Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Potential to get a short haul SkyTeam flight for three cheap car rentals. Who's up for trying?

Alright, full disclosure upfront. We have not tried this ourselves but while updating Garuda Indonesia bonuses for our GarudaMiles page on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com we posted their new offer for Rentalcars.com car rentals and it seems like it is one of those promos that can really be taken advantage of to earn a lot of miles on the cheap. Normally we don't cover Garuda Indonesia here on Rewards Canada but seeing that you can use GarudaMiles for flights on their SkyTeam partners we felt this was important enough to share here.

The bonus pays 5,000 bonus Garuda Miles when you complete a rental.

Offer Details:
5,000 Bonus GarudaMiles when you rent a car via Rentalcars.com. Full details. Until Mar 31, 16


And the terms of rentals:
Terms and condition:
  • Book and confirm a car rental at http://www.rentalcars.com/?affiliateCode=garudamiles and complete your booking process
  • Earn 3 GarudaMiles for every 1 USD of spending on a car price, only through the designated site above
  • You must be an existing GarudaMiles member to earn mileages.
  • To be eligible to earn mileage, your GarudaMiles membership number must be inserted in the Driver Details page when making a booking on this designated website.
  • GarudaMiles are only earned when you have paid for, picked up and completed the car rental.
  • Please allow approximately 6 to 8 weeks after the drop-off date of your car rental for GarudaMiles to be credited into your GarudaMiles account.
  • GarudaMiles will not be earned on the other items purchasable online such as Full Protection.
  • GarudaMiles will also not be earned on any items that you purchase offline when you are picking up the car from the local car rental company such as baby seat, GPS, travel insurance and one way fees.
  • GarudaMiles terms and conditions apply.
  • GarudaMiles will not be earned on rentals being paid directly to local supplier on arrival.
5,000 bonus miles on a rental that doesn't appear to have a minimum length or certain car category requirements? Nor no terms about only being a one time bonus? That peaked our interest. So a quick look at Garuda's award charts shows that for 15,000 miles you can redeem for an award ticket on their SkyTeam partners that is less than 1,000 miles in length:

This potentially means that three rentals made via RentalCars.com would get you enough miles for this short haul SkyTeam redemption. We did a quick search for rentals via Garuda's link for RentalCars.com (you have to ensure you use that link!) in our home city of YYC (which isn't known as a cheap city for rentals):


The total price was CDN$35 for a 2 hour rental (looks like you can have it for a day), so three rentals would be CDN$105 to earn the 15,000 miles (+ loose change in miles as you earn 3 miles for every USD spent before taxes/fees). Not a bad deal for a flight that could cost significantly more than that!

THERE IS A CATCH HOWEVER! To redeem miles for a SkyTeam ticket via GarudaMiles you have to go to a Garuda Indonesia sales office in person. They only have two offices in Canada, one in Toronto and the other in Vancouver. If your travels take you to the U.S. or overseas you can also visit their offices in many cities around the globe. You can find all the offices here.


So if you can make it to one of there offices are you up for the challenge? My bet is that you can find even cheaper rentals than I found above to achieve those miles at an even lower cost. Heck maybe you want to do more than three rentals to get up to higher award levels or business class flights. If you plan on doing this please let us know and keep us up to date on how it goes. First, make sure you join GarudaMiles if you haven't yet (you'll get 1,000 miles for doing so) and take screen shots of the bonus offer and terms just in case you need to fight for the miles.
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China Airlines Dynasty Flyer: 3,747 Bonus Miles when flying in premium economy between Vancouver and Taipei


China Airlines has launched a new bonus for its Dynasty Flyer members flying between Taipei and Vancouver. If you travel in Premium Economy (Fare Class W/U/E) you'll earn an additional 3,747 Dynasty Flyer miles. This bonus is tied into China Airlines starting Boeing 747 service between the two cities on January 12th.

