WestJet Rewards Platinum Elite Status is officially here!

First hinted at in August, then revealed in October on the same day as the new 787 route announcements, WestJet's new top elite tier, Platinum is official as of today. This means if you have hit the qualification requirements already this year ($8,000 of spend on WestJet) you are officially a Platinum Status member. If this describes you, well congratulations! You can access all your Platinum benefits right away! To learn more about Platinum visit WestJet's page on Platinum status or read our overview:

To reach the new Platinum status level you will need to spend $8,000 (before taxes/fees) with WestJet during your 12 month qualification period which based on the day you joined WestJet Rewards. For example if you joined May 12, 2018 you would need to reach $8,000 in spending by May 12, 2019 to receive Platinum status for the remainder of your qualifying year and the entire next qualifying year.

The key benefits of the new Platinum tier are:

• 8% earn rate on WestJet flights. That's a pretty big return that only gets bigger if you tie that in with the 2% earned on the WestJet World Elite Mastercard for a total return of 10%! 
• Double the WestJet dollars on partner flights (Delta, Air France, KLM etc.)
• 3 free checked bags
• Unlimited advance seat selection
• 10 lounge access vouchers (word is this will be changed to unlimited in the New Year for both Platinum and Gold)
• Highest Priority for complimentary upgrades to Premium (not including Europe flights which is too bad!)

According to WestJet even more benefits will come in 2019:

"even more enhancements in 2019, including enhanced lounge benefits, additional priority services, the introduction of a comprehensive upgrade program, and more"

Keep an eye out on westjet.com/platinum for all the details.

Hilton Asia Pacific Year End Sale - Save up to 25% on stays

 

Hilton released one of their biggest APAC sales today to close out the year! Honors members will be able to save up to 25% on stays across the entire region when you book by February 2, 2019. The offer for non-members is only up to 15% off so it really makes sense to join Honors to get the additional discount seeing that it costs nothing to join the program.

Stays must be booked by February 2, 2019 for stays until September 30,  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 APAC Year End sale 

Earning Stories: Over 8,600 Aeroplan Miles earned for Black Friday purchases

As you may have seen over the past few weeks we have been discussing holiday shopping a lot here on Rewards Canada and with several media outlets. I wanted to share just a glimpse in our holiday shopping that was done during the whole pre-Black Friday and Black Friday time period. The purchases were for some Christmas gifts from Amazon as well as a much needed new cordless vacuum from Dyson who dropped the price of the one we had our eye on for their pre-Black Friday sale. All these purchases were made via the Aeroplan eStore and overall they didn't take very long to post to our account:

As you can see with these several purchases we earned a total of 6,884 Aeroplan Miles. This is over and above the points earned on the credit card that was used for the purchases, which was The Platinum Card from American Express which earns 1.25 Membership Rewards points per dollar spent (the equivalent of 1.25 Aeroplan miles) The total from the card and the eStore bring the amount earned to over 8,600 Aeroplan miles. More than enough miles for a one way short haul redemption.

This is a great example of taking advantage of the bonuses that the eStore was running at the time and show how quickly you can really accumulate miles during the promotional periods. Even when there aren't bonuses all your online shopping go through these online portals so that you are earning the miles for the purchase, points for the end merchants loyalty program if they have one (ie Chapters Indigo etc.) and of course your credit card miles and points.

Black Friday has passed us but at the time of publishing this post Aeroplan is running the 12 days of gifting with different bonuses each day for online shopping until Dec 14 and three U.S. airlines are running 500 bonus miles offers until Dec 16. You can find all these offers, more bonuses and tips for holiday shopping in our Top 6 tips for maximizing miles & points earning on your holiday shopping!

I know some of you earned even more miles as I'm sure lots of expensive electronics and other higher priced items were purchased during this period! We'd love for you to share your earning stories with us and you can do so in the comments below!

1,000 Bonus Miles for joining the newly rebranded TAP Miles&Go program

Another free miles joining offer for you today! TAP Portugal has renamed their frequent flyer program from Victoria to Miles&Go and to celebrate the rebranding you can get 1,000 bonus miles for joining the program. TAP does serve Toronto so this may be of potential interest to those living in the GTA.

Offer details
1,000 Bonus Miles&Go Miles when you join the newly rebranded TAP Miles&Go program. Full details Until Dec 31, 18

Find more Miles&Go Bonus Miles offers here

December 11 Update: The Route Update Issue with route news from Air Canada, Philippine Airlines and more + $999 on Emirates from Toronto to Dubai

Air Canada will be increasing service between Montreal and Tel Avis for summer 2019 to a 3x weekly service (Source Routesonline)

Air Canada Rouge is increasing their service to Athens next summer from 7x per week to 9x week from both Montreal and Toronto. Obviously this route is doing well! (Source Routesonline)

AeroMexico, will resume Calgary- Mexico City service for next summer as a seasonal service. Both WestJet and AeroMexico have tried the route and it hasn't worked. Perhaps 4x weekly seasonal service will fair better. (Source Routesonline)

Philippine Airlines will be increasing service between Toronto and Manila from 5x per week to daily service in March of 2019. They will also operate the flight with a new Airbus A350-900XWB (Source Routesonline)

Japan Airlines is expanding their codeshare service on Alaska Airlines to three more Canadian cities. They will now be selling seats on Alaska Airlines flights between Calgary, Edmonton, Victoria and Seattle (Source Routesonline)

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:

• 500 Free Miles when you join the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer program
  Join Singapore Airlines' KrisFlyer programs through to the end of the year and you will 500 miles just for…
• Save 50% on Economy Class award tickets between Montreal and Austria for travel in May!
  As we do each month we bring you the latest set Miles & More "Meilenschnaeppchen" or Mileage Bargain discounted…

Travel Deals   
Emirates is offering Toronto to Dubai flights from as low as $999 round trip! Book by Dec 16 for travel Jan 12 - May 9, 19. Find out more here.

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
N/A

Other Bonus Offers
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
- 500 Bonus Mileage Plan Miles for qualifying purchases of at least $200 or more made via the Mileage Plan Shopping portal. More... Until Dec 16, 18

American AAdvantage
- 500 Bonus AAdvantage Miles for qualifying purchases of at least $200 or more made via the AAdvantage eShopping portal. More... Until Dec 16, 18

IHG Rewards Club
- 80% bonus IHG Rewards Club points when you purchase 5,000 or more IHG Rewards Club points. More... Until Dec 28, 18

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- 500 Bonus KrisFlyer Miles when you join the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer program. More... Until Dec 31, 18

TAP Miles&Go
- 1,000 Bonus Miles&Go Miles when you join the newly rebranded TAP Miles&Go program. More... Until Dec 31, 18

Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus
-2,500 Bonus ROP Miles when you stay at participating Dusit Hotels & Resorts on the Bed & Breakfast package. More... Until Dec 31, 18

United MileagePlus
- 500 Bonus MileagePlus Miles for qualifying purchases of at least $200 or more made via the MileagePlus Shopping portal. . More... Until Dec 16, 18

Follow Rewards Canada:

500 Free Miles when you join the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer program

Join Singapore Airlines' KrisFlyer programs through to the end of the year and you will 500 miles just for doing so! While Singapore Airlines left Canada many many years ago, they do fly out of the U.S. and the airline is part of Star Alliance so their miles can be used on airlines like Air Canada, United and so on. They do have some pretty good redemption options as well such as Canada to Hawaii for 35,000 miles round trip in economy class (which is 10,000 less than Aeroplan). Even better than that is Western Canada to Hawaii on Alaska Airlines for only 23,000 KrisFlyer miles for economy class. Outside of travel your best bet to earn KrisFlyer miles in Canada is with the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express or the HSBC World Elite Mastercard

Offer details
500 Bonus KrisFlyer Miles when you join the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer program. You must use promo code KFLY when you join. Full details (Found at bottom left hand side of page) Until Dec 31, 18

Find other KrisFlyer Bonus Mile offers here!

Save 50% on Economy Class award tickets between Montreal and Austria for travel in May!

As we do each month we bring you the latest set Miles & More "Meilenschnaeppchen" or Mileage Bargain discounted mileage awards. This month we see a reduction of offers as we only have Austrian Airlines out of Montreal in Economy Class.

Montreal
Austrian Airlines Economy Class
50% off flights between Montreal and Austria
Book by December 31 for travel between April 29 and May 31, 2019

With this offer you can redeem Miles & More miles for round trip economy class tickets on Austrian Airlines from Montreal to 6 cities in Austria also for only 30,000 miles. This is a 50% discount off the normal award ticket price of 60,000 miles. Remember however Miles & More charges some major fees for redeeming miles on these flights so be sure you also check what a revenue ticket costs.

Here are the six cities you can choose from:

Short on Miles & More miles? Your best bet is to convert Marriott Rewards points to Miles & More on a 3:1 basis plus you'll earn 5,000 bonus miles when you convert 60,000 points at a time. That means 75,000 points is all it would take to get one of these tickets if you don't have any Miles & More miles to your name. Remember you can also convert to Marriott (then to M&M) from any American Express card that has Membership Rewards or Membership Rewards Select options. (Think Gold Rewards Card, Platinum, Cobalt etc.)

If you don't have any Marriott Rewards Points you can get close to amount required to redeem for the tickets by grabbing some credit cards! How so? As we always mention in this post you can boost your Miles & More account with 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.

Click here Full details on this Miles & More offer 

December 10 Update: Carrot Rewards adds paid membership options, 2x Aventura Points for Apple store online purchases and more!

Carrot Rewards, the app that awards points or miles in several programs most notably Aeroplan and SCENE has added new paid membership option. Call Carrot Rewards Plus you can pay to earn 2 to 10 times more points/miles with the program. If you add one of the levels by December 31 you will get additional bonus points (amount unknown) Find out more here

CIBC Aventura cardholders can earn double points for apple.ca store purchases made on their cards. The purchase has to be made via the CIBC Rewards link to the Apple store. 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:

• Earn Triple Le Club AccorHotels Points for stays at Fairmont and other Accor Hotels in North America
  Here is nice bonus to start the New Year off right if you are planning any stays at Fairmont…

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
Le Club AccorHotels
- Triple Le Club AccorHotels Points for stays at all participating Accor Hotels on North America. Fairmont Hotels are included. More... Book by Feb 28 for stays Jan 1 - Mar 31, 19

Marriott / SPG / Ritz-Carlton Rewards
- 500 Bonus Rewards Points per night when staying 2+ nights Thursday -Sunday nights at the Courtyard Toronto Vaughan. More... Until Jan 31, 19
- 1,000 Bonus Rewards Points per night for stays at the at the Kananaskis Mountain Lodge, Autograph Collection. Maximum bonus of 3,000 points per stay. More... Jan 1 - Mar 26, 19
- 2,000 Bonus Rewards Points for stays at the JW Marriott Parq Vancouver or the DOUGLAS, Autograph Collection Vancouver. More... Until Dec 31, 18
- 500 Bonus Rewards Points per weekend stay (Friday or Saturday night stay required) at the Delta Sault Ste. Marie Waterfront. More... Mar 1 - May 31, 19

Other Bonus Offers

Hilton Honors
- 1,000 Bonus Honors Points PER NIGHT for stays at the new Canopy by Hilton Atlanta Midtown. More... Book now for stays Jan 6 - Feb 28, 19

Le Club AccorHotels
- Triple Le Club AccorHotels Points and up to 30% off for stays on the European Winter Getaways offer at participating Accor Hotels in Europe  More... Book by Mar 22 for stays until Mar 24, 19

Radisson Rewards
- Double Points for stays at Radisson Hotel Group hotels in Riga. More... Until ?

Follow Rewards Canada:

Earn Triple Le Club AccorHotels Points for stays at Fairmont and other Accor Hotels in North America

Here is nice bonus to start the New Year off right if you are planning any stays at Fairmont Hotels (or other Accor brand hotels) in Canada and the U.S.. This means you should earn a minimum of 75 points per 10EUR spent or about C$15. With rates at places like the Fairmont Banff Springs running well over $300 per night the points can accumulate quickly! A $300 stay will net about 1,500 points in the program. Remember you can start redeeming with Accor at 2,000 points for a 40EUR credit towards a stay. If Le Club AccorHotels isn't a big program for you then you should look at the current Quadruple Aeroplan Miles offer for Accor stays (find that offer here). Taking that $300 stay as an example again you would 2,000 Le Club AccorHotels points that automatically convert to 1,000 Aeroplan Miles.

