Introducing the new BMO eclipse Visa Infinite* and BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege* Cards

BMO becomes the latest Canadian bank to begin issuing cards from an additional payment provider. We have banks like RBC who offer Visa and Mastercard cards, Scotia who offers Visa, Mastercard and American Express cards while CIBC in the past has issued all three as well. Now BMO moves beyond their long standing partnership with Mastercard to begin to issue Visa cards as well. They launch their foray with Visa cards today with two new offerings - the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Card* and the BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Privilege* Card. Both cards will offer points from their proprietary BMO Rewards loyalty program, which you'll be very familiar with if you currently have or know about the BMO Rewards World Elite Mastercard or BMO Rewards Mastercard.

Here are the details of the new BMO Visa cards:

November 6 Update: AIR MILES It's-Been-a-Year Merchandise sale provides some really good value & Emirates to cut partner access to First Class rewards

 

AIR MILES is offering reduced mileage requirements on over 1,000 reward items in their catalogue for the rest of this year with the It's Been a Year event. And what a year it has been! This offer comes at a good time with Christmas upon us and many Canadians feeling a financial pinch where it may be tougher to pay for gifts so offers like this can go a long way. Yes merchandise rewards aren't the ideal reward if you chase the highest value out of your loyalty currencies but we are in a different world now and this merchandise sale brings values close to or equal to travel redemption values! 

One day only! Amazing award flight redemption from TAP Air Portugal – long haul flights from Canada for only 2 miles + cash

 

TAP Air Portugal has come out with one of the best ever redemption offers we have ever seen.  This offer will only be available on November 6. You can book Miles+Cash award flights for only 2 miles per direction + taxes and fees.  The promotion is valid for long haul travel to Lisbon, Funchal or other European destinations. Bookings must be made based on Portugal time so you can actually start booking this tonight as of 7pm ET/4pm PT if you are in North America.

Two new WestJet Rewards benefits coming soon - new milestone benefits to gift Gold Status for one flight and exchanging companion vouchers for lounge access

 

Today is a big news day for WestJet as make a push for their program prior to Air Canada's official launch of the new Aeroplan program on Sunday. This is the third and final post covering all the news coming out of WestJet today and it is for Gold/Platinum Elite Tier members and WestJet World Elite credit card holders. There are two new benefits that will be coming soon to the program as follows:

• New tier milestone choice benefit being able to gift one-time Gold status to someone for a round-trip flight that they can take on their own (applies to $6,000 milestone award and at $8K and every $2k after that) – This is a benefit for Gold and Platinum tier members
•  The ability to exchange your WestJet RBC World Elite companion voucher for lounge access (including our own Calgary flagship Elevation lounge) 

For the next week you can share your WestJet companion vouchers with others

 Back in March WestJet announced they were extending the validity of companion vouchers that were set to expire during the height of the pandemic. These are the vouchers that come from the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard and WestJet RBC Mastercard or are issued as Elite Tier Milestone awards. The new expiry date set on those vouchers was January 31 and it appears WestJet will be holding true to that date. We had hopes they would extend them further but as of right now that doesn't seem to be the case as is worded in this limited time promotion that launches today.

WestJet Member Exclusive Fares are back - now with access to Premium & Business Class fares (And they are pricing at 35% off until the end of the year)

 

Back in June WestJet paused access to their Member Exclusive Fares so that they could revamp and enhance this somewhat unknown but very valuable redemption option for WestJet Rewards members. If you are unfamiliar with their Member Exclusive fares you can think of them as WestJet's fixed price redemption option that was in 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. Prior to the pause 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.

Choice Hotels Vacation in Paradise Sweepstakes - enter for a chance to win a trip for 4 at a Dreams Resort & Spa destination + other prizes

 Choice Hotels has added yet another marketing move for the promotion of their newly integrated AMResorts brands of Zoëtry Wellness & Spa Resorts, Secrets, Breathless, Dreams, Now and Sunscape Resorts & Spas. The first move was the 50,000 bonus points + free night offer + credits and more for stays at these locations, see below for offer details. This time it is a contest that is actually open to us Canadian (not Quebec though, sorry) and the grand prize is a four night trip for 4 at a Dreams Resort & Spa destination + a $2,000 prepaid card. There are weekly prizes as well of 4-night stays for 2 at an all-inclusive luxury resort + a $1,000 prepaid card. As is usual for contests in Canada, if one of us wins we have to answer a mathematical skill testing question.

You can learn more and rnter the contest here! 

Be sure to also check out some of these Choice Hotel deals:

• 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) Until Nov 15, 20
• Earn 50,000 Choice Privileges Points plus a free night, plus a future free night, resort credit and more when you book a stay at Zoëtry® Wellness & Spa Resorts, and Secrets®, Breathless®, Dreams®, Now® and Sunscape® Resorts & Spas brands. Full details and online booking.  Book by Nov 10 for stays until Dec 22, 21
• 25% Discount when you buy Choice Privileges points. Buy points here.   Until Nov 6, 20
• Click here to see Rewards Canada's complete list of Choice Hotels offers

Image via Choice Hotels

November 4 Update: Two days left to book Aeroplan rewards at the old rates, last few days to get on the Amex Aeroplan wait list, 50K PC Optimum points online shopping bonus

 

Today's update contains several reminders! This is your last chance to book Aeroplan rewards at the old mileage levels - come Friday evening you will no longer be able to book flight rewards and non-air rewards. If you have been on the fence about booking award flights there is no harm in doing so to lock them in since Aeroplan's generous refund policy will allow to cancel those flights with full refund of miles (points as of November 8) and a full refund of the taxes and fees so long as you cancel by December 31. Some actions with Aeroplan and Air Canada have been suspended already until the transition to the new program is complete. Learn more here.

Earn an additional 5 points per dollar on Marriott purchases with the Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express Card

American Express Canada and Marriott have teamed up to provide a limited time points earning boost for holders of the Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express Card. From now until January 3, 2021 cardmembers can earn an additional 5 Marriott Bonvoy points per dollar spent with Marriott. This means you would earn 10 points per dollar spent as the card's base earn rate on Marriott purchases is 5 points per dollar. That's a huge boost and the crazy part of the promotion is that non-Marriott stay purchases such as buying Marriott gift cards or merchandise purchases from Marriott count as well. So even if you aren't planning any Marriott stays in the next two months you could always order gift cards from them for those future travels of yours. The promotion is open to all Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express Cardmembers including those who apply for and receive the card during the promotional period.

It's back! The 35% bonus for converting HSBC Rewards Points to British Airways Executive Club

 
Just in time for those who have already earned their amazing 100,000 bonus points (or 130,000 if you are in Quebec) from the HSBC World Elite Mastercard comes their fall transfer bonus to British Airways. Just like in previous years the bonus is 35% and is good for transfers made until November 30, 2020.