Offer Details
3,747 Bonus Dynasty Flyer Miles when you fly in Premium Economy between Vancouver and Taipei. Full details. Until May 31, 16
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Monday, January 25, 2016

January 25 Update: WestJet expands to Nashville, IHG PointBreaks and SkyTeam member XiamenAir adds Vancouver

News, Tips & Tricks
Despite the weakness of our Loonie, WestJet is expanding their service to the U.S.. The route of note is a new city for WestJet, Nashville, Tennessee! The country music city will be served 5x a week from Toronto via WestJet Encore on their Q400s. The other expansions are Vancouver to San Diego 3x per week and the return of a daily service between Toronto and Los Angeles. Also included in the update is the addition of a Calgary to Thunder Bay route! (Source WestJet)


XiamenAir which is based out of Xiamen China will be lauching 3x weekly service between Vancouver and Xiamen. The airline is a SkyTeam alliance member which means you can use programs like Delta SkyMiles, Air France KLM Flying Blue etc. to earn and redeem on their flights. XiamenAir also has their own FFP called Egret Club. The flights will start this July with a Boeing 787-8 aircraft. (Source Airlineroute.net)


and the last good news of the day which you would have seen on the blog earlier today was the release of IHG's PointBreaks. Yes there weren't many Canadian locations but still a great hotel points redemption option!


Posts since our last update:


Bonus Offers
airberlin topbonus
- Earn up to 1,000 Bonus topbonus miles when you fly airberlin or NIKI to/from Egypt, Dominican Republic, Greece, Guernsey, Israel, Jersey, Corsica, Croatia, Cuba, Malta, Morocco, Macedonia, Mexico, Serbia, Spain (including the Balearic and Canary Islands), Turkey, USA, United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi), Cyprus. More... Register and book by Feb 29 for travel May 15 - Oct 15, 16

Etihad Guest
- Earn up to Triple Guest Miles when you fly Etihad between Abu Dhabi and Rabat. More... Until Feb 15, 16
- Double Guest Miles for stays at all Mövenpick hotels and resorts in Africa, Jordan and Lebanon. More... Until Mar 31, 16
- Triple Guest Miles for stays at the One & Only Royal Mirage. More... Book by Mar 31 for stays until Sep 30, 16

IHG Rewards Club
- 5,000 points per award night - IHG Rewards Club PointBreaks Redeem only 5,000 points for stays at select hotels Worldwide. More... Until Apr 30, 16

SAS EuroBonus
- Double EuroBonus points for stays at Radisson Blu hotels in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland. More... Until Mar 28, 16
- Double EuroBonus points when you use Flygtaxi shared taxi service. (in Umeå , Sundsvall , Lulea and Ängelholm) More... Until Feb 14, 16

Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
- Triple Miles&Smiles Miles for stays at over 2,800 Accor Hotels Worldwide. More... Until Apr 30, 16
- Triple Miles&Smiles Miles on Avis rentals Worldwide. More... Until Mar 31, 16

Virgin America Elevate(on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Earn up to Quadruple Elevate Points on rentals of 2 or more at participating Avis locations the U.S. More... Until Feb 29, 16 

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IHG Rewards Club PointBreaks - 5,000 Points for Award Night Redemptions at 170+ Hotels (5 in Canada) until Apr 30, 16


The latest set of IHG Rewards Club PointBreaks are now bookable for stays from today to April 30th (subject to availability).

Each Reward Night at these participating hotels will be only 5,000 IHG Rewards Club points during the above mentioned dates. Remember the new PointBreaks rules that a member can only book up to 2 reward reservations per hotel participating in the individual offer (ie 2 at Pointbreaks hotels).  My tip to get around this would be to book 2 reservations with one IHG Rewards Club account and then have your spouse book 2 more etc. Of course this is dependent on both accounts having enough points to redeem for these awards. Also be sure to book these ASAP as once the allotted nights are booked at certain locations those hotels will fall off the list.

