Amex Offers: Spend $10 at McDonald's, receive a $5 statement credit!

Yes you read that right - spend only $10 at McDonald's and you can get a $5 statement credit if your American Express card is targeted for this latest Amex Offers offer. Maximizers of course will try to make their purchase as close to $10 as possible without going under so that they essentially get a 50% discount on that purchase. And the offer is valid twice per registered card!

In the Rewards Canada household we got this offer on two cards. For me I received it on the American Express Gold Rewards Card while my wife received it on her Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card. Yes we can go to McDonald's four times between now and December 15 and get $5 back each time. Will we? I hope not! As much as McDonald's is loved by everyone I'm not sure we could handle four times in just under four weeks :-)

Just like all other Amex offers you have to login to the Amex app or online at americanexpress.ca and navigate to Amex offers to see if your card(s) have been targeted with this offer. This offer is limited to the first 40,000 cardmembers who register for it so be sure to do so now rather than later.

WestJet Rewards status match is back - Match to Silver or Gold from Air Canada, Porter, Alaska, American, British Airways or United

WestJet Rewards has become well known for offering various status match offers during the year and the latest one just launched today. The difference with this one over the past few offers as they have expanded the list of airline frequent flyer programs they will match from. Still shy of the best ever offer a few years ago where they matched any program including hotel programs. Nonetheless, status match offers are always welcome and here is the gist of this one:

From now until December 15 you can submit the form on WestJet's Status Match Offer page with all your details like name, WestJet Rewards # and proof of status from Altitude, VIPorter, AAdvantage, United MileagePlus, Alaska Mileage Plan or British Airways Executive Club showing your name, current 2019 status valid through to a minimum December 31, 2019. Once approved, you will then receive WestJet Rewards Silver or Gold status until March 31, 2020 as follows:

To extend your status beyond March 31 you can take part in their challenges two challenges. Challenge one requires only one flight on WestJet by March 31 to extend your status to June 30 as follows:

• AC Altitude and Porter members must take minimum one WestJet flight anywhere
• US carriers: AA, Alaska and UA must take minimum one U.S.transborder flight
• British Airways members must take minimum one transatlantic flight

And if you want to extend your status even further (into June 2021) you must meet the following Challenge 3 spending requirement:

• Gold members with a minimum qualifying spend of $3,000 between the date of upgrade in Challenge 1 and June 30, 2020 will retain Gold status for another year, until June 30, 2021. Silver members that have a minimum qualifying spend of $1,500 between the date of upgrade in Challenge 1 and June 30, 2020 will retain Silver status for another year until June 30, 2021.

And that's all of it in a nutshell! So a quick recap, if you have status with any of the above listed airlines you can automatic status with WestJet for the next 4.5 months. If you want to have the status extended you must meet the Challenge 2 and 3 requirements as set out above. 

You can learn more about and register for this offer here.

Also remember that right now WestJet is offering an increased sign up bonus on their WestJet Rewards World Elite Mastercard. This offer provides 350 WestJet dollars after your first purchase on the card!  And it provides the best annual companion voucher in Canada!

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

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


Follow Rewards Canada:

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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