Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Earn Double Aeroplan Miles for IHG Hotel stays until the end of the year


The fall Aeroplan IHG Double Miles offer is back! This is the exact same offer we saw this time last year and is good a one to take advantage if you only have one stay planned or aren't someone who normally collects IHG Rewards Club points.  Remember that you no longer earn a flat rate of miles per stay rather miles are awarded per US$1 spent, 1 to 2 miles depending on the brand which means you'll earn between 2 to 4 Aeroplan miles per US$1 with this offer. You will have to set your IHG Rewards Club account to earn Aeroplan miles to make sure you receive the bonus.

Offer details
Double Aeroplan Miles for stays at all participating IHG Hotels Worldwide. Full details, online registration & booking. (Registration is required)  Until Dec 31, 19

Here are some other offers to also check out!
Find many more Aeroplan bonus offers here and more IHG offers here.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

A look at how the current TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card sign up offer of up to 40,000 miles can provide huge value!

 
Earlier this month TD came out with an amazing new offer for the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card. The offer provides the best ever welcome bonus of up to 40,000 Aeroplan Miles and a first year annual fee rebate for the primary card. The 40,000 Aeroplan Miles welcome bonus is broken down into three parts.

Part 1
When you receive the card you will be awarded with 15,000 Aeroplan miles on the first purchase made.

Part 2
You will receive double Aeroplan miles on eligible purchases in the first three months, up to 20,000 miles, for a total of 35,000 miles when you combine Parts 1 and 2.  This is all with the first year annual fee of $120 waived on the primary card.

Part 3
You can also earn an additional 5,000 miles when you add an authorized user to your account (an additional card, formerly known as supplementary card). The latter however is still subject to the $50 annual fee.


The good news is that if you have a TD All Inclusive Banking plan you don't ever pay fees on the primary or first additional card so if you don't have the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card as part of your banking package this would be the time to switch to get the 40,000 miles at no cost other than the spend requirement. Even if you don't go for the additional card (you're single or don't want to pay the $50) the 35,000 Aeroplan miles you can earn at no cost other than your credit card spend is higher than any other bonus we have seen on the card before.

You do need to consider how you go about getting the most miles possible because to earn the full 40,000 miles you need to max out your spend on the card in the first three months to take advantage of double Aeroplan miles. If we take the 20,000 mile maximum earned for the double miles portion it will take $6,666.67 to $10,000 in card spend to get all the miles possible. That means you need to budget just over $2,200 to $3,333 in spending per month.  The range in spend is due to the earn rates on the card, the card earns 1.5 Aeroplan miles per eligible dollar spent on grocery, gas, drugstore and aircanada.com purchases which translates to 3 miles per dollar during the double mile earning period. All other purchase earn 1 Aeroplan mile per dollar which doubles to 2 per dollar during those first three months. If you have been planning some home renos, booking a vacation, buying a car, etc. this would be the time to do it and put that spend on this card to get you the most miles. 

The questions is after you get the card and receive the miles,  how can you get really good value from them?

To start, here is a broad example of what 40,000 Aeroplan Miles can get you:
  • 2 Round Trip Economy Class Short Haul Tickets in Canada and the U.S. (with 10,000 miles left over)
  • 1 Round Trip Premium Economy Class Long Haul ticket in Canada and the U.S.
  • 1 Round Trip Economy Class Short Haul ticket and 1 Round Trip Economy Class Long Haul ticket in Canada and the U.S. 
  • 1 One Way Economy Class ticket to Asia (with 2,500 miles left over)
  • 1 One Way Premium Economy Class ticket to Europe (with 2,500 miles left over) 
Have a look at the Classic Flight Award chart for travel out of Canada. Values outlined in red indicate round trip flights you can redeem for while those outlined by a blue box are one way flights you can redeem for.

