New YYC Calgary Transborder Aspire Lounge Review

Transborder Aspire Lounge Entrance - Photo courtesy of Swissport

 To start our latest vacation the Rewards Canada family recently visited the new Transborder Calgary Airport Aspire Lounge. This lounge opened up on October 31, 2016 along with the entire new International terminal at YYC. This is the only transborder lounge in YYC as the old Rocky Mountain Lounge is now closed and is one of four lounges available in Calgary. The other three are the Aspire Lounge International, Chinook Lounge (Domestic) and Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge.

The Lounge
The new lounge has a much more open feel than the old Rocky Mountain lounge with lots of seating in booth areas, bar seats and bench seating. The lounge also has some loungers in semi enclosed areas where you can watch TV. The seats in the booth areas all featured cubbies for small carry on items and more importantly individual plugs for charging all your electronics!

Here are some general photos I took of the lounge:

At the check in desk!

Middle of the lounge seating with bar stools to the back

These are the seats with the cubbies and plug ins to charge your electronics

Food & Drinks
Outside of the peace and quiet of lounges the biggest draw for many to business class lounges are the food and drink options. Previously at the Rocky Mountain lounge (and in the current Chinook lounge) the food options are quite limited, in particular the hot food options which was usually just soup. The good news that the new transborder Aspire lounge has hot food options! When we arrived the options were chicken fingers, grilled tomatoes, fried rice and carrots. The bad news was the food wasn't very good. Later on the tomatoes were replaced with hashbrowns but we didn't try those out. We ended grabbing some food from Burger King (yes, BK - don't judge) to consume in the lounge. Perhaps we were just unlucky with the food that day but if not hopefully it will be something they work on and provide some better hot food options. The drink options were decent with several beers and hard alcohol options available along with wine. For non-alcoholic drinks there were your usual cans of soda, bottles of Juice and water (still & sparkling) on tap. As a reminder then bring an empty water bottle to fill up if you used to be used to taking water bottles out of the old lounge to your plane!

The hot food options

The alcohol options - there is also wine but not in this picture

Access
Entering the lounge was easy as we simply provided our J Class Air Canada boarding passes. Flying AC Business Class you can also choose to go the Maple Leaf lounge first but you'll have to clear security first for that lounge and when coming back for Transborder you'll have to go through U.S. customs and then security again. Kind of a pain hence AC's access to this lounge for their Transborder flights. Had we not been in business class we would have reverted to the other options our family has and those are The Platinum Card from American Express (which provides access for the whole family), Priority Pass (from The Platinum Card) or at the very least our Diners Club Club Rewards MasterCard but the last would only have covered 2 of the 5 of us that were travelling. You can pretty much access the lounge with any lounge program as mentioned but also Dragon Pass or you can buy single entries. To find out more about all the different lounge options read and bookmark our Guide to Business Class lounge access

Thoughts
Overall this new transborder lounge is very nice, much better than the old Rocky Mountain Lounge. We look forward to using it lots and also can't wait to try out the International lounge as well. We just hope the hot food options get a working to something better!

Have you visited this lounge? What do you think of it? What do you like and what do you think could be done better?

---

For the best access to this lounge no matter what airline you are flying or what fare class and want to have your family get access look no further than The Platinum Card from American Express:

How to get a $5,800+ Business Class flight between Montreal & Stockholm for under $3,200!

Last seen in December, Air France KLM's Flying Blue is once again offering a bonus on buying their miles. Usually buying FB miles isn't a great proposition but if you can tie in buying them with one of their discounted promo awards offering up to 50% off award tickets you may just be able to out some value from this promotion. The lower tiers see a higher bonus this round at 30% vs 20% and 40% vs 30%.

Offer Details
Up to 50% Bonus Miles when you buy Flying Blue Miles online. Full details Until Mar 12, 17

• 4,000 to 8,000 Award Miles – 30% bonus
• 10,000 to 28,000 Award Miles – 40% bonus
• 30,000+ Award Miles – 50% bonus

During this limited-time offer, you can earn up to a maximum bonus of 50,000 Award Miles. Ivory members can purchase a yearly maximum of 75,000 Award Miles, while Elite members can buy an unlimited number of Award Miles.


Here is an example of this buy miles bonus saving you some money:

You can buy 96,000 miles for EUR 1760. Those 96,000 miles will be enough to redeem for a discounted business class award ticket between Montreal or Toronto and Europe (with a few miles to spare)

 

 

Looking at Apr 10 - 17, 2017 in business class you can get the discounted rate between YUL & ARN for 93,750 miles and 428.80EUR in taxes and fees. To buy the miles will cost EUR1848 (including 5% GST) and add in the taxes and fees on the award flight of 428.80EUR for a total of 2276.80 EUR. Convert that to C$ and you get ~C$3,157.

