January 14 Update: Negative COVID-19 test result required prior to flying to the U.S., earn double points for Coast Hotel stays & much more

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.  

 

The United States has become the latest country that will require a Negative PCR test prior to boarding a flight that will land in the U.S. The requirement will take effect on January 26. All passengers must provide proof of a negative viral test taken within 3 days of their flight to the U.S.. If you have flights booked to the U.S. after the 26th make sure you are able to get tested properly within the required time period. And remember you have to do the same upon returning to Canada. (Source CDC)

Earn 1,000 bonus Rewards points on your next Best Western stay completed by June 30 (Possibly targeted)

 
There is a new offer out for Best Western Rewards members that awards 1,000 bonus points on your next stay with the hotel chain. I believe it to be a targeted offer as the URL has ’email-campaign’ in it however the terms and conditions don’t explicitly state that it is for recipients of the email only. It accepted my email address when I submitted the registration however the offer does not show up in the Special Offers section of my BWR account. In the end you should register for it no matter what and just keep your fingers crossed you get those extra points on your next Best Western stay. If not, oh well and hope the next time you are targeted. Be sure to also register for any other Best Western offers that are available! You can find those offers here.

AIR MILES Massive Giveaway - win up to 100,000 miles to shop the AIR MILES Merchandise Rewards Catalogue

 

AIR MILES launched a new contest today where you can win up to 100,000 Reward Miles to use towards any items in their Merchandise Rewards Catalogue.  For every AIR MILES Reward Miles base mile you earn between today and the contest end date of February 3 you'll earn one entry into the giveaway.  There is one grand prize and 10 regional prizes to be won as follows:

Awesome new bonus on Canada's Top Travel Rewards Credit Card - Up to 45,000 bonus points for the American Express Cobalt Card

The overall best travel rewards credit card in Canada (and in fact a pretty strong cash back card in its own right) just became that much more valuable if you don't have it in your wallet yet. The card is the American Express Cobalt Card and ever since it launched late in 2017 it has been the number one card in Canada. There are several reasons for this but it primarily comes down to the card earning 5x points on eats and drinks (it was one of the first cards to award that many points on purchases) but also providing good redemption value for those 5x points and even the rest of the points the card earns a 2x and 1x. On top of that the card lets you convert points to Marriott Bonvoy which can then in turn be converted to 40+ airline programs including Aeroplan. Really, the card gives you a little bit of everything.

IHG Rewards Club first promo of 2021: Earn 2,000 bonus points after every 2 nights for stays in Canada and Worldwide

 

 IHG becomes the next hotel chain to provide details of their first major promotion of 2021. The follow in the footsteps of Hilton, Marriott and Choice who have already released their offers (or details of them) and IHG’s offer is similar to Marriott’s in that their is an elite status component. The offer awards 2,000 bonus points for every 2 nights you complete at IHG hotels Worldwide. The nights do not have to be consecutive or on the same stay. As well all bonus points earned with this promotion will count towards elite status.

RBC credit card holders can now earn extra Be Well points for shopping at Rexall

CORRECTION: Thanks to long time Rewards Canada reader Harry B. for pointing out that you earn 50 points in total with your RBC card and your Rexall Be Well account. Not the 50 points + 10 points as we first published. Per the email sent out from Rexall you earn 40 points from your RBC card and 10 points from your Be Well card for a total of 50 points per dollar.

Akin to RBC's partnership with Petro-Canada, RBC credit card holders will now be able to link their credit cards with Rexall's Be Well program to earn extra points. Once you link your RBC credit card to your Rexall Be Well accounts you'll earn 50 Be Well points for every $1 spent on that RBC card at Rexall. This is over and above the base earn rate for the Be Well program.

When earning 5x points isn't the same as earning 5x points - a loyalty lesson

BMO's ad on Twitter

Taking a page right out of TD's playbook we see BMO come out with an advertising campaign for their new BMO eclipse Visa Infinite* Card. The campaign that I saw on Twitter highlights the card's 5x points earn rate and the card's welcome bonus but nothing else. It is ads like these that irk me as they don't tell the whole story. Technically speaking there is absolutely nothing wrong with them nor are they advertising anything falsely. In fact many banks and credit card issuers do it. For me it brings back memories of when I heard that radio ad for Canada's first ever 100,000 point credit card welcome bonus on the ATB Gold My Rewards Travel Card back in 2013. The radio ad made it seem like or should I say implied those 100,000 points were huge and provided amazing value when in fact they were only worth $100. Other cards at that time were only offering 15,000 to 25,000 points but those were worth way more than that $100 but ATB's hope was that people didn't realize that.

January 12 Update: AIR MILES losing Lowe's, Rona & Reno Depot, Alaska Airlines will not adjust oneworld partner charts and Virgin Atlantic status match to British Airways

 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.

 
And so it continues - as first reported by Milesopedia. AIR MILES will be losing a major partner at the end of this month. The Lowe's group of partners (Lowe's, Rona, Reno-Depot) will end their partnership with AIR MILES on January 31. This marks another blow to the AIR MILES program and further adds fuel to the topic of the coalition program model dying a slow death in Canada. After this there aren't many prominent nationwide partners left in the program, you have Amex, BMO, Shell, Safeway/Sobeys, Staples and a few other major players but gone are the days of having so many nationwide partners to choose from.

Radisson is offering a 20% rebate on reward nights & points transfers to airline miles

 
Radisson is once again offering a rebate on some of their rewards like we saw this past fall but this time the rebate is a little less (it was 25% in fall). However this time the offer expands beyond free night rewards to include airline transfers as well as gift cards. The rebate is 20% for reward nights and transfers to airlines and 15% for gift cards. The offer is good for redemption made until January 20, 2021 with reward nights having to be consumed by April 18, 2021. Registration for the offer is required.

Choice Privileges: Double Points on all Choice Hotels stays in Canada (and beyond)

 

It is nice to see Choice Hotels changing up their systemwide bonus promotions as they have pretty much cycled through the stay twice get up to 8,000 points offer for the better part of a couple years now. Their newest systemwide promo sees the program offering double points on all stays worldwide (save for a few countries*) from January 18 to February 28. No need to complete to two stays as the points are awarded on all eligible stays including a single night stay. They do cap the maximum number of bonus points you can earn at 30,000 during the promotional period.