December 4 Update: New from RBC - The Avion Collection, Discounted More Rewards redemption offer for Save-On Foods & Aeroplan accumulation changes for Canadian North

 Here's your Rewards Canada Daily update! Your daily dose (or near daily dose) of loyalty program, credit card and travel news, bonuses, deals and more. This update is brought to you by the HSBC World Elite Mastercard which is currently offering a welcome bonus of up to 100,000 bonus points!

RBC has launched a new initiative for their Avion cardholders. Entitled 'The Avion Collection' RBC describes the Avion Collection as

"Bringing you curated travel ideas, exclusive value, insider tips, and unique experiences that will only get better over time. This is the start of an ever-growing catalog of value and inspiration, just for Avioners"

OFFER EXTENDED LifeMiles offering a 200% bonus when buying miles – and how to use it to fly on the cheap within Canada or beyond

 

The biggest bonus for buying Avianca LifeMiles has returned as their Cyber Week offer. From now until December 3 December 8 when you buy any amount of LifeMiles from 1, 000 to 200,000 you will earn a 200% bonus (Triple Miles). No matter which level you buy at you are buying the miles for US 1.1 cents each. That’s an incredible deal to be buying miles that can be used for Star Alliance flights including Air Canada.

Another big batch of new RBC Offers - From Clinique to Pet Value to Sporting Life & more!

Wow we see another round of new RBC offers and there are a bunch of them this time! m Be sure to login to your RBC account right away to load these offers (if required) or get the promo codes if required.

The new offers are as follows:

December 3 Update: 10x Aeroplan points at Sephora today, 50,000 PC Optimum points for online Shoppers purchases & a new Desjardins page on Rewards Canada

 Here's the Rewards Canada Daily update for December 3, 2020! Your daily dose (or near daily dose) of loyalty program, credit card and travel news, bonuses, deals and more. This update is brought to you by the HSBC World Elite Mastercard which is currently offering a welcome bonus of up to 100,000 bonus points!

A look at the new Desjardins Cash Back World Elite Mastercard - a strong contender in our cash back market

 
We have had quite a few of members of our community ask us to cover this new card and to see what we think of it.  So here you go! That new card is the Desjardins Cash Back World Elite Mastercard which appears to have hit our market sometime in October. 

December 2 Update: Aeroplan eStore 12 Days of Gifting, Westin Grand Vancouver to become a Hilton in 2021, Grab the TD Cash Back Visa Infinite Card now

 

Aeroplan eStore's annual 12 Days of Gifting started today. For the next 12 days there will be a bonus of up to 10x points each day with a different retailer. Today, December 2 it is Indigo and the bonus is 7x points. Find out more here.

Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for December - These cards provide some of the best value out of their welcome bonuses

Here are the Rewards Canada Top 5 Travel Credit Card Sign Up offers for the month of December 2020! 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 (welcome/sign up) offers. As always when choosing a card you should always take other factors into account other than the just sign up bonus, but when some of these cards are first year free, they can and do pay off even when you grab them strictly for the sign up rewards. This month we see three first year free cards on the list 

American AAdvantage gifting free miles or upgrades plus offering bonuses on flights

 

Calling all American AAdvantage members! Be sure to log in to your account today and take part in their "It's a Gift! From American, to: AAdvantage Members" promotion. The promotion is giving all members who register for it some free miles, not a lot, 100 to 250 miles or upgrades (but hey it's something and it should keep your account active longer) and also the opportunity to earn double AAdvantage miles on American Airlines flights in January and February. I know the latter promotion will not appeal to many but maybe you are snowbird planning on heading down to the U.S. and are an American Airlines flyer so in that case it may work for you if you haven't booked your flights yet.

Air Canada partners with Shoppers Drug Mart to provide pre-departure COVID-19 testing

 

Catching up on some news from last week here with this announcement that came from Air Canada and Shoppers Drug Mart. This news follows on the heels of Hawaii's announcement that they will now accept select testing from Canada so that Canadians can avoid the 14 day quarantine period that Hawaii has imposed for those coming to the islands. You'll have to note however that the island of Kauai has opted out of the pre-departure testing exemption which means all visitors (even those from neighbouring islands) have to quarantine for 14 days as of December 2nd.

December 1 Update: Top 6 tips for maximizing miles & points earning on holiday shopping, Give A Mile matching cash donations for Giving Tuesday, New Amex Offer for Lululemon

 

Our annual guide to earning the most points and miles on your holiday shopping has been updated for 2020. The feature provides six main tips that you can utilize for your holiday shopping from online shopping portals to where you should buy gift cards and more! See the updated guide here.

New welcome offer of 100,000 PC Optimum points on PC Financial Credit Cards

 

Another 100K credit card offer to let you know about and this one seems to be coming around every few weeks now but when it is around it is only live for a few days. That offer is the 100K bonus for getting a PC Financial Mastercard. This time the offer is valid for applications until December 3, 2020 and is good for any one of the three cards in their portfolio:

Rewards Canada Clash of the Reward Charts! Amex Fixed Points for Travel versus RBC Avion Air Travel Redemption

Welcome to next Rewards Canada Clash!

If you listened to our podcast from June entitled Clash of the Credit Cards - you'll know that we've changed our Showdown features to Clashes. The reason why is that lots of sites and blogs are using Showdown now, some are using battle so we wanted to continue to be unique so our comparisons are now Clashes! 

AIR MILES Shops Cyber Monday Offer - Shop online and earn 15x Miles sitewide today only!

This time AIR MILES did out do themselves compared to Black Friday! Today only you will get 15x miles on purchases made via their online shopping portal AIR MILES Shop. That's more like it! An amazing bonus if you are doing any online shopping today!

Remember his bonus is earned over and above the Shop the Block offer as well that awards 30 bonus miles if you spend $100 or more with one retailer so keep that in mind as well!

Learn more about this offer here.

You can find this offer and many more on our Black Friday / Cyber Monday / Holiday Deals page!

Air Canada Cyber Monday Sale - 20 to 25% off all flights

 

Air Canada's Cyber Monday sale started at Midnight ET this morning and actually offered 30% and 50% off promo codes for a limited amount of tickets but those are already sold out. The next discount level is 25% but that is limited to 2,000 bookings. Use code CYBER25 for the 25% off. At the time of posting this it was still available but they could sell out at anytime. After that using code CYBER20 will provide a 20% discount off base fares to anywhere Air Canada flies. The sale is only valid for today and is good for travel until June 30, 21.

Learn more about the sale here.

You’ll also find this offer and many more on our Black Friday / Cyber Monday / Holiday Deals for 2020 page!

Today & Tomorrow: Buy Marriott Gift Cards with a 15% discount

 
The Marriott Gift Card sale that we let you now about last week is finally here.  For today and tomorrow you can receive a 15% discount when you buy. Note there is a limit of $5,000 per person/per credit card/per day. These means you could buy up to US$10,000 in total for gift cards, one $5K today and on $5K tomorrow. All gift cards purchased are valid for future travel globally this winter and beyond as they don't have expiry dates. 

World of Hyatt reducing 2021 Elite Status qualification criteria by 50%

Hyatt Hotels let us know that they will be dropping requirements to achieve or requalify for World of Hyatt Elite status during the 2021 calendar year by 50%. This is the requirement for stays during next year so that you can have status for March 2022 and beyond as current status members have already had their status extended to February 2022. Of course if you don't have status and hit the qualification mark(s) during 2021 you'll get that status sooner.

WestJet Cyber Monday Sale - 20% off all fares to all destinations

 

The posting of Cyber Weekend deals continues today! The first we have for you is WestJet's Cyber Monday sale. Today only you can take an additional 20% off to anywhere there fly by using discount code A86LU83. The code is valid for Basic, Econo, Premium and Business. Excludes EconoFlex, PremiumFlex and BusinessFlex fare classes.  Travel must be completed January 5 to June 27, 2021

Learn more about this offer here.

Here's an example of the savings utilizing this code. Calgary to Maui in January:

With the 20% code applied

Without the code

You’ll also find this offer and many more on our Black Friday / Cyber Monday / Holiday Deals for 2020 page!

Save an extra 5% on Hotels .com bookings – over and above their up to 50% off Black Friday offer

 

The Hotels .com Black Friday sale has been in full effect for a week now but as of today they are offering additional savings on top of the up to 50% they are offering. Right now if you use promo code BFRWD5 you’ll get an additional 5% off any bookings made during the Black Friday sale.

Booking period: Until Nov 30, 20
Stay period valid Nov 23, 20 – Sep 12, 21

Book this offer here

You’ll also find this offer and many more on our Black Friday / Cyber Monday / Holiday Deals for 2020 page!

All images via Hotels.com

20% bonus on Fairmont gift cards for the next three hours! (Nov 27 2pm to 5pm EST)

This offer that we mentioned yesterday is now live! Fairmont's Black Friday flash sale provides a 20% bonus on all gift cards purchased between 2pm and 5pm EST.  You can buy gift cards in $50 increments from $50 to $2,000 per card and you can buy up to 5 cards in one transaction. Say you buy a $1,000 gift card you'll end up with $1,200 to spend at Fairmont Hotels. And as Ben S. commented on our Black Friday post for 40% off Fairmont stays it's a perfect time to combine the two for awesome savings.

Buy the Gift Cards here 

 

Here's what you should see in your cart with this offer:

 

 

November 27 Update: Aeroplan contest winners, 40,000 bonus Be Well points at Rexall and tell us your Mobile Device Insurance stories

 

Earlier this month we ran an awesome contest to celebrate the launch of the new Aeroplan program and wanted to thank everyone who entered the contest as well as to Aeroplan for the prizes! A big congratulations go out to each of the 25,000 points winners and this time the contest was swept by Ontario!