December 6 Update: Amex to Hilton transfers temporarily suspended, new Centurion Lounge to open at LHR, Double Esso Extra points for 3 days

Just in case you may have been wondering why Hilton Honors isn't showing as a transfer partner in American Express' Membership Rewards, it isn't because they aren't a partner anymore. They are still a Membership Rewards partner but due to some updates transfers are not available for the moment. Here is what Amex told us:

Hilton recently made changes to their loyalty program systems which impacted ours, so we’re making some updates on our end to align with those changes. We expect this to complete shortly, and transfers to Hilton will be available again within the coming days

More American Express Centurion Lounge news and I would say this one is more newsworthy to us Canadians than the Charlotte one earlier this week. News broke that Amex will open a Centurion lounge at London's Heathrow Airport in 2019. The 7,000 square foot lounge will be located in Terminal 3, which isn't the best option for most Canadians flying back to Canada unless you are flying via the U.S. on airlines like American, Delta or Virgin Atlantic. That being said you can still access the lounge even if you are departing from another terminal just make sure you make enough time to transit to whichever Terminal you are departing from! Access of course is granted to Centurion or Platinum Card holders. (Source VFTW)

Esso Extra will be offering double points when you swipe your cards as Esso stations from December 8 to 10. Might be the right time to buy some lotto or gift cards!

 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:

• Flight Review: Air Canada Business Class AC578/579 Calgary - Los Angeles (YYC-LAX)
  Catching up on a flight review from the summer where the Rewards Canada family once again made our way…
• TD First Class Visa Infinite Card: Up to 40,000 Bonus TD Points and First Year Free
  Most of TD's offers on their credit cards were refreshed on Tuesday. One of those is on the TD…
• Air Canada opens Maple Leaf Lounge in New York-LaGuardia Airport’s New Terminal
  Yesterday Air Canada opened a new Maple Leaf Lounge in the new terminal at New York's La Guardia airport.…
• Hilton Winter Sale Refresher - Save up to 25% on weekend stays in the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa
  A friendly reminder of Hilton's weekend sale where you can save up to 25% on stays in Europe, The…
• Choice Privileges: Double Points on all stays until February 15, 19
  With Choice Privileges you can expect two type of systemwide bonus offers. Either the Earn A Free Night/Gift Card…

Travel Deals
IHG - Receive a $100 hotel credit when you stay 2 or more nights at participating InterContinental Hotels in the Americas. Book by Dec 31 for stays until Jan 31, 19 Find out more here.

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

Cineplex SCENE
- Earn up to 20,000 Bonus SCENE points when you open a chequing account with Tangerine. More... Until Jan 31, 19

TD Rewards
- Earn up to 40,000 Bonus TD Rewards Points and get the first year annual fee waived with TD First Class Visa Infinite card. Full details. Until Feb 28, 19

Other Bonus Offers
Aegean Miles+Bonus
- 2,000 Bonus Miles+Bonus Miles when you make your first hotel booking via Rocketmiles. More... Book by Mar 31, 19

Alitalia MilleMiglia
- 1,500 Bonus MilleMiglia Miles on next Best Western Hotel stay in Italy. More... Until Jan 10, 19

American AAdvantage
- Earn up to 120,000 Bonus AAdvanage Miles when you buy American AAdvantage Miles. More... Until Dec 15, 18

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- 1,500 Asia Miles on all Sixt rentals of 3 or more days Worldwide. More... Book by Jan 31, 19 for rentals until Feb, 28, 19

Choice Privileges
- Double Privileges Points when you stay at participating Choice Hotels Worldwide. More... For Residents of the U.S. and Canada only Until Feb 15, 19

Copa ConnectMiles
- 30% Discount when you buy or gift 5,000 or more ConnectMiles. More... Until Dec 28, 18

Hyatt World of Hyatt
- Double World of Hyatt points on eligible spend when you stay at any participating MGM Resorts Destination in Las Vegas. More... Until Dec 29, 18

Follow Rewards Canada:

Flight Review: Air Canada Business Class AC578/579 Calgary - Los Angeles (YYC-LAX)

Catching up on a flight review from the summer where the Rewards Canada family once again made our way to Southern California. I have to admit we love it down there and with it being a mere three hours or less by plane from Calgary, we do frequent it quite often. Whether it’s the LA area, San Diego, San Francisco or Palm Springs you can easily get there from Calgary. I have to be honest I have lost count how many times we have gone now but it’s been something in the neighborhood of at least a dozen times in the last 4 or so years and lately most of the flights to LAX have been in business class on Air Canada. Why? It usually prices cheaper than WestJet Plus (now called Premium) and each time we’ve booked, the business class fares weren’t much more than Air Canada or WestJet's economy class prices, especially when you factor in seat selection fees, baggage fees, food and drinks that you have to pay for with those economy fares. Such was the case for the flights in this review, there were five of us traveling and all booked into business class for roughly $50 more per person than we would have paid in economy class after you include all the various extras that economy brings.

The flight down (AC578) was operated with an older Airbus A320 as is typical for this route. A red alert was literally called just a minute or two before push back as a major storm blew threw and delayed us by over an hour for the departure to LAX.

The storm that kept us on the ground looms over the YYC Marriott

Business class had one seat open on the way down which happened to be the seat beside mine (I was in 4A) and the the other four in our party took up row 3 in front of me.

Seat 3A

Once in the air the flight was non eventful with great service from flight attendant looking after the business class cabin.

AC's hot nuts and drinks

The storm that delayed us:

And the nice view from 4A:

 This is the menu from the service on AC578 to LAX.

I had the cheese tortellini which was pretty good. In fact I usually go for this one as the chicken dishes are well, airline chicken dishes. Granted the rest of the family got the chicken and it was edible. The lemon chiffon cake is a decent dessert while the salad is pretty much the same one with the slight variation on the adder (Feta, seeds etc.) that is seen on these flights.

We arrived at LAX about an hour after the scheduled arrival time and the Priority Bag service worked well! All of our bag were in the first batch out on the carousel and we were out catching out Uber probably 25 minutes after arriving.

On to the return flight:

If you haven’t flown Air Canada to/from LAX in sometime you may not be aware that they moved from Terminal 6 from Terminal 2 early in 2017. Terminal 6 isn’t too bad and is comparable to Terminal 2. Dropping our bags off took sometime as the agent was trying to help people who were having some sort of issues. We were second in line in the Priority Check in lane and waited close to half an hour to drop our bags off. Having Nexus and registering our numbers prior to departure meant we had TSA Pre check (including one of travelers who doesn’t have Nexus) and that made clearing security a breeze. There is an Air Canada Maple Leaf lounge here in Terminal 6. The lounge is smaller than the one they had in T2 hence it is no longer accessible to Priority Pass members. You can read my review of this lounge here.

On the return the 5 of us had business class all to ourselves and the flight attendant commented on how it was like he was attending a cozy family dinner with us.  Here are some shots of the empty cabin:

And the return flight menu:

Once again I went with the cheese pasta and the others went with the Chicken. All in all the food was pretty good, not stunning, but good.

The rest of the return flight was uneventful and easy.  Overall these flights were great as we have normally experience in Air Canada Business Class. We've never really had any issues flying Air Canada, the service has always been good and for the most part things like Priority Baggage has worked in our favour. I would definitely recommend people don't look past the little bit extra you may pay for Business Class on these shorter routes as I find it is totally worth it. I’m also excited that Air Canada has now launched service from Calgary to Palm Springs and it’s not Rouge - it’s mainline aircraft like the one in this review and that they have replaced Rouge for their flights to Phoenix. Might have to book to one of those cities soon!

The flights in this review were purchased on the American Express Gold Card which earns 2 Membership Rewards points per dollar spend on travel which translates to 2 Aeroplan miles per dollar. No other card actually offers this many Aeroplan miles for travel bookings!

TD First Class Visa Infinite Card: Up to 40,000 Bonus TD Points and First Year Free

Most of TD's offers on their credit cards were refreshed on Tuesday. One of those is on the TD First Class Visa Infinite Card. The welcome offer is actually lower than the last offer but it includes a first year free waiver now which makes it a little more valuable. The old offer was 50,000 points with a $120 fee whereas now the offer is 40,000 points with no annual fee. These 40,000 points translate to $160 worth of travel credits for any travel booking or $200 worth of travel for bookings made via Expedia For TD. As you can see you are getting up to $50 less of value in points however you save $120 for the annual fee which makes this offer the better deal. Not bad to get up to $200 in travel at no cost to you other than making the spend requirement of $1,000 in 90 days.

Here are the card details:

Air Canada opens Maple Leaf Lounge in New York-LaGuardia Airport’s New Terminal

Yesterday Air Canada opened a new Maple Leaf Lounge in the new terminal at New York's La Guardia airport. Air Canada previously had a lounge at LGA but that was closed just a few months ago.  The new lounge has room for up to 126 people in its 7,015 square feet of space. It features a self-serve that will has wines from Canada, Lavazza cofee and as with all of the lounges a business centre as well.


Here are some key points about the new lounge provided by Air Canada:

• The first airline lounge to open at LaGuardia’s new Terminal B Eastern Concourse – the first part of the reimagined terminal to open – conveniently located post-security, steps from Air Canada gates
• Air Canada customers travelling at LaGuardia to benefit from new terminal’s enhanced amenities including free Wi-Fi, a family play area, and retail and restaurant shops
• Second of three Maple Leaf Lounges to open in 2018 and 23rd across Air Canada’s international network, offering premium travellers more comfort

Just like the relatively new lounge in Los Angeles, the La Guardia one is no longer accessible to Priority Pass members.

Related: Rewards Canada's Guide to Business Class Lounge access

And some photos of the new lounge (courtesy of Air Canada)

Here's our call out to the Rewards Canada community! If any of you are travelling through LGA in the near future and can access the lounge we'd love to have to do a review of the lounge (and we'll pay you for it too!) If you are interested please contact us info@rewardscanada.ca.

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

A friendly reminder of Hilton's weekend sale where you can save up to 25% on stays in Europe, The Middle East and Africa!

Make the festive season one to remember with the Hilton Sale and save up to 25% off breaks across Europe, The Middle East and Africa. For the best savings, simply join Hilton Honors for free while you book. Need some inspiration? Take a look below at some of our fantastic locations on offer to create your perfect break.

Stays must be booked by January 31, 2019 and completed on weekends until May 29, 2019. Remember that you should also be earning up to Triple Points on these stays with the current fall Hilton Honors promotion that runs until January 3. Find that and all other Honors bonuses here.

Discounts are up to 15% off the Best Available Rate and Best Available Bed & Breakfast Rate and vary by property. The Winter Sale Hilton Honors member rates are an additional 10% off of the Best Available Rate and the Best Available Bed and Breakfast Rate.

Click here to take advantage of the Hilton Winter sale 

For purposes of this offer, "weekend" is defined as Friday, Saturday and/or Sunday nights and in Middle East (excluding Turkey, Lebanon, Morocco, Africa) as Thursday, Friday and/or Saturday nights. Must book a minimum 3 days before arrival.

Full prepayment is required at time of booking. Your credit card will be charged immediately for the total amount quoted for the entire stay as reserved. Rates are not refundable; in case your contract with Hilton is governed by German law a refund of 10%, of the paid rates applies upon cancellation. In such case you may however prove that no or a significantly lower damage has been incurred for Hilton. Charges cannot be applied to other stays, services or merchandise. Booking cannot be changed.

Choice Privileges: Double Points on all stays until February 15, 19

With Choice Privileges you can expect two type of systemwide bonus offers. Either the Earn A Free Night/Gift Card offer or the Double Points promotion. Seeing that fall was the Earn a Free night promotion it is only fitting that winter sees the Double Points offer! Right now until the middle of February you can earn Double Privileges Points on all eligible stays as long as you maintain a U.S. or Canadian residency.

Offer details
Double Privileges Points when you stay at participating Choice Hotels Worldwide. Members must book stays via ChoiceHotels.com, ChoiceHotels.ca, the Choice Hotels mobile app, or 800.4CHOICE at qualifying rates. A maximum of 30,000 bonus points, can be earned during the promotion. Full details, online registration and booking (Registration is required) Until Feb 15, 19

Restrictions
For Residents of the U.S. and Canada only

Choice Hotels properties in the following countries are excluded from this promotion: Japan, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Guyana, and Ecuador.

Find many more Choice Privileges Bonus Point offers here!

December 3 Update: Earn bonus miles with Aeroplan eStore's 12 Days of Gifting, WestJet moves St. John's-Dublin service to Halifax & more!

Continuing with the Holiday shopping theme Aeroplan launched their latest promotion for shopping via the eStore today. Called the 12 Day of Gifting, the promotion will see bonus miles being offered each day for different retailers. For example today it is 8x the miles for Hudson Bay purchases. Tomorrow it will be Etsy (the bonus will be revealed tomorrow) and so on. Here are the retailers that will be participating so make sure you mark it on your calendar if there is a specific one you were planning to shop at! Find out more here. As always check out our Top 6 tips for maximizing miles & points earning on your holiday shopping for more tips!

Next year WestJet will replace their St. John's to Dublin flight with a Halifax to Dublin flight. This is unfortunate for those in Newfoundland as WestJet moves to consolidate more travel out of Halifax. The flights out of YHZ will launch late in April with Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft. (Source Routesonline)

Finally if you travel to or through Charlotte you'll be excited to learn that the airport is slated to get an American Express Centurion lounge in fall of 2019. Access of course is granted to Centurion or Platinum Card holders. (Source Doctor of Credit) Now when will Amex open up their first Centurion lounge in Canada? Let me correct that, in Toronto....

 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:

• Edmonton to Europe in Business Class for as little as 53,000 miles round trip with the latest Flying Blue Promo Rewards
  The newest set of Air France KLM's Promo Rewards are out now and for this month we see three…
• WestJet's first 787 revenue flight is slated for Toronto to Calgary on February 20
  For all our Avgeek and WestJet fans here is the news you have been waiting for. WestJet has filed…

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
- Earn up to 10X Aeroplan Miles when you shop online via the Aeroplan eStore during the 12 Days of Gifting promotion. More... Until Dec 15, 18

Air France KLM Flying Blue
- December Promo Rewards - 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 31,19

Other Bonus Offers
American AAdvantage
- OFFER EXTENDED Triple AAdvantage Miles per stay at La Quinta properties in the U.S., Mexico, Central America and Canada. More... Until Mar 31, 19

IHG Rewards Club
- Earn up to 10,000 bonus IHG Rewards Club points when you book two nights or more at participating new IHG Hotels in North America. More... Until Jan 31, 19

Follow Rewards Canada:

Edmonton to Europe in Business Class for as little as 53,000 miles round trip with the latest Flying Blue Promo Rewards

The newest set of Air France KLM's Promo Rewards are out now and for this month we see three of five Canadian cities they serve on the list.  With promo awards the discount ranges from 20 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! This month Edmonton gets lucky with 50% off business class tickets! Meanwhile the other cities see 25% off in business class

Offer details
December Promo Rewards - 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, 19
Canadian cities included this month:
Edmonton - 50% off business class
Montreal - 25% off business class
Vancouver - 25% off business class

Here are the mileage requirements for flying from the three Canadian cities to Amsterdam and/or Paris (the mileage amount will vary for other destinations in Europe)

And an example of some of the availability from Edmonton to Amsterdam:

and on the return

Here's what a round trip on the above route looks like:

Not bad at all - 60,500 miles and $631.61 in fees and taxes for business class. Under the old promo awards this flight would have been 62,500 miles plus the same fees. Yes the fees are on the high side but most other programs who may have lower fees would be costing you at least 50% more miles.

But there are better opportunities for less miles for the business class offer from Edmonton

That's right only 53,000 miles and $682.27 for a round trip flight to Europe in Business Class. Can't get better than that unless you can find another city in Europe that may actually price lower (but we all know Flying Blue's system is really fun to deal with!) Remember as well you can book one ways for half this amount - 26,500 miles!

Some other cities we have found at various levels below the Amsterdam/Paris rates.

There are lots other possible options to check out to see if this works for you and if you don't have enough miles for a Promo Reward your best bet is to convert Marriott Rewards points to Flying Blue on a 3:1 basis. Remember you'll earn 5,000 bonus miles when you convert 60,000 points at a time (a total of 25,000 miles per 60,000 points) That means 120,000 points will get you to 50,000 miles - you could always transfer the small amount more to get to 53,000 for those round trips.

If you don't have any Marriott Rewards Points you can always look at getting the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express to top off your account. Currently the card comes with a 50,000 point sign up bonus when you spend $1,500 on the card and then you could also grab The Starwood Preferred Guest Business Credit Card from American Express as it also has 50,000 point sign up bonus and then you would ultimately be able to have 100,000 points not including what is earned on spending. Of course timing of getting the card(s) now, spending and getting the points will likely not happen for this month but it sets you up for future offers.  Need to grab two tickets for an itinerary? You could choose to get one SPG card for yourself and one for your partner or spouse and you'll have a lot more points!

WestJet's first 787 revenue flight is slated for Toronto to Calgary on February 20

For all our Avgeek and WestJet fans here is the news you have been waiting for. WestJet has filed the information for their first revenue Boeing 787 flight. As was much expected it will be between Toronto and Calgary as the plane will be based in Toronto to start with since the new 787 hanger in Calgary won't be ready yet.

The first 787 flight is now scheduled to fly flight 655 on February 20 from Toronto to Calgary. Departing at 9am, the flight is already bookable and WestJet seems to know this will be a popular flight as the fares are running from $853 in Economy class to $1474 in Business Class!

Compare this the non 787 flights that day:

and the plane isn't even close to full yet as you can see by this screenshot of part of the economy class:

and Business Class is pretty much wide open:

If you are planning on being on this flight I would arrive early as there will more than likely be some festivities before hand to celebrate this first revenue flight and more than likely there will be something you can take home as well to commemorate the event!

The return flight from Calgary to Toronto is WestJet 670 that will depart YYC at 13:30 and it's pricing out slightly better than the outbound flight:

The plane will operate flights 655/670 until April 27 and will also operate 669/662 as of April 8 (Source Routesonline)

Are you thinking of jumping on this first flight or any of the early 787 flights between YYZ and YYC? If so let us know in the comments below!

Related: And the first long haul WestJet Boeing 787 routes are Calgary to Paris, London and Dublin