June 20 Update: Qantas revamps their Frequent Flyer program, Azore Airlines now codeshares on WestJet flights & more

Australia's Qantas announced a revamp of their Frequent Flyer program today. As it is not a major player in our market (they do serve Vancouver) we won't go into huge detail on the changes but here is an overview of what is happening:

• More award seat availability - adding more than 1,000,000 seats on Qantas and new partner airlines
• Carrier surcharges to be reduced by up to 50% on international flights
• Up to a 10% reduction in points for international economy classic flight reward seats
• Up to a 15% increase in points for domestic and international premium cabins
• More partners to earn and redeem on including Air New Zealand, Air France, KLM and more
• Lifetime Platinum Status to be launched and awarded to those who have earned 75,000 status credits

Overall there are some bright spots - a program actually reducing the amount of points required for economy class awards is a good move along with reducing the unpopular carrier surcharges on awards is a step in the right direction. Hopefully this is what we see happen to the new Air Canada Aeroplan program that is slated to come in 2020! The increase for premium seats is unfortuntaley an unwelcome devaluation. The reduction in econonmy class awards and surcharges take place right away while the increase in premium cabins will kick in on September 18. You can learn more about the changes here.

Here is an unexpected partnership - Azore Airlines now codeshares on WestJet flights out of Toronto to most major Canadian cities. Azore Airlines does serve Torontoso this will allow for easier connections to major Canadian cities. Now we just need to see if WestJet will add their code to the Azores Airlines flight! (Source Routesonline)

Posts since our last update:

• 35% Bonus Aeroplan Miles when you convert Marriott Bonvoy points until June 26
  Aeroplan is pretty famous for their hotel transfer bonus promotions - we get to see them several times per…
• Details on the newly launched MBNA Amazon.ca Rewards Mastercard
   MBNA (and parent company TD) along with Amazon announced today the launch of a new Amazon.ca Rewards Mastercard. You may…
• Earn your share of 10 million bonus Aeroplan Miles when you book Air Canada flights by June 23
  Air Canada Aeroplan's summer booking bonus has returned for another year! This is the bonus offer where they will…
• Marriott Bonvoy’s summer promotion is here – earn 1,500 bonus points for each stay of 2+ nights
  Marriott has finally revealed their summer global systemwide promotion entitled Endless Earning. With this promotion all members can earn…

Travel Deals

Enjoy up to a 100EUR daily hotel credit for stays at participating Marriott Hotels & Resorts in Europe! Book by Aug 25 for stays until Sep 14, 2019. Find out more here.

IHG Global Sale! Book now and save up to 20% at thousands of IHG® Hotels & Resorts worldwide when you book between now and July 31st.! Full details

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

Hilton Honors
- 5,000 Bonus Honors points when you stay at least two nights at participating Waldorf Astoria™ or Conrad® hotels & resorts. More... Targeted offer - may not work for everyone Until Dec 31, 20
Marriott Bonvoy
- Earn 1,500 Bonus Bonvoy Points on all stays of 2 or more nights at over 7,000 Marriott Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. More... Register by Sep 2 for stays Jul 2 – Sep 16, 19

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- 30% KrisFlyer Miles redemption discount on selected destinations across the Singapore Airlines and SilkAir network. More... Book by Jun 30 for travel Jul 1 - 31, 19

Stash Hotel Rewards
- Double Stash Rewards Points for stays at The Carmen Hotel Playa del Carmen More... Until Jul 31, 19



Follow Rewards Canada:

---

35% Bonus Aeroplan Miles when you convert Marriott Bonvoy points until June 26

Aeroplan is pretty famous for their hotel transfer bonus promotions - we get to see them several times per year and now we have bonus one! Aeroplan has launched a week long hotel transfer bonus but this time it is only for transfers from one chain - Marriott Bonvoy. From today to June 26 when you convert Marriott Bonvoy points to Aeroplan you'll receive a 35% bonus. If there is any hotel program to transfer points from it is Marriott and if there is a specific time to do it, it is now. In the revamp of Marriott's program after taking over Starwood Preferred Guest they did retain one of the most beloved features of the now extinct SPG program and that is its transfer ratio to airline programs. They also kept the much loved bonus of 5,000 extra miles when you converted enough points equal 20,000 miles. That means, in this case, for every 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points you convert Marriott will throw in an additional 5,000 miles. Seeing that Marriott points transfer to Aeroplan 3:1, those 60,000 points net you 25,000 Aeroplan miles. Then you'll get the 35% bonus on top of that as well for a total of 33,750 Aeroplan miles. Remember you only have until June 26 to make the transfer and receive the bonus.

Click here for complete details of this 35% transfer bonus!

Here are some transfer examples provided by Aeroplan:

Looking to earn even more Aeroplan miles? Check out our Aeroplan Bonus Mile opportunities page. Here just some of the offers you'll find:

• Earn up to 50% Bonus Aeroplan Miles when you complete stays at IHG Hotels Worldwide. Full details and online booking
• 1,500 Bonus Aeroplan Miles on qualifying Avis rentals Worldwide of 3 days or more during the week, or 2 days or more during the weekend. Book online at Avis.com 
• Earn up to 25,000 Aeroplan® Miles (that's the equivalent to1 long-haul roundtrip flight reward). Plus get a 1st year Annual Fee rebate for the Primary Cardholder with the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card

Details on the newly launched MBNA Amazon.ca Rewards Mastercard

 MBNA (and parent company TD) along with Amazon announced today the launch of a new Amazon.ca Rewards Mastercard. You may remember there used to be an Amazon.ca co-brand credit card up until early 2018. That old card, a Visa, was issued by Chase Bank (who have now left the Canadian market) and was very popular thanks to its no annual fee combined with no foreign exchange fee.

It is exciting to see the return of an Amazon card but the questions many will ask is "how does it compare to it's yesteryear option"  Let's start by looking  the main details of the new Amazon.ca Rewards Mastercard:

• For the first six months after your Amazon.ca Rewards Mastercard account is opened, you will receive 5% back on eligible purchases at Amazon.ca, Whole Foods Market stores in Canada and at grocery stores or restaurants in Canada, until $3,000 in such purchases have been made.
• 2.5% back on eligible purchases at Amazon.ca, Whole Foods Market in Canada and on foreign currency purchases, with an eligible Prime membership
• Otherwise 1.5% back at Amazon.ca and Whole Foods Market in Canada
• 1% back on all other purchases
• No annual credit card fee
• No annual points caps and no expiration date for points
• Every 2,000 points earned are automatically redeemed as a $20 Amazon.ca Gift Card that can be applied on millions of items when shopping at Amazon.ca
• Protection benefits include 90-day purchase assurance coverage, extended warranty and trip interruption coverage
• Mastercard contactless-enabled for a frictionless checkout – simply tap your card at participating merchants in millions of locations across the globe to process payments securely 

Right off the bat you see the card has a pretty decent sign up bonus and and then you'll see it has a pretty good return - if you are an Amazon Prime member. The 5% back for the first $3,000 in spending ($150 return) is good sign up bonus for a no annual fee cash back card. The 5% is limited to Amazon, Whole Foods, and for Grocery Store and restaurant purchases in Canada so for most it should be no problem hitting $3,000 in 6 months to earn the full $150.

You can also tell in development of this card by MBNA, TD and Amazon that they really wanted to focus the card on Amazon purchases. Not many cards will give you a 2.5% return on Amazon.ca purchases (at least directly with Amazon, there are workarounds like buying Amazon gift cards at grocery stores to earn up to 5% back with other cards) The card with the sort of return will definitely be popular with the Amazon Prime members who are frequent Amazon purchasers. Next the card also earns the 2.5% back on Whole Foods purchases. This is a specific benefit to those living in the Toronto and Vancouver primarily as Whole Foods only has 14 stores in Canada of which 12 are in those two city regions. Of course now we get to the big question, what about the foreign transaction fee. Well the card charges a 2.5% foreign transaction fee and rewards you with 2.5% in rewards on foreign currency purchases so it is a wash. If the No FX fee is your prime goal than you are better offer with other cards in our market that don't charge the fee and still reward you over and above that. See our feature No Foreign Transaction Fee Credit Cards for Canadians for complete details on those cards! And let me remind you the one big caveat to this entire paragraph - those earn rates are only available to Amazon Prime members. Not a Prime Member? You'll get 1.5% back on Amazon.ca purchases and Whole Foods purchases in Canada.  All other purchases on both cards will earn 1%. All of this is with no annual fee. 


All those returns are detailed as percentage but you are actually awarded points and when you reach 2,000 points it will automatically be redeemed for a $20 Amazon.ca Gift Card. That means I would classify this card as a retail cash back card since in the end you are getting cash back but that cash back can only be used at one retailer, Amazon. Again you see how specific this card is as you can only get rewarded at Amazon, not that it is bad thing, that's what co-brand cards are meant to be but unless you are a major, almost full time user of Amazon.ca you are likely better off with other cards in our market that don't limit your high earn to one or two retailers and limit your rewards to only one place. The old card worked well since the 2,000 points earned automatically became a $20 statement credit so it was in fact a true cash back card.

As you can see Amazon et al. have narrowed the focus of who they want using the card. The higher earn for Prime Members, the Amazon.ca gift card reward and elimination of the foreign transaction fee really limits this card's audience to heavy Amazon users. Not a heavy Amazon user? You have a lot of better options out there for you. 

Learn more about the Amazon.ca Rewards Mastercard here!

Earn your share of 10 million bonus Aeroplan Miles when you book Air Canada flights by June 23

Air Canada Aeroplan's summer booking bonus has returned for another year! This is the bonus offer where they will award each person who books with the listed promo code their equal share of 10,000,000 Aeroplan miles. That means if 10,000 people book flights with the code each person will receive 1,000 bonus Aeroplan Miles. No matter what, each member you will receive a minimum of 500 bonus miles with this promotion even if the booking numbers exceed the equivalent of 10 million miles. As is usual with Air Canada promotions this bonus is only available on new bookings (made June 17 or later), uses the promo code and is only available to the first member on a booking - that means if you want a family of four to each earn the bonus you'd have to make separate reservations for all four people.

This bonus offer is available for bookings until June 23 using the promo code SUMMERSPLASH2019 and is good for all Air Canada travel until September 30.

Click here to learn more about this offer!

Marriott Bonvoy’s summer promotion is here – earn 1,500 bonus points for each stay of 2+ nights

Marriott has finally revealed their summer global systemwide promotion entitled Endless Earning. With this promotion all members can earn 1,500 bonus points on every stay of 2+ nights at all of Marriott’s hotels worldwide. Unlike the last promotion this offer kicks on right on the first stay, that is if that stay is at least 2 consecutive nights.

Offer details:
Earn 1,500 Bonus Bonvoy Points on all stays of 2 or more nights at over 7,000 Marriott Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. Full details, online registration and booking. (Registration is required) Register by Sep 2 for stays Jul 2 – Sep 16, 19

Find many more Marriott Bonvoy bonus points offers here!

Image via Marriott

June 17 Update: Further update to our revised Cash Back Credit Card Comparison chart, Earn up to a 100EUR daily credit with Marriott's in Europe & more!

Earlier today we let you know that we finally revamped our Cash Back Credit Card comparison chart. As with the revamp of our travel credit card charts earlier in the year the tables were sortable but the headers weren't locked so that when you scrolled the table you couldn't see what each column represented if you went too far down. I'm happy to say we have figiured out how to lock the headers so now you can continually see what each column represents! I'll slowly implement this change to our travel credit card charts as well! You can view the revised Cash Back Chart here.

Posts since our last update:

• We reveal an updated look and feel to Rewards Canada's Cash Back Comparison Charts!
  You may recall that back in January we revealed the first major revamp to our credit card comparison charts…
• Earn 60 Bonus AIR MILES Reward Miles on your next Best Western stay
  Best Western and AIR MILES also have another bonus miles offer out now and unlike the Aeroplan offer we…
• June 14 Update: Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge Express opens up in YYZ and 15% off all Air Canada flights for today only!
  Air Canada has opened up their first Maple Leaf Lounge Express in Toronto Pearson's Terminal 1 U.S. departures area.…

Travel Deals

Enjoy up to a 100EUR daily hotel credit for stays at participating Marriott Hotels & Resorts in Europe! Book by Aug 25 for stays until Sep 14, 2019. Find out more here.

IHG Global Sale! Book now and save up to 20% at thousands of IHG® Hotels & Resorts worldwide when you book between now and July 31st.! Full details

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 MILES (Canada)
- 60 Bonus AIR MILES Reward Miles for each stay you complete at Best Western Hotels in Canada, the U.S. or Caribbean.  More... Until Aug 31, 19

Other Bonus Offers

British Airways Executive Club
- 500 Bonus Avios when you rent an Avis car in South Africa for 3 days or more. More... Book by Jun 30 for rentals until Aug 31, 19

Le Club AccorHotels
- Earn up to Triple Le Club AccorHotels Points for stays at Accor Hotels in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and French Polynesia More... Book by Jun 30 for stays until Aug 30, 19

Marriott Bonvoy
- 1,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points per night when you stay 2 or more nights at the Aloft Harlem. More... Until Aug 8, 19
- 2,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points per night for stays at the The Jacquard, Autograph Collection Denver. More... Until Jul 31, 19
- 3,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points for stays on the Suite Dreams package at the Westin Resort, Costa Navarino. More... Until Jul 31, 19

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 Oct 31, 19



Follow Rewards Canada:

---

We reveal an updated look and feel to Rewards Canada's Cash Back Comparison Charts!

You may recall that back in January we revealed the first major revamp to our credit card comparison charts in 15 years. At that time we updated the look and format for all the personal travel rewards credit card comparisons. That left the Cash Back and Business/Corporate charts in our old format and awaiting an update. Today marks another big day as we have now updated the Cash Back Comparison Chart to the new look and format! 


View the updated Cash Back Credit Card Comparison Chart here!

The charts now read much better with the information being set up left to right rather than up and down and the columns are sortable! There have also been more cards added than were featured previously. We have to thank our reader James M. for telling us about the Javascript that allowed us to add this feature. We are not programmers by trade so it took a little bit of time to figure how to work it! We still are in the process of trying to figure out how to lock the table header in place so that you can see it no matter where you scroll in the charts and hope to have that feature soon.

Here are the links to all the charts that have now seen the update:

• Canadian Travel Credit Card Comparison: All Travel Rewards Credit Cards  
• Canadian Travel Credit Card Comparison: Most Popular Cards
• Canadian Travel Credit Card Comparison: Travel Points Credit Cards 
• Canadian Travel Credit Card Comparison: Hybrid Credit Cards 
• Canadian Travel Credit Card Comparison: Airline Credit Cards  
• Canadian Travel Credit Card Comparison: Hotel Credit Cards 
• Canadian Credit Card Comparison: Cashback Credit Cards

 The following chart will be updated over the next few months as well to the new format:

• Canadian Travel Credit Card Comparison: Business / Corporate Credit Cards 

Let us know what you think of the new chart in the comments below! If you find any mistakes or items that need updated please let us know as well! And if you are Javascript/CSS/HTML knowledgeable and know how to lock the headers please feel free to contact us as well to speed up the process!

Earn 60 Bonus AIR MILES Reward Miles on your next Best Western stay

Best Western and AIR MILES also have another bonus miles offer out now and unlike the Aeroplan offer we brought you earlier today, this one time bonus is better than the current summer AIR MILES offer.

Offer details:
60 Bonus AIR MILES Reward Miles for each stay you complete at Best Western Hotels in Canada, the U.S. or Caribbean.  Full details, online registration and booking (Registration is required) Until Aug 31, 19

Can’t make use of this offer? Here are some other offers that might work for you!

• Double AIR MILES Reward Miles when you complete stays at IHG Hotels Worldwide. Full details, online registration and booking (Registration is required)
• BMO AIR MILES World Elite Mastercard
  Welcome offer: Get up to 3,000 AIR MILES Bonus Miles and we’ll waive the $120 annual fee for the first year*.

Find many more AIR MILES bonus miles offer here!