Podcast Episode 51 is here! We discuss Canada's Top Travel Rewards Credit Cards for 2019

Episode 51 - January 29, 2019
Canada's Top Travel Rewards Credit Cards for 2019!

This is a special week! We look at and discuss our 2019 Top Travel Rewards Credit Card rankings! Find out some of the details behind the rankings, the cards that came out on top and more! You can find the full rankings here!

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Canada's Top Travel Rewards Credit Cards for 2019!

Save up to 25% with the Hilton Asia Pacific Sale - Must book by February 2 for stays until September 30

Hilton Honors members can save up to 25% on stays across the entire region when you book by February 2, 2019. The offer for non-members is only up to 15% off so it really makes sense to join Honors to get the additional discount seeing that it costs nothing to join the program.

Stays must be booked by February 2, 2019 for stays until September 30,  2019. Remember that you should also be earning 2,000 bonus points on these stays with the current winter Hilton Honors promotion that runs until May 5. Find that and all other Honors bonuses here..

Discount varies from 5% to 25% off Flexible Rate (BAR) or Breakfast Included Rate (B&B) across all participating properties. Hilton Honors members will receive an additional 10% discount for bookings outside of Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.


Click here to take advantage of the Hilton APAC Year End sale 
 
Here's just a small sample of the offers available:

January 28 Update: Credit Cards that help save on airline fees, WestJet adds Calgary to Austin & Portland, Edmonton to St. John's and IHG new hotel openings

Today's we released a new feature on the main Rewards Canada website entitled "Credit Cards that help you avoid those dreaded airline fees." This one looks at credit cards that can help you save money or even avoid airline and even some airport fees! Read the feature here!

WestJet announced their summer 2019 flight schedule today and it includes three new routes. The new routes are seasonal service between Calgary and Portland (daily), Calgary and Austin (2x weekly) and Edmonton and St. John's (3x weekly). There are also lots of increases to existing routes, of which you can find the highlights below. Learn more about WestJet's new routes here!

CALGARY

• Calgary-Houston, from 12 weekly flights to 13 weekly flights.
• Calgary-London (Gatwick), adding two weekly flights with daily 787 Dreamliner service.
• Calgary-Orlando, from once weekly to twice weekly.
• Calgary-Phoenix, will double service from once daily to twice daily.
• Calgary-Puerto Vallarta, from three times weekly to four times weekly.
• Calgary-San Diego, from three times weekly to four times weekly.
• Calgary-San Francisco, will double service from once daily to twice daily.
• Calgary-Kitchener, from seven weekly flights to eight weekly flights.

EDMONTON

• New non-stop three times weekly service between Edmonton and St. John's.
• Edmonton-Halifax, from nine weekly flights to 10 weekly flights.

TORONTO

• Toronto-Nashville, from seven weekly flights to 10 weekly flights.
• Toronto-Grand Cayman, will double service from once weekly to twice weekly.
• Toronto-Kingston, from three weekly flights to four times weekly.
• Toronto-Liberia, will double service from once weekly to twice weekly.
• Toronto-Montego Bay, from 11 weekly flights to 12 weekly flights.
• Toronto-Nassau from six to seven times weekly.
• Toronto-Saint Maarten, will double service from once weekly to twice weekly.
• Toronto-Halifax, adding five weekly flights for seven-times daily service Monday to Friday.
• Toronto-Charlottetown, adding two weekly flights.
• Toronto-London, from two times daily to three times daily.

VANCOUVER

• Extension of existing once weekly winter seasonal service between Vancouver and Orlando.

HALIFAX

• Halifax-Winnipeg, from four weekly flights to five times weekly.
• Halifax-Edmonton, from nine weekly flights to 10 weekly flights.
• Halifax-Toronto, adding five weekly flights for seven-times daily service Monday to Friday.

On Friday we released our second new hotel openings post of 2019! This time we took a look at all the new IHG Hotels opening up. You can visit that post here and also check out our first one on Best Western openings here.

Posts since our last update:

• Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan: Up to a 40% bonus when you buy miles until February 22
  Alaska Airlines has launched another buy miles bonus! Though not as good as the 50% we saw earlier in the…
• InterContinental Hotels Group New Hotel Openings in Canada for 2019 - 7 hotels in the works
  IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) is a large worldwide hotel chain best known for their Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn…

Travel Deals
Cathay Pacific's New Year's sale sees them offering flights out of Vancouver to Southeast Asia for as little as $895 round trip. Book by Jan 31. Find out more here.

Marriott is offering 20% off best available rates when you stay 2+ nights Thursday-Sunday at 6 great locations in Toronto and Edmonton. Valid for stays until Feb 28, 19 . Full Details and online Booking

Avis: Save up to 20% with their New Year Worldwide sale. Book by Jan 31 for rentals until Dec 15, 19. Find out more here.

Hilton APAC Year End sale - Save up to 25% when you book by Feb 2 for stays until Sep 30, 2019!

Hilton Winter Sale - Save up to 25% on weekend stays in the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa

Remember to visit Rewards Canada's Travel Booking site to book travel directly with many of your favourite airlines, hotels and more!

Canadian Bonus Offers
N/A

Other Bonus Offers
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
- Earn up to 40% Bonus Mileage Plan Miles when you buy or gift miles. More... Until Feb 22, 19

Choice Privileges
- 30% Discount when you buy 5,000 or more Choice Privileges points. More... Until Feb 17, 19

Hyatt World of Hyatt
- 30% Bonus World of Hyatt Points when you purchase 5,000 or more points. More... Until Feb 22, 19

Jumeirah Sirius
- Double Sirius Points for stays on the Suite Sensation Package at participating Jumeirah Hotels in UAE. More... Until Jun 30, 19

Follow Rewards Canada:

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan: Up to a 40% bonus when you buy miles until February 22

Alaska Airlines has launched another buy miles bonus! Though not as good as the 50% we saw earlier in the year some of you may be able to make great use of buying the miles with a 40% bonus! With the 40% offer you are buying Mileage Plan Miles at roughly US 2.11 cents each (plus GST/HST):

What is new this time around with the buy miles offer is Alaska now setting in place a maximum amount of miles you can buy in a year if you don't hold MVP status.  Non-Elite members can only buy 150,000 miles per year now.  MVP, MVP Gold, and MVP Gold 75K member are not subjected to this limitation. Seeing that Alaska does have 50% bonuses at times I wouldn't buy at 40% unless you have a need for these miles to be redeemed over the next 60-90 days at which time we may see their next bonus offer.

If you do buy right now remember you can redeem miles for premium class flights on British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Hainan, Korean Air and more, there are lots of options for you to use these miles. It only takes 70,000 Mileage Plan miles to fly Cathay Pacific First Class one way from North America to Asia and those 70K will cost you US$1478.13 as seen above - and to pay for that first class will cost you a lot more than that!

Offer details
Earn up to 40% Bonus Mileage Plan Miles when you buy or gift miles. Buy Alaska Miles Here Until Feb 22, 19

• 10,000 – 19,000 miles = 20% bonus
• 20,000 – 29,000 miles = 30% bonus
• 30,000 - 60,000 miles = 40% bonus

Find many more Mileage Plan bonus miles offers here!

InterContinental Hotels Group New Hotel Openings in Canada for 2019 - 7 hotels in the works

IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) is a large worldwide hotel chain best known for their Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express brands. IHG however comprises of 13 brands in total (soon to be 14 with the addition of Regent) and well over 5,000 hotels Worldwide. They have a significant presence here in Canada with over 185 hotels from coast to coast.

They are planning to grow that presence by opening another seven hotels across our nation in 2019. These are the hotels and their anticipated opening dates (of course these are subject to change):

• Holiday Inn & Suites Calgary South - Conference Centre 
  
  • Slated opening date: March 1
• Staybridge Suites Red Deer North
  
  • Slated opening date: March 5
• Holiday Inn Edmonton South - Ellerslie Road
  
  • Slated opening date: March 29
• Holiday Inn Express & Suites Ottawa Downtown East
  
  • Slated opening date: August 16
• Holiday Inn Express Lethbridge Southeast
  • Slated opening date: August 18
• Holiday Inn Express & Suites Sarnia Port Edward
  
  • Slated opening date: August 1
• Holiday Inn Express & Suites Halifax Dartmouth
  
  • Slated opening date: August 15

Alberta and Ontario are the winners here taking four and two of the seven properties respectively.  I would say the stand out hotels that are opening this year are the Holiday Inn & Suites Calgary South, Holiday Inn Edmonton South and the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Ottawa Downtown East. If you are planning a stay at any of these hotels let us know as we'd love for you to do a review for us!

Overall this is a lower amount of new hotels opening compared to 2018 which had 12, however it is still good to see the brand continuing to grow in Canada. Based on IHG's reports there are at least another 24 hotels planned in Canada over the next few years.

