August 25 Update: Awesome gas gift card redemption offer from CIBC, 5,000 bonus Be Well points for linking your RBC card & earn up to $350 with a new Scotiabank account

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.

 
Right now CIBC Aventura cardholders are able to redeem their points for select gas gift cards at up to 50% off (ie only 7,000 points for a $100 gift card). This puts the per point redemption rate for these cards at 1.42 cents each. That's an awesome redemption rate for gift cards as it is higher then the 1 cent per point you would get for their any travel redemption and is very competitive with the average redemption rate when using the Aventure airline rewards chart. This offer is available until September 15. Learn more here.  (Thanks to Raffaele F. who sent this offer to us via our Facebook page!) 

CIBC AC Conversion Visa Review - Load up to 10 currencies and earn 1% cash back until April 30, 2022

 
Earlier in the year we brought quick details of the limited time cash back offer for CIBC's AC Conversion Visa and now wanted to delve deeper into what this card is and what it offers.  The CIBC AC Conversion Visa is a prepaid Visa credit card option offered by CIBC and Air Canada that has been around now for quite a few years and is somewhat unique in that you can load multiple currencies onto to card at once to use when traveling to various parts of the world.

FREE MILES! Receive 2,020 miles when you join Emirates Skywards

Delayed by a year, Expo 2020 in Dubai is slated to start on October 1 and one of the big sponsors is the hometown airline, Emirates. To celebrate the exposition, Emirates is starting to release numerous promotions and this one here is for new members to their Skywards program. Using the invitation code EXPO2020 anyone who joins the program will automatically receive 2,020 Skywards miles and the airline is offering these new members the opportunity to redeem right away with a special Cash+Miles rate of 2,000 mile = US$20 (but you don't have to redeem they right away if you don't want to.) The new member welcome bonus doesn't have a printed end date however the other promotion on the same landing page mentions bookings must be made by September 15 and seeing how this bonus is being tied into the special Cash+Miles rate I would speculate that's the last day to join and get the miles.

New Hilton Honors promo: Double points on all stays from Sep 7 to Dec 31

 

Hilton provided us with details of the next systemwide promotion for the Hilton Honors program. This new offer launches the day after the current promo ends so there is no gap at all where you won’t be able to earn extra points on your Hilton stays. This promotion is called Power Up and it rewards 2x points on all stays for those members who have registered for the promotion. If you hold an eligible Hilton Honors credit card* you will earn 3x points on all those stays instead of double and you’ll still earn all the points that your card awards for that spend. For most Canadians we'll be stuck with the 2x points since we don't have a Hilton Honors co-brand card here but if you are playing the U.S. credit card game and happen to have one of their Hilton co-brand Amex cards you'll earn the 3x points. You can register and book now for stays from September 7 to December 31, 21

Podcast Episode 82 - How the best credit card in Canada was made even better

In this episode we take a deep dive into the best credit card in Canada - that is best travel rewards credit card which also happens to be the best cash back card in Canada and how the most recent changes to it made it even better. It is none other than the American Express Cobalt Card and this podcast episode covers those changes but can also be considered an audio review of the card. We discuss earn rates, redemption options, how it provides huge value and even tackle the downsides of the card. Give it a listen right away to find out why we think this card should be in every Canadian's wallet. 

One week left to get the best ever offer for the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card - Up to 50,000 bonus points + first year free

 

 

There is only one week left to get in on this offer that only launched back on July 2nd! It is the record high offer for for the Scotia Gold American Express Card of 50,000 bonus points coupled with no annual fee in the first year on primary and supplementary cards. Those 50,000 points are worth $500 towards any travel that you book via any method and charge to the card. The bonus is broken up into two separate requirements. the first 30,000 points are awarded when you spend at least $1,000 on the card in the first 3 months and then you can earn an additional 20,000 points when you spend at least $7,500 in your first year of having the card. Having no annual fees in the first year is a great way to try this card out to see if it is right for you and allows you to get full value out those 50,000 points!

Air Canada Aeroplan adds yet another airline partner - you can now earn and redeem points on Gulf Air

 
Really Aeroplan? You can stop this now. Well, actually please don't but do know you are keeping us from completing other tasks with all the news you keep dishing out.  It hasn't even been 24 hours since the last big Aeroplan announcement of their 10x points offer for TD cardholders and now we have them adding yet one more airline to their partner list! As of today Aeroplan members will be able to earn and redeem Aeroplan points on Bahrain's Gulf Air. This is the eighth new airline Aeroplan has added to their partner roster since June 2020.

Offer Extended - $0 companion fare + 350 WestJet dollars with the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard

WestJet and RBC have once again extended the offers on their co-brand credit cards. Namely, the $0 companion voucher offer on the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard has been extended for applications completed by December 5 and the card's 350 dollar bonus on first purchase and the 2x dollars on select purchases will continue to August 31. The base level WestJet RBC Mastercard also continues with its increased welcome offer of 100 WestJet dollars.

Earn 1,000 bonus points on your next Best Western stay

 
Last week you may have seen the post discussing my feeble attempt at lowering my Best Western Rewards account but in fact growing it from 26,000 to over 41,000 points (read that post here). That was thanks in part to a lot of bonus offers that BW has including a new 2,000 point offer we just posted this past Friday and now there is a new 1,000 point offer to let you know about. These offers are meant to be targeted but personally I wasn’t targeted for some of those bonuses I received on the last stay so go ahead and register, give it a shot but do remember YMMV.

August 23 Update: Air France adding Montreal-Guadeloupe flights, save an additional $50 on WestJet flights to Europe & one more Cobalt multiplier location

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.

Air France is going to offer new flights out of Montreal to their Caribbean territory of Guadeloupe. Flights between Montreal and Pointe-à-Pitre will start on November 23 and operate twice per week. Flights from Montreal will operate on Wednesday and Saturday with returning flights operating on Tuesday and Friday. If you fly on this route before the end of the year and are buying tickets you'll automatically earn Double Flying Blue XP credits. Also seeing that we just had the news that you can convert Amex Membership Rewards points to Flying Blue we checked how many Flying Blue Miles are needed for this flight and they start at 17,500 miles one way for Economy and 34,500 for Business Class plus pretty hefty taxes and fees. This means for a roundtrip economy class flight you would need 46,700 Membership Rewards points. Compare this to Amex Fixed Points for travel which is 50,000 points but only 25,000 to 35,000 round trip with Aeroplan in Economy class. So the best bet here with Membership Rewards points is to go with Aeroplan if you are looking for the best redemption option. (Source Air France)