Offer details
Triple Le Club AccorHotels Points for stays at all participating Accor Hotels on North America. Fairmont Hotels are included. Full details, online registration & booking (Registration is required)  Book by Feb 28 for stays Jan 1 - Mar 31, 19

Find many more Le Club AccorHotels bonus points offers here!

December 7 Update: 150 Bonus AIR MILES when you buy $150 Sobeys Gift Cards, 50% Bonus Asia Miles for Hotel Point Transfers & American AAdvantage Lowers Redemption Rates out of Canada

Sobeys and Safeway are offering 150 bonus AIR MILES Reward Miles when you buy $150 in Sobeys Gift Cards. There is a limit of 5 bonus offers per collector. I think I'm definitely going to take advantage of this. I'll buy them on my American Express Cobalt card to earn 5x points and when you add in the bonus AIR MILES it will be worth around $27 in rewards between the two. There is no coupon required to take advantage of this offer.

Check out the latest Cathay Pacific Asia Miles bonus for hotel points transfers. They are offering a 50% bonus on transfers until the end of January.  Thanks to reader Steve who commented below that Marriott/SPG is actually not part of the promotion. They are shown on the website but not as a bonus option and I didn't follow my own rule of always reading the terms and conditions!

Marriott is part of the bonus, and as we all know when you convert 60,000 Marriott Rewards points you'll get 25,000 miles. Add in the 50% and you have 37,500 Asia Miles. Remember it only takes 36,000 Asia Miles to fly in Premium Economy on Cathay between Vancouver and New York (50,000 for Business Class). I'm sure wheels are begin to turn for some of you to see how you can maximize this bonus! Let us know if you are going to take advantage of it and how you plan on using the miles! If you don't have enough Marriott points you could get the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express right away, put your minimum spend of $1,500 on it as soon as you can and the 50,000 points should post by mid to late January and then you could transfer to Cathay Pacific.

Several years ago when American AAdvantage came out with revised pricing on their flight awards we were shocked that redemptions out of Canada were higher than the U.S. Typically, most programs have the same redemption levels for Canada and the lower 48 but American raised prices out of Canada to amounts higher than travel out of the lower 48. Lucky at One Mile at a Time reports today that American has come to their senses and are adjusting Canada back to the lower 48 rates as of January 16.

 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
Air Canada Aeroplan
- Quadruple Aeroplan Miles for stays at participating Accor Hotels Worldwide. More... Until Feb 28, 19
- Earn 100 to 1,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles when you opt in to receive text messages from Aeroplan. More... Until Dec 31, 18

Cineplex SCENE
- Earn 15,000 Bonus SCENE points when you activate on a 2-year Your Choice plan with Telus. More... Until Dec 30, 18

Other Bonus Offers
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- 50% Bonus Asia Miles when you convert your hotel points from participating hotel groups to Asia Miles. More... Until Jan 31, 19

Hyatt World of Hyatt
- 10% Bonus Points on points redeemed for award night stays in Puerto Rico. More... Until Jan 15, 19

Iberia Plus
- 50% Bonus Avios when you buy 2,000 or more Avios. More... Until Dec 31, 18

IHG Rewards Club
- Double IHG Rewards Club Points when you stay 3+ nights at Kimpton EPIC Hotel in Downtown Miami; Kimpton Angler’s Hotel or Kimpton Surfcomber Hotel in South Beach, Miami; or Kimpton Vero Beach Hotel + Spa in Vero Beach, FL,. More... Book by Dec 15 for stays until Mar 30, 18

Le Club AccorHotels
- Double Le Club AccorHotels Points when you book your next Accor Hotels via the Accor app. More... Book by Dec 31 for stays until Mar 25, 18

Miles & More
- Double Miles & More Miles on all Lufthansa flights Worldwide when flown in Economy Class. More... Members resident in Austria, Switzerland or Liechtenstein are excluded from the promotion. Until Dec 31, 18

Radisson Rewards
- 2,500 Bonus Radisson Rewards Points for stays at participating Radisson Collection, Radisson Blu, Radisson RED, Radisson, Park Inn by Radisson, and Country Inn & Suites by Radisson Hotels in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas. More... Book by Dec 21 for stays until Mar 10, 19

Follow Rewards Canada: