December 6 Update: Best Western promo update, 50% off British Airways award tickets out of Canada, double Club Premier points between Calgary & Mexico City

As a follow up to our post on Best Western's new systemwide promotion that provides a $10 Gift Card for each stay where we mentioned that we were unsure of the value of the card for currencies outside of the U.S.. We reached out to BW and they told us it would be the equivalent of US$10, so for Canadian BW Rewards members you will get a gift card of roughly C$13 for each stay.

British Airways launched a 50% discount offer for redeeming for select award flights to/from London Heathrow or Gatwick and their Canadian destinations are included. The 50% even works on their off-peak award rates that are see cities like Toronto and Montreal which are normally 26,000 Avios off-peak drop to 13,000 Avios round trip.

 While it may seem like a steal in most cases it isn't. We looked at some options and while it is only 13,000 Avios Round Trip between YYZ and LHR you also have to pay just over $600 in taxes and fees. To buy the same tickets out right ranged from $680 to $780 so the points are only saving you ~$50 to $150. Not a great value. Where it might come handy however is for one way flights - these are notoriously more expensive to buy with just cash and utilizing Avios plus some cash for taxes and fees can save you some money. Of course we just had the 25% transfer bonus from Amex to BA earlier this fall and right now you can transfer RBC Rewards Points to BA with a 30% bonus so these can definitely help bring out more value during this 50% off sale.

Here are the one way amounts for off-peak flights out of Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver

Toronto-London

Calgary-London

Montreal-London

Vancouver-London

Look at this way, a one-way flight in Economy from Toronto to London is only 6,500 Avios. That equates to as little as $2,600 ($3,250 without the transfer bonus) in spending on a card like the American Express Gold Rewards card or $5,000 ($6,500 without the transfer bonus) on the RBC Visa Infinite Avion card. It is almost unheard of to get a one way flight to the U.K. for that little amount of spending or points!


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:

• Delta and WestJet agree to form joint venture - to include reciprocal elite member benefits!
  WestJet and Delta have announced a plan to further enhance their partnership by forming a joint venture for trans-border…
• Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for December
  Here are the Rewards Canada Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for the month of December! This is not…

Travel Deals

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
AeroMexico Club Premier
- Double Club Premier Points when you fly between Mexico City and Calgary More... Until Jan 31, 18

American AAdvantage
- 20% Bonus AAdvantage Miles when you convert Diners Club Club Rewards points to American AAdvantage More... Canadian Residents only Until Dec 31, 17

British Airways Executive Club
- 50% Avios Discount when you redeem for select award flights from Canada to London Heathrow or London Gatwick. More... Book by Dec 17 for travel Jan 4 - Jun 30, 18


Other Bonus Offers
Aegean Miles&Bonus
- 30% Miles&Bonus Discount on select award tickets within Greece and between Greece and Europe, the Middle East or Africa. More... Until Feb 28, 18

AeroMexico Club Premier
- Double Club Premier Points when you fly between Mexico City and Nuevo Laredo, San Luis Potosi, Reynosa, Calgary, Portland, Seattle, Seoul, Shanghai or Tokyo; Monterrey and Chihuahua, Puebla, Queretaro or San Luis Potosi; Atlanta and Queretaro, Guadalajara, Merida or Monterrey More... Until Jan 31, 18
- Double Club Premier Points for stays at Best Western hotels in Mexico. More... Until Dec 31, 17
- Triple Club Premier Points for stays at participating NH hotels in Mexico. More... Until Dec 31, 17

American AAdvantage
- Earn up to 120,000 Bonus AAdvantage Miles when you buy or gift 10,000 or more miles. More... Until Jan 4, 17

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Triple KrisFlyer Miles for stays at Accor Hotels Worldwide. More... Book by Jan 31 for stays until Feb 15, 18

Follow Rewards Canada:

Delta and WestJet agree to form joint venture - to include reciprocal elite member benefits!

