BMO Rewards World Elite MasterCard Review - 2018 Update

This is an excerpt of our review that appears on the main Rewards Canada site which has been updated to incorporate all the changes the card underwent on January 15, 2018:

In the middle of March 2010 BMO came out with a new Mastercard offering to compete with the Visa Infinite cards issued by other banks in Canada. Until then BMO has only offered Gold or Platinum versions of the various Mastercards they issued. One can assume BMO came out with this card for several reasons. The first is that BMO needed to keep its higher end clientele from jumping ship from their current line of cards to the premium Infinite cards offered by banks like CIBC and RBC. The second reason would be to try and pull some of the current Visa Infinite cardholders away from those other banks, particularly if they are BMO clients to start with. On January 15, 2018 the card underwent some changes which are reflected in this update of the review.

Overview

The World Elite tag is Mastercard's premium card offering much like Visa's Infinite/Signature branding and is a step up from the World Mastercard. To the best of our knowledge, the BMO World Elite was the first World Elite card offering in Canada. With World Elite comes extra benefits and enhancements like Concierge service, extra insurance benefits, exclusive concert/theatre packages and more. These features are what bring the card in-line with the other premium cards in Canada. Much like the RBC Avion Visa, the BMO World Elite Mastercard allows you to redeem for any travel in any class (flights, hotels, cruises etc.) via BMO's own travel agency.

Costs & Sign up Features

The BMO World Elite comes with a heftier $150 primary card annual fee versus the average $120 for many comparable cards including Visa Infinite cards. Currently the card has a limited time offer until April 20, 2018 where you will have the annual fee waived in the first year. The card offers a 35,000 point welcome bonus after spending $3,000 on the card in the first three months which is worth $250 in travel with the newly revised redemption rate of 140 points = $1. Supplementary cards run $50 which is the same for almost all of the Infinite/Platinum/Gold travel credit card offerings from other banks. The interest rate on the card is 19.99% which is in line with its competitors but most people who have this card will be paying off their monthly balances in full.

Earning

The card earns BMO Rewards points and earns those points as follows
3 Points per dollar spent on travel, dining and entertainment purchases (up to $50,000 annualy)
2 Points per dollar spent on all other purchases

Redeeming

On the redemption side, BMO originally made it tough to find out what the redemption ratios were for travel unless you are an actual cardholder. This was changed in 2013 when they set the redemption rate at 100 points = $1 towards travel. However this changed once again on January 15, 2018 when the card and rewards program were revamped.

Continue reading the entire review here

Marriott Rewards Hotel Category Changes for 2018 - 21% of the chain worldwide is going up in price

Earlier today we brought you the details on the Starwood Preferred Guest hotel category changes and as mentioned we'd bring you the Marriott Rewards category changes as well! The news, well changes from Marriott is worse than we saw with SPG. As of March 6th a total of 1,331 Marriott hotels will be changing categories. Of those, 1,083 are moving up while only 248 are moving down in categories. Of all the Marriott hotels globally the hotels increasing  represents 21% of their entire portfolio while those going down only represents 5%. Overall this can be seen as a devaluation as nearly a quarter of their hotels now require more points or higher category free night certificates.

Here in Canada, the changes in Canada affect approximately 42% of their entire portfolio here with 46 hotels going up in category (roughly 30% of their hotels in Canada) but surprisingly only 5 are moving from Category 5 to 6.  Granted there are only 19 Category 5 hotels in Canada currently so this a quarter of them. But why is this a surprise? There is going to be an influx of people who will be receiving Cat 1-5 certificates from the end of the Chase Marriott Premier Visa Card on March 15th which means that many more free nights to be used at those hotels. Not all to be used in Canada but I gather a large proportion are redeemed within our borders. Overall with these changes it will leave us with roughly 100 hotels in Canada where you can use that certificate.

