March 29 Update: Update on Buddy Pass Conversion - not good news for new applicants plus two days left to get your Shangri-La status and to get better cash back value from Scotia

 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.

 
Update on Buddy Pass conversion: We have been notified The Buddy Pass from Air Canada co-brand cards can only be converted to Aeroplan points by April 30th. This means it is very unlikely any new applicants for the TD card will be able to get the pass in time to convert. Air Canada likely did this to keep the card from having an influx of new applicants just to convert the Buddy Pass over to points. This is an unfortunate turn of events and may affect anyone who applied for the card since the news broke last week about this conversion option. We have reached out to Aeroplan about their plans for those people who did apply over the past few days and how they'll handle it as I'm sure there were quite a few people who did apply in hope of getting those extra points and with there being no indication until today that it would be cut off so soon those new applicants may be PO'd! We'll be sure to provide an update as soon as we hear back from Aeroplan. Learn more about the conversion option here.

How to earn over 147,000 Aeroplan points for free*

GREAT NEWS: According to an interview with Air Canada Aeroplan execs that Anshul at Points, Miles & Bling had over this past weekend the buddy pass conversion option is based on the date you apply not the date the buddy pass posts to your account - this means you can apply for this card by April 30 and be able to convert the buddy pass to Aeroplan points once it posts to your account. Please note there are mentions on other sites the conversion option is being extended. There is no confirmation of this just yet - we have reached out to Air Canada and should know by April 23 if this will be happening 

MAJOR UPDATE: We have been notified The Buddy Pass can only be converted by April 30th which means it is very unlikely any new applicants for the TD card will be able to get the pass in time to convert. This is likely to keep the card from having an influx of new applicants just  to convert the Buddy Pass over to points. This is an unfortunate turn of events and affects this post. That being said there is still the potential to get 118,000 Aeroplan Points + a buddy pass (with the hope that Air Canada lets people convert them beyond the April 30 date)

 Over the past week we have seen some developments in the Canadian credit card mark that hugely benefit the Canadian consumer, travelers and points & miles aficionados alike. Here at Rewards Canada we've already covered all the developments in several posts but the crazy thing is you can bring them all together to rack up a ton of Aeroplan points at no cost other than credit card spending. That's where the asterisk * in the title comes into play. * We mean free as in paying no annual fees on this list of credit cards in the first year - you simply need to make the minimum spending requirement on some or all of the cards to garner those points. Some of you may have one or two of these cards so you can jump on some of the offers to earn a portion of the points for free or are sitting at a position in the points and miles game where you can re-apply for them now and get yourself those points while some of you may not have any of the cards and can potentially score the full 147,000 points. 

March 26 Update: Earn up to 25x points when booking travel with More Rewards and WestJet further expands summer schedule with flights to B.C. from across Canada

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.

 
More Rewards members can earn 10x points for booking Sandman Hotel stays via More Rewards Travel. This means you will earn 10 points per dollar spent on those stays (before taxes and fees of course) plus what points/miles you earn on your credit card. This offer is valid for stays until December 31, 2021. Learn more here.

Visa Infinite Exclusive Offer: 500 bonus ALL Accor Live Limitless points for stays Fairmont Hotels & other Accor locations

An exclusive offer came out this month for Canadian Visa Infinite cardholders the provides 500 bonus points for stays at Accor Hotels in North and Central America. For most of us this means for stays at Fairmont Hotels across Canada along with the handful of Novotel and Sofitel Hotels in the eastern triangle. If you are traveling beyond our borders you can look to utilize the offer in the U.S., Mexico and so on. 

Now's the time to grab an Air Canada Aeroplan credit card - get up to 50,000 points at no cost other than card spending!

 

GREAT NEWS: According to an interview with Air Canada Aeroplan execs that Anshul at Points, Miles & Bling had over this past weekend the buddy pass conversion option is based on the date you apply not the date the buddy pass posts to your account. Then Aeroplan confirmed with Rewards Canada that there is no set end date for this buddy pass conversion. Ultimately it comes down to the TD end date of this offer on May 30. We feel that after that date the buddy pass will not be offered on the card (pure speculation on our part however!)

 this means you can apply for this card by April 30 and be able to convert the buddy pass to Aeroplan points once it posts to your account.
Please note there are mentions on other sites the conversion option is being extended. There is no confirmation of this just yet - we have reached out to Air Canada and should know by April 23 if this will be happening

MAJOR UPDATE: We have been notified The Buddy Pass can only be converted by April 30th which means it is very unlikely any new applicants for the TD card will be able to get the pass in time to convert. This is likely to keep the card from having an influx of new applicants just  to convert the Buddy Pass over to points. 

Earlier on the Rewards Canada blog we detailed how you can now convert the Buddy Pass portion of the welcome offer on half a dozen Aeroplan co-brand credits to 30,000 Aeroplan points. This is a huge deal! To be able to get an extra 30,000 points out of a welcome bonus is unprecedented. Yes - the buddy pass can have huge value in its own right but by converting it to points you do take out some uncertainty over shorter term travel (think less than 2 years). Plus the buddy pass is meant for North America travel including Hawaii and only in economy class. By taking the points you can use them to build up your balance for travel to anywhere in the world that you can redeem Aeroplan points for (and that's a lot of places) in any fare class you like including First Class.

March 25 Update: Video - Exciting new hotels opening in Canada in 2021, WestJet resuming flights to Atlantic Canada & Quebec City and 500 free Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Miles

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 latest Rewards Canada Podcast that covers new hotel openings in Canada from Hilton, Hyatt, IHG & Marriott is now in video format on our YouTube Channel - Check it out here

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 April 14 and once again if you use three different Bonus Boom offers you'll get 95 bonus AIR MILES. New this time however is the ability to get the 95 bonus miles all from one retailer so long as they have multiple offers. For example Sobeys has three different offers available so if you meet the criteria for those three offers you'll get the 95 bonus miles.

You can now convert Air Canada Buddy Passes into 30,000 Aeroplan points!

GREAT NEWS: According to an interview with Air Canada Aeroplan execs that Anshul at Points, Miles & Bling had over this past weekend the buddy pass conversion option is based on the date you apply not the date the buddy pass posts to your account - this means you can apply for this card by April 30 and be able to convert the buddy pass to Aeroplan points once it posts to your account. Please note there are mentions on other sites the conversion option is being extended. There is no confirmation of this just yet - we have reached out to Air Canada and should know by April 23 if this will be happening

MAJOR UPDATE: We have been notified The Buddy Pass can only be converted by April 30th which means it is very unlikely any new applicants for the TD card will be able to get the pass in time to convert. This is likely to keep the card from having an influx of new applicants just  to convert the Buddy Pass over to points. 

Shout out to Ashul at Points, Miles & Bling and Ricky from Prince of Travel who broke the news last night that Aeroplan is now allowing members to convert the Air Canada Buddy Passes earned from an Aeroplan co-brand card into Aeroplan points! The option to convert has not been published publicly by Air Canada however Anshul and Ricky have confirmed with the airline that this indeed is true. And it is an awesome deal - Air Canada will give you 30,000 Aeroplan points if you choose to convert your Buddy Pass to Aeroplan points. To do so you simply have to call Aeroplan and tell them you would like to convert your Buddy Pass to points.

One week left for the best ever offer on the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard: 450 dollars + a $0 companion fare

 
For just over a month we have the seen the best offer yet on the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard and this is a reminder there is only one week left to score this great deal. The offer might be prime for the picking right now for some of our readers who are excited about the news that came out today from WestJet on how they are going to restart flights to Charlottetown, Fredericton, Moncton, Sydney and Quebec City and resume flights between Toronto and St. John's.

The Platinum Card from American Express sees its 50,000 point welcome bonus return

 
Earlier today we let you know about the new increased welcome bonuses on Amex's Marriott Bonvoy cards and in that post we mentioned the Platinum Card seeing an increased bonus as well. That's what we'll cover here and it is the return of what had been the standard bonus on The Platinum Card and that standard bonus is 50,000 points.

For the better of a year now Canada's Top Ultra Premium card has had a low welcome bonus of 25,000 points and for good reason. American Express shifted from putting money behind new acquisitions on this card to supporting those that already had it during the pandemic. Existing cardholders saw some pretty amazing offers during this time from Double Points and Double Redemption value to $250 in grocery store credits and much more. Now that there appears to be a light at the end of the tunnel with the pandemic albeit a very long tunnel still, American Express appears to be getting ready for everyone looking for revenge travel! They now have increased sign up bonuses on all their travel based cards except one - the American Express Gold Rewards Card stands alone as the forgotten child! 

Now back to this new offer on the Platinum Card of 50,000 welcome points. Those points will be earned when you spend $3,000 on the card in the first three months of having it. Those 50,000 points are worth no less than $500 towards travel when you redeem via the Flexible Points Travel Program, up to $1,000 when you redeem via the Fixed Points for Travel program or $500 to well over $2,000 when you convert to programs like Aeroplan and redeem for business or first class flights. 

Recommended reading: Redemption Stories: Saving $3,800 on last minute flights with the Platinum Card from American Express

Now the card does have one of the highest annual fees around - $699 per year but it comes with a slew of benefits and features that more than make up for that fee. There is a reason why this the best Ultra Premium credit card (well charge card) in Canada:

• 3 points per dollar spent on dining, 2 points per dollar on travel & 1 point on everything else
• $200 annual travel credit when you book travel via American Express
• The best airport lounge access program in Canada which includes Priority Pass Prestige for the cardholder and one guest
  
• Elite status with various hotel loyalty programs including Marriott and Hilton
• Access to Fine Hotels & Resorts which can add up to US$550 or more in value at luxury hotels around the world
• and much much more
  

Recommended reading: How to maximize the elite status benefits from The Platinum Card from American Express

Like we mentioned in the Marriott post from earlier today we are excited to see Amex boosting their welcome offers once again. It has been an unprecedented 12 months that I don't think any of us expected and it changed everything in the points and miles world. However when we see news like we did today it provides a glimmer of hope that in due time things will return to normal as now the Platinum Card is back to normal!

Learn more about and apply for the card here.

There is also a 60,000 point offer for the card via Amex's refer a friend channels. Feel free to contact us if you are interested in receiving that offer link.