IHG Rewards Club nixes PointBreaks - gone temporarily or forever?

Yesterday when we posted about IHG Rewards Club's new buy points bonus we mentioned anticipation of the newest set of IHG Rewards Club PointBreaks. The current set of PointBreaks is slated to end on January 31st however IHG typically would release the new ones a few days before that (usually the Monday before, so yesterday or even Tuesday, today) however LoyaltyLobby broke the news later yesterday that IHG has no plans for a new set of PointBreaks. They reached out to IHG after not seeing any new offers come out as they are typically released around noon ET. We were tracking this here on Rewards Canada to see if the new list was out at 10am our time (even using IHG's 'Force Update' link for the PointBreaks) and saw no updates so figured it may come out on Tuesday. Well the response that LoyaltyLobby received, which I'm sure was a surprise to them and all of us, is that they aren't planning any PointBreaks for the time being. IHG did not reveal however if it is just a temporary pause of the promotion or the complete end of it.

PointBreaks was known as the best hotel redemption promotions in the market since it launched over 10 years ago. Even when they revised it in 2018 from the single 5,000 points per night to 5,000 to 15,000 points per night, it was still a very strong promotion. However when IHG did the revamp in 2018 they stated it would allow them to have more hotels available on the list and this didn't really materialize. If you have read all our PointBreaks posts over the years you'll know that maybe once did the list get over 200 hotels (out of thousands) versus 150 or so hotels under the old 5,000 any night version. In most cases it stayed right around that 150 mark and here in Canada we typically only saw five to six hotels on the list each time and most cases those were in Alberta. So not a great selection here and even abroad. While the premise of the promotion was and is awesome we just didn't see turn into what IHG had promoted during the 2018 revamp. I reached out personally to my IHG contact to see if we can more details on whether it is just temporary, permanent or even if it might be replaced with something else. I'll report back if and when I hear something.

Canada’s Top Travel Rewards Credit Cards for 2020 revealed - It's the calm before the storm

The more things change, the more they stay the same, at least that is the case in the travel rewards credit card industry. For a third straight year, the American Express Cobalt Card takes the top prize in Reward Canada’s Travel Rewards Credit Cards Ranking. For over 12 years Rewards Canada has been helping Canadians sift through the more than 70 travel rewards credit card offerings with its annual ranking. The rankings can be found at rewardscanada.ca/topcc2020 

This year’s ranking reflects a holding pattern as the industry braces for what will likely be a seismic event; the unveiling of Air Canada’s new loyalty program.

“This is the calm before the storm,” says Patrick Sojka, founder of RewardsCanada.ca. “We know that Air Canada will announce their plan for Aeroplan in the comings months as they reveal their new reward program that will launch this summer. This should spark a strong reaction from competitors and ultimately translate into better consumer offers.”

In addition to the Cobalt Card taking home “Best Overall Travel Reward Card’ honours, the remaining five categories that cards are ranked in are: Travel Points with annual fee, Travel Rewards Credit Card with no annual fee, Hybrid (flexible currency), Airline and Coalition card. The credit cards are evaluated by key factors including cost, co-brand partnerships, rate-of-return, benefits and redemption options.

And The Winners Are:

Top Travel Rewards Card overall

American Express Cobalt Card

Travel Points Credit Card
Scotiabank Gold American Express Card

No Fee Travel Rewards Credit Card
mbna Rewards Platinum Plus Mastercard

Hybrid Card (Flexible Currency)
American Express Cobalt Card

Airline Card
WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard

Coalition Program Card
TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card

Other highlights include the Scotiabank Gold American Express card, which thanks to a major revamp catapulted it to Top Travel Points Credit Card. The card saw an increase in points earning and sets itself apart with its No Foreign Transaction fees. Another notable highlight is the enhanced American Express Air Miles Platinum Card, it is now the strongest earning AIR MILES card in the market which moves it ahead of the BMO AIR MILES World Elite Mastercard in the coalition category.

“The purpose of our annual ranking is to make choosing the right travel reward card easier”, adds Sojka. “It’s also about staying on top of trends and keeping Canadians informed of how industry changes may impact their enjoyment of these cards.”

The Top Travel Rewards Card feature, with complete rankings and background, can be found online at: rewardscanada.ca/topcc2020

IHG Rewards Club – Up to a 75% bonus when you buy points until February 27 (think new PointBreaks list coming soon)

IHG Rewards Club is once again running a buy points bonus! Once again it is a  tiered offer but this time it caps out at only 75% instead of 100%. And just like the last promotion they have also increased the number of points you can buy to 150,000 instead of 100,000. This sale runs until February 27, 2020. Unless you really need the points – and you may as read further into this post – I would wait until the next 100% bonus offer instead of taking advantage of this one.

The best price for buying points comes when you buy 20,000 or more points in one transaction. For example, buying 150,000 points (262,500 total with bonus) costs US$1,500.  This means each point will cost you 0.57 cents compared to 0.50 cents when it is a 100% bonus. But here’s where you may still want to buy at this price. The current set of IHG Rewards Club PointBreaks expire on January 31 and we should see the list sometime this week, in fact I’m guessing we may even seen them tomorrow. PointBreaks is where you only need 5,000 to 15,000 points to redeem for free nights at hotels on the list.  So with 262,500 points that’s up to 52 nights at the 5,000 point level, 26 nights at 10,000 and 17 nights at the 15,000 point level.  Even at that highest PointBreaks level it is like you are buying each night for only US$85.50 and this can be for hotels that cost more than $300 per night. So the question you will have to answer, is do I preemptively buy points to catch the best PointBreaks offers right when they come out or do I wait until the list is out, go buy points and come back to try to book the hotel of my choice hoping it hasn’t disappeared off the list in the time I went to buy the points.

Offer details:
Earn up to 75% Bonus IHG Rewards Club points when you buy points. Buy points here.
50% bonus when you but 7,000 to 19,000 points
75% bonus when you buy 20,000+ points

Here are some more IHG Rewards Club Bonus Points offers to check out:

• 10,000 Bonus IHG Rewards Club Points for stays at 8 Kimpton hotels in Austin, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Downtown Miami, New York & Santa Barbara. Full details and online booking
• 50% Bonus IHG Rewards Club Bonus points for stays at select New IHG hotels in the U .S. and Canada Full details & online booking.
• Triple IHG Rewards Club Points or airline miles for stays at the Staybridge Suites Syracuse Liverpool. Full details and online booking

For these and many more bonuses check out RC’s IHG Rewards Club Bonus Points page

Has the price to buy Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles been increased?

I am cross posting this from our global site, FrequentFlyerBonuses to see if any of the Rewards Canada community have experienced this...

As I wrote the post last week for the latest Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan buy miles bonus of 40% something caught my eye. The price to buy miles had gone up. Typically at 40% the price to buy is 2.11 cents per mile, however in my case it was 2.15 cents per mile. Case in point, here is a screen shot from the 40% bonus from March of 2019 to buy 50,000 miles:

and a screen shot from today for the same offer:

As you can see the cost right now  is $1507.69 versus $1478.13 nearly a year ago. This matches the 2.15 cents now that I mentioned last week versus the 2.11 cents from last year. Now when I’ve read other bloggers writing about the current deal they are all showing lower pricing still at 2.11 cents and thought to myself why? Are they just taking old screen shots for the current post and didn’t catch the price increase? Or is it just happening to me? Or a select few of us?  I thought maybe Points.com was adding the GST but the increase isn’t 5%, it’s less than that.

I am at a loss as to why the price is different. I would love to hear from our readers to see what pricing they are getting and if you might know why this is the case?

January 27 Update: Earn 40,000 British Airways Executive Club Avios for free, Air Canada waivers for travel to China & updates to Amex Offers

Last Friday we added two new credit card offers to our website from HSBC and RBC for their World Elite Mastercard and Avion Visa Infinite Cards respectively. Those offers have now been added to our post Travel Hacking 101 - Earn 54,000+ Aeroplan Miles or 40,000 British Airways Avios for free* (Updated January 27, 2020). The HSBC cards adds an additional 16,000 Avios to the mix of free Avios meaning right now you can 40,000 Avios for no cost other than credit card spend. You can bump that to 55,000 Avios if you take the 35K offer on the RBC Visa Infinite Avion card however it does come with a $120 annual fee. Still worth it in my opinion! Check out the post here.

Air Canada is offering free of charge changes for flights to Beijing, Shanghai and Wuhan due to the Corona Virus outbreak. If you booked your flights prior January 21 for Wuhan or the 24th for Beijing and Shanghai you can change your flight to another time or destination free of charge as long as it is in the same booking class. Find out more here. 