These are the hotels moving up in categories this year in Canada:

Hotel	2017 Category or Tier	2018 Category or Tier
Courtyard Halifax Downtown	5	6
Courtyard Hamilton	3	4
Courtyard Montreal Airport	4	5
Courtyard Montreal Downtown	7	8
Courtyard Toronto Airport	3	4
Courtyard Toronto Brampton	2	3
Courtyard Toronto Downtown	5	6
Courtyard Toronto Northeast/Markham	3	4
Courtyard Toronto Vaughan	3	4
Delta Hotels Fredericton	3	4
Delta Hotels Guelph Conference Centre	3	4
Delta Hotels Kingston Waterfront	6	7
Delta Hotels Prince Edward	6	7
Delta Hotels Toronto	6	7
Delta Hotels Toronto Airport & Conference Centre	4	5
Delta Hotels Vancouver Downtown Suites	7	8
Delta Hotels Victoria Ocean Pointe Resort	7	8
Delta Hotels Waterloo	3	4
Fairfield Inn & Suites Guelph	2	3
Fairfield Inn & Suites Kamloops	3	4
Fairfield Inn & Suites Kelowna	4	5
Fairfield Inn & Suites Moncton	3	4
Fairfield Inn & Suites Montreal Airport	3	4
Fairfield Inn & Suites Ottawa Kanata	2	3
Fairfield Inn & Suites Toronto Airport	3	4
Fairfield Inn & Suites Winnipeg	1	2
Niagara Falls Marriott Fallsview Hotel & Spa	8	9
Renaissance Montreal Downtown Hotel	7	8
Residence Inn Halifax Downtown	4	5
Residence Inn Kingston Water's Edge	5	6
Residence Inn Mississauga-Airport Corporate Centre West	3	4
Residence Inn Montreal Airport	5	6
Residence Inn Montreal Downtown	6	7
Residence Inn Toronto Downtown/Entertainment District	7	8
Residence Inn Toronto Markham	3	4
Residence Inn Toronto Vaughan	4	5
SpringHill Suites Old Montreal	7	8
SpringHill Suites Toronto Vaughan	4	5
The Algonquin Resort St. Andrews by-the-Sea, Autograph Collection	5	6
Toronto Marriott Markham	4	5
TownePlace Suites Kincardine	2	3
TownePlace Suites London	1	2
TownePlace Suites Ottawa Kanata	2	3
TownePlace Suites Sudbury	4	5
TownePlace Suites Toronto Northeast/Markham	3	4
Vancouver Marriott Pinnacle Downtown Hotel	7	8

On the flip side, 18 hotels are going down in Category. (represents about 12% of hotels in Canada) Of note The Hotel Saskatchewan goes down to Category 3 which makes it a really good deal. I'm also glad to see the Delta Hotels Kananaskis Lodge go down a category although in my opinion Category 6 is still high for the quality of this hotel. You really are paying for the location in the mountains.

Hotel	2017 Category or Tier	2018 Category or Tier
Courtyard Calgary South	4	3
Courtyard Edmonton West	3	2
Courtyard Saskatoon Airport	2	1
Delta Hotels Beausejour	5	4
Delta Hotels Bessborough	7	6
Delta Hotels Calgary Airport In-Terminal	5	4
Delta Hotels Calgary Downtown	5	4
Delta Hotels Edmonton Centre Suites	5	4
Delta Hotels Edmonton South Conference Centre	4	3
Delta Hotels Kananaskis Lodge	7	6
Delta Hotels Regina	4	3
Fairfield Inn & Suites Edmonton North	3	2
Fairfield Inn & Suites Regina	2	1
Fairfield Inn & Suites St. John's Newfoundland	5	4
Residence Inn Calgary South	4	3
The Hotel Saskatchewan, Autograph Collection	4	3
TownePlace Suites Saskatoon	2	1

As is always the case with these annual category changes we recommend trying to book before March 6th if you have had your eyes on a redemption at any of the locations moving up a category and if at all possible wait to book for a free night if that location is going down.

You can find the complete list of the hotels changing categories here.

Starwood Preferred Guest Hotel Category Changes for 2018 plus a new shorter booking window

This year we've already seen hotel category changes from the likes of IHG, Carlson Hotels and Hyatt and now its Starwood and Marriott's turn. In this post we'll cover the changes from Starwood Preferred Guest and follow up with another post covering Marriott Rewards. Starwood's changes aren't too bad this year with 276 hotels in total moving up or down in categories. Out of the 276 hotels 145 are moving up one or two categories (only three move up two categories) and 131 are moving down one to three categories (only three again move more than one). As you can see it is almost an even split in the changes.

