August 12 Update: Double Cashback at ebates, 20% bonus miles on EVA Air flights out of YYZ & YVR, 3,000 Bonus Avios with Rocketmiles

A nice selection of offers for you today!

News, Tips & Tricks
As an add on to our Back to School feature you will now find that ebates Canada is offering Double Cash Back from select retailers like Staples, Amazon.ca, Old Navy and others that tie in nicely with Back to School shoppping!

In the bonus offer section check out the new flight bonus from EVA Air! If you are flying with this Taiwanese carrier out of Toronto or Vancouver this fall be sure to register for this offer so that you can 20% more Infinity MileageLands miles!

Don't forget to head on over to FrequentFlyerBonuses.com for a chance to win 25,000 Avios!
Find all the details on the contest here!

Posts since our last update:

• Earning Stories: Success with Alitalia MilleMiglia Status Match Offer
  Welcome to the next post in the Earning Stories series right here on Rewards Canada. For years we have provided…
  
  

Bonus Offers
Air New Zealand Airpoints
- Double Airpoints Dollars for stays on the Linger Longer for Less package at participating Langham Hotels Worldwide. More... Until Sep 30, 15

British Airways Executive Club
- 3,000 Bonus Avios on your first Rocketmiles booking More... Until Oct 1, 15

EVA Air Infinity MileageLands
- Earn up to 30% Bonus Infinity MileageLands Miles from/to North America, Europe, Brisbane, Hong Kong, Macau, Mainland China, Singapore, Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City, and Okinawa. More... Sep 1 - Nov 30, 15
- Earn up to Quadruple Infinity MileageLands Miles when you rent a car with HERTZ in USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand or Asia. More... Until Oct 31, 15

La Quinta Returns
- Earn up to Triple Returns Points for stays at participating La Quinta locations in the U.S. More... Until Sep 10, 15

Malaysia Airlines Enrich (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Earn up to Triple Enrich Miles for stays at participating Okura Hotels & Resorts, Nikko Hotels International and Hotel JAL City Worldwide. More... Until Sep 30, 15

Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus
- Earn up to Triple Enrich Miles for stays at participating Okura Hotels & Resorts, Nikko Hotels International and Hotel JAL City Worldwide. More... Until Sep 30, 15

Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles
- 50% Bonus Miles&Smiles Miles at any Serena Hotel across Africa and Asia. More... Until Oct 15, 15
- Earn up to 1,000 Miles&Smiles Miles with the purchase of Pepsi Max products in Turkey. More... Until Oct 31, 15

Vietnam Airlines Golden Lotus Plus (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Earn up to Triple Golden Lotus Miles for stays at participating Okura Hotels & Resorts, Nikko Hotels International and Hotel JAL City Worldwide. More... Until Sep 30, 15

Today's Bonus Offer Highlight is brought to you by:

Earning Stories: Success with Alitalia MilleMiglia Status Match Offer

Welcome to the next post in the Earning Stories series right here on Rewards Canada. For years we have provided you with the details on earning points and miles (both regular earning and bonus opportunities) and these stories show the actual offers in action.

Unlike other earning stories, this one does not involve a flight, hotel stay or car rental. This one looks at an offer we posted here on Rewards Canada back at the beginning of July about Alitalia MilleMiglia having a open elite status match offer. Here is the offer as it appeared on our blog:

Here is the offer as pulled from our MilleMiglia page as it is still valid and if you haven't taken advantage of it yet you really should!

Receive an Elite Status Match to a non SkyTeam airline program. Full details
Getting a status match is very easy. Send an email to StatusMatchMilleMiglia@alitalia.com by December 31, 2015 with the following:

• First name and last name
• MilleMiglia code
• A legible copy of your existing valid Frequent Flyer program card
  

Your status will be effective 5 working days after you send the request email and will be maintained until March 31, 2016. To confirm that your status has been recognized, you will receive a personalized email from your new Club.

