What you actually have to spend to get some of the best credit card welcome bonus offers

You may recall earlier in the month we had a blog post entitled "What you actually have to spend to get some of the best credit card welcome bonus offers" Well that post turned out to be extremely popular so I decided to make it into a full time feature page on the main Rewards Canada website. By doing this it allowed me to expand it beyond the nine cards we had in that post and it will be easier to keep updated with new offers as they come along and when old offers end.

This feature does really put to light what the true requirements are to get the advertised bonus offers - it's not as easy as the issuers make it seem in some cases! It may make you think twice about an offer and maybe go for one that has a little less value but a lot less effort in terms of spending. All food for thought!

You can access the new feature here
(be sure to bookmark it!)

Here's a screenshot of the just the first few cards on the list:

November 18 Update: Reminder that Air Canada/Aeroplan will be unavailable starting at 8pm tonight, earn up 3x Aeroplan Miles at the UPS Store, new Amex offers for Esso & Wayfair

Just a reminder that as of 8pm Eastern time tonight the Air Canada and Aeroplan websites and call centres will be unavailable for their reservations system migration. This is expected to last until mid-day tomorrow. Learn more here.

We've added another bonus offer to our Top 6 tips for maximizing miles & points earning on your holiday shopping. It is an Aeroplan bonus for using the UPS Store - perfect for those who are needing to ship presents this holiday season. The offer provides 2x miles on supplies and triple miles for higher level shipping services until December 20. Find out more here

In the past week a couple more Amex offers became available outside of the Shop Small offer we let you know about. Log in to your American Express account online to see if these have appeared for you as well.

• Esso and Mobil Speedpass+: Spend $25 or more on fuel, 2 times, and earn a $10 credit (Received on The Platinum Card from American Express)
• Wayfair.ca: Spend at least $125 and Earn a $25 credit. (Received on the American Gold Rewards Card)
  

Posts since our last update:

• Save 30% when you buy Marriott Bonvoy points until Dec 22, 19
  Last seen in September we now have the third buy points discount from the Marriott Bonvoy program since taking…
• 40% bonus when you buy World of Hyatt Points
  Hyatt has come out with their own buy points bonus for the holiday season. When you buy 5,000 or…
• Air Canada & Aeroplan websites/call centres will be unavailable November 18-19 for their new reservation system migration
  The time has finally come where Air Canada will migrate its current reservation system over to Amadeus. This move…
• November 15 Update: Save up to 40% on Priority Pass Business Class lounge memberships, Canadian North Intercommunity Holiday seat sale & more!
  Priority Pass has launched their annual Black Friday sale that offers up to 40% off their annual lounge access…

Travel Deals

Expedia Canada has launched a flash sale offering 25% off or more at select hotels around the world. Book by November 21. Find out more here.

IHG Cyber Sale – Save up to 30% on stays around the globe

Enjoy up to 25% off for stays at Fairmont Hotels in North America with their Fairmont Moments offer. Book by Mar 31 for stays until Apr 30, 20 Full details & online booking

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 3x Aeroplan Miles when shopping at the UPS store. More... Until Dec 20, 19

Other Bonus Offers

Finnair Plus
- Earn Triple Plus Points when you book hotels via Trip.com’s PointsPLUS. More... Book by Nov 30 for stays until Jan 31, 20

IHG Rewards Club
- 25% Bonus IHG Rewards Club Points when you book a Bonus Points Package for stays at participating IHG Hotels Worldwide. More... Book by Dec 17 for stays until Mar 31, 20

Marriott Bonvoy
- Receive a 30% discount when you buy 2,000 or more Marriott Bonvoy points. More... Until Dec 22, 19
- Earn 1,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points PER NIGHT for stays at any one of 6 participating Marriott Hotels in Barcelona More... Dec 12, 19 - Mar 5, 20

TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go
- Double Miles&Go Miles on Europcar entals of 3 or more days Worldwide. More... Book by Nov 30 for rentals until Dec 15, 19

Turkish Miles&Smiles
- Earn Triple Bonus Miles&Smiles Miles when you book hotels via Trip.com’s PointsPLUS. More... Book by Nov 30 for stays until Jan 31, 20

