New WestJet 787 routes for the winter - Calgary to Maui and Toronto to London Gatwick

Late in May WestJet revealed some new routes for their Boeing 787 Dreamliners which should excite some people! I know I'm excited for one of them.

For the Winter 2019 season WestJet will be placing one of the Dreamliners on their Calgary to Kahului Maui route. It will fly the route twice weekly starting on October 31 moving to 5x weekly for a month during March-April 2020 (Spring Break season!) I'm excited for this route as the Rewards Canada family goes to Maui a lot and most of the flights were on Air Canada as they used an internationally configured 767 with lie flat seats in Business Class but that changed for the 2018 winter season when they put the 737 MAX 8 on the route so we went with Hawaiian Airlines and their lie flat seats out of San Francisco. Now that there is once again a lie flat option directly from YYC you can bet we'll try to utilize it!

 The other major route getting Dreamliner service is Toronto to London Gatwick. As of October 23 the route will see the 787 fly it every day. Great news for those of you in YYZ and Eastern Canada who would connect in YYZ to have this new Business Class, Premium Economy and even decent Economy Class service to the UK.

Finally in the winter update WestJet will also be adding a 4th weekly flight between Calgary and London Gatwick on the 787.

Source: Routesonline

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Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for June - These cards provide some of the best value out of their welcome bonuses

Here are the Rewards Canada Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for the month of June! 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 we are sitting at 4 cards with no annual fees in the first year (or at all) and one card with an annual fee in the first year.

This month we see the TD First Class Visa Infinite card drop off the list. While the card still has an 80,000 point welcome bonus and first year free, 20,000 of those points are awarded on your card anniversary (and $10K in spending) so you have to wait a full year to get them and then pay an annual fee. We've replaced it on this list with the BMO Rewards Mastercard. You'll also see lower welcome bonuses for the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card and TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite card but they remain on the list for still providing lots of value with their new welcome bonuses!

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

BMO AIR MILES World Elite Mastercard - 3,000 Miles  (Apply here)
This almost 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!  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 Rewards Mastercard- 20,000 Points  (Apply here)

We see this card return to the list with its long running limited time offer. The BMO Rewards Mastercard has no annual fee so the 20,000 points (worth ~$142) come to you at no charge. 10,000 points are awarded after the 1st purchase and then 10,000 more if you can hit $1,000 in spending in the first three months.

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. 
Minimum Income: $80,000 Personal or $150,000 Household

Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card - 50,000 Points (Apply here)
This is the only card on the list that has an annual fee right of the bat but the sign up bonus and other benefits more than make up for it. The 50,000 points, awarded after spending $1,500 on the card in three months are worth at least $500 in our minds which means after subtracting the annual fee you are coming out ahead by $380. In reality you can pull even more value out of the card (into four figures) as we outlined in our post A look at how The Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card provides huge value!  
Minimum Income: N/A

TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card - 25,000 Miles (Apply here)

Even though it is a decrease from the previous offer that ended at the start of June, this is still one of the better offers available in our market today. The bonus is awarded as follows: 15,000 Aeroplan Miles when you make your first Purchase with your Card + 10,000 Aeroplan Miles when you spend $2,000 within 90 days of Account opening. Depending on how you redeem those Aeroplan miles should be worth no less than $288 but more likely closer to $500 or more! In fact if you take the per mile value from our post from late April this welcome bonus would be worth $1,450.
Minimum Income: $60,000 Personal or $100,000 Household

If you went for all these cards you ultimately could end up with $1,300 to over $3,000 in travel value. However 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. We don't really recommend getting all five in one month unless you know you can meet the minimum spend for them all at once, rather you'd want to pick one or two right now, perhaps another next month and so on.

Disclaimers:
American Express is not responsible for maintaining or monitoring the accuracy of information on this website. For full details and current product information click the Apply now link.

Sponsored advertising. The Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) is not responsible for the contents of this site including any editorials or reviews that may appear on this site. For complete and current information on any TD product, please visit the TD site. 