I decided to give this an offer a shot and wanted to test it with a status I have that was expiring soon. I used my Cathay Pacific Marco Polo Club Gold status that came with The Platinum Card from American Express. This benefit is actually no longer available from the card but my Gold status with Cathay Pacific is valid until the end of September. I simply scanned my Marco Polo Gold card and sent it off as instructed above with my name and MilleMiglia number. About three weeks later I received confirmation from Alitalia that my status match went through! I was now a MilleMiglia Freccia Alata Club member (essentially Gold status).

Here is the screen shot from the email confirming the status match:

I actually received my physical card in the mail yesterday! Now I have elite status with Alitalia and SkyTeam until the end of March next year even though my status with Cathay ends in a month and a half! I would say this is a success story.  I don't think I'll fly Alitalia before the end of March to take advantage of all the benefits but there is a good chance I will be on some SkyTeam flights so it will be nice to take advantage of the SkyTeam benefits allotted with SkyTeam Elite Plus status:

Not only will I look at using these benefits, by having this status with Alitalia I may be able to extend it to other status match offers that are in or will be coming to the market since my Cathay status ends soon.

We'd love to hear how you have if you have taken advantage of this status match offer as well! Leave us a comment below or submit your own earning story to be featured here on Rewards Canada.


Have your earning story featured!
Not only are Rewards Canada Earning Stories featured in this series, we want to feature your stories as well! Have you earned a lot of points or miles by utilizing offers posted on Rewards Canada? We would love to hear about them and potentially feature them here on Rewards Canada. Tell us your earning story by emailing us the details of what you earned, screenshots if possible of those points/miles posting and what offer on Rewards Canada you took advantage of. Email it to us info@rewardscanada.ca

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August 11 Update: Miles & Points Tips for Back to School Shopping, Enter to win 25,000 Avios, 15 new bonus offers

Here is your update for Tuesday August 11th!

News, Tips & Tricks
We have released yet another miles and points feature. This time we provide tips for Back to School shopping and how to earn more miles and points while doing so! In fact these tips can be used year round and not just for Back to School. The feature is the first section for our new Guide to Points & Miles for Students. You can find the Back to School Shopping feature here.

Over on our global site, FrequentFlyerBonuses.com we have launched the third contest in FFB10, the year long celebration of the 10th Anniversary of the website! Head on over and enter for your chance to win 25,000 British Airways Executive Club Avios from Rocketmiles and FFB! In addition to that if you haven't booked with Rocketmiles yet we have an exclusive promotion with them to earn 3,000 Bonus Avios on your first booking. Find all the details on the contest and exclusive promotion here!

Posts since our last update:

• Miles & More Award Ticket Sale - Save 50% on Economy Class award tickets to Europe from YYZ & YUL
  Once again we bring you the latest set Miles & More "Meilenschnaeppchen" discounted mileage awards!  This month we only…
  
  

Bonus Offers
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
- Double Mileage Plan Miles when you fly Alaska Airlines between Portland and Kansas City or Minneapolis. More... Feb 18 - Mar 18, 15

Czech Airlines OK Plus
- Double OK Plus Miles when you fly Czech Airlines between Prague and Radom. More... Sep 19 - Oct 23, 15
- Double OK Plus Miles when you fly Czech Airlines between Lodz and Prague, Lodz and Edinburgh, or Rzeszow and Edinburgh. More... Until Sep 30, 15
- 50% OK Plus Miles when you fly Czech Airlines between Prague and Ekaterinburg, Moscow, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, or St. Petersburg, as well as between Karlovy Vary and Moscow or St. Petersburg. More... Until Aug 31, 15
- Double OK Plus Miles when you fly Czech Airlines between Prague and Kiev, or between Kosice and Kiev. More... Until Aug 31, 15

IHG Rewards Club
- Earn up to 15,000 Bonus IHG Rewards Club Points for stays at any IHG hotels and resorts across Asia Pacific (excluding China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan), Middle East and Africa. More... Until Dec 31, 15
- Triple Airline Miles for stays at participating Holiday Inn hotels in Asia Pacific (excluding China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan), Middle East and Africa. More... Book by Aug 31 for stays until Dec 19, 15
- Earn up 5,000 Bonus IHG Rewards Club Points when you join IHG Rewards Club Dining. More... Until Aug 31, 15

Japan Airlines Mileage Bank
- Double Mileage Bank Miles when you fly American Airlines between the U.S and Asia. More... Sep 1 - Dec 15, 15

Orbitz Rewards (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- 4x Orbucks when you book select AeroMexico flights to coastal destinations like Acapulco and Cancun. More... Book by Aug 30, 15
- 4x Orbucks when you book your flight with select family-friendly Atlantis hotels. More... Book by Aug 30, 15
- $45 Bonus Orbucks when you book select Los Cabos hotel + flight packages. More... Book by Aug 30, 15
- $40 Bonus Orbucks when you book your select flight and hotel stay at the award-winning Wynn Las Vegas or Encore resort More... Book by Aug 20, 15

South African Airways Voyager
- Double Voyager Miles on all flights between Wonderboom and Cape Town. More... Aug 16 - Oct 31, 15
- 3,000 Bonus Voyager Miles on your first Rocketmiles booking More... Book by Sep 30, 15

Today's Bonus Offer Highlight is brought to you by:

Miles & More Award Ticket Sale - Save 50% on Economy Class award tickets to Europe from YYZ & YUL

Once again we bring you the latest set Miles & More "Meilenschnaeppchen" discounted mileage awards!  This month we only see 50% off economy class offers out of Montreal and Toronto. No Vancouver and no business class options.

With this month's offers you can redeem Miles & More miles for round trip tickets from Montreal or Toronto to Europe for only 30,000 miles in Economy Class for travel between December 1st and January 15th.  That is a 50% discount over the regular mileage requirement. Granted all these tickets will also have fuel surcharges but this is still a pretty good deal when you look at it as a whole in terms of miles+cash outlay. 

The crazy thing is that you can actually get the round trip ticket for only $5,000 in credit card spend (and a $120 annual fee). 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. If you read our blog regularly you'll know that right now the card comes with a 20,000 Starpoint 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 but if you spend $5,000 on the card you'll have 25,000 Starpoints and the 5,000 Miles bonus giving you the 30,000 miles required for this flight. Of course fuel surcharges and taxes are extra.

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

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August 10 Update: Cineplex SCENE changes, free miles from Philippine Airlines, Top 5 Credit Card sign up offers

Happy Monday everyone!

News, Tips & Tricks
Last week we were interviewed by CBC about the upcoming changes to Cineplex's SCENE program. The major change is an increased points requirement when redeeming for a 'premium' movie ticket like 3D, UltraAVX, IMAX or D-Box. As of November 4th those type of movie redemptions will cost 1,500 Points instead of the current 1,000 points. Meanwhile general movie redemptions will remain at 1,000 points. Also announced in the upcoming changes are increased points earning when you buy those premium movies and chose to earn points. Everything else with the program will remain the same. While somewhat unfortunate in terms of redeeming for the premium tickets this wasn't an unexpected move by SCENE as they surveyed their members earlier this year about these new requirements. Also with the SCENE program trying to grow into a coalition type program like Aeroplan and AIR MILES they are proactively getting their redemption catalog ready for the increased points earning from adding new partners to the program (ie Sport Chek and Milestones). Find out more about these changes here. Here is a look the new points earning and redemption options for movies:

In the bonus offers section be sure to check out the free miles offer from Philippine Airlines.

Posts since our last update:

• Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for August
  Here are the Rewards Canada's Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for the month of August! This is not…
  
  

Bonus Offers
Aegean Miles&Bonus
- Double Miles&Bonus Miles for stays at the Corfu Chandris Hotel & Villas and Dassia Chandris Hotel & Spa. More... Until Sep 30, 15

Emirates Skywards
- Quadruple Skywards Miles for stays at the Address Hotels & Resorts in Dubai. More... Book by Sep 30 for stays until Nov 30, 15

Etihad Guest
- Earn up to 10,000 Bonus Guest Miles when you book hotels via Kaligo. More... Book by Sep 30, 15
- 50 Bonus Guest Miles for each successful hotel review made on Holdiay Check. More... Until Sep 30, 15

Germanwings Boomerang Club (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- Double Boomerang Miles when you fly between Köln-Bonn, Stuttgart, Hannover, or Düsseldorf and London Stansted. More... Book by Aug 31 for travel until Sep 30, 15

