Friday, July 12, 2019

July 12 Update: Aeroplan mileage accumulation changes on Asiana, Destination Hotels joining World of Hyatt in August, 20x PC Optimum Points at Shoppers on July 13


Aeroplan has adjusted mileage accumulation for select fare classes on Asiana Airlines. These changes take effect on July 15. (Source Aeroplan)
  • Earn 50% of the miles you fly in booking classes H, E, Q, K or S. For travel until July 14, 2019, earn 100%
  • Earn 25% of the miles you fly in booking classes V or W. For travel until July 14, 2019, earn 70%
  • Earn 25% of the miles you fly in new booking classes G or T.

World of Hyatt has revealed the last remaining brand from their takeover of Two Roads Hospitality, Destination Hotels, will join the program as of August 20. All 8 hotels that are joining are located in the U.S. (Source Hyatt)


You can earn 20x the PC Optimum points when you spend $50 or more with Shoppers Drug Mart on July 13. You can also earn an additional 5,000 bonus points when you pay with a PC Optimum Mastercard. Find out more here


Posts since our last update:

Travel Deals

Hilton Asia Pacific 100th Anniversary Sale – Save up to 20% for stays through to February 2020

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

Marriott Bonvoy
- 500 Bonus Bonvoy Points for stays at the TownePlace Suites Fort McMurray.  More... Until Aug 11, 19

Other Bonus Offers

AeroMexico Club Premier
- Earn up to 3,000 Bonus Club Premier Points when you stay 2+ nights at Marriott Hotels & Resorts in Los Cabos. More... Book by Dec 23 for stays until Dec 31, 19

Copa ConnectMiles
- Earn up to 3,000 Bonus Copa ConnectMiles when you stay 2+ nights at Marriott Hotels & Resorts in Panama. More... Book by Sep 30 for stays until Dec 31, 19

Le Club AccorHotels
- 1,000 Bonus Le Club AccorHotels Points for stays at participating Accor Hotels in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia. More... Book by Jul 30 for stays until Jul 31, 19

Turkish Miles&Smiles
- Triple Miles&Smiles Miles for stays of 3+ nights at the Titanic Mardan Palace. More... Until Aug 31, 19



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Thursday, July 11, 2019

American Express bonus points offers for Amazon Prime Day

One of the most anticipated online sales events, Amazon Prime Day, will take place next week on July 15 and 16. This is such a big event that many companies want in on it and know that lots people will be shopping on those days. American Express is no stranger to this as they offered bonus points last year for Prime Day and are doing so once again this year! Here are the two offers we are aware of:

The first is for the Cobalt card:


And the other for the Platinum Card:


These are some great bonus offers to take advantage of for some of the biggest shopping days of the year. If you have either of these cards (or both) check your in box for the email and don't delete it! There are registration links in the email that you must click for each specific card to make sure you'll earn the bonus points! This is the case for both primary and supplementary cardholders.

Now let's take a closer look at the offers:

When you use your registered American Express Cobalt Card on Amazon.ca on July 15 and 16 you'll earn 5 points per dollar spent instead of only 1 point per dollar on the first $500 of spending. If you can spend that much you will earn 2,500 Membership Rewards Select points which are worth $25 towards any travel, $17.50 cash back towards any purchase or 3,000 Marriott Bonvoy points.

Related: American Express Cobalt Card Review

For the Platinum Card offer, it is 3 bonus Membership Rewards points per dollar spent on the first $2,000 spent on Amazon.ca on July 15 and 16 with your registered card. Now the wording is a little vague in their T&C's for the offer. We would read it as 3 bonus points meaning you earn the 1 point base amount + 3 bonus points for 4 points per dollar in total. However the T&C's state you'll earn a total of three (3) bonus Membership Rewards® points for every $1 spent. Bonus usually means on top but they also put the word 'total' in there a few times which could be construed as the max you'll earn. So it is a little unclear if you'll end up earning 3 points per dollar or 4 points per dollar. Either way if you can spend the full $2,000 on those two days you should end up with no less than 6,000 Membership Rewards points which are worth $60 towards any travel, $42 cash back towards any purchase or 6,000 Aeroplan Miles or British Airways Executive Club Avios.

Related: Get elite status with ten hotel reward programs, one airline and one cruise program with The Platinum Card from American Express


If you have either of these cards, or both, and are planning to shop on Amazon Prime Day be sure to register your cards so you can earn these extra points. But don't stop there for earning. Make sure you initiate those purchases via an online shopping mall like Aeroplan's eStore, Air Miles Shops, eBates or others to earn even more miles or cash back.

Podcast Episode 57 - What credit card should I get as a Canadian wanting to fly Southwest Airlines in the U.S.

Episode 57 - July 11, 2019
What credit card should I get as a Canadian wanting to fly Southwest Airlines in the U.S.


In this episode of the Rewards Canada podcast we review a question for advice we received from a long time fan of Rewards Canada and our recommendation for his situation. Our reader who lives in Southern Ontario has decided to ditch Toronto and Aeroplan and plans on flying Southwest Airlines out of Detroit. For him, a U.S. based credit card wasn't an option nor was an American Express branded card. Listen to find out more about his situation and what credit card we recommended for him. Here's a hint a for you - this is one of the stories we pitched to the client to get our podcast sponsored!

We are proud to have this episode sponsored by the Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite Card!

Earn up to $350 in bonus travel rewards in your first year with the Passport Infinite credit card from Scotiabank. And enjoy no foreign transaction fees (only the exchange rate applies). Conditions apply. Offer ends October 31, 2019. Click here for more details

Click Here to download the podcast


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Wednesday, July 10, 2019

July 10 Update: Redeem for an AIR MILES Dream Reward for a chance to win a $5,000 gift card, more free points from Stash Hotel Rewards & more!



AIR MILES in collaboration with Redtag.ca are offering members a chance to win a $5000 Redtag.ca gift card and other prizes. All you have to do to enter is make a Dream Rewards redemption. For every mile you redeem for a Dream Reward you will receive one entry into the contest. In addition to the gift card, the other prizes consist of 5,000 AIR MILES Reward Miles and 2,000 AIR MILES Reward Miles. The contest runs until August 4. Find out more here!



In the bonus offers section below you'll find another free points offer. Once again it is from Stash Hotel Rewards who have revamped their refer a friend program. Previoulsy the program would award you with 500 points when a referral completed a stay. That bonus remains but they have now added 100 points just for making that referral and the person you refer will get 500 points just for joining. Check it out here! (This is my referral link - thanks in advance to anyone who uses it!)


Posts since our last update:

Travel Deals

Hilton Asia Pacific 100th Anniversary Sale – Save up to 20% for stays through to February 2020

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

N/A

Other Bonus Offers

Marriott Bonvoy
- 2,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points for stays of 2+ nights at the Forest of Arden Marriott Hotel & Country Club Birmingham. More... Until Aug 27, 19
- 2,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points PER NIGHT on Thursday-Sunday nights at the Westin Austin at The Domain. More... Until Sep 30, 19

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- 1,000 KrisFlyer Miles for stays of 2+ nights at the Boathouse Phuket More... Until Dec 31, 19
- Double KrisFlyer Miles for stays of 2+ nights at participating Pan Pacific and PARKROYAL hotels and resorts in Australia, Bangladesh, China, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Vietnam. More... Until Dec 31, 19

Stash Hotel Rewards
- 100 Bonus Stash Rewards Points when you refer someone to the Stash Hotel Rewards program. They will receive 500 points just for joining. You will also earn 500 points when they complete their first stay. More... Unknown End Date

Turkish Miles&Smiles
- 50% Bonus Miles&Smiles Miles on your first hotel booking made via Rocketmiles. More... Book by Sep 30, 19

United MileagePlus
- 10,000 Bonus MileagePlus miles when you book 7+ night air/hotel packages to the Caribe Hilton Puerto Rico. More... Book by Jul 11 for travel until Mar 20, 20



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Aeroplan Availability Alert - Lie Flat Business Class on 787 Dreamliner between Vancouver and San Francisco


For the summer Air Canada is flying one of their five daily flights between Vancouver and San Francisco with an internationally configured Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. The plane will be flying the 1:30pm flight AC566 from Vancouver and the return 5:30pm flight AC571 until September 1st. If you are lucky enough to be travelling on a day that there is availability you could fly on this plane for only 12,500 miles one way in Economy or treat yourself to the amazing business class option for only 25,000 miles one way.

Here are two examples of some Aeroplan redemption opportunities for this route:


For the above business class option you could redeem 25,000 miles plus pay the $116 in fees versus an all out cost of $664. The miles would save you $548.64, for a value of about 2.2 cents per mile.

For economy class we did find some options that actually priced below the standard 12,500 mile redemption rate. The Market Fare pricing on select dates was 500 miles lower at 12,000 miles:
Now the Economy Class pricing to buy this ticket outright wasn't very much - $205 for the lowest Economy (Standard) or $284 for Economy Flex. The 12,000 miles won't save you very much in cash and brings your value per mile to below 2 cents but as we state in our article The True Value in Reward Redemptions, you may not be interested in pulling the full value out of your miles and redeem them so that you can have that cash in your pocket.


This could be a great way for you to experience a plane and business class like this if you know that you may not be actually flying internationally with Air Canada. Sometimes it is fun to be able to experience a business class like this, even if it is on short route like Vancouver-San Francisco.


One of the easiest ways to earn enough Aeroplan Miles for redemptions like those listed above is to grab a co-branded Aeroplan credit card. At the time of posting this article The TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card offers a 20,000 Aeroplan point welcome bonus with no annual fee in the first year, that's enough miles for a one way business class redemption or the full round trip in economy class. Or you could look at the American Express Gold Rewards card - it offers a 25,000 Membership Rewards points welcome bonus which can then be converted to Aeroplan almost instantaneously at a 1:1 rate. Also you with the Gold Rewards card you don't have to wait until the end of your billing period to receive your welcome bonus after you've met the minimum spend. There are numerous other card options to earn Aeroplan Miles which you can find listed on Aeroplan Bonus Miles page.

Images via Air Canada & Aeroplan


Source of route news: Routesonline

Summary of global hotel systemwide bonus points promotions – July Edition


Here is your monthly update of all the global hotel bonus points promotions that are available! One of the easiest ways to rack up lots of hotel points is to take advantage of these systemwide bonuses that come from many of the big chain programs and also from the lesser known programs. In fact, right now it should be rare for you NOT to earn a bonus. Unless you are staying at a boutique hotel or perhaps an independent hotel most other hotels out there have a bonus. So take advantage of it! These systemwide bonuses simply require you to register beforehand and they do not affect hotel pricing as long as you book a point eligible rate which are most rates out there. Of course booking through a third party site like Expedia or Rocketmiles does not count as most chains only award points on bookings that are made directly with them. Without further ado here are all the current promotions that are available to everyone:

Provider
Offer
Validity Date
Best Western Rewards Receive a $20 Best Western Gift Card when you complete your next stay at a Best Western Hotel Worldwide. Full details, online registration and booking. (Registration is required)
Elite members may get an email offering more than one gift card.
Until Sep 2, 19
For a complete listing of all Best Western Rewards bonus point offers please visit Rewards Canada's Best Western page
Choice Hotels Privileges Earn up to 8,000 Bonus Privileges Points (enough for a free nights) for 2 separate stays you complete at participating Choice Hotels Worldwide. Stay must be booked via ChoiceHotels.com, the Choice Hotels mobile app, or 800.4CHOICE at qualifying rates. Members will be awarded a minimum of 5,000 bonus points and a maximum of 8,000 bonus points, depending on the number of base points earned for 2 separate qualifying stays. Full details, online registration and booking (Registration is required)
Restrictions
For Residents of the U.S. and Canada only
Until Aug 9, 19
For a complete listing of all Choice Privileges bonus point offers please visit Rewards Canada's Choice page
GHA Discovery No offers at this time
--
For a complete listing of all GHA Discovery bonus offers please visit Rewards Canada's GHA page
Hilton Double Honors points + additional bonus points on every stay starting on your second stay at Hilton Hotels Worldwide.   Full details, online registration and booking (Registration is required)
Plus earn additional bonus points as follows:
10,000 Bonus Points on your 10th stay
15,000 Bonus Points on your 15th stay
20,000 Bonus Points on your 20th Stay
Until Sep 8, 19
For a complete listing of all Hilton HHonors bonus point offers please visit Rewards Canada's Hilton page
Hyatt 2,000 Bonus World of Hyatt Points for your first stay at each of Hyatt's new brands of Thompson Hotels (starting March 28), Joie de Vivre (starting May 15), Alila and Destination Hotels (both coming soon) Maximum bonus of 8,000 points. Plus earn a free night if you stay at all four brands. Full details and online booking Until Dec 31, 19
For a complete listing of all Hyatt Gold Passport bonus point offers please visit Rewards Canada's Hyatt page
InterContinental Hotels Group Accelerate Part 2 - Earn 500 to 40,000 or more Bonus IHG Rewards Club Points when you complete stays at IHG HotelsWorldwide. Bonus varies by member. Full details, online registration and booking (Registration is required)  Register by Aug 17 for stays Jul 1 – Oct 31, 19
For a complete listing of all IHG Priority Club bonus point offers please visit Rewards Canada's IHG page
Le Club AccorHotels No offers at this time
--
For a complete listing of all Le Club AccorHotels bonus point offers please visit Rewards Canada's Le Club AccorHotels page
Marriott Earn 1,500 Bonus Bonvoy Points on all stays of 2 or more nights at over 7,000 Marriott Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. Full details, online registration and booking. (Registration is required) Register by Sep 2 for stays Jul 2 – Sep 16, 19
For a complete listing of all Marriott Rewards bonus point offers please visit Rewards Canada's Marriott page
Preferred Hotel Group iPrefer No Offers at this time
--
For a complete listing of all Preferred Hotel Group iPrefer bonus point offers please visit Rewards Canada's iPrefer page
Radisson Rewards Earn 3,000 Bonus Radisson Rewards points for stays at all Radisson Collection, Radisson Blu, Radisson, Radisson RED, Park Plaza, Park Inn by Radisson, Country Inn & Suites by Radisson hotels worldwide starting with your second stay.  Full details, online registration and booking. (Registration is required)
Maximum of 120,000 bonus points awarded per member during the promotional period.
Once registered you can simply book your stays online at: Country Inns & Suites, Park Inn, Park Plaza, Radisson, Radisson Blu, Radisson Red, or The Radisson Collection.
Until Aug 31, 19
For a complete listing of all Radisson Rewards bonus point offers please visit Rewards Canada's Radisson Rewards page
Red Roof Inns RediRewards Earn 6,500 Bonus RediPoints when you complete 2 separate stays at any Red Roof location, including The Red Collection and Hometowne Studios by Red Roof in the U.S., Japan, Brazil and Canada (if the Canadian location opens on time) Full details, online registration and booking. (Registration is required) Until Aug 31, 19
For a complete listing of all Red Roof bonus point offers please visit Rewards Canada's RediRewards page
Shangri-La Golden Circle No Offers at this time
--
For a complete listing of all Shangria-La bonus point offers please visit Rewards Canada's Golden Circle page
Sonesta Hotels Travel Pass No Offers at this time
--
For a complete listing of all Sonesta Hotels bonus point offers please visit Rewards Canada's Travel Pass page
Voila Hotel Rewards Triple VHR Points & Double Elite Status Credit for every stay completed at a participating VOILÀ hotel Worldwide. Full details & online registration (Registration is required) Until Sep 30, 19
30% Bonus VHR Points for every stay completed at a participating VOILÀ hotel Worldwide. Full details & online registration (Registration is required) Until Jul 31, 19
For a complete listing of all Voila Hotel Rewards bonus point offers please visit Rewards Canada's VHR page
Wyndham Rewards No Offers at this time
--
For a complete listing of all Wyndham Rewards bonus point offers please visit Rewards Canada's Wyndham page

Tuesday, July 9, 2019

Domestic companion voucher added to base level WestJet RBC Mastercard


WestJet and RBC have just added a new benefit to their base level co-brand Mastercard that really ups the game for entry level credit cards. This new benefit is an annual companion voucher for flights within Canada. That's right a companion voucher on a card that only runs $39 per year. Taking note from the higher end WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard which is well known for its annual companion voucher, the WestJet RBC Mastercard now offers its own variation of a companion voucher.

This new benefit will provide holders of the base level card with an annual voucher that can be used on WestJet's domestic network in Canada for only $199. This means when you buy one ticket on WestJet for travel within Canada you can get second ticket on the same itinerary and reservation for only $199 plus taxes/fees. It can be used for round-trip travel in Economy, Economy Flex, Premium and Premium Flex fares but not Business Class or Member Exclusive fares and there are absolutely no black out dates for the voucher. This is where the voucher can really be of great use - for more expensive fares during the busy times of the year like spring break, Christmas, summer holidays etc. Another time vouchers can be really useful is when you may need to buy last minute travel that tends to be more expensive. Or you can choose to use to up your comfort on flights by buying Premium fares.

Here is an example of a last minute travel booking:

If you need to fly during the summer peak season and you don't book many months out you will be paying a lot - as you can see here over $1100 per person. By utilizing this voucher you would pay $1176.96 for the first traveller and about $315.96 for the second traveller ($199 voucher amount + 116.96 in taxes and fees) which saves you $861 on that second ticket!

Here's a Christmas example for someone flying between Montreal and Edmonton:

In this case the voucher will save you about $565! And finally, an example of using it for a Premium Fare:

Again we look at Vancouver to Toronto, this time for travel in August.  You would only pay $332.81 for a second ticket in Premium Class - a savings of $1,193!

As you can see this new benefit can provide some huge savings and is big step forward for an entry level credit card in Canada. The card offers a 50 WestJet Dollar welcome bonus which means you are ahead by 11 dollars in the first year when taking into account the annual fee. New cardholders can expect to receive the voucher within 4-6 weeks after their first purchase on the card. If you have a family of 4 or more you may want to entertain getting two separate cards so that you can have two vouchers annually. We do this in our family, my wife has her own WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard and I have my own and we use our vouchers for our kids so we are only paying full fare for the parents and the kids fly much cheaper!

Related:  Why my wife and I each grabbed our own WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercards

If you are an existing cardholder who has a renewal date on or after June 1, 2019, you can expect to receive the voucher in your account 30 days after your renewal date. If your renewal date was prior to June 1 you have to wait until your renewal in 2020 to receive your voucher.

This is great news and is a true enhancement to this card! They haven't taken anything away, they haven't raised the annual fee and you get a new benefit that can literally be worth over a thousand dollars. Kudos to WestJet and RBC for taking this step in adding a truly useful and valuable benefit to an entry level credit card! What do you think of this news? Would you consider getting this card now that it has the companion voucher? Let us know in the comments below!

 You can learn more about the domestic companion voucher here.

Here are the details of the card:

Monday, July 8, 2019

July 8 Update: Travel Hacking 102 Update, Flair Air now flying Toronto to Calgary and Vancouver & more!


Last week we updated our Travel Hacking 101article and today we updated the Travel Hacking 102 article. This article shows how you can earn 3,800 or more AIR MILES Reward Miles for free. Read the article here

 Ultra low cost carrier Flair Airlines is now competing on some major Canadian routes - they are flying direct between Toronto and Calgary and Vancouver. The airline does not have their own frequent flyer program but remember this is an ideal option for proprietary credit card reward program, click here for details. (Source Routesonline)


Posts since our last update:

Travel Deals

Hilton Honors members can save up to 20% on stays at Hilton’s Asia Pacific locations with their 100th Anniversary sale!

Royal Air Maroc
is once again offering some great fares on their flights out of Montreal. You can fly to Casablanca for as little as $796 all in. Book by July 12. 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

N/A

Other Bonus Offers

Etihad Guest
- Earn Triple Guest Miles for stays at the Towers Rotana Dubai. More... Until Sep 30, 19

Hilton Honors
- Earn up to 5,000 Bonus Honors points for stays at any participating Hilton Resort hotel Worldwide. More... Targeted offer - may not work for everyone Until Dec 31, 19

Le Club AccorHotels
- Triple Le Club AccorHotels Points for stays at participating Accor Hotels in Turkey. More... Book by Aug 14 for stays until Aug 30, 19

Marriott Bonvoy
- 2,500 Bonus Bonvoy Points for stays at any of 18 participating Marriott Hotels in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, or Rhode Island. More... Until Aug 31, 19

Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus
- Earn up to 500 ROP Miles for stays of 2+ night at all participating Accor Hotels Worldwide. More... Until Aug 31, 19



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Hilton Asia Pacific 100th Anniversary Sale - Save up to 20% for stays through to February 2020


Hilton Honors members can save up to 20% on stays at Hilton’s Asia Pacific locations with their 100th Anniversary sale!

This offer must be booked by September 6, 2019 for stays  all the way through to February 2, 2020. 

Remember that you should also be earning Double HHonors on these stays with the current summer Hilton Honors promotion (as long as it is your 2nd stay) that runs until Sep 8. Find that and all other Honors bonuses here. 
 
Blackout dates may apply and vary by property. Rates are valid for single/double occupancy and are exclusive of all taxes, incidental charges, gratuities, and resort fees where applicable.

Click here to take advantage of the Hilton APAC Resorts sale 

Here’s just a small sample of the offers available:

Miles & More Mileage Bargains - Over 50% off Business Class award tickets between Montreal or Toronto and Europe


As we do each month we bring you the latest set Miles & More "Meilenschnaeppchen" or Mileage Bargain discounted mileage awards. This month the offers are for flying out of Montreal and Toronto and are only for business class this time. There are 144 cities in Europe listed that you can redeem for from Toronto and 6 in Austria from Montreal

This month's offers:


Montreal
Austrian Business Class
Book by July 31 for travel between July 1 - August 31, 2019

Montreal and Toronto
Lufthansa Business Class
Book by July 31 for travel between October 15 - November 30, 2019

With this month's offer you can redeem Miles & More miles for round trip business class tickets on Lufthansa for only 55,000 miles. This is just over a 50% discount off the normal Business Class award ticket price of 112,000 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 for comparison.

Here is an example of some of the offers available for booking this month:
Montreal's offers on Austrian for peak summer travel!

Toronto's offers are on Lufthansa for fall travel


Normally at this point we go into our discussion on how you can get more Miles & More miles by converting Marriott Bonvoy points to the program. However as we reported previously all hotel points transfers to Miles & More have been temporarily suspended. That means if you want to take advantage of the offers this month you'll have to just make sure you have all the miles in your account.

Click here for full details on this Miles & More offer