That's great but what is the value of those 40,000 miles? With so many great welcome offers available right now on a variety of travel rewards credit card why would you want to pick the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card over others? You would want to because this card has the ability to provide you with as little as $480 in value to well over $2,000 just from the miles and not taking into account additional benefits. You have to remember as well - the card is first year free - so outside of the minimum spend requirement, these miles are coming to you for free.

Enough of that! Let's look at some examples of where those miles can take you and the value you can get from them!

The first example we look at of a redemption falling within the 40,000 miles is a one way economy class flight from Toronto to Frankfurt:


This example shows $861* saved on the revenue ticket price for using 30,000 miles and you still have 10,000 miles left over.  That redemption gives you a per mile value of 2.87 cents or a potential value of $1,148 from the 40,000 miles.
(*Calculated as Revenue Ticket Price - Taxes and Fees paid on award ticket - authorized user fee or $861 = $1245.16 - $334.16 - $50)

Another example is a Premium Economy class redemption between Vancouver and Montreal:


This example gives the 40,000 mile welcome bonus a value of $1445.20. This was derived from the ticket costs of $1653.85 on Air Canada less the $158.65 in taxes and fees you have to pay on the Aeroplan ticket and the $50 you pay for the additional card. For those calculating cents per mile, this

How about traveling in style? Here is an example of traveling in business class - and not just bigger seats business class but a flight will full lie flat pods on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner! Air Canada flies their internationally configured 787 on select flights between Toronto and Los Angeles where you can enjoy their best business class product:


It only costs 25,000 Aeroplan Miles to redeem for a one way business class ticket on this route and those miles save you $1,518.16. That translates to a value of 0.06 cents per mile or a total value of $2,400 from the welcome bonus! With this redemption option you still would 15,000 miles left over which you could use to book a one way economy class ticket to return from Los Angeles to Toronto for only 12,500 miles.

We've only given you three award flight examples of literally thousands that you could take advantage of with this welcome bonus and from those three alone you can see the value that can be had. To make sure you can get in on this best ever offer on the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card you have to apply for the card by December 1, 2019 but the sooner you get it the sooner you can have those miles in your account to redeem for that vacation you want to take! As to a vacation, we'd love to know what are some of the flights you would redeem these miles for? Let us know in the comments section below!

Click here to learn more about or to apply for the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card

Monday, September 16, 2019

Best Western Rewards: Earn a Free Night when you complete 2 stays in the U.S., Canada or Caribbean


Best Western’s next big promotion sees the return of their free night voucher being awarded after you complete two stays. This offer can be really lucrative as you can choose to complete two really cheap stays and then use the voucher for a stay at a more expensive Best Western hotel. There is one big caveat however, you have only 70 days to use your voucher from the time it is issued to you. Keep this in mind when you are looking at this promotion. This is at least 10 days better than when the promo ran in spring which only gave 60 days.

Offer details:
Earn a Free Night when you complete 2 eligible stays at a Best Western® branded hotel in the United States, Canada or Caribbean. Limit of 1 free night voucher per member and that voucher is valid for 70 days.  Full details, online registration & booking (Registration is required) Until Nov 17, 19
Make sure you tie this offer into other BW Rewards offers that are available:
  • Double Rewards Points when you stay at participating Best Western Hotels in in Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, or Vietnam. Full details, online registration & booking. (Registration is required)
  • Elite Level Status Match Best Western Rewards will match your other Hotel Reward program status with no catch. Full details
  • Double Rewards Points or Airline Miles for stays at the Best Western Hotel Achim Bremen. Full Details and online booking
Find many more Best Western Rewards Bonus Points offers here!

Earn up to 6,000 Bonus IHG Rewards Club points per stay at InterContinental Hotels & Resorts


IHG Rewards Club has a great new offer for stays at their top brand, InterContinental Hotels & Resorts. Right now you can register as an IHG Rewards Club member to earn 3,000 bonus points per stay for up to 5 stays at any InterContinental Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. Even better, if you decide to become an IC Ambassador member for US$200 you will receive 10,000 bonus points for joining and also receive an additional 3,000 bonus points for a total of 6,000 points per stay for those 5 stays.



