November 15 Update: New Rewards Canada booking partners, contest to win a $50 gift card and more!

We've added a bunch of new partners to Rewards Canada's Travel Booking page! You can help support Rewards Canada by booking travel directly with these new partners of ours. Visit the Travel Booking page here. 

Centro Hotels

Falkensteiner Hotels

Oman Air

Plaza Premium

Want a chance to win a $50 gift card for MEC or REI? Check out this contest from Rewards Canada's friends Matt and Heather of the Reason 2 Roam blog. You have until December 3 to enter the contest and you can do so here.

 It's the season of giving! Help support Rewards Canada's Flight Here campaign for Give A Mile. Help us reach 100,000 miles to provide up to 4 flights of compassion. Find out more here!

Posts since our last update:

• AIR MILES Shop the Block is back - earn up to 2,000 Bonus Reward Miles when earning from multiple partners
  The annual AIR MILES Shop the Block event launched today and presents a really nice bonus mile earning opportunity.…
• Air France KLM Special Edition Promo Rewards - 3 days only to book discounted award flights out of Toronto & Vancouver to Europe
  Each month we bring you the details of Air France KLM's Flying Blue Promo Rewards, well that is each…
• Top 6 tips for maximizing miles & points earning on your holiday shopping
  With a little over a month left to the big day for gift giving the push is on to…
• On this week's Podcast - Interview with Give A Mile's Kevin Crowe and all that goes into the 2018 Flight Hero Christmas Campaign
  Episode 48 - November 13, 2018 -- Interview with Give A Mile's Kevin Crowe and all that goes into…
• Convert HSBC Rewards Points to British Airways Executive Club Avios and receive a 35% bonus
  Now is the time for British Airways Executive Club transfers from Canadian credit cards! With this offer highlighted in this…

Travel Deals
Hilton Winter Sale - Save up to 25% on weekend stays in the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa

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
- Earn up to 2,000 Bonus AIR MILES Reward Miles for earning miles from various AIR MILES partners. More... Until Dec 27, 18

Other Bonus Offers
Copa ConnectMiles
- Earn up to 750 Bonus ConnectMiles on qualifying rentals of 3 or more days at participating Budget locations worldwide. More... Until Jan 31, 19

IHG Rewards Club
- 100% Bonus IHG Rewards Club Points when you buy 5,000 or more points online. More... Until Nov 30, 18

Le Club AccorHotels
- Triple Le Club AccorHotels Points for stays at participating AccorHotels in Africa and the Indian Ocean. More... Book by Dec 24 for stays Jan 12, 19

Marriott Rewards
- Earn up to 2,000 Bonus Rewards Points PER NIGHT for stays at all participating Marriott Hotels in Arizona California Florida Georgia Illinois Kentucky Louisiana Maryland Michigan North Carolina Ohio Rhode Island Tennessee Texas Virginia Washington. More... Until Jan 4, 19
- 5,000 Bonus Rewards Points for stays of 2 or more nights at the Marriott Orlando Downtown. More... Until Dec 31, 18

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AIR MILES Shop the Block is back - earn up to 2,000 Bonus Reward Miles when earning from multiple partners

The annual AIR MILES Shop the Block event launched today and presents a really nice bonus mile earning opportunity. If you meet the requirement of using Shop the Block coupons at 3 or more sponsors you'll be awarded with up to 2,000 Rewards Miles over and above the base miles and coupon bonus miles awarded.

Bonuses are as follows:

Use 3 different offers Get 300 Bonus Miles
Use 5 different offers Get 1,000 Bonus Miles
Use 7 different offers Get 2,000 Bonus Miles

Now to earn the bonus won't come cheap if you don't have any planned shopping for next month and a half at the participating sponsors but then again it is Christmas shopping season! Also if you can, you could move some shopping you had planned from one retailer to another that is an AIR MILES Sponsor than you can earn those bonus miles for your everyday regular spending.


