August 17 Update: Amex Offers galore, new increased TD Aeroplan & First Class Visa offers and Hyatt acquires ~100 resort properties

  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.

Earlier today we posted about the Shangri-La Hotels Amex Offer and in that post we said there were a lot of new offers released this week. Here are the others that came out over the past few days:

Amex Offers: $100 statement credit for stays at Shangri-La Hotels in Canada

 
A bunch of new Amex Offers were released this week that we'll cover in a couple of posts here on RC but as usual the travel offers get their own billing! This one that came out yesterday provides a $100 statement credit if you spend $500 at Shangri-La Hotels in Canada.  I actually received this offer for my American Express Cobalt Card which I was a little surprised by as the majority of offers have been coming to my Platinum Card and let's be honest Shangri-La are considered luxury hotels and the Platinum Card is considered a luxury card so you would think the offer would be on that card but I digress. Let us know if you have the Platinum Card and did receive this offer for it.

[OFFER EXPIRED] New best ever welcome offer for the TD First Class Visa Infinite Card - Up to 100,000 welcome points + first year free

THIS OFFER HAS EXPIRED AND IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE. IT HAS BEEN LEFT HERE FOR REFERENCE PURPOSES. PLEASE THE CARD MATRIX AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST FOR THE LATEST OFFER.

The third and final card from TD to receive a best ever welcome bonus offer is their proprietary rewards card the TD® First Class Travel® Visa Infinite* Card. As of today we see its bonus jump from 60,000 to 100,000 points! This is 10,000 more than the previous 90K high seen on the card in 2019 and 2020. Technically speaking this offer is actually 20K higher since those 90K offers required adding a supplementary card to earn 10,000 points. That's not the case here. This time the bonus is awarded strictly on the first purchase as 20,000 points and 80,000 more points when you spend $1,000 in first three months. On top of this there is an annual fee rebate for the primary and additional cardholders for the first year. This offer runs until December 5, 2021.

Receive up to a 50% bonus when you buy Marriott Bonvoy Points until September 25

 
A buy points bonus for Marriott Bonvoy has returned and it is a mystery bonus that will vary by member. Personally I received a 50% bonus offer. 50% is at a level where it can make sense to buy Marriott Bonvoy points for some free night stays. Sure it isn’t the 60% we saw in November 2020 but it is better than the 40% some people received earlier this year. The bonus is awarded on purchases from 2,000 to 100,000 points and that 100,000 is a doubling of the typical 50,000 point annual limit for buying points. This is also lower than the 150K we saw with the 60% bonus in November.

Earn up to 50,000 welcome bonus points when you get the best credit card in Canada - the American Express Cobalt Card

This is crazy and totally unexpected news for the American Express Cobalt® Card! As you know American Express announced some amazing changes to their Cobalt Card not too long ago that make this the best credit card in Canada even better. Yes they are charging more for it which has made some people unhappy but for the most part everyone seems ecstatic about the changes even with paying $2.99 more per month. So what if you don't have the card yet? Well you're in luck as American Express has just revealed the best ever welcome bonus offer for the card in it's four year history. That's what makes this crazy and unexpected - I don't think any of us thought American Express would come out with such an offer seeing how compelling and valuable the card is with its up to 5x points earn rate, its new 3x streaming services earn rate and most importantly now having the ability to transfer 1:1 to Air Canada Aeroplan and British Airways Executive Club.

Canadian Government to make COVID-19 vaccine mandatory for air, rail and cruise ship travel

 

Our federal government announced today that they intend to make COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory for air, interprovincial rail and cruise ship travel. On top of this all federal public service employees will be mandated to get the vaccine. 

Offer extended! Limited time welcome bonus on Tangerine Mastercards - 10% cash back for the first 2 months

 

Originally slated to end on Monday the limited time welcome offers for the Tangerine Money-Back Credit Card and the Tangerine World Mastercard have now been extended to September 14, 2021. When you apply for and are approved for either of these Tangerine cards you will 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.

Air France KLM unveils their newly renovated business class lounge at Montreal's Trudeau International Airport

August 11th saw the opening of the newly renovated Air France business class lounge at Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau airport. The refreshed lounge near gate 57 in the international concourse is accessible to those flying in Business Class with Air France or KLM, to Flying Blue Gold and Platinum members, SkyTeam Elite Plus Members and drum roll please.... any one receiving or purchasing access via Plaza Premium! That's right the lounge is being operated by Plaza Premium so you can access the lounge without flying business class or having elite status!

You can now purchase annual benefits for flying on Emirates with Skywards+

 
Dubai based Emirates Airlines who flies to Toronto 5x weekly has introduced a new subscription based program that provides additional benefits when flying with the airline. Entitled Skywards+, the new program has three tiers ranging in cost from C$502 to C$1,256 per year with each higher level progressively adding more benefits. Those benefits range from bonus Skywards miles, discounts on flight rewards, lounge access passes and more - much of what you would see if you held elite status with the Skywards program. So with this program you are kind of buying yourself a hybrid elite status with the airline.

August 12 Update: Canadian airport business class lounges reopening update, another confirmed Cobalt multiplier location & Wayfair returns to 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.

Here's a small update to the reopening of some airport business class lounges across Canada that has happened over the past few weeks:

• National Bank Airport Lounge at Montreal reopened on July 26
• Toronto Plaza Premium Lounge Domestic Departures Terminal 3 reopened on July 28
• Calgary Airport Aspire Lounge International reopened on August 10
• Montreal Air France Lounge operated by Plaza Premium Group opened on August 11 (we'll have a separate post coming about this lounge!)