Why are IHG Rewards Club Point Breaks such a great deal? Because they offer reward nights at participating IHG hotels Worldwide for only 5,000 Rewards Club points. For those of you not to familiar with IHG Rewards Club , normal redemption rates for Rewards Club reward nights run from as low as 10,000 points for some Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express locations to 50,000 points for ultra-luxurious InterContinental locations and even these locations can participate in PointBreaks. So as you can see you can receive a discount of 50 to 88% off the regular redemption rates. You may be thinking that the high end hotels won't participate but they do depending on the time of year! Please note that like most loyalty promotions these offers are capacity controlled so I advise to book sooner than later to ensure you get the PointBreaks rate. These offers will be bookable via the primary PointsBreaks page later today but right now you can book via the individual links below. (list pulled from the IHG blog)

Once again, as we has been for well over a year if not more, the showing in Canada isn't that good. Not that redeeming 5,000 points at these hotels is bad, in fact, its a great deal but seeing that only 5 hotels are participating, that's not so good. We were guessing that number might be bumped up due to our struggling economy and granted 2 of the 5 hotels are in the Edmonton region which has been hard hit but we figured there would be more hotels this time. 

Hotels in Canada:


Hotels in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East:

China
India
Indonesia
Japan
Thailand
Vietnam
Saudi Arabia
South Africa
Australia

Hotels in the Central and South America:


Argentina

Brazil

Columbia

Panama
Holiday Inn Panama Canal


Hotels in Canada:

Hotels in Mexico

Hotels in the United States

Alabama
Arkansas

Arizona

California

Colorado

Connecticut

Delaware

Florida

Georgia

Iowa

Idaho

Illinois

Indiana

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Massachusetts

Maryland

Michigan

Minnesota

Missouri

Mississippi

Montana

North Carolina

North Dakota

Nebraska

New Jersey

New Mexico

Nevada

New York

Ohio

Oklahoma

Oregan

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

South Carolina

South Dakota

Tennessee

Texas

Utah

Virginia

Wisconsin

West Virginia

Wyoming


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Thursday, January 21, 2016

January 21 Update: Avianca LifeMiles now allows mixed cabin awards, Air Canada International Bonus Miles offer and more!

Last update of the week (we're off tomorrow, so see you next week!)

News, Tips & Tricks
Early, early this morning we posted the details of Air Canada's new International flight bonus. At the time we had it up, Air Canada and Aeroplan still hadn't made their registration page live. Well good news is that as of this post going up you can now register for the offer. See the details below in Posts since our last update!


If you have ever taken advantage of the Avianca LifeMiles buy miles bonuses that we frequently post here on Rewards Canada and let you know that they are a great way to get Star Alliance flights for cheap you'll be happy with the latest news from the program! One sticking point with the program up until now is that they did not allow mixed cabin awards. Now they do which means more flights open up for you to use your LifeMiles. You will, of course pay the higher amount of miles of the highest fare class that is on your itinerary but at least you now have the option of using your miles in this fashion without having to book separate awards. (ie long haul Biz Class Canada to Frankfurt connecting to Rome in Economy) Source: One Mile at a Time

Kaligo, the third party hotel booking site that awards thousands of miles on stays has launched a mobile app for Apple iPhone users. Find out more here. and find tons of Kaligo bonuses on our Kaligo page

Qantas Frequent Flyer has reduced the number of Points and carrier charges required for selected Qantas International Economy Classic Flight Reward. They have also reduced the points required for selected International Economy Classic Flight Rewards with some of our partner airlines, including American Airlines®, Emirates and Fiji Airways. Find out more here.

Also in the bonus offers section check out the Le Club accorhotels bonus for stays in North America as it includes their hotels in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.


