Aeroplan's Miles Madness promotion for online shopping via the Aeroplan eStore has returned. You can earn up to 10x miles for your online shopping until March 8. Some retailers offering 10x miles are Frank & Oak and Indigo while others like Sephora and Old Navy are 5x miles. As always be sure to use a mileage earning credit card for the purchases and also to log in to your account at the retailer to earn that's retailer's points like Indigo's Plum Rewards, Sephora Beauty Insider etc.
Another hotel loyalty program sign up bonus for you today! Earlier we brought you the Hilton Honors new sign up bonusand now there is this one. This one is for Red Lion Hotels Hello Rewards
and doesn’t require a stay like the Hilton offer. Simply sign up by
February 29 to receive 30 bonus Hello Bucks which translates to $30 you
can use towards a future stay at over 1,100 locations which include some locations in Canada like Canada's Best Value Inns and Knights Inn.
Offer details
30 Bonus Hello Buck when you join the Red Lion Hotels Hello Rewards program.Full details.Until Feb 29, 20
You can also earn another 29 Hello Bucks if you book a stay by March 5 that is completed by April 30. Same link above provides details on that bonus!
If you haven't joined Hilton Honors yet but think you may stay with them this year you'll want to check out this offer. They are offering bonus points to anyone who joins the
program this year and completes one or two stays within 6 months of
joining. No registration is required – the bonus is triggered
automatically when you join the program. It is valid if you joined
anytime on or after January 1, 2020. After you join if you complete one
stay within 6 months you’ll earn 2,000 bonus points, complete a second
stay and you’ll get an additional 3,000 bonus points. Offer details:
Earn up to 5,000 Bonus Honors Points when you join Hilton Honors and complete Hilton hotel stays within 6 months of joining. Full details & online booking(No registration is required) Join by Dec 31, 20
Bonuses as follows:
2,000 bonus points on your first stay
3,000 bonus points on your second stay
This offer can be stacked with the current Hilton Honors systemwide
promotion when you earn 2,000 Bonus Honors points per stay at Hilton
Hotels worldwide plus 10,000 bonus points for every 10 nights stayed. Full details, online registration & booking (Registration is required)
A new RBC Offers offer is out for those who
shop at Rexall. This offer gives a 4% statement credit on all your
Rexall purchases up to $1,000 during the promotional period which is
January 30 to March 26. I received the offer for my WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard. Hopefully you will be targeted for it as well! Simply
log in to your RBC account online and check the Offers for You section
or via the RBC mobile app.
Image via RBC
American Express announced the opening of their
11th Centurion Lounge in Charlotte, North Carolina will take
place on February 24. The new 13,000+ square foot lounge can be accessed
with The Platinum Card from American Express or the Centurion Card if
you are lucky enough to have the latter. Air Canada is the only Canadian
airline flying to Charlotte and you can access the lounge if you are
flying AC however be aware the lounge is pretty much on the other side
of airport terminal in the Plaza which is between concourse D & E
and Air Canada flies out of Concourse A. They are all connected after
security so you don't have to worry about having to clear multiple times
just to access the lounge.
"As the seventh busiest airport in the world and with more than 46
million travelers passing through, Charlotte Douglas International
Airport will host one of the largest Centurion Lounges to date spanning
more than 13,000 square feet. The new Centurion Lounge location will
welcome Platinum Card®, Centurion® and Delta Reserve Card Members and
their guests to redefine their pre-flight experience with top of the
line amenities and a premium dining menu curated by James Beard
semifinalist and local Charlotte Chef, Joe Kindred. "
A complimentary full bar with custom cocktails created by
renowned mixologist Jim Meehan and wines selected by wine authority,
Anthony Giglio*
A custom mural by local artist, Amanda Moody
Shower suites to keep travelers refreshed while on the go
Family rooms designed as a respite for parents and kids alike
Floor-to-ceiling windows with sweeping airfield and downtown skyline views
Essentials for business and leisure travelers alike, including
dedicated workspaces, power outlets, private phone areas, comfortable
seating and access to high-speed Wi-Fi
Over the past year or so we have been giving you updates on the World of Hyatt and Small…
Travel Deals
Air Transat has some great
deals to the U.S. with their latest 4 day sale! Book by Feb 24 to grab
round trip fares between Montreal and New Orleans for $302, Toronto to
Orlando for $332 and more!. Find out more here.