Remember to take advantage of all the possible IHG Rewards Club bonus points offers if you plan on staying at any of these new IHG hotels or any other IHG hotels for that matter! You can find all the promotions listed on our IHG Rewards Club Bonus Points page. At the very least the offer that should be on everyone's radar is their Faster Nights. Free offer or Triple Aeroplan Miles offer although both of these offers end on April 30, which means only the first three hotels would be available for the bonus. Don't fret however there will most likely be new offers out for the remainder of spring and summer!

Are you excited about any of the new IHG hotels opening up this year? Are there any locations or brands you'd like to see in your neck of the woods? Let us know in the comments below.

January 24 Update: Looking for our Lounge Pass winner, earn and redeem AIR MILES with Redtag.ca & Swoop adds Kelowna, London & Oakland flights

Michael Warren - if you are reading this, your name was selected as the winner of Maple Leaf Lounge pass giveaway. Please contact us at info@rewardscanada.ca with your mailing address! If we don't hear back from by Sunday we'll have to pick another entry.

 AIR MILES has expanded their relationship with Canadian online travel agency Redtag.ca to include earning and redemption options! You can earn 1 AIR MILES Reward Mile for every $20 spend with Redtag but even more interesting is the new redemption option for vacation packages. You can redeem 909 miles for a $100 credit towards your booking or about 11 cents per mile. This isn't too bad of rate. Yes you can get more value out of your miles (we typically value AIR MILES at 11 to 15 cents each when redeeming for travel) but it is better than the Cash Miles redemption rate of 10.5 cents per mile. Overall it is always great to have more options to redeem your miles and seeing that this one works as simply a credit towards your booking you can book any package you want and not be bound by availability. They also state to watch for cruises later in 2019. When you log in they will show you what your miles are worth if you were to use as many of them as you can. You'll see the screenshot below I could redeem for a $1,500 credit. To celebrate the partnership they are also offering a limited time bonus of up to 250 AIR MILES on vacation package bookings Find out more about this new partnership here!

Swoop, WestJet's ULCC announced their summer schedule which includes three new cities. London, ON, Kelowna and Oakland California. Find out more here

The new domestic markets include service between London and Halifax six times per week and daily service from London to/from Abbotsford and Edmonton. Service between Kelowna and Winnipeg will be offered three times a week. The schedule also sees the return of the seasonal route between Abbotsford and Winnipeg four times per week.

Edmonton will enjoy increased transborder capacity with thrice-weekly flights to/from Oakland and a weekly flight to/from Orlando.

Internationally, Swoop will continue its Hamilton service to Montego Bay and Cancun, with a weekly return flight throughout the summer.

Amongst the routes that will end for the summer are Hamilton to Puerto Vallarta and Tampa Bay, and Abbotsford to Puerto Vallarta and Mazatlán. Edmonton to Mesa will take a short hiatus and suspend service at the end of May before resuming October 5, 2019.

Here is Swoop's updated route map:

Posts since our last update:

• There is a rewards card out there for everyone - including the Walmart Rewards Mastercard
  On Rewards Canada we do our best to cover the 150+ rewards-based credit cards that are available to Canadians.…
• WestJet Rewards Platinum & Gold Elites now receive unlimited lounge access for themselves and up to 5 family members
  One new benefit that we have alluded to in past posts and in our podcast about WestJet Rewards Platinum…
• Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express to become Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card
  Marriott revealed today the details of the new name and look for their co-branded credit cards in the U.S.,…

Travel Deals
Cathay Pacific's New Year's sale sees them offering flights out of Vancouver to Southeast Asia for as little as $895 round trip. Book by Jan 31. Find out more here.

Royal Air Maroc has dropped prices on their Montreal-Casablanca route. You can fly round trip for as little as $750 all in. Book by Jan 25. Find out more here.

Marriott is offering 20% off best available rates when you stay 2+ nights Thursday-Sunday at 6 great locations in Toronto and Edmonton. Valid for stays until Feb 28, 19 . Full Details and online Booking

Avis: Save up to 20% with their New Year Worldwide sale. Book by Jan 31 for rentals until Dec 15, 19. Find out more here.

Hilton APAC Year End sale - Save up to 25% when you book by Feb 2 for stays until Sep 30, 2019!

Hilton Winter Sale - Save up to 25% on weekend stays in the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa

Remember to visit Rewards Canada's Travel Booking site to book travel directly with many of your favourite airlines, hotels and more!

Canadian Bonus Offers
N/A

Other Bonus Offers
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- Earn up to 2,000 Bonus Asia Miles when you rent for 3+ days with Hertz in USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Asia. More.. Until Feb, 28, 19

Emirates Skywards
- Earn up to Triple Skywards Miles for stays at Atlantis, The Palm Dubai. More... Book by May 31 for stays until Oct 31, 19

JAL Mileage Bank
- Triple Mileage Bank Miles for stays at the Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort, Outrigger Reef Waikiki Beach Resort or Waikiki Beachcomber by Outrigger. More... Until Mar 31, 20

Saudia Alfursan
- Double Alfursan Miles for stays at participating Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. More... Until Mar 31, 19

Follow Rewards Canada:

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There is a rewards card out there for everyone - including the Walmart Rewards Mastercard

On Rewards Canada we do our best to cover the 150+ rewards-based credit cards that are available to Canadians. That being said, there’s one we haven't written about yet – the Walmart Rewards Mastercard. It may have flown under the radar, but is there any value to it?  The simple answer is yes. There is a card for everyone, including the Walmart Rewards™ Mastercard®

This card is for the person who shops often at Walmart and wants to be rewarded at Walmart. This is for people who are looking to stretch their hard-earned dollars as far as they can on daily purchases like groceries and household goods - a great option for many families. Not only does Walmart offer great prices on many items, but you have the ability to redeem right at the checkout till with your Walmart Reward Dollars®. It’s all about saving money.

There are cash back credit cards that will potentially let you earn more on purchases at Walmart but those other cash back cards make you wait to redeem. With Walmart Rewards™ Mastercard® you don’t have to wait to receive rewards. Walmart Reward Dollars allows you to redeem both in store and online at Walmart as soon as you’ve earned $5. As we always say in the loyalty industry, a mile earned today is not worth as much as it is tomorrow. The same holds true for cash back. In theory $1 earned is the same today as it is in a year but if you factor in inflation, savings account interest rates or other potential financial products, that $1 earned on your cash back card is worth more right now than having to wait until later. With a welcome bonus of $25 Walmart Reward Dollars you can redeem right away with this card for that instant cash savings.

A 1.25% return on Walmart shopping is strong compared to other no fee cash back cards but you get that instant redemption option at the register. The closest you may get to this with other cards is being able to pay off your account with a pay with points feature and those will not give you a 1.25% return on Walmart purchases. All other purchases on this card earn 1% back which is comparable to the majority of no annual fee cash back cards on the market.

Overall it is all about that instant savings with this card – and the fact that you’re saving on top of Walmart’s low prices. By being able to use your Walmart Rewards right at Walmart you are keeping that cash in your pocket now instead of waiting for it until the end of the year. This is a Walmart shopper's card through and through. If you don't want travel rewards and want quick and easy access to your cashback at the till, then this card is for you.

Find out more and apply for the Walmart Rewards™ Mastercard® here.

This feature was sponsored by The Walmart Rewards Mastercard. The write up, views and opinions expressed in this feature, however, are purely those of Rewards Canada.



WestJet Rewards Platinum & Gold Elites now receive unlimited lounge access for themselves and up to 5 family members

One new benefit that we have alluded to in past posts and in our podcast about WestJet Rewards Platinum Elite Status is here, unlimited lounge access is now here! The great news is that it also counts for Gold Elite Members!

As of yesterday Platinum and Gold members receive unlimited access to 15 airport lounges across Canada, along with lounges in the U.K. and the Caribbean. And WestJet lets us know that there are more to come. We know some of those are WestJet's own branded lounges, of which, there are at least nine in the works in Canada and beyond.

In addition to being able to use lounges Platinum and Gold Elite members will be able to bring up to five immediate family members into the lounge.  Family members are defined by WestJet as follows:

Immediate family members are defined as a spouse or common-law partner (including same-sex relationships) and dependent children up to the age of 24 and living at the same address as the member. 

If you aren't travelling with family but co-workers, colleagues and friends, Platinum and Gold Elite members will receive two one-time use guest vouchers to use.

If you are a Silver member you'll continue to get four lounge access vouchers to use for yourself and you will also get the above two one-tie use guest vouchers (which you can choose to use for yourself if you like)

Click here to learn more this new benefit and all theother benefits that come with WestJet Rewards Elite Status


Related: Rewards Canada's Guide to Business Class Lounge Access

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Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express to become Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card

Marriott revealed today the details of the new name and look for their co-branded credit cards in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, UAE and Japan. On February 13th the Marriott Rewards / Starwood Preferred Guest / Ritz-Carlton Rewards programs will become Marriott Bonvoy.  Sometime later in 2019 the Canadian Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express will become the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card. While the Starwood Preferred Guest Business Credit Card from American Express will become the Marriott Bonvoy American Express Business Card.