June 5 Update: Up to 50% Asia Miles on hotel points transfers, World of Hyatt partners with Lindblad Expeditions, 3x AIR MILES for Amazon.ca purchases

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles' hotel conversion bonus has returned. You can earn up to 50% bonus Asia Miles when you convert points from most of their hotel partners. The only partners not participating are Marriott Bonvoy, IHG Rewards Club and Regal Rewards. Find out more here!

World of Hyatt continues to expand their partner portfolio. The latest addition is Lindblad Expedtions. World of Hyatt members will be able to earn and redeem points for expeditions. As well nights stayed with Lindblad will count towards elite status. Find out more here!

You can earn 3x AIR MILES Reward Miles for Amazon.ca purchases made via airmilessshops.ca until June 14! Find out more here.

Posts since our last update:

• FLASH SALE – 100% Bonus when you buy IHG Rewards Club Points until June 8
  Another buy points flash sale from IHG Rewards Club and it is at the highest bonus level again. You…

Travel Deals

WestJet Premium Fare Seat Sale! WestJet has their premium fares (nee Plus) on sale until June 6th for travel until December 14. Find out more here.

Receive $100* off any round trip scheduled transatlantic flight from Aer Lingus' Toronto gateway to select European destinations! Book by Jun 11 for travel Aug 1 - Oct 31. Find out more here.

IHG Global Sale! Book now and save up to 20% at thousands of IHG® Hotels & Resorts worldwide when you book between now and July 31st.! Full details

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 25,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles when you apply for and receive the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card. More... Until Sep 3, 19

TD
- Earn up to 80,000 Bonus TD Rewards Points when you apply for and receive the TD® First Class Travel® Visa Infinite* Card. More... Until Sep 3, 19
- Earn up to 35,000 Bonus TD Rewards Points when you apply for and receive the TD Platinum Travel Visa* Card. More... Until Sep 3, 19

Other Bonus Offers

Aegean Miles&Bonus
- 20% Bonus Miles+Bonus Miles on all Aegean and Olympic Air flights. More... Until Jun 30, 19

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- Up to 50% Bonus Asia Miles when you convert points from select hotel loyalty programs to Asia Miles. More... Until Jun 30, 19

Hilton Honors
- 500 Bonus Honors points per rental for rentals at participating Alamo, Enterprise and National locations worldwide. Bonus awarded for up to 9 days. More... Until Dec 31, 19

Le Club AccorHotels
- Earn up to 1,300 Bonus Le Club AccorHotels Points for stays at Accor Hotels in Austria, Germany or Switzerland. More...! Book by Jul 20 for stays until Aug 20, 19

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Double KrisFlyer Miles when you book a minimum of 2 consecutive nights at Niccolo Hotels in China and Hong Kong. More... Until Jul 31, 19

Stash Hotel Rewards
- 1,000 Bonus Stash Rewards Points when you book any hotel via Stash Hotel Rewards. More... Book by Jun 30, 19



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FLASH SALE – 100% Bonus when you buy IHG Rewards Club Points until June 8

Another buy points flash sale from IHG Rewards Club and it is at the highest bonus level again. You can earn a 100% bonus when you buy 7,000 or more points. This sale runs until June 8.

The best price for buying points comes when you buy 30,000 or more points in one transaction. For example, buying 60,000 points (120,000 total with bonus) costs US$600 which means each point will only cost you 0.5 cents. That's up to 24 nights at IHG hotels if redeeming via the PointBreaks 5,000 point level, 12 nights at 10,000 and 8 nights at the 15,000 point level. Even at that highest level it is like you are buying each night for only US$75.

 

Offer Details
100% Bonus IHG Rewards Club Points when you buy points online.  Minimum purchase of 7,000 points. Buy Points here Until Jun 8, 19


Find many more IHG Rewards Club bonus point offers here!

June 4 Update: 40x SCENE Points at Harvey's and a WestJet Premium Fare seat sale

SCENE is offering 40x points at Harvey's! You have until June 9 to take advantage of this offer. Find out more and load the offer here.