AeroMexico Club Premier
- 20% Bonus Club Premier Points when you transfer Radisson Rewards points to AeroMexico Club Premier Points. More... Until Mar 21, 20
- Double Club Premier Points for stays at Fiesta Hotels. More... Until Mar 31, 20
Marriott Bonvoy
- 50% Bonus Bonvoy Points when you buy 2,000 or more points online. More... Until Mar 25, 20
- 1,000 Bonus Bonvoy points PER NIGHT at the Residence Inn Chicago Oak Brook. More... Until Mar 9, 20
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
-
30% KrisFlyer Miles Discount when your redeem miles for select award flights on Singapore Airlines and SilkAir. More... Book by Feb 29 for travel Mar 1 - 31, 20
Turkish Miles&Smiles
- Earn up to 8X Miles&Smiles Miles for stays of 2+ nights at the Elite World Sapanca Hotel. More... Until Mar 31, 20
The most recent Rewards Canada family vacation had us visiting Scottsdale and Sedona, Arizona. With only a day trip planned to Sedona it seemed fitting to try out a tour - now the RC family isn't huge into tours, we usually like to explore on our own however with not too much time to spend in Sedona we wanted to see lots of the area without taking hours hiking around. The solution? A jeep tour! There are several off road tour operators in the Sedona area that offer Jeep and Hummer tours. The most popular and probably the most highly reviewed that we found wasPink Jeep Toursso we decided to go with them.
Pink Jeep tours offers a whole bunch of different Jeep tours and itineraries. As it we had never done one before and were also somewhat time constrained with a 2 hour drive to Sedona and back in the same day we looked at the shorter tours they offer which are 2 hour tours. The most popular tour they have is Broken Arrow, which is also exclusive to Pink Jeep which means no other tour companies offer this route is the one we chose. This tour seems ideal as it's not overly crazy but has enough bumps, climbs, descents to make an off-road enthusiast happy not to mention some amazing scenery! We booked the tour several weeks in advance on Pink Jeep's website and used myPlatinum Card from American Expressto pay for it. Pink Jeep codes as travel so it earns 2 Membership Rewards points per dollar spent (same would go for the Gold Rewards or Cobalt cards) and is also an eligible charge for the full Pay with Points option of 1,000 points to a $10 statement credit. I would recommend booking in advance especially if you are looking to go on the weekend or during a busy holiday period. We visited on a Friday of President's Day weekend (same as Family Day here) and the Saturday and Sunday were already quite full when we booked so we went with the Friday.
On to the tour! We had six people travelling in our group and the Jeeps seat seven so there was a fun lady from California who joined our crew for the 2 hour tour. After you check in at Pink Jeep Plaza on Highway 89A in North Sedona you are told to go to the passenger waiting area about 15 minutes before your booked departure time.
As departure time nears they have a 'greeter' who details what will transpire next - the guides will come out and call your name and then take you to your Jeep.
You'll board the Jeep, buckle up and off you go! It the took the Jeep about ten minutes to get through Sedona to the trailhead. I'm guessing it didn't used to be that long however Sedona is a victim of success and is now a travellers mecca with lots of people visiting it and with that comes traffic. He said that our traffic was nothing - on the busiest days of the year they sometimes have to cut tours short so that they can make it back to the Pink Jeep Plaza on time for the next tour.
The tour itself was amazing and the scenery alone is worth it:
Our guide Stephen was awesome and we were so happy we had him as our tour guide! He was funny, outgoing, friendly, knowledgeable, didn't beat around the bush and more! Stephen definitely made the tour very enjoyable. He discusses the local geology, history of the area, history of Pink Jeep, went into details about the Jeeps, the trails and more. He even revealed a fault line through Submarine Rock which is evidenced in this photo:
Not only did we visit Submarine Rock, the tour also took us to Chicken point where you can see the Two Nuns - named so as on the other side of them is the Chapel of the Holy Cross and then closed out with a ride down the Devil's Staircase.
The Two Nuns
Devil's Staircase
We took a bunch of photos and videos of the tour and chances are you will as well so make sure your phone has lots of juice! I should also mention Stephen is a great photographer, he took some amazing photos of our family! I haven't pieced together our videos from the tour just yet so if you want to see it in action here's a video from Pink Jeep Tours detailing Broken Arrow:
Overall we weren't sure about a jeep tour as we've seen them before in places like Palm Springs and have avoided them but if they are all like this one then you can bet we will be going more of them in the future! In fact, we are already saying that we need to return to Sedona and do another one of the tours - perhaps a longer one!
Have you been a jeep tour before? Are there any you have loved? Or disliked? Let us know!
* Rewards Canada receives a small commission when you book direct with Pink Jeep via these links. You don't have to book via our link but thank you in advance if you choose to do so!
Earlier in the week Marriott Bonvoy revealed their next buy points offer.