At this point it appears the only changes are the name and the look of the card here in Canada. There is no word yet on whether the cards will receive any new benefits or increased points offerings that we are seeing on some of the U.S. cards. Hopefully we should know this within a few weeks!

Here is the current offering of the Canadian Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express:

January 23 Update: Canada's Top Travel Rewards Credit Cards 2019, Amex to Hilton Honors transfers are back, Royal Air Maroc extends mileage validity

The big news today is the release of our 11th annual Top Travel Rewards Credit Card rankings! If you haven't seen them yet you can find them right here! Overall 2018 was relatively quiet so there weren't any major changes in the rankings other than the Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite Card taking top spot in the Travel Points Credit Card with annual fee category! For the most part I don't think we'll see any changes from 2019 to 2020 either. It will be 2020, when Air Canada reveals their new program (that will integrate Aeroplan) when we should see a some major shifting in the rankings!

Good news if you were planning on converting American Express Membership Rewards points to Hilton Honors. The online transfers are back! We reported this outage a few months ago as Amex was having some issues with it but that appears to be all fixed now. Find out more here.

 Similar to the news we brought you earlier this month from Turkish Miles&Smiles - the Royal Air Maroc Safar Flyer program has extended the validity of miles that were set to expire on December 31, 2018 by six months. You now have until June 30, 2019 to use them. Find out more here

Posts since our last update:

• Canada’s Top Travel Rewards Credit Cards Revealed for 2019!
  With more than 70 travel reward credit card options in Canada, it’s difficult to know which card is best.…
• Hilton Winter Sale - Save up to 25% on weekend stays in the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa - Book by Jan 31
  A friendly reminder of Hilton's weekend sale where you can save up to 25% on stays in Europe, The…

Travel Deals
Cathay Pacific's New Year's sale sees them offering flights out of Vancouver to Southeast Asia for as little as $895 round trip. Book by Jan 31. Find out more here.

Royal Air Maroc has dropped prices on their Montreal-Casablanca route. You can fly round trip for as little as $750 all in. Book by Jan 25. Find out more here.

Marriott is offering 20% off best available rates when you stay 2+ nights Thursday-Sunday at 6 great locations in Toronto and Edmonton. Valid for stays until Feb 28, 19 . Full Details and online Booking

Hilton APAC Year End sale - Save up to 25% when you book by Feb 2 for stays until Sep 30, 2019!

Hilton Winter Sale - Save up to 25% on weekend stays in the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa

Remember to visit Rewards Canada's Travel Booking site to book travel directly with many of your favourite airlines, hotels and more!

Canadian Bonus Offers
Air Canada Aeroplan
- 1,500 Bonus Aeroplan Miles when you book a Flight+Hotel package with Air Canada Vacations to Mexico or the Caribbean. More... Book by Feb 14 for travel Mar 1 - Dec 20, 19

Other Bonus Offers
Copa ConnectMiles
- 30% Bonus ConnectMiles on every hotel booking you make via ConnectMiles Hotels. More... Book by Feb 15 for stays until Mar 31, 19
- Earn up to 1,000 Bonus ConnectMiles when you rent a car at participating Alamo locations. More... Until Mar 31, 19
- Earn up to 1,000 Bonus ConnectMiles when you rent a car at participating National locations. More... Until Mar 31, 19

Ethiopian ShebaMiles
- Triple ShebaMiles for stays at Anantara Hotels and Resorts Worldwide. More... Until Feb 28, 20
- Triple ShebaMiles for stays at Avani Hotels and Resorts Worldwide. More... Until Feb 28, 20
- Triple ShebaMiles for stays at Tivoli Hotels and Resorts Worldwide. More... Until Feb 28, 20

Stash Hotel Rewards
- 500 Bonus Stash Rewards Points for stays in an upgraded room at the Perdido Beach Resort Orange Beach. More... Book by Feb 28 for stays Feb 1 - Mar 31, 19
- Double Stash Rewards Points for stays at The Essex, Vermont's Culinary Resort & Spa. More... Book by Mar 31 for stays until May 31, 19

TAP Portugal Miles&Go
- Double Miles&Go Miles on all qualiftying TAP Portugal flights worldwide. More... Book by Jan 27 for travel until Mar 31, 19

Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus
- 25% ROP Miles discount when you redeem for award flights between Bangkok and Kunming, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Shanghai or Beijing. More... Until Mar 31, 19
- Earn up to Triple ROP Miles for stays at participating Accor Hotels Worldwide. More... Until Mar 31, 19

Follow Rewards Canada:

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