June 18 Update: Canada-US border to remain closed until July 21, Amex Centurion Lounge updates & four more Canadian hotel stay bonuses

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! 

 
The border between Canada and the U.S will remain closed for at least one more month. News came out today from the federal minister of pubic safety that the federal government will keep the border restrictions on non-essential travel in place until July 21, 21. (Source Global News)

Hilton will now confirm connecting rooms at time of booking

 
One thing we here at the Rewards Canada family have done for quite a few years - well at least until COVID hit was to book multiple hotel rooms for our trips. As our kids got older and we started travelling with more luggage we found a single room often didn't give us enough space and comfort. So we started booking two rooms at a time and then calling the hotel to put notes in the reservation that we would like connecting rooms. The only issue with this is that those connecting rooms weren't ever guaranteed. We were lucky though as we have always received our request for connecting rooms but I know for some other families this hasn't been the case. That all changes now - well at least if you are planning on staying with Hilton as they have introduced confirmed connecting rooms by Hilton.

AIR MILES Bonus Boom is now live - earn bonus miles with participating partners + 95 bonus miles with three different Bonus Boom offers

The latest AIR MILES Bonus Boom event kicked off today with your usual bunch of bonus miles offers for shopping or completing actions with various AIR MILES partners. Most of the bonuses are available between today and June 30 and once again if you use three different Bonus Boom offers you'll get 95 bonus AIR MILES. Just like the past few Bonus Boom events you have the ability to get the 95 bonus miles all from one retailer so long as they have multiple offers. For example Sobeys has three different offers available so if you meet the criteria for those three offers you'll get the 95 bonus miles.

Sorry for the bad news - It is now confirmed that Canadian Plaza Premium lounges are leaving Priority Pass & LoungeKey

Back on April 15 we brought you the news that  Plaza Premium announced they were leaving the Priority Pass and LoungeKey airport access programs. What we didn't know then was how many of Plaza Premium's 120+ lounges from around the world were going to leave as there were some ongoing negotiations going on between Collinson Group (the operator of Priority Pass and LoungeKey) and Plaza Premium to keep some lounges as part the access programs. We now know that there will be 57 Plaza Premium lounges in total leaving Priority Pass and LoungeKey and us Canadian's are some of the worst hit. All Plaza Premium lounges in Canada will no longer be available via Priority Pass and LoungeKey as of July 1. 

Two of Canada's best cash back credit cards are in desperate need of one small tweak

 

Continuing on with our series on credit cards in Canada that need an overhaul, today we'll look at two cash back cards that need some tweaking. This 'overhaul' series started earlier in the year when we posted an article about how the RBC Avion Visa Infinite Card was due for a major overhaul. That post was initially planned as five credit cards that need an overhaul but we ended up writing so much about the Avion card that it ended up being a post just on that card. We then followed up with the second card a few weeks ago - the American Express Gold Rewards Card and the changes we think that card needs and in this post we'll cover cards three and four. The fifth card in the list will have its own post in the near future.

Here are the previous posts in the our 2021 Overhaul/Tweaking series:

• There is one very popular travel rewards credit card in Canada that is due for a major overhaul  
• It's time for American Express to tweak the venerable Gold Rewards Card  

Esso Extra is being retired as the gas retailer moves to join PC Optimum full time in January 2022

 

Some surprising news in the world of gas station loyalty programs today! Esso announced today they will be ending the Esso Extra program as they move to join the PC Optimum program full time. There are giving members a lot of extra notice which is great as the Esso Extra program won't end until January 17, 2022.

This weekend American Express will donate $1 to the United Way for every $1 spent when you Shop Small

 

You can use your American Express card this weekend and feel good about doing so! Well, that is, feeling even better than you should thanks to the great rewards you are already receiving. From June 18th to 20th American Express will donate $1 to the United Way for each $1 spent at their Shop Small merchants. They will donate up to $100,000 so I think that number could be easily be reached on the first day alone!

New limited time welcome bonus on Tangerine Mastercards - 10% cash back for the first 2 months

 We see two more cards join the world of 10% cash back limited time welcome bonus offers today. Both the Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card and the Tangerine World Mastercard are now in the league of cards like Amex's Simply Cash Preferred, CIBC's Dividend Visa Infinite and Scotia's Momentum Visa Infinite cards. From today through to August 16th when you apply for and are approved for either of these Tangerine cards you'll be able to earn 10% cash back on all purchases in the first 2 months. The 10% is capped on $1,000 of purchases for a total cash back reward of $100. After that 10% cap is hit or after 2 months the regular earn rate of up to 2% cash back kicks in.

June 16 Update: Two new great Amex Offers, 3,000 bonus points at the Four Points Sherwood Park & more confirmed Cobalt multiplier locations

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! This card is the best No Foreign Transaction fee card in Canada!

There are two new awesome Amex Offers to let you know about! The first sees the return of a statement credit for buying gift cards to use at Oxford Properties (they operate shopping malls in various Canadian cities). I am aware of this offer on the personal Platinum Card. The other offer provides an amazing 10 bonus points per dollar spent on all eligible spending on the Business Platinum Card! Log in to your accounts to see if you are eligible for either offer and register right away for them. You can find our complete list of Amex offers here.

Earn up to 20,000 bonus Aeroplan points for hotel stays in downtown Vancouver

 

Air Canada is offering a pretty big incentive for booking downtown Vancouver hotels via the aircanada.com website! Right now if you book an eligible stay by July 7 for completion between June 21 and December 15 you can earn up to 20,000 bonus Aeroplan points for that stay!