For the Canadian Starwood locations a total of 15 hotels are changing and for us the numbers aren't as good. 13 of those 15 are moving up in categories, with the Four Points by Sheraton Niagara Falls Fallsview being one of those three hotels globally moving up two categories! We only see two hotels in Alberta drop down one category:

Even with the changes however most of the hotels that are moving up a category are hotels that were category 3 which now makes them category 4. These hotels will luckily stay in the realm of using the free weekend night certificate that you can get with the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express if you spend $40,000 annually.

The other news that came out sees the booking window for reserving Starwood Hotels drop from 550 nights out to 350 days. This brings the number in line with Marriott's policy and is just one more step towards the complete integration that we should see early in 2019.

You can find the complete list of the 276 hotels changing categories here.

February 7 Update: American Express Cobalt Card Resources on Rewards Canada & 40 bonus AIR MILES for Best Western stays

We've created a page on our main site that lists all the American Express Cobalt Card Resources we have as there have been quite a few articles and features about the card. You'll find them all on this page! Hopefully all of these articles listed together will make it easier for you to decide if you want to get the card. We'll follow suit and do the same for other cards that have numerous articles on the site!

Not only did we add the new Best Western systemwide offers to our site today, we also added the latest AIR MILES bonus for BW stays as well. Once again the bonus is 40 Reward Miles. You can register for and book the offer here.

Posts since our last update:

• Best Western: 2,000 Bonus Rewards Points or $10 Travel Card per stay (Feb 12 - Apr 29)
  Best Western is offering up two bonuses for their late winter/early spring systemwide promotion. You can register for one…
• Accor Hotels: Earn up to 6,000 Bonus Le Club AccorHotels Points on multiple night stays Worldwide
  Le Club AccorHotels has launched their newest systemwide promotion and it is very similar to those they have ran…

Travel Deals
Air Canada has also launched a Valentine's Day Seat Sale. Book by Feb 14 for savings on travel around the world. 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 MILES (Canada)
- 40 Bonus AIR MILES Reward Miles for stays at a Best Western branded hotel in Canada, the United States, or the Caribbean Islands. More... Until Mar 31, 18

Other Bonus Offers
AeroMexico Club Premier
- Triple Club Premier Points per stay at La Quinta properties in the U.S., Mexico, Central America and Canada. More... Until May 31, 18

Alitalia MilleMiglia
- Earn up to 5,000 Bonus MilleMiglia Miles when you fly Alitalia between Rome and Johannesburg. More... Book by Mar 8 for travel Apr 8 - Jun 8, 18

Best Western Rewards
- Earn 2,000 Bonus Rewards points or a US$10 Travel Card with every Best Western stay Worldwide. More... Feb 12 - Apr 29, 18 Feb 12 - Apr 29, 18

Iberia Plus
- Earn a minimum of 1,500 Avios on Avis rentals of 3 or more days Worldwide. More... Until Mar 23, 18

Le Club AccorHotels
- Earn up to 6,000 Bonus Le Club AccorHotels Points for stays of 2+ nights at participating Accor Hotels Worldwide. More... Register and book by Mar 6 for stays Feb 20 - Sep 9, 18


Follow Rewards Canada:

Best Western: 2,000 Bonus Rewards Points or $10 Travel Card per stay (Feb 12 - Apr 29)

Best Western is offering up two bonuses for their late winter/early spring systemwide promotion. You can register for one or the other not both and once you do register you cannot change it. The offers are 2,000 bonus Rewards points per stay or a US$10 Travel Card per stay.  Note that the 2,000 points offer is targeted so you may not be able to register for it in which case you'll have to go for the travel card offer. Both offer up about the same value but the points will last longer as they don't technically expire like Travel Cards do. So if you see yourself staying at maybe only one or two Best Westerns during the promotional period and know you'll have further stays in the near future (the travel cards expire 120 days after issue) then you probably want to go with the travel card. If not the points bonus would be the better option. Of course if you already have a pretty decent sized Best Western balance then points are probably the better way to go even if you are planning lots of stays in the near future as the higher your balance the more value these points have to get you the higher end redemptions with BW or even the ability to convert to airline miles.

