Alaska Airlines has officially joined the oneworld Alliance

We've talked it about here on Rewards Canada for many months now and are excited to bring you the news that we all knew would happen today and that is of Alaska Airlines officially joining the oneworld Alliance! This is huge for the airline that prior to this dabbled in partnering with airlines from across all three alliances and thankfully will still have some of those other partnerships but now with the power of belonging to one alliance. Alaska Airlines 14th airline to become a full member of oneworld and this plays well for many Canadians - well mainly for those that know the value of Alaska Airlines' Mileage Plan program as there are those who have never considered the program since the airline only serves cities in Alberta & B.C.. This was even despite some amazing partnerships with airlines that do serve many Canadian cities where the program can be utilized and now there are even more airlines to add to the mix.

March 31 Update: Last day to score 450 WestJet dollars on the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard & Flair Airlines announces new service to Montreal

 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.

 
Today is the last day to get in on the best ever offer for the WestJet RBC World Mastercard. The offer sees a limited time $0 companion voucher and up to 450 WestJet dollars. After today the $0 companion voucher will remain on offer until May but the bonus dollars will drop. We still don't know what it will drop to exactly but have double confirmation from WestJet that it won't be 450. Do note that to get the 450 WestJet dollars you do have to be able to spend $5,000 on the card in the first three months of having it. If you know you can't spend $5K in three months then wait until the next offer comes out but if you can meet that spend then you should probably apply for the card today. You can apply for the card here

Image via RBC

How to earn over 97,000 British Airways Executive Club Avios for free*

 
Hot on the heels of our popular post from earlier this week showing our readers how they can earn over 118,000 Aeroplan points for nothing other than credit card spend is that you can do the same for several other programs in Canada. One of the most popular non-Canadian frequent flyer programs for Canadians is British Airways Executive Club and thanks to many of the same card offers seen in the Aeroplan post   plus one additional card you can earn a boat load of BA Executive Club Avios 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 98,000 Avios. 

Aeroplan extending elite status to 2022, providing an elite jump start program for 2022 and further extending the pause on points expiry

 
We've said it before and we'll say it again - Air Canada's Aeroplan has been one of the most proactive, member oriented and rewarding loyalty programs during this pandemic and today's news from them just builds on that.

Aeroplan let us know that they will provide an automatic extension of Aeroplan Elite status, they are instituting an elite status jump start program and are further extending the pause on points expiry.

WestJet secures slots for London Heathrow flights

News came out over the past week about the allocation of coveted new slots for flying to London's Heathrow airport and Canada's WestJet was one of the airlines that was awarded some of them. We haven't seen an official announcement from WestJet just yet but according to Canadian Aviation News WestJet received 732 slots which means they could operate 28 flights per week which further translates to 2 daily flights. Here's a further description from Canadian Aviation News:

New welcome offer for the Laurentian Bank Visa Infinite Card - Up to 8 points per dollar in the first 3 months + annual fee credit

 
At the start of March Laurentian Bank came out with a new offer for their Visa Infinite Card. The offer provides new approved cardholders with 8 points per dollar spent on gas, groceries, transportation and travel purchases for the first three months from account opening. The 8 points per dollar will be awarded on the first $2,000 in spending in those categories. On top of this they will provide a $130 credit which covers the first year annual fee on the card. 

25% discount when you buy World of Hyatt points until April 30

 
Hyatt has released another buy points offer and this time it is in the form of a discount just like we saw at the end of 2020. The discount is a flat 25% off when you buy 5,000 or more points. This 25% discount works out to 1.8 cents per point which is better than the 30% bonus we see quite often but not as good as the 40% that we have seen from them as well. Still it could make sense to buy points for an award in the short term before a 40% bonus comes along again. This 25% discount offer runs right through to the end of the April.

Air Canada Aeroplan adds Air Dolomiti as a partner - you can now earn and burn points on this little Italian airline

 

It is surprising to think that in a year where we saw travel be extremely curtailed that frequent flyer program expansion would also be limited. Such is not the case with Air Canada's Aeroplan as they have added six new airline partners to their roster over the past year. The sixth just being announced today and that airline is Air Dolimiti. The Lufthansa Group owned Italian airline primarily serves major Italian cities and several other European cities from Lufthansa's major hubs in Frankfurt and Munich. Both of those cities are major connecting points for Air Canada flights so one can easily see where this new partnership with Aeroplan makes sense.

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.