Posts since our last update:


Bonus Offers
Air Canada / Aeroplan
- Earn up to 15,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles on select flights between Canada and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. More... Register and book by Mar 3 for travel until Apr 30, 16

Hertz Gold Plus Rewards
- Earn up to 2,750 Bonus Gold Plus Rewards Points + 25 Free Points on rentals of 2 or more days at participating Hertz locations in the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, USVI, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand only. More... Residents of the U.S. or Canada only Until Mar 23, 16

Jet Airways JetPrivilege
- Earn up to 40% Bonus JetPrivilege Miles when you buy JetPriviliege miles online. More... Until Feb 19, 16

Le Club accorhotels
- Earn up to 500 Bonus Le Club Accorhotels Points for stays at participating Accor Hotels in North America, Central America and Mexico. More... Until Mar 15, 16

TAP Portugal Victoria
- Double Victoria Miles on TAP Portugal flights between New York or Miami and Lisbon (and v.v.) More... Until Mar 31, 16

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Air Canada Offers New Business Class Check-in Within a Lounge Setting at Toronto Pearson


Air Canada launched a new service today for select travellers at Toronto-Pearson Airport. Now customers flying in business class or those who hold premium elite status can use a dedicated
Business Class check-in that is within a lounge setting:
"Business Class Check-in has landed at Toronto-Pearson International Airport. Starting January 21, 2016, select Air Canada customers will enjoy an exclusive check-in experience designed to make their move through Canada’s busiest airport faster and more efficient.
Equipped with 15 check-in counters, 2 customer service desks, 2 self-serve kiosks, and a dedicated seating area, our new Business Class Check-in service will get you on your way without delay.
For flights within Canada and international travel*, you can enjoy expedited Business Class Check-in if you’re:
  • Travelling in Business Class or in the Premium Economy or Premium rouge cabins
  • An Altitude Super Elite 100K, Elite 75K or Elite 50K member
  • A Star Alliance Gold member
Within this new Business Class Check-in area, dedicated check-in counters and a concierge office will remain available exclusively for Altitude Super Elite 100K members.
Customers who are eligible for Priority Check-in (including our Altitude Elite 35K and Prestige 25K members, as well as select credit card holders) may use new dedicated Priority Check-in counters located in aisle 3 for domestic flights and aisle 5 for international flights."
Rewards Canada readers, if you are flying out of YYZ today or over the next few days in AC Biz Class or of course if you hold status we'd love to hear about your experience using the Business Class check-in area. Feel free to comment below or send us an email with pics at info@rewardscanada.ca
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Air Canada: Earn up to 15,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles on flights between Canada and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.


Last week we brought you the deets about Air Canada's North America flight promotion and now we bring you their global offer! This offer sees bonuses awarded on a single roundtrip versus the North America offer of three segments and also includes all fare classes versus the North America offer of Flex or higher.

Offer Details
Earn up to 15,000 Bonus Aeroplan® Miles on select flights between Canada and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Register Online (Registration is required) Register and book between Jan 21 and March 3, 2016 for travel by April 30, 2016

Bonuses as follows:
On select flights between Canada and South America, Europe and Middle East:
  • 5,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles Per round-trip flown in Tango, Flex or Latitude.
  • 10,000  Bonus Aeroplan Miles Per round-trip flown in Business Class, Premium Economy or Premium rouge.

On select flights between Canada and Asia:
  • 7,500 Bonus Aeroplan Miles Per round-trip flown in Tango, Flex or Latitude.
  • 15,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles Per round-trip flown in Business Class, Premium Economy or Premium rouge.

Eligible Routes:





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Wednesday, January 20, 2016

January 20 Update: SPG boosts their Take Two promotion, using credit card points to pay award ticket taxes and fees, KLM Wild on Wednesday!

Nice mix of news, bonuses and travel deals today

News, Tips & Tricks
SPG's Take Two promotion has been upgraded! It still offers Double Starpoints + 250 Bonus Starpoints at select locations it has now been upgraded with additional bonuses once you reach 15 nights and 25 nights during the promotional period. If you have already registered for the promo you don't have to do anything to get the additional points.


