Shifting your loyalty program strategy to help during these trying and tough financial times

What a world we live in right now! As my wife told our daughters, what is happening right now will be in their kids' text books and taught at schools in the future just as they learn about the Plague in the current curriculum. History is in the making right now and unfortunately it's not the best history. Countries including Canada are essentially shutting down and that means tough financial times for many. Even with the Government of Canada's announcement yesterday of financial help that will be available to many Canadians it will more than likely not be enough for some people. So what can Canadians do to help stretch their dollars during these trying times? One way is to shift your loyalty program strategy.

For many of us, especially the Rewards Canada community our loyalty program strategy revolves around travel. Travel is pretty much done for now - for some of us, even though we won't be travelling we can take this time to just boost our travel reward program balances in preparation for the re-opening of the world. However that's only a small portion of our population - for most we will have to think of how can we can save a dollar here and stretch a dollar there. We'll have to watch discretionary spending and tighten our budgets. This is where shifting your loyalty strategy can help. For the short term you may want to look at a shift from travel to cash, cash equivalents like gift cards or even merchandise - yes merchandise. I know, merchandise are some of the worst value redemptions out there but if your toaster at home breaks and you need to conserve cash then yes you should look at using points or miles to get yourself a new toaster.

I have always said that loyalty programs should be considered part of your financial portfolio and that has never been more true than now. Put travel on the back burner in your financial portfolio if you believe you are going to find yourself in financial hardship over the next few months. As I already mentioned, shift it to rewards that can help you out right now and provide miles & points liquidity.

First a warning about cash back credit cards

I am seeing people on forums and blogs talking about shifting to cash back credit cards, we even had credit card companies email us saying maybe the focus should shift onto cash back cards. That's all and good however if we talk about liquidity the truth is most cash back cards aren't as a liquid as you think. That's why we started this education in shifting your strategy earlier in the week with our post "In light of what's going on in the world should you shift to a cash back credit card instead of a travel card? Why not a card that has both?" In that post we looked at some of Canada's best travel rewards credit cards and how the aren't only beneficial for travel rewards but were very strong for cash back. And without going into all the details in that post the main reason why those cards are so good is because they have quick or almost instant access to cash. Don't be fooled by true cash back cards as most of them only allow you to cash out once per year: September for some, November for others, January and so on. That means you don't get to use that cash whenever you need it, whether it is tomorrow, next month or even possibly 6 months from now. There are some exceptions to that rule for cash back cards but there aren't very many. I recommend you read that article after this one!

Recommended reading: Rewards Canada's Guide to Credit Card Cash Back Liquidity

Using Loyalty Programs to help your finances

Now let's move into how you can use your loyalty program to help ease the financial burden that many of us will feel over the next few months:

Aeroplan

Aeroplan has an option to redeem miles for a lot of different gift cards from many vendors. Here are four that are the most useful and most 'cash equivalent':

As you can see you only need as little 7,000 miles to get an Amazon.ca gift card,11,500 miles for a $75 Visa prepaid card or 13,500 miles for a Costco Shop card. All very useful right now although I know points and miles maximizers are cringing right now with the mention of redeeming for gift cards as there is so much more value in Aeroplan miles when redeeming for travel. Times are different right now and it's good to know you are not stuck with Aeroplan miles. If you find yourself in need then do not hesitate to redeem for a gift card. If you are sitting on a decent balance of miles you can even ask yourself how many you'd be willing to use right now for gift cards and how many to save for future travel. For example, if you have 150,000 Aeroplan Miles in your account, you can budget yourself 50% of that balance to redeem right now for gift cards.

To redeem for gift cards or merchandise with Aeroplan simply go to Aeroplan.com, login to your account and click on 'Get Merchandise'

If you want or need to quickly boost your Aeroplan balance you could consider applying for the CIBC Aerogold Visa Infinite card as it provides you with 20,000 Aeroplan miles when you make your first purchase - and the first year annual fee is rebated. This means for as little as one dollar you can get those 20,000 Aeroplan miles to use towards some of these gift cards. Then it is up to you if choose to keep the card or cancel it before your one year is up.You can also look at the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card - it has a bonus of up to 30,000 Aeroplan miles until May 31 and is not available to residents of Quebec (Quebec residents click here). 15,000 on first purchase and 15,000 more that is awarded as 5,000 miles per month when you spend $1,000 per month on the card for the first three months. And the first year annual fee is rebated on both the primary and first additional card.