World of Hyatt
- 40% Bonus World of Hyatt Points when you buy 5,000 or more points in one transaction. More... Until Dec 31, 19



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Save 30% when you buy Marriott Bonvoy points until Dec 22, 19

Last seen in September we now have the third buy points discount from the Marriott Bonvoy program since taking over SPG a few years back. The offer in September was a 30% discount and this time they keep it the same.  With this 30% discount you are buying Bonvoy points at US$ 0.875 cents each. This is getting closer to that old rate that SPG had discounted to but it is still over 10% more than what we were used to. That being said, there are many redemption options with Marriott where you can easily 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. For example, the Rewards Canada family just had a Marriott redemption that got us about C$ 1.4 cents per point or close to US$ 1.1 cents, so as you can see buying points for 0.875 cents US would be worth it in that case.

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 Dec 22, 19

Find many more Marriott Bonvoy bonus points offers here!

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

• Earn 2,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points on your second stay at any participating Marriott Hotel Worldwide. Once complete you will unlock additional bonus offers for your stay(s) made after that second stay. Additional offers will be appear in your account and also be emailed to you by Marriott.Full details, online registration & booking. (Registration is required)
• Earn up to 3,000 Bonus Marriott Bonvoy Points for stays at 21 participating locations in 13 U.S. states. Full details & online booking.
• Earn up to 4,000 Bonus Marriott Bonvoy Points for stays of 2 or more nights at any one of 11 Marriott locations in Peru. Full details & online booking.
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40% bonus when you buy World of Hyatt Points

Hyatt has come out with their own buy points bonus for the holiday season. When you buy 5,000 or more points in one transaction they will give a you  40% bonus points. This works out to 1.714 cents per point (US$). Depending on how you redeem them it could be worthwhile to purchase them for rewards at high end hotels like Park Hyatt’s around the globe or even buying less if you just need a few thousand points to top off for an award. You can buy up to 55,000 points per calendar year plus any bonus amount so if you haven’t bought any points you could get yourself up to 77,000 points with this deal.

Offer details
40% Bonus World of Hyatt Points when you buy 5,000 or more points in one transaction.   Buy World of Hyatt Points here. Until Dec 31, 19

Can’t make use of this offer? Here are some other offers that might work for you!

• Double World of Hyatt Elite Qualifying Nights for stays at luxury hotels within The Unbound Collection by Hyatt. Register online (Registration is required)
• 2,000 Bonus World of Hyatt Points for your first stay at each of Hyatt’s new brands of Thompson Hotels,  Joie de Vivre, Alila and Destination Hotels. Maximum bonus of 8,000 points. Plus earn a free night if you stay at all four brands. Full details and online booking

Find our full list of other World of Hyatt bonuses here!

Air Canada & Aeroplan websites/call centres will be unavailable November 18-19 for their new reservation system migration

The time has finally come where Air Canada will migrate its current reservation system over to Amadeus. This move has been two years in the making since it was first announced that AC would move to Amadeus from a 25+ year old in-house RESIII system. That being said, the migration will force Air Canada and Aeroplan to move their websites to off-line status and close their call centres for 12 hours or more on November 18 through to the 19th. If all goes well the system along with the websites and call centres should be back online by mid day on the 19th. Both Air Canada and Aeroplan have posted notices on their websites about what you as a passenger or someone looking to buy a ticket need to do during this down time:

From Air Canada:

From November 18-19, 2019, we will be migrating to a new Reservation system to improve your travel experience. If you’re booking or travelling during this period, here is important information you need to know:

•  Starting at 20:00 ET on Nov. 18, the aircanada.com website as well as our phone Contact Centres will be off-line for making new bookings or changes until approximately mid-day Nov. 19.
• Any required bookings or changes to current bookings for travel during this period should be made prior to the start of migration on Nov. 18.
• Flights will be available for purchase and bookings will be available for modification as usual once our new system is live on Nov. 19.

 The following functions remain available as usual during the Nov. 18-19 migration period:

•  Check-in online, via App and at Kiosks
• Flight Status online and via App

You can visit the Air Canada webpage for the system update for more information and a detailed FAQ.  For our Air Canada Altitude readers you may want to take a closer look at this excerpt from the FAQ that will affect eUpgrades:

"Over the next few months while we update our airport systems, you will not be able to request upgrades at the airport, and upgrades which were not cleared prior to check-in will not be processed at the gate, even if a seat is available. In light of this, rest assured that we will work diligently to confirm more upgrades ahead of check-in."

From Aeroplan

Air Canada is in the process of migrating to a new reservation system, a project we're undertaking to improve your travel experience. Here's what this means for you as an Aeroplan member:

Aeroplan will be temporarily unavailable, both online and on the phone
Aeroplan.com and the Aeroplan App will be unavailable from November 18^th at 8pm EST until midday November 19^th. In addition, during this period while the migration to the new system takes place, the Aeroplan Contact Centre will not be able to assist you with any new or existing Flight Reward bookings. We encourage you to plan ahead and book any Aeroplan Rewards outside of this period.

We encourage you to self-serve at aeroplan.com
We understand your time is valuable and we anticipate an increase in Contact Centre wait times in the days that follow this transition period. Those looking to make or change a Flight Reward booking on or after November 19^th are encouraged to do so at aeroplan.com to save time and money. To change an existing reservation on aeroplan.com, simply cancel your booking to receive an immediate refund of your Aeroplan Miles, then book your new flight without incurring a booking fee.

We will temporarily reduce the aeroplan.com Refund Fee
To assist with this transition, from November 15^th, 2019 to January 31^st, 2020, the fee for refunding a booking online will be reduced to $75 – a savings of $75 versus requesting a refund via the Contact Centre.

November 15 Update: Save up to 40% on Priority Pass Business Class lounge memberships, Canadian North Intercommunity Holiday seat sale & more!

Priority Pass has launched their annual Black Friday sale that offers up to 40% off their annual lounge access memberships! Find out more here. 

Here are the Black Friday prices:

As an added benefit this year if you buy a membership during this sale you'll get the following:

A follow up email with three redemption codes of each brand below.

• MIDO Watches up 30% off on watches.
• Roam Luggage, fully customizable premium luggage receive up to $150 off
• Dufl stores receive a $200 Credit from Dufl. (*$200 value = can be used toward 2 standard U.S. DUFL trips OR $200 credit toward an international trip).

Learn more about Priority Pass in Rewards Canada's Guide to Business Class lounge access 

Receive $50 gift certificate PER NIGHT for Costco with your stay at the newly opened Courtyard Halifax Dartmouth.  This rate prices out at about $40 more than the best flexible rate so you would be saving only $10. Full details & online booking. Until Apr 4, 20

Posts since our last update:

• You can now earn Flying Blue Elite Status Experience Points when flying on WestJet to 60+ destinations
  Flying Blue, the program for Air France KLM sent out an email today letting members in Canada know that…
• Up to a 50% Bonus when you buy Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles until December 23!
  Alaska Airlines has brought back their best bonus for buying Mileage Plan miles! Right now you will get a…
• Hilton Honors: 100% bonus when you buy points until November 26 - this is one of the better buy points offers
  Hilton Honors has released another buy points promotion for their members! Once again this one is a nice flat…
• November 14 Update: Scotia will add Disney+ to streaming service category in the new year and 25% bonus Norwegian CashPoints for online shopping (yes Norwegian)
  As many of you will know, Disney officially launched their own streaming service, Disney+ earlier this week. As it…

Travel Deals

Canadian North has launched an Intercommunity holiday seat sale. One way fares in the sale run from $220 during the peak time from December 20 to January 8. Sale ends on January 4. Find out more here.

IHG Cyber Sale – Save up to 30% on stays around the globe

Enjoy up to 25% off for stays at Fairmont Hotels in North America with their Fairmont Moments offer. Book by Mar 31 for stays until Apr 30, 20 Full details & online booking

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 MILES
- Earn up to 1,200 Bonus AIR MILES Reward Miles when you earn miles from multiple partners during the Shop the Block promotion. More...   Until Dec 27, 19

Other Bonus Offers

Hilton Honors
- 100% Bonus when you buy 10,000 or more Hilton Honors points online. More... Until Nov 26, 19

Le Club AccorHotels
- Double Le Club AccorHotels points for stays at participating Accor Hotels in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg or Sweden. More... Targeted offer - may not work for everyone Book by Dec 16 for stays Dec 1- 31, 19

Miles & More
- Triple Miles & More Miles for stays at the Vienna House MQ Kronberg im Taunus or the Vienna House Zur Bleiche Schaffhausen. More... Book by Dec 31, 19 for stays until Jan 31, 20

Rocketmiles
- 300 Bonus Miles / Points with most Rocketmiles partners when you tag @rocketmiles in a photo, and add #promotion to the caption on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. More... Unknown End Date

SriLankan FlySmiles
- 25% FlySmiles Discount when you redeem miles for award tickets in Economy Class on SriLankan Airlines. More... Until Mar 31, 20

WorldHotels Rewards
- Quadruple Rewards Points for stays at all participating WorldHotels locations Worldwide. More... Until Dec 31, 19

Wyndham Rewards
- Double Wyndham Rewards Points on your next stay at a Wyndham Rewards Hotel worldwide. More... Targeted Offer - May not work for everyone Until Jan 7, 20


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You can now earn Flying Blue Elite Status Experience Points when flying on WestJet to 60+ destinations

Flying Blue, the program for Air France KLM sent out an email today letting members in Canada know that they can now earn elite status XP (Experience Points) on WestJet flights within Canada, to the U.S. and Central America. In all it appears that more than 60 WestJet destinations are eligible:

They have set up a nifty website to show how many points you can earn on select routes with WestJet. Here are just a couple of the examples:

For reference, here are the XP requirements for Flying Blue's elite status levels:

• Silver: 100XP
• Silver to Gold: 180XP
• Gold to Platinum: 300XP

The website also has a section on redeeming Flying Blue miles for WestJet flights. Prior to this it has been hard to find how many miles were required to fly on WestJet as Flying Blue stated you had to
call in to find out and book flights on WestJet. Again, here are just a couple of examples they show:

Outside of actually flying on Air France, KLM, WestJet or their other airline partners the easiest way to earn Flying Blue miles in Canada is with the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card. The card earns Marriott Bonvoy points which can then be converted to Flying Blue at a 3:1 basis along with the usual 5,000 miles bonus when you convert 60,000 points at a time.

To learn more about utilizing Flying Blue for flights on WestJet check out their dedicated website: getmorexp.ca

Up to a 50% Bonus when you buy Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles until December 23!

Alaska Airlines has brought back their best bonus for buying Mileage Plan miles! Right now you will get a 50% bonus when you buy 40,000 or more miles.

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. Please note that us Canadians 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$1,419.00!

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 ~$2,400 To pay cash for the same flights you would be looking at over $4,000.

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 Until Dec 23, 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 

Hilton Honors: 100% bonus when you buy points until November 26 - this is one of the better buy points offers

Hilton Honors has released another buy points promotion for their members! Once again this one is a nice flat bonus rate of 100% when you buy 10,000 or more points. This means you are paying US$ 0.5 cents per point which can be easily redeemed at values of 0.8 cents or more!

Remember reward nights start out at only 5,000 points so you could potentially get a lot of nights out of this offer.

Here's an example of how this buy points deal can provide some great value. Want to stay at the Hilton Whistler Resort & Spa for New Year's Eve? The cheapest going rate is C$923 per night on December 31st and January 1st. The points requirement? 80,000 points per night. So it would take 160,000 points for 2 nights or paying $2,500 including taxes for the same room and nights. 160,000 points would mean you only buy 80,000 points (and get 80,000 as a bonus) for US$800 or about C$1092 (includes GST on the points purchase). This example would save you nearly $1,500!

Offer details:
100% Bonus when you buy 10,000 or more Hilton Honors points online. Buy points here Until Nov 26, 19

Can’t make use of this offer? Check out these other bonus opportunities:

• Double Honors points on every stay at participating Hilton Hotels Worldwide.  If you have a Hilton Honors co-brand credit card (U.S., U.K., Japan or Germany) you will earn triple points on each stay.  Full details, online registration and booking (Registration is required)
• Earn up to 7,500 Bonus Honors points for stays at any Hilton Hotels and Resorts Worldwide. Earn 2,500 points on your first stay and 5,000 bonus points on your second stay. Full details, online registration & booking. (Registration is required) Targeted offer - may not work for everyone
• Elite Status Match and Fast Track to Elite Status Offer - Receive Hilton Honors elite status for 90 days when you hold status with another hotel program and then stay 4 times in 90 days to keep Gold Status or 8 times to keep Diamond status. Register Online (Registration is required)

Find many more Honors Bonus Points offers here!

