February 12 Update: Canada's new entry requirements to start on February 22 and the Government of Canada approves Air Canada's takeover of Air Transat

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! 

Canada's new travel restrictions that require a mandatory hotel stay and quarantine upon returning to Canada will take effect February 22. This is the requirement where you may have to spend $2,000 to stay at specified hotel and to get your COVID-19 tests done. (Source Global News)

Neo Financial expands credit card reward options and goes nationwide

 
Back in October we provided you with details about Neo Financial and their rewards credit card offering. At that time they were only a few months past their beta stage and now less than half a year later they changing things up. When Neo first launched they wanted to be a different type of credit card and reward program but the approach they were taking at the time limited their market to select cities namely Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg with more cities coming down the line. That's very limiting when you want to grow your company and clientele base, so what does Neo do? They go down the traditional line of offerings that we see from most other card issuers by expanding their credit card portfolio to have cards that have a traditional cash back rewards component. And now that they have that all encompassing cash back reward option they have opened up applications to all Canadians including Quebec.

Top 5 Small Business 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 Small Business Credit Card Sign Up offers for this month! This is not a 'best' credit card list like our Top Travel Rewards Credit Card rankings but instead a look at cards for small businesses 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 four first year free cards on the list! And remember this list is based on minimum value towards travel which we calculate as the minimum value of the welcome bonus less the annual fee. It is entirely possible to receive more value out of the welcome bonuses on some the cards below namely those like Aeroplan and Marriott. 

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)