AIR MILES

AIR MILES has several options that help make your Reward Miles more liquid and it really comes down to their Dream Miles and Cash Miles option.  Right now would be a good time to move the slider to 100% Cash Miles in the AIR MILES program to help you weather the storm.

The reason you will want to do this is that Cash Miles can be redeemed for right at the till when you are paying for groceries or other items at select AIR MILES sponsors.

You only need 95 AIR MILES Reward Miles in your Cash Miles account to redeem and those 95 miles will give $10 off your purchase. You can redeem for up to $750 a day if you have enough miles to do so.

Here are just a select few of the sponsors you can redeem Cash Miles at right at the till:

To set your account to Cash Miles go to the airmiles.ca website and log in to your account. Once logged in simply click or hover over "Get Miles' and you'll see at the bottom of that menu item the option to "Set your preference"

Once there you'll have the slider option that we show further above.  Also within the Cash Miles option is the ability to redeem for eVouchers that you can use for places likes Starbucks and Pizza Pizza.

If you are just making the switch to Cash Miles chances are you have Dream Miles balance.  There aren't any real cash equivalent rewards in the Dream Miles catalogue of rewards but they do have merchandise. This is where we come back to that example of needing a new toaster - rather than affecting your cash flow by going out to buy one:

There is one caveat with merchandise rewards however and that is delivery time. When you redeem miles for merchandise it can take up to 4 weeks to receive the product.

If you want to boost your AIR MILES balance there are a couple of credit card options to look at with cards that have no annual fees. The BMO AIR MILES World Elite Mastercard is offering up to 3,000 AIR MILES and a first year annual fee waiver. The bonus is split however, 1,000 miles on first purchase and 2,000 more miles when spend $3,000 or more in the first three months. Those 3,000 AIR MILES are worth $315 as Cash Miles. The other option if you don't meet the income requirements for the World Elite Card or know you can't spend $3,000 is the BMO AIR MILES Mastercard. It offers up to 800 AIR MILES (400 upon first purchase and 400 if you spend $1,000 in the first three months) and those miles would be worth $80 in Cash Miles (well, technically $84 but you can't redeem for that amount).

BMO has other AIR MILES cards options like the Sobeys or IGA Mastercards with similar bonuses. You can find them all on our BMO page.

NOTE!! You have to make sure your AIR MILES account is set to Cash Miles otherwise the bonus earned from any new card will be deposited into your Dream Miles account!

Also be on the lookout for ways to earn even more AIR MILES. The program offers so many bonus miles opportunities such as for shopping online via airmilessshops.ca, weekly offers from Safeway, Sobeys, IGA, Rexall and more and take advantage of them to boost your balance so that you can redeem those Cash Miles even faster. Here are some examples of the offers I received this week:

American Express Membership Rewards

UPDATE:

Limited Time Offer: Increased value in American Express Use Points for Purchases (1,000 points = up to $20!)

Of all the currencies I would say American Express Membership Rewards are the most liquid. The reason why is that you only need 1,000 points to start redeeming for cash. I'm not going to go into huge detail here about the number one loyalty currency in Canada as we go into more detail in our post "In light of what's going on in the world should you shift to a cash back credit card instead of a travel card? Why not a card that has both?" but will just reiterate the key points. American Express Membership Rewards points can be redeemed at a rate of 1,000 points for $7 towards almost any eligible purchase made on your card. It can be gas, cable bills, groceries - you name it. Simply log in to your account and navigate your way to Use Points for Purchases and use the slider to pick the purchase you want to redeem points for. I haven't tried it but it does appear that you can even redeem less than 1,000 points based on the slider! This makes the points even more fluid!

Now, there aren't any American Express cards that have no annual fee or first year free waivers right now however if cash flow is a concern I would recommend the and only best card in Canada, the American Express Cobalt Card. It's annual fee is actually charged monthly - you pay $10 per month so you won't be hit with that $120 fee seen on many cards right off the bat. Add to that it earns 5x points on eats and drinks (grocery, dining, food delivery like Skip the Dishes, Instacart and more) which is the primary category people are spending at right now. Since the card's fee is charged monthly this also means the welcome bonus is awarded monthly for the first year. The card offers 2,500 points when you spend $500 or more on the card each month for the first 12 months.

BMO Rewards

BMO has a nice and easy Pay with Points option. You simply redeem 15,000 points for a $50 statement credit. This works with any card that earns BMO Rewards points.

They also have a gift card redemption option, many of which provide more value than the above Pay with Points option. Here are some examples:

As you can see you only have to spend 10,500 points for a $50 Sobeys card - compare this to the 15,000 for a $50 statement credit. And it gets even slightly better when redeeming for $100 gift card options at 20,300 points.

For BMO there are two card options to consider right now. The BMO World Elite Mastercard is offering 35,000 points and the $150 annual fee waived in the first year however to get the points you have to spend $3,000 within the first three months but then as you can see from above you can get $250 in gift card value and have some points leftover. The other option is the BMO Rewards Mastercard which has no annual fee and offers 20,000 bonus points - 10,000 on first purchase and 10,000 when you spend $1,000 in the first three months. Since you have to meet that spending you can easily get to the 20,300 points required for a $100 gift card.

CIBC Rewards

CIBC lets you use your CIBC Rewards points with their Shop with Points or Payment with Points options.  The latter lets you redeem a minimum 4,000 points for a $25 statement credit.

CIBC Rewards also has a lot of gift options as rewards. Card amounts vary but you can redeem as little as 3,500 points for $25 Tim Horton's card, 7,000 points for $50 card from Walmart and President's Choice to a $500 Costco card for 70,000 points.

To redeem simply log in to your account on cibcrewards.com and select the appropriate option. Right now CIBC are running several first annual fee rebates on their Aventura cards which are the primary cards for earning CIBC Rewards points. You can find all the current offers on our CIBC page.

Marriott Bonvoy

You have a couple of options with Marriott Bonvoy points. You can convert them to Aeroplan miles at a rate of 3 points to 1 mile and if you convert 60,000 points at one time they'll throw in additional 5,000 miles and then you can choose to use those for gift cards if you like. However you can use your Marriott Bonvoy points to redeem for gift cards directly through the program. Here are just some examples of what you can get with your Marriott points:

Simply log in to your Marriott Bonvoy account, hover over Use Points / Certificates and click on shopping. Then click on Shop Now button as shown below:

You'll now be on Marriott's shopping with points site. Chances are it will default to the U.S. site so simply click on Change Shipping Country on the top and search for Canada.

More Rewards

More Rewards allows you to redeem points for select items when you shop at their grocery stores, namely Save-On Foods, PriceSmart or Urban Fare. You can even redeem points for online orders for delivery or pick up from those stores. Here's an example of an offer:

You can also redeem More Rewards points for gift cards but they don't have too many options for stores or merchants that fit the category of 'need' rather than 'want'. Perhaps Panago Pizza might be of interest:

PC Optimum

We here at Rewards Canada have knocked PC Optimum in the past - sure it is a great program but it has a lot of limitations in our mind but with the current situation in Canada it jumps up the ranks to be one of the better options out there. PC Optimum is essentially a cash back program for Loblaws family of stores and Shoppers Drug Mart. They have lots of earning opportunities and when it comes to redeem it isn't any simpler than redeeming in 10,000 point increments and you get $10 off your purchase at any of their stores for each of those 10,000 points. They have lots of 20x points offers at Shoppers to keep an eye out for and when shopping at Loblaws store make sure you have your account set to receive offers as that's how you earn points at their groceries:

Their PC Financial credit cards are easy to use and while they don't have any welcome bonus offers on them at the moment that are all with no annual fees so you could grab one right now to start building those PC Optimum points to redeem for groceries and other necessary items from their stores. These are the card options and their earn rates:

RBC Rewards

Much like BMO and CIBC, RBC offers a method to pay down your balance with RBC Rewards Points. Called Pay Credit Card with Points it allows cardholders to redeem 4,300 points for a $25 statement credit, 8,600 for $50 and so on.

You can also redeem your RBC Rewards points for gift cards. I don't have access to log in and check out what they offer in terms of merchants but if I recall correctly the redemption rates vary but you are looking around 12,000 to 14,000 points for a $100 gift card.

And RBC is running a great offer on their RBC Visa Infinite Avion card until the end of March. You can get 35,000 points upon approval with the card - absolutely no purchase necessary but you do have to pay the $120 annual fee. However the 35,000 points could get you around $300 worth of gift cards so you would come out $180 ahead and about $80 ahead if you use the option to pay down your balance.

Scotia Rewards

Scotia Rewards also got a lot of focus in our post "In light of what's going on in the world should you shift to a cash back credit card instead of a travel card? Why not a card that has both?" so I will just reiterate the key points. You can redeem Scotia Rewards points to for a statement credit as follows. You'll notice two different amounts as unfortunately Scotia is raising some of their higher end points requirements on May 4. UPDATE: Scotia has now announced that they will delay these changes.

 Same things goes for their gift card options:

So if you are planning to use Scotia Rewards points to help bridge the gap in your finances I would recommend doing so before May 4, at least for the rates that are changing so that you can get the best value out of them.

Conclusion

There you have it! That's our look at how you can shift your loyalty strategy from travel to cash to help you in these unprecedented times. There are even more programs out there that provide with the option of cash back or cash back equivalents like Desjardin, Triangle, Vancity, various credit unions and more. However this post is already longer than I expected so hopefully you can take away the gist of it - you can shift your loyalty program strategy to help you out financially if you need. That's key - if you don't need it right now, sit and wait until you may need the option except in the case of Scotia Rewards. I would also stick with my recommendation of moving AIR MILES to Cash Miles right now whether or not you need to just so you can build that balance up. The rest of the programs you can just hold on to them if you aren't in a position where you need the help financially.

Recommended reading:  Rewards Canada's COVID-19 Resources

Title image courtesy of stevepb/pixabay

Air Canada to suspend most U.S. and International flights and reduce flights within Canada

Air Canada announced this evening that they are going to gradually suspend most of their U.S. and International flights by March 31 and offer a reduced domestic schedule for April. They will continue to fly a small amount of select cities outside of  Canada from April 1st to 30th and potentially beyond that:

"Air Canada intends to continue to operate a limited number of international "air bridges" between one or more of its Canadian hubs and the cities of London, Paris, Frankfurt, Delhi, Tokyo and Hong Kong from April 1 until at least April 30. This will reduce its international network from 101 airports to six.

As to U.S. transborder services, given the decision by the U.S. and Canadian governments today, from April 1, Air Canada will reduce its transborder network from 53 airports to 13, subject to further reductions based on demand or government edicts. The cities with continued service will be: New York (LGA and EWR), Boston, Washington, D.C. (IAD and DCA), Chicago, Houston, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale."

Meanwhile, Domestically this is what Air Canada plans:

"reducing its domestic network from 62 airports to 40 through a reduced network during the period April 1 to 30, subject to further reductions based on demand or government edict."

If there is good news to take away from this is that flights aren't going to stop completely. Air Canada will be providing essential flights to bring Canadians home and also to repatriate those visiting Canada back to their home countries.

This news has been added to our COVID-19 Resource Page 

Image via Air Canada

March 18 Update: Instacart now coding properly for 5x points with Amex Cobalt Card, Centurion Lounges shutting down temporarily & 2x RBC Rewards points when converting Hudson's Bay Rewards points

Remember to visit and bookmark our COVID-19 resource page where we are keeping you up to date with all the latest airline, hotel, lounges and loyalty program news, policies, closures and more.

And on the note of closures it has been announced that all American Express Centurion lounges worldwide will shut down temporarily as of March 21. So if you are still trying to make your way back to Canada and its after that date you can count on not accessing those lounges. (HT One Mile at a Time)

Rewards Canada reader Titaniumtux let us know that American Express has fixed the coding for Instacart, the grocery delivery service. No longer is it coding as 1x but now it is 5x points! The timing couldn't be better seeing that is really the only thing most people will be buying right now. Check out our confirmed Cobalt multipliers page right here.

Image via Instacart

Rewards Canada reader Amy let us know that RBC makes you wait 90 days between applications for any of their credit cards - that puts a wrench into our post on How to score 700 WestJet dollars for 240, not that people are really interested in travel rewards in the short term but still many of us will go to a hoarding stance until things return to normal so you may still want to take a look at this offer as there are very good chance one or both of the cards in the article will have their offers extended past March 31.

Now to some bonus offers and I'll reiterate what I stated on our global bonus offers site FrequentFlyerBonuses.com and I'll do the same thing here on Rewards Canada. I'm not going to post any short term offers unless they make sense to like More Rewards Pile on the Points promotion. All offers I'll post will be more forward looking beyond mid-April when hopefully things start to return to normal here in Canada and globally. Here is what I have been posting on FFB:

In light of global events and a major slow down it travel we here at FFB will continue with our mission of delivering frequent traveller promotions to our audience but with some limitations. We will not be posting offers that end in the short term – that is for March and the first half of April. We will post offers that go beyond that or if it is a short term one, it will be one that doesn’t require travel such as free points for some sort of non-travel action, elite status matches or other promotions like that.
 

Japan Airlines Mileage Bank has a 10% bonus for transferring Marriott Bonvoy points until May 10. Learn more about that bonus here. Marriott Bonvoy points convert to JAL Mileage Bank miles at a 3:1 ratio and Marriott kicks in an additional 5,000 miles when you convert 60,000 points at once. That means 60,000 Bonvoy Points will get you 25,000 Mileage Bank Miles and this promotion will give you an additional 2,500 miles on top of that for a total of 27,500 miles per 60,000 points. Learn more about converting Marriott Points to Airline Miles here.

These are really the promotions to watch out for right now since travel is almost non-existent.  JAL has some reward chart sweet spots in their program including the ability to ‘renew’ status for only 5,000 miles when you are part of JAL’s Global Club. A promotion like this will let you start getting ready for those future redemptions when the world returns to normal.

Image via JAL

RBC Rewards is offering 2x points when you choose to auto-convert Hudson’s Bay Rewards points until April 20. Now Hudson's Bay has closed all their stores but you should be able to set auto-convert on existing balances and you can still shop online with Hudson’s Bay and earn Hudson’s Bay Rewards points. Beauty of this is that you can go through an online shopping portal like Rakuten, Aeroplan eStore or airmilesshops.ca to earn in those programs, then earn the Hudson’s Bay Rewards points from the Hudson’s Bay purchase and then of course this RBC bonus! Find out more here!

Image via RBC

Posts since our last update:

• Air Transat to gradually suspend all flights
  Porter Airlines isn't the only Canadian airline announcing a suspension of flights today. Air Transat also released news today…
• Porter Airlines to suspend all operations from March 20 to May 31
  Porter Airlines announced this morning that they will be temporarily suspending all operations from Friday March 20 to May…
• Scotiabank raising points requirements for some non-travel redemptions including Points for Credit on May 4
  Of course only a few days after we put up our post "In light of what's going on in…
• Rewards Canada's COVID-19 Resources Page
  While we have been posting a lot of details on airline and hotel policies, news and more on the…
• More Rewards Pile up the Points - Earn up to 20,000 bonus points for collecting at multiple partners until April 8
  More Rewards big promotion called Pile up the Points has returned until April 8. Last seen in August of…
• AIR MILES Mega Miles was set to launch this week but has now been postponed
  The ever popular AIR MILES Mega Miles event was slated to start tomorrow but it has now been postponed…
• WestJet suspends all transborder and international flights as of March 22 for 30 days
  Late last night WestJet announced they will suspend all transborder and international flights as of 11:59pm MT on March…
• In light of what's going on in the world should you shift to a cash back credit card instead of a travel card? Why not a card that has both?
  Over the weekend some much happened here in Canada and while lots of travel was shutting it seems so…
• Canada closing borders to most non-residents and international flights limited to four airports
  Prime Minister Trudeau announced this afternoon that Canada is closing its borders to most non-residents of Canada. Canadian citizens and…
• Marriott Hotels now waiving change & cancellation fees as well
  Marriott is also following in the same footsteps of many airlines and hotel chains and have now updated their…
• Hyatt Hotels now waiving change & cancellation fees for stays in March & April and postponing World of Hyatt changes
  I've been meaning to write about Hyatt's policy that they came out with at the start of the week…
• Air Canada Signature Suite in Vancouver set to open on March 14
  Last night Air Canada gave a sneak peek of its brand new Signature Suite in Vancouver to the media…
• No fee changes and cancellation to be allowed for travel booked with AIR MILES Reward Miles
  If you follow Rewards Canada on Twitter you would have seen our tweet detailing AIR MILES new change policy for…
• TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go Elite Status Match offer + other anniversary offers
  Earlier this month TAP Air Portugal released a bunch of offers to celebrate the airline’s anniversary. We’ve had those…
• March 12 Update: Aeroplan to allow changes or cancel for full refund for March/April travel, Earn 5x CIBC Rewards Points for Air Transat Europe flights & a Hertz Elite Status Match offer
  As of yesterday Aeroplan's Coronavirus policy was set in line with Air Canada's. If you have Aeroplan flights booked…

Canadian Bonus Offers

Air Canada Aeroplan
- Triple Aeroplan Miles when you stay at Coast Hotels in Canada and the U.S.. More... Apr 13 - Jun 30, 20

Other Bonus Offers

ALL Accor Live Limitless
- 2,000 bonus Rewards points when you complete two stays at participating Accor Hotels Worldwide. More... Register and book by May 4 for stays until Sep 30, 20

Choice Privileges
- 13,000 Bonus Privileges Points when you book 5 nights or more at a vacation rental on ChoiceVacationRentals.com. More... Book by May 31, 20 for stays until Dec 31, 21

JAL Mileage Bank
- 10% Bonus Mileage Bank Miles when you convert Marriott Bonvoy Points to JAL Mileage Bank Miles. More... Until May 10, 20

Marriott Bonvoy
- Earn up to 5,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points for stays at more than 30 Marriott hotels in the Dallas area. More... Apr 1 – Jun 24, 20

World of Hyatt
- Instant World of Hyatt Explorist status and fast track to keep that Explorist or reach Globalist status. More... Register by Nov 16, 20




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Air Transat to gradually suspend all flights

Porter Airlines isn't the only Canadian airline announcing a suspension of flights today. Air Transat also released news today that they are going to gradually suspend all flights with most if not all flights ending in about two weeks. They have also halted sales on most flights to/from European, Mexico, Caribbean and U.S. destinations for departures until April 30.

"Sales for departures until April 30 are suspended immediately from and to most destinations in Europe and the United States. Repatriation flights will still be operated during the next two weeks, in order to bring Transat customers back to their home country. So as to allow as many repatriations as possible, sales will, however, remain temporarily open in both directions between Montreal and Paris and Lisbon and between Toronto and London and Lisbon. A date for a full halt to operations will be announced soon.

Sales are also halted immediately from and to the Caribbean and Mexico. Again, flights will continue for a few more days in order to repatriate Transat customers to Canada. Transat is advising its Canadian customers who were scheduled to depart in the coming days to heed the government's recommendations and postpone their departure.

For domestic flights, clients are encouraged to check that their flight is maintained on the website.
Transat customers who are currently at destinations are asked to check the company's website, where necessary information for the organization of their return will be made available. There will be no booking fee and passengers will not have to pay any price difference. It is of the utmost importance to Transat to bring everyone back.

All customers who were unable to travel because their flight is cancelled will receive a credit for future travel, to be used within 24 months of their original travel date."

Remember as well that if an airline cancels a flight you can be entitled to a full refund so you can also ask for that instead of a credit for future travel although this kudos to Air Transat for putting out one of the longest credit periods out there that we have seen yet at 24 months.

Learn more about Transat's announcement here

We have updated our COVID-19 Resources page with these details as well.

Image via Air Transat

Porter Airlines to suspend all operations from March 20 to May 31

Porter Airlines announced this morning that they will be temporarily suspending all operations from Friday March 20 to May 31 and will resume flights on June 1.

Here are the details as provided by Porter's CEO Michael Deluce:

"The speed of developments related to COVID-19 is shocking. It is having an unprecedented impact around the globe on businesses, economies and people. 

Porter supports the efforts of the Canadian, U.S. and global authorities in their responses. Government actions make it apparent that restricting activities by people in all communities is what’s required to keep everyone healthy, and ultimately to end this fast-spreading pandemic. 

As a result, we are doing our part by temporarily suspending flights at the conclusion of the operating day on Friday, March 20. We will resume service on June 1. This time period allows the COVID-19 public health crisis to diminish and then time for us to effectively restart operations. 

We intend to operate a schedule through Friday, to ensure all customers have an opportunity to complete trips or make last-minute travel arrangements. This will occur as long as aviation and public health infrastructure allows us to do so safely. 

To assist our passengers in returning home on short notice, we’ve waived change and cancellation fees for all our flights. Changes and cancellations can be made online. If you have an upcoming flight booked with us during our temporary suspension, we will email you or your travel agent with information specific to your reservation. It isn’t necessary to contact us at this time while we assist passengers with travel requirements between now and Friday."

If you have a flight booked between those dates you should be able to get a full refund should you not want to re-book your travel for a later date.

You can learn more about this new development here. 

Image via Porter Airlines

We have updated our COVID-19 Resources page with these details as well.

Scotiabank raising points requirements for some non-travel redemptions including Points for Credit on May 4

Of course only a few days after we put up our post "In light of what's going on in the world should you shift to a cash back credit card instead of a travel card? Why not a card that has both?" we come to find Scotia Rewards is changing many of their Pay for Credit rates (aka cash back rate), Gift Card rates and Apple/Best Buy Catalog redemption rates. Guess this change was announced back in January and we missed it and Scotia didn't let us know either.

In our piece from earlier this we really focused on the Pay with Points option that many travel rewards and proprietary credit card programs provide as a great stop-gap redemption item in the new world we live in right now. This is where you get to redeem points against almost any purchase you make with a card but still have the choice to redeem for travel or other options. And in our piece we touted that Scotia Rewards was a really good option for paying down your credit card balance to help with your finances and that got devalued - well as of May 4th it does.

These are the old and new Points for Credit rates:

As you can see on the lower level, that is up to 11,000 points there are no changes. But it gets worse from there on in. The $100 redemption Pay with Points level is going up by  about 3.57%, $150 level is up about 2.38% but now the best levels of $300 and $500 are going up by a whopping 14.66% and 14.4% respectively! Those are some big jumps and they are coming at a really bad time! This changes the effective top end cash back rate for one Scotia Rewards points from 0.8 cents to just under 0.7 cents. You may say well point one of a cent isn't much but in reality reaching that $500 level now takes anywhere from $1,800 to $18,000 in more spending dependent on which Scotia credit card you have.

If we look at the top earning Scotia Rewards Card, the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card which earns as much as 5x points per dollar its top end cash back return moves from 4% to just under 3.5%. In the big picture this is still a really good cash back rate, it is essentially equivalent to the American Express Cobalt Card and makes for a good use of your points if the majority of them were earned at the 5x rate. Still it is a hard pill to swallow to lose that half a percent.

For gift cards these are the old and new rates:

As you can see here, every single gift card option is increasing in price. Surprisingly the $500 level takes less points than the $500 level in Points for Credit. You'll come with a 0.71 cents per point redemption value or just over 0.1 cents better than Points for Credit. Overall the gift card changes aren't as drastic as the Points for Credit but it still sees a 9.38% increase at the top level.

Finally if you want to redeem points for Scotia's Apple or Best Buy catalogues you are going to see those redemption rates increase by 14% from 127 points for $1 to 145 for $1.

It really sucks when redemption rates get nerfed like this and it's taking place at a really bad time in the market. Looks like Scotia may be finding the increased earn rates on their Gold American Express card and No Foreign Transaction fees on their two most popular cards are cutting into their revenues and they need to make up for it elsewhere.

As many Canadians are going to be stretching their dollars over the next few months and many are hoping to have their points help them along the way it may be time for Scotia to provide some good will and postpone these changes until late summer or early fall when (hopefully) things are back to normal in this world.

These changes affect all of the following Scotiabank credit cards:

• Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite Card 
• Scotia Gold American Express Card 
• Scotiabank Platinum American Express Card 
• Scotiabank American Express Card 
• ScotiaGold Passport VISA card
• Scotiabank Rewards Visa* Card

I'm sorry I didn't catch this back in January but hopefully by getting it to you now means that maybe you can get your redemptions in before May 4 so that you can get the most value for your points.

Rewards Canada's COVID-19 Resources Page

While we have been posting a lot of details on airline and hotel policies, news and more on the blog we thought it best to compile all the information on to one page. We have made that accessible on the main Rewards Canada site at:

https://www.rewardscanada.ca/covid19/

We are still in the process of adding more details for U.S. and International airlines as well as more hotel chains however you will find all the major Canadian airlines are up to date on the page. If you come across new information, airlines, hotels or programs we haven't covered let us know in the comments section and we'll add it as soon as possible