READER QUESTION
New Rewards Canada reader Duane asked this question today:
"I saw a representative from Rewards Canada on Global this morning and he mentioned that you could pay the taxes of a aeroplan rewards flight with aeroplan points. We just booked 3 business class tickets to France and Spain for July 2016 using aeroplan points.  Our taxes were around $3300 and I paid it with my CIBC Aeroplan visa.  Is there a way to pay for the taxes with my points?  thanks."
Our response:
Unfortunately Aeroplan Miles cannot be used for the taxes and fees except for certain times of the year when they run a promotion for it.

What I was explaining on Global this morning was that we used Aeroplan Miles for the flights to Maui and charged the taxes/fees to my American Express Gold Rewards card. Once those charges showed up on my statement I redeemed my American Express Membership Rewards points against those charges. Any card that allows you to redeem points against a travel charge on your account (Amex Gold, Cap One Aspire, TD First Class etc) can be used to pay Aeroplan taxes and fees.
To see what cards can be used to pay for taxes and fees on Aeroplan, AIR MILES and other award tickets see this old post of ours (which surprisingly also came out of a Global interview!):  Which credit cards can be used to cover award ticket taxes, fees and surcharges?

and yes we were on Global Calgary this morning discussing our Top Travel Rewards Credit Card rankings! Time went quickly and I wasn't able to discuss all the cards and tips that I wanted to but that's always the case with interviews, you'll never know where they will go! You can watch the video here.





Posts since our last update:

Travel Deals
KLM Wild on Wednesday is back! This week its Krakow for $799 all in from the East or $949 from the West. Book by Jan 21 for travel until May 6! Find out more here.

Fairmont Hotels has boosted their 'Moments' offer right now. You can now enjoy up to 30% off your stays at Fairmont locations around the globe. Find out more here
 


Bonus Offers
China Southern Sky Pearl Club
- Earn up to Triple SkyPearl Club Kilometers for stays at participating Mandarin Oriental Hotels Worldwide. More... Feb 1 - Apr 30, 16

First Hotels First Member
- First Hotels 500 Bonus First Member points when you join the First Hotels First Member program. More... Ongoing

Hilton HHonors
- Earn up to 80% Bonus HHonors Points when you buy points online. More... Targeted offer - may not work for everyone Until Feb 9, 16

Marriott Rewards
- Marriott MegaBonus: Earn free nights and/or bonus Rewards Points for stays at any participating Marriott Hotel Worldwide. More... Register by Apr 15 for stays Feb 1 - May 15, 16

Starwood Preferred Guest
- OFFER UPDATED - Double Starpoints + up 10,000 Bonus Starpointsfor stays of 2 or more nights at all Starwood Hotels Worldwide. Select hotels from around the world will also award 250 bonus Starpoints per night.  More... Register and book by Apr 10 for stays Jan 11 - Apr 30, 16

Stash Hotel Rewards
- Triple Stash Rewards Points for stays at the Sunset Marquis West Hollywood. More... Until Feb 29, 16

United MileagePlus
- Double MileagePlus Miles for stays at participating Fairmont Hotels & Resorts worldwide when booking select Fairmont Experiences. More... Ongoing 

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New program added to Rewards Canada: First Hotels First Member - Receive 500 points free for joining

Sure it may only appeal to a handful of you as this hotel chain is only in Scandinavia (and Spain) but there are Canadians traveling there and so we add them to Rewards Canada. Today marked the addition of First Hotels First Member program to our bonus offers section. Currently there is only one bonus and that is 500 points for joining the program. There you go. 500 free points.


When you join the program you'll also receive a special code giving you 15% off your First Hotels stays as long as you book online. That's a pretty decent benefit in its own right.

When you stay you'll earn 1 point per 1 local currency spent on stays at their hotels. The program also has elite levels when you hit 10 nights in a year (Platinum) and 30 nights (Black) which provide additional benefits like late check out, free upgrades and more.


