Air Canada and Emirates Form Strategic Partnership

 
Coming through the wire this morning was this surprising news from Air Canada! The airline will be forming a strategic partnership with UAE based Emirates. These are the same two airlines who have in the past, fought over how many flights Emirates could operate to Canada! It looks like those differences have been repaired.... or forgotten as the two will start working together later this year.

Amtrak resumes service between Toronto and New York & a new Amex Offer for Lordco Auto Parts

Here's your Rewards Canada update! Your near daily dose of loyalty program, credit card and travel news, bonuses, deals and more.

Amtrak has resumed service to Toronto from New York after a two year hiatus. The Maple Leaf service operates daily with six stops on the Canadian portion of the route. This is a welcome return for those who used this service before the pandemic and are itching to ride the rails to New York again. Click here to learn more. (HT The Points Guy) 

BMO AIR MILES Mastercards to receive a new accelerated grocery store earn rate

Good news today for holders of BMO AIR MILES credit cards as they'll soon be earning more miles for grocery purchases made anywhere. This comes not too long after the news that the Empire group of grocery stores (Sobeys, Safeway, FreshCo etc.) were leaving the AIR MILES and thus effectively removing a big chunk of the partners the BMO AIR MILES cards had as their accelerated earn rate locations.

Top 5 Small Business Credit Card Sign Up offers for July - 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 -  which can provide some huge outsized value rewards!

Miles & More Mileage Bargains - Big mileage discounts of 50% or more between Montreal, Toronto or Vancouver & Europe

 

The latest set of Miles & More Mileage Bargains (Meilenschnaeppchen) discounted mileage awards are here for this month. This month we see a few more cities on the list with offers available from Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

Small changes to the Laurentian Bank Visa Infinite Card & receive 25 bonus AIR MILES when you redeem Cash Miles at Safeway & Sobeys

Here's your Rewards Canada update! Your near daily dose of loyalty program, credit card and travel news, bonuses, deals and more.

 
Sometime over the past month or so there were some changes to the Laurentian Bank Visa Infinite Card. It no longer has a welcome bonus offer (the 8x points) or first year annual fee waiver. They have also reduced the pre-authorized debit earn rate from 3 points per dollar to 2. I'm not entirely sure when the earn rate change happened as I don't check on this card as often as others but thought I would pass it along nonetheless. Learn more about this card here.

Buy or gift Aeroplan Points with up to a 100% bonus

Aeroplan has come out with another buy or gift points promotion where you can earn up to a 100% bonus. This tiered offer sees bonuses ranging up to 100% depending on how many points you buy. This offer runs until July 20 2022 and allows members to buy up to 500,000 points per transaction up to the annual limit of 1 million points. 

National Bank's new 5x points multiplier may not be as good as we originally thought

Earlier this week we reported changes coming to some of National Bank's credit cards including a new 5x points earn rate on the World Elite Mastercard. There was a lot of excitement surrounding this announcement, even from us but that may have been a little premature! I'll be honest with you I should have paid closer attention to wording around the new 5x points earning rate. As noted by the always astute Josh C. the 5x points on grocery and dining isn't actually capped at $2,500 per month for those categories but rather $2,500 of all your spending. So if you happen to spend $2,500 on some nice new furniture on your card your 5x points earn rate for groceries is gone for that month!

Top Cash Back Credit Card Sign Up offers for July - These cards provide the best value out of their welcome bonuses

 
Here are Rewards Canada's Top 5 Cash Back Credit Card Sign Up offers for the month of July 2022. This is not a 'best' credit card list like our Top Cash Back Credit Card rankings but instead a look at cards 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. 

12 new American Express Cobalt confirmed multipliers and it was a short tenure for Red Roof Inns in Canada

Here's your Rewards Canada update! Your near daily dose of loyalty program, credit card and travel news, bonuses, deals and more.

Another hefty update to our American Express Cobalt™ Card Confirmed Multiplier Locations. FM once again providing a nice list of 5x locations in Vancouver, confirming Fairmont Hotels for 2x and a couple of 1x locations including a winery. From his previous submissions it seems most wineries do only end up provided 1x points. Here are the additions: