November 23 Update: 10x AIR MILES for online shopping, return of our Holiday Shopping Tips, 2,500 Bonus iPrefer Points at PHG hotels Worldwide

Happy Monday everyone! Here's what we got for you today:

News, Tips & Tricks
We've updated and re-released our piece on earning miles and points for Holiday Shopping! Be sure to check out our Top 6 tips for maximizing miles on your holiday shopping.

On that note, there are big bonuses to be had for online holiday shopping via airmilesshops.ca! You can earn 10x the AIR MILES for each purchase that totals $20 or more before taxes, shipping etc. Find out more here!

Come join us at the Canadian Points University in January! You can save $20 off the ticket price when you use promo code REWARD20 ! Visit the site here.



Posts since our last update:

• Earn 500 Aeroplan Miles PER NIGHT for stays at Marriott Hotels in the U.S.
  A few weeks we brought you details of the Aeroplan offer for Marriott stays in Canada and now if…

Bonus Offers
Air Canada / Aeroplan
- 500 Bonus Aeroplan Miles PER NIGHT at more than 50 JW Marriott, Autograph Collection, Renaissance, Marriott Hotels & Resorts, Gaylord Hotels and AC Hotels in the U.S. More... Until Jan 25, 16

AIR MILES
- 10x Bonus Air Miles Reward Miles on qualifying purchases of $20 CDN or more, excluding shipping, duty and taxes, made in a single transaction via the airmilesshops.ca online shopping portal. More... Until Dec 2, 15

airBaltic PINS (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- 3x PINS when you at any one of the 9 Chic Outlet Shopping Villages in Europe. More... Until Dec 31, 15

Best Western Rewards
- 500 Bonus Rewards points for stays on the Amsterdam Bicycle rate, or Amsterdam City Break rate at BEST WESTERN PLUS Hotel Blue Square. More... Until ?

British Airways Executive Club
- 3,000 Bonus Avios when you join Heathrow Rewards and spend £100 at Heathrow More... Until Feb 28, 16

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- Double Asia Miles for stays of 2+ nights at select Swissotel Hotels & Resorts Worldwide.Also, receive a complimentary accommodation upgrade, subject to availability at check-in. More... Until Feb 29, 16

Meridiana Club (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Double Avios on all Avis rentals of 2 or more days in Italy, Europe, Middle East and Africa. More... Until Jan 31, 16

Preferred Hotel Group iPrefer
- 2,500 Bonus  iPrefer Points and save up to 30% when you book a stay of 3 or more nights for stays at participating Preferred Hotel Group hotels Worldwide. More... Book by Nov 30 for stays until Mar 31, 16

Earn 500 Aeroplan Miles PER NIGHT for stays at Marriott Hotels in the U.S.

A few weeks we brought you details of the Aeroplan offer for Marriott stays in Canada and now if you have to travel to the U.S. and stay at Marriott's you can also earn bonus miles there. This offer is nice especially if you have multiple night stays planned as it gives you 500 bonus miles per night for up to 5 nights per stay!

Offer Details
500 Bonus Aeroplan Miles PER NIGHT at more than 50 JW Marriott, Autograph Collection, Renaissance, Marriott Hotels & Resorts, Gaylord Hotels and AC Hotels in the U.S. Maximum of 2,500 bonus miles per stay. Full details and online booking Until Jan 25, 16

November 20 Update: TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege Card changes, more new Air Canada transborder routes, 9 new bonuses

Your final update of the week! !

News, Tips & Tricks
One of our readers forwarded news about the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege Card, most of we have covered here except the change to the Maple Leaf lounge vouchers::

Hi Patrick…last month I  signed up for the above noted card $399 product as it offered 50,000 aeroplan with terms of spending $1000 in 90 days. Its arrived and so has all the small print. I was also a card holder the first year this product launched and fumbled along with TD as they saw benefits and features come and go on the Privileges end of the product. The first year it launched I wrote you to advise HHonors Diamond status was dropped. It still has not been replaced. Airport Angel was initially provided and didn’t work at all for me in Toronto---it has been replaced with Priority Pass. The strangest change was with regards to 4 Aeroplan redemption only Maple Leaf Lounge vouchers….these have been eliminated by a process where one swipe for the card holder is permitted and is not transferrable to others even travelling on the same aeroplan flight reward. I have written through to their CSR team---I’ll keep you posted as to their reply. I’ve also written the VISA Privileges concierge to stir things up from that direction.

Nov 12th I wrote ----“I've reviewed the recent change of eliminating the 4 maple leaf lounge access paper vouchers and believe this has been a mistake in my opinion. One of the best features of this card was the ability to treat family to a lounge visit when travelling on an Aeroplan award. The fact that it is restricted to one swipe only and for the card holder only and is not transferable is a terrible change of process. The sheer fact that it is not transferable is a mistake as now the other parties travelling on the same reward ticket cannot benefit from a lounge visit. A simple clarification and process improvement could be to amend the terms and agreements that the swipe for entry is applicable per person so long as the primary card holders account was that which produced the Aeroplan redemption of the tickets and all tickets up to four swipe entries may now have access to the lounge.”

After writing to them our reader let us know that  TD customer service agreed to credit him a $150 fee reduction to compensate the cost of purchasing three additional entries to a maple leaf lounge.

Do you have this card? Are you aware of this change to the Maple Leaf lounge access and if so has it affected you yet? Holders of this card should complain to TD about this change and perhaps like our reader you'll receive some compensation back if you have paid for others to enter Maple Leaf lounges. Let us know by commenting below! 

More new Transborder routes from Air Canada to tell you about. 2016 will see Toronto to Washington Dulles, Jacksonville, Portland OR, and Salt Lake City. Vancouver will get San Diego and Chicago while Calgary gets San Francisco. (Source Airlineroute.net)

We are speaking at the Canadian Points University in January! You can save $20 off the ticket price when you use promo code REWARD20 ! Visit the site here.



Posts since our last update:

• 100% Bonus on buying IHG Rewards Club Points until November 30th!
  The great 100% bonus on buying IHG Rewards Club points has returned! This offer brings the price of a…
• Best Western Rewards - 500 Bonus Points on all stays Worldwide
  On Sunday Best Western's current bonus offer a $25 travel card wraps up and right away on Monday their…
• AIR MILES car rental redemptions get even better value with Alamo & National until December 31st.
  You may recall from our post Travel Hacking 102 - Earn up to 3,300 AIR MILES Rewards Miles for FREE…
• Hilton HHonors: 2,500 Bonus Points on 2+ night stays in the U.S. during December (Combine with other offers)
  Hilton HHonors just released details on a new bonus for stays in the U.S. that can be combined with…

Travel Deals
Save 15-25% when you book 3 or more nights at any participating IHG Hotels Canadian properties. Valid for stays until Dec 30. Find out more here.


Bonus Offers
Best Western Rewards
- 500 Bonus Rewards Points for stays on the Best Value rate at Best Western Hotels Worldwide. More... Nov 23 - Feb 7, 16

Carlson Hotels Club Carlson
- 2,500 Bonus Gold Points and up to 30% off when you book a stay at Quorvus Collection, Radisson Blu, Park Inn by Radisson and Park Plaza hotels in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. More... Book by Nov 23 for stays Nov 30 - Feb 28, 16

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- 3,888 Bonus Asia Miles on your first Rocketmiles booking More... Book by Dec 31, 15

Hilton HHonors
- Earn 2,500 Bonus HHonors Points on every stay of two nights or more at any US hotel in the Hilton Portfolio. More... Dec 1 - 31, 15

South African Airways Voyager
- Double Voyager Miles for stays at the Radisson Blu Azuri Resort & Spa, Mauritius or the Radisson Blu Poste Lafayette Resort & Spa, Mauritius. More... Book by Dec 31, 15 for stays until Apr 30, 16

TAP Portugal Victoria
- Double Victoria Miles on all Gol flights systemwide. More... Until Feb 29, 16
- Triple Victoria Miles for stays at over 2,800 Accor Hotels Worldwide. More... Book by Dec 15 for stays until Jan 31, 16
- Double Victoria Miles for stays at all Altis Hotels. More... Book by Dec 31 for stays until Feb 29, 16
- Double Victoria Miles on Europcar rentals of a compact category or higher in mainland Portugal and Madeira. More... Book by Dec 31 for rentals until Jan 30, 16

100% Bonus on buying IHG Rewards Club Points until November 30th!

The great 100% bonus on buying IHG Rewards Club points has returned! This offer brings the price of a point down to 0.575 of a cent and you only have to buy 1,000 points (unlike in the summer where you had to buy 26,000 or more). This per point price is less than the Points+Cash trick of buying points for 0.7 cents. If you choose to buy the maximum number of points, 60,000, it will cost you US$690 but of course you'll end up getting 120,000 points. That's 24 nights at IHG hotels if redeeming via the PointBreaks option which works out to  only $28.75 per night!

Offer Details
100% Bonus IHG Rewards Club Points when you buy points online. Full details. Until Nov 30, 15

Best Western Rewards - 500 Bonus Points on all stays Worldwide

On Sunday Best Western's current bonus offer a $25 travel card wraps up and right away on Monday their new systemwide bonus launches. This on is 500 bonus points on each eligible stay you make at Best Western Hotels Worldwide.

Offer details
500 Bonus Rewards Points for stays on the Best Value rate at Best Western Hotels Worldwide. Full details, online registration and  booking (Registration is required)  Nov 23 - Feb 7, 16 

AIR MILES car rental redemptions get even better value with Alamo & National until December 31st.

You may recall from our post Travel Hacking 102 - Earn up to 3,300 AIR MILES Rewards Miles for FREE with a potential value of over $1,000 in travel that we show how the best value for redeeming AIR MILES is for car rentals. Here is an excerpt from that post showing the car rental portion:

Even better than this however seems to be an exceptional value for redeeming for car rentals via AIR MILES.

Here 605 AIR MILES Rewards Miles covers $191.81 of the car rental for a value of 31.7 cents per mile.

Now you can extract even more value from car rentals as witnessed by a bonus we posted earlier this week on Rewards Canada. AIR MILES will reward you up to 100 bonus miles for redeeming miles for Alamo or National Car Rentals. Depending on your collector level you can get 40 to 100 miles back so if you take the above example of 605 miles you'd be looking at only 505 to 565 miles for that same rental. The value extraction is then as high as 38 cents per mile. That's about three times the value per mile that we assign AIR MILES Reward Miles for flight redemptions. You have to redeem by December 31st. I personally need a rental in February so I may jump on this and redeem for it before the end of the year. Of course it all depends on the value of that redemption.

Offer details
Earn up to 100 Bonus Air Miles Reward Miles when you redeem miles for Alamo or National Car rentals. AIR MILES® Collectors get 40 Bonus Miles. Gold Collectors get 80 Bonus Miles, OnyxTM Collectors get 100 Bonus Miles.  Full details  Until Dec 31, 15

Hilton HHonors: 2,500 Bonus Points on 2+ night stays in the U.S. during December (Combine with other offers)

Hilton HHonors just released details on a new bonus for stays in the U.S. that can be combined with other bonuses like Triple Your Trip.  If you are planning any multiple night trips to the U.S. in December have a look at this offer.

Offer Details
Earn 2,500 Bonus HHonors Points on every stay of two nights or more at any US hotel in the Hilton Portfolio. Full Details, Online Registration and Booking  (Registration is required) Dec 1 - 31, 15

November 19 Update: Redeem Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles on Icelandair, new Air Canada routes, bonuses galore!

Once again lots of news and bonuses to bring your way!

News, Tips & Tricks
As we mentioned earlier this fall, the partnership between Alaska Airlines and Icelandair returned. It started off with only being able to earn miles on each others flights along with reciprocal elite benefits but now you can once again redeem Mileage Plan miles for Icelandair flights. Seeing that Icelandair serves a decent amount of cities in Canada and that we have a Mileage Plan co-branded credit card this is good news. The more ways you get to use your miles the better.  Happy redeeming for those flights to Iceland and/or Europe!!  And it doesn't take a lot of miles to redeem. 22,500 miles is all that's needed for a one way economy class ticket (low season) between Canada and Iceland. Seeing that the Alaska Airlines World Elite MasterCard has a 25,000 mile sign up bonus you can achieve that flight for only the $75 annual fee and whatever taxes/fees are charged on the award ticket.  (Source View from the Wing)

If you are planning to use your British Airways Executive Club Avios to redeem for International Business Class seats (or economy) on TAM between Toronto and New York be warned that the route is dropping to only 2 flights per week instead of 3 between April and June of next year. (Source Airlineroute.net)

Great news for those travelling out of Montreal to the U.S. as Air Canada is bringing back three routes. As of next summer you can once again fly between Montreal and Philadelphia, Houston and Denver (Source Airlineroute.net)

Air Canada is also adding a new route between Vancouver and San Jose, California for the 2016 summer season (Source Airlineroute.net)


We are speaking at the Canadian Points University in January! You can save $20 off the ticket price when you use promo code REWARD20 ! Visit the site here.


Posts since our last update:

• Earn Triple Miles & More when you fly in Lufthansa Premium Economy out of Vancouver or Montreal
  Earlier in the week we brought you details of earning bonus Miles & More miles on LOT's flights out of…
• Hilton HHonors Mystery Discount on Buying Points - 30% is what we got
  We haven't seen anyone mention this new bonus yet but it appears to be a mystery discount based upon…

Travel Deals
Save 15-25% when you book 3 or more nights at any participating IHG Hotels Canadian properties. Valid for stays until Dec 30. Find out more here.


Bonus Offers
AeroMexico Club Premier
- 4,000 Bonus Club Premier Kilometers on your first Rocketmiles booking More... Book by Dec 31, 15
- Earn up to 6x Club Premier Kilometers for Hertz rentals in Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States. More... Until Jan 31, 16

Asiana Club
- Triple Club Miles on all stays at participating Hilton Hotels Worldwide. More... Until Jan 31, 16

Avianca LifeMiles
- Earn up to 125% Bonus LifeMiles when you buy LifeMiles online. More... Until Dec 18, 15

Carlson Hotels Club Carlson
- 2,000 Bonus Gold Points on rentals of two or more days at participating Avis airport locations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand. More... Until Dec 31, 15

Hilton HHonors
- Up to a 45% Discount when you buy HHonors points online. Discount will be revealed after you log in. More... Until Dec 15, 15

Malaysia Airlines Enrich (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Earn up to Triple Enrich Miles when you rent a car with HERTZ in the U.S. More... Until Dec 14, 15
- Double Enrich Miles when you shop at any of the nine Chic Outlet Shopping Villages in Europe. More...Until Jan 31, 16

Qatar Airways Privilege Club
- Double QMiles on Sixt car rentals Worldwide. More... Until Dec 15, 15

Starwood Preferred Guest
- 750 Bonus Starpoints on qualifying rentals of 3 days or more at participating Budget locations worldwide. More... Until Dec 31, 15

Stash Hotel Rewards
- Triple Stash Rewards Points for stays at the Sunset Marquis West Hollywood. More... Dec 1 - 31, 15
- Triple Stash Rewards Points for stays at The Whitney Peak Hotel Reno. More... Until Dec 30, 15
- Triple Stash Rewards Points for stays at The Wilshire Grand Hotel West Orange. Earn a bonus 500 Stash points when you participate in the Tesla Test Drive event on December 16th. More... Dec 1 - 22, 15
- Triple Stash Rewards Points for stays at the Crockett Hotel San Antonio.More... Book by Jan 31 for stays Dec 1 - Mar 31, 16
- Triple Stash Rewards Points for stays at the Resort at Port Ludlow. More... Dec 1 - 31, 15

United MileagePlus (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Earn up to 6,000 Bonus MileagePlus Miles when you dine via the MileagePlus Dining program. More... Until Dec 30, 15

Earn Triple Miles & More when you fly in Lufthansa Premium Economy out of Vancouver or Montreal

Earlier in the week we brought you details of earning bonus Miles & More miles on LOT's flights out of Toronto but that's not the only M&M flight offer for Canadians. You can also earn 3x the miles if you fly in Premium Economy class between Vancouver and Frankfurt or Montreal and Munich.

Offer Details
Triple Miles & More Miles when you fly Lufthansa in Premium Economy Class on long-haul flights. Register online (Registration is required) then book online at Lufthansa.com Until Feb 29, 16

LH Premium Economy Network

Hilton HHonors Mystery Discount on Buying Points - 30% is what we got

We haven't seen anyone mention this new bonus yet but it appears to be a mystery discount based upon the wording of the ads. We got 30% when we logged in. If you get a different offer please let us know!

UPDATE
Here are what some of our readers are reporting:
30% bonus
35% bonus
45% bonus

Not as good as the spring offer of a 100% bonus or even the 75% bonus which was the last buy points bonus but this could be worthwhile for some to extend the validity of their HHonors points or you have a redemption in mind that you want to redeem for soon and won't earn points from stays or can't wait for the next 100% bonus. Normally it costs $10 for every 1,000 points but with this discount it brings it down as low as $5.50 per 1,000 or 5.5 cents per point. This is an offer where it can be totally worth it to buy the points for hotel stays as you can you pull out value of 8 cents or more on certain redemptions (check out Loyalty Travelers evaluation here!).

Offer Details:
Up to a 45% Discount when you buy HHonors points online. Discount will be revealed after you log in. Full details Until Dec 15, 15