Offer details
Earn up to 6,000 Bonus IHG Rewards Club points for each stay at any participating InterContinental Hotel or Resort Worldwide. Bonus awarded for up to 5 stays. Full details, online registration & booking. (Registration is required) Sep 26 – Nov 30, 19
  • IHG Rewards Club members receive 3,000 bonus points per stay
  • New IC Ambassador members who enroll during  this promotion will earn 6,000 bonus points per stay plus 10,000 point for enrolling.
Can’t make use of this offer? Check out some of these other bonuses that are available:
Find the most complete list of IHG Rewards Club offers here!

Save 30% when you buy Marriott Bonvoy points until Oct 18, 19


Last seen in April we now have the second buy points discount from the Marriott Bonvoy program since taking over SPG a few years back. The offer in April was a 25% discount and this time they go higher with a 30% discount! Marriott themselves, when they ran Marriott Rewards typically did not offer bonuses or discounts on buying points but it appears that they may see the value in doing so after the takeover of SPG. Back in the SPG day most offers were 35% off which meant you were buying an SPG point US 2.28 cents (and since Marriott valued SPG points at 3:1 to Marriott) you were effectively buying Marriott points for 0.76 cents each. With this 30% discount you are buying Bonvoy points at US$ 0.875 cents each. This is getting closer to that old rate but still over 10% more then the good old days. That being said, there are many redemption options with Marriott where you can get well over US 1 cent per point value so buying points could make sense for an expensive stay or for topping off an account. It is encouraging to see a bigger discount this time and maybe, just maybe it will lead into a 35% discount next time!


For this promotion Marriott has also doubled the amount of points you can buy annually from 50,000 to 100,000 points.

Offer details
Receive a 30% discount when you buy 2,000 or more Marriott Bonvoy points. Maximum of 100,000 points can be bought during this promotion only. Buy Marriott Bonvoy Points here Until Oct 18, 19

Find many more Marriott Bonvoy bonus points offers here!

Here's an example of just some of the other offers you might find!

Friday, September 13, 2019

September 13 Update: Reminder that Marriott Bonvoy Peak/Off Peak pricing comes tomorrow along with other changes, up to 100 Bonus AIR MILES at Rexall & more!



A friendly reminder that today is the last day of flat rate redemption awards for Marriott Bonvoy. As of tomorrow, Peak and Off-Peak pricing will kick in which means that some awards will cost more, some less, it all depends and when and where you are staying. Today is also the last day to book Points Advance bookings with the pricing locked in place and not be affected by the Peak pricing. Learn more from our post here.

 You can earn up to 100 bonus AIR MILES when you shop at Rexall this weekend. No coupon is required.

Posts since our last update:

Travel Deals

Qatar Airways Global sale fly from Montreal for as little as $900 and earn 2x Qmiles. Book by Sep 15. 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

British Airways Executive Club
- 30% Bonus Avios when you covert American Express Membership Rewards points to Avios. More... For residents of Canada only Until Oct 31, 19

Other Bonus Offers

Emirates Skywards
- 25% Discount when you buy or gift Skywards miles. More... Until Oct 2, 19

Iberia Plus
- 25% Avios Discount when you redeem for select Iberia Express award flights between Madrid and Seville, Malta, Nantes, Lyón, Rennes, Dublin, Cagliari or Paris. More... Book by Oct 30 for travel Sep 16 - Dec 15, 19

Marriott Bonvoy
- 2,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points PER NIGHT for stays of 2+ nights at the TownePlace Suites Fort Worth Downtown More... Until Oct 18, 19

Shangri-La Golden Circle
- Double GC Award Points for stays of 2 or more nights at the Hotel Jen Penang by Shangri-La. More... Until Nov 30, 19
- Double GC Award Points for stays at the Shangri-La Hotel, Chiang Mai More... Until Dec 31, 19


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30% discount for buying Choice Privileges Points until September 17


Another short term buy points offer to let you know about. This one comes to us from Choice Privileges and offers a 30% discount when you buy 5,000 or more points. This offer only runs until September 17 and effectively lets you buy points for as low as US 0.77 cents each when you 120,000 points for US$924. Ultimately if you only redeemed for hotels at the 8,000 points level that 120,000 points gets you 15 nights at only US$61.60 per night.

Offer details
30% Discount when you buy 5,000 or more points online. Buy points here. Until Sep 17, 19

Find other Choice Privileges bonus offers here.

Thursday, September 12, 2019

September 12 Update: Travel Hacking 101 Earn 39,000+ Aeroplan Miles for free, Cathay Pacific cutting Vancouver-New York route & Amex discount for Air Canada flights


With the latest offer now out for the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card we have updated our long standing Travel Hacking 101 post. This post details how you can earn 39,000+ Aeroplan Miles or 4,000 Avios for free. Check it out here!

 Cathay Pacific is cutting a very popular route for frequent travelers, travel hackers, miles hounds you name it. That route is their 5th freedom route between Vancouver and New York City. This route allowed people to try the amazing Asian carrier in First, Business and Economy class without leaving our continent. The route will be sorely missed but it does run until March 28, 2020 so you still have a little bit of time to try it out! (Source RoutesOnline / TPG) Image via Cathay Pacific


Check your inbox for a new Air Canada discount offer from American Express. The offer provides an additional 15% off flights. I received the offer for my Platinum Card from American Express.

Air Canada is adding direct flights between Calgary and Terrace BC as of October 27. The new route will operated once daily by Air Canada Express (Source RoutesOnline)

United Airlines will be cutting their direct flight between Ottawa and Newark come March 2020. (Source TPG)

Posts since our last update:

Travel Deals

Qatar Airways Global sale fly from Montreal for as little as $900 and earn 2x Qmiles. Book by Sep 15. 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

Best Western Rewards
- Free Gold Elite Status - As a Canadian Military member you can receive Automatic Best Western Rewards Gold Elite Status when you join the Best Western Service Rewards program. More... Ongoing

Other Bonus Offers

EVA Air Infinity MileageLands
- Earn 1.5x Infinity MileageLands Miles on all hotels stays booked via Kaligo. More... Book by Oct 11, 19

Hilton Honors
- 100% Bonus when you buy 10,000 or more Hilton Honors points online. More... Until Oct 22, 19
- 1,000 Bonus Honors Points PER NIGHT when you stay on the Grand Opening offer at the DoubleTree by Hilton Bangkok Ploenchit. More... Sep 27 - Dec 31, 19
- 1,000 Bonus Honors Points PER NIGHT when you stay on the Grand Opening offer at the Tru by Hilton Seneca Clemson. More... Until Dec 31, 19

Marriott Bonvoy
- 1,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points when you stay at least 2 nights Wednesday-Saturday (Thursday or Friday required) at the Four Points by Sheraton Setif More... Until Oct 28, 19

Miles & More
- Earn up to 4,500 Bonus Miles & More Miles when you stay at Best Western Hotels in Europe, Africa or Asia More... Until Dec 31, 19

TAP Portugal Victoria
-Triple Miles&Go Miles on Sixt rentals of 3 or more days Worldwide. More... Until Nov 30, 19


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Amex Membership Rewards: 30% Bonus Avios when transferring to British Airways Executive Club


Showing up earlier than last year we see the return of a transfer bonus from American Express Membership Rewards to British Airways Executive Club! Once again the bonus is a decent 30%!

These transfer bonuses are the one thing many owners of hybrid credits cards look forward to as hybrid cards points can be redeemed via the credit card or give you the ability to transfer those points to frequent flyer and frequent guest programs, and it is the transfer bonus to those programs that are anticipated. Of the bonuses, people always look forward to the RBC Avion transfer bonus to British Airways Executive Club and this bonus, the American Express Membership Rewards transfer offer to British Airways Executive Club!