This is Marriott’s fourth offer on buying points since taking over SPG,
who was famous for their offers! All the previous offers were discounts
on the price of the points while this time they take a new approach and
keep the pricing at the base amount but are adding bonus points. When
you 2,000 or more Bonvoy points you’ll receive a 50% bonus and they have
also increased the maximum number of points you can buy from 50,000 to
100,000 annually with this promotion. Note that you can only buy 50,000
points in one transaction so you would have to complete 2 transactions
to get to the annual maximum. Marriott points are sold a flat rate so
you are paying the same amount per point if you buy 2,000 points or
50,000 points. With a 50% bonus the per point cost drops to 0.83 cents
(US) or about 1.1 cents in Canadian dollars. This is the lowest price we have seen for Marriott points to date
but still not as low as we saw with SPG. With that being said 0.83 cents US
is a pretty good price seeing that you can easily achieve well over 1
cent US per point on award night redemptions – more so if you take
advantage of the 5th night free benefit.
For example, Rewards Canada’s most recent redemption was just over 1.4 cents (C$) so such a
redemption would be advantageous if you bought the points at 1.1 cents
each – that’s only of course if you don’t already have tons of points in
your account which we did. And that 1.4 cents was only for four nights as that's all our schedule allowed, had we had more time we could have received a fifth night for free and have bumped that up to about 1.75 cents per point.
Chances are I won't be buying points this time as we still have well over 7 figures in our accounts but for those of you who are on the low end this could be an opportune time to buy some - as long as you know you can use them soon and will come out ahead.
Offer details:
50% Bonus Bonvoy Points when you buy 2,000 or more points online. Buy points here.Until Mar 25, 20
You can buy a maximum of 100,000 points annually with this promotion.
Here are some more Marriott Bonvoy Bonus Points offers to check out:
Earn up to 10,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points + receive a hotel credit for
stays of 2+ nights for Friday, Saturday or Sunday nights in a suite at
any one of 12 Marriott Hotels in Azerbaijan, Hungary, Israel,
Kazakhstan, Russia, Romania, or Turkey. Full details & online booking.
25,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points for stays of 2 or more nights at the
French Leave Resort, Autograph Collection Governor’s Harbour Eleuthera. Full details & online booking
1,000 bonus Bonvoy points and receive 20% off best available rate,
free buffet breakfast daily, Wi-Fi at The St. Regis Mauritius Resort or
the Westin Turtle Bay Resort & Spa. Full details & online booking
Over the past year or so we have been giving you updates on the World of Hyatt and Small Luxury Hotels of the World partnership.
Most of those updates have been when more SLH Hotels were added to the
World of Hyatt program. One thing we always kept an eye out for was the
one Canadian SLH Hotel location and up until recently it was never
included in the updates. Well good news is that it is now participating
in the World of Hyatt program! That hotel is Trout Point Lodge
in East Kemptville Nova Scotia. The hotel clocks in as a Category 6
hotel in the World of Hyatt program which means the standard award night
rate is 25,000 points per night. As of March 22 there will also be Peak
and Off Peak pricing which means the hotel could go low as 21,000
points per night or as high as 29,000 points per night. Suites are more -
from 36,000 to 44,000 points per night and since Trout Point consists
primarily of Suites and Cottages chances are most redemptions will be in
this latter points range. Learn more here!
Title Image via Hyatt
Here's a Throwback Thursday from the Rewards Canada
archives! This one goes back to October 2007 and covers the Cathay
Pacific Roadshow. This article details the time Cathay Pacific drove an
18 wheeler to various cities including Calgary to reveal their new cabin
interiors from Economy Class to First Class. In Calgary the had the
truck and display on Stephen Avenue during the day to reveal the cabin
interiors to all the business people who walk the street during the
lunch hour! Let us know in the comments if you happened to visit the roadshow and remember it! You can read the old article here!
Back at the start of the month we let you know that Swissport was setting up to open a…
Travel Deals
Expedia is offering up to
40% off select hotels. Book yours by Mar 1 to save up to 40% on spring
escapes through May 31. Terms and conditions may apply.Find out more here.