Thanks to the Rewards Canada community for coming out and contributing to our new Guide to American Express Canada 'Amex Offers' .Both Vino and Leon let us and our readers know which cards they received some of the offers for and we have updated the summary to reflect this. Find the guide here.

Finally if you missed the blog post earlier we did a thorough update to Rewards Canada's Guide to Business Class Lounge access for 2020! You'll find the latest pricing options, entry options and more. Read the guide here.

Posts since our last update:

• From Vancouver to Montreal - Earn 500 to 7,500 bonus Marriott Bonvoy points for stays at 8 hotels in February
  In my daily update of adding new bonus offers to our site I came across a bunch of bonus…
• Rewards Canada's Guide to Business Class Lounge Access - Updated for 2020
  Today I completed an update to our long running feature Rewards Canada's Guide to Business Class Lounge Access. The…
• January 24 Update: What you actually have to spend to get some of the best credit card welcome bonus offers and 5 new bonus offers
  Our feature on What you actually have to spend to get some of the best credit card welcome bonus offers…

Travel Deals

KLM's Dream Deals seat sale is back and is offering some great economy class and business class fares between Canada and Europe and beyond. Book by Feb 10 for travel May 7 to Oct 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

Marriott Bonvoy
- 5,000 bonus Bonvoy points when you stay 2+ nights Thursday-Monday at the Fairfield Inn & Suites Calgary Downtown. More... Until Feb 29, 20
- 5,000 bonus Bonvoy points when you stay 2+ nights at the Delta Hotels Edmonton South Conference Centre. More... Until Feb 29, 20
- 3,000 bonus Bonvoy points when you stay 2+ nights at the Residence Inn Regina. More... Until Feb 29, 20
- 3,000 bonus Bonvoy points when you stay 2+ nights at the Fairfield Inn & Suites Winnipeg. More... Until Feb 29, 20
- Earn up to 7,500 bonus Bonvoy points when you stay at the TownePlace Suites London. More... Until Feb 25, 20
- 500 bonus Bonvoy points when you stay in a suite at the Element Vancouver Metrotown. More... Until Feb 24, 20
- 2,500 bonus Bonvoy points when you stay 2 nights or longer Thursday-Sunday at the Sheraton Ottawa Hotel. More... Until Feb 13, 20
- 3,000 bonus Bonvoy points when you stay 3  nights or longer at the Montreal Marriott Chateau Champlain. More... Until Feb 12, 20

Other Bonus Offers

ALL Accor Live Limitless
- 1,000 Rewards points for stays at participating Swissôtel, Sofitel, Mgallery, Pullman, Novotel or Mercure Hotels in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru or Uruguay. More... Book by Feb 5 for stays until Mar 30, 20

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- 1,000 Bonus Asia Miles for stays on the “Bed and Breakfast” package at at any one of 11 Marriott Hotels in Hong Kong. More... Until Mar 31, 20

Ethiopian ShebaMiles
- 2,000 Bonus ShebaMiles when you fly on Ethiopian Airlines between Addis Ababa and Chennai.. More... Apr 3 - May 2, 20

Marriott Bonvoy
- 1,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points PER NIGHT for stays at the Element Basalt - Aspen. More... Until Mar 25, 20
- 2,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points PER NIGHT for stays at the Hotel Distil, Autograph Collection Louisville. More... Until Feb 23, 20

Oman Air Sindbad
- Earn up to 1,500 Bonus Sindbad Miles on Sixt rentals of 3 or more days Worldwide. More... Until Mar 31, 20

Qatar Airways Privilege Club
- Earn up to 14,000 QMiles when you fly Qatar Airways between Doha and Osaka. More... Register & book now for travel Apr 6 - May 31, 20


Follow Rewards Canada:

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From Vancouver to Montreal - Earn 500 to 7,500 bonus Marriott Bonvoy points for stays at 8 hotels in February

In my daily update of adding new bonus offers to our site I came across a bunch of bonus offers for stays at various Marriott Hotels across Canada. Eight new stay bonuses were added to our Marriott Bonus offers page for a total of 12 bonuses across Canada at this time.

From 500 to 7,500 bonus points spanning Vancouver to Montreal the eight new bonus offers are as follows:

Calgary
5,000 bonus Bonvoy points when you stay 2+ nights Thursday-Monday at the Fairfield Inn & Suites Calgary Downtown. Full details & online booking Until Feb 29, 20

Edmonton
5,000 bonus Bonvoy points when you stay 2+ nights at the Delta Hotels Edmonton South Conference Centre. Full details & online booking Until Feb 29, 20

Regina
3,000 bonus Bonvoy points when you stay 2+ nights at the Residence Inn Regina. Full details & online booking Until Feb 29, 20

Winnipeg
3,000 bonus Bonvoy points when you stay 2+ nights at the Fairfield Inn & Suites Winnipeg. Full details & online booking  Until Feb 29, 20

London
Earn up to 7,500 bonus Bonvoy points when you stay at the TownePlace Suites London. Earn 5,000 bonus points in a studio suite or 7,500 bonus points in a one bedroom suite Full details & online booking Until Feb 25, 20

Vancouver
500 bonus Bonvoy points when you stay in a suite at the Element Vancouver Metrotown. Full details & online booking Until Feb 24, 20

Ottawa
2,500 bonus Bonvoy points when you stay 2 nights or longer Thursday-Sunday at the Sheraton Ottawa Hotel. Full details & online booking Until Feb 13, 20

Montreal
3,000 bonus Bonvoy points when you stay 3 nights or longer at the Montreal Marriott Chateau Champlain. Full details & online booking Until Feb 12, 20

You can find these and many more offers on our Marriott Bonvoy Bonus Points page!

Rewards Canada's Guide to Business Class Lounge Access - Updated for 2020

Today I completed an update to our long running feature Rewards Canada's Guide to Business Class Lounge Access. The guide provides details on how you can access business class lounges at airports around the world without having to fly in business or first class.

The update includes pricing changes from some of the single entry, third party lounge access and airline lounge access programs. It also includes the addition of No1 Lounges under the single entry access options and expanded details on the superb lounge access provided by the Platinum Card from American Express. We see Diners Club's airport lounge program jump from 850 to over 1,000 lounges and added in new cards like the CIBC Aventura Visa Infinite Privilege and Vancity's Enviro Visa Infinite and Infinite Privilege cards.

Rewards Canada's Guide to Business Class Lounge Access by the numbers:

Single Entry lounge options: 6
Third Party lounge access programs: 3
Credit cards offering lounge access: 19
Airline lounge access programs: 5

You can read the entire feature here!

January 24 Update: What you actually have to spend to get some of the best credit card welcome bonus offers and 5 new bonus offers

Our feature on What you actually have to spend to get some of the best credit card welcome bonus offers has been updated with the new RBC And HSBC card offers. The RBC Avion Visa Infinite card takes the top spot away from the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard by only $1! See the feature here.

Wanted to pass along news from our current Podcast sponsor, EQ Bank - who saw Wealthsimple come out with a 2.4% rate on their savings account so they boosted their own EQ Bank Savings Plus Account to 2.45%. Not only is there a fight between banks for gaining new credit card members but the savings account world is heating up as well! Find out more here.

Posts since our last update:

• Rare sign up bonus for PC Financial Mastercards - 75,000 points if you apply by January 26
  As part of the PC Optimum Points Days promotion (see this post for more details) the loyalty program is…
• HSBC World Elite Mastercard - Up to 40,000 bonus points + first year annual fee waived (70,000 points + annual fee for Quebec)
  HSBC's latest offer for their World Elite Mastercard is now out. This offer is better than their standard offer…
• Great new offer for the RBC Avion Visa Infinite Card - 35,000 points upon approval, no minimum spend requirement
  The credit card market here in Canada continues to heat up with great acquisition offers. The latest that launched…
• January 23 Update: PC Optimum Points Days returns - earn thousands of extra points until January 26, Air Canada partners with Cirque du Soleil & KLM's Seat Sale from Canada
  One of PC Optimum's biggest promotions of the year launched today! Points Days runs from today until January 26 and…

Travel Deals

KLM's Dream Deals seat sale is offering some great economy class and business class fares between Canada and Europe and beyond. Book by Feb 10 for travel May 7 to Oct 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

N/A

Other Bonus Offers

IHG Rewards Club
- Earn up to 75% Bonus IHG Rewards Club points when you buy points. More... Until Feb 27, 20