First Hotels are part of the Global Hotel Alliance which has their own frequent guest program called Discovery. The good thing about joining First Member is that you are automatically enrolled in Discovery if you are not a member already. 

You can find out more about the sign up offer and this program here.

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Tuesday, January 19, 2016

January 19 Update: Canada's Top Travel Rewards Credit Cards for 2016, United ends St. John's service, Marriott MegaBonus returns!

Big day today on Rewards Canada!

News, Tips & Tricks
Of course its a big day here on Rewards Canada as we released our 8th annual Canada's Top Travel Rewards Credit Cards rankings! This year we took an additional step in the rankings by adding a new category, Overall Top Travel Rewards Card and that category was taken by the American Express Gold Rewards Card. Yes we do believe this the best overall card in Canada for travel rewards! Find all the rankings here!


Did you know that Rewards Canada was one of the very first websites in Canada to actually rank credit cards?

Almost as soon as they started they stopped. Roughly two weeks ago we let you know about the new Ultra Low Cost airline here in Canada called newleaf. The airline, as we mentioned, was actually planning to use Kelowna based Flair Air to operate their flights for them. Well it looks like that combination is coming under the scrutiny of the CTA as newleaf will not be launching on February 12th as originally planned and will be providing full refunds to anyone who has booked flights with them. Newleaf does state they will be back but when we do not know. Thanks to my wife for alerting me to this! Link to their notice

Not so good news for those of you in St. John's who like to use your Aeroplan miles (or other Star Alliance airline miles) for United's flight to Newark as the route is being canceled at the start of February. (Source Airlineroute.net)



Posts since our last update:


Bonus Offers
AeroMexico Club Premier
- 4,000 Bonus Club Premier Kilometers on your first Rocketmiles booking More... Until Mar 31, 16

AIR MILES (Canada)
- 7x AIR MILES Reward Miles on all Shell fuel purchases in Canada. More... Until Dec 31, 15

Best Western Rewards
- Double Rewards Points on all qualifying stays at the BEST WESTERN PREMIER Kapital Opera - Paris or the BEST WESTERN PLUS Hotel Massena Nice - Nice More... Until Mar 31, 16
- Double Rewards Points on all qualifying stays at the BEST WESTERN PREMIER Opera Liege - Paris More... Until Feb 29, 16

Hilton HHonors
- 15,000 Bonus HHonors Points when you stay 2 or more nights at any Hilton Hotels Worldwide within 90 days of registering. More... Targeted Offer - May not work for everyone Until Jan 12, 17

Le Club accorhotels
- Earn up to 3,000 Bonus Le Club Accorhotels Points for stays of 2 or more nights at participating ibis and ibis Styles hotels Worldwide that offer ibis BUSINESS More... Jan 25 - Mar 28, 16
- Triple Le Club Accorhotels Points for stays at ibis, ibis Styles, Novotel and Mercure hotels in Italy, Greece and Israel. More... Book by Feb 12 for stays until Feb 28, 16
- Double Le Club Accorhotels Points for stays at Sofitel, Pullman, Novotel, Mercure, ibis and ibis Styles hotels in Italy, Greece and Israel. More... Book by Mar 31 for stays Feb 29 - Jun 5, 16
- Earn up to Triple Le Club Accorhotels Points for stays of 2 or more nights at participating Accor Hotels in Japan. More...Book by Feb 29 for stays until Apr 28, 16

TAP Portugal Victoria
- Double Victoria Miles for stays of 3 or more nights at the Dom Pedro Garajau or the Dom Pedro Baía. More... Until May 31, 16

Virgin America Elevate (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Double Elevate Points on all Virgin America flights systemwide. More... Until Feb 29, 16

Virgin Australia Velocity (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Earn up to 4x Velocity Points for stays at participating Shangri-La Hotels Worldwide. More... Until Feb 29, 16


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