February 8 Update: SAS (Scandinavian Airlines System) launching Toronto to Copenhagen & Stockholm flights plus a new Amex Offer for FedEx

Here's your Rewards Canada Daily update! Your bear 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!

Star Alliance airline SAS (Scandinavian Airlines System) and partner of Air Canada announced today the launch of flights from Toronto. Starting this June the airline will fly 3x per week from Toronto to Copenhagen and 4x per week from Toronto to Stockholm. The airline will use their Airbus A321LR aircraft on the route which feature 22 lay flat business class seats, 12 premium economy seats and 123 economy class seats. These new routes are great news for Aeroplan members as SAS is part of the Star Alliance which means you will be able to earn and more importantly redeem points for award flights on these routes. (Source SAS)

Top 5 Small Business Credit Card Sign Up offers for February - These cards provide the best value out of their welcome bonuses

Here are the Rewards Canada Top 5 Small Business Credit Card Sign Up offers for this month! This is not a 'best' credit card list like our Top Travel Rewards Credit Card rankings but instead a look at cards for small businesses that have very good acquisition (welcome/sign up) offers. As always when choosing a card you should always take other factors into account other than the just sign up bonus, but when some of these cards are first year free, they can and do pay off even when you grab them strictly for the sign up rewards. This month we see three first year free cards on the list! And remember this list is based on minimum value towards travel which we calculate as the minimum value of the welcome bonus less the annual fee. It is entirely possible to receive more value out of the welcome bonuses on all of these cards since they earn Aeroplan points or Marriott Bonvoy points - both of which can provide some huge outsized value rewards!

New Hyatt Hotel Openings in Canada for 2022 - Three hotels coming our way including the Hyatt Centric Ville-Marie Montreal

 
Welcome to the third part of our series on new hotel openings in Canada for 2022! In this part we take a look at Hyatt Hotels who planning on opening two new hotels in Montreal and one in Brampton, Ontario. So let's take a look at what they have in store for this year.

Earn 2x points on all Best Western stays in Canada, the U.S. and Caribbean until May 8

 
Best Western's latest bonus points promotion launched today and it is a continuation of the double points we have seen since December.  The offer does have a new landing page and also instead of being unlimited this time they have put a cap of 5 stays that you can earn the bonus on. This would lead me to believe that you need to register again for this offer and not rely on your registration from the previous version. 

Summary of global hotel bonus points promotions – February Edition

Here is your monthly update of all the global hotel bonus points promotions that are available. One of the easiest ways to rack up lots of hotel points is to take advantage of these global/systemwide/regional bonuses that come from many of the big chain programs and also from the lesser known programs. 

Limited time offer: Earn up to 3 Aeroplan Points per dollar spent on Air Canada Gift Cards

 
Air Canada has brought back a limited time offer where you can earn extra Aeroplan points for buying Air Canada gift cards. The offer is available until February 14th and will award 1 point/$ spent on gift cards up to $750 and 3 points/$ if you spend over $750. Do note these don't code as Air Canada purchases on your credit card as they are processed by Buyatab so you won't earn extra points on the Aeroplan suite of co-brand credit cards or any credit card that has a travel accelerator. 

Earn 7x points when shopping with Apple via the Aeroplan eStore until February 6

Aeroplan has brought back their 7x points offer for shopping online with Apple! This works for eligible online purchases made via the Aeroplan eStore for delivery to your home or office or even those you choose to pick up in store.  This is how I typically do my Apple purchases, buy online and pick up within 2-3 hours at the Apple store all the while earning tons of Aeroplan points (plus the points or miles earned on the credit card!)

Clash of the Credit Cards! BMO AIR MILES®† Mastercard®* (Student) vs. Scotiabank SCENE®* Visa* Card

 
It's time for another Rewards Canada Clash! This time in our Clash of the Credit Cards we have two popular student cards go head to head! Those cards are the BMO AIR MILES®† Mastercard®* (Student) and the Scotiabank SCENE Visa Card

What are they thinking? BMO is changing their best credit card and for the most part it's getting worse

Wow, thanks to our frequent news tip contributor @Joshnet we learned of some unexpected credit card news today. BMO is making changes to their BMO World Elite™* MasterCard®*. This card is the best travel card in the BMO portfolio of cards but in general over the years it has fallen in the ranks in the entire Canadian credit card market. Back in 2015 it was #1 in our Travel Points Cards with Annual Fee category but with multiple devaluations it started dropping down and is now in 5th spot. Now, it appears the card may even fall out of the top 5 completely thanks to the changes that BMO has announced to the card.

February 3 Update: Earn 2x elite qualifying points on your IHG stays, Flair Airlines 50% off to the U.S. & Mexico flash sale and Avianca Latin America seat sale

Here's your Rewards Canada Daily update! Your bear 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! 

A reminder that you can now earn Double IHG Rewards Points (Elite Qualifying) on all stays at IHG Hotels & Resorts in Canada and worldwide. Register and book now for stays Feb 1 – Mar 31, 22. Click here to register for and to book stays with this offer.