Hilton HHonors
- 50,000 Bonus HHonors Points when you stay four nights or more in 90 days at participating Hilton Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. More... Targeted Offer - May not work for everyone Until Jan 7, 16

Miles & More
- Double Miles & More Miles for stays at over 2,800 Accor Hotels Worldwide. More... Book by Aug 31 for stays until Sep 30, 15
- 500 Miles & More Miles per night for stays at Falkensteiner Hotels & Residences in Austria, Italy, Croatia, Serbia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. More... Until Aug 31, 15
- Double Miles & More Miles on all Wyndham Rewards Hotels stays Worldwide starting with your 2nd stay. More... Until Oct 9, 15

Philippine Airlines Mabuhay
- 250 FREE Mabuhay Miles when you update your profile online. More... Until Aug 15, 15

Voila Hotel Rewards
- 50% Bonus VHR Points for each stay at participating Voila Hotel Rewards hotels Worldwide that is booked online via Voila. More...Until Oct 31, 15
- 3,000 Bonus VHR Points for each stay at participating Voila Hotel Rewards hotels Worldwide. More... Until Oct 31, 15

Today's Bonus Offer Highlight is brought to you by:

Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for August

Here are the Rewards Canada's Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for the month of August! This is not a 'best' credit card list like our Top Travel Rewards Credit Card rankings but instead a look at cards that have very good acquisition offers. As always when choosing a card you should always take other factors into account other than the sign up bonus, but when most of these cards are first year free, they can and do pay off even when not taking into account insurance packages and other non-reward benefits. In fact 4 of 5 cards on this list for August are first year free so you can try them out at no cost and decide later on if the card is right for you. All the while earning the sign up bonus which can be used to subsidize your travels! The only card that isn't first year free is the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express. It has an annual of $120 but the new sign up bonus of 20,000 Starpoints is worth no less than $400 depending on what you value Starpoints at.

The only change this month from July is the removal of the TD First Class Visa Infinite Card. That card sees the value of its points being devalued as of August 16th hence its removal. That being said, for some of you the sign up offer of 40,000 points with the first year free can still make sense as it retains value for redeeming via Expedia. Read more about these changes here. Taking its place is the American Express Air Miles Platinum Credit Card with its 2,000 Mile sign up bonus and first year free offer.

So here are our top 5 credit card sign up offers for August (in alphabetical order)

American Express Gold Rewards Card - 25,000 Points (Apply here)
A mainstay offer here on Rewards Canada, the American Express Gold Rewards card has its first year fee of $150 waived and will award you 25,000 Membership Rewards points when you complete $500 in spending in the first three months. That 25,000 points is worth a $250 travel credit via Amex's TripFlex feature or can be converted to 25,000 Aeroplan Miles (1 Round trip Economy Award ticket within North America) or 25,000 British Airways Executive Club Avios (as much a 5 one way Economy Award tickets in North America, see this post for details.)


American Express Air Miles Platinum Credit Card - 2,000 Reward Miles (Apply here)
A newcomer to our monthly Top 5 sign up offers, the American Express Air Miles Platinum card comes first year free and comes with a 2,000 Reward Miles sign up bonus when you complete $500 in spending in the first three months. That 2,000 Miles is worth anywhere from $220 to $300 in flight value when you get around to redeeming them.

Chase Marriott Rewards Premier Visa - 30,000 Points  (Apply here)
The best no foreign transaction fee card in Canada makes it to this list due to a very strong acquisition offer. I mean who can complain with 30,000 points awarded on approval and a certificate for a free night stay at a Category 1-4 hotel for a potential of 5 free nights, all at no cost as the card has the annual fee waived in the first year! They also give you  a 15 night credit into the mix which automatically provides you with Marriott Rewards Silver Elite status. There is also a 50,000 Point offer meant only for Marriott Elite members which many non-elites have had success with when they apply for it. (You may or may not get the full 50k and if they find out you are not Elite you may only receive the 30k)


Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express - 20,000 Starpoints (Apply here)
Recently the sign up bonus for this card was increased from 10,000 Starpoints to 20,000 Starpoints and this is the only card in this list that doesn't have the first year fee waived. That doesn't matter. This is by far the best hotel points card in Canada and Starpoints have huge value. The 20,000 Starpoint bonus when you spend $500 on the card is worth at least $400 when redeeming them for Starwood Hotel stays or you can convert them to airline miles in over 30+ programs and Starwood will kick in an additional 5,000 miles when you transfer 20,000 Starpoints at a time.


TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card - 25,000 Miles (Apply here)
According to TD, this is the last month this card will come with the increased sign up bonus and first year free. The current 25,000 Aeroplan Miles sign up bonus (15,000 upon approval, 10,000 when you spend $1,000) and the first year's $120  fee waived, makes this a very strong card to get seeing that the 25,000 Aeroplan Miles is worth up to $500 in travel.



If you went for all these cards you ultimately could end up with over  $1000 in travel credits and hotel free nights but even if you only take on one or two you are helping your travel budget significantly at no cost other than regular credit card spend.

August 4 Update: We're back, WestJet Connect officially launched, 30% Bonus on buying Hyatt Gold Passport Points

Not too much to bring you after the long weekend as we spent most of our time working on getting our sites back up after our our UK site was compromised. Good news is Rewards Canada is up and so is FrequentFlyerBonuses.com but our UK site will be down for sometime still.

News, Tips & Tricks
Late last week WestJet announced that their inflight Wi-fi and connectivity system officially launched. (Source WestJet)

"it has begun rolling out its new inflight entertainment system featuring wireless Internet connectivity and more than 450 movies and television programs. Called WestJet Connect, the system will be activated on all of WestJet's Boeing 767ER aircraft and more than 30 per cent of WestJet's Boeing Next-Generation 737 aircraft by end of 2015, with installations on the majority of the 737 fleet expected to be completed in 2016. "

I actually flew on one of these planes about a week and a half ago although the system wasn't turned on yet. It had no TV screens but every seat had the 110V/USB plugs along with the seatback card explaining the WestJet Connect system.

WestJet Encore is expanding service out of Edmonton with a new daily route to Nanaimo and increased frequency to four other cities in Western Canada. (Source Airlineroute.net)



Bonus Offers
Air France KLM Flying Blue
- August Promo Awards - Save 25% to 50% on the Award Miles usually required for an award ticket. Destinations vary by each promotional period. More... Book between Aug 1 - 31 for travel between Oct 1 - Nov, 15

Delta SkyMiles
- Earn up to 1,500 Bonus SkyMiles when you shop via the SkyMiles Shopping portal. More... Until Aug 16, 15

Ethiopian Sheba Miles
- Earn up to 10,000 Bonus Sheba Miles when you book hotels via Kaligo. More... Book by Sep 30, 15

Hyatt Gold Passport
- 500 Bonus Gold Passport Points for all eligible Hyatt stays that are booked via the Hyatt App or Hyatt Mobile Site. More... Until Sep 30, 15
- 30% Bonus Gold Passport Points when you buy 5,000 or more points online. More... Until Aug 31, 15

Le Club accorhotels
- 4X Le Club Accorhotels Points for stays at new Accor Hotels Worldwide. More... Book by Aug 31 for stays until Sep 30, 15

Starwood Preferred Guest
- Bonus Starpoints, Free Nights or Elite Status when you complete stays at Starwood Hotels Worldwide. More... Targeted Offer - May not work for everyone Register by Sep 30 for stays until Oct 31, 15

United MileagePlus
- 25% Bonus MileagePlus Miles on all conversions of 5,000 miles or more from participating hotel loyalty programs. More... Until Aug 31, 15

Today's Bonus Offer Highlight is brought to you by:

Main Rewards Canada Site Down Temporarily

If you have tried visiting our main Rewards Canada site (www.rewardscanada.ca) you'll have noticed it has been down since early yesterday evening. The reason for this is that our UK site (frequentflyerbonuses.co.uk) was compromised by hackers and as a security precaution our hosting company locked the websites. We are working diligently with them to get everything back up and running which should hopefully be later today. Please stay tuned and know that we haven't gone away!