Introducing the new HSBC Cash Rewards Mastercard®: No annual fee, up to a $100 welcome bonus & 1.5% back for online purchases

 

HSBC continues to expand their presence in the Canadian market as they have now added a cash back card to their portfolio of credit cards. That new card is the HSBC Cash Rewards Mastercard® and it becomes the fourth card from this issuer that is available to the general public. It also marks their first foray directly into the cash back market. This entry level card carries no annual fee much like the recently released HSBC Travel Rewards Mastercard® and has an introductory offer of 5% cash back on up to $2,000 in purchases in the first 6 months of having the card.

Award Availability Alert: Montreal to Paris round trip business class for only 106K to 112K American Express Membership Rewards points

 
At the beginning of the month we brought you the details of the latest Air France KLM Flying Blue promo rewards which included economy class flights between Montreal and Europe. Turns out that even though they have only listed it as 'Economy' on the Promo Rewards page they are also offering discounted business class tickets! A few U.S. blogs noticed this over the past week or so for U.S. departures (I believe Frequent Miler may have been first?) and I have been meaning to check it out for Montreal. And sure enough there are some days that you can book for 39,750 miles each way in Business Class.

Rewards Canada Special Offer: Free Club 1 Hotels Gold Membership (US$395 value) with savings of up to 60% at 1.5 million+ hotels

 

Rewards Canada is excited to bring you another special offer with Club 1 Hotels! You may recall that several times over the past few years we have collaborated with them to provide our readers with free memberships and we are happy to bring you another one! You may ask what is Club 1 Hotels? Club 1 Hotels are a global luxury hotel travel club that offers its members guaranteed savings of up to 60% off at over 1.5 million hotels and resorts worldwide. On top of this they also provide exclusive discounts on flights, private charter jets, golf, car rentals, luxury villas and more.  

February 15 Update: Neo Financial now offers a secured rewards card, new Amex Offer for Pizza Nova & ANA changes Vancouver flight to Tokyo Narita

Here's your Rewards Canada Daily update! Your 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! 

 
Neo Financial has released a secured version of their Neo Mastercard that will earn the same rewards and discounts as their standard card offer. The only difference is your credit limit is set by what you have set as your security limit in your Neo Savings account. And the great thing is Neo only requires a $50 minimum security balance and you can adjust that amount as you please by moving funds to your security balance. Check out the new Neo Secured card here.

Up to a 50% bonus when you buy Marriott Bonvoy Points until March 23

A buy points bonus for Marriott Bonvoy has returned and this time it is a tiered offer providing up to a 50% bonus.  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.

Receive a 100% bonus when you buy Hilton Honors points

 
Not even a week after it came to a close we see the return of Hilton’s bonus for buying points!  Once again you can earn a 100% bonus when you buy points but this time you only have to buy 5,000 instead of 10,000 to earn it. Also the promotion does not see the doubling of the annual cap on buying points which means you can only buy up to 80,000 points.  That 80,000 cap does not include the bonus points so if you max out this offer and buy 80,000 points you’ll receive 160,000 into your account.

February 14 Update: WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard Review & new Visa Infinite Privilege Exclusive Dining Offers

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! 

We completed another update on our main site today. We've updated the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard Review for 2022. This one is a bit of clean up plus has updates on fees, benefits and more as well as some fresh examples of the savings that can be had from the amazing companion voucher. Check out the review here.

World of Hyatt's annual hotel category changes are here - two hotels in Canada will increase in points cost

Hyatt's World of Hyatt program announced their annual hotel category changes today. These are the hotels that will be moving up or down in the eight categories that the program has. It is not a change to the actual categories or points requirements themselves as those stay the same. Overall the program will see 146 hotels changing worldwide, 70 will be moving to a higher category (69 move up one, 1 hotel moves up two categories) while 76 will move down in their categories. Here in Canada we have two of the current 16 hotels falling into those 70 hotels that are moving up.

February 11 Update: Wait. What? Diners Club actually sent an email? Plus Swoop announces a major domestic expansion

 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! 

 
I received a bit of shock in my email inbox yesterday. BMO actually sent a Diners Club email that wasn't strictly an automated statement or payment reminder! First thing I thought is "What is going on?" I haven't had an email from BMO or Diners Club like this in years! And by years I'm thinking nearly a decade if not more. Are they actually starting to pay some attention to the card and the Club Rewards program now?

February 10 Update: Could we see an update to the Marriott Amex card and Amex cards lose access to Quebec City's Jean Lesage VIP Lounge (could be temporary)

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! 

Down in the U.S. there were changes announced to the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Visa Signature Credit Card including new accelerated earn rates on dining, gas and grocery plus elite status night with spend. According to an interview Gary Leff at View from the Wing had with Chase and Marriott these changes were not meant to attract new customers: