July 23 Update: Receive a $100 Visa card for stays in London, ON., 3,000 bonus points when you stay with your pets at IHG Hotels & 20x PC Optimum points this weekend

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.

 
On Tuesday we published an article looking at the various tourism board stay offers across Canada and thanks to Rewards Canada reader Harry B. we have one more to pass along to you. That offer is from London Tourism and provides a $100 gift card on stays of two more nights. You can learn more about the London offer here and also check out all the other offers in our post here.

Book Review: Mileage Maniac: My Genius, Madness and a Touch Of Evil To Amass 40 Million Frequent Flyer Miles

 

Since the inception of frequent flyer programs in the early 80s there have been very few mileage and points stories that garner the attention of the world. Whether it is The Pudding Guy who has been enshrined in Adam Sandler's Punch-Drunk Love or George Clooney playing Ryan Bingham in Up in the Air who is trying to break the 10 million mile mark in the American AAdvantage program, the mainstream coverage of making the most of frequent flyer programs is pretty minimal. It seems like we get some story every few years (like The Great Canadian Mileage Run by the now fallen from grace Marc Tacchi) but one story other than the pudding guy that always seems to re-emerge is the Baht run. Made famous by Steve Belkin the Baht Run and many of his other mileage travel hacking records are often referred to as to crown jewels in finding that elusive loop hole to earning a ton of miles. Well rather than have other people write about him Steve has put pen to paper and wrote a book about all his amazing mileage earning journeys over the past few decades.

Offer extended: 35,000 RBC Rewards point welcome bonus on their Avion cards

The awesome welcome offers for RBCs Avion suite of cards are being extended! RBC let us know today that the 35,000 RBC Rewards points bonus on their flagship card the RBC Avion Visa Infinite Card as well as the RBC Avion Visa Platinum Card and the RBC Avion Visa Infinite Privilege   will now be available until November 15th. This is nice extension from the original set expiry date of July 26. The thing that is most awesome about these welcome bonuses is that they are awarded on approval - no minimum spend, no spend this much each month over this many months. You simply have to be approved for the card and the bonus is yours. Yes you do have to pay the annual fee of $120 ($399 for Infinite Privilege) but it is more than worth it in terms of the value of the bonus (minimum $350 in value) and you get the points at the end of your first billing period. No waiting 3 months, 6 months or longer. 

25% discount when you buy World of Hyatt points until August 25

 
Hyatt has come out with their next buy points deal for this summer. When you buy 5,000 or more points in one transaction they will give a 25% discount on the price. This is different than the typical 30 to 40% bonus we have become accustomed to with Hyatt.  With the discount the price works out to 1.8 cents (US) per points. This is slightly higher than the 1.714 cents per point (US$) when it is a 40% bonus. Still this is a pretty good price to buy points especially if need some right away.  Depending on how you redeem them it could be worthwhile to purchase them for rewards at high end hotels like Park Hyatt’s around the globe or even buying less if you just need a few thousand points to top off for an award. You can buy up to 55,000 points per calendar year so if you take advantage of this now at the full amount of points you won’t be able to buy any later on this year.

July 21 Update: Canalta Rewards adds elite tiers with more benefits, JetBlue TrueBlue added to Rewards Canada & 2,500 free Qatar Airways Qmiles

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.

Western Canada's Canalta Hotels has made changes to their Canalta Rewards program. You may have received an email from them stating this:

Some of you may be aware already that we are making a few changes to our rewards program. Your points will remain the same, and you will still earn points the same way. 

We are moving our program to a new platform, so please bare with us while we work out some of the kinks during the move. 

Some exciting news with the new platform: We will be bringing back Gift Cards again! And we will be adding a brand new tier system.

With a number of technical issues with our Canalta Hotels App - we will be retiring the app. However, the new site is totally mobile friendly! 

How to score flights to Ireland for as little as $120 plus taxes and fees

With news that Ireland reopened to vaccinated Canadians with no quarantine or testing requirements as of July 19 (Source Canadian Travel News) I thought it would be the perfect time to bring one of the easiest, most achievable transatlantic economy class redemptions back to the forefront. We discussed this redemption quite a few years ago and frequently bring attention to it but figured it would be best to update it for 2021.

That redemption option is using British Airways Executive Club to redeem for flights on Aer Lingus between Toronto and Dublin. Back in 2017 the redemption option (well any redemption on Aer Lingus) became part of BA Executive Club's off peak award pricing. With off-peak In the off season, which is actually the majority of the year, you can fly round trip on Aer Lingus' Toronto-Dublin flight for only 26,000 Avios (13,000 one way) which is a steal in the points and miles world!
 

Receive a 100% bonus when you buy Hilton Honors points

 Hilton’s bonus for buying points is back after a 13 day hiatus! You can earn a 100% bonus for buying Hilton Honors points until July 29, 2021. Unlike last time where you could buy double the annual limit of points this time you can only buy up to 80,000 points which is the typical maximum amount you can buy annually. That 80,000 cap does not included the bonus points so if you max out this offer and buy 80,000 points you’ll receive 160,000 into your account. Also this time Hilton has limited the points purchases to 20,000, 40,000 or 80,000 with no in-between. Those three packages will also be limited to a maximum of 280 million points sold for this promotion so if that is reached sooner than July 29 the bonus points offer will end.

American Express Front of the Line is gearing up for a return to live events!

American Express has recently been sending out numerous emails letting cardmembers know that American Express Experiences and Front of the Line are set to return for live events. If you you are a first time Amex cardmember who just got their card during the pandemic when FOTL wasn't running or are unfamiliar with FOTL it essentially  allows American Express Cardmembers to enjoy exclusive access to ticket presales and reserved seating offers for concerts, musicals, shows and much more. During the pandemic FOTL switched to offering and still do offer access to virtual events but come this fall that all changes as live events are set to return.

New increased welcome bonus of 50,000 points + first year free on the BMO Rewards® Business Mastercard®

BMO's mainstay premium small business card, the BMO Rewards® Business Mastercard® sees the return of it's 50,000 point welcome bonus which ran for the latter half of 2020 all the way into February of this year. The 50,000 bonus points are awarded when you spend $5,000 or more on the card in the first three months of having it. On top of that the annual fee of $120 is waived for the first year of having the card. That means you basically get those 50,000 points at no cost outside of the spending that you actually put on the card.

July 20 Update: Eearn bonus miles for U.S. online shopping & PaySimply adds more payment categories

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. 

 

If you are planning on shopping online from some U.S. retailers check out this trio of bonus miles offers via three U.S. airline's shopping portals:

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
Earn up to 1,200 Bonus Mileage Plan Miles when you shop online via the Mileage Plan Shopping portal. Click here to find out more. Until Aug 8, 2021
Tier 1 bonus: 300 miles for qualifying purchases of at least $150; Tier 2 bonus: 600 miles for qualifying purchases of at least $300; or Tier 3 bonus: 1,200 miles for qualifying purchases of $500 or more.