September 23 Update: Air Canada announces Montreal-Shanghai service and Canadian North Aurora Rewards business class lounge offer

News, Tips & Tricks
Amidst the big news today from Marriott and Starwood, Air Canada had their own announcement that shouldn't be missed! As we speculated yesterday Air Canada has announced new service to China from Montreal. More specifically Shanghai and this makes sense seeing that Air China already flies between Montreal and Beijing. Here is an excerpt from the press release:

Air Canada today announced the introduction of daily year-round flights from Montreal to Shanghai, China beginning February 16, 2017. This marks Air Canada's first direct service to China from Montreal as well as the introduction of state-of-the-art Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft on flights departing from Montreal. Tickets will be available for purchase on aircanada.com and through travel agents on September 28. All Air Canada flights provide for Aeroplan accumulation and redemption and, for eligible customers, priority check-in, Maple Leaf Lounge access, priority boarding and other benefits.

Canadian North Aurora Rewards members can enjoy free access to the Plaza Premium Lounge with free breakfast in Edmonton. This is part of promotion to show all Aurora Rewards members what it is like to be a Concierge member in the program as they get anywhere from 2 to 10 lounge passes depending on the elite level achieved. Find out more about this offer here.

• Promotion runs from September 15 to December 15, 2016 and breakfast is available from 4:30am to 10am.
• Members must bring 1. Canadian North Boarding Pass for same-day travel 2. Aurora Rewards membership card or member card number (must be a member for at least 10 days prior to entry) 3. New members (within 10 days) may enter with piece 1, plus a digital or paper copy of their Welcome Letter sent immediately after joining.

And finally we did launch another contest with Marriott today! Check it out here for your chance to win up to 30,000 Marriott Rewards points!!

Posts since our last update:

• Enter to win up to 30,000 Marriott Rewards Points with our latest contest!
  Its only fitting that on the day Marriott acquires Starwood that we launch our third contest of the year…
• Marriott acquisition of Starwood is complete - You can already link accounts, status match and transfer points!
  The acquisition of Starwood Hotels by Marriott has now closed. The company will still be called Marriott International Inc.…
• TD Travel Visa cardholders in Quebec may win a reprieve from the 2015 devaluation
  TD's spin on their inherent devaluation last year As many of you may be aware back in 2015 TD Canada…

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Enter to win up to 30,000 Marriott Rewards Points with our latest contest!

Its only fitting that on the day Marriott acquires Starwood that we launch our third contest of the year with Marriott Rewards!

In this contest you can win up to 30,000 Marriott Rewards Points for telling us what Marriott Experience's Marketplace option you would most like to experience. DO NOT COMMENT below in this post as that won't count.

You must enter on our main contest page which you can find right here!

Remember the news from earlier today about being able to transfer points between Marriott and Starwood. So if you are a SPG loyalist and enter this contest those points will convert to 10,000 Starpoints if you win the grand prize or 5,000 Starpoints if you win the runner up prize!

The contest runs until September 30th! 

Marriott acquisition of Starwood is complete - You can already link accounts, status match and transfer points!

The acquisition of Starwood Hotels by Marriott has now closed. The company will still be called Marriott International Inc. and it brings together 30 hotel chains with over 5,700 hotels making it the largest hotel company in the world.

The news has been much anticipated and many were wondering how the two loyalty programs, Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest would work in the acquisition. The news that came today about the loyalty programs is quite exciting in fact. The two programs will continue to run separately as we already knew until sometime in 2018. Then late yesterday some news leaked about the transfer rate of transferring Starpoints to Marriott would be 1:3. And that has been confirmed now and it is a decent rate. We give Marriott Rewards points a value around 0.8 cents which means Starpoints transferred over would have a value of 2.4 cents. Now you can pull greater value than that out of Starpoints but you can also pull greater value than 0.8 cents out of Marriott Rewards points.

Today with the acquisition that transfer rate has been confirmed but what is even more exciting is that you can immediately transfer points between Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest accounts (in either direction) and you can status match immediately between the programs.

We want you to take advantage of the best of both programs. That means a few things:
• You can now link your Rewards and SPG accounts.
• Your highest status level* will now be matched across all of your accounts.
• You can transfer points between your accounts.

This is huge, I spoke Marriott Rewards and SPG Executives Thom Kozik and David Flueck this morning and they were excited that never in history have two programs of this size come together to be able to offer and unlock benefits as what they're offering on day one.You could hear the excitement in both their voices even though they know they have lots of work ahead of them on how to bring the best of both programs together. Their next step is to work on harmonization of the programs on the back end and to start looking at the data and behaviour of the 85 million members they have worldwide. The good news for them is that can now see how each others program works to solve challenges, appease their customers and more. It really is about bringing the best of both worlds into one huge rewards program. Finally they also mentioned that you should see even more benefits out the rewards program in the future since the scale of the programs now makes them the most desirable partner in the industry which should allow them to do bigger and better things.

Do your account linking now! Don't wait as you'll want to enjoy benefits of both programs! 

Essentially you can now 'choose' to earn Starpoints or Marriott Rewards points for your stays at anyone of the 5,700+ hotels since you can transfer back and forth between the programs. This is awesome as there are places where Starwood does not have hotels so you can stay at a Marriott hotel to earn Marriott Rewards points and then transfer them to your SPG account or vice versa!

On the elite end, if you hold status with either program or both programs, the highest level you have will now be your highest level in the other program

This is a boost for Marriott Platinum members since SPG Platinum is such a strong elite level and its a boost for SPG Gold as they now get  Marriott Gold which provides Club Lounge access for stays at Marriott locations!

The other benefits afforded by the elite status match are as follows:

• Marriott Rewards elite members now have access to the Starwood Delta Airlines crossover rewards option and the Starwood Emirates Your World Rewards option
• Starwood Preferred Guest Platinum members will now have access to the Marriott United partnership giving them Silver Elite status in MileagePlus

Then we can go on to the airline mileage conversion, SPG has tons of airline partners so you now can convert your Marriott Rewards points to SPG to convert to one of more then 30 airline partners (with the 5,000 bonus miles if you convert 20,000 Starpoints at once), SPG now has access to Marriott's amazing travel packages for award nights+airline miles. The possibilities go on and on with this unexpected combination of programs today!!

On the Credit Card front both Amex and  Chase will run simultaneously for the time being and there is no word on which card partner will be chosen when the programs combine in 2018. So our word of advice is to get both cards here in Canada to maximize your value across both programs! The Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express and the Chase Marriott Rewards Premier Visa card are both very strong cards with the latter giving you Silver Elite status immediately while the SPG card will give you Gold status if you spend $30,000 or more on the card in a year.

You could also jump on The Platinum Card from American Express as it gives you automatic SPG  Gold status which means you'll automatically get Marriott Rewards Gold status! It also means you can now convert Membership Rewards points to Marriott via the SPG program. So the American Express Gold Rewards card will get you 3 Marriott Rewards points per dollar on purchases at Gas, Grocery, Drug Store and Travel purchases.

There is so much happening with the news today that I'm sure we may have missed something in the excitement so be on the lookout for more posts potentially on this topic!

Finally our congrats to Starwood and Marriott! Rewards Canada has been partnered in various ways with both companies for well over 10 years and we look forward to working with them for many more years!

What are your thoughts on today's announcement? Are you excited? What are you most looking forward to with the linking of the programs? Let us know in the comments below!

TD Travel Visa cardholders in Quebec may win a reprieve from the 2015 devaluation

TD's spin on their inherent devaluation last year

As many of you may be aware back in 2015 TD Canada Trust announced changes to the TD Rewards program that ticked off a lot of cardholders. The changes were posted to the Rewards Canada blog in June 2015 which you can read here. In our search for some details on the current AIR MILES class action lawsuit we came across another class action lawsuit we had not seen before. This one was brought up in Quebec so it is only good for residents of Quebec but it appears a settlement has been reached. The courts need to approved the settlement still with that decision to come on October 21st.

If approved it means credit card holders of TD's  proprietary rewards program (TD First Class, Platinum or Classic Travel visa) that reside in Quebec won't be subject to the devalued point requirements for book anyway travel purchases until August 31st, 2017.  The rest of Canada (and we're guessing Quebec right now) have been subject to the new redemption rates since November 2015.

Now the question to ask is if you are in Quebec and have redeemed points at the devalued rate, will you see TD refund you some points if the settlement is approved? We'll have to keep our eye out on this one. If you are in Quebec and have actually redeemed we'd love to hear from you to see what will happen!

Visit here to read more about the Class Action suit

September 22 Update: Rewards Canada Podcast now on iTunes, potential Air Canada Montreal to China service coming and more!

News, Tips & Tricks
The new Rewards Canada Weekly Round Up Podcast is now available on iTunes! Check it out here and subscribe so that you automatically get each new episode! Find it here on itunes!
As always you can also visit out Podcast page.

Air Canada will have a major announcement tomorrow regarding air service between Montreal and China. Air Canada's partner Air China already serves Montreal but based on this notice Air Canada will also start flying to China from Montreal.

Media Advisory - Air Canada to Make Major Montreal Announcement

MONTREAL, Sept. 22, 2016 /CNW Telbec/ - On the occasion of the visit to Canada by the Premier of China, Air Canada invites the media to attend a press conference in Montreal for a major announcement concerning air service to China.

WestJet & China's Hainan Airlines announced a new code share agreement today. Makes sense with Hainan serving Calgary and Toronto. Easy feed to WestJet's two biggest hubs.

WestJet announced today it has entered into a code-share agreement allowing Hainan Airlines to place its HU code on WestJet-operated flights. The two carriers are building on an existing interline agreement that has been in place since 2013. (Source WestJet & Routesonline)

Hainan Airlines operated by WestJet
Calgary – Edmonton
Calgary – Kelowna
Calgary – Ottawa
Calgary – Regina
Calgary – Toronto
Calgary – Vancouver
Calgary – Victoria
Calgary – Winnipeg
Toronto – Edmonton
Toronto – Halifax
Toronto – Kelowna
Toronto – Montreal
Toronto – Ottawa
Toronto – Regina
Toronto – Vancouver
Toronto – Victoria
Toronto – Winnipeg

Rexall is celebrating 112 years by offering 112 Bonus AIR MILES Reward Miles on purchases of $50 or more this weekend (Sep 23-25). No coupon required.

Posts since our last update:

• N/A

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September 21 Update: 10x More Rewards Points at Panago, Amex Travel Complimentary Night Sale & Free Aeroplan Miles!

News, Tips & Tricks
More Rewards is continuing their 'coalition program' growth and starting to offer partner promotions. One of the first we have seen is this one for Panago pizza. For the next the next week or so you can earn 10x More Rewards Points (or 10 points per dollar spent) with Panago. The offer runs until October 2nd. Plus if you use your Scotia More Rewards Visa Card you'll earn 6x the points per dollar spent since Panago is a More Rewards partner. Essentially you can earn 16 point per dollar! And remember that Scotia More Rewards card is a hidden gem that offers up to 2.54% return with no annual fee! Find out more about the Panago offer here.

Posts since our last update:

• WestJet Rewards: Earn up to 75 bonus dollars on travel to Las Vegas with a great return for the flights only option!
  WestJet has put out a lucrative bonus for flying between Canada and Las Vegas. It is primarily marketed as…
• 1,000 FREE Aeroplan Miles when you join Fairmont Hotels President's Club
  Not a member of Fairmont Hotels' President's Club? Now is the time to join as not only do you…

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American Express Travel has brought back their Complimentary Night Sale. If you book four or more consecutive pre-paid nights you'll get a complimentary night. Book by Oct 31 for stays until Nov 15, 16. Find out more here.

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Follow Rewards Canada:

WestJet Rewards: Earn up to 75 bonus dollars on travel to Las Vegas with a great return for the flights only option!

WestJet has put out a lucrative bonus for flying between Canada and Las Vegas. It is primarily marketed as a WestJet Vacations offer for flight+hotel but the flight only portion is what really makes this offer stand out! That flight only portion is 50 bonus WestJet dollars for a round trip (or 25 each way) for a flight that can cost around CAD$300 all in.

Here is an example, Vancouver - Las Vegas Oct 11-14 is only $327 and you'll get 50 bonus WestJet dollars back plus ~2 dollars in regular earn for a total of 52 WestJet dollars. That's nearly a 16% return!

 
Offer details:
Earn up to 75 Bonus WestJet dollars when you book travel to Las Vegas. Book a WestJet Vacations package for a minimum of three nights at Wynn Las Vegas or Encore to receive 75 bonus WestJet dollars. And, if you decide to only book a round-trip flight, you’ll enjoy 50 bonus WestJet dollars. Register Online (Registration is required) Book by Oct 16 for travel Oct 1 to Feb 1, 17


And remember to register for WestJet's Status Match offer by this Friday! Find out more here.

1,000 FREE Aeroplan Miles when you join Fairmont Hotels President's Club

Not a member of Fairmont Hotels' President's Club? Now is the time to join as not only do you have to be a member to earn Aeroplan miles (up until earlier this year that wasn't the case) but if you join by November 15th using the link below you'll get 1,000 Aeroplan miles for doing so! We all love free miles and this is a great way to boost your Aeroplan balance or for those who barely use Aeroplan to keep your account active!

Offer details
1,000 FREE Aeroplan Miles when you join Fairmont Hotels President's Club. Enroll here (enrollment code is embedded). Until Nov 15, 16

September 20 Update: Rewards Canada Podcast, Awesome Best Western Rewards Customer Service, Marriott takeover of SPG receives final approval

News, Tips & TricksOf course for us the big news is the launch of our new Rewards Canada Podcast series! Check out our first episode here.

 
Over summer the RC family completed a stay at the Best Western Plus Tuscan Inn in San Francisco and they had an SPG like GO Green feature where you would get 1,000 points for each day you declined housekeeping. For one of our two rooms we declined four times. Less then a week later the points for the actual stay posted but nothing for the housekeeping. I waited a couple more weeks and nothing. I decided to submit a missing points request with Best Western and what happened next surprised me. Within 7 minutes of time pressing the submit button on the request form the 4,000 points were posted to my account and I had an email from BW apologizing and saying the points were posted to my account. This has got to be a customer service record for me! Never have I seen that quick of service. Most times the automated response email stating they got a request doesn't even come that fast! This was the first time I've had to deal with BW Rewards customer service and if they are like this all the time then they are a program other programs should strive to emulate!

Marriott has received approval from Chinese regulators for their takeover of Starwood Hotels. The deal is now expected to close on Friday and Marriott will be the official owner of Starwood! Wow, I can't believe that it is really happening now!  (Source View from the Wing)

They may not fly to Toronto anymore and we really don't cover them on Rewards Canada because of that reason but thought we should let you know about this anyway! Virgin America is offering two FREE points offers for their Elevate members of 500 points each. You simply need to subscribe to two different email newsletters. That's an easy 1,000 points for those of you who may use Virgin America within the States or can add to existing balances to redeem on one their partners! The offers end on Sep 30. Here they are as pulled from FrequentFlyerBonuses
500 FREE Elevate Points when you sign up to receive Virgin Sport news emails. Full details
500 FREE Elevate Points when you sign up to Virgin Hotel emails. Full details

Congrats to Marc M. who won the Canadian Points University ticket we were giving away last week!


Posts since our last update:

• Introducing the Rewards Canada Weekly Round Up Podcast
   As mentioned in yesterday's update we were working on something new for Rewards Canada and that something is our…

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