Wednesday, January 8, 2020

January 8 Update: What you have to spend to get a credit card bonus, Aeroplan eStore Fitness & Wellness bonus & coming soon: save $20 on activities booked via Expedia


Our "What you actually have to spend to get some of the best credit card welcome bonus offers" feature was updated today. We've added the CIBC Aventura Visa Infinite Privilege Card to the list. It's 50,000 point sign up bonus is pretty decent but you do have spend $12,000 on the card to get that bonus that is worth up to $1,000 in travel (up to $501 after taking the annual fee into account). The easiest bonuses to achieve continue to be the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard and MBNA Best Western Rewards Mastercard. Visit the feature here

 Cathay Pacific Asia Miles added the option to redeem miles online for flights on LATAM, Malaysia Airlines and S7 Airlines in December. You can now search availability and book Asia Miles award tickets on these airlines via the Asia Miles website rather than having to call into their service center. (Source Cathay Pacific)


Aeroplan's eStore is offering bonus miles for online shopping at select fitness and wellness retailers. The offers are for up to 5x miles and runs until January 19. Some of the retailers included are lululemon, Hello Fresh and Adidas. Find out more here.

Posts since our last update:

Travel Deals

Here is advance notice of a sale starting next week. Expedia will offer $20 off activity bookings when you spend at least $60. Book between Jan 13 and Jan 26 for activities Jan 13 - Aug 31. 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

Air Canada Aeroplan
- Earn 500 Bonus Aeroplan Miles for stays at Best Western Hotels in Canada, the United States, or the Caribbean Islands More... Until Apr 30, 20

Other Bonus Offers

Best Western Rewards
- Double Rewards Points or Airline Miles for stays of 2 or more nights from Sunday to Thursday at the Best Western Hotel Jurata. More... Until Mar 31, 20

EVA Air Infinity MileageLands
- Earn up to 6,000 Bonus Infinity MileageLands Miles when you book hotels via Kaligo. More... Book by Jan 16, 20

Hilton Honors
- 100% Bonus when you buy 10,000 or more Hilton Honors points online. More... Until Feb 29, 20

IHG Rewards Club
- Triple IHG Rewards Club Points or airline miles for stays at the Staybridge Suites Syracuse Liverpool. More... Until Mar 31, 20

Miles & More
- Earn 1,500 Bonus Miles & More Miles when you stay at Best Western Hotels in Germany, Luxembourg, Austria, Switzerland, Croatia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovenia or Slovakia. More... Until Mar 31, 20

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Double KrisFlyer Miles on the Best Available rate when you book a minimum of two consecutive nights stay at Casa del Rio Melaka. More... Until Jan 31, 20
- Triple KrisFlyer Miles for stays of 2+ nights on the Singapore Airlines Premium Stay Plan at The Okura Tokyo. More... Until Mar 31, 20


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Air Transat Seat Sale: Fares starting at $89 one way - Book by January 20!


Air Transat launched a new seat sale today offering savings on  their flights to Europe, the South, the United States or within Canada. The seat sale fares must be booked by January 20 and are good for travel from February 1 to October 31, 2020. Fares start at $89 one way for short flights within Canada, $304 to Florida and up from there for flights further south or to Europe.

Learn more about the sale and book the fares here!

Here are some examples of the fares that are available:



 


While Air Transat does not have their own loyalty program at this time (it may change if and when Air Canada's purchase of the company is approved) you can utilize any number of credit cards to earn points and miles on these flights. Cards like the American Express Cobalt Card and The Platinum Card from American Express earn 2x points on travel purchases. You can also look at utilizing any number of proprietary credit card reward programs to redeem points and miles for these flights. Learn more about redeeming for flights like these here. I also recommend reading our Ultimate Guide to Credit Card & Loyalty Programs for the All Inclusive Vacationer if you end up buying a Transat package!

Check out the Air Transat sale today!


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100% Bonus when buying Hilton Honors points until February 19

 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.

Offer details:
100% Bonus when you buy 10,000 or more Hilton Honors points online. Buy points here Until Feb 19, 20

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

  • Earn 2,000 Bonus Honors points per stay at Hilton Hotels worldwide plus 10,000 bonus points for every 10 nights stayed. Full details, online registration & 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
  • 1,000 Bonus Honors Points PER NIGHT for stays at the Higgins Hotel New Orleans, Curio Collection by Hilton. Full details and online booking
Find many more Honors Bonus Points offers here!
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Tuesday, January 7, 2020

January 7 Update: WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard 350 dollar welcome bonus extended, Royal Air Maroc set to join oneworld on March 31, Air Canada worldwide seat sale


Yesterday was not the last day of the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard 350 dollar sign up offer! When I posted that it was all terms and conditions stated January 6 as the end date and we had received no notice from WestJet or RBC that the offer would be extended. Thanks to our attentive Facebook readers Dana B and Jon W they saw that sometime in the day the offer was extended to March 31! This is great news if you thought you might have missed the offer. I have updated yesterday's post if you want more details on the offer!


Royal Air Maroc announced back in 2018 that they will be joining the oneworld alliance sometime in 2020. Reports are out that it will officially join on March 31. The airline flies between Montreal and Casablanca and has their own frequent flyer program called Safar Flyer. If you have been reading our blog for some time you'll know that they are known for running some great award flight redemption discounts several times per year. (Source One Mile at a Time)

Posts since our last update:

Travel Deals

Air Canada has a worldwide seat sale going on right now! Book by January 13 to take advantage of great fares to over 200 destinations. 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

N/A

Other Bonus Offers

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
- Double Mileage Plan Miles when you fly on qualifying Fiji Airways flights to the South Pacific, Australia, and New Zealand. More... Register & book by Feb 29 for travel Feb 1 - Jun 30, 20
- Up to a 50% Mileage Plan Miles Discount when you redeem Mileage Plan miles for award flights on Fiji Airways flights. More... Book by Feb 29 for travel until ?

British Airways Executive Club
- 30% Bonus Avios when you buy or gift Avios. More... Until Jan 30, 20

China Airlines Dynasty Flyer
- 40% Dynasty Flyer Miles Discounts when you redeem for award flights on China Airlines flights CI005 and CI006 between Taipei and Los Angeles. More... Until Mar 31, 20

Hilton Honors
- 1,000 Bonus Honors Points per night for stays at the SAii Lagoon Maldives, Curio Collection by Hilton. More... Until Feb 29, 20
Marriott Bonvoy
- Earn up to 3,000 Bonus Marriott Bonvoy Points for stays at 12 participating locations in 9 U.S. states. More... Until Feb 29, 20

Voila Hotel Rewards
- 5,000 Bonus VHR Points for each stay at any participating VOILÀ hotel Worldwide. More... Until Mar 31, 20



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Fly round trip from Canada to Fiji for only 40,000 miles with Alaska Airlines' Mileage Plan redemption special


As soon as this offer came out yesterday it quickly made the rounds on the frequent flyer blogs and forums. Makes sense as it is a great deal! Alaska Airlines is promoting their frequent flyer partnership with Fiji Airways with two promotions - one for earning miles and one for redeeming miles. The earn miles, is simple - double Mileage Plan miles on Fiji Airways flights booked by February 29 and flown by June 30, 2020. But it is the redemption offer that is the star here as it offers up to 50% off the regular mileage amounts required to redeem Mileage Plan miles for Fiji Airways flights. Add in the fact that you can add in one free stop over on these redemption options and you have a true star. That means you can fly to Australia, New Zealand and other destinations with a free stopover in Fiji for only 20,000 Mileage Plan miles each way in Economy Class or 40,000 miles each way in Business Class. When the offer came out there wasn't much Business Class inventory available on Fiji Airways flights out of San Francisco or Los Angeles and with all the blogs covering it many of those were gobbled up quick - especially on Fiji Airways' new Airbus A350 flight out of LAX as that plane has their new business class with lie flat seats. There is still some business class availability out there but you'll have to spend some time searching for it. There is however tons of availability for economy class so those are much easier to find and redeem for!

Here are some examples of what is available:

Calgary - Fiji in April
 And an example of the milk run that it is:


But still - for only 40,000 miles round trip and US$191 in fees this is deal that makes those connections and travel times potentially worthwhile!

Here is Vancouver for April as well:



Accumulating Mileage Plan miles isn't that hard in Canada since Alaska Airlines has their co-brand credit cards with MBNA. In fact, you could conceivably still apply for one now and try to push a lot of purchases on it this month (January) to have the miles post to your account in February to book by the February 29 deadline for this promotion. The main issue however is availability - while there is lots right now there is no guarantee that there will be availability by February 29.  The MBNA Alaska Airlines World Elite Mastercard comes with a 30,000 Mileage Plan miles welcome bonus when you spend $1,000 on the card, meaning you'd have 31,000 miles. Spend an additional $9,000 to get you to that 40,000 mile level for this offer. That's a lot to spend but maybe just maybe one of you are buying a car or doing a home reno where you can drop that kind of cash right away on the card!

You could also choose to buy Mileage Plan miles however they don't have a bonus for doing so right now so I would only buy them if you need to top off your account with a few thousand miles to take advantage of this offer. If you don't have any miles I wouldn't advise it - it is US$1,182.50 plus GST/HST to buy 40,000 miles as you an buy flights to Fiji for around the same price and you'll earn miles on the flights (in fact double if you register and credit them to Alaska) and earn your elite status qualifying as well.

For more details on the up to 50% off redemption offer click here and click here for details on the double miles offer!

Did you catch this offer when it first came out yesterday? Were you perhaps one of the lucky ones to get in on the business class option? Or even economy class? Will you jump on it now as a result of our post? Let us know in the comments below!

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Earn 500 Bonus Aeroplan Miles on all Best Western stays until April 30

We have been without an Aeroplan Best Western bonus offer for a whopping 22 days! Normally when one offer ends another starts up right away but this time it looks like the promotion department took some time off for the holiday season!. This offer is exactly the same as the fall 2019 offer of 500 bonus miles on top of the 250 base miles for a total of 750 Aeroplan miles per stay. You do have to be a Best Western Rewards member with your earning preferences set to Aeroplan to earn the bonus.

Offer details:
Earn 500 Bonus Aeroplan Miles for stays at Best Western Hotels in Canada, the United States, or the Caribbean Islands Full details, online registration & booking (Registration is required) Until Apr 30, 20

Here are more Aeroplan offers to take advantage of:

  • Limited time offer - online only! Earn up to 30,000 Aeroplan Miles (equivalent to 2 economy short-haul roundtrip flight rewards) and first year no Annual Fee for the Primary Cardholder with the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card
  • Earn 4x Aeroplan Miles when you stay for 2 or more nights on weekends (Thu-Sun) at the Chelsea Hotel Toronto. Full details & online booking
  • Double Aeroplan Miles and up to 20% off stays at Coast Hotels in Canada and the U.S. Full details and online booking.

Find our complete list of Aeroplan bonus miles offers here.
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Monday, January 6, 2020

January 6 Update: 10% Bonus Asia Miles when you convert credit card points from RBC, HSBC or Amex, More Cobalt multiplier locations, Air Transat partnership


Cathay Pacific Asia Miles has released a 10% bonus offer for transferring credit cards points into Asia Miles. This promotion is open to Canadian cards that allow points conversions to Asia Miles (but not those that earn Asia Miles direclty, ie the RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum Card). Specifically you can convert RBC Rewards Points (Avion cards only), HSBC Rewards Points, and American Express Membership Rewards points to Asia Miles. All of these will receive the 10% bonus as long as you register for the promotion via Asia Miles. You can register for it right here. With a 10% bonus you'll earn the following 1.1 Asia Miles for every 1 RBC Rewards Point, 8,800 Asia Miles for 25,000 HSBC Rewards Points or 825 Asia Miles for every 1,000 Membership Rewards points.


A new Amex Offers offer came out just a few days prior to Christmas. This one is more so for those of us out west as it is for London Drugs. If you spend $75 in store or online you'll get a $15 statement credit. I received it on American Express Gold Rewards Card (which is perfect since drug store purchases earn 2x points) while my wife received it on her Marriott Bonvoy American Express card. Sign in to your Amex account to see if you have the offer!



We've updated the American Express Cobalt Card Confirmed Multiplier Locations. New to the lists are Canadian Pizza Unlimited, Hula Poke, Dapper Donut - all of which are 5x points merchants for the Cobalt Card. Also added were Pier One Imports and Milk Jar Candle Co. both of which are 1x point merchants. See the complete feature here.
 
 Rewards Canada is pleased to announce that we are now partnered with Air Transat! You can book your Air Transat flights and vacation packages directly with Transat while supporting Rewards Canada. Book your next Air Transat Vacation right here or visit our Travel partners page!

In case you are wondering where this month's Air France KLM Flying Blue Promo Rewards are - they are right here. We didn't have a blog post covering them for January as for the first time in quite awhile there are no Canadian cities included.

Posts since our last update:

Travel Deals

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
- Double Aeroplan Miles and up to 20% off stays at Coast Hotels in Canada and the U.S. More... Until Jan 31, 20

Other Bonus Offers

Air France KLM Flying Blue
- January Promo Rewards – Save 20% to 50% on the Award Miles usually required for an award ticket. Destinations vary by each promotional period. More... Book by Jan 31 for travel Mar 1 – Apr 30, 20

ANA Mileage Club
- Double Mileage Club Miles for stays at participating Chatrium Hotels in Thailand and Myanmar. More... Until Mar 31, 20

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- 10% Bonus Asia Miles when you convert your credit card points into Asia Miles. More... Until Jan 31, 20

Iberia Plus
- 50% Avios Discount when you redeem for select Iberia Regional Air Nostrum award flights More... Book by Feb 29 for travel until Mar 31, 20
- Double Avios for stays at the INNSIDE Milán Torre Galfa, Meliá Sitges, ME Sitges, Meliá Valencia, Hotel Valencia Oceanic, Hotel Madrid Plaza España managed by Meliá, Hotel Madrid Centro managed by Meliá, Meliá Jardines del Teide, Sol Arona Tenerife, Sol Costa Atlantis. More... Until Feb 29, 20

Marriott Bonvoy
- Earn 1,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points PER NIGHT for stays at 70+ Marriott Hotels in Southern California. More... Until Mar 25, 20



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Redemption Stories: Saving $3,800 on last minute flights with the Platinum Card from American Express


For the Rewards Canada family a lot of our vacations are spur of the moment. So when we want to get away for only a few short days we don’t want to spend much of that time getting to our destination so we usually look for direct flights that aren’t much more than three hours in length. And since it is winter we wanted to go somewhere warmer. That means places like Los Angeles, San Diego, Palm Springs, or Phoenix. With a trip to Phoenix already booked for later in 2020 we crossed that off the list. Then with our attendance required at a New Years Eve party in YYC we crossed San Diego off the list as the flight back into Calgary wouldn’t leave us much time get home and get ready. So that left LA or the Palm Desert. We chose the latter as it tends to be more relaxing than LA. Of course this means booking at the last minute, which also means not so cheap flights when looking for four seats. Add in the fact it was during the Christmas high season and you know there aren’t going to be any cheap seats. Four tickets at the last minute to any of these cities run well over $1000 per person - in economy. That’s pretty pricey for these flights but that’s where points and miles can come in to help. WestJet is the only airline that flies direct to PSP from YYC (unfortunately the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX meant AC dropped the route) so that gave us two points options that we could utilize to make the price more bearable. The first was booking through WestJet and using our companion vouchers and WestJet dollars. Since my wife and I each have our own WestJet cards we have two companion vouchers that we could use. Perfect for a family of four. The second option was booking through American Express travel and utilizing the Fixed Points Travel program.

Continue reading the full redemption story here!
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Hilton Honors – Earn 2,000 bonus points per stay + 10,000 bonus points for every 10 nights


Hilton’s latest version of the Points Unlimited promotion that we let you know about early in December is now active and your stays as of today will begin earning the bonus points – as long as you register for the offer!  The offer is for 2,000 bonus points per stay which is a big bonus – that is if you are staying only one night and not paying a lot for that one night! These flat rate stay bonuses are always that – better on the short one night stays rather than longer stays. That being said any bonus is better than none so earning 2,000 bonus points on a three night stay isn’t a bad thing. Add in the fact that you essentially earn 1,000 more points per night if you can complete 10 nights during the promotion period and the points really add up. More so if all 10 nights are separate stays – that means you would be earning 3,000 bonus points per night. The 10,000 points resets after every 10 nights so if you complete 20 nights during the promotion you’ll earn 20,000 bonus points plus whatever combination of 2,000 points per stay you receive. All in all another great promotion from Hilton Honors.

Offer details:
Earn 2,000 Bonus Honors points per stay at Hilton Hotels worldwide plus 10,000 bonus points for every 10 nights stayed. Full details, online registration & booking (Registration is required ) Register now for stays January 6 – May 3, 2020.

Here are some more Hilton Honors offers to check out:
Find our complete list of Hilton Honors bonus offers here!
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Updated: NOT THE LAST DAY to grab the limited time increased welcome bonus of 350 WestJet dollars on the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard


UPDATE: This offer has been extended to March 31, 2020!

Today is the last day to grab the limited time increased welcome bonus of 350 WestJet dollars on the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard. The regular bonus of 250 WestJet dollars when you apply for and receive the card is still the norm but if you get the card now you'll get an additional 100 WestJet dollars when you make your first purchase on the card within three months of being approved for the card. That's a really easy welcome bonus to earn considering most of the cards competing with this card have a lot of spend requirements tied to them! You literally only have to make one $1 purchase on the card and you have 350 WestJet dollars to use right away towards to flights or vacation packages with WestJet.

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

Not only is the welcome bonus an attractive offer there are other benefits on the card that are the reason why it is the best airline card in Canada. Once you have the card you get the first checked bag free for yourself and up to 8 others travelling on the same reservation. With checked bags on WestJet running between $30 to $35.40 for the first bag you can already see how this card can provide some huge savings on WestJet travel.

Related:  Credit cards that help you avoid those dreaded airline fees

Then the card has the best companion voucher benefit of any credit card in Canada. You can use the voucher for travel anywhere on WestJet's network for travel in Economy or Premium Class. Business Class is not included. Essentially what this voucher is that you buy one ticket at a regular price and you can have a companion travel with you for only $99 in Canada and the Continental U.S., $299 to sun destinations and $399 anywhere else WestJet flies plus you have to pay the taxes and fees. Seeing that Premium Economy tickets can run into four figures for round trip getting one of them for only $399 can provide some immense savings. If you have a family of four or more it can make sense to have two separate WestJet RBC World Elite Credit Cards as that will give you two companion vouchers to use. This is exactly Why my wife and I each grabbed our own WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercards. In the couple of years of both of us having the cards we have saved thousands of dollars on flights, especially when we had to buy last minute travel which as we all know tends to be really expensive!

Related: The Ultimate Flight Companion Pass Credit Card portfolio

The WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard does have a $119 annual fee that comes on it but when you look at getting 350 WestJet dollars with it (so a net benefit of 231 dollars to start) and then the baggage fee savings and companion voucher benefit you can see how this card is extremely valuable to get! Even if you have just one WestJet flight planned and none after that, being able to use the equivalent of 231 dollars towards that flight makes this card worth getting. 

Click here to learn more about this offer and to apply for the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard
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