Swissport Aspire Lounge set to open at Ottawa/Macdonald–Cartier International Airport this February

More good news for Canadian travellers,  especially those flying to or from Ottawa. Rewards Canada reader Todd let us know in the comments section of our Guide to Business Class Lounge Access that Swissport will be opening up an Aspire lounge in Ottawa.  This will be their third Aspire branded lounge after the two in Calgary and fourth lounge in total in Canada as Swissport also runs the Montreal Airport Swissport Lounge.

According to the Ottawa Business Journal the lounge will take the space that Porter's old lounge was in. It will have 3,700 square feet of space and be able to accommodate up to 90 people.  Swissport states:

"The Aspire Lounge at Ottawa International Airport will offer a wide variety of complimentary hot and cold food and beverages, including local flavours and offerings such as St. Alberts Cheese, locally roasted coffees and Real Maple Syrup."

Swissport also states the lounge will open in February 2020 - so this month! The lounge isn't bookable yet on Swissport's executivelounges.com website but we imagine it won't be too long before you can book your visits online. Just like the other Aspire lounges in Canada you should be able to access the lounge with pretty much all the third party lounge access providers. I would also assume the lounge will become part of Amex's Canadian lounge program as well. If you are not familiar with the various lounge access providers be sure to check our guide here.

You can learn more about the new lounge on Swissport's website .

All images courtesy of Swissport

New limited time welcome bonuses for Tangerine credit cards - Earn a $250 bonus when you spend $5,000 within three months

Tangerine released new limited time increased sign up bonuses today for their Money-Back Credit Card and Tangerine World Mastercard® cards. If you apply for the card by March 31 you'll get $250 cash back when you spend $5,000 on either of the cards with the first three months of having them (well 92 days to be exact) This bonus is over and above the regular 2% earn rate in your selected categories and 0.5% on all other spending. The $250 translates to 5% back meaning you can earn up to 7% back in those first three months. The key factors however in this offer versus the old offer that just ended yesterday is that you have to spend $5,000 (albeit any spending, not just bonused categories) instead of earning 4% on the three categories of your choice and 0.5% on all other spending. So now we see a minimum spend requirement and a cap all in one. That being said this is a pretty decent sign up bonus and if you can spend $1667 on your card each month for three months, especially in the accelerated categories you choose then you may want to consider one of these two cards.

These are the spending categories you can choose from to earn the higher cash back rates:

Once, one of the best cash back cards out there the current version of the Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card is now somewhere in the middle of the pack for cash back cards (same with the new World version) but the earn of 7% (and then 2%) on certain categories might just make the best sense for some of you!! 

The card details below show the latest offers on this card and may not be representative of the discussion above:

January 31 Update: New transborder lounge coming to YUL late this year, Air Canada & other airlines cancel more flights to China, PC Optimum redemption event this weekend

After I published the 2020 update for Rewards Canada's Guide to Business Class Lounge Access, Ron S. asked in the comments section of that feature if there is any word on Montreal (YUL) airport opening any lounges in the domestic or transborder areas other than the Maple Leaf lounge. We reached out the ADMTL and the good news is there are plans for a new lounge in the transborder area however they do not have room for a lounge for domestic departures.

We are looking to have our own lounge open in the transborder jetty by November or December 2020. Presently, we do not have any space to open a lounge in the domestic jetty because of the works. If a space becomes available, we will likely open a lounge in the domestic jetty.

As you can see the new transborder lounge is slated to open in November or December of this year. There is no mention of who will operate it for ADMTL and no word yet on access options although one could imagine Priority Pass and LoungeKey are front runners. I will follow up with them to see if they can provide more details on lounge access and who will operate the lounge. Visit our updated Lounge Access feature here.

Image via ADMTL

In our last daily update post from Wednesday we had passed along the news that Air Canada had cancelled some flights to China - well as of yesterday it was updated to all Air Canada flights to China now being cancelled until February 29 however Taipei and Hong Kong do not fall under that. This is the case for many carriers flying to China like British Airways, Air France, KLM and American Airlines who have cancelled some or all of their flights. If you have flights booked for the upcoming be sure to check with your airline about alternate options or to change those flights as the airlines are offering free changes. The Government of Canada issues a non-essential travel avoidance advisory for China on the 29th and it was further updated yesterday. You can read those details here.

PC Optimum is running another redemption bonus event this weekend for shopping at Shoppers Drug Mart. If you redeem 50,000 points towards your purchase you'll receive $65 off instead of the standard $50, redeem 100,000 for $140 off instead of $100 or redeem 200,000 to get $300 off instead of $200. Find out more here. 

 Image via PC Optimum

Posts since our last update:

• January 29 Update: How to maximize the elite status benefits from The Platinum Card from American Express updated, great Marriott bonus in the Bahamas, BA and AC China flight cancellations
  Another feature update to let you know about. How to maximize the elite status benefits from The Platinum Card…

Travel Deals

Choice Hotels Pop Up Sale - Save 20% off the Best Available Rate at participating hotels within Canada when paying in advance. Book by Feb 9 for stays until Apr 30, 2020. 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
- Triple Mileage Plan Miles on all rentals of three days or longer at any Thrifty location Worldwide. More... Until Dec 31, 20

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- Earn up to Quadruple Asia Miles when you rent with Hertz for 3 or more days in Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, New Zealand and the USA. More... Book by Feb 29 for rentals until Mar 31, 20

Preferred Hotel Group iPrefer
- 8,000 Bonus iPrefer Points when you Book a Stay More, Save More package at participating Preferred Hotel Group hotels Worldwide  More... Until Feb 29, 20

Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus
- Triple ROP Miles for stays at participating World Hotels Worldwide. More... Until Mar 31, 20





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January 29 Update: How to maximize the elite status benefits from The Platinum Card from American Express updated, great Marriott bonus in the Bahamas, BA and AC China flight cancellations

Another feature update to let you know about. How to maximize the elite status benefits from The Platinum Card from American Express has been updated and now shows you how you can get 11 hotel elite status, 1 airline status, 2 car rental status and 1 cruise line status with The Platinum Card. My tweet yesterday stated 10 hotel statuses but after posting about the Choice Hotels sale earlier today I went back to check the Choice status match and they have removed the stay requirement that they added last year so I have further updated the feature to reflect this. Check out the feature here.

Over on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com I highlight a pretty amazing Marriott Bonvoy bonus points offer. You can earn 25,000 Bonus Points for stays of 2 or more nights at the French Leave Resort, Autograph Collection, Governor’s Harbour, Eleuthera. The special rate for earning the bonus points is the same as the member only rate - there is no extra charge from them. If you only stay 2 nights that means you'd earn 12,500 bonus points per night! Find out more here.

British Airways has cancelled all flights to mainland China (Beijing and Shanghai) until January 31 in light of the Corona Virus outbreak. Flights to Hong Kong are not affected at this time. Find out more here.

Air Canada is also cancelling some flights to China over the next few weeks to better meet the lack of demand for the flights. If you are booked to fly to China on Air Canada be sure to double check your reservations! Find out more here.

Posts since our last update:

• 25% discount when you buy World of Hyatt points until February 29
  Hyatt has come out with their first buy points deal of 2020 . When you buy 5,000 or more…
• Choice Hotels Pop-up Sale - Save 20% on stays at their Canadian properties
  Choice Hotels has released a new sale for stays at their various hotel brands in Canada. Dubbed the Pop-up…
• January 28 Update: RBC Rewards launches new website, more Marriott Bonvoy stay bonuses in Canada and the Top Travel Rewards Credit Cards for 2020
  RBC Rewards has launched their new website that has been promoted recently on the old version of the site!…

Travel Deals

Choice Hotels Pop Up Sale - Save 20% off the Best Available Rate at participating hotels within Canada when paying in advance. Book by Feb 9 for stays until Apr 30, 2020. 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
- 4,000 bonus Bonvoy points PER NIGHT for stays at the Delta Hotels Kamloops. More... Until Mar 6, 20
- 2,500 bonus Bonvoy points for stays at the Courtyard or Residence Inn Halifax Dartmouth. More... Until Feb 22, 20

Other Bonus Offers

China Airlines Dynasty Flyer
- Earn up to 4x Dynasty Flyer Miles when you rent a car at participating Hertz locations for 3 or more days in the USA, Asia, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. More... Book by Feb 29 for rentals until Mar 31, 20

Marriott Bonvoy
- 25,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points for stays of 2 or more nights at the French Leave Resort, Autograph Collection Governor's Harbour Eleuthera.  More... Mar 28 - Jun 20, 20
20
- Earn 2,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points PER NIGHT for stays at the W Ibiza More... . Apr 9 - Jul 2, 20
- 2,500 Bonus Bonvoy points plus a $50 food and beverages credit for stays at the Grand Cayman Marriott Beach Resort. More... Book by Feb 7 for stays until Mar 29,20

National Emerald Club
- Receive an automatic upgrade to Executive Elite status for having an American Express card. More... Until Feb 29, 20

Philippine Airlines Mabuhay
- Earn up to Quadruple Mabuhay Miles when you rent with Avis for 3 or more days in in the USA (excluding all locations in Alaska), Canada, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico. More... Book by Feb 29 for rentals until Mar 31, 20



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25% discount when you buy World of Hyatt points until February 29

Hyatt has come out with their first buy points deal of 2020 . When you buy 5,000 or more points in one transaction they will give a 25% discount on the price. This is different than the typical 40% bonus we have become accustomed to with Hyatt.  With the discount the price works out to 1.8 cents (US) per points. Slightly higher than the 1.714 cents per point (US$) when it is a 40% bonus. Still this is a pretty good price to buy points especially if need some right away.  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 so if you take advantage of this now at the full amount of points you won’t be able to buy any later on this year.

Offer details
25% Discount when you buy 5,000 or more World of Hyatt Points in one transaction.   Buy World of Hyatt Points here. Until Feb 29, 20

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

• 3,000 Bonus World of Hyatt Points per paid stay at over 300 destinations from Small Luxury Hotels of the World. Register online (Registration is required)
• 2,000 Bonus World of Hyatt Points for stays at participating Hyatt Hotels Worldwide. Full details and online booking. 
  Targeted for Google Employees but it may work for anyone (YMMV)

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

Choice Hotels Pop-up Sale - Save 20% on stays at their Canadian properties

Choice Hotels has released a new sale for stays at their various hotel brands in Canada. Dubbed the Pop-up Sale, you can save 20% on the best available rates if you book by February 9 and prepay your stay. The sale rates are good for stays until April 30, 2020. Since these are prepaid rates you'll only want to take advantage of the sale if you know your travel dates are set in stone since you cannot cancel your reservation.

As a reminder there are no physical Choice Hotels - it's the parent name of all these brands to choose from:

Here's an example of the savings it can provide:

This is in fact not much less than the prepaid member rate (also non-refundable) but at least you'd save a couple more dollars:

Pop-up Sale rate

Prepaid member rate

Click here to learn more or to book this sale.

Remember as well if you hold elite status with a different hotel chain Choice Hotels will match that status. Learn all about Choice Privieges' Status Match here

January 28 Update: RBC Rewards launches new website, more Marriott Bonvoy stay bonuses in Canada and the Top Travel Rewards Credit Cards for 2020

RBC Rewards has launched their new website that has been promoted recently on the old version of the site! It is easier to navigate with the fresh new look and they promise to have more promotions and offers with this launch. Most of the site is working although I did get the occasional error. The first thing I did with the new site however was to check the Avion Air Travel Redemption chart to make sure a change wasn't snuck in in the revamp (programs tend to like to do that) and I am happy to report no changes in the reward chart at this time. All points rates and max dollar values remain the same. Check out the new site here.

