[OFFER EXPIRED] Last Day for the 40,000 point welcome bonus and no fee in the first year for the HSBC World Elite Mastercard

 
THIS OFFER HAS NOW EXPIRED

Today is the last day to apply for the elevated offer of 40,000 points for the HSBC World Elite Mastercard. As of tomorrow the standard welcome offer of 20,000 points with an annual fee will be back. By no means does this 40K offer come close to the 100K offer they ran for the last four months of 2020 and we are hopeful a bigger bonus will be seen from them in the near future. If you do need to the grab the card sooner than later then go for it today as it provides up to 40,000 bonus HSBC Rewards Points along with having the first year $149 annual fee waived on the primary card.  The bonus is awarded as follows:

AIR MILES Shops Birthday Offer - Shop online and earn 10x Miles sitewide until April 23

AIR MILES' online shopping portal airmilessshops.ca is 18 years old now and to celebrate they have brought back their huge site wide 10x miles offer.

April 16 Update: New Amex offer of 4 bonus points per dollar with mobile service providers & earn bonus points for Marriott stays in Kelowna and Kingston

 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 new Amex Offers promotion came out yesterday and personally we received this one on the American Express Cobalt Card and it is one we have seen before for other cards and that is bonus points for mobile service providers. Time to swith the payment method for our mobile phones for the next three months! Let us know if you happened to receive it as well but on a different Amex card! The offer is as follows:

The Platinum Card from American Express just became more valuable for your future travels

If you didn't see the news from earlier this week about Plaza Premium lounges leaving the Priority Pass and LoungeKey lounge access networks. I recommend that you read that first (read it here) and then continue on with this post to see how this move just boosted the value of the Platinum Card from American Express.

MBNA Best Western Mastercard® Review

 

There is only one no annual fee hotel credit card in Canada and that is the MBNA Best Western Mastercard®. This card has been around for quite sometime now and has survived the turmoil seen in our market for hotel loyalty program co-brand credit cards. Just a few years ago we had no less than half a dozen hotel card to choose from but that has now dwindled down to two - well actually three if you include the business version of the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card. Both the Best Western and Marriott cards have definitely fit a niche in the Canadian market which have helped them outlast all the other hotel cards we seen come and go and the Best Western fills that no annual fee, road warrior, not looking for luxury travel niche perfectly. In fact this card has ranked in the top three in our annual rankings in the no annual fee travel rewards card segment so there is something to attest to here.

Major News: Priority Pass and LoungeKey losing access to most Plaza Premium lounges worldwide

 

Australia based Executive Traveller broke the news today that airport business class lounge provider Plaza Premium will be cutting ties with two of the biggest lounge access programs. As of July 1, 2021 members of Priority Pass and LoungeKey will no longer be able to access most Plaza Premium lounges worldwide. This change affects numerous lounges here at home as Plaza Premium operates 13 lounges with two in Edmonton, six in Toronto, four in Vancouver, and one in Winnipeg. There is word that some Plaza Premium lounges will remain part of those programs but they haven't been revealed yet. We'll have to keep our fingers crossed that some of the Canadian locations are part of that list.

April 14 Update: Aeroplan's generous refund policy extended, What you actually have to spend to get a credit card bonus & Maximizing elite status benefits from The Platinum Card

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.

 
Air Canada's generous refund policy for Aeroplan flight rewards tickets has been extended by one month to May 31 from April 30. This means all flights booked by that date can be changed or cancelled free of charge. Learn more here.

Here are the latest RBC Offers including statement credits from Boston Pizza & Indigo

 

It's been a couple of months since we last updated the RBC offers on our site as there were issues with RBC's system that wouldn't show them to me when I logged in That seems to be fixed now so here is the update with all the latest offers. Most of these are available on all RBC cards. You can view RBC's card offerings here. 

Top 5 Small Business Credit Card Sign Up offers for April - 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. 

Air Canada will provide refunds for all flights affected by COVID-19

 

Yesterday Air Canada concluded an agreement with the federal government to receive a financial support package of up to $5.89 billion. To receive the financing from the government Air Canada had to agree to refund tickets to consumers who had flights cancelled by Air Canada or had themselves proactively cancel flights due to the pandemic.