JAL Mileage Bank
- Earn up to 500 Bonus Mileage Bank Miles for stays at participating Tokyu Hotels in Japan. More... Until Mar 31, 20

Norwegian Reward
- 500 Bonus CashPoints when you make your first booking at select properties Worldwide with Rocketmiles. More... Book by Jan 31, 20

Rocketmiles
- 1,000 Bonus Miles / Points with most Rocketmiles partners when you make your first booing at select properties Worldwide. . More... Book by Jan 28, 20

Royal Air Maroc Safar Flyer
- Double Safar Flyer Miles when fly on Royal Air Maroc between Casablanca and Beijing. More... Until Mar 16, 20


Follow Rewards Canada:

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Rare sign up bonus for PC Financial Mastercards - 75,000 points if you apply by January 26

As part of the PC Optimum Points Days promotion (see this post for more details) the loyalty program is offering a rare sign bonus on their PC Financial Mastercards. From now until January 26 when you apply for any one of their three Mastercards, the PC Financial Mastercard, PC Financial World Mastercard or PC Financial World Elite Mastercard you'll receive 75,000 PC Optimum points when you receive your card and make your first purchase at Shoppers Drug Mart, Pharmaprix or a participating Loblaw banner store.

Those 75,000 points are worth $75 and since you only have to redeem 10,000 points to start, once the bonus posts to your account you'll be able to use those points right away for a redemption.

Learn more about this offer and apply for any of the cards here
(According to their terms and conditions you must start the application from the page that this link goes to)

HSBC World Elite Mastercard - Up to 40,000 bonus points + first year annual fee waived (70,000 points + annual fee for Quebec)

HSBC's latest offer for their World Elite Mastercard is now out. This offer is better than their standard offer of course but not as good as the one we saw prior to Christmas or the initial launch offer with the card. Nonetheless it is an offer to look into if this card has been on your radar. Remember the card is our choice for the Mastercard category in our Ultimate No Foreign Transaction Fee Credit Card Portfolio.

A little background on this card - this is not their 'Premier World Elite' which is meant for people who bank at HSBC but rather this card is for any Canadian and it is essentially the same as the Premier version. When HSBC launched this card in 2018 it became obvious they didn't want to only market their credit cards to those who bank with them, rather they wanted to get into the entire lucrative Canadian credit card market.  To learn more about this card outside of this bonus offer I would recommend reading our review of the card. 

From now until March 9, 2020 you can apply for the HSBC World Elite Mastercard and get up to 40,000 bonus HSBC Rewards Points along with having the first year $149 annual fee waived on the primary card.  The bonus is awarded as follows:

• 20,000 Points upon approval (worth $100 towards travel)
• 20,000 Points when you spend $3,000 on the card in the first 90 days (worth $100 in travel rewards)

The 64,000 points once achieved are worth $200 in travel rewards but this card isn't just a travel points card, it is actually a Hybrid Card. This means points can also be converted to partners outside of HSBC Rewards. In this card's case, they can be transferred to British Airways Executive Club, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles or Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer. The points convert as follows:

• 2.5 points to 1 Avios
• 3 points to 1.35 KrisFlyer Miles 
• 3 points to 1.2 Asia Miles 

This means the sign up bonus is worth 16,000 Avios in British Airways' Executive Club which can be used to boost your account should you need. For example, you'd want to tie this offer in with the RBC Avion Visa Infinite Card offer. Between the two you would have no less than 51,000 Avios.

Here are some options to check out

• How to get select Canada to U.S. award flights faster by utilizing British Airways' Executive Club 
• How you can easily get a free flight between Toronto and Dublin, Ireland (pre taxes/fees) or 4 flights for $240+fees 

The sign up bonus isn't the only good feature about this card however. It is one of less than a dozen cards in Canada that has No Foreign Transaction fees, it also comes with a $100 annual travel enhancement credit (to use on bag fees, seat selection etc) and like most World Elite Mastercards in Canada it has airport lounge access membership via LoungeKey.

Recommended Reading: No Foreign Transaction Fee Credit Cards for Canadians

Also note the first year free waiver option is not available for Quebec residents so instead they offer up to 70,000 bonus points for getting the card and simple holding on to it:

Now we have heard from a handful of our readers who have applied for this card in the past that the credit limits HSBC gives new customers tends to be on the low side which for some can make it difficult to be able to spend enough on the card to max out the spend portion.

Find out more and apply for the card here.