February 12 Update: Bonus Miles & More Miles for Lufthansa Economy Class out of Canada, Aeroplan Costco bonus next week & 20X SCENE Points during Irish Fest

If you plan on flying on Lufthansa out of Canada this year in Economy Class the good news is that you will now earn 6 Miles & More miles per Euro spent instead of 4. The program is offering 2 bonus miles per Euro spent on all of Lufthansa's Intercontinental flights flown in Economy Class. There is no registration required simply book online at Lufthansa.ca

 Here is a heads up that you will be able to earn Triple Aeroplan miles on Costco.ca purhcases starting next week. Registration and use of promo code will be required. Find out more here. 

You can earn 20X SCENE Points during Irish Fest at participating Fionn MacCool’s, D’Arcy McGee’s, Paddy Flaherty’s and Tir nan Òg restaurants until March 16. Find out more here. 

and be sure keep an eye on our blog and social media channels over the next two days for a bunch of exciting updates and industry coverage!

Posts since our last update:

• World Of Hyatt Hotel Category Changes for 2019 - 259 hotels affected globally, 1 in Canada
  The list of hotel chains releasing their hotel category changes for 2019 continues to grow. Hyatt and their World…

Travel Deals
Avis Spring Sale - Save up to 30% on Avis Rentals Worldwide until March 31. Find out more here.

Remember to visit Rewards Canada's Travel Booking site to book travel directly with many of your favourite airlines, hotels and more!

Canadian Bonus Offers
Miles & More
- 2 Bonus Miles&More Miles on all Lufthansa Intercontinental flights flown in economy class including those departing Canada. More... Until Dec 31, 19

Other Bonus Offers
Le Club AccorHotels
- 1,000 Bonus Le Club AccorHotels Points for stays of 2+ nights at participating Accor Hotels in the French Riviera. More... Until Mar 3, 19

Marriott Bonvoy
- 1,000 Bonus Rewards Points PER NIGHT for stays at the Fairfield Inn East Rutherford Meadowlands, Residence Inn East Rutherford Meadowlands, Courtyard Edison Woodbridge or the Residence Inn Secaucus Meadowlands. More... Until Mar 16, 19
- 1,000 Bonus Rewards Points PER NIGHT for stays at the AC Hotel New York Downtown. More... Until Mar 16, 19
- 1,000 Bonus Rewards Points for stays at the Renaissance Mumbai Convention Centre Hotel. More... Until Apr 1, 19

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Earn up to Triple KrisFlyer Miles for Europcar Rentals of 2 or more days worldwide except US, Canada, China and Japan. More... Until Mar 31, 19

Turkish Miles&Smiles
- Earn up to 3,000 Bonus Miles&Smiles Miles when you rent with Hertz Worldwide. More... Until Mar 30, 19

United MileagePlus
- 400 Bonus MileagePlus miles when you spend $200 more with MileagePlus Shopping. More.. Until Feb 17, 19

Follow Rewards Canada:

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World Of Hyatt Hotel Category Changes for 2019 - 259 hotels affected globally, 1 in Canada

The list of hotel chains releasing their hotel category changes for 2019 continues to grow. Hyatt and their World Of Hyatt program are now in the fray. They follow Marriott, IHG, and Radisson who have already announced their changes for this year.  Between the four hotel chains there are now a total 42 hotels in Canada changing award night categories.

Hyatt's changes will take place on March 18 and affect a total of 259 hotels around the globe. The split in locations is pretty even with 130 hotels moving up in category and 129 going down. Only one of the nine hotels they have in Canada is changing and that is Spirit Ridge in Osoyoos B.C. Good news for this change is the hotel is one of those going down!

World Of Hyatt isn't as major of a player in our market like the other big chain loyalty programs since they don't have a lot of hotels here and have no credit card option (unless you still hold the Diners Club Mastercard!) but I do know a fair bit of our readers do utilize the program thanks to Hyatt's foot print in major cities worldwide. So if you are a World of Hyatt member take a look at the complete list of hotels changing categories if you have had some redemptions in mind and take our usual advice of booking before March 18 for any hotel that is going up and the good news with Hyatt is that you don't have to wait to book hotels going down as Hyatt will automatically refund you the difference in points after March 18.

Of note some of the more aspirational properties that are moving up that you may want to lock in now are:

• Andaz Maui - Category 6 to 7
• Hyatt Regency Maui Resort & Spa - Category 5 to 6
• Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi - Category 5 to 6
• Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa - Category 6 to 7

We'd love to hear from those of you who are World Of Hyatt members here in Canada and are using the program regularly - what do you think of the changes?