The minimum transfer is 1,000 points with no stated maximum.


British Airways Executive Club offers many excellent redemption options which is why the transfer bonuses to the program always get so much attention. We talk about the North American redemptions in our feature Utilizing British Airways' Executive Club for flights in North America which sees one way flights starting at only 7,500 Avios (15,000 round trip). That means a one way flight is only 5,770 Membership Rewards points with this promotion!

Another redemption to look at is the Toronto-Dublin option we seem to always bring up as that is only 26,000 Avios, or 20,000 Membership Rewards points with this transfer bonus. If you have the American Express Gold Rewards card that means you would only have to spend as little as $10,000 on the card to get that latter flight or even less if you with the dining earn on The Platinum card - only $6666.67 in dining spend at 3 points per dollar will get you this redemption option. No other cards in the market can provide a flight to Ireland for that little amount of spending. Of course you then have the business class and first class redemption option on British Airways, Cathay Pacific and so many more of the oneworld Alliance airlines! Too many options to list here!

Now there is another new redemption that is actually pricing cheaper than Toronto-Dublin and that is Aer Lingus' new flight from Montreal to Dublin that will launch in 2020. During to off-peak period that flight is only 10,000 Avios each way in economy class or just under 7,700 Membership Rewards points each way with this promotion. That is an unmatched redemption option! Flying to Dublin for just over 15,000 points round trip!

The good news is that if you travelling abroad British Airways still has the 4,500 Avios Short Haul option in Europe and Asia so you can utilize this bonus for those short hops overseas!

Find out more about the American Express 30% transfer bonus which runs until October here.

Here are the best two cards for earning Membership Rewards Points and if you apply for them now and get your spending on them completed by mid October you should still be able to get in on the transfer bonus!


Flash Sale: Up to a 50% Bonus when you buy Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles until September 14!


Alaska Airlines has brought back their best bonus for buying Mileage Plan miles! Right now you will get up to a 50% bonus when you buy 40,000 or more miles. This is an early bird flash sale that runs until September 14 with an extra 10% – which leads us to believe the bonus will continue after September 14 but max out at 40%.

At 50% you’ll definitely want to consider buying the miles as you are buying Mileage Plan Miles under U.S. 2 cents a piece. Canadians will have to pay GST/HST on the amount since Points.com, who processes the transaction is a Canadian company.

Seeing that you can redeem miles for premium class flights on British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Hainan, Korean Air and more, there are lots of options for you to use these miles. Remember it only takes 70,000 Mileage Plan miles to fly Cathay Pacific First Class from North America to Asia and that flight alone will cost a lot more than US$1,478.13!

Here is one example of a redemption you could use this bonus offer on. Flying Japan Airlines and Korean Air business class from Vancouver to Tokyo:


 Visit Japan in April for a week – 112,500 miles round trip for business class + $102.70 in fees/taxes. To purchase 120,000 miles (the closest amount at 50% to get these flights) would cost you just over US$2,300, add in the fees and you are looking at ~C$3,100 To pay cash for the same flights you would be looking at over C$5,500.

Remember Alaska has set in place a maximum amount of miles you can buy in a year if you don’t hold MVP status.  Non-Elite members can only buy 150,000 miles per year now.  MVP, MVP Gold, and MVP Gold 75K member are not subjected to this limitation. Seeing that Alaska has never offered more than a 50% bonus this is definitely the time to buy if you were targeted to get that amount.

Offer details
Receive up to 50% Bonus Mileage Plan Miles when you buy miles online. Buy miles here Sep 14, 19
Buy 10,000 – 19,000 miles, get a 20% bonus
Buy 20,000 – 39,000 miles, get a 35% bonus
Buy 40,000 – 60,000 miles, get a 50% bonus

Find many more Mileage Plan bonus miles offers here