Air Canada completes acquisition of Aeroplan - miles will transfer 1:1 and Amex remains in the mix

As we mentioned yesterday, Aimia shareholders approved the purchase of their Canadian division by Air Canada and we now have confirmation that the transaction is complete. Air Canada officially owns Aeroplan once again and they give us some but not many details of what can be expected:

• Aeroplan Miles will convert 1:1 to the new Air Canada program
• Altitude Status and privileges remain unchanged for customers
• Credit card loyalty program and network agreements finalized with TD, CIBC and Visa Canada for future participation in Air Canada's loyalty program
• Agreement in principle entered into with American Express for its continued participation in Air Canada's loyalty program post 2020.

The big question remains is what value will the new Air Canada program bring. Will they devalue the Aeroplan program as we know or will they keep it the same. This sooner Air Canada reveals this the better, that is if the program will remain relatively the same or better. Of course if they are going to make it worse don't expect them to announce anything until well into Q4 or even into 2020. That being said I don't think there will be major changes on the redemption side. People are worried about the redemption side but the new Air Canada program still has a huge amount of competition, primarily on the economy class front and that is where most people redeem there miles in the current Aeroplan program. You have AIR MILES, RBC Avion, CIBC Aventura, BMO Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards, More Rewards, and the list goes on for companies and programs that compete for the biggest chunk of the pie of collectors. If the Air Canada program devalued economy class redemptions they would stand to lose out to all those proprietary credit card programs, coalition programs and even WestJet Rewards. Where Air Canada will probably look to recoup some of the money they are spending will be on premium redemptions like business and first class flights. They have less competition here albeit WestJet is up and coming in that department. If any devaluations were to happen I would guess it would be on these premium redemption options but even if that happens it can't be major or even happen for the first couple of years. Air Canada doesn't want to anger their elite members who are their biggest revenue generators. AC already angered them with the announcement of the new program, hence AC reaching out to 30,000 members and learning the following:

"Air Canada has undertaken extensive consultations with more than 30,000 customers to identify key program attributes. Customers expressed their strong preference to use their Aeroplan Miles in the new Air Canada loyalty program"

They realized they needed to buy Aeroplan to appease those high end customers.  These members have huge Aeroplan balances and they were not happy they would have to start from zero in the new program and have a lot miles in a program that potentially wouldn't let them redeem for the flights they wanted. So why would Air Canada anger them all over again by jumping into a big devaluation on the redemption side.

They do say in their press release that they will still have the best reward value for Air Canada flights, but they don't say for what fare class and in reality most of its competitors that do offer access to Air Canada will primarily only do so for economy class. Let's see if that will be the case!

With all this being said I predict the biggest change in the new program will be Air Canada going to true revenue based earning when flying on paid tickets. That is, you earn a certain amount of miles per dollar spent on a ticket just like we have seen from United, American, Delta, and countless other programs - even WestJet is revenue based. Base members will earn something like 5 miles per dollar spent and the various elite members earning 7 to 11 miles per dollar. This is where the main devaluation can happen in the program.

For more details and continued updates we recommend reading and bookmarking Air Canada's dedicated site for the new loyalty program.

For more details and a complete timeline on the story visit "The Air Canada Aeroplan Saga - All the resources you need"

Hilton Winter Sale - Save up to 25% on weekend stays in the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa - Book by Jan 31

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 2,000 bonus points on these stays with the current winter Hilton Honors promotion that runs until May 5. 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.

January 9 Update: TAP to fly new A330-900neo between Toronto & Lisbon, Toronto to Bangkok or South Africa for only $936 on KLM & more!

TAP Portugal is up-gauging some of its flights between Toronto and Lisbon to their brand new A330-900neo aircraft. Several flights per week will be operated by the new planes while some will still be the older Airbus A330-200. TAP was the launch customer of the newly updated A330 which has 298 seats (34 Business, 96 Economy Plus, 168 Economy) TAP does have their own frequent flyer program which was recently renamed to Miles&Go from Victoria. The airline is also part of Star Alliance which means you can earn and burn Aeroplan, MileagePlus and other miles on these flights. (Source Routesonline) Photo courtesy of Airbus

Air Transat is boosting service between Toronto and Zagreb for the summer to three times per week. As we all know Air Transat does not have a loyalty program (and the partnership announced in 2018 with Aeroplan not coming to fruition) so your best bet is to earn credit card points if you pay cash for these and you can redeem those flexible proprietary credit card points as well. (Source Routesonline)

Posts since our last update:

• Earn 500 Bonus Aeroplan Miles for stays at Best Western Hotels until May 12
  We see the return of the Aeroplan Best Western stay bonus for the remainder of the winter and into…
• Aimia's Shareholders Approve Sale of Aeroplan (Aimia Canada) to Air Canada
  The last hurdle in Air Canada's move to purchase Aeroplan back from Aimia was cleared yesterday. The "transaction was…
• Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for January - nearly $1,400 in travel rewards with these cards
  Here are the Rewards Canada Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for the month of January! This is not…

Travel Deals

KLM has some pretty amazing economy class fares available right now. Europe starts at $765 round trip from Toronto but probably the best deal is Toronto to Bangkok, Johannesburg or Cape Town for only $936! Find out more here.

Avis: Save up to 20% with their New Year Worldwide sale. Book by Jan 31 for rentals until Dec 15, 19. Find out more here.

Hilton APAC Year End sale - Save up to 25% when you book by Feb 2 for stays until Sep 30, 2019!

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 500 Bonus Aeroplan Miles for each stay at Best Western Hotels in Canada, the United States, or the Caribbean Islands More... Until May 12, 19

Other Bonus Offers

Emirates Skywards
- Triple Skywards Miles for stays at participating Anantara Hotels Worldwide. More... Until Feb 29, 20
- Triple Skywards Miles for stays at participating AVANI Hotels Worldwide More... Until Feb 29, 20

Le Club AccorHotels
- Triple Le Club AccorHotels Points for stays at participating Accor Hotels in South America More... Book by Jan 31 for stays until Mar 31, 19
- 1,000 Bonus Le Club AccorHotels Points for stays at the Fairmont Copacabana. More... Book by Mar 17 for stays Apr 1 - Jul 1, 19

Qatar Airways Privilege Club
- Earn up to 6,000 QMiles when you fly Qatar Airways between Doha and Malta. More... Jun 4 - Aug 31, 19

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- Double Flying Club Miles for purchasing entries into No1 Lounges. More... Purchase by Jan 31 for entry until Apr 30, 19


Follow Rewards Canada:

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Earn 500 Bonus Aeroplan Miles for stays at Best Western Hotels until May 12

We see the return of the Aeroplan Best Western stay bonus for the remainder of the winter and into spring. The offer is the same as the previous one that ended on December 15 of 500 bonus miles per stay. This is typically the lower bonus (it can get as high as 1,000 miles) that we see but it is still better than nothing and considering BW Reward does not have a systemwide bonus offer right now this is the better way to go. You do have to be a Best Western Rewards member with your earning preferences set to Aeroplan to earn the bonus.

Offer details
Earn 500 Bonus Aeroplan Miles for each stay at Best Western Hotels in Canada, the United States, or the Caribbean Islands Full details, online registration & booking (Registration is required) Until May 12, 19

Find many more Aeroplan bonus miles offers here.

Aimia's Shareholders Approve Sale of Aeroplan (Aimia Canada) to Air Canada

The last hurdle in Air Canada's move to purchase Aeroplan back from Aimia was cleared yesterday. The "transaction was approved by holders representing 96% of Aimia's common shares and preferred shares who voted on the Transaction on a combined basis" With this approval it is expected that the transaction should be completed in the coming days. Once that happens we hope that we will start to hear some news from Air Canada on what their new program will look like starting in July 2020. If anything we should know more details of the new program in the second half of this year.

For more details on the story visit "The Air Canada Aeroplan Saga - All the resources you need"

Source: Aimia

Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for January - nearly $1,400 in travel rewards with these cards

Here are the Rewards Canada Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for the month of January! 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 just 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 the sign up rewards.  This month all five cards have no annual fee in the first year so you can try them out at no cost and decide later on if the card is right for you.

This month sees the return of the CIBC Aventura Visa Infinite card as the great sign up offer the HSBC World Elite Mastercard is now gone.

Here are our top 5 credit card sign up offers for January (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 on our Top 5 sign up list thanks to its 3,000 miles sign up bonus (worth ~$300 or more) and no annual fee in the first year! Add in a free companion fare when you redeem for flights and the value jumps even higher. 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. Please note: new Collectors have Miles automatically deposited into their Dream Account, not their Cash account. Minimum Income: $80,000 Personal or $150,000 Household

BMO World Elite Mastercard - 35,000 Points  (Apply here)

 The card offers 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 LoungeKey access and 4 lounge passes included in that first year free. And the latest offer on the card also includes a $100 travel bonus! Minimum Income: $80,000 Personal or $150,000 Household

CIBC Aventura Visa Infinite Card - 20,000 points (Apply here)
The CIBC Aventura Visa Infinite card is back on the list with its 20,000 Aventura Points sign up bonus worth up to $400 in travel depending on what type of flight you redeem for and since the annual fee of $120 (and supplementary cards are waived as well) is waived those 20,000 points come at no cost to you. Minimum Income: $60,000 Personal or $100,000 Household

RBC Visa Infinite Avion Card - 20,000 Points (Apply here)
Continuing on the list is this decent offer of 20,000 RBC Rewards points at literally no cost other than the spend requirement to use towards flights via the RBC airline redemption program or convert to other programs like WestJet (it's 200 WestJet dollars!), British Airways or Cathay Pacific.  Minimum Income: $60,000 Personal or $100,000 Household

TD First Class Visa Infinite Card - 40,000 Points (Apply here)
Last time this card was being featured with no annual fee in the first year was back in August! It's nice to see it return albeit with a slightly lower sign up bonus of 40,000 points versus 50,000 earlier this fall You get the standard sign up bonus of 20,000 points upon approval and another 20,000 if you spend $1,000 on the card in first 90 days having it. Those 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. Minimum Income: $60,000 Personal or $100,000 Household

If you went for all these cards you ultimately could end up with nearly $1,400 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

January 8 Update: Earn Double QMiles & Elite QPoints on all Qatar flights, Mastercard drops Mastercard from logo, Condor increasing YYC & YYZ flights

Qatar Airways is offering not only Double Qmiles on their flights but also Double Elite Qualifting QPoints. Be sure to register and book if your are planning on flying Qatar out of Montreal (or anywhere else for that matter). Bookings must be completed by February 28 and you have until March 5th to register for flights until the end of August! Find out more here.

Mastercard has updated their branding to drop the actual "Mastercard" name from their logo. The brand and logo will simply be the interlocking red and yellow circles that have become synonymous with the brand. I wouldn't expect replacement cards from MC issuers to be automatically sent out, rather you'll probably see it when you get replacement cards sent in the future or when you apply for a new card. (Source Mastercard)

 For next summer Condor Airlines (a Lufthansa subsidiary) will be increasing flights from Calgary and Toronto to Frankfur. Calgary moves to 4x weekly while Toronto jumps to 5x weekly. You can earn and redeem Miles & More miles or earn Alaska Mileage Plan miles for Condor flights but I figure most Canadians if they are choosing to travel on Condor would look at using proprietary credit card points for these flights. Condor is a Rewards Canada partner and you can book flights with them directly to help support RC. (Source Routesonline)

Posts since our last update:

• Save up to 50% on Economy and Business Class award tickets for spring travel between Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver and Europe
  As we do each month we bring you the latest set Miles & More "Meilenschnaeppchen" or Mileage Bargain discounted…

Travel Deals
Hilton APAC Year End sale - Save up to 25% when you book by Feb 2 for stays until Sep 30, 2019!

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
- Quadruple AAdvantage Miles on all rentals of three days or longer at any Dollar location Worldwide. More... Until Jun 30, 19
- Earn up to 50,000 Bonus AAdvantage Miles when you buy American AAdvantage Miles. More... Until Jan 31, 19

Avianca LifeMiles
- Earn up to 6x LifeMiles when you rent with Thrifty in the Americas or Europe. More... Until Dec 31, 19

Emirates Skywards
- Triple Skywards Miles for stays at participating Anantara Hotels Worldwide. More... Until Feb 29, 20

Iberia Plus
- 25% Avios Discount when you redeem for award flights between Madrid and Copenhagen, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Santa Cruz de la Palma, Stuttgart, Berlin or Dublin. More... Book by Feb 28, for travel until Mar 31, 19
- Double Avios for stays at NH Hotels in Rome, Buenos Aires, Frankfurt, Mexico City, Rotterdam, Cologne, Marseille, Santiago (Chile), and any city in Andalusia. More... Until Feb 28, 19

Qatar Airways Privilege Club
- Earn up to Double QMiles and Double Elite QPoints when you book and fly with Qatar Airways. More... Book by Feb 28, register by Mar 5, for travel until Aug 31, 19

Saudia Alfursan
- 1,000 Alfursan Miles for Sixt car rentals Worldwide. More... Until Jan 31, 19

Voila Hotel Rewards
- 30% VHR Points discount when you redeem points for an award night at any participating Voila Hotel Rewards Hotel. More... Until Mar 31, 19



Follow Rewards Canada:

Save up to 50% on Economy and Business Class award tickets for spring travel between Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver and Europe

As we do each month we bring you the latest set Miles & More "Meilenschnaeppchen" or Mileage Bargain discounted mileage awards. This month all the offers are for flying on Lufthansa from Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver

Montreal
Lufthansa Economy and Business Class
Book by January 31 for travel between May 1 - June 15 , 2019

Toronto
Lufthansa Business Class
Book by January 31 for travel between May 1 - June 15 , 2019


Vancouver
Lufthansa Business Class
Book by January 31 for travel between May 1 - June 15 , 2019

With this offer you can redeem Miles & More miles for round trip business class tickets on Lufthansa from all three cities to 80+ destinations in Europe for only 55,000 miles. This is nearly a 50% discount off the normal award ticket price of 105,000 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 however remember this is for business class so even several hundreds of dollars in fees along with 55,000 miles could be the savings you are looking for.

Here are just some of the Business Class offers this month:

You can also choose to redeem 30,000 miles for round-trip Economy Class flights out of Montreal to 81 destinations in Europe. This is a 50% discount off the normal Economy Class award ticket price of 60,000 miles.

Here is an example of some of them:

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.

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 for full details on this Miles & More offer 

January 7 Update: Turkish Miles&Smiles extends mileage validity, Aer Lingus introducing intra-Europe lie flat business class & more!

Rewards Canada contributor Martin L. passed along this note from Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles. On December 31st, any miles that were three years old were set to expire (the program has a three year life span on miles) however due to some technical issues with their booking processes Turkish has extended the expiry date to January 15. So if you happen to have some older Miles&Smiles Miles check their website to see if there is anything you can redeem for rather than losing the miles!

Aer Lingus, which flies to Toronto and soon to Montreal will be adding lie flat business class seats to some of their European routes late in 2019. They will be utilizing some of their new A321LR aircraft that have the lie flat seats from Dublin to cities like London, Paris and Barcelona. This is a definite perk if you are flying Aer Lingus beyond Dublin from Canada! For the most part we have seen true business class disappear for intra-Europe flights so this will be a welcome change. (Source Irish Times)

WOW Air, the troubled Icelandic carrier officially nixed plans to fly to Vancouver next year. If you have purchases tickets for those flights you can get a refund from the airline or your credit card company. (Source Routesonline)

We are still looking for someone who would be interested in reviewing the newly opened Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge in St. John's. If you are interested please email us at info@rewardscanada.ca (we do pay you for it!)

