Today, January 7th 2021 marks the day that any travelers flying back to Canada from outside our borders will need to present a negative COVID-19 PCR test result prior to boarding their flights. The test must be administered within 72 hours of your planned departure time and if you don't meet the requirements you are to be denied boarding by the airline. This new requirement is in place for all travellers aged 5 years and up and is for both Canadian and foreign nationals.
Air Canada's Aeroplan keeps on adding more travel partners to program - namely airlines which shows they are hyper focused on the program being a true frequent flyer program rather than the coalition program they had been known as for the better part of almost two decades. In 2020 alone the program added four new airline partners Etihad, Azul, Vistara and Air Serbia and as of January 19 you can add Virgin Australia to that list.
Here's your Rewards Canada Daily update! Your daily dose (or near daily dose) of loyalty program, credit card and travel news, bonuses, deals and more.
Way back in 2012 we published a feature and infographic that compared
how various credit and charge cards in Canada earned Aeroplan miles. The
last time it was updated was 2014 and a lot has changed since then!
We've seen cards that were on that list disappear, cards go through earn
rate changes and most recently seeing the entire Aeroplan program
revamped and relaunched in November 2020. It is only fitting that we
provide a new and revised version of that feature as well since there
have been so many changes in those 7 years.
Here's your Rewards Canada Daily update! Your daily dose (or near daily dose) of loyalty program, credit card and travel news, bonuses, deals and more.
This is the first update post of 2021 and the main thing you may have noticed since the onset of the New Year is a transformation that is happening at Rewards Canada. It all started with our new logo (With many variations) that has been on the back burner for several years now and has been finally brought to fruition. Watch our social media and other channels in the future for more details on the development of our logo. This will all be followed by a complete revamp of the website in the coming months as it hasn't had a major update since 2012! Just patchwork additions and updates here and there. I know we are excited about the changes and we hope you like them as well! As always, feedback is appreciated on everything happening here so please fell free to pass along comments, suggestions and more.
The credit card market in Canada is ever changing - it doesn't seem like a month goes by without a new card being released or an existing card being revamped. And it is the latter that is the subject of this post. We have seen a lot of the major cards in our market go through an overhaul over the past few years, whether it was an enhancement, a devaluation or both. From the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card to CIBC's suite of Aventura cards to the BMO Rewards World Elite Mastercard and the new Aeroplan cards, issuers have been making sure they do their best to be competitive. There are however some cards that have not been touched in ages by their issuers and in our opinion there is one that is in serious need of an overhaul to remain relevant and competitive in our market.
Looking to rack up more WestJet dollars in 2021? Why not start by getting the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard which is offering its highest ever welcome bonus of 450 WestJet dollars! Apply by January 31 to get this offer.
Image via WestJet
In just over a day there will be four buy miles and points bonus offers coming to an end. All four of these offers have end dates of December 31 however the Air France KLM Flying Blue offer will end sooner on December 31 since it is based on Central European Time which means you only have until 5:59pm ET to buy those miles if your like. The two that definitely stand out in this list are Hilton's and Hyatt's offers. The Hilton 100% bonus matches a frequent offer from them and is the best offer that comes from them while Hyatt's is close the being their best offer but not quite as good as the 40% bonus we do see from them on occasion.
The BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Card is part of a duo of cards released by BMO in late 2020 which represent their first foray into issuing Visa branded cards. Up until this point BMO has been strictly an issuer of Mastercard cards under their own proprietary program BMO Rewards and co-brand Mastercards for the AIR MILES reward program. The new eclipse Visa Infinite and Visa Infinite Privilege cards expand on BMO's portfolio of card offerings as they do not replace any cards but complement their existing BMO Rewards Mastercards.
The BMO eclipse Visa Infinite Card was released into a market that has seen card issuers trying to target lifestyle on top of rewards or at least that's how all the issuers are marketing the cards as such. This card falls into that category, it is being marketed as a lifestyle card with accelerated earn for select 'lifestyle' categories and an annual lifestyle statement credit. The card has accelerated earn rates that are comparable to several of their competitors and the annual $50 lifestyle credit is the first such offering for cards in Canada at this card level, that is premium cards like Visa Infinite and World Elite Mastercard. It's base earn rate is something else however and took us by surprise at being so weak for this level of card. Read on to find out more about that! In terms of benefits and insurance the card is mediocre but they do add in Mobile Device Insurance.