Last minute loyalty program laundry - check for expiring miles and points, vouchers and more

 
With just a week left in 2021 now is a good time to double check if you have any points and miles that will be expiring at the end of this year. For the most part, the majority of loyalty programs have extended the pause on points and miles expiry into 2022 however there are a select few that are not. The biggest program I can think that is not extending points expiry after December 31, 2021 is World of Hyatt. There are others as well which I list further below in the post.

December 22 Update: Further updates to the ongoing Scene+ issues and Flair Airlines also launching Toronto-Chicago flights

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 100,000 bonus points worth $500, has no foreign transaction fees and no annual fee in the first year! 

Few more updates on the Scene+ program from the Rewards Canada community:

• Elia G. let us know they are seeing the multipliers from the Scotia credit cards posting correctly now however not for the transactions from the launch date of December 13 through to the 19th. Scotia told Elia that all will be repaired by February 2022. So if you are also missing points from that time period it may be a couple of months before you see them.
• @joshnet let us know that the Scotia App now has a notice in the app about the Scene+ Travel's partial redemption not working:

Plaza Premium opens two new lounges at Toronto Pearson International Airport

 

This month saw third party business class lounge provider Plaza Premium open up two new lounges at Toronto's Pearson International Airport. One is a temporary lounge to cover for the renovation of an existing lounge and the other is their new flagship lounge in Canada called the Landmark lounge. This brings the company's total number of lounges in Canada to 14 including the recently opened Air France KLM lounge in Montreal plus one Wellbeing spa.

December 21 Update: Ultimate No Foreign Transaction Fee Credit Card Portfolio, New Scotia card designs & Flair Airlines adding flights to New York JFK

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 100,000 bonus points worth $500, has no foreign transaction fees and no annual fee in the first year! 

 
Another Ultimate Portfolio update today - this time we updated updated The Ultimate No Foreign Transaction Fee Credit Card Portfolio! This one only had small tweaks to update Scotia Rewards to Scene+ and of course it has been updated to the new Rewards Canada template. Check out the updated portfolio here!

Aeroplan Availability Alert: Business Class on SWISS from Montreal to Zurich for up to four people in spring 2022

 
Here's our next Aeroplan availability alert! There is a bunch of business class availability showing in April and May 2022 for flights between Montreal and Zurich on SWISS. The flights operate on all days of the week except Monday and Wednesday. Most of the days we checked they are showing at least 4 business class seats available per flight in both directions. There is definitely better availability to Zurich than back but I did find quite a few days on the return with 4 seats.

December 20 Update:The Ultimate High End Traveller Credit Card portfolio; new AIR MILES card linked offers from H&M, Sephora & more; WestJet to codeshare to Switzerland?

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 100,000 bonus points worth $500, has no foreign transaction fees and no annual fee in the first year! 

Today we updated The Ultimate High End Traveller Credit Card portfolio! This portfolio is perfect for those who want to travel in style, experience luxury and get great benefits from an American Express card, a Visa Card and a Mastercard card. This much needed update of the 4+ year old portfolio sees the MBNA Rewards World Elite Mastercard switched out to the HSBC World Elite Mastercard. This is primarily due to three reasons, the HSBC card offers No FX fees and has the $100 annual travel enhancement credit plus the conversion option to British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines. Check out the updated portfolio here!

December 17 Update: Aeroplan extends flight reward change policy, Canada reintroducing negative PCR test requirements on all travel & Scene+ issues to be resolved by Dec 19

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 100,000 bonus points worth $500, has no foreign transaction fees and no annual fee in the first year! 

Aeroplan has once again extended their flexible change policy for Aeroplan flight rewards. As COVID-19 cases increase again and recommendations in place not to travel internationally Aeroplan has adjusted the rules around changing flight rewards. The extension now sees Aeroplan waiving change fees on reward tickets until January 31, 2022 and the amount of changes you can make are unlimited. For bookings made by January 31 but changed on or after February 1, 2022 you will have the first change fee waived but any others after that will incur a fee. Applicable change fees will apply to any new bookings that are made on our after February 1. The program does seem to be adjusting these frequently so it is entirely possible they will be extended again in the near future if the pandemic situation doesn't improve over the next month.

Miles & More Mileage Bargains - Big mileage discounts of up to 75% on flights to Europe from Calgary, Halifax Montreal, & Toronto

As we do each month we bring you the latest set of Miles & More Mileage Bargains (Meilenschnaeppchen) discounted mileage awards.This is now the third month in a row we've seen them after disappearing for a year and a half due to the pandemic. Once again there's a lot of them in Economy and Business Class to choose from and this time we see Calgary and Halifax with huge discounts on the table. Sorry Vancouver, you've been left out of the mix this month.

December 16 Update: Points not posting properly in the new Scene+ program and a new Amex Offer for Lululemon

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 100,000 bonus points worth $500, has no foreign transaction fees and no annual fee in the first year! 

 
We continue to hear from numerous readers via email and blog comments that Scotia credit card multipliers are not coding correctly in the new Scene+ program. Many grocery and other purchases that should be 5x or 3x points with the Scotia Gold Amex Card are only posting as 1 point per dollar. We've also heard that the total points balance in some members Scene+ accounts are lower than they were in their Scotia Rewards accounts. 

It’s back – you can buy oneworld elite status with Finnair’s latest buy points offer

Finnair has brought back their best ever buy points bonus and since the airline is part of the oneworld alliance this offer may be of use to some oneworld flyers. This buy points bonus has two parts to it – the first is your standard bonus on the points you buy, which in this case is anywhere from 0% to 100% and the second is the awarding of elite qualifying tier points on those purchases as well. They’ve also upped the maximum you can buy this year to 200,000 points from the previous 150,000. This offer is available until December 27, 2021