May 27 Update: Every 2nd night free + double points at Sandman Hotels and 25% off select gift cards through RBC Rewards

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. This update is brought to you by the HSBC World Elite Mastercard which is currently has a welcome bonus of up to 70,000 bonus points and no annual fee in the first year!

 

Sandman Hotels have a new sale in place where you can get every second night free for stays at select Sandman hotels across Canada. On top of that RSVP Rewards members will earn double points on those stays. Simply book by May 31 for stays until June 30. Find out more here.

Time to hit the rails! Aeroplan members can now earn and redeem points for Rocky Mountaineer rail journeys

Air Canada announced an exciting new partnership today for its Aeroplan program. Members are now able to earn and redeem points plus receive premium benefits when booking scenic rail journeys with Rocky Mountaineer. The famous western Canadian luxury rail tour operator joins the ranks of new and exciting partners that Aeroplan has been adding since the program was revamped in November 2020.

Receive a 60% bonus when you buy or gift Aeroplan points by June 1st

Earlier this morning we posted about the Aeroplan Blue Skies Contest  and within the actions to earn entries for the contest is a bonus offer! That bonus offer is the return of earning extra Aeroplan points when you buy and gift points. Right now through to June 1st you can earn a 60% bonus when you buy or gift Aeroplan points.

The Aeroplan Blue Skies Calling Contest - you could win one of 35 pairs of economy class tickets

Aeroplan launched a new contest today where members can have the chance to win one of 35 pairs of roundtrip Economy class tickets to Victoria (British Columbia), San Francisco, Cancun, Athens, Lisbon, Tokyo or Bogota. The contest runs until June 1st and if you happen to win a set of those tickets you have all the way through to the end of 2022 to travel! To earn contest entries you have to register for the contest first (that registration gets you your first entry) and then you can earn additional entries by complete certain actions

The Humaniti Hotel Montreal, Autograph Collection is opening early on June 1st with some great rates!

We've been providing coverage of the Humaniti Hotel Montreal, Autograph Collection over several posts since February as it is one of the most anticipated Marriott openings in Canada this year. Last time we checked the hotel was scheduled to open on June 10 and at that time we saw prices running in the high $600 to low $700 per night range. Well we just learned the hotel will now be opening on June 1st (yay! 9 days early) and not only that, they have dropped the nightly rates by a pretty penny! You can stay at the hotel on opening night for only $195+tax (about $37 in taxes and fees). That's a huge difference over those high rates we saw in early April when we posted about the grand opening 2,000 bonus points offer.

May 25 Update: Muir Autograph Collection Halifax will be a Category 6 hotel, discussing unused miles & points plus reduced redemption rates for Amex prepaid cards

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. This update is brought to you by the HSBC World Elite Mastercard which is currently offering a welcome bonus of up to 70,000 bonus points and no annual fee in the first year! 

 
We have now learned what Marriott Bonvoy category the Muir, an Autograph Collection Hotel Halifax will be. As I had predicted the hotel is a Category 6 hotel which unfortunately puts it out of reach for the anniversary free night awarded on the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card - that is unless there is an Off Peak Pointsavers award available in which case you could use it for one night. We have also learned the opening of this hotel has now been pushed back to November of this year from the projected summer opening. Learn more about this and other new Marriott Hotels in Canada here.

It's time for American Express to tweak the venerable Gold Rewards Card

You may recall that early in the year I published the article "There is one very popular travel rewards credit card in Canada that is due for a major overhaul" which detailed my thoughts on how the RBC Avion Visa Infinite Card is due for a change. That article was originally planned as five cards that need an overhaul but I ended up writing so much about the RBC card that it would have been way too long of an article to read. Even to cover the next four cards in their own article may prove too long so I figured I'll tackle them one by one - well not all of them as two of the cards on my list really only need the slightest changes so I'll probably lump them together in one article. With that out of the way I'll look at the how I think the next card due for an overhaul - I guess not really an overhaul but due for some tweaking is The American Express Gold Rewards Card.

The Top 5 Mastercard Cards to use at Costco Canada

 We've updated our feature on the Top Mastercard cards to use at Costco due to the recent changes to the BMO CashBack World Elite Mastercard. The BMO card saw its earn rate at Costco drop from 1.5% to 1% which meant it dropped off this list of the best five cards to use at Costco Canada stores. That card has been replaced with the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard and we've also added an honorable mention Mastercard to the list as well. The Top 5 Cards are as follows:

Summary of global hotel systemwide bonus points promotions – May Edition

 Here is your monthly update of all the global hotel bonus points promotions that are available. One of the easiest ways to rack up lots of hotel points is to take advantage of these systemwide bonuses that come from many of the big chain programs and also from the lesser known programs. In fact, right now it should be rare for you NOT to earn a bonus. Unless you are staying at a boutique hotel or perhaps an independent hotel most other hotels out there have a bonus. So take advantage of it! These systemwide bonuses simply require you to register beforehand and they do not affect hotel pricing as long as you book a point eligible rate which are most rates out there. Of course booking through a third party site like Expedia or Rocketmiles does not count as most chains only award points on bookings that are made directly with them.  Here are all the current promotions that are available to everyone this month:

How to earn bonus miles and points on travel, shopping and credit cards

 

One thing we have done at Rewards Canada right from when we first launched in September of 2001 has been to research, track and publish bonus offers for flights, hotels, car rentals and much more. In fact it proved to be so popular on Rewards Canada with visitors not only from Canada but from abroad as well that I created frequentflyerbomuses.com in 2005 to strictly cover loyalty bonus promotions from around the world! The bonus points listings and coverage on both sites became quite well known that I even recall attending a loyalty industry conference in the late 2000s and someone commenting "Oh, you're the bonus points guy" And that was before that other site with the last two words in that comment even launched ;-)