July 19 Update: World of Hyatt adds 20 more Small Luxury Hotels of the World locations, earn 5x points on some fancy cookies in YYC & two new Amex Offers

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.

Hyatt''s World of Hyatt program added 20 more Small Luxury Hotels locations to the program last week. The 20 locations are spread out around the world and actually range in award night categories from 3 to 8 so some of these luxurious locations won't actually cost an arm and leg in terms of points! Learn more about the Hyatt-SLH partnership here.

Canada will reopen border to fully vaccinated travellers from the U.S. in August, rest of world in September

 
Canada's travel and tourism industry can hopefully breathe a sigh of relief as the Canadian Government today announced an easing of the border restrictions that have been in place since March 2020. Barring any changes to the current COVID-19 situation in Canada our borders will open up on August 9 for fully vaccinated U.S. citizens and on September 7 for the rest of the world.

Loyalty Lesson: Why hybrid rewards credit cards are the best bet for most Canadians

Whether you are a frequent flyer, a points & miles junkie or just someone who wants to have the utmost in flexibility with your travel rewards then there is one type of credit card that is the best for most of you and in reality for most Canadians. That type of card is the Hybrid Card. Hybrid cards are the moniker for these cards that Rewards Canada instituted many moons ago. Also known as Flexible Points card, Hybrid cards give the cardholder the best of all worlds when it comes to being rewarded from their credit card spending and welcome bonuses.

Receive up to a 60% bonus when you buy Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles

The next airline to bring out a bonus for buying their miles/points today is Alaska Airlines. The Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan buy miles bonus is back and once again we see it up at the 60% level which does seem to be new normal for the airline.  The bonus is tiered in that if you buy 3,000 to 39,000 miles you’ll get a 40% bonus and the 60% kicks in at the 40,000 mile level.

Receive up to an 80% bonus when you buy Aeroplan points

Aeroplan has brought back a buy points bonus for the next week and a half or so. This tiered offer sees bonuses ranging from 50% to 80% dependent on how many points you buy. This offer runs until July 30 and allows members to buy up to 350,000 points per transaction up to a new annual limit of 1 million points. If you buy 3,000 to 24,000 points you'll earn a 50% bonus, 25,000 to 55,000 points will earn a 65% bonus and 60,000+ will earn the 80%.

Redeem your PC Optimum points at Shoppers Drug Mart and get up to 50% more value until July 21

PC Optimum is running another Bonus Redemption Event when you shop at Shoppers Drug Mart between today and Wednesday July 21, 2021. This often seen event provides extra value on redemptions of 50,000 or more points. If you redeem 50,000 points you will get $65 off your purchase instead of $50, edeem 100,000 points for $140 off your purchase instead of $100 or redeem 200,000 points for $300 off your purchase instead of $200.

Click here to learn more about this offer and to shop online with Shoppers Drug Mart

Huge, huge bonus from More Rewards for booking travel in Canada! (21 to 25% return!)

 

All I can say is wow! Here is a bonus offer that may be a once in a lifetime offer. More Rewards, the little program from out west from the Overwaitea Food Group has dropped a bomb of an offer for booking travel via More Rewards Travel called Great Canadian Escape.  All More Rewards members (free to join if you are not a member) will earn 50 to 60 times the points on flights, hotels, car rentals, activities - really any travel possible that can be booked with them so long as that travel is in Canada!  If you are not familiar with More Rewards you may be wondering what those 50 to 60x points are actually worth? Read on the find out.

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

We see the return of a 100K credit card offer that seems to be coming around every few weeks now but when it is around it is only live for a short period. That offer is the 100K bonus for getting a PC Financial Mastercard. This time the offer is valid for applications until July 28, 2021 and is good for any one of the three cards in their portfolio:

July 15 Update: The soon to re-open Park Hyatt Toronto jumps to Category 6 from Category 4 & free Hertz Gold Plus Rewards Five Star elite status

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.

 
Much like last week's update on new Marriott Hotels in Canada we have a mid-year update on new Hyatt Hotels in Canada. We now know the Park Hyatt Toronto will not remain a Category 4 hotel like they were before they closed for renovations. Unfortunately it is now confirmed to be a Category 6 hotel - that's a big jump from the previous 15,000 points required to now needing 25,000 points per night for a free night award! The hotel also now has a set date for opening and that is September 15.

15 credit cards that provide $300 or more in true value from their welcome bonus offers

 
Thanks to some huge new bonus offers from American Express and Scotiabank plus some ongoing big time offers from TD, CIBC, and RBC for their airline co-brand cards we are now seeing a plethora of cards that bring big value from their welcome bonuses. If I can recall correctly in our 20 years of writing about credit cards and loyalty programs in Canada we have never seen this welcome bonus offers that are valued at $300 or more. Typically we may have 6 to 8 cards in that range but right now we have 15 cards whose true value of their welcome offers are $300 or higher.