Here are the basic rules around this promotion:

The cheapest way we found to earn the bonus simply by looking at all the details on the coupons page (Alberta region) would be as follows:

1. Register to convert Hudson Bay Rewards points to AIR MILES (30 bonus Miles coupon)
2. Spend $50 at Global Pet Foods (10 bonus Miles coupon)
3. Spend $10 in-store at Shell (5 Bonus Miles coupon)
4. Spend $40 at Rexall (20 Bonus Miles Coupon)
5. Link your AIR MILES account to your Samsung Pay account by November 26 (75 Bonus Miles Coupon)
6. Spend $75 at Timber Mart (25 bonus miles)
7. Pick a spend $100 get 25 to 100 bonus miles offers (Safeway, Sobeys, IGA, airmilesshops.ca, etc.)

If you have a BMO or American Express AIR MILES Credit Card achieving the bonus can be easier as it will count as one offer if you make 25 or more in-store purchases on one of the cards (Opt in is required via the Shop the Block site)

That's $275 in spending to earn the 2,000 Bonus Shop the Block Miles but then you have to add in your base amount miles plus add in the non-spend offers and the coupon bonuses for an additional ~265 miles or so for 2,265 bonus miles in total. We value AIR MILES Rewards Miles at an average of 13 cents each for travel, so you are getting back $295 on your $275 in spending so that is a great return! If you strictly earn cash rewards, then you are looking at a return of about $238, still pretty decent for spending $275. For some of you it may take more spending but as we mentioned before if this is shopping you are already planning on doing then jump on the Mega Miles event right away so that you can earn this bonus.

Find out more and print all your coupons here!

Air France KLM Special Edition Promo Rewards - 3 days only to book discounted award flights out of Toronto & Vancouver to Europe

Each month we bring you the details of Air France KLM's Flying Blue Promo Rewards, well that is each month when Canadian cities are included. While the November edition did not see any Canadian cities the Flying Blue program has released a special 3 day edition of the Promo Rewards and this edition does include Toronto and Vancouver:

This special edition version of the Promo Rewards offer sees a flat rate redemption to anywhere in Europe from YYZ and YVR. This differs a bit from the regular version where there are various rates to various destinations in Europe. (See our last post on Promo Rewards as an example) The flat rates are 35,000 each way in Business Class from Toronto while Vancouver is 15,000 miles each way in Economy Class.

These are some pretty good redemption rates, the Business Class from Toronto is slightly higher than we have seen on occasion with Promo Rewards but all in all is still a great redemption rate and the same goes for the Economy Class rate from Vancouver.

Remember you have to book by November 16 for travel between January 1 and March 31, 19.

Find out more and book this offer here.

Top 6 tips for maximizing miles & points earning on your holiday shopping

With a little over a month left to the big day for gift giving the push is on to start your Christmas shopping for friends, family and maybe even yourself! Whether it is shopping for gifts or for food and drink to entertain there are many ways to maximize the miles and points you earn holiday shopping. Ultimately you can make those reward dreams come closer by following one or more of our tips:

1. Shop via online shopping malls to earn miles & points plus take advantage of their bonuses!
2. Use your mileage/point earning credit card & your loyalty cards to Double or Triple Dip
3. Giving gift cards? Buy gift cards at credit card multiplier locations
4. Buying gifts at retailers without credit card multipliers? Use the gift card trick to earn more miles!
5. Use bonus offers to your advantage when buying groceries for the holiday season


6. Always remember to swipe your Loyalty Card and/or use your miles/points earning credit card

You can learn more about these tips and how to use them in our Top 6 tips for maximizing miles & points earning on your holiday shopping feature here!

On this week's Podcast - Interview with Give A Mile's Kevin Crowe and all that goes into the 2018 Flight Hero Christmas Campaign

Episode 48 - November 13, 2018 -- Interview with Give A Mile's Kevin Crowe and all that goes into the 2018 Flight Hero Christmas Campaign

Rewards Canada's Jeff Fredericks interviews Give A Mile's founder Kevin Crowe. They discuss what the charity is about, what they have achieved and what they are hoping to raise for the 2018 Flight Hero Christmas campaign.

Click Here to download the podcast

Or download/subscribe via:

Links relating to this week's topic:

Give A Mile 2018 Flight Hero Christmas Campaign - donate miles today to help reach 50 flights of compassion

Rewards Canada's charity partner Give A Mile has launched their annual Flight Hero Christmas Campaign…

Convert HSBC Rewards Points to British Airways Executive Club Avios and receive a 35% bonus

Now is the time for British Airways Executive Club transfers from Canadian credit cards! With this offer highlighted in this post there are four, count it, four different transfer bonuses to the BAEC program!

Thanks to Thomas once again (our resident HSBC Rewards helper) for giving us the details on this transfer bonus. Right now HSBC card holders can convert their HSBC Rewards points to British Airways with a 35% bonus.

Normally you would redeem 25,000 HSBC Rewards Points for 10,000 Avios

but with this offer that brings it up to 13,500 Avios for those 25,000 points. This equates to 1.62 to 3.24 Avios per dollar spent on the World Elite version of their Mastercards! Now is definitely the time to convert if you can and have a use for Avios. This offer runs until November 30.

Related: HSBC World Elite Mastercard review

Here are the three other transfer bonuses that you can also take advantage of:

• Convert Diners Club Club Rewards Points to British Airways Executive Club Avios and receive a 40% bonus
• 30% Transfer Bonus for RBC Rewards (Avion only) to British Airways Executive Club is back until December 31 
• Amex Membership Rewards: 30% Bonus Avios when transferring to British Airways Executive Club

November 9 Update: Canadian North adding wireless IFE, Aeroplan Air Canada Getaway Bonus nixed for 2019, 10x Plum Points at Chapters Indigo

Canadian North will be adding wireless in-flight entertainment on select flights starting in January 2019 that are serviced with four of their 737s. If all goes to plan and the service is well received it will be expanded to all 16 of their aircraft. (Source Canadian North)

This exciting new inflight amenity, which utilizes Global Eagle’s portable Airconnect Go system, will initially be available on four Canadian North Boeing 737-300 aircraft, with service to be offered to passengers on the following daily scheduled flights:

• Flights 436 and 437 - Iqaluit ⇄ Ottawa

• Flights 444 and 445 - Edmonton ⇄ Yellowknife ⇄ Norman Wells ⇄ Inuvik

Aeroplan has updated one of the benefits of the Aeroplan status program: "As of January 1 2019, the Air Canada Getaway Bonus benefit will no longer be available" All other benefits will remain the same (Source Aeroplan)

For the next four days you can earn 10x Plum Points for all online purchases of $40 or more in-store or online at Chapters Indigo. This offer ends November 12. Find out more here
(or go through Aeroplan estore where they have 5x miles right now for Indigo purchases!)

It's the season of giving! Help support Rewards Canada's Flight Here campaign for Give A Mile. Help us reach 100,000 miles to provide up to 4 flights of compassion. Find out more here!

Posts since our last update:

• Book hotel stays in Vancouver, Calgary & Edmonton and receive American Express or Amazon gift cards
  You may recall many of our posts in the past about BeVancouver - the website tied in with Vancouver Tourism…
• Summary of all current buy miles/points bonuses and discounts - 12 current offers
  We've had quite a few buy miles and points bonuses released over the past couple of weeks and as always…

Travel Deals
Hilton Winter Sale - Save up to 25% on weekend stays in the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa

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
American AAdvantage
- Earn up to 50,000 Bonus AAdvanage Miles when you earn miles from select AAdvantage partners.More... Until Dec 31, 18

Iberia Plus
- Triple Avios for stays at participating Accor Hotels Worldwide More... Until Dec 31, 18

Le Club AccorHotels
- Triple Le Club AccorHotels Points for stays at participating MyResorts by Le Club AccorHotels in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and French Polynesia. More... Book by Dec 31 for stays Jan 31, 19

Marriott Rewards
- 2,500 Bonus Rewards Points per stay at the Courtyard Luton Airport. More... Jan 1 - Mar 26, 19
- 4,000 Bonus Rewards Points for stays of 2+ nights at the at the Roomers Munich, Autograph Collection Munich. More... Jan 1 - Mar 26, 19

Miles & More
- 500 Bonus Miles & More Miles when you download and log in to the Miles & More app for the first time. More... Ongoing

Rocketmiles
- 3,000 Bonus Miles / Points with the Rocketmiles partner of your choice for booking at select properties Worldwide. More... Book by Nov 13 for stays until Mar 31, 19

Follow Rewards Canada:

Book hotel stays in Vancouver, Calgary & Edmonton and receive American Express or Amazon gift cards

You may recall many of our posts in the past about BeVancouver - the website tied in with Vancouver Tourism that offered American Express gift cards when you booked hotels via their site (And the value was really good) Well that offer has returned however it is no longer BeVancouver rather it is now StayVancouver (HT Points, Miles & Bling) and not only is it Vancouver. As well in the past we let you know about similar offers in Calgary and Edmonton as those are still around!

Vancouver

You can get up to a $125 American Express Gift Card when you book select Vancouver hotels via beVancouver. Each additional night can bring you up to $50 more in Gift Cards. Book and stay by February 28, 2019! Find out more here!

Calgary

 

The Calgary offers provides a $25 Amazon gift card with each stay that is booked (consecutive nights at the same hotel booked under different reservations only count as one stay) Find out more here.

Edmonton

 

The Edmonton offers provides a $25 Amazon gift card with each stay that is booked (consecutive nights at the same hotel booked under different reservations only count as one stay) Find out more here.

Summary of all current buy miles/points bonuses and discounts - 12 current offers

We've had quite a few buy miles and points bonuses released over the past couple of weeks and as always you can find them all listed on our Buy Miles Bonuses page but we thought it also wise to do a summary post here of the current bonuses and discounts that are available as of right now!

Aer Lingus AerClub	Earn up to 45% Bonus Avios when you buy or gift Avios.  Buy and gift Avios here.  You Buy Your Bonus 1,000 - 15,000 Avios 20% bonus 20,000 - 35,000 Avios 30% bonus 40,000 - 90,000 Avios 35% bonus 100,000 - 200,000 Avios 45% bonus	Until Nov 11, 18
Air France KLM Flying Blue	75% Bonus Flying Blue Miles when you buy 4,000 or more miles online. Buy Miles Here.	Until Nov 12, 18
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan	Receive up to 50% Bonus Mileage Plan Miles when you buy miles online. Buy miles here The bonus offer varies per member and ranges from 40% to 50% as the maximum bonus. Here is an example of the tiered 50% bonus: Buy 10,000 – 19,000 miles and get a 20% bonus Buy 20,000 – 39,000 miles and get a 35% bonus Buy 40,000 – 60,000 miles and get a 50% bonus	Until Dec 21, 18
American AAdvantage	Earn up to 100,000 Bonus AAdvanage Miles when you buy American AAdvantage Miles. Full details. Miles purchased Bonus miles 10,000 - 24,000 2,500 25,000 - 49,000 7,500 50,000 - 74,000 22,500 75,000 - 99,000 40,000 100,000 - 149,000 60,000 150,000 100,000	Until Nov 26, 18
Copa ConnectMiles	Earn 40% Bonus ConnectMiles when you buy or gift 5,000 or more ConnectMiles. Full details	Until Nov 21, 18
Emirates Skywards	Up to a 25% Discount when you buy or gift Skywards Miles. Full details 15% Discount on buying/gifting 1000 - 24,000 Miles 20% Discount on buying/gifting 25,000 - 49,000 Miles 25% discount on buying/gifting more than 50,000 Miles	Until Nov 20, 18
Etihad Guest	Up to 25% Bonus Guest Miles when you buy miles. Buy miles here Buy 5,000 - 29,000 miles = 15% Bonus Buy 30,000 – 49,000 miles = 20% Bonus Buy 50,000 – 60,000 miles = 25% Bonus	Until Nov 15, 18
Southwest Rapid Rewards	30% Discount when you buy 5,000 or more Rapid Rewards Points. Buy points here	Until Nov 13, 18
Hilton Honors	Up to a 100% Bonus when you buy 10,000 or more Hilton Honors points online. Buy points here	Until Dec 18, 18
Hyatt World of Hyatt	40% Bonus World of Hyatt Points when you buy points. Note there is a minimum point purchase requirement that varies by member.  Buy World of Hyatt Points here.	Until Nov 27, 18
La Quinta Returns	Up to a 25% discount when you buy La Quinta Returns points. Full details 500 – 1,000 points = No offer 2,000 – 5,000 points = 15% discount 6,000 – 9,000 points = 20% discount 10,000 points = 25% discount	Until Dec 3, 18
United MIleagePlus	Earn up to 75% Bonus MileagePlus miles when you buy miles. Buy miles here. The bonus offer varies per member with 75% being the maximum. Here is an example of the tiered 75% bonus: Buy 5,000 - 14,000 miles | Get 25% bonus Buy 15,000 - 29,000 miles | Get 50% bonus Buy 30,000 - 85,000 miles | Get 75% bonus	Until Nov 20, 18

November 8 Update: Earn 3x Aeroplan Miles at Home Hardware, 5,000 Bonus Marriott Rewards points in Waterloo and more

For the next week Aeroplan members will earn triple miles for shopping at Home Hardware. This means you'll earn 3 miles for every $2 spent at Home Hardware, Building Centre and Furniture locations, or online at homehardware.ca. Find out more here.

Also on the bonus front is a nice stay bonus in Waterloo, Ontario. You can earn 5,000 bonus Marriott Rewards points per stay at the Courtyard Waterloo St. Jacobs. This offer does price out higher than the member rate but only by a small amount. Look at the following example for a stay this Sunday. The member rate is $147 and the 5,000 bonus points rate is $154. That's $7 more to get the 5,000 points. On average we value Marriott points between 0.8 and 1 cent (C$). This means the 5,000 points are worth around $40 so you would come out $33 ahead with this offer. Find out more here!

It's the season of giving! Help support Rewards Canada's Flight Here campaign for Give A Mile. Help us reach 100,000 miles to provide up to 4 flights of compassion. Find out more here!

Posts since our last update:

• Great new offer on the Scotia Momentum VISA Infinite card - 10% back for first three months & first year free
  For the third time in a year or so we see a card offer a published 10% return. The…

Travel Deals
Hilton Winter Sale - Save up to 25% on weekend stays in the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa

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 Canada Aeroplan
- Triple Aeroplan Miles when you shop in-store at Home Hardware, Building Centre and Furniture locations, or online at homehardware.ca. More... Until Nov 13, 18

Marriott Rewards
- 5,000 Bonus Rewards Points per stay at the Courtyard Waterloo St. Jacobs. More... Until Jan 24, 19

Other Bonus Offers
Delta SkyMiles
- Earn up to 1,000 Bonus SkyMiles when you shop online via the SkyMiles Shopping portal. More... Until Nov 18, 18

Emirates Skywards
- Up to a 25% Discount when you buy or gift Skywards Miles. More... Until Nov 20, 18

Etihad Guest
- Up to 25% Bonus Guest Miles when you buy miles. More... Until Nov 15, 18

Marriott Rewards
- 2,000 Bonus Rewards Points per stay at the Moxy Berlin Humboldthain Park More... Jan 1 - Mar 26, 19
- 20,000 Bonus Rewards Points when you stay 3 nights at the Renaissance Lucerne Hotel or The Hotel Lucerne, Autograph Collection. More... Until Jan 16, 19
- 1,000 Bonus Rewards Points per night on Thursday-Monday nights, up to 5,000 bonus points per stay at properties throughout Phoenix, Scottsdale, Chandler, and Tempe. More... Until Dec 31, 18
- 5,000 Bonus Rewards Points for stays of 2 or more nights at the Courtyard, SpringHill Suites or Fairfield Inn & Suites Indianapolis Downtown. More... Nov 18 - Jan 4, 19
- 1,000 Bonus Rewards Points per night on Thursday-Monday nights, up to 5,000 bonus points per stay at 6 hotels throughout Las Vegas. More... Until Dec 31, 18

Philippine Airlines Mabuhay
- Triple Mabuhay Miles for stays at participating Anantara Hotels Worldwide. More... Until Dec 31, 18

Qatar Airways Privilege Club
- Earn up to 14,000 QMiles when you fly Qatar Airways between Doha and Da Nang. More... Until Mar 15, 19

Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
- 25% Miles&Smiles Discount for domestic round-trip and one-way award tickets, companion award tickets and upgrades. More... Until Dec 31, 18


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