To buy the same tickets outright costs C$5,821.37. As you can see buying the miles can provide you a savings of over C$2,600 on these particular flights!

If you don't live in Canada those miles will only cost you 1760EUR saving an additional 88EUR or so. And the discount for these Flying Blue tickets is only 25% at this time, sometimes its 50% off so your savings could be even bigger. However we do not recommend buying miles if you do not plan on using them within the next 6 months or so.

Find many more Flying Blue bonus offers here!

February 22 Update: rwrds.ca is Rewards Canada, WestJet continues to go after newleaf, Top Coalition Cards

News, Tips & Tricks
Our first update since going on vacation! There will be lots to catch up on over the next few days, some news you may have already read about but perhaps there is something new for you as well!

If you follow us on Facebook or Twitter you'll notice we have a new short url for our links to make them more identifiable and to maximize space for those 140 character limits. It is rwrds.ca and you can actually use it to get straight to Rewards Canada, if you type rwrds.ca into your web browser it will take you to rewardscanada.ca

WestJet continues to go after newleaf! They just announced new flights between Winnipeg and Abbotsford - one of newleaf's original routes! Any wagers on whether newleaf will survive 2017? WestJet's flights start on April 30. (Source WestJet)

Posts since our last update:

• The Top 4 Coalition Program Credit Cards for Aeroplan, AIR MILES, More Rewards & SCENE members
  There are so many credit card options in Canada that it can get really confusing for the consumer. At Rewards…
  
• Best Western Rewards: $10 BW Gift Card with every stay until April 30
  Best Western Rewards has extended their systemwide promotion where you can earn a $10 Best Western Gift Card with…
• Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan - Up to a 40% bonus when buying miles until April 6
  The Alaska Airlines buy Mileage Plan miles promo returns and is a good one and exactly the same as…
• Canada's Top Travel Points Credit Card with no annual fee now has a 15,000 point sign up bonus!
  In our 2017 Top Travel Rewards Credit Card rankings we crowned a new winner in the Travel Points Credit…
• Marriott and Starwood provide 2017 Hotel Category Award Night changes - 60+ hotels in Canada affected
  You may recall from earlier this year that we already mentioned the category changes for IHG Rewards Club and that…

Canadian Bonus Offers
Marriott Rewards
- 1,000 Bonus Rewards Points for stays at the Delta Hotel by Marriott Saint John. More... Until Mar 30, 17

More Rewards
- Earn up to 15,000 Bonus More Rewards Points when you apply for the Scotiabank® More Rewards®* Visa* Card. More... Until Mar 31, 17

WestJet Rewards
- 15% Bonus WestJet Dollars when you convert RBC Rewards Points  to WestJet Rewards. More... Until Mar 20, 17

Other Bonus Offers
Air China PhoenixMiles
- 1,000 Bonus PhoenixMiles Kilometers on your first hotel booking via the Kaligo mobile apps. More... Until Apr 10, 17

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
- Up to 40% Bonus Mileage Plan Miles when you buy or gift Mileage Plan miles online. More... Until Apr 6, 17

Best Western Rewards
- Receive a $10 Best Western Gift Card with every stay at Best Western Hotels Worldwide. More... Valid for North American residents only Until Apr 30, 17

British Airways Executive Club
- 800 Bonus Avios for Avis rentals of 3 or more days Worldwide. More... Until Apr 7, 17

Delta SkyMiles
- 5 Bonus SkyMiles per Dollar spent on Delta or Virgin Australia flights between Los Angeles and Sydney, Brisbane or Melbourne. More... Until May 31, 17

Icelandair Saga Club
- 30% Bonus Saga Club Points when you buy points online. More... Until Feb 28, 17

Le Club accorhotels
- 4X Le Club Accorhotels Points for stays at new Accor Hotels Worldwide. More... Book by Apr 11 for stays until May 14, 17
- Earn up to Triple Le Club Accorhotels Points for stays at Accor Hotels hotels in North America and Central America More... Book by Apr 15 for stays until Apr 19, 17

Marriott Rewards
- Double Rewards Points + a free day on Hertz rentals of 6 or more days at participating locations in the US, Canada and Puerto Rico. More... Until Jun 30, 17
- 3,000 Bonus Rewards Points for stays on Thursday-Sunday nights (Friday or Saturday required) at the Karuizawa Marriott Hotel Tokyo. More... Until Mar 31, 17