November 14 Update: Scotia will add Disney+ to streaming service category in the new year and 25% bonus Norwegian CashPoints for online shopping (yes Norwegian)

As many of you will know, Disney officially launched their own streaming service, Disney+ earlier this week. As it is a streaming service that naturally let us to reach out to Scotia Bank to see if the new service will fall into their 3x points for streaming services spend category on the Scotia Gold American Express Card. This is what Scotia told me:

We are looking to add the Disney+ streaming service in the near future. Although timing is still being confirmed, we anticipate to have it added early in the new year.

That's mostly good news for those who are going to subscribe to the new service as you may only go a few months without the accelerated earn rate.

We added a couple more promotions to our Top 6 tips for maximizing miles & points earning on your holiday shopping feature. As we mentioned previously we are dynamically updating this piece during this entire holiday season with the latest offers and promotions. Today we added the AIR MILES Shop the Block event to it and also another online shopping mall bonus - 25% Bonus CashPoints for online shopping via Norwegian Reward's eShop. The latter may not even be looked at by most of you but I know a couple of you out there do collect CashPoints even though Norwegian doesn't even set foot in Canada - you use them for their flights out of the U.S., within Europe and so on so that's why I added it. You can check out the feature here.

Posts since our last update:

• AIR MILES Shop the Block is back - earn up to 1,200 Bonus Reward Miles when earning from multiple partners
  The annual AIR MILES Shop the Block event launched today and presents a really nice bonus mile earning opportunity…
• November 13 Update: RBC Avion Holiday Experience Events released, 250 bonus AIR MILES on vacation packages & a dozen new bonus offers
  RBC is once again offering special holiday events for those who have any of their Avion cards. The main…

Travel Deals

IHG Cyber Sale – Save up to 30% on stays around the globe

Enjoy up to 25% off for stays at Fairmont Hotels in North America with their Fairmont Moments offer. Book by Mar 31 for stays until Apr 30, 20 Full details & online booking

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

No programs are giving love to Canada today.

Other Bonus Offers

Aeroflot Bonus
- Earn up to 4,000 Bonus Miles when you rent with Avis for 3 or more days Worldwide. More... Book by Dec 15 for stays until Jan 31, 20

Avianca LifeMiles
- Triple LifeMiles for all hotel stays booked via Booking.com. More... Until Feb 8, 20

Choice Privileges
- 1,000 Bonus Privileges Points when you add the 1000 Points Package for stays at select Choice Hotels in Australia or New Zealand. More... Unknown End Date
- 2,000 Bonus Privileges Points when you add the 2000 Points Package for stays at select Choice Hotels in Australia or New Zealand. More... Unknown End Date
Marriott Bonvoy
- 1,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points per night on Thursday-Monday nights at the Fairfield Inn & Suites Paramus. More... Until Jan 17, 20
- 4,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points per stay at the Preston Marriott Hotel. More... Until Jan 12, 20
- 500 Bonus Bonvoy Points, a free upgrade, 3 course dinner and free breakfast for stays at the Hotel Goldener Hirsch, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Salzburg.  More... Jan 1 - Mar 25, 20
- 1,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points PER NIGHT for stays at the Residence Inn Big Sky/The Wilson Hotel. More... Dec 1 - Feb 23, 20
- 1,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points per stay at the TownePlace Suites Detroit Belleville. More... Dec 30 - Mar 23, 20

Nordic Choice Club
- Earn Double Club Points for all Nordic Choice stays booked via the Nordic Choice website or app. More... Book by Nov 17 for stays Dec 16, 19 – Feb 29, 20

Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus
- Up to a 50% ROP Miles Discount when you redeem for award flights between Bangkok and destinations across the THAI and THAI Smile networks. More... Book by Nov 30 for travel May 1 - Jun 30, 20


Title image courtesy of Disney 

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