Posts since our last update:

• IHG Rewards Club 2019 Hotel Award Night Category Changes - 28 hotels in Canada affected
   As is always the case when a New Year comes around we can expect the usual changes from hotel programs…
• Air France KLM Flying Blue Promo Rewards - Save 25% on business class awards from Calgary or Toronto to Europe
  The newest set of Air France KLM's Promo Rewards are out now and for this month we see two…
• IHG Rewards Club Rewards Nights. Faster. Earn 40,000 or more bonus points on your stays until April 15
  IHG Rewards Club becomes the second major chain to release their first quarter global systemwide bonus offering. It is…
• Up to 25% off Asia Pacific Hilton stays
  Hilton Honors members can to save up to 25% on stays across the entire Asia Pacific region when you…

Travel Deals
Hilton APAC Year End sale - Save up to 25% when you book by Feb 2 for stays until Sep 30, 2019!

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 France KLM Flying Blue
- January Promo Rewards - Save 20% to 50% on the Award Miles usually required for an award ticket. Destinations vary by each promotional period. Calgary and Toronto included this month. More... Book by Jan 31 for travel Mar 1 - Apr 30, 19

Other Bonus Offers
Avianca LifeMiles
- Earn up to 2,000 Bonus LifeMiles when you stay 2 nights at participating Marriott Hotels in Caribbean and Latin America. More... Until Jan 31, 19

IHG Rewards Club
- Earn 500 to 40,000 or more Bonus IHG Rewards Club Points when you complete stays at IHG Hotels Worldwide. Bonus varies by member. More... Register by Mar 15 for stays Jan 15 - Apr 30, 19
- Receive a Free Night Award when you complete 2 nights at selected UK IHG hotels. Free night award must be redeemed by Oct 31, 19. More... Until Mar 31, 19

Le Club AccorHotels
- 1,000 Bonus Le Club AccorHotels Points for stays at participating Accor Hotels in the United Kingdom More... Book by Jan 27 for stays until Mar 31, 19

Royal Air Maroc Safar Flyer
- Earn up to 4,000 Bonus Safar Flyer Miles when you rent with Avis for 4 or more days worldwide. More... Book by Jan 31 for rentals until Jun 30, 19

Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus
- Triple ROP Miles for stays at participaing Anantara Hotels Worldwide. More... Until Mar 31, 20



Follow Rewards Canada:

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IHG Rewards Club 2019 Hotel Award Night Category Changes - 28 hotels in Canada affected

 

As is always the case when a New Year comes around we can expect the usual changes from hotel programs of individual hotel locations moving up or down in free night award/reward categories. These aren't changes to the redemption amounts within categories though. We get our first experience in annual changes from IHG Rewards Club and they sure aren't giving lots of notice. These changes according to their PDF list of hotels changing will take effect on January 14. As is always the case with changes like this you'll want to try to book award nights at hotels that are going up in price right away and wait until the 14th to book ones that are going down in price. 

The 2019 changes sees nearly 700 hotels moving up or down in categories. It's not a huge amount, around 13% of their entire portfolio and 28 of them are in Canada. Of those 28, only 5 are going in down in award price while the other 23 are moving up. Most significant is the newly opened Kimpton Saint George Hotel in Toronto that moves from 40,000 points per night to 45,000 and the InterContinental Montreal moving from 45,000 to 50,000 points per night.  You can find the entire list here. This list can be attributed to FlyerTalk member Lionheart who discovered it a couple of days ago.

Here is the entire list of Canadian properties that are changing:

What are your thoughts of these changes? Will you be booking some hotels right away (or waiting for that matter?)