Podcast Episode 69 - Huge Aeroplan promotion - Receive 50% of your miles back on award flights within Canada or between Canada and the U.S.

Episode 69 - June 23, 2020
Huge Aeroplan promotion - Receive 50% of your miles back on award flights within Canada or between Canada and the U.S.

In this episode we discuss the amazing Aeroplan redemption offer that was released on June 17. We discuss the details of the promotion, how it works, a couple of redemption examples and the amazing the value you can get out of the promotion! Listen in to see how you can get 4 to 5 cents per mile for economy class redemptions, over 8 cents per mile for business class and how you can effectively get a 49% return on one credit card's spending.

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Links relating to this week's topics:

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

 

Air Canada Aeroplan members receive free access to streaming video content

Starting today and running through to July 22nd Air Canada Aeroplan members will receive free access to video content from various Canadian entertainment providers.

"The carrier is making over 200 titles, including films, shorts and other video from its Canadian partners, available for streaming at no charge until July 22."

I logged into to portal at https://watch.aircanadavideo.com/ - well actually didn't log in simply clicked on the Login  with Aeroplan button:

and it let me access all the videos and I didn't have to input my Aeroplan number at all. I even 'logged out' of the video site and tried again and it didn't require my Aeroplan number so at this time it seems like it is available to anyone.

Once you 'login' you'll be presented with all the video options and you can choose by genre or set categories by Air Canada like "Air Canada Recommends", "Canadian Movies" and more. It pretty much looks like most video streaming services out there:

Aeroplan pegs this as an industry first and it does appears to be so on the video side. I did see an email in my inbox from Qatar Airways on Friday that they have their Oryx One audio playlists on Spotify now as well for free. So between the both you have can have an audio and visual fix for free!

June 22 Update: New Amex offer for The Detox Market, Rewards Canada Podcast on Spotify & most Canadian Airports now requiring face masks

A new Amex offers offer came out at the end of last week. If Spend $100 or more with The Detox Market in store or online (doesn't have to be in one purchase) you can receive a one-time $15 statement credit. In the rwrds.ca household we received it on the Platinum Card and the American Express Cobalt Card. You can find this offer and many more on our Guide to American Express Canada 'Amex Offers'

Image via Amex

If you like to listen to the Rewards Canada podcast via Spotify you may have noticed that the two latest episodes from June weren't showing up on the platform. I'm happy to say the issue has been resolved and you can now listen to these and all other episodes on Spotify.

Image via Spotify

I am also happy to report that it appears that our newsletter is once again making it through to our Cogeco subscribers. There were two weeks that they bounced back to us but this weekend's past newsletter didn't have the issue.

Over the past few weeks we've seen many of Canada's major airports institute a face mask requirement. These requirements are over and above the requirement from Transport Canada requiring it on flights and at security check points. Some like Vancouver seem to be asking politely that people wear them as their wording on the yvr.ca website doesn't state mandatory while Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto specifically state that wearing of masks is mandatory. As do Montreal and Halifax who both made it mandatory as of today (June 22.)
Here are links to each of the major airport's requirements:

• Calgary
• Edmonton
• Halifax
• Montreal
• Toronto
• Vancouver

Image via Calgary Airport Authority 

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!

WestJet has cancelled their Calgary to Rome route for summer 2020 (Source RoutesOnline)

IHG had updated their cancellation policy whereby bookings made up to April 6 for stays until August 31, 2020 can be changed or cancelled for free
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:

• 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…
• 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…
• 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…
• June 16 Update: Earn 39,000 Aeroplan Miles or 28,000 BA Avios for free, AIR MILES Shops Father's Day bonus & an issue with Choice Privileges new promotion
  We updated our Travel Hacking 101 post which details how you can earn Aeroplan Miles and/or Avios for free…

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

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

No bonus offers added today

Other Bonus Offers

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WestJet nixes Calgary to Rome route for summer 2020

It came with a lot of hype back in October 2019 and everyone was very excited for it. What was it? It was WestJet announcing a new direct non-stop route between Calgary and Rome on their Boeing 787 Dreamliner. But then Corona Virus happened. And the planned launch of the route this past May was pushed back to July then August and now according to RoutesOnline it has been totally closed off for 2020. In reality this isn't surprising news, as much as WestJet and even some eager travellers had hoped it would happen, the fact of the matter is Italy isn't open to non EU travellers and there is no word as to when they will open.

Sure enough when I checked WestJet while writing this post you can book Calgary to Rome flights but on WestJet's flight to Paris connecting to an Air France flight to Rome:

RoutesOnline does state the service will operate twice weekly as of October 17 but I couldn't find the flights anywhere on WestJet's site. All flights still funneled through Paris.

Let's hope that it does in fact start up in October and if not that we do see the route come to fruition in 2021.

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Hyatt Hotels Warm Welcome - up to 20% off and free breakfast for stays until September 8

The offers just keep rolling in - whether its for flying, staying, driving, you name it they are here and will keep coming for the foreseeable future! The latest that launched today is from Hyatt Hotels who are now offering up to 20% off and free breakfast for stays at participating Hyatt hotels worldwide across brands such as Andaz, The Unbound Collection by Hyatt, Alila Hotels & Resorts, Hyatt Regency, Hyatt Place and Hyatt House worldwide. This includes the half dozen or so locations that are open in Canada right now with more coming online later this summer. For example the Hyatt Regency Calgary is set to open July 1st and the Hyatt Regency Toronto is set to reopen early August.

Recommend reading: New Hyatt Hotel Openings in Canada for 2020 - 6 hotels confirmed + the reopening of the Park Hyatt Toronto

The offer is up to 20% off for World of Hyatt members (15% off if you are not a member, but it is free to join so you should to get the extra 5%) and includes a complimentary breakfast for each morning of your stay. Plus all stays reserved on this offer fall into Hyatt's current COVID-19 cancellation policy which means they can be cancelled up to 24 hours before arrival.

Learn more about and book this offer here.

Summary of global hotel systemwide bonus points promotions – June Edition

Here is your monthly update of all the global hotel bonus points promotions that are available. One of the easiest ways to rack up lots of hotel points is to take advantage of these systemwide bonuses that come from many of the big chain programs and also from the lesser known programs. In fact, right now it should be rare for you NOT to earn a bonus. Unless you are staying at a boutique hotel or perhaps an independent hotel most other hotels out there have a bonus. So take advantage of it! These systemwide bonuses simply require you to register beforehand and they do not affect hotel pricing as long as you book a point eligible rate which are most rates out there. Of course booking through a third party site like Expedia or Rocketmiles does not count as most chains only award points on bookings that are made directly with them. Without further ado here are all the current promotions that are available to everyone:

