Thursday, June 18, 2020

Fairmont Stay Close buy 1 get 1 night offer expanded to six more hotels in Canada and the U.S.


Since our last Fairmont Stay Close update the hotel chain has added even more hotels and extended the bookings dates to some for their amazing Stay Close offer. This promotion provides every 2nd night or 2nd room free for stays at select hotels in Canada, the United States and Mexico!

Here is our previous coverage of the offers:

In the latest update we see 6 more hotels added and those are the : These hotels have had the booking period extended to June 22:
Stays must be completed by December 31, 2020

Here’s a quick look at the rates for the Fairmont Empress (September 15-17):

Just like all the other hotels this deal is exactly 50% off the daily rate and is also significantly cheaper than other special rates. The rates must be prepaid in advance however they are fully refundable as long as you cancel in advance. Some hotels show a cancellation policy of only 24 hours before so there is lots of flexibility while others have a  7 day cancellation policy which is still pretty good!

Black out dates:
Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello: September 10-13, 23; December 23-31, 2020
Fairmont Empress: Not specified
Fairmont Hotel Macdonald: Not specified
Fairmont Hotel Vancouver: Not specified
Fairmont Queen Elizabeth: Not specified
Fairmont Mirimar: Not specified

Remember that Fairmont Hotels is now part of the ALL Accor Live Limitless program so stays at Fairmont Hotels will rack up points in that program.

For more details or to book this offer you can do so via these links:
Here are the terms & conditions of the offer:
Buy one night and receive a complimentary second night during the same stay. A 1 night prepaid fully-refundable deposit is required. This promotion is subject to availability and may not be combined with any other offers, promotions or packages. For stays through December 31, 2020. Blackout dates may apply.
*You may also use your complimentary night as a second room on the same night. Should you wish to do so, please book a two night stay and then you must call the hotel directly to amend the reservation. The reservation will be amended to have two rooms in the same room category for the price of one for one night.
ALL Rewards points may not be redeemed to cover the cost of any charges associated with stays booked on the “Stay Close” offer either at time of booking or during the stay. This includes, but is not limited to charges for room rate/restaurant/in-room dining/spa/golf. Members who book through the “Stay Close” offer will receive the on-property benefits associated with their tier level at time of stay. Members will earn points at standard earn rates for room charges and all eligible spend that is charged to their room during the stay.

June 18 Update: Aeroplan extends cancellation policy to August 31 while they doled out over 5.5 billion miles during Travel at Home & how you can earn 2,800 AIR MILES for free


Aeroplan has extended their generous cancellation policy to August 31. You can book your award flights and if you need to cancel you'll receive a full refund of the miles and taxes and fees paid without any fees. This extension is great seeing that there will be an onslaught of bookings thanks to the 50% back sale Aeroplan launched yesterday! This means you can go ahead and book as many flights as you like proactively and have the peace of mind you can cancel them.  Learn more about Aeroplan's cancellation policy here.


Continuing on with Aeroplan they also supplied us with an infographic detailing the success of their Travel at Home campaign. Can you believe that over 5.5 billion miles were earned during that short time span? This is setting fear in some that it will really push a devaluation of the program when it relaunches in Q4. Only time will tell if that will be the case and seeing that more of the popular redemption options will be moving toward their market fare style rewards we may definitely see this happen. However if Air Canada keeps to their promises then some of the best redemption options that provide out-sized value shouldn't change. 



A long awaited update to our Travel Hacking 102 - Earn up to 2,800 or more AIR MILES Rewards Miles for FREE with a potential value of over $600 in travel was made yesterday. The offers to earn AIR MILES at no cost are definitely lower than seen back in 2019 or earlier. Read the article here


HSBC has extended the 60,000 point welcome bonus with no annual fee on the HSBC World Elite Mastercard and the 10,000 point welcome bonus with no annual fee on the HSBC +Rewards Mastercard until August 17.


And a heads up or hint if you want to call it - grab yourself the Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite Card between now and July 1 if you want to get in on the 10% welcome bonus! If you haven't listened to our latest podcast it's the top long term cash back card in our market out of all the ten percenters right now. Listen to the Podcast here and learn more about the Scotia Momentum Visa Infinite Card here.

Here are your weekly stats for hotel occupancy in Canada. The week of June 7-13 saw numbers climb ever so slightly to 23.6% from 22.2% from the week before. This is still way down from the 68% seen for the same period in 2019. (Source HNN)


Airline Schedule Updates
We summarize Canadian operations based on data from RoutesOnline and other sources. Remember that many of these route plans are subject to change and right now they are changing frequently!