Alitalia MilleMiglia
-
OFFER EXTENDED Earn up to 1,500 Bonus MilleMiglia Miles when you fly Alitalia between Milan and London City. More... Until Mar 31, 20
Aer Lingus Aer Club
-
700 Bonus Avios when you rent with Avis for 3 or more days
in Europe, The Middle East, Africa, Asia, USA, Canada, Australia, New
Zealand and Mexico. More... Book by Mar 31 for rentals until May 31, 20
Marriott Bonvoy
- 2,000 Bonus Bonvoy points PER NIGHT on Thursday-Sunday nights at The Westin Austin at The Domain. More... Until Mar 16, 20
- Earm up to 1,000 Bonus Bonvoy points PER NIGHT at The Westin St. Francis San Francisco on Union Square. More... Until Mar 24, 20
Miles & More
- 2,500 Bonus Miles & More Miles when you rent with Enterprise for 3
or more days in Worldwide. Complete 5 rentals and earn an additional
5,000 miles. More... Until Apr 30, 20
Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus
- 30% ROP Miles discount for award tickets on 34 international routes,
economy and Royal Silk classes operated by THAI and THAI Smile. More... Book by Feb 29 for travel until Jun 30, 20
United MileagePlus
- 5,000 Bonus MileagePlus Miles per adult member when you book a 6+
night United Vacations air+hotel package to Iberostar Resorts in Mexico.
More... Book by Feb 27 for travel until Oct 31, 20
Back at the start of the month we let you know that Swissport was setting up to open a new Aspire lounge in Ottawa.
Good news is that lounge opened up on Valentine's Day! Bad news is they
don't have their liquor license yet! So for the time being there is no
alcohol being served in the lounge. The lounge does not show up yet on
the Priority Pass or Mastercard Airport Expereinces websites (nor any
other third party sites) but it should be accesible to all members of
these programs. The lounge is open from 4am to 10pm each day and is
located just after gate 18 (post-security) You can learn more about the lounge and book it here. Image via Swissport
AIR MILES announced today an expanded relationship
with Samsung Canada that allows for more mileage earning opportunities.
Here's an excerpt from today's press release:
"AIR MILES Collectors and Samsung fans now have the opportunity to get
Miles when purchasing leading-edge mobile technology products. This
includes Samsung smartphones and tablets, as well as wearables and
accessories available at samsung.com/ca"
When you go to the site you'll see that if you pre-order the new
Samsung Galaxy S20+ or Ultra you can earn up to 2,000 Bonus AIR MILES. The base earning with Samsung is 1 Mile for every $20 spent on mobile devices including smartphones and tablets, as well as wearables and accessories. Find out more here! Image via Samsung
We have more Amex Cobalt multiplier updates for
you! Vendors like Porter Airlines, Dutch Bros, Pink Jeep Tours and
Sedona's Oak Creek Brewery have been added to the list. Visit the feature here.
Best Western Rewards
- Earn a Free Night when you complete 2 eligible stays at a Best
Western® branded hotel in the United States, Canada or Caribbean. More... Register & book now for stays Feb 18 – Apr 20, 20
Other Bonus Offers
Copa ConnectMiles
-
Up to 40% Bonus ConnectMiles when you buy or gift ConnectMiles. More... Until Mar 2, 20
IHG Rewards Club
-
4,000 Bonus IHG Rewards Club Points for stays of 7 or more nights at the Staybridge Suites Grand Forks. More... Unknown end date
Marriott Bonvoy
- 2,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points for stays at the Four Points by Sheraton Fargo Medical Center. More... Until Mar 25, 20
- 1,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points PER NIGHT for stays at the Courtyard Salt Lake City Airport. More... Until Mar 9, 20
MEA Cedar Miles
- 25% Bonus Elite Qualifying Cedar Miles on all MEA flights systemwide when flying on a U, H or K fare class ticket. More... Until May 19, 20
Stash Hotel Rewards
- Double Stash Rewards Points for stays at the The Chateaux Deer Valley Park City More... Mar 1 - May 31, 20
United MileagePlus
- OFFER EXTENDED 1,500 Bonus MileagePlus Miles when you book a mid-size or larger car with Hertz for 2 or more days. More... Until Sep 30, 20
Following on the heals of Marriott's hotel category changes from two weeks ago, Hyatt Hotels released their hotel changes for the World of Hyatt program last week. A much smaller hotel chain when compared to Marriott, Hyatt's changes don't look as drastic as Marriott's. As we always start with, there are no actual changes to the number of points required for the actual redemption categories - the changes we are alluding to are for individual hotels moving up or down in those redemption categories. Here are the categories and the point requirements for each:
This is just the standard award night redemption chart - there are additional charts and requirements for suite upgrades, points+cash, all inclusive resorts and more. You can see all the charts here.
As well, we now know when the previously announced Peak and Off Peak rates will start. Those will be on the same day the hotel category changes happen and that is March 22, 2020.
This year will see 217 of Hyatt's hotel change categories with an almost even split between going up or down in categories. 117 will be going up while 100 will go down. You can find the complete list of hotels changing here.
