February 11 Update: Earn 8x miles sitewide on AIR MILES Shops, Flair Airlines announces major route expansion 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!
 

To celebrate the Lunar New Years AIR MILES Shops are offering 8x miles sitewide on all purchases made via any of their online retailers. This offer is available until February 15 and don't forget to also earn points/miles/etc. in the retailer's loyalty program if they have one! Find out more here.

Clash of the Credit Cards! HSBC World Elite Mastercard vs. Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite Card

 

Welcome to another Rewards Canada Clash!

If you listened to our podcast from June 2020 entitled Clash of the Credit Cards - you'll know that we've changed our Showdown features to Clashes. The reason why is that lots of sites and blogs are using Showdown now, some are using battle so we wanted to continue to be unique so our comparisons are now Clashes! 

This time we have another Clash of the Credit Cards that pits two of the best No Foreign Transaction fee cards in Canada against each other! Those cards are the HSBC World Elite® Mastercard®  and the Scotiabank Passport™ Visa Infinite* Card 

Continue on to the main Rewards Canada site to read the Clash in its entirety!

1,000 free miles when you join Qatar Airways Privilege Club by April 30

 

Offer details:
1,000 Bonus Qmiles when you join the Privilege Club program using promo code JOINPC21. Click here to join (promo code automatically populates). Members will also earn 1,000 bonus Qmiles on their first online booking, or 500 bonus Qmiles for each subsequent online booking. Join by Apr 30, 21

February 10 Update: Best Western Rewards halves 2021 elite qualification requirements, Marriott to add 19 all inclusive resorts from Canada's Sunwing Travel & a 40,000 bonus PC Optimum point offer

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! 

 

Best Western Rewards is cutting its Elite Status eligibility qualifications in half for 2021. This means you can achieve Gold Elite Status with just five nights, three stays or 5,000 points. All other levels have also been halved, see the chart below for the qualification requirements. Learn more here. Remember you also get automatic Gold Status and a fast track to Diamond Status with the MBNA Best Western Mastercard or you can also take part in their super easy status match offer if you have status with another hotel program. 

You can now exchange WestJet companion vouchers for lounge access and gift Gold Elite status with your milestone awards

Back in November of 2020 WestJet released the news that new benefits were set to come for WestJet Rewards members who have a WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard and members who hold Gold or Platinum Elite status. One is the ability to convert the companion voucher earned on the Mastercard to lounge passes and the other for the elite members is the gifting of elite status. The good news is those two new benefits officially launched today on February 10th. 

Fairmont Hotels in Canada offering up new renovations, dining experiences, special packages and more for 2021

Fairmont Hotels here in Canada have been at the forefront of creating meaningful and safe experiences and offers for those wanting to escape from home with a staycation. For 2021 Fairmont is continuing down that path with the introduction renovations, dining experiences, special packages and more at many of their hotels. Below we list just some of the highlights for this year that Fairmont has passed along to us to share with our readers.

February 9 Update: HBC chooses Neo Financial to issue their new Mastercard, Guide to Credit Card Cash Back Liquidity & Air Canada announces more lay offs and route cuts

 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! 

 
HBC (The Bay) has decided on who their credit card partner will be after news that their partnership with Capital One is ending. This one comes as a bit of a surprise and is a huge score for this newcomer. HBC will be partnering with Neo Financial to issue their new Mastercard! We detailed neo late last year (and have another update coming as they have released more card options) as they are a newcomer to the Canadian market, but they have a lot of backing thanks to being founded by some of the same people who launched and sold SkipTheDishers and they are looking to disrupt the current financial model in Canada (banking, credit cards, mortgages etc.). For them to score a co-brand deal this early on is huge for Neo and we pass along a big congratulations to them! Thanks to Rewards Canada contributor Jeff W. for passing along this news! (Source Business Wire)

Koho Premium Prepaid Visa Review

The Koho Premium Prepaid Visa is one of only a select few prepaid credit cards that offers rewards for your everyday spending on the card. This card is virtually open to anyone since there are no credit checks necessary as you have to fund it prior to using it. Technically what you are opening a savings account with Koho that comes with a reloadable prepaid Visa card. They also offer non-premium version called the Koho Reloadable Prepaid Visa.

New Welcome Offer for the enhanced CIBC Dividend® Visa Infinite* Card - 10% cash back on all purchases up to $2,000 and a first year annual fee rebate

 

At the start of this month CIBC brought back their excellent limited time welcome bonus offer for their premium cash back card the CIBC Dividend® Visa Infinite* Card. That offer is 10% cash back on all purchases up to $2,000 made during the first four monthly statement periods. The offer doesn’t end there however as new cardholders will also get their first year annual fee rebated which means you can try this card out at no cost to you other than your actual credit card spending. The other good news coming on February 1st was the launch of the card changes we announced back in October. The biggest drawback the card had, if you would consider it a drawback was only being able to cash out your rewards once per year. Well that's gone and now you can cash out anytime when your rewards balance hits $25 or more. On top of that there are some earning and annual fee changes to the card as well that are detailed below.

Aeroplan Explore For More Contest - enter for your chance to win Air Canada flights and Aeroplan Points

 We've now had three months to start getting used to the new Air Canada Aeroplan program and to further celebrate the launch of the new program and to teach members more about it Air Canada revealed a new contest today. The Aeroplan Explore For More Contest is exactly that, they want you to explore more of the program, learn more about it and in return you'll have the chance to win Aeroplan points or flights with Air Canada: