February 4 Update: Air Canada Rouge to suspend all flights temporarily and IHG Hotels refreshes their logo and name

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 update is brought to you by the HSBC +Rewards Mastercard which is currently offering a welcome bonus of up to 30,000 bonus points, no annual fee in the first year and a low 11.9% interest rate! 

Air Canada announced they will be temporarily suspending all Air Canada Rouge flights as of February 8, This is primarily due to the Government of Canada requesting the suspension of flights to Mexico and the Caribbean. (Source Canadian Travel News)

Image via Air Canada

Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for February - These cards provide the best value out of their welcome bonuses

  Here are the Rewards Canada Top 5 Travel Credit Card Sign Up offers for the month of February 2021! This is not a 'best' credit card list like our Top Travel Rewards Credit Card rankings but instead a look at cards that have very good acquisition (welcome/sign up) offers. As always when choosing a card you should always take other factors into account other than the just sign up bonus, but when some of these cards are first year free, they can and do pay off even when you grab them strictly for the sign up rewards. This month we see three first year free cards on the list

Marriott's 2021 hotel category changes are here - only 201 hotels changing worldwide with 75% going down in price

 

It's the time of year where we start getting news from all the hotel chains about their hotel category changes. That is, not changes to award charts or amounts but rather where individual hotels fall into those categories. Some hotels move up categories, that is become more expensive in terms of the number of points required to redeem for free night, while others go down in price and become cheaper to redeem for.

Best ever bonus of 450 dollars on the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard extended to March 31

 

The highest ever publicly available bonus of 450 dollars on the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard has been extended. Originally slated to end on January 31 the offer now has a new deadline of March 31, 2021. 

The offer provides 250 WestJet dollars upon activation of the card and then an additional 200 WestJet dollars when you spend $5,000 within 3 months of account open date. That means you need to spend on average $1,667 per month.

National Bank of Canada World Elite Mastercard extends their $300 cash back and no annual fee in the first year offer

National Bank of Canada has extended the welcome bonus for the premier card in their portfolio - the NBC World Elite Mastercard. The  offer provides new cardholders with the opportunity to earn up to $300 in cash back when you spend at least $4,000 on the card within the first three months of having it. This spend requirement is $500 less than the offer that just ended on January 31. On top of that the $150 annual fee on the primary card will be refunded in the first year. This bonus is over and above the regular points earn and other benefits that come with the card. To take advantage of this particular offer you must apply for the card by April 30 2021 and activate it no later than May 15, 2021. The offer is also available on their Platinum and World Mastercards as well.

AIR MILES Bonus Boom is now live - earn bonus miles with participating partners + 95 bonus miles when you collect three different Bonus Boom offers

 

The latest AIR MILES Bonus Boom event kicked off today with a whole bunch of bonus miles offers for shopping or completing actions with various AIR MILES partners. Most of the bonuses are available between today and October 14 although several like the AIR MILES Hotels have already been in market and will continue to be in market past the main promotional period. Once again if you use three different Bonus Boom offers you'll get 95 bonus AIR MILES.

February 3 Update: Earn up to 49,000 Aeroplan Points or 25,000 Avios for free, Aeroplan Valentine's Day Bonus Point offers & 50,000 bonus PC Optimum points with Shoppers online

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 update is brought to you by the HSBC +Rewards Mastercard which is currently offering a welcome bonus of up to 30,000 bonus points, no annual fee in the first year and a low 11.9% interest rate! 

 
We've updated our venerable post entitled Travel Hacking 101. This post that has been continually updated since 2013 shows how you can earn Aeroplan Miles and/or British Airways Avios for free. The latest update sees the newest offers for the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card, CIBC Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card and Choice Card from American Express being added. All told you can earn up to 49,000 Aeroplan Points or 25,000 Avios at no cost other than credit card spend. Read the post here.

Increased welcome bonus offer of 12,500 points for the no fee Choice Card from American Express

 

In early December American Express resurrected and relaunched the Choice Card from American Express TM. This is their no fee reward cards that just recently just took second spot in the Top No Fee Travel Rewards Credit Card category in our 2021 Travel Credit Card rankings. When it was relaunched it came with a decent 10,000 point welcome bonus but  as of today that's getting a 25% boost to 12,500 points when you spend $1,250 on the card within the first three months of having it. That's equivalent to a $125 credit towards any travel booked on your own or $87.50 when using it to redeem for any purchase that isn't travel related. It also equates 15,000 Marriott Bonvoy points which is a pretty sweet deal as we value Marriott Bonvoy points at no less than 1 cent a piece so that makes the welcome bonus worth at least $150 but wait that's only a minimum. Read on to find out more.

PC Financial World Elite Mastercard Review

The President's Choice Financial World Elite Mastercard is the flagship card for the PC Optimum program which is the loyalty program for the Loblaw family of stores that include Loblaw, Real Canadian Superstore and Shoppers Drug Mart to name the least. PC Financial is the banking branch of the Loblaw group of companies and they offer three different credit cards, all of which are unique in that they all don't have an annual fee attached to them.

February 2 Update: New 100,000 point offers on PC Financial Mastercards, Amex Centurion Lounge opens in Denver and 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. This update is brought to you by the HSBC +Rewards Mastercard which is currently offering a welcome bonus of up to 30,000 bonus points, no annual fee in the first year and a low 11.9% interest rate! 

 Another 100K offer is out for the PC Financial Mastercards. Again there is a short window for it as this offer is valid for applications until February 3, 2021 and is good for any one of the three cards in their portfolio:

• PC Financial Mastercard
• PC Financial World Mastercard
• PC Financial World Elite Mastercard