February 11 Update: 50% bonus for buying British Airways Avios, Aeroplan Miles Matching weeks revealed & more!

British Airways Executive Club launched a buy or gift Avios sale today! This one runs for two weeks and is better than the one we saw this past fall! The bonus is a flat 50% when you buy 1,000 or more Avios. The more Avios you buy the cheaper it gets per Avios. Buy the maximum 200,000 Avios and you'll get 300,000 for US$5523 or about 1.84 cents per Avios. Now that's a lot of cash to outlay buy being able to buy under US 2 cents a piece is a good deal. Even if you only buy 30,000 Avios (45,000 with the bonus) you are getting them for just under 1.9 cents each. This may not be for everyone but there are definitely some really good sweet spots in the program where you can pull a lot more value out of the Avios than 1.9 cents US! Find out more here.

 

Aeroplan has released the 2019 Miles Matching weeks for donating miles! This annual initiative sees Aeroplan matching the miles donated to the charities listed during specific weeks during the year

Aeroplan’s Miles Matching Weeks will be held during the following weeks:

The Stephen Lewis Foundation (February 11 ‒ 17) ‒ The Stephen Lewis Foundation works with community-level organizations which are turning the tide of HIV/AIDS in Africa by providing care and support to women, orphans, grandmothers and people living with HIV and AIDS.

David Suzuki Foundation (March 4 ‒ 10) ‒ The David Suzuki Foundation’s mission is to protect the diversity of nature and our quality of life, now and for the future.

Veterinarians without Borders(April 22 ‒ 28) ‒ Veterinarians without Borders Canada works with those in need to foster the health of animals, people and the environments in which they interact.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (May 6 ‒ 12) ‒ MSF is an independent international humanitarian organization that delivers emergency medical aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural and man-made disasters or exclusion from healthcare in more than 70 countries around the world.

MusiCounts (June 10 ‒ 16) ‒ MusiCounts, Canada's music education charity associated with the JUNO Awards, is keeping music alive in schools and communities across Canada by putting musical instruments into the hands of children that need them most.

Engineers Without Borders (September 2 ‒ 8) ‒ Engineers Without Borders Canada brings people and ideas together to tackle the most crucial causes of poverty and inequality.

War Child Canada(October 7 ‒ 13) ‒ War Child protects children from the brutal impact of war.

Air Canada Foundation(December 2 ‒ 8) ‒ Through its Hospital Transportation Program, the Air Canada Foundation helps sick children reach medical treatment not available in their community allowing them to receive the best medical care possible.

Posts since our last update:

• Marriott Bonvoy reveals March 5 as the date that Category 8 comes into effect as well as 380+ hotel category changes
  Since last August, there has been somewhat of a sweet spot (if you want to call it that) for…

Travel Deals
Hertz: Weekend rates start at $12.99/day. Book by May 18 Find out more here

Remember to visit Rewards Canada's Travel Booking site to book travel directly with many of your favourite airlines, hotels and more!

Canadian Bonus Offers
N/A

Other Bonus Offers
British Airways Executive Club
- 50% Bonus Avios when you buy or gift Avios. More... Until Feb 24, 19

La Quinta Returns
- Earn up to Triple Returns Points for stays at participating La Quinta locations in the U.S. More... Until Mar 7, 19

Le Club AccorHotels
- Quadruple Le Club AccorHotels Points for stays at participating new Accor Hotels Worldwide. More... Book by Mar 25 for stays until May 12, 19

Marriott Rewards
- Earn up 2,000 Bonus Rewards Points per night for stays at any one of 33 hotels in California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia  or Washington. More... Until Mar 31, 19

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Triple KrisFlyer Miles for stays at Anantara Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. More... Until Mar 31, 19
- Triple KrisFlyer Miles for stays at Avani Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. More... U ntil Mar 31, 19
- Triple KrisFlyer Miles for stays at Tivoli Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. More... Until Mar 31, 19


Follow Rewards Canada:

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Marriott Bonvoy reveals March 5 as the date that Category 8 comes into effect as well as 380+ hotel category changes

Since last August, there has been somewhat of a sweet spot (if you want to call it that) for booking high end hotels in the Marriott Rewards (Bonvoy as of next week) program. When the three loyalty programs under the Marriott banner became one last August they kept all their hotels in the Category 1 to 7 levels and didn't introduce peak season pricing. This meant you only had to spend 60,000 points on the best hotels in the portfolio. They did tell us that sometime in 2019 the new Category 8 would come out and that would have a standard redemption rate of 85,000 points (going up to 100,000 for peak times). That means you've been able to essentially 'save' 25,000 points per night for those hotels that will be moving to category 8 and you still can. That is only until March 4th as on the 5th the Category 8 level will take effect. Out of the chain's 6,500+ hotels only 68 will fall into this new category but they are some of the most sought after such as two locations in French Polynesia, a couple in the Maldives and Paris as well as a lot of the premier Ritz-Carlton hotels.

In today's announcement of the launch date for Category 8, Marriott also revealed other hotels that will be moving up or down in award night categories. The entire list of hotels changing can be found here (PDF) and comprises of over 380 hotels. Of that list only 37 are moving down, the remaining 346 are moving up on March 5. This means you'll want to book your free nights at hotels going up as soon as possible so you don't spend as many points and if you happen to be wanting to redeem for one of the 37 going down you'll want to wait to book.

In Canada we 9 properties affected in these changes and they are all going up in price!

You can find the entire category list of over 6,700 Marriott hotels here.

February 8 Update: Targeted WestJet Rewards Flight Bonus Offer, Rogers World Elite Mastercard review and 11 new bonus offers

If you are a WestJet Rewards Elite member be sure to check your email for an invite only bonus offer. If you get the email you can register, book and fly eligible routes on an EconoFlex, Premium or PremiumFlex fare to earn up to 50% bonus WestJet dollars. The actual flight window is only a week from February 21 to 28 for bookings made from February 7 to 28. This means if you have a trip on one of these routes that you booked before February 7 you aren't supposed to get the bonus however in my past experience I did receive a flight bonus for a booking made prior to the start of the promotion. Not sure if WestJet has closed that door yet so your mileage may vary. Find out more and register for this offer here.

• Calgary - Vancouver
• Calgary - Puerto Vallarta
• Toronto - Calgary
• Toronto - Ottawa
• Toronto - New York (La Guardia)
• Toronto - Cancun
• Toronto - London Gatwick
• Vancouver – Honolulu

The bonuses are as follows

• Bonus WestJet dollars are awarded on eligible Qualifying spend (QS) using the following criteria:
• QS on EconoFlex fares on eligible flights will get an additional 0.5% bonus
• QS on Premium fares on eligible flights will get an additional 1% bonus
• QS on PremiumFlex fares on eligible flights will get an additional 1.5% bonus
  

Posts since our last update:

• Rogers World Elite Mastercard Review
  The Rogers World Elite Mastercard is a youngen in the Canadian market only being released in May of 2018.…

Travel Deals
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
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- Triple Asia Miles for stays at Anantara Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. More... Until Feb 29, 20
- Triple Asia Miles for stays at Avani Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. More... Until Feb 29, 20
- Triple Asia Miles for stays at Tivoli Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. More... Until Feb 29, 20

Marriott Bonvoy
- 1,000 Bonus Rewards Points when you stay 2+ nights Thursday-Sunday at the Kigali Marriott Hotel. More... Until Mar 31, 19
- 10,000 Bonus Rewards Points for stays at the Fiji Marriott Resort Momi Bay. More... Until Apr 14, 19
- 2,000 Rewards Points on Hertz rentals of 2+ days in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, Mexico, New Zealand and Puerto Rico. More... Until May 31, 19

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Double KrisFlyer Miles for stays at the Chatrium Hotel Royal Lake Yangon. More... Until Mar 31, 19

Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
- 30% Bonus Miles&Smiles Miles when you fly on Turkish Airlines between Istanbul and Lviv, Tbilisi, Venice, Tunis, Birmingham, London, Basel, Nuremburg, Amman or Maputo. More... Until Feb 28, 19
- 30% Miles&Smiles Discount when you redeem for award travel on Turkish Airlines between Istanbul and various cities in Europe, North America and the Middle East. More... Until Feb 28, 19
- 50% Bonus Miles&Smiles Miles on all hotel bookings made via Kaligo. More... Book by Mar 7 for stays until Jul 31, 19

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club- 5x Flying Club Miles when you rent at participating Enterprise locations in Europe and North America. More...  Book by Mar 31 for rentals until May 31, 19

Follow Rewards Canada:

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Rogers World Elite Mastercard Review

The Rogers World Elite Mastercard is a youngen in the Canadian market only being released in May of 2018. It is the premium version of the Rogers Platinum Mastercard that was introduced several years prior. That Platinum card underwent several changes over its short life with the latest being a devaluation that essentially paved the way to release the World Elite Mastercard. The WE is the better of two of course seeing that it is a premium card and both of the card versions have no annual. So why would you even bother with the Platinum if this is the case? Well the main reason is income requirements, the World Elite has high income requirements where as the Platinum is a lot lower.