Offer details
Earn 2,000 Bonus Rewards points on every Best Western stay Worldwide. Full details, online registration and booking (Registration is required) Feb 12 - Apr 29, 18 (this offer is targeted so you may have to go for the $10 card offer)

or

Earn a US$10 Best Western Travel Card on every Best Western stay Worldwide. Full details, online registration and booking (Registration is required) Feb 12 - Apr 29, 18

Best Western Rewards members, who reside in North America, can stay at any Best Western branded hotel worldwide. Best Western Rewards members, who reside outside of North America, must complete their stay(s) at any Best Western branded hotel in North America.

Find many more Best Western Rewards bonus points offers here.

Accor Hotels: Earn up to 6,000 Bonus Le Club AccorHotels Points on multiple night stays Worldwide

Le Club AccorHotels has launched their newest systemwide promotion and it is very similar to those they have ran in the past. Like the previous iterations, the more stays you have the more points you earn. This offer sees the bonuses being awarded on stays of 2+ nights with the first stay earning 500 bonus points, 2,500 bonus points on the second and 3,500 on the third. Complete all three stays and you have earned 6,000 bonus Le Club AccorHotels points which is the equivalent of EUR120 towards future stays. Remember that later this year Fairmont Hotels will be fully integrated into the Le Club AccorHotels program so this could be a preemptive strike for you to start racking up points for stays at Fairmont, Raffles or Swissotel hotels.

Offer details
Earn up to 6,000 Bonus Le Club AccorHotels Points for stays of 2+ nights at participating Accor Hotels Worldwide. Earn 500 bonus points on your 1st 2+ night stay, 2,500 on the 2nd 2+ night stay and 3,500 bonus points on the 3rd 2+ nights stay. Full details, online registration and booking. (Registration is required) Register and book by Mar 6 for stays Feb 20 - Sep 9, 18

Find many more Le Club AccorHotels bonus points offers here

February 6 Update: Lounge Passes Giveaway winner, Club Carlson hotel category changes with 5 in Canada going down in price!

Congratulations to Steve B of Winnipeg who won the 2 Maple Leaf Lounge passes in our giveaway from last week!

Club Carlson, the loyalty program for Carlson Rezidor Hotels (think Radisson, Country Inns & Suites) has announced their 2018 hotel category changes. Five hotels in Canada (well Alberta) are changing and the good news is they are all going down a category! Globally there are over 120 hotels changing (either going up or down) and you can view that list here.

Primera Air, the low cost European air carrier is expanding their service between Toronto and London Stansted. Bookings must be strong as the initially announced 3x weekly service starting May 19, which still stands but then as of August 24th that will move up 5x weekly service. (Source RoutesOnline). The airline, like most low cost carriers, does not have their own frequent flyer program or participate in other airlines programs but is ideal to be used with Canadian credit card proprietary programs, you can learn about them here and how to use them for airline like this.

Posts since our last update:

• Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for February
  Here are the Rewards Canada Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for the month of February!
• Save up to 50% on Economy and Business Class award tickets from Toronto to Austria & Poland
  As we do each month we bring you the latest set Miles & More "Meilenschnaeppchen" discounted mileage awards!  This…
• Wyndham Rewards - Earn a free night after completing 2 stays Worldwide
  An awesome new offer came out from Wyndham Rewards yesterday. Simply complete 2 separate stays at any hotel that…

Travel Deals
WestJet has launched a Valentine's Day Sale. Book by Feb 8 for travel until June 27. 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
Wyndham Rewards
- Earn 15,000 Bonus Wyndham Rewards Points when you complete 2 separate stays at participating Wyndham Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. More... Until Jun 30, 18

Other Bonus Offers
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
- 500 Bonus Mileage Plan Miles when you spend $150 or more shopping via the Mileage Plan shopping portal. More... Until Feb 11, 18