You should consult this chart if you are planning on booking any Hyatt hotels outside of Canada with points in the near future as you'll want to lock in a hotel that is going up before March 22 as you'll only pay the current points requirement. Oh and if you are planing or have already booked a hotel that will go down after March 22 Hyatt will automatically refund you the points difference - no need to cancel and rebook or wait until after that date to book.
You'll notice I mentioned 'outside of Canada' in the paragraph above and that's simply because no hotels in our country are changing - they are all staying the same. We don't have a lot of Hyatt hotels here but I know the program is quite popular with the frequent traveller crowd and the chain is growing within our borders as well. Keep an eye out for our new Hyatt Hotels opening in Canada post that will be coming soon!
Remember as well that you can earn Double World of Hyatt Points with each stay starting with your second
qualifying stay at over 1,000 participating Hyatt Hotels worldwide when register by March 31 for stays until May 15. Find out more here.
For several years now theRogers World Elite Mastercardhas been the go to card for people wanting cash back rewards with no annual fee. Ranked the number 2 cash back rewards card in Canada for the past years by Rewards Canada the card with its cash back returns of 1.75% to 4% is going to change on June 2, 2020. And that change isn't for the better. Thanks to Rewards Canada Twitterfollower Joshua C. Culpfor letting us know this morning that those changes are coming.
Here are the changes for the World Elite Mastercard
As you can see it is the cash back earning that is changing on June 2 and although not consider a true no foreign transaction fee card the Rogers World Elite Mastercard has been popular for non-Canadian currency transactions thanks to earn more cash back than the foreign transaction fee charged on the card. Currently and up until June 1st the card earns 4% cash back on foreign currency charges and was subject to a 2.5% foreign transaction fee. This means on those types of purchases the you would net a 1.5% return. The earn on those purchases is changing to 3% and only for U.S. dollar transactions! This means you'll only earn 0.5% cash back in purchases in U.S. dollars, albeit this is the most popular non-Canadian currency that Canadians transact with however if you are off to Europe, Asia, Australia or wherever else you will only earn the new base rate of 1.5% and be charged the 2.5% foreign transaction fee.
That leads us into that base earn rate which is currently 1.75% (2% on Rogers products) and that rate is also being devalued. As of June 2 you will only earn 1.5% on all these other purchases and it surprises me that they aren't even keeping an incentive there on Rogers products!
Here's the devaluation in a nutshell:
Purchases made in U.S. dollars - earn rate goes down by 1%
Purchases made in other foreign currencies - earn rates goes down by 2.5%
Rogers purchases - earn rate goes down 0.5%
All other purchases - earn rate goes down 0.25%
We always hate seeing such devaluations but I always wondered about this card being too valuable considering the insurance benefits and earn all with no annual fee. It just isn't financially feasible especially so for a small card issuer like Rogers. This is very reminiscent of the Capital One Aspire Travel World Elite Mastercard as it pretty much gave away the bank in terms of earn rate and benefits making it the best card in Canada for years on end but it just wasn't financially feasible for Capital One so they had to cut it. At least this card is sticking around but I think many of you will now reconsider your card options as there are other cash back cards that will be just as or more rewarding along with equal or better no foreign transaction fee options.
Also to note in the changes is that Rogers is adding one new benefit to the card which we feel doesn't make up for the changes and that is Global WiFi for the primary cardholder from Boingo. This is a feature we see on cards like the Brim Mastercards and the HSBC World Elite Mastercard.
Finally there is also one other big change to note - as of June 2, 2020 if you don't spend at least $15,000 annually on the Rogers World Elite Mastercard, they can at their discretion bump you down in their products to a card like the Rogers Platinum Mastercard which has a lower earn rate and also less insurance benefits.
I'm not going to go into detail on the changes to the Platinum card as they are essentially the same in that foreign transactions going to U.S. only and dropping to 3% and the same 0.25% drop in all other spending other than Rogers products which drops by 1%:
And the FIDO card is as follows:
The Fido card loses any benefit for foreign transaction purchases but actually sees the only reasonable gain out of all the cards in that you can earn 1.5% on all recurring payments and subscription services. Not sure if that would sway me since the base earn rate drops by 0.25% and wiping out of any benefit to foreign transaction fees but it may appeal to those with lots of recurring payments.
All in all these aren't the changes we like to see and I'm sure many of you feel the same way and will be reconsidering your options. More so that this is going to be a big year in card competition and we are going to see new competitors in the market and a lot more limited time offers. If anything Rogers should have probably stuck it out another year to see what transpires in our market as it is going to be a bloodbath in trying earn and retain cardholders!