The Rogers World Elite Mastercard is essentially a cash back credit card and a good one at that! Don't be deceived by the Rogers terminology - the cash back earned on the card does not have to be used solely for Rogers services by Rogers customers. Anyone can get this card and you have the option to redeem for true cash back in the form of statement credits or pay with points options. 

Continue reading the entire review on the main Rewards Canada website  

February 7 Update: New Hilton tool to see the cost of award nights, update to Rewards Canada nav bar, 8 new bonus offers

Two years ago Hilton Honors decided to stop publishing charts for free night awards as they moved to dynamic pricing when redeeming points. This made it tough to figure out how many points you may actually need for a stay and has been an obvious gripe for many of the program's members. Good news is that Hilton must have been listening to their members as they have launched a new tool called Points Explorer.

Here are some search examples:

With the tool it will show you, in most cases, the minimum amount and maximum amount of points required for an award night. As you can see above, the Hilton Mauritius does not show a minimum. Essentially this will let you plan your future award travels by predicting the maximum amount of points you'll need you shouldn't be met with any surprises. We say 'shouldn't' as there appear to be cases where there are rates both lower and higher than the min and max shown. You can visit the Points Explorer tool here.
 

We completed a small update to our navigation menu on the main Rewards Canada website. We moved 'Reviews' over to the main nav bar with a drop down for  each of the four types of reviews we have on the site and the blog.  The Book Travel link has been moved over the smaller right hand menu. Overall this should make it easier to access all the different reviews we have on the site.

Posts since our last update:

• IHG Rewards Club Rewards Nights. Faster. Earn 40,000 or more bonus points on your stays until April 15
  A friendly reminder post about IHG's Reward Nights. Faster. promotion where you can earn 40,000 or more bonus points…
• Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for February - 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 February! This is not…

Travel Deals
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 4x Aeroplan Miles for stays at over 6,800 Choice Hotels worldwide. More... Until Apr 30, 19

Other Bonus Offers
American AAdvantage
- Earn 6x AAdvantage Miles for stays at over 6,800 Choice Hotels worldwide. More... Until Mar 31, 19

Best Western Rewards
- Double Rewards Points for stays at the Best Western Statesville Inn More... Until Feb 28, 19

Jet Airways JetPrivilege
- 5 Bonus JPMiles for ever 100INR spent on PointsMAX hotel bookings made via Agoda. More... Book by Feb 28 for stays until Mar 31, 19
- 50% Bonus JPMiles on all hotel bookings made via Kaligo. More... Book by Apr 4 for stays until Aug 4, 19

Marriott Bonvoy
- 1,000 Bonus Rewards Points per stay including any night Friday-Sunday at over 30 Marriott Hotels in the U.K. More... Until Apr 1, 19

Saudia Alfursan
- 3,000 Bonus Alfursan Miles on your first hotel booking made via Rocketmiles. More... Book by Mar 31, 19
- 2,000 Bonus Alfursan Miles for stays of 2+ nights Sunday-Thursday at the Sharm El Sheikh Marriott Resort. More... Until Apr 14, 19


Follow Rewards Canada:

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IHG Rewards Club Rewards Nights. Faster. Earn 40,000 or more bonus points on your stays until April 15

A friendly reminder post about IHG's Reward Nights. Faster. promotion where you can earn 40,000 or more bonus points for your IHG stays. Remember to register right away for it even if you don't have any stays planned. You never know when your plans may change, book an IHG hotel and remember after you check out that this promotion was out there.

IHG's Reward Nights. Faster. is essentially the same as previous Accelerate offers where the bonuses vary by member and you find out what your offer is after registering. Based on the wording of the promotion I received the base offer of earning up to 40,000 points.

Here is what I received as my offer:

Let us know what offer you get in the comments below!

Offer details
Earn 500 to 40,000 or more Bonus IHG Rewards Club Points when you complete stays at IHG Hotels Worldwide. Bonus varies by member. Full details, online registration and booking (Registration is required) Register by Mar 15 for stays Jan 15 - Apr 30, 19

Find many more IHG Rewards Club bonus points offers here!

Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for February - 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 February! This is not a 'best' credit card list like our Top Travel Rewards Credit Card rankings but instead a look at cards that have very good acquisition (sign up) offers. As always when choosing a card you should always take other factors into account other than the 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.

There are no changes to the list from January as no new offers (well new great offers) have come out since we posted in January. Give it a few weeks though and we should somewhere between 4-5 new offers and card changes coming!

Here are our top 5 credit card sign up offers for February (in alphabetical order)

BMO AIR MILES World Elite Mastercard - 3,000 Miles  (Apply here)
The best ever sign up bonus for an AIR MILES co-branded card continues 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 (click here to read a first hand account of using this voucher!). 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

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