June 22 Update: New Ivanhoe gift card Amex Offer and the Centurion Lounge opens up at New York La Guardia

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! 

Another gift card Amex Offer came out this week and it is the return of the statement credit offer for buying gift cards to use at malls operated by Ivanhoe. I received the offer on my n Platinum Card but be sure to check all your cards to see if you received it as well.

Aeroplan extends the expiry date on Buddy Passes earned from co-brand credit cards

 
Great news for those of you who are holding on to Buddy Passes or have been considering applying for an Aeroplan co-brand card that offers a Buddy Pass. Those booking window for passes have been extended by Aeroplan to December 31, 2022 for travel into December 2023. Rewards Canada reader Josef H. alerted us to this news this past Friday afternoon and are happy to pass it along to all of our readers.

Fully vaccinated Canadians will no longer have to quarantine upon arrival as of July 5

 

Great news today from the Government of Canada that sees the current travel restrictions for returning to Canada being eased. As of July 6th (well 11:59pm ET on July 5) Canadians who are fully vaccinated will no longer have to quarantine upon arrival and this includes the stay at a government authorized hotel. All other re-entry requirements do remain in place which means you'll need to have a negative COVID test prior to returning and you'll have to test upon arrival as well. 

Canada's Top Cash Back Credit Cards 2021 - A new champion is crowned as the best card for putting cash back in your wallet

 

Welcome to Rewards Canada's fifth annual Top Cash back Credit Card rankings!

June 2021 Update

We have crowned a new champion for the Top Cash Back Credit Card in Canada! While technically not known as a cash back card the top card's cash back component places it ahead of even the best of the best  cash back cards in Canada! That card that now sits atop the throne is none other than the American Express Cobalt Card. This card has been Canada's Top Travel Rewards Credit Card since 2018 and now thanks to American Express adjusting the redemption rate for using points towards any purchases on the card (not just travel) to 1,000 points = $10 the Cobalt Card jumps ahead in the cash back market now as well. The card itself earns 1 to 5 points per dollar spent which translates to a 1% to 5% cash back return when utilzing Use Points for Purchases. Based on our calculations the card earns more cash back per year than any other cards (utilizing our spend breakdown, as listed below) which makes it the number one cash back card in Canada.

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.