WestJet and Delta have announced a plan to further enhance their partnership by forming a joint venture for trans-border flights. This is similar to what Air Canada has had in place with United for many years. The key aspects of the joint venture (subject to approval) will be as follows:

• Coordinated flight schedules for new nonstop flights to new destinations, expanded codesharing and seamless and convenient connections on the airlines' extensive networks in the U.S. and Canada.
• Enhanced frequent flyer benefits including reciprocal benefits for top tier members of both airlines.

The latter one is awesome news! This is yet another step in the growth of WestJet Rewards and its evolution into a full fledged frequent flyer program. Right now WestJet Elite members have no benefits outside of WestJet but it appears that Gold (and perhaps Silver) members will soon get some benefits when flying on Delta! Seeing that reciprocal benefits for elite members is not subject to government approval we should see this happen regardless of whether the joint venture is approved or not.

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Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for December

Here are the Rewards Canada Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for the month of December! This is not a 'best' credit card list like our Top Travel Rewards Credit Card rankings but instead a look at cards that have very good acquisition (sign up) offers. As always when choosing a card you should always take other factors into account other than the sign up bonus, but when most or all of these cards are first year free, they can and do pay off even when you grab them strictly for sign up rewards. In fact all of the cards on this list for September are first year free so you can try them out at no cost and decide later on if the card is right for you. All the while earning the sign up bonus which can be used to subsidize your travels!

Same list of cards we saw in October and November. You may ask with the upcoming devaluation of the two BMO cards why are they still on the list? For the BMO Rewards World Elite, you're getting $200 in travel and the Priority Pass benefits for no cost, when January 15th rolls around that 20,000 points should be boosted to 28,000 in your account as BMO says your points will retain their value so no matter you get the $200 value. After you use it up and use up your Priority Pass then you can reconsider keeping the card. Same with the AIR MILES card - the devaluation is the 25% discount for flights in North America dropping to 15% as of January 15th but no matter what 3,000 miles for $0 is an awesome deal.

 

Here are our top 5 credit card sign up offers for November (in alphabetical order)

BMO AIR MILES World Elite Mastercard - 3,000 Miles  (Apply here)
The best ever sign up bonus for an AIR MILES co-branded card makes it into our Top 5 sign up list thanks to its 3,000 miles sign up bonus (worth ~$300 or more) and no annual fee in the first year! Even if you aren't a fan of AIR MILES the fact you can get 3,000 miles and them use them as cash rewards for no cost to you should be enough to go out and get this card.

BMO Rewards World Elite Mastercard- 20,000 Points  (Apply here)

It's been awhile since this card has graced the top 5 credit card sign up offers! 20,000 points is your sign up bonus that is worth $200 in travel and since the card is first year free right now (they bill you $150 and then rebate after several months) that means your $200 in travel is free and yes you even get the Priority Pass access and 4 lounge passes included in that first year free. 

CIBC Aventura Visa Infinite (Apply Here)
Back into the list the CIBC Aventura Visa Infinite card offers a 15,000 Aventura Points sign up bonus worth anywhere from $150 to $300 depending on what type of flight you redeem for and since the annual fee of $120 (and supplementary cards are waived as well) those 15,000 points come at no cost to you.

Scotiabank Gold American Express Card - 25,000 Points  (Apply here)

A very strong card in the earn category for Gas, Grocery and Dining/Entertainment purchases, the current sign up bonus for the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card is 25,000 points when you reach $1,000 in spending in the first three months. That 25,000 points is equal to a $250 travel credit and since this card is a book anywhere card you can book the travel how you want when you want and when the charge shows up on your account you can redeem the points against the charge. The card normally has a $99 annual fee but of course that is waived in the first year during this promotion.

TD First Class Visa Infinite Card - 50,000 Points (Apply here)
Its been awhile since this card has had a good sign up offer and now it has what we can recall as one of its highest bonuses of 50,000 points but that's not all it also has the first year fee waived! You get the standard sign up bonus of 20,000 upon approval and another 30,000 when you spend $1,000 in the first 90 days of having the card. Those 50,000 points translate to $200 worth of travel credits for any travel booking or $250 worth of travel for bookings made via Expedia For TD

If you went for all these cards you ultimately could end up with $1,300 or so in travel credits but even if you only take on one or two you are helping your travel budget significantly at no cost other than regular credit card spend

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?

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