May 6 Update: More Cobalt Card Confirmed 5x, 2x, 1x Multiplier Locations and there's one new Marriott Hotel opening this year in Kelowna!

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 big update to our American Express Cobalt™ Card Confirmed Multiplier Locations! Hopefully you were able to grab the card over the past few months when it had the 45K bonus offer on it if you didn't have the card already and can start racking up those true 5x points! Whether you got the card recently or are a veteran of the card you should always be checking our multiplier locations feature so you know which places you can use the card and earn 5x, 2x or 1x points. This time again we have to give a big shout out to FM out in the Vancouver area who consistently provides us with new Cobalt Multipler locations in the lower mainland! Below are the new locations added based on their spending. Be sure to check our American Express Cobalt™ Card Confirmed Multiplier Locations for these and many more locations!

Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for May - These cards provide the most value out of their welcome bonuses

 
Here are the Rewards Canada Top 5 Travel Credit Card Sign Up offers for the month of May 2021! This is not a 'best' credit card list like our Top Travel Rewards 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. This month we see three first year free cards on the list

Aeroplan Everday Status Qualification is officially here - earn status without flying

 

When the first news of the revamped Aeroplan program came out last August one feature that was being touted was being able to earn elite status from home. Unlike the limited time promotion early on during the pandemic this feature would be a full time everyday benefit of the Aeroplan program. Appropriately named Everyday Status Qualification, that benefit has officially launched now. 

May 5 Update: Earn up to 3x points on Hilton stays, Save 25% on food gift cards with RBC Rewards & new hotel openings in Canada update!

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.

 

A few weeks back we let you know about Hilton's new systemwide promotion that offers up to 3x Hilton Honors points on all stays. That offer went live on Monday so be sure to register for it if you haven't done so already so that you can earn Double Points on stays of 1 or 2 nights and Triple Points when you stay 3 nights or more until September 6. Register and book online here.

20% bonus on Fairmont gift cards for the next three hours! (May 5 - 2pm to 5pm EST)

 

Fairmont Hotels has brought back their famous flash sale that provides a 20% bonus on all gift cards purchased between 2pm and 5pm EST.  You can buy gift cards for Fairmont Hotels or their Willow Stream Spas from $25 to $2,000 per card and you can buy up to $5,000 worth of cards in one transaction. For example if you buy a $1,000 gift card you'll end up with $1,200 to spend at Fairmont Hotels.

Wow - a Marriott Bonvoy Category 5 hotel in the Maldives provides an amazing redemption value for this fall!

 

If you happen to follow any U.S. points & miles blogs you may have seen this new redemption option making waves across so many of those sites! From what we can tell this news was broke by Mile Value and it is simply awesome! That news is that the new Le Meridien Maldives that will be opening this September is only a Category 5 hotel in the Marriott Bonvoy program. That's right! A Category 5 hotel when pretty much all their other hotels in that region are Category 8! So what does that mean? Read on to find out!

[OFFER EXPIRED] Last day to get the best ever welcome bonus on Canada's Top Travel Rewards Credit Card

 

THIS OFFER IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE

The overall best travel rewards credit card in Canada (and in fact a pretty strong cash back card in its own right) has enjoyed its best ever welcome bonus since January and that offer will be wrapping up in two weeks! The card is the American Express Cobalt Card and ever since it launched late in 2017 it has been the number one card in Canada. There are several reasons for this but it primarily comes down to the card earning 5x points on eats and drinks (it was one of the first cards to award that many points on purchases) but also providing good redemption value for those 5x points and even the rest of the points the card earns a 2x and 1x. On top of that the card lets you convert points to Marriott Bonvoy which can then in turn be converted to 40+ airline programs including Aeroplan. Really, the card gives you a little bit of everything.

Best Western New Hotel Openings in Canada for 2021 - 10 hotels in the works including the GLo Mississauga

Best Western Hotels is a large worldwide hotel chain that was best known for just being Best Western. About ten or so years ago they added in Best Western Plus and Best Western Premier brands to help distinguish some of their hotels. And then over the past four or so years they decided to follow the other major hotel chains with expanding the brands to meet specific travel needs. There are now 18 brands associated with Best Western:

New earn rates for the BMO CashBack World Elite Mastercard are here - earn up to 5% cash back

Early in February we brought you the news that BMO  would be revamping their BMO CashBack® World Elite®* MasterCard®* in addition to changes coming to some of their other cards. In comparison to those other card changes the changes for the CashBack World Mastercard were the only bright spot as for most people this change was truly an enhancement.

May 4 Update: RSVP Rewards - Canada's newest hotel loyalty program, earn 40,000 PC Optimum points for shopping beauty & 3 Lufthansa lounges join Priority Pass

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.

 
In April the Sandman Hotel Group consolidated several of their loyalty programs and relaunched them as one program called RSVP Rewards. The new frequent guest program combines Sandman Hotel's Lucky 13 Rewards and Sutton Place Hotels Prestige into one. The new RSVP Rewards program is points based which is more like the Sutton Presitge program as Lucky 13 Rewards was a stamp based program (think buy 10 get 1 free punch cards. All Sutton Prestige members will retain their existing points balances and elite status levels while Lucky 13 members will have their stamps converted to points, unless you have a full card in which you can still redeem that for a free night. The program is giving Lucky 13 members until June 1, 2022 to convert their stamps into electronic points.