MEA Cedar Miles
- Double Cedar Miles for stays at the Gefinor Rotana - Beirut. More... Until Mar 31, 17

Miles & More
- Double Miles & More Miles for stays at Leonardo Hotels in Europe and Israel. More... Until Mar 31, 17


Follow Rewards Canada:

The Top 4 Coalition Program Credit Cards for Aeroplan, AIR MILES, More Rewards & SCENE members

There are so many credit card options in Canada that it can get really confusing for the consumer. At Rewards Canada we do our best to help guide you to the right card for you with our Guide to choosing a travel rewards credit card and features like our Top Travel Rewards Credit Card rankings. We tell you to join multiple loyalty programs and earn more miles or points by tying in a credit card that co-brands with that program. In Canada we have some very large loyalty programs that fall under the coalition program banner and all Canadians should join at least one of these programs if not all of them. What is a coalition program? It is a program where you have lots of ways to earn potins or miles and lots of ways to burn them. That means many partners to earn points or miles at and a large varied reward catalog where you can use those points or miles. For many Canadians joining a coalition program makes a lot of sense since you can earn miles or points pretty much everday. Although we didn't invent the coalition program, Canada sure did develop them in to what they are today globally thanks to AIR MILES and Aeroplan. AIR MILES made the coalition program and loyalty programs in general main stage for Canadians and made them part of our everyday lives. No longer was it a world for frequent travellers or high spenders, loyalty was now the game for all merchants and all consumers.

Continue to the main Rewards Canada site to read the whole article!

Best Western Rewards: $10 BW Gift Card with every stay until April 30

Best Western Rewards has extended their systemwide promotion where you can earn a $10 Best Western Gift Card with every BW stay. Not a bad deal considering there are lots of BW hotels that can be booked for under $100 meaning you can pull a 10% or higher return. Now you only have 120 days to use up that gift card after it being issued so not a lot of time to make use of it especially if you don't stay at Best Western very often.

Offer details:
Receive a $10 Best Western Gift Card with every stay at Best Western Hotels Worldwide. Full details, online registration & booking (Registration is required) Until Apr 30, 17
Valid for North American residents only

Find more BW Rewards Bonus Offers here.

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan - Up to a 40% bonus when buying miles until April 6

The Alaska Airlines buy Mileage Plan miles promo returns and is a good one and exactly the same as the one we saw launch in late February of 2016. The bonus this time can net you up to a 40% bonus, decent but not as good as the 50% we see several times per year. While not an amazing deal, it still can be worth more than the 2.1 cents you pay for each mile (including tax) with the 40% bonus since you can redeem the miles for premium class flights on airline like Cathay Pacific and Emirates. Or you could potentially buy a ton of short haul flights between Western Canada and the Western U.S. seeing that many of those only go for 5,000 to 7,500 per one way award.  While each transaction is limited to 40,000 miles (+ the bonus) there is no limit to the number of transactions you can complete.

Offer Details
Up to 40% Bonus Mileage Plan Miles when you buy or gift Mileage Plan miles online. Full details Until Apr 6, 17
Buy 10,000 - 19,000 miles = 20% bonus
Buy 20,000 - 39,000 miles = 30% bonus
Buy 40,000 - 60,000 miles = 40% bonus

Find many more Mileage Plan bonus offers here!

Canada's Top Travel Points Credit Card with no annual fee now has a 15,000 point sign up bonus!

In our 2017 Top Travel Rewards Credit Card rankings we crowned a new winner in the Travel Points Credit Card with no annual fee category, the Scotiabank More Rewards Visa card. It took first place without a sign up bonus, that's how good the card is and it just got better. If you apply for the card by March 31st you can get up to 15,000 bonus More Rewards Points. You'll get 5,000 upon approval and 10,000 more on your first purchase. A pretty easy way to score those 15,000 points worth around $63 towards travel. Doesn't seem like much but when you add it in to the 6 Points per dollar you earn at More Rewards partners and 4 points per dollar everywhere else it is a nice addition to the card. You'll want to read our full review of the Scotiabank More Rewards Visa Card here but we'll mention again that the 4 points and 6 points per dollar that you earn are the equivalent of a 1.65% and 2.54% return towards travel redemptions. That's huge for a no annual fee card! And not to toot our own horn but it appears that this sign up bonus is a celebration of us awarded the card first place in this category!

Scotiabank More Rewards Visa Card

• Earn 5,000 Bonus More Rewards Points on approval and 10,000 Bonus More Rewards Points on first purchase if you apply by March 31, 2017
• Earn 6 More Rewards points for every $1 spent on purchases at participating More Rewards locations including Save-On-foods, PriceSmart Foods, Overwaitea Foods, Cooper’s Foods and Urban Fare stores and participating More Rewards partners such as Petro Canada and Panago.
• Earn 4 points for every $1 on other purchases everywhere else
• Redeem your More Rewards points for travel, groceries, gift cards, merchandise and more
• No annual fee and no earning or redemption caps.

Marriott and Starwood provide 2017 Hotel Category Award Night changes - 60+ hotels in Canada affected

You may recall from earlier this year that we already mentioned the category changes for IHG Rewards Club and that we could expect changes from Marriott and Starwood as well. Those changes are here. Remember, the actual amounts of points for redeeming for specific categories have not changed. These changes are for the hotels themselves moving up or down to a different category. All of these changes will kick in on March 7th. As we always advise if you were planning to book one of these of hotels on points or free night certificates, and there is a good chance you are seeing that the amount of hotel changing make up a decent amount of Marriott's and Starwoods worldwide portfolio, book now if you can if the hotel you want is going up in categories or wait until after March 7th if you can to book if the hotel is going down.

On to the changes!

Marriott has well over 1,000 hotels changing categories this year and 24 of them are in Canada. 13 are going up a category and 11 are moving down. This isn't too bad, a pretty even split. One of the surprising changes is the Delta Calgary Airport In-terminal hotel. It moves from Category 4 to Category 5 which makes it the same as its new neighbour and in all honesty, the much better hotel, the Calgary Airport Marriott In-Terminal Hotel. Read our review of the new hotel here and see why if you are going to redeem to stay at YYC why you wouldn't even bother with the Delta now that it costs the same.

A sampling of some of the Canadian changes:

You can find the complete list of Marriott changes here.

On the Starwood side we see 40 of their hotels in Canada change categories. Overall the entire chain has 325 hotels changing categories. The 40 hotels in Canada is a significant portion of their portfolio here! And its not so good news, 38 of those 40 are going up in price which means they will cost more points or may not be available for free night certificates like the Category 1-4 certificate that comes with $40K in spending on the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express. Two hotels even have significant 2 category jumps higher, the Westin Toronto Airport and the Four Points by Sheraton Halifax both go from being Category 2 hotels to Category 4 hotels.

A sampling of some of the Canadian changes:

You can find the complete worldwide list of the Starwood Hotel changes here.

What are everyone's thoughts on this years changes? Are there any hotels that you may have been planning to stay at that are affected? Will that change your plans? Let us know in the comments below!

February 8 Update: Marriott updates mobile app, Aeroplan adding Budget & Payless Car Rental, Lufthansa seat sale

News, Tips & Tricks
Marriott launched an updated version of their app for iOS with an update for Android coming soon. Here are the highlights from the press release

Extensive customer research and member feedback is driving the new mobile app experience and will continue to do so as part of Marriott’s ongoing service innovation strategy.

Since Marriott became the first hotel company to offer Mobile Check-in/Checkout and Mobile Room Ready Alerts worldwide in 2014, more than 12 million members have taken advantage of it. The popular feature will now be easier to use and more powerful. For example, when members check in using the app, for the first time they will now be able to request room upgrades and receive notification it has been fulfilled before they arrive. Also for the first time, they will be able to request a late check-out in the app rather than at front desk, which is guaranteed for Gold and Platinum Elite Members.

With the app’s innovative new navigation, members will find it even easier to customize their stay with Mobile Requests. Guests can use the app to chat directly with hotel staff before, during and after their stays for special requests that require personal attention, or choose from a drop-down menu of the most frequently requested services or amenities such as more towels or extra pillows. Fully 54 percent of users make their requests before they’ve even checked-in. Having been the first to offer Mobile Requests globally beginning in 2015, the service is currently available at more than 4,000 hotels worldwide.

With the app relaunch, Marriott is also expanding Mobile Key, rolling out to more than 500 hotels globally this year. Members who check-in using the Marriott Mobile app can choose to skip the front desk and go straight to their room, using their smartphone to open the door.

For travelers in planning mode, they will now be able to precisely narrow down their destination searches by address or point-of-interest to find the closest, most convenient hotel, and to save their favorite hotels for quicker future bookings.

Increasingly, travelers are seeking more authentic destination information from local experts whether they’re choosing where to go or looking for tips for what to do once they get there. For the first time, the app will deliver curated, original content from Marriott’s digital magazine, Traveler based on users’ previous hotel searches or upcoming travels. 