Last week we launched Rewards Canada on Flipboard at https://flipboard.com/@RewardsCanada - it is possible you may not have been able to view it as we were still in the approval process. That process is done so you should have no problem accessing our blog posts via Flipboard now!

Posts since our last update:

• Rewards Canada Special Offer: Free Club 1 Hotels Membership worth US$99 with savings of up to 60% at 1 million+ hotels
  You may recall that several years ago we ran a special offer with Club1 Hotels when they first launched…
• New TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card offer - Up to 25,000 bonus miles and first year free
  I am going to start this post off by apologizing to our readers as we had a couple of…
• TD Cash Back Visa Infinite Card - First Year Free & 10% back on all purchases for the first three months (up to $2,000)
  A new limited time offer came out today for the TD Cash Back Visa Infinite Card. It sees the…
• New increased sign up bonuses for the MBNA Rewards World Elite & Platinum Plus Mastercards
  It has been awhile since we've seen MBNA offer increased sign up bonuses for their proprietary 'Rewards' credit cards.…

Travel Deals

WestJet Premium Fare Seat Sale! WestJet has their premium fares (nee Plus) on sale until June 6th for travel until December 14. Find out more here.

Receive $100* off any round trip scheduled transatlantic flight from Aer Lingus' Toronto gateway to select European destinations! Book by Jun 11 for travel Aug 1 - Oct 31. Find out more here.

IHG Global Sale! Book now and save up to 20% at thousands of IHG® Hotels & Resorts worldwide when you book between now and July 31st.! Full details

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
- June 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 June 30  for travel Aug 1 – Sep 30, 19
This month's Canadian cities:
Calgary - 25% off business class on KLM
Edmonton - 25% off business class on KLM
Montreal - 25% off business class on Air France or KLM

MBNA
- Earn up to 20,000 Bonus MBNA Rewards Points when you apply for and receive the MBNA Rewards World Elite® Mastercard®. More... Until Oct 31, 19
- Earn up to 10,000 Bonus MBNA Rewards Points when you apply for and receive the MBNA Rewards Platinum Plus® Mastercard®. More... Until Oct 31, 19

Other Bonus Offers

Aegean Miles&Bonus
- 30% Miles&Bonus Discount on select award tickets within Greece and between Greece and Europe, the Middle East or Africa. More... Until Aug 31, 19

Iberia Plus
- Earn up to 1,000 Bonus Avios when you stay at Marriott Hotels & Resorts in Europe More... Book by Aug 31 for stays until Dec 31, 19

Marriott Bonvoy
- 2,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points per night on Friday-Sunday nights at the AC Hotel Padova. More... Until Aug 16, 19
- 1,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points per night for stays at the Moxy Warsaw Praga. More... Book by Jun 30 for stays until Jul 12, 19

Miles & More
- Earn up to 1,000 Bonus Miles & More Miles when you stay at Marriott Hotels & Resorts in Europe. More... Book by Aug 31 for stays until Dec 31, 19

Preferred Hotel Group iPrefer
- Surprise Bonus iPrefer Points when you book select hotels by June 9, 2019, for travel through March 2020. More... Book by Jun 9 for stays until Mar 31, 20

Qatar Airways Privilege Club
- Up to a 50% Discount on Qatar Airways Privilege Club Award ticket redemptions for various routes via their "Easy Deals" offer. More... Book by Jun 30 for travel Aug 1 - Sep 30, 19

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- Earn up to 1,000 Bonus Flying Club Miles when you stay at Marriott Hotels & Resorts in Europe. More... Book by Aug 31 for stays until Dec 31, 19



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Rewards Canada Special Offer: Free Club 1 Hotels Membership worth US$99 with savings of up to 60% at 1 million+ hotels

You may recall that several years ago we ran a special offer with Club1 Hotels when they first launched and we are pleased to bring you another special offer with them! You may ask what is Club1 Hotels? Club1 Hotels are a global luxury hotel travel club that offers its members Guaranteed Savings of up to 60% off at over 1 million hotels and resorts worldwide. On top of this they also provide exclusive discounts on flights, private charter jets, golf, car rentals, luxury villas and more.