Hilton Honors
- Earn up to 100% Bonus Honor Points when you buy points online. More... Until Mar 16, 18

Marriott Rewards
- Earn up to 5,000 Rewards Points on rentals of 2 or more days at participating Hertz locations in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Australia and New Zealand. More... Until Apr 30, 18

Starwood Preferred Guest
- OFFER EXTENDED Double Starpoints, Up to 35% Off and 5th night free for stays in Hawaii, Tahiti or Bora Bora. More... Until Jun 30, 18

United MileagePlus
- Triple MileagePlus Miles per stay at La Quinta properties in the U.S., Mexico and Canada. More... Until Jun 30, 18


Follow Rewards Canada:

Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for February

Here are the Rewards Canada Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for the month of February! 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!

No change this month once again for the top 5 sign up offers for February - even with the BMO changes announced on January 15th this list focuses on the strength of the sign up offers and not so much on the day to day earn or other elements. Its pretty much about getting in on the offer and then most likely getting out once you use up the rewards from that sign up bonus.

Here are our top 5 credit card sign up offers for February (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 continues to be in the 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- 35,000 Points  (Apply here)

Revamped on January 15th with a reward program that is less rewards on your day to day spend the card still graces this list thanks to its sign bonus and first year free offer. The card now offer a 35,000 point sign up bonus that is worth $250 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 $250 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)
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

Save up to 50% on Economy and Business Class award tickets from Toronto to Austria & Poland

As we do each month we bring you the latest set Miles & More "Meilenschnaeppchen" discounted mileage awards!  This month we see the continuation of economy class offers on LOT and something we haven't seen in awhile, business class offers on Austrian!!

These are good for travel on LOT until April 1 with bookings allowed until March 31 while Austrian is good for travel until March 31 and must be booked by Feb 28

You can redeem Miles & More miles for round trip economy class tickets on LOT from Toronto to Poland for only 30,000 miles. This is a 50% discount off the normal Economy Class award ticket price of 60,000 miles and LOT does not charge a lot for additional taxes and fees so this is an ideal redemption to look at!

And for business class this month the options between Toronto and Austria on Austrian, the discount is a bit below 50% as you need to redeem 55,000 miles for round trip flights that normally cost 105,000 miles.

 As we mention every time they have the 50% off economy offer is that you could in theory get close to amount required to redeem for the tickets with grabbing a single credit card that has a $120 annual fee! How so? As we usually mention in this post you can boost your Miles & More account with the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express. Currently the card comes with a 20,000 Starpoints sign up bonus and when you convert those 20,000 Starpoints to Miles & More SPG will award you an additional 5,000 miles. Which gives you 25,000 miles. Of course if you spend $5,000 on the card that will easily boost you to the 30,000 miles required. That's enough miles to redeem for one of the economy class tickets in this offer. Of course timing of getting the card now, spending and getting the points will likely not happen for Austrian but could easily be done for the LOT flights.  Need to grab two tickets? You could choose to get one SPG card for yourself and you for your partner or spouse. If that's not your situation and want two tickets for yourself you could also grab The Starwood Preferred Guest Business Credit Card from American Express as it also has 20,000 point sign up bonus and then you would ultimately be able to have 50,000 Miles & More miles not including spending for two tickets on LOT or one business class ticket on Austrian.

Full details on this Miles & More offer can be found here

Wyndham Rewards - Earn a free night after completing 2 stays Worldwide

An awesome new offer came out from Wyndham Rewards yesterday. Simply complete 2 separate stays at any hotel that participates in Wyndham Rewards and you'll be rewarded with 15,000 bonus Wyndham Rewards points. As you may or may not know, 15,000 points is good enough for standard room award night at ANY Wyndham Rewards hotels Worldwide including their highest end locations and all inclusive resorts. Seeing that you could complete 2 stays at super cheap Super 8 hotels and then have the points for a nice location for free this is one of the best hotel promotions on the market right now!

Offer details:
Earn 15,000 Bonus Wyndham Rewards Points when you complete 2 separate stays at participating Wyndham Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. Full details, online registration and booking (Registration is required) Until Jun 30, 18

Find more Wyndham Rewards bonus offers here.