---

As an update to Monday's news, Aeroplan reached out to us to let us know that although Avis will be their only car rental partner when Hertz leaves on March 2nd it won't be that way for too long. Avis's other company Budget will become an Aeroplan partner once again this year as will Payless Car Rental. (Source Aimia)

---

Posts since our last update:

• Miles & More Award Ticket Sale - Save 50% on Economy Class award tickets between Toronto & Austria!
  As we do each month we bring you the latest set Miles & More "Meilenschnaeppchen" discounted mileage awards!  This…
• Hilton Honors: 500 Extra Points for bookings made via the Hilton Honors App
  Just last week the newest systemwide bonus from Hilton was launched offering 2,000 bonus points per night on every…
• Receive 15% Bonus dollars when you convert RBC Rewards Points to WestJet Rewards
  Today sees the return of the RBC Rewards transfer to WestJet Rewards. Those RBC Rewards points collectors who hold a…

Travel Deals
Lufthansa's has some great deals on their flights between Canada and Europe. You can fly Montreal-Paris for $779, Toronto-Helsinki for $829 and more! Book by Feb 14. Find out more here.


Canadian Bonus Offers
N/A

Other Bonus Offers
Carlson Hotels Club Carlson
- 1,000 Bonus Gold Points when you download the Club Carlson mobile app and book and complete your first stay. More... Until ?
- Double Gold Points for stays on the Business Package at participating Country Inns & Suites By Carlson hotels in the United States, Canada and Latin America. More... Until Dec 31, 17

Hilton HHonors
- 500 Bonus Honors Points for each eligible stay at any Hilton Hotels Worldwide that you book via the Hilton Honors app. More... Until Dec 31, 17

Iberia Plus
- Triple Avios when you fly Iberia between Madrid and Basel. More... Register & book by Feb 17, 17
- 50% Avios Discount when you redeem for an award ticket on Iberia between Madrid and Basel. More... Register & book by Feb 17, 17
- 1,000 Bonus Avios on all Avis rentals of 3 or more days Worldwide. More... Until Mar 31, 17

La Quinta Returns
- 250 Bonus Returns Points on qualifying rentals of 3 days or more at participating Avis locations in the U.S. and Canada. More... Until Apr 30, 17
- 350 Bonus Returns Points on qualifying rentals of 3 or more days at participating Budget locations in the U.S. and Canada. More... Until Apr 30, 17

Philippine Airlines Mabuhay
- 1,000 Bonus Mabuhay Miles on your first hotel stay booked via Kaligo. More... Book by Mar 31, 17

Starwood Preferred Guest
- Various Bonus Starpoints or Free Nights when you complete eligible stay(s) at Starwood Hotels Worldwide. More... Targeted Offer - may not work for everyone Feb 15 - May 15, 17


Follow Rewards Canada:

Miles & More Award Ticket Sale - Save 50% on Economy Class award tickets between Toronto & Austria!

As we do each month we bring you the latest set Miles & More "Meilenschnaeppchen" discounted mileage awards!  This month it is 50% off economy class tickets between Toronto and Austria on Austrian Airlines.! This is a great offer and below we'll even show you how to get these for just an annual credit card fee (outside of the award ticket taxes/fees)

These offers are good for travel until Mar 31, 17

You can redeem Miles & More miles for round trip tickets on Austrian from Toronto to Austria for only 30,000 miles. This is a 50% discount off the normal Economy Class award ticket price of 60,000 miles.

Here are the offers:

 

 

As we mention every time they have the 50% off economy offer is that you could in theory get the  tickets with grabbing a couple of credit cards and a $120 annual fee! - there aren't many cards that will get you a round trip flight to Europe for that amount of spend! How so? As we usually mention in this post you can boost your Miles & More account with the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express. Currently the card comes with a 20,000 Starpoints sign up bonus. When you convert those 20,000 Starpoints to Miles & More SPG will award you an additional 5,000 miles. Which gives you 25,000 miles. Yes but I need 30,000 points for the ticket right? Right then you get yourself the Chase Marriott Rewards Premier Visa card with the 30,000 or 50,000 point sign up bonus. You can then convert those to SPG at a rate of 3:1 so you have now added 10,000 to 16,000+ more Starpoints to you account. So now you would convert 25,000 Starpoints to Miles & More as they'll give the 5,000 extra for that 30,000 miles and still have 5,000 to 11,000 Starpoints left over. Now you have about a month and 3/4 to book these offers so if you don't have these cards get them right now so you could potentially travel in March but chances are you won't get all the points from these credit cards in time. You can still grab them now to see what offers will come out next month or beyond

Simply book the offers seen here by March 31st.
Full details on this offer can be found here