Right now you can give Club1 a try without paying the membership fee in the first year! Via this special Rewards Canada offer you can get a Free 1-Year Club 1 Hotels Membership with the Guaranteed Savings Policy* or you can go for their loyalty based membership with $20 off a 1-Year ClubONE Rewards membership package, where members earn 5% back in points.

 The Guaranteed Savings Policy is as follows:

Members receive Guaranteed Savings on every hotel booking made 5-days prior to arrival. If you find a better rate for the same hotel, room and rate type (refundable or non-refundable), we want to beat that rate by:

$10 per night guaranteed savings at 3-star hotels up to $20
$15 per night guaranteed savings at 4-star hotels up to $45
$20 per night guaranteed savings at 5-star hotels up to $60 or up to $100 on reservations $900 or more

And it does appear that Club 1 means business with this policy based on this review:

Here's a head up - booking major chain hotels via Club 1 will in most cases mean you won't earn points or elite status credit or you may not receive your status benefits on a stay but the savings can be worth it. You just need to shop around to see if Club 1's pricing is that much better. For non-chain hotels or hotels that don't have loyalty programs, or maybe they do but it is a hotel or chain you don't frequent then you'll definitely want to try Club 1 in your comparison shopping.

If you think you may end up making lots of bookings via Club 1 take a look at the Club One Rewards package that will award you with 5% back of your hotel stays in points that can be used toward future bookings.

Since this offer waives your entire first year membership there is no harm to join and try Club 1 Hotels. They don't take your credit card number and memberships do not auto renew so you don't have to worry about a 'subscription' style service. By joining you'll have one more tool under your belt to try to find the best deals when you shop around for hotels. Remember too that Club 1 is not just for hotels - they also offer discounts with numerous cruise lines, car rental companies and more. 

Click here to learn more and take advantage of Rewards Canada's special offer with Club 1 Hotels!

Have you used Club 1 Hotels and/or a member? Let us know what your experience has been with them!

New TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card offer - Up to 25,000 bonus miles and first year free

Here is the new offer for the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card that will run until early September.  Right now when you apply for the card and meet the spending requirements you can earn 25,000 Aeroplan Miles - and it is first year free to boot!

This offer may be different than what you may have anticipated based our previous posts but unfortunately we jumped the gun on the summer offer due to a miscommunication from our partner. The error was corrected on June 3 and can confirm the offers is for 25,000 Aeroplan Miles. In the end this is still a really good offer since it is first year free but  it is 5,000 miles less than we had originally anticipated. 

The card matrix below shows the latest offer on this card and may not be representative of the discussion above:

TD Cash Back Visa Infinite Card - First Year Free & 10% back on all purchases for the first three months (up to $2,000)

A new limited time offer came out today for the TD Cash Back Visa Infinite Card. It sees the cash back rate boosted to 10% back on all purchases made in the first three months up to $2,000. That means if you spend that 2K you'll get $200 back for it and they are offering a first year annual fee waiver on the card which means that $200 comes to you at no cost! Once you hit the $2,000 in spending or three months of having the card the earn rate returns to standard 3% back on eligible grocery Purchases and gas Purchases, and on regularly recurring bill payments set up on your Account (up to $15,000 in spend annually) and 1% on all other purchases. You must apply for the card by September 20, 2019 to take advantage of this offer.

The card details below show the latest offers on this card and may not be representative of the discussion above:

New increased sign up bonuses for the MBNA Rewards World Elite & Platinum Plus Mastercards

It has been awhile since we've seen MBNA offer increased sign up bonuses for their proprietary 'Rewards' credit cards. These are the cards that underwent some changes earlier in the year and late last summer. The cards were very popular up until the middle of 2018 as the points there earned could be redeemed for travel or cash back at the same rate. Some of the value was eroded when the annual fee on the World Elite Version was bumped to $120 per year from $89. This was with no increase in benefits or sign up bonus. It was also announced at that time that the redemption rate for cash back was changing in February 2019 from 2% to about 1.67%. The only good news was the redemption rate for travel was not changing which meant it was still a really good 2%. The Platinum Plus version is essentially a 1% back version of the World Elite when redeeming for travel however it does offer 2 points per dollar (2%) on eligible gas, groceries and restaurant purchases on the first $5,000 in spending in each category, which is pretty good for a No Annual Fee card.

If really flexible travel rewards are key for you and you are not interested in cash back or a ton of extra benefits these cards are ones you could consider, especially with these new limited time welcome bonus increases:

For the MBNA Rewards World Elite® Mastercard® the welcome bonus has been doubled to 20,000 points, which is worth $200 towards any travel redemption. The MBNA Rewards Platinum Plus® Mastercard® also sees its welcome offer double to 10,000 points worth $100 towards any travel redemption. To take advantage of these new increased welcome offers you have to apply for either card by October 31, 2019.

The card details below show the latest offers on these cards and may not be representative of the discussion above:

May 31 Update: American AAdvantage World of Hyatt partnership is live, Air Canada cuts Toronto-Delhi flights & more!

The American Airlines AAdvantage and Hyatt Hotels World of Hyatt partnership that we had announced back in March is now live. This partnership is for elite members in both programs and you can go onto the Hyatt website here and link your accounts or on the American AAdvantage site here.

There is also a fast track offer to achieve status with American AAdvantage if you have Explorist or Globalist status with World of Hyatt.

All elite World of Hyatt members can earn:

• 1 World of Hyatt Bonus Point for every eligible $1 USD spent on qualifying American Airlines flights. That’s in addition to the AAdvantage®  miles you would already earn as an AAdvantage® member.

And American AAdvantage elite members recevie the following:.

• Earn 1 AAdvantage® bonus mile for every eligible $1 you spend on qualifying Hyatt stays and experiences.
• ConciergeKeySM members can receive World of Hyatt Globalist status.
• AAdvantage® Executive Platinum, Platinum Pro and Platinum members can earn World of Hyatt elite status at a faster rate.

Air Canada is temporarily suspending their direct non-stop Toronto to Delhi route for the summer. Right now the flights will NOT operate from June 15 to August 31. (Source: RoutesOnline)

Rewards Canada is now on Flipboard https://flipboard.com/@RewardsCanada

Posts since our last update:

• Earn Double AIR MILES Reward Miles for stays at IHG hotels this summer!
  Aeroplan isn't the only Canadian loyalty program with a bonus miles offer for stays with IHG! Their biggest competitor,…
• Save 25% on business class reward tickets between Calgary, Edmonton or Montreal and Europe with Air France-KLM's June Promo Rewards
  The newest set of Air France KLM’s Promo Rewards are now listed but won’t be bookable until about 6pm…
• Earn up to 50% bonus Aeroplan Miles for stays at IHG hotels in June and July
  Another Aeroplan hotel stay bonus for you to start taking advantage of as of Saturday. Here is the newest…

Travel Deals

Receive $100* off any round trip scheduled transatlantic flight from Aer Lingus' Toronto gateway to select European destinations! Book by Jun 11 for travel Aug 1 - Oct 31. Find out more here.

IHG Global Sale! Book now and save up to 20% at thousands of IHG® Hotels & Resorts worldwide when you book between now and July 31st.! Full details

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 50% Bonus Aeroplan Miles when you complete stays at IHG Hotels Worldwide. More... Jun 1 - Jul 31, 19

AIR MILES
- Double AIR MILES Reward Miles when you complete stays at IHG Hotels Worldwide. More... Until Aug 31, 19

IHG Rewards Club
- Redeem only 5,000 to 15,000 points for stays at select hotels Worldwide including 6 in Canada with IHG Rewards Club PointBreaks. More... Until Aug 31 19

Other Bonus Offers

Aer Lingus Aer Club
- 1,000 Bonus Avios for stays at Melia Hotels in Palma. More... Until Jun 30, 19


Marriott Bonvoy
- 4,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points for stays of 2+ nights at the at the Miami Airport Marriott, and Courtyard or Residence Inn Miami Airport. More... Until Jul 30, 19



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