Avion Air Travel Redemption schedule remains the same

Still having some issues

It also appears that certain promotions will not show up for anyone who visits the site without signing in:

And only having the WestJet RBC World Mastercard means I can't log in to the site

Above images via RBC

Yesterday we posted about eight new Marriott bonus point offers here in Canada - well we've come across two more:

Halifax
2,500 bonus Bonvoy points PER NIGHT for stays at the Courtyard or Residence Inn Halifax Dartmouth. Full details & online booking Until Feb 22, 20

Kamloops
4,000 bonus Bonvoy points PER NIGHT for up to two nights at the Delta Hotels Kamloops. Full details & online booking Until Mar 6, 20

Above image via Marriott

And if you missed it somehow - we released our 12th annual Canada's Top Travel Rewards Credit Cards today! Check them out here

Posts since our last update:

• 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…
• 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…
• 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…
• 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…
• 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…

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

N/A

Other Bonus Offers

Air New Zealand Airpoints
- Triple Airpoints Dollars for stays at Cordis Hotels in China, Hong Kong and Auckland. More... Book by Feb 16 for stays until Mar 31, 20

Best Western Rewards
- Double Rewards Points or Airline Miles for stays Friday thru Sundays at the Best Western Eurostop Orebro. More... Until Mar 31, 20
- Double Rewards Points or Airline Miles for stays at the Best Western Plus Hawthorne Terrace Hotel Chicago. More... Until Mar 5, 20
- Double Rewards Points or Airline Miles for stays of 2 or more nights at the Surestay Plus Hotel By Best Western Albuquerque I40 Eubanks. More... Until Feb 29, 20

Sonesta Hotels Travel Pass
- Double Travel Pass Points per stay at the The Clift Royal Sonesta Hotel San Francisco. More... Book by Mar 1 for stays until Aug 31, 20
- Double Travel Pass Points per stay at the Sonesta Fort Lauderdale Beach. More... Book by Mar 15 for stays until Mar 31, 20
- 500 Bonus Travel Pass Points per night for stays of 2+ nights Sunday-Thursday at the Royal Sonesta New Orleans. More... Until Dec 29, 20
- Double Travel Pass Points for stays of 14+ nights at the Sonesta ES Suites Andover Boston or the Sonesta ES Suites Auburn Hills. More... Until Mar 31, 20
- Double Travel Pass Points for stays of 14+ nights at the Sonesta ES Suites Oklahoma City More... Until Mar 31, 20
- Double Travel Pass Points for stays of 14+ nights at the Sonesta ES Suites Malvern Valley Forge More... Until Mar 31, 20
- Double Travel Pass Points for stays of 14+ nights at the Sonesta ES Suites Houston Galleria. More... Until Mar 31, 20

Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus
- Earn up to Triple ROP Miles + 600 bonus miles on Hertz rentals of 3 or more days in USA, Canada, Europe*, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. More... Book by Feb 29 for rentals until Mar 31, 20

World of Hyatt
- 500 Bonus World of Hyatt points for stays at the Hyatt Place Changchun Jingyue. More... Jan 31 - Apr 29, 20
- 500 Bonus World of Hyatt points for stays at the Hyatt Regency Manchester or the Hyatt House Manchester. More... Until Apr 29, 20
- 500 Bonus World of Hyatt points for stays at the Hyatt Centric 39th & 5th New York More... Feb 18 - May 30, 20
- 500 Bonus World of Hyatt points for stays at the Hyatt Place Amarillo - West. More... Jan 31 - Apr 29, 20
- 500 Bonus World of Hyatt points for stays at the Hyatt Centric Old Town Alexandria More... Jan 31 - Apr 29, 20



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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