2 consecutive nights in a standard room at Hyatt’s Standard Rate by January 31, 2018 for stays through March 4, 2018 at participating Hyatt hotels in Canada and enjoy a complimentary 3rd night (excludes taxes and other service charges). To receive this offer, purchase must use offer code and be charged in full to any American Express Card. Find out more here.

Remember to visit Rewards Canada's Travel Booking site to book travel directly with many of your favourite airlines, hotels and more!

Canadian Bonus Offers
Air France KLM Flying Blue
- December Promo Awards - Save 20% to 50% on the Award Miles usually required for an award ticket. Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver are all 25% off for business class flights to Europe. More... Book by Dec 31 for travel Feb 1 - Mar 31, 18

AIR MILES
- Earn up to 200 Bonus AIR MILES Reward Miles on your first hotel booking made via the AIR MILES Travel Hub. More... Book by Dec 31, 17 for stays until Mar 31, 18

Chapters Indigo Plum Rewards
- 250 Bonus Plum Rewards Points when you join the Plum Rewards Program. More... Ongoing


Other Bonus Offers
Air France KLM Flying Blue
- December 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 Dec 31 for travel Feb 1 - Mar 31, 18
- 50% Bonus Flying Blue Miles when you buy miles online. More.. Until Dec 31, 17

Best Western Rewards
- Receive a $10 Best Western Gift Card with every stay at Best Western Hotels Worldwide. More... Until Jan 31, 18

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- Triple Asia Miles for stays at the Shangri-La Hotel Colombo, Kerry Hotel Hong Kong, Shangri-La Hotel Xiamen or the Hotel Jen Beijing. More... Until Feb 28, 18

Le Club AccorHotels
- 4X Le Club Accorhotels Points for stays at new Accor Hotels Worldwide. More... Book between Dec 4 and Jan 21 for stays Dec 4 - Mar 4, 18
- 400 Bonus Le Club AccorHotels Points for stays at participating hotels in Budapest, Prague, Cracow and Wroclaw More... Dec 3 - Jan 7, 18

Follow Rewards Canada:

Air France KLM Flying Blue Promo Awards - Save 25% on Business Class award tickets between Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver & Europe

The newest set of Air France KLM's Promo Awards were released last night (you would have seen our post on our global site if you follow it) and this time we see three Canadian cities in the promotion! 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 once again but we do get 25% off which can definitely be utilized by some! While 25% isn't as good as 50% of course, it still is something to look at if you were planning travel to Europe for February.

The offers are:
Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver to Europe: 25% off Business Class


Offer Details:
December Promo Awards - Save 20% to 50% on the Award Miles usually required for an award ticket. Destinations vary by each promotional period. Full Details Book by Dec 31 for travel Feb 1 - Mar 31, 18 (Canadian departures are Feb 1 - 28 only)

Here are all the details on the  Canadian offers available for booking this month:

Don't have all the miles? Hopefully you took advantage of the Flying Blue 100% bonus on buying miles earlier this fall so that you could use them for this month's offer.  They do however have a 50% bonus going on right now until Dec 31! You can buy enough miles for the round trip business class flight for around C$2700.00 then you would have to add in the taxes and fees for the flights which can run upwards of $600. So ideally you'd only want to buy miles if the value of the ticket is more than $3,300 which many times it can be in the high $4,000 or $5,000 range unless they have one of their business class sales going on where the price of the ticket could be under $3,000.

You could always consider transferring Starpoints earned via the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express to Flying Blue. The card has a 25,000 Starpoint bonus right now which translates to 30,000 Flying Blue miles and a nice way to top off your account for one of these awards. Starwood is also selling Starpoints at a 35% discount so that could provide you with an additional option in terms being able to have enough points to redeem for this offer although you can only buy up to 30,000 Starpoints.

Best Western Rewards: Earn a $10 Best Western Gift Card with every stay worldwide

Best Western Rewards next systemwide promotion is the return of the $10 Best Western Gift Card with every BW stay.  Last seen from November of last year all the way until April of this year the newest iteration will run from Dec 1 to Jan 31, 18. It's not a bad deal considering there are lots of BW hotels that can be booked for under $100 meaning you can pull a 10% or higher return. Now you only have 120 days to use up that gift card after it being issued so not a lot of time to make use of it especially if you don't stay at Best Western very often. The major difference this time versus last year's is that the promotion is open to all Best Western Rewards members worldwide instead of just North America. Also it does state The Gift Card will be issued in the member’s local currency, so does that mean someone in Canada will get a C$10 or will it be US$10 converted to about C$13?

Offer details:
Receive a $10 Best Western Gift Card with every stay at Best Western Hotels Worldwide. Full details, online registration & booking (Registration is required) Until Jan 31, 18


Find more BW Rewards Bonus Offers here.

Last day to register for Marriott's MegaBonus and Starwood's Explore More promotions

Today is the last day to register for two major hotel promotions! If you haven't done so yet do so now and then at least your covered if you have any Marriott or Starwood stays until the middle of January

Marriott Offer
Earn a free night when you complete two stays at any participating Marriott Hotels & Resorts Worldwide.  Additional bonus offers may be provided after completing the two stays.  Full details, online registration and booking (Registration is required) Register by Nov 30 for stays until Jan 15, 18
Free stay is valid for 6 months after issuance and is good for Category 1-5 hotels.

Starwood Offer
Earn up to 1,000 Bonus Starpoints for stays at participating Starwood Hotels Worldwide. Full details, online registration and booking(Registration is required) Register by Nov 30 for stays until Jan 15, 18
Earn 1,000 bonus Starpoints per stay at St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, W, Le Méridien, Westin, Sheraton, Tribute Portfolio and Design Hotels. 500 bonus Starpoints per stay at Aloft, Element and Four Points. Plus earn . 10,000 bonus Starpoints when you stay 25 or more nights