April 12 Update: The upcoming Hampton Inn & Suites Bradford destroyed by fire, 50% bonus when you convert points to Etihad Guest & Alaska Airlines increasing lounge access pricing

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.

 
Over the weekend the number of new Hilton Hotels opening in Canada changed from nine to eight. This is due to the unfortunate news that the under construction Hampton Inn & Suites in Bradford was destroyed by fire on Saturday morning. This hotel was set to open in August of this year. It is too early to stay right now what the future will hold for this hotel and whether ir will be rebuilt. (Source Orillia Matters)

Receive up to a 60% bonus when you buy Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles

Some of the best frequent flyer miles out there are Alaska Airlines’ Mileage Plan miles so when they are offered with a bonus when buying them people take notice. For the longest time the biggest bonus on buying Mileage Plan miles was 50% but in the latter half of 2020 we saw that boosted to 60% and even 70% for select members. Well we’re happy to tell you that that  the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan buy miles bonus is back and once again we see it up at the 60% level!

The American Express Aeroplan Reserve Card sees its base earn rate boosted to 1.25 points per dollar spent

 
Great news for those of you who have the American Express® Aeroplan®* Reserve Card or having been eyeing on getting it! There is a positive change to card that took on April 7 that sees it become more valuable. We were first alerted to it on Twitter by our follower Joshua:

The highly anticipated Humaniti Hotel Montreal, Autograph Collection opens on June 10 with a 2,000 bonus point grand opening offer

 

UPDATE: It appears the hotel will now open on June 1st! With the pool and rooftop bar opening on June 8th!

Back in February we started off our 2021 series of looking at new hotels opening in Canada with what Marriott has planned and one of those that we were most excited about has revealed its opening date and grand opening offers! We placed the opening of the Humaniti Hotel Montreal, Autograph Collection as one of the most anticipated Marriott openings in Canada this year. 

American Express will issue replacement Annual Travel Credits for Platinum Cardmembers who didn't use them during the pandemic

 
The Platinum Card from American Express may be one of the most expensive cards to carry in your wallet at $699 per year but there's good reason for that. You have an amazing lounge access program, you get automatic hotel elite status with numerous hotel chains, you get the Fine Hotels & Resorts program and much more. All of which are amazing travel benefits but there isn't much travel going on.  The $699 fee is softened by an annual $200 travel credit that you can utilize for bookings made via American Express Travel, which pre-pandemic was utilized by many. But now that we are in the thick of things many Platinum Cardmembers have not been travelling and have not been able to use the travel credit (unless you know the hotel refund trick ;-) ). American Express knows that cardmembers have stayed and like everything else great they have done during the pandemic they are appeasing the customer and extending or issuing new travel credits for those that expired after October 1, 2020 or will expire by September 30, 2021

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

Here are Rewards Canada's Top 5 Cash Back Credit Card Sign Up offers for the month of April 2021. This is not a 'best' credit card list like our Top Cash Back 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.

Earn Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Elite Status & Star Alliance Gold Status from home

 

In a move that is very similar to Air Canada Aeroplan's Travel at Home campaign from spring 2020, Singapore Airlines has revealed a new promotion where you can earn elite status with their KrisFlyer program without even setting foot on a plane. With this promotion you have the ability to get yourself KrisFlyer Silver or Gold Elite status which translate to Star Alliance Silver or Gold status respectively. 

Yes, you can achieve a return of 20% or higher on your credit card spending

 
When we talk about returns on credit card spending it is usually in the fashion of a percent return for each dollar you have spent on a card. Percent returns help us gauge and compare cards against each other as they are so many variables in how cards in the Canadian market earn points and how those points can be redeemed. This means you can't really compare a point earned on this card with a point earned on that card without looking at the big picture. For example, our second most popular article of 2021 to this date compares earning 5x points on the American Express Cobalt Card versus earning 5x points on the BMO Eclipse Visa Infinite Card and how they don't equal each other despite having the same earn rate. 

April 6 Update: Fairfield Inn & Suites Salmon Arm now open, $150 grocery credit for Amex Aeroplan Reserve Cards & 7x miles on Aeroplan eStore for fashion retailers

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.

 
Another hotel that we listed in our New Marriott Hotel openings for 2021 opened up recently. The Fairfield Inn & Suites Salmon Arm in B.C.'s interior officially opened on March 19. This location seemed to open up with little fanfare as there isn't even an grand opening bonus points or rate offer. It does seem as the hotel is performing a soft opening right now. The hotel is a Category 3 property (Standard award night: 17,500 points // Off peak: 15,000 // Peak: 20,000) which means you can use your Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card annual free night award here. Learn more about Marriott's new hotel openings in Canada here.

Aeroplan Availability Alert: Business Class on Turkish Airlines out of Toronto for up to 4 people for Fall 2021/Winter 2022 travel

 

Spencer at Straight to the Points sent out an alert about business class tickets for up to 4 people being available on Turkish Airlines and since the airline is a Star Alliance member you can use your Aeroplan points to redeem for these flights. Availability is showing from September 2021 through to February 2022 for flights to Istanbul and beyond. Aeroplan charges 70,000 points each way for partner award flights in business class plus the $39 partner award booking fee.