Provider	Offer	Validity Date
ALL Accor Live Limitless	No Offers at this time	--
	For a complete listing of all ALL Accor Live Limitlessbonus point offers please visit Rewards Canada's ALL Accor Live Limitless page
Best Western Rewards	Receive a $25 Best Western Gift Card when you complete one stay at a Best Western Hotel in the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean. Full details, online registration & booking  (Registration is required) For residents of the U.S. and Canada only	Until Sep 7, 20
	Receive a $25 Best Western Travel Card when you complete 1 stay at a Best Western Hotel and submit a gas receipt or electric vehicle charging receipt within 10 days of your stay. Full details & online booking For residents of the U.S. and Canada only	Until Aug 31, 20
	For a complete listing of all Best Western Rewards bonus point offers please visit Rewards Canada's Best Western page
Choice Hotels Privileges	Earn up to 8,000 Bonus Privileges Points after every two separate qualifying stays at participating Choice Hotels Worldwide. Full details, online registration & booking (Registration is required) For residents of the U.S. and Canada only	Jun 10 – Sep 7, 20
	For a complete listing of all Choice Privileges bonus point offers please visit Rewards Canada's Choice page
GHA Discovery	No Offers at this time	--
	For a complete listing of all GHA Discovery bonus offers please visit Rewards Canada's GHA page
Hilton	Earn 2,000 Bonus Honors points per stay at Hilton Hotels worldwide plus 10,000 bonus points for every 10 nights stayed. Full details, online registration & booking (Registration is required )	Until Sep 7, 20
	For a complete listing of all Hilton HHonors bonus point offers please visit Rewards Canada's Hilton page
Hyatt	Triple World of Hyatt Points starting with your second stay at Hyatt hotels and resorts worldwide and participating M life Rewards destinations, Small Luxury Hotels of the World hotels and Lindblad Expeditions. Register online (Registration is required) Elite Member Offer details: 2,500 Bonus World of Hyatt Points + Triple Points for stays at Hyatt hotels and resorts worldwide and participating M life Rewards destinations, Small Luxury Hotels of the World hotels and Lindblad Expeditions. 2,500 bonus points will be awarded on your first stay and then the 3x points on all stays after that. Register online (Registration is required)	Register by Aug 31 for stays Jun 15 – Sep 15, 20
	For a complete listing of all Hyatt Gold Passport bonus point offers please visit Rewards Canada's Hyatt page
InterContinental Hotels Group	No Offers at this time	--
	For a complete listing of all IHG Priority Club bonus point offers please visit Rewards Canada's IHG page
Marriott	No offers at this time	--
	For a complete listing of all Marriott Rewards bonus point offers please visit Rewards Canada's Marriott page
Millennium Hotels My Millennium	No offers at this time	--
	For a complete listing of all Millennium Hotels My Millennium bonus point offers please visit Rewards Canada's My Millennium page
Preferred Hotel Group iPrefer	No offers at this time	--
	For a complete listing of all Preferred Hotel Group iPrefer bonus point offers please visit Rewards Canada's iPrefer page
Radisson Rewards	2,500 Bonus Radisson Rewards Points and up to 25% off for stays at participating Radisson Collection, Radisson Blu, Radisson RED, Radisson, Park Inn by Radisson, Park Plaza, and Country Inn & Suites by Radisson hotels in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the United States, Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia Pacific. Full details & online booking.	Book by Jul 14  for stays May 27 – Aug 31, 20
	For a complete listing of all Radisson Rewards bonus point offers please visit Rewards Canada's Radisson Rewards page
Red Roof Inns RediRewards	No offers at this time	--
	For a complete listing of all Red Roof bonus point offers please visit Rewards Canada's RediRewards page
Sandman Hotels	Double Lucky13 rewards stamps for stays at all participating Sandman Hotels in Canada and the U.S. Full details	Until Dec 31, 20
	For a complete listing of all Radisson Rewards bonus point offers please visit Rewards Canada's Sandman Hotels Lucky13 Rewards page
Shangri-La Golden Circle	No offers at this time	--
	For a complete listing of all Shangria-La bonus point offers please visit Rewards Canada's Golden Circle page
Sonesta Hotels Travel Pass	No offers at this time	--
	For a complete listing of all Sonesta Hotels bonus point offers please visit Rewards Canada's Travel Pass page
Voila Hotel Rewards	30% Bonus VHR Points for each stay at any participating VOILÀ hotel Worldwide. Full details & online registration (Registration is required)	Until Jun 30, 20
	For a complete listing of all Voila Hotel Rewards bonus point offers please visit Rewards Canada's VHR page
WorldHotels Rewards	No offers at this time	--
	For a complete listing of all Wyndham Rewards bonus point offers please visit Rewards Canada's WorldHotels page
Wyndham Rewards	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
	For a complete listing of all Wyndham Rewards bonus point offers please visit Rewards Canada's Wyndham page

Receive a $25 Best Western Gift Card when you complete one stay in Canada, the U.S or Caribbean by September 7

Best Western has now launched their primary stay offer for summer 2020! Two weeks we let you know about it in our post Best Western’s upcoming summer promotions. The first offer Tanks-A-Lot went live last week and provides BW Rewards members with a $25 Best Western Travel Card after they complete 1 stay at a Best Western Hotel and submit a receipt showing a purchase of $10 (C$/US$) or more of gasoline or electric vehicle charging charges. Now we have the second offer which went live today and it also awards a $25 Best Western Gift Card! Simply register for the offer and complete one stay at any Best Western branded hotel in the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean to receive a $25 Best Western Gift card. Like the Tanks-A-Lot offer this one can only be earned once but you can simply take advantage of both via two stays or possibly one. If I read the terms and conditions correctly for both offers it appears that it could be possible to earn both promotion’s $25 travel cards in one stay. There is nothing stating that they cannot be combined and since you have to register for this one and then for Tanks-A-Lot you have to send in a receipt but not register it is feasible that you could earn $50 in travel cards with just one stay. The travel card that you earn with this promotion must be used by December 31, 2020 just like the one you can earn from Tanks-A-Lot.

Offer details
Receive a $25 Best Western Gift Card when you complete one stay at a Best Western Hotel in the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean. Full details, online registration & booking  (Registration is required) Until Sep 7, 20
For residents of the U.S. and Canada only

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Buy Miles Mystery Bonus – up to 60% bonus reported

Alaska Airlines has revealed another buy miles mystery bonus – this time it is only for a week as you have until June 28 to take advantage of it. Personally I received the offer to earn up to 50% bonus miles but we have OMAAT reporting up to 60%. For me this is better than the 40% I saw during the last mystery bonus offer which ran until the end of May. If you received the 60% offer consider yourself lucky as that is the highest bonus ever seen for buying Mileage Plan miles!! At 60%  you’ll be buying Mileage Plan miles for as little as 1.72 US cents each. If you received a different bonus from the 50 or 60% please let us know the details in the comments below and we’ll add it to the post.

Offer details:
Earn up to a 60% bonus when you buy Mileage Plan miles. Bonus varies by member and will be revealed after you log in. Buy Alaska Miles Here  Until Jun 28, 20
50% offer:

• Buy 3,000 – 29,000 miles, get a 40% bonus
• Buy 30,000 – 100,000 miles, get a 50% bonus

60% offer:

• Buy 5,000-39,000 miles, get a 40% bonus
• Buy 40,000-100,000 miles, get a 60% bonus

Earn up to Triple Aeroplan Miles on Air Canada flights within Canada or between Canada and the U.S. (Targeted offer)

Air Canada sent out an email to select Aeroplan members to earn extra miles on Air Canada flights this summer. Check your inbox to see if you have been selected, I received the email on Friday with the subject line 'Satisfy your thirst for travel with up to 3X the Aeroplan Miles'. As you can gather from that subject line the promotion provides up to triple Aeroplan miles when you fly with Air Canada until October 15 within Canada or between Canada and the U.S.. What is interesting is that there is no registration button like we typically see with both targeted and non-targeted offers. This leads me to believe that Air Canada has automatically added the promotion to the selected Aeroplan members prior to the email being sent out. Unfortunately this means that you can't even try to register for it and hope the system accepts your Aeroplan number.

The offer itself provides double Aeroplan miles for flights booked in Standard Economy, Economy Flex, comfort and Latitude and triple Aeroplan miles for flights in Business Class, Premium Economy and Premium Rouge operated by Air Canada, Air Canada Express and Air Canada Rouge.

Learn more about the offer here  
 

WestJet Rewards Member Exclusive Fares being paused as of June 25

Thanks to long time Rewards Canada reader CanadianPilgrim for alerting us to this news from WestJet Rewards. The news is that of June 25 WestJet is pausing their Member Exclusive Fares reward option. This is one of the lesser known yet most valuable redemption options in the WestJet Rewards program. If you are unfamiliar with their Member Exclusive fares you can think of them as WestJet's fixed price redemption option that is the vein of your classic flight reward charts from programs like Aeroplan, AIR MILES and most other frequent flyer programs. Essentially you would pay a flat rate of WestJet dollars for a flight on WestJet or even WestJet's partner airlines like Air France, Delta, KLM and Qantas. Flights in Canada or to the U.S. typically ran 99 WestJet dollars for short haul (although we are seeing that as low as 63 right now) or 125 WestJet dollars each way for long haul, to Europe for as little as 349, Asia for 599 and Australia for 629.

For example here's a look at round trip flights between Calgary and Toronto using the Member Exclusive fares this August:

Round trip sees you spending 250 WestJet dollars plus $97.22 in taxes and fees versus the actual cash outlay cost of $459.01 for the cheapest of cheap Econo fares. As you can see they have been and still are a good deal until June 25! This was always an amazing deal to use your 250 to 350 WJD welcome bonus from the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard on! Fingers crossed when the rewards return that that value proposition will still be there.

We have reached out to WestJet to see if they can provide us with any details on the future of Member Exclusives. We passed along CanadianPilgrim's note as to whether this is a pause, suspension or cancellation of this feature. Based on the screenshot above from WestJet they do claim it is only a pause so they can revamp the redemption option. They do state 'Enhance' but unfortunately with our experience of covering loyalty programs for nearly 19 years now, we know 'enhance' is more often a term that is negative rather than a positive. Let's hope that's not the case. Also a few years ago WestJet starting working on Member Exclusive rewards for business class on their partner airlines (we even had draft blog post all ready to go and IIRC one way on Delta to Europe was around 600 WJD!) but that was paused as their focus shifted away from that. So let's also hope that when the new Member Exclusives come out you'll be able to redeem for business class on WestJet and their partner airlines!

Learn more about the pause of WestJet's Member Exclusive Fares here.

Here's some of our past coverage of Member Exclusive fares:

• WestJet Rewards lowers, that's right, lowers redemption rates for Member Exclusive award travel on WestJet & Delta Airlines 
• You can now redeem WestJet Rewards dollars for flights on Qantas  
• You can now redeem WestJet Rewards dollars for flights on Air France and KLM!