Free miles are always nice and you may recall seeing this same offer for Delta SkyMiles a few weeks ago. Now it is Aeroplan's turn, you can earn 500 Aeroplan Miles for joining Le Club accorthotels or if you are an existing member for changing your earning preference to Aeroplan. Here is the offer as pulled from our Aeroplan page:
500 Bonus Aeroplan Miles when you join the Le Club Accorhotels
program and in your Le Club Accorhotels membership profile, select
"Aeroplan" as your preferred loyalty program and enter your Aeropla membership number. If you already are a member of Le Club Accorhotels, login to your account and follow steps 2 and 3 to earn your bonus miles. Full Details Until Aug 31, 12
Recently I had to jet off to Toronto again, this time for some meetings with American Express Canada and I wanted to stay near their offices in Markham. There are few hotels to choose from across all the major brands and with me wanting to working to build up my Starpoints balance I asked them to book me into the only Starwood hotel that was close, The Sheraton Parkway Toronto North in Richmond Hill.
The stay was for one night and my flight from YYC was due to arrive into YYZ at 23:45 so I figured I could be at the hotel by 00:30 or so. Of course, the plane YYC went mechanical and left nearly an hour late so I didn't get to the Sheraton until a little after 1:00am. I must say I do love the highways in Toronto in the middle of the night, they actual get you places fast, not like during the day!
So here I was arriving at the hotel for roughly a 7 hour stay. At 1am there was no one checking in except for me so I can say it went super fast although they required my SPG number as it was not on the reservation even though I had called SPG about two weeks before to add my number to the reservation, not sure where the disconnect happened here. Since I don't have SPG status yet I tried finagling for free internet seeing as I had a short stay and would only use it for 15 minutes or so but was denied as the check in clerk said I would be automatically charged for it and wouldn't waive it. He was only doing his job which he did well, I just thought I would try, doesn't hurt to ask does it? In the end I just checked email via my phone.
I was assigned a King Guest room on the 6th floor of the York Tower which is a small trek from the lobby. The room was spacious, clean and well appointed and was perfectly suited for a 7 hour stay! Honestly the stay was so short I can't say too much more about the hotel but I walked away with no complaints, so chances are I will stay here again for future meetings with Amex unless there are some good point or free night promotions from another brand as there are properties from most of the major brands all in the same area.
You'll have to excuse the quality of the photos due to the lack of natural light and only having my iPhone to take photos:
The Sheraton Parkway Toronto North
SPG Category: 3
Points required for a free night: 7,000 Starpoints
Cash+Points Requirement: 2,800 Starpoints + $45 per night
Aeroplan and Best Western have extended the
offer to earn 1,500 Bonus Aeroplan miles for every $100 Best Western Travel Card purchased to August 31st. You may recall my post from on how it can be combined with Best Western's Aeroplan stay bonus and credit card use to complete a quadruple dip!
What follows is a repeat of my explanation on how to earn up to 3,700 Aeroplan miles for a $100 Best Western stay with this Quadruple dip
Here is the scenario, I am going to buy a $100 BW Travel Card on my American Express Gold Rewards Card and use that for a Best Western stay that comes in at the $100 mark:
Dip #1: Purchase a $100 Best Western Travel
Rewards card with my American Express Gold Rewards Card which will earn 2 Points per dollar as it is travel purchase. Those 2 points can be converted to Aeroplan at 1:1 so I effectively earn 200 Aeroplan miles. If you hold other Aeroplan cards you will earn between 50 - 150 Aeroplan miles depending on the card. Dip #2: Earn the 1,500 Bonus Aeroplan Miles for purchasing the $100 Travel Card Dip #3: Book and Stay on a mileage or point qualifying rate at any Best Western. Once completed I will earn 250 Aeroplan miles as the standard stay bonus Dip #4: Earn 1,750 Bonus Aeroplan Miles as part of the Best Western/Aeroplan summer stay promotion.
Total Aeroplan miles earned is 3,700! Not bad for a $100 stay. If you are lucky enough you may even find some hotels below the $100 mark and have some money left over on your BW Travel Card however with it being summer season I don't figure there will be many below the $100 range, chance are they will be around the $120-$160 mark. If that is the case you can put the remaining balance of $20-$60 on your Aeroplan earning credit card or even better buy more BW Travel Cards as you will earn 1,500 Miles for every $100 purchased.
Here are the links to the two bonus promotions:
Travel Card purchase: 1,500 Bonus Aeroplan
Miles for every $100 BW Travel
Card purchased. Full details Until Aug 31,12
Bonus Miles for Summer Stays1,750
Bonus Aeroplan Miles per stay at
participating Best Western hotels Worldwide.
Bonus can be earned on a maximum
of 3 stays.. Full details, Online Registration and Booking (Registration is required) Jun 17 - Aug 19, 12
British Airways has trumpeted another amazing Business Class deal that
many other airlines have begun to match, it's not as cheap as those
during the Diamond Jubilee but still for the middle of summer to have
business class deal like this is amazing!
Fly from to London or Manchester from any British Airways Canadian
gateway (Calgary, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver) in Business Class for
only $2012 including all taxes and fees! Book by July 3rd for travel
between July 16th and September 2nd. For complete details and/or to book
please visit British Airways
Virgin Atlantic has gone even cheaper for their Vancouver - London
flights with their Upper Class (Business Class) coming in at $1849.31
including all taxes and fees! Book by July 3rd for travel between July
16th and September 2nd. For complete details and/or to book please visit
Virgin Atlantic
Air Canada has matched the sale as well although it is not advertised like BA or VS. I love seeing pricing for Executive First being less than Tango Plus! Visit AirCanada.com to book
News, Tips, & Tricks
Today was a relatively quiet day after the past 2 days of craziness related to our Top Travel Rewards Credit Card feature. There really is no news except for the release of another great Club Carlson offer. The fourth and final major Club Carlson stay one night get enough points
for a free night offer is now out. This one is for Park Plaza hotels
and offers 50,000 Bonus Club Carlson points for a 1 night stay. The only problem is that there is only one Park Plaza in North America, the rest are in Europe and Asia and one in South America, so unless you are planning any overseas trips you may not need to register for this offer. If you did manage to jump on the other three offers and can take advantage of this
one you'll have amassed an amazing 188,000 Club Carlson points. More
than enough points for three nights at any of their top category 5
locations in the World or even more nights if you redeem for hotels in
lower categories.
Travel Deals
British Airways has trumpeted another amazing Business Class deal that many other airlines have begun to match, it's not as cheap as those during the Diamond Jubilee but still for the middle of summer to have business class deal like this is amazing!
Fly from to London or Manchester from any British Airways Canadian gateway (Calgary, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver) in Business Class for only $2012 including all taxes and fees! Book by July 3rd for travel between July 16th and September 2nd. For complete details and/or to book please visit British Airways
Virgin Atlantic has gone even cheaper for their Vancouver - London flights with their Upper Class (Business Class) coming in at $1849.31 including all taxes and fees! Book by July 3rd for travel between July 16th and September 2nd. For complete details and/or to book please visit Virgin Atlantic
Bonus Offers Carlson Hotels Club Carlson 50,000
Bonus Gold Points when you complete
1 eligible stay at any Park Plaza location Worldwide.
Limited to the first 20,000 registrants, after that anyone who registers
will receive 15,000 bonus points. Register Online
(registration is required) then reserve a room online at Park Plaza Until Aug 28, 12
Melia International Mas Rewards
- Double Mas Points for stays at The Reservce at Paradisus Palma Real
Punta Cana. More... Until Aug 31, 12
Qatar Airways Privilege Club
- 500 QMiles PER NIGHT when you book the Raffles Business package,
Raffles Suite / Villas package or the Raffles Weekend package for
stays at all participating Raffles Hotels Worldwide. More... Until
Aug 31, 12
Starwood Preferred Guest
- Earn up 3,000 Bonus Starpoints for stays at the Element New York
Times Square West. More... Until Dec 31, 12
Stash Hotel Rewards
- Double Stash Rewards Pointsfor all stays at Afffinia Hotels in New
York and Washington
DC. More... Until Sep 30, 12 - 2,500 Bonus
Stash Rewards Pointsfor stays
at the Artmore Hotel Atlant. More...Book by Jul 31 for stays until Aug 31, 12
- 1,000 Stash Rewards Pointsfor
stays at The Inn at The Black Olive Baltimore. More... Until Aug 31, 12 - Earn
up to 2,500 Bonus Stash Rewards Pointsfor
stays of 2+ nights at the Cedarbrook Lodge Seattle. More... Until Sep 3, 12 Plus 27 more Stash offers which can found here
News, Tips, & Tricks
The biggest news of the day for travel rewards in Canada came from WestJet and American Airlines in the form of an expansion of their frequent flyer partnership. As of today, WestJet Rewards members will be able to earn WestJet Rewards dollars on all American Airlines flights while American AAdvantage members will be able to earn AAdvantage miles on all WestJet flights. You can find all the details in our post from earlier today.
Our Top Travel Rewards Credit Card feature was covered by the Globe & Mail's Personal Finance Columnist Rob Carrick and also made the 6 o'clock news on Global Calgary:
This Sunday I will also be on the Informed Traveller on Calgary's AM 770 CHQR discussing the rankings.
Bonus Offers Alitalia MilleMiglia
- Triple MilleMiglia Miles for every stay at the Atahotels Tanka Village. More... Until Aug 31, 12
- Double MilleMiglia Miles for every stay at Atahotels Resorts (Petriolo
SPA Resort, Atahotel Naxos Beach, Atahotel Capotaormina, Golf Hotel
Campiglio).
More... Until Aug 31, 12
- Double MilleMiglia Miles for every stay at Atahotel Executive, Atahotel
ExpoFiera and Atahotel Villa Pamphil.
More... Until Sep 30, 12
American AAdvantage
- Earn up to 60,000 Bonus AAdvantage Miles & Gold or Platinum Elite
Status when you purchase an eligible First Class or Business Class
round-trip ticket between the U.S. and Europe, Japan, Argentina,
Bolivia, Brazil, Chile or Uruguay.
More... Until Dec 15, 12 Targeted
Offer - May not work for everyone
- Earn up to 60,000 Bonus AAdvantage Miles & Platinum Elite Status
when you purchase an eligible First Class or Business Class round-trip
ticket between the U.S. and Europe, Japan, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil,
Chile or Uruguay. More... Until Dec 15, 12 Targeted Offer - May
not work for everyone
Emirates Skywards
- 500 Bonus Skywards Miles + 3rd night free when you stay three consecutive
nights at a participating Marriott hotel or resort in the Middle East
and Africa. More... Jul 1 - Sep 15, 12
Iberia Plus
- 20% Bonus Avios Points when you purchase, gift or transfer Avios. More... Until Jul 8, 12
Marriott Rewards
- 1,500
Bonus Points per night when staying
Thursday through Sunday nights at the Renaissance Chicago
O'Hare Suites Hotel More... Jul
1 - Sep 23, 12 - 1,500 Bonus Points per stay including any night Monday
through Thursday at the Fairfield Inn & Suites Flint Fenton. More...
Until Sep 25, 12
- 1,000 Bonus Rewards Points when you stay any Sunday or Monday night
at the Fairfield Inn & Suites Kansas City Airport. More... Until Sep
3, 12
The WestJet Rewards program has just taken another big step in becoming a full fledged frequent flyer program. As of June 27th, WestJet Rewards members will be able to earn WestJet dollars on all American Airlines marketed and operated flights:
As you can see WestJet has decided to go with a flat rate reward for various flight distance flown on AA. Since WestJet is a revenue based program for their own flights (% of base ticket price is awarded as WestJet dollars) they had to figure out a way to reward their members for flights not operated by them and it appears the flat rate distance based amount was the way to go. Why would they go this route? In my opinion if you buy a $10,000 First Class ticket from AA, WestJet would have to dole out at $100 in WestJet dollars for a ticket that do not see any substantial revenue from and since WestJet does not have set redemption levels other than the base $25 they could see a big hit to their own revenues from tickets where WestJet Rewards members are applying their WestJet dollars to.
Overall, this is great new feature to the WestJet Rewards program as any partner earning addition is in the world of travel rewards. In addition to this new AA partnership, WestJet Rewards members can earn WestJet dollars on WestJet flights, WestJet Vacation Packages, WestJet codeshare flights on AA and Delta, and via the RBC WestJet MasterCards. I figure we will see even airline more partners come on board and perhaps even some hotel partners (I predict IHG) by the end of the year.
As of June 27th American AAdvantage members will now be able to earn AAdvantage Miles on all WestJet flights within Canada and between Canada and the U.S., the Caribbean, and Mexico as follows:
Class of Service
Purchased Fares Booked in:
Base Miles
Class of Service Bonus Miles
Economy Class
Y, V, B, Q, L, M, P, G, X, D
100%
0%
Here are all the WestJet T&C's associated with this new opportunity Eligible towards annual qualifying spend: No
To book a flight and/or to provide your WestJet ID:
Visit aa.com or call 1-800-433-7300
Missing WestJet dollars credit: Please allow up to thirty (30) days for WestJet dollars to be posted to your account.
To request retro credit for flights flown on American Airlines, American Eagle or AmericanConnection, please complete the online form available when you sign into mywestjet.com and select "My Requests". Be sure to include your flight date, origin, destination and ticket number. American Airlines ticket numbers are 13 digits and begin with "001".
Redeeming WestJet dollars: Flights operated by American Airlines are not available for redemption at this time.
News, Tips, & Tricks
If you are just visiting Rewards Canada or reading the blog feed now you may not have seen the big news of the day, the release of our 4th Annual Top Travel Rewards Credit Card. This ranking has become a mainstay feature on our site and we are please to present it once again! We did not run 'Canada's Choice' this time as we have decided to separate it into its own feature. Watch for it to be released this fall and be sure to vote for your favourite card at that time.
Bonus Offers Accor Leclub
- 210 Bonus Le Club Accorhotels Points for every weekend stay at
one of the 628 certified sustainable hotels participating in the Le
Club Accorhotels program Worldwide. More... Book by Jun 30 for stays
until Jul 15, 12
Air France KLM Flying Blue
- Earn up to 50% Bonus Flying Blue Miles when you buy of gift Flying
Blue Award miles. More... Until Jul 18, 12
Alitalia MilleMiglia
- 1,500 Bonus MilleMiglia Miles when you book the Mercure Summer Offer
at over 300 Mercure hotels in Europe. More... Book by Jul 22 for stays
Jul 9 - Aug 19, 12
- 500 MilleMiglia Miles per stay at Starhotels in Venice, Florence,
Rome, Naples, Trieste, Saronno, Milan, Bologna, Parma, Turin, Genoa
and Bergamo. More... Jul 1 - Aug 31, 12
- Earn up to 1,000 Bonus MilleMiglia Miles when you make reservation
for dinner online at a participating Starwood Hotel restaurant in
Rome and Florence. More... Until Sep 30, 12
Scandinavian EuroBonus
- 5,000 Bonus EuroBonus Points when making a reservation with Avis
and Best Western Hotels in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland. More... Jul 1 - Aug 31, 12
SriLankan FlySmiles
- Earn Triple FlySmiles Miles for stays at any participating Taj Hotel
& Resort Worldwide. More... Until Jul 31, 12
Turkish Miles&Smiles
- Double Miles & Smiles Miles when you book and stay at any participating
DoubleTree by Hilton™ Hotel or resort worldwide. More... Until Sep
30, 12
Today on RewardsCanada.ca
we posted our fourth annual picks for Canada's top travel rewards
credit cards. We have combed over 70
different credit cards offering travel rewards for Canadians and of
those there are a few that really stand out. While it is practically
impossible to give this question a perfect one card answer, we can
breakdown the market of Canadian Travel Rewards credit cards into five
major categories that these cards fall into. Without further ado, here
are the top travel rewards credit cards for 2012 as picked by
RewardsCanada.ca:
Top Travel Points Credit Card (with annual fee)
1. Capital One Aspire Travel™ World MasterCard®
2. TD First Class Infinite Visa
Top Travel Points Credit Card (with no annual fee)
1. American Express Blue Sky Credit Card
2. Capital One Aspire Travel Platinum MasterCard
Top Hybrid Travel Credit Card (with annual fee)
1. American Express Gold Rewards Card*
2. RBC Visa Infinite Avion
Top Airline Credit Card
1. CIBC Aerogold Visa Infinite
2. Capital One Delta SkyMiles World MasterCard
Top Hotel Points Credit Card
1. Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express
2. Priority Club® World MasterCard® from Capital One
For the complete article, details on each card plus runners up in each category please visit the full Canada's Top Travel Rewards Credit Card for 2012 page on the Rewards Canada website
Care to comment on our choices? Want to voice your opinion on the good
and the bad of all the Travel Rewards Credit Cards in Canada. Share you
views and experiences by leaving a comment below.
News, Tips, & Tricks Nothing new to really add here as I worked primarily on a big feature being release on Rewards Canada tomorrow.
Bonus Offers
Best Western Rewards
- Double Rewards Points on all eligible stays at the Best Western
Cape Suites Hotel Cape Town. More... Until Jul 31, 12
- Double Rewards Points on all eligible stays at the Best Western
Golden Prairie Inn & Suites Sidney. More... Until Jul 30, 12
- Triple Rewards Points for Sunday thru Thursday stays at the Best
Western Plus Lehigh Valley Hotel & Conference Center Bethleham. More...
Jul 1 - Sep 6, 12
- Double Rewards Points on stays of 3+ nights ont Standard, Corporate,
AAA or AARP Rates at the Best Western Cresson Inn. More... Until Aug
17. 12
Hyatt Gold Passport Earn
up to 30% Bonus Gold Passport Points
when you purchase Gold Passport points online.
Buy 1,000 - 9,000 points and get a 10% Bonus
Buy 10,000 - 29,000 points and get a 20% Bonus
Buy 30,000 - 40,000 points and get a 30% Bonus Full
details Until Aug 31, 12
Jun 17 - A
Until Aug 28, 12