Central Mountain Air is planning to resume flights on July 6 with the following flights. (Source: RoutesOnline)
Prince George – Fort St. John 3 weekly
Prince George – Kamloops 3 weekly
Prince George – Kelowna 3 weekly
Prince George – Terrace 3 weekly

Looks like bookings for Pacific Coastal's flights are increasing as will be offering more flights in July on the routes they are current flying (Source RoutesOnline)

AeroMexico is planning to offer two flights per week between Toronto and Mexico City as well as four flights per week between Vancouver and Mexico City for the month of July (Source RoutesOnline)



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.

Posts since our last update:

Deals:

Fairmont Hotels Stay Close - Buy Night 1 Get 1 Night free at select hotels in Canada, U.S. and Mexico. Find out more here

Sandman Hotel Group is offering savings of up to 35% off the Standard Rate when you book by June 21 for stays until September 30. Find out more here.

Instacart: Get $10 when you place your first order with Instacart! Register here.

SkipTheDishes - Sign up with this link to get $5 off your first order over $15. Find out more here

WealthSimple Trade:  Receive $5 when you deposit and trade at least $100 worth of stock with WealthSimple Trade. Find out more here (We will also receive $5 when you receive $5)

Rewards Canada receives a small commission when you use any of the above offers. You don't have to chose to use our links but we thank you in advance if you do.


Canadian Bonus Offers

Wyndham Rewards
- 2,000 bonus Wyndham Rewards points per stay at participating Wyndham Hotels in Canada and Worldwide. More... Until Jul 28, 20

Other Bonus Offers

Aer Lingus AerClub
- 20% Bonus Avios on your first transaction when shop online via the Aer Lingus eStore. More... Unknown end date

Marriott Bonvoy
- Triple Bonvoy Points for eligible meetings, events and groups booked and held by March 31st, 2021 at participating hotels across Europe, Middle East and Africa. More.. Until Mar 31, 21

Melia Hotels MeliaRewards
- 50% Bonus when you buy MeliaRewards Points. More... Until Jul 12, 20


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AIR MILES Bonus Boom is now live - earn bonus miles with participating partners until July 1


The latest AIR MILES Bonus Boom event kicked off today with a whole bunch of bonus miles offers for various AIR MILES partners. Most of the bonuses are available between June 18 and July 1 although several like the AIR MILES Hotels have already been in market and will continue to be in market past the main promotional period. This version also has an nice extra bonus of 95 miles when you use three different Bonus Boom offers.

There is the potential to earn over 1,000 bonus miles with all the offers but in reality most collectors will be earning 50 to several hundred miles. It really depends on what shopping you need to get done - for example if you do need something like a Samsung phone you can earn up to 500 bonus miles just with them. While AIR MILES Mastercard holders can earn 75 to 125 bonus miles when they meet minimum spend requirements at AIR MILES partners. And the most important one - there are some good grocery store offers with places like Foodland, Safeway, Sobeys and so on.

There's even an offer where you can earn 25 AIR MILES for free. Simply subscribe to receive emails from AIR MILES and you'll be credited with 25 miles.

Overall this version of Bonus Boom has more achievable offers than the one we saw in May but no matter what it is nice to be able to score some extra miles over the next week.

Learn more about Bonus Boom and check out your province's offers here

Your complete guide to TD credit card accelerator offers

If you are a TD credit card holder, chances are you saw an email come through in May letting you know that your card will receive a boost in earning in response to the current situation.

We had learned sometime ago about this offer being available on the TD Aeroplan cards thanks to  one of our readers and detailed it in a post in May.

Turns out this good will gesture from TD isn't limited to their Aeroplan cards - it is in fact available on all of their reward credit cards. We have now been able to compile all the offerings and present them to you here:

If you already have a TD Credit card, this offer has already been applied to your card!
Note: all of these offers end August 15, 2020




2X the points when you order food and grocery deliveries from:
Cartly, Chanmao Inc., Chefs Plate, Cook it, Cornershop, CultivatR, DoorDash, GOcery, GoJava, Goodfood, Grocery Gateway, HelloFresh, INABUGGY, Instacart, Just Eat, metro.ca online grocery, MissFresh, Mister Produce, PC Express, SaveOnFoods Online, SkipTheDishes, SPUD.ca, The Grocery Link, The Organic Box, and Uber Eats.
+
Use 25% Less TD Points to redeem for gift cards, merchandise, and Shop The Mall retailers available through TDRewards.com.
Offer ends August 15, 2020




2X the cash back when you order food and grocery deliveries from:
Cartly, Chanmao Inc., Chefs Plate, Cook it, Cornershop, CultivatR, DoorDash, GOcery, GoJava, Goodfood, Grocery Gateway, HelloFresh, INABUGGY, Instacart, Just Eat, metro.ca online grocery, MissFresh, Mister Produce, PC Express, SaveOnFoods Online, SkipTheDishes, SPUD.ca, The Grocery Link, The Organic Box, and Uber Eats.
Offer ends August 15, 2020




TD Aeroplan Visa Platinum
2X the miles when you order food and grocery deliveries from:
Cartly, Chanmao Inc., Chefs Plate, Cook it, Cornershop, CultivatR, DoorDash, GOcery, GoJava, Goodfood, Grocery Gateway, HelloFresh, INABUGGY, Instacart, Just Eat, metro.ca online grocery, MissFresh, Mister Produce, PC Express, SaveOnFoods Online, SkipTheDishes, SPUD.ca, The Grocery Link, The Organic Box, and Uber Eats.
Offer ends August 15, 2020


1% cash back when you order food and grocery deliveries from:
Cartly, Chanmao Inc., Chefs Plate, Cook it, Cornershop, CultivatR, DoorDash, GOcery, GoJava, Goodfood, Grocery Gateway, HelloFresh, INABUGGY, Instacart, Just Eat, metro.ca online grocery, MissFresh, Mister Produce, PC Express, SaveOnFoods Online, SkipTheDishes, SPUD.ca, The Grocery Link, The Organic Box, and Uber Eats.
Offer ends August 15, 2020

While these offers are marketed for existing customers you can still apply for any one of the above cards and also be able to take advantage of the accelerators as they are valid for any and all open cards.


Wednesday, June 17, 2020

Huge Aeroplan promotion - Receive 50% of your miles back on award flights within Canada or between Canada and the U.S.


Even though Aeroplan's huge Travel at Home promotion is over they aren't stopping with providing new offers for members. The latest is really for those itching to travel and it's a big one! When you book flights with your Aeroplan miles for travel within Canada or between Canada and the U.S. they will give you 50% of your miles back! The offer valid on new bookings only, made between June 17 and July 1, 2020, for travel from July 1 to October 15, 2020. 

The miles will be credited to your account within three weeks of you completing the flights which means you need to have the full amount of miles at time of booking. However in the end this means you would only be spending as little as 3,750 miles for one way short haul economy class flight or 6,250 miles for a one way long haul economy class flight. For round trip those numbers are simply doubled. Business class would end up being 7,500 miles and 12,500 miles one way respectively.

As there are only two weeks in this promotion you won't have time to apply for an Aeroplan earning card to use for the promotion however if you have a card earning Amex Membership Rewards Points like the Platinum Card or Gold Rewards Card you can convert points over instantly to Aeroplan. And lucky for you if you do have the Platinum Card all your points earned on spending has been doubled which means there is even more value to be had!

Like I said this is a huge promotion from Aeroplan and Air Canada with the simple caveat being you are wanting and willing to travel over the next few months. It is definitely a move to help encourage people to start travelling again and to help fill their planes. It even puts the airline on the radar for my family - we were thinking of a few trips this summer  to neighbouring provinces and were planning to road trip it but this offer may just sway us to fly.

I would also tend to believe that this will not be the only promotion like this from the program and we may see something similar for international travel once that becomes more accessible. Whether future promotions are as lucrative as this one is an unknown though!




Earn 2,000 bonus Wyndham Rewards points per stay at Wyndham Hotels in Canada and Worldwide


Wyndham Hotels has joined the club of hotel frequent guest programs starting to reveal systemwide bonus offers as travel slowly resumes. The offer for Wyndham Rewards members provides 2,000 bonus points per stay for up to five stays in total at participating hotels Worldwide. As it only runs until July 28 for most of us Canadian that means we'll really only earn the bonus on stays here at home. This will include stays at their most prolific brands like Days Inn, Super 8, Ramada, Travelodge and more.

