April 27 Update: Share your hotel award night finds, Seniors' Bonus Day at Shoppers Drug Mart on April 29 & Novotel Toronto Centre closed for renos

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.

 
Hey Rewards Canada readers! Let us know about your Marriott Bonvoy award night finds in Canada or other hotel programs for that matter! Yesterday we published a new article detailing some great free night options for using the 60,000 points you can earn on the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card. In that article we only look at a handful of hotels as there are so many dates and hotels to choose from in Canada that it is tough for us to find them all. That's where we know the Rewards Canada Community can help! With thousands of you out there we know some of you are searching and booking award nights here in Canada and we would love to be able to share those amazing finds with the rest of our readers! So if you have booked or even just come across some amazing ones in your searches feel free to share your finds in the comment section below or by email to info@rewardscanada.ca with the details!

Join Air Canada for Business by June 30 and unlock some benefits immediately without having to spend $10,000

 

Air Canada has revealed a new offer, well I believe it to be an extension of an offer from 2020 for their Air Canada for Business program. The offer allows any small business that joins the program to receive some of the benefits right from enrollment rather than having to reach the $10,000 annual minimum spend normally required to get them!

New welcome offer of 100,000 PC Optimum points on PC Financial Credit Cards

 
We see the return of the 100K offer for PC Financial Mastercards. You can receive this bonus when you apply by May 6 and it is good for any one of the three cards in their portfolio:

• PC Financial Mastercard
• PC Financial World Mastercard
• PC Financial World Elite Mastercard
  

How to use the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card to get some awesome free hotel stays in Canada this summer

 
We are on the cusp of the summer travel season and right now the way things are shaping up it looks like for most Canadians who do choose to travel it will be within our own fine borders. That means staycations and road trips for the most part but even perhaps flights to another province. Of course when you get to your destination your going to need accommodations and one of the best ways to save money on those stays is by utilizing a hotel rewards program. One of the best in Canada is Marriott's Bonvoy program and the easiest way to rack up those points quickly is with their co-brand credit cards from American Express. In as little as one month and no more than three months you can have enough points for some amazing hotel stays in Canada this summer and beyond.

April 26 Update: Voila Grocery Delivery/Pick up codes as 5x points for Cobalt Card and Turkish Airlines set to launch Vancouver route on May 2

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.

 
Added one more merchant to our American Express Cobalt Card Confirmed Multiplier Locations listing! That merchant is Voila.ca - which is the online ordering for curbside pick up/delivery from the Sobeys family of grocery stores. They launched out east in 2020 and f I'm not mistaken are relatively new out west - well to me at least they are! Here in Calgary we can only use it at four locations and for curbside pick up only. I used it for a Safeway purchase last week and the transaction shows up as Voila with American Express. The good news is Voila codes as a grocery partner (as it should!) and earns 5x points. See it and other confirmed locations here.

AIR MILES Bonus Boom returns on May 13 - earn 95 bonus miles when you use three different Bonus Boom offers

 

AIR MILES and BMO sent out a teaser email about the return of the AIR MILES Bonus Boom. This promotional event now seems to appear almost every month with the last one just ending on April 14! Once again it will be the standard 95 bonus AIR MILES Reward Miles when you utilize offers from three different partners between May 13 and May 26, 2021.

[OFFER EXPIRED] Ending Soon: Increased welcome bonus offer of 12,500 points for the no fee Choice Card from American Express

 

THIS OFFER IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE

In early December American Express resurrected and relaunched the Choice Card from American Express TM. This is their no fee reward cards that just recently just took second spot in the Top No Fee Travel Rewards Credit Card category in our 2021 Travel Credit Card rankings. When it was relaunched it came with a decent 10,000 point welcome bonus but for a few months has seen a 25% boost to 12,500 points when you spend $1,250 on the card within the first three months of having it. That's equivalent to a $125 credit towards any travel booked on your own or $87.50 when using it to redeem for any purchase that isn't travel related. It also equates 15,000 Marriott Bonvoy points which is a pretty sweet deal as we value Marriott Bonvoy points at no less than 1 cent a piece so that makes the welcome bonus worth at least $150 but wait that's only a minimum. Read on to find out more.

Podcast Episode 79 - Converting the Air Canada Buddy Pass to Aeroplan Points & Plaza Premium Lounge set to leave Priority Pass & LoungeKey

In this episode we bring you the latest news surrounding the unadvertised option to convert Air Canada Buddy Passes received from several Aeroplan co-brand credit cards to Aeroplan points (it's good news!). Then we move into the not so good news of one of the largest third party airport lounge operators, Plaza Premium, deciding to leave the Priority Pass and LoungeKey lounge access programs

Click Here to download the podcast (mp3)

Receive a $20 bonus for every $100 Best Western Travel Card purchase

 

Best Western is once again offering a 20% bonus on Best Western Travel/Gift Cards! This is fourth incarnation or should we say extension of this offer. When you buy a $100 gift card they will give you a $20 bonus card to use. You can buy up to $500 worth of gift cards with this promotion to receive $100 in bonus cards. Note the terminology difference in the cards – the travel/gift card is a true gift card – that is it has no expiry date as they can’t put one on them due to laws against it in countries like the U.S. and Canada. However the bonus card is not considered as such since it is an incentive and you are not paying cash for it. That means they can put an expiry on the bonus card and have done so. Any bonus cards you receive are only valid until November 15, 2021. Nonetheless if you think you’ll be traveling and staying at Best Western hotels by the end of June then by all means avail of this offer to garner those savings! Also note that you can buy the travel cards in USD, CAD, EUR or GBP currencies.

April 22 Update: Changes coming to the GHA Discovery program, up to 70,000 bonus SkyMiles for booking Delta Vacations & 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.

 
As first reported by Loyalty Lobby there are some changes happening at the GHA (Global Hotel Alliance) Discovery program. These changes don't affect travel within Canada but if you do utilize the program and their hotels outside of Canada you'll want to note these changes. The first is that U.S. based Omni Hotels are leaving the program at the end of June 2021. That hotel chain will focus on its in house loyalty program called Select Guest. The second bit of news sees Spanish based NH Hotels joining the program in 2022 at which time that hotel chain's NH Rewards will be merged into the Discovery program. Finally in that same press release about NH joining Discovery they note that the Discovery program will be revamped in Q4 of this year including the addition of a digital currency. That means they should be moving to a points based system and away from their current non-point awarding program.