Offer details:
Earn 2,000 bonus Wyndham Rewards points per stay at participating Wyndham Hotels Worldwide. Bonus awarded for up to 5 stays. Full details, online registration & booking (Registration is required) Until Jul 28, 20

June 17 Update: 100,000 bonus Be Well points at Rexall, 50,000 bonus PC Optimum points with Shoppers online, Air Transat to resume flights on July 23

It's a beauty day again with new bonus offers from Rexall and Shoppers Drug Mart:


Earn 100,000 Be Well points when you spend $100 or more on cosmetics, skin care, fragrances, hair care and hair colour at Rexall today and tomorrow. Those 100K points are worth $40.


Shoppers is offering 50,000 bonus PC Optimum points when you spend $150 or more online with Shoppers Drug Mart. This offer runs today and tomorrow as well. Those 50K points are worth $50. Find out more here.

Airline Schedule Updates
This will now be a standard feature for the foreseeable future in our daily update posts as we summarize Canadian operations based on data from RoutesOnline and other sources. Remember that many of these route plans are subject to change and right now they are changing frequently!


Air Transat is planning to resume flights on July 23 with the following flights (Source: RoutesOnline)
Montreal – Athens eff 27JUL20 1 weekly
Montreal – Bordeaux eff 02AUG20 2 weekly
Montreal – Cancun eff 25JUL20 1 weekly
Montreal – Cayo Coco eff 07AUG20 2 weekly
Montreal – Fort Lauderdale eff 23JUL20 5 weekly
Montreal – Lisbon eff 24JUL20 2 weekly
Montreal – Lyon eff 28JUL20 2 weekly
Montreal – Marseille eff 29JUL20 2 weekly
Montreal – Nantes eff 31JUL20 2 weekly
Montreal – Paris CDG eff 23JUL20 7 weekly
Montreal – Port-au-Prince eff 29JUL20 1 weekly
Montreal – Punta Cana eff 26JUL20 1 weekly
Montreal – Toulouse eff 23JUL20 2 weekly
Toronto – Athens eff 26JUL20 1 weekly
Toronto – Cancun eff 25JUL20 1 weekly
Toronto – Cayo Coco eff 07AUG20 1 weekly
Toronto – Fort Lauderdale eff 31JUL20 1 weekly
Toronto – Glasgow eff 25JUL20 2 weekly
Toronto – London Gatwick eff 23JUL20 3 weekly
Toronto – Manchester eff 25JUL20 2 weekly
Toronto – Porto eff 26JUL20 1 weekly
Toronto – Punta Cana eff 25JUL20 1 weekly
Toronto – Rome eff 27JUL20 2 weekly

Domestic
Montreal – Calgary eff 26JUL20 4 weekly
Montreal – Toronto eff 23JUL20 16 weekly
Montreal – Vancouver eff 23JUL20 1 daily
Toronto – Calgary eff 23JUL20 3 weekly
Toronto – Vancouver eff 23JUL20 12 weekly



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.

Posts since our last update:

Deals:

Fairmont Hotels Stay Close - Buy Night 1 Get 1 Night free at select hotels in Canada, U.S. and Mexico. Find out more here

Sandman Hotel Group is offering savings of up to 35% off the Standard Rate when you book by June 21 for stays until September 30. Find out more here.

Instacart: Get $10 when you place your first order with Instacart! Register here.

SkipTheDishes - Sign up with this link to get $5 off your first order over $15. Find out more here

WealthSimple Trade:  Receive $5 when you deposit and trade at least $100 worth of stock with WealthSimple Trade. Find out more here (We will also receive $5 when you receive $5)

Rewards Canada receives a small commission when you use any of the above offers. You don't have to chose to use our links but we thank you in advance if you do.


Canadian Bonus Offers

N/A

Other Bonus Offers


ALL Accor Live Limitless
- 500 Bonus ALL Rewards Points for stays at participating hotels in Turkey. More... Book by Aug 31 for stays until Sep 30, 20

IHG Rewards Club
- OFFER EXTENDED 100% Bonus IHG Rewards Club Points when you buy 3,000 or more points. More... Until Jun 20, 20
United MileagePlus
- Earn up to 1,000 bonus MIleagePlus Miles when you shop online via the MileagePlus Shopping portal. More... Until Jun 24, 20

World of Hyatt
- 30% Bonus World of Hyatt Points when you buy 5,000 or more points. More... Until Jul 29, 20



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More Rewards partnership with Petro-Canada ending on July 31


Not so good news for those who collect More Rewards points - one of the programs best partners will be leaving the program on July 31. On that date the partnership between More Rewards and Petro-Canada will come to an end. I received the email yesterday from Petro-Canada stating this development and when you go to the More Rewards website it confirms the change:


This is a really unfortunate change to the program that affects all members but more so for those who don't live in Western Canada. The More Rewards program started to make in roads nationally a few years back when they launched a nationwide credit card with Scotia (it was the best no free travel rewards credit card) and made this partnership with Petro-Canada. However the credit card went the way of the dodo bird last August and now with Petro-Canada leaving the program it will next to impossible for anyone not from Alberta, B.C., Manitoba and Saskatchewan to earn More Rewards points. With the departure of Petro-Canada the only partners that are available Canada wide are More Rewards Insurance and More Rewards Travel, the rest of them are only out west.

For me this will cut my More Rewards points earning by a significant amount as most of the points I have earned in the program came from Petro-Canada. I don't shop often as Save-On Foods as I don't have a location close to me and as much as I've wanted to shop online for delivery from them I only did so once as the wait times were long to get a delivery compared the Instacart and Real Canadian Superstore. Here's a screenshot of my transaction history for the first three months of 2020:



As you can see it is very Petro-Canada heavy and once they are out of the program I basically won't earn points at all. My balance isn't big by any means, just over 22,000 points or just over $90 in value towards travel. With little to no points earning I may just cash out my points as a donation to one of the children's charities that More Rewards partners with.

This news also adds fuel to my thoughts that the coalition rewards program as we knew it from years gone by is not working anymore. More Rewards had aspirations of becoming a larger coalition program and that just isn't happening and if the big players like AIR MILES and Aeroplan aren't making it happen anymore, there's no way More Rewards can either.

OFFER EXTENDED – 100% bonus when you buy IHG Rewards Club points


The 100% bonus for buying IHG Rewards Club points has been extended by five days to June 20.  IHG has also raised the annual limit of points you can buy to 250,000 per member for this promotion from the standard 150,000. Buying 250,000 points (500,000 total with bonus) costs US$2,500 which means each point will only cost you 0.5 cents.  Again we don’t encourage buying points just because there is a bonus but if you can foresee a potential use for them in the next 4-6 months it may be worthwhile to buy them.



Offer Details
OFFER EXTENDED 100% Bonus IHG Rewards Club Points when you buy 3,000 or more points. Buy IHG Rewards Club Points here Until Jun 20, 20

Find many more IHG Rewards Club bonus point offers here!

CIBC offering double Aventura points, Aeroplan Miles and Cash Back on dine in, take out and delivery purchases



Hot on the footsteps of card issuers like American Express and TD who have been boosting earn rates on their credit and charge cards CIBC is now doing the same. From today through to August 4 CIBC cardholders will earn double rewards on  up to $1,000 in spending on dine in, order take-out (including curbside pickup), or order delivery from local restaurants. The initiative is called Revival Rewards and stems from CIBC data that shows spending at restaurants has declined by 60% over the past three months.

CIBC passed along the following to us:
 With restrictions on restaurants beginning to ease across Canada, CIBC is launching a new program to support these business owners and help them bring back customers.

Through the Revival Rewards program, clients who use their CIBC rewards credit cards, including Aeroplan®, Aventura® and Dividend® to dine in, order take-out (including curbside pickup), or order delivery from local restaurants will receive double the rewards on their purchase.
Over the last three months, credit card spending at restaurants has declined over 60% and was down more than 70% during the peak of the pandemic, according to CIBC data, highlighting that restaurants were some of the hardest hit businesses during the pandemic.
“From patio nights out with friends to weekend brunches with family, local restaurants serve as mainstays in our neighbourhoods. As restaurant owners start to re-open their doors while observing public health measures to keep guests safe, we want to help revitalize these important businesses,” said Laura Dottori-Attanasio, Group Head, Personal and Business Banking. “Our Revival Rewards program is designed to help restaurant owners get back on their feet and underscores our commitment to providing support for small business owners.”
 Here are the cards that are eligible for Revival Rewards (click to make larger):


It is good to see CIBC go down the route of rewarding existing cardholders by encouraging them to use their CIBC cards on dining. The good news is new cardholders will also earn the double rewards if you get a card soon enough to take advantage of the deal. I do wish they didn't cap it at $1,000 in spend however as we haven't seen caps from the likes of Amex and TD on their boosted earning initiatives. Still with a cap it is a great offer from CIBC and if you carry cards from more than one of these issuers you are now covered in more spend categories.

Learn more about CIBC cards here.

Images via CIBC