March 18 Update: Instacart now coding properly for 5x points with Amex Cobalt Card, Centurion Lounges shutting down temporarily & 2x RBC Rewards points when converting Hudson’s Bay Rewards points

Rewards Canada Team Uncategorized

Remember to visit and bookmark our COVID-19 resource page
where we are keeping you up to date with all the latest airline, hotel,
lounges and loyalty program news, policies, closures and more.

And on the note of closures it has been announced that all American Express Centurion lounges
worldwide will shut down temporarily as of March 21. So if you are
still trying to make your way back to Canada and its after that date you
can count on not accessing those lounges. (HT One Mile at a Time)

Rewards Canada reader Titaniumtux let us know that American Express
has fixed the coding for Instacart, the grocery delivery service. No
longer is it coding as 1x but now it is 5x points! The timing couldn’t
be better seeing that is really the only thing most people will be
buying right now. Check out our confirmed Cobalt multipliers page right here.

Image via Instacart

Rewards Canada reader Amy let us know that RBC makes you wait 90 days between applications for any of their credit cards – that puts a wrench into our post on How to score 700 WestJet dollars for 240,
not that people are really interested in travel rewards in the short
term but still many of us will go to a hoarding stance until things
return to normal so you may still want to take a look at this offer as
there are very good chance one or both of the cards in the article will
have their offers extended past March 31.

Now to some bonus offers and I’ll reiterate what I stated on our global bonus offers site FrequentFlyerBonuses.com
and I’ll do the same thing here on Rewards Canada. I’m not going to
post any short term offers unless they make sense to like More Rewards
Pile on the Points promotion. All offers I’ll post will be more forward
looking beyond mid-April when hopefully things start to return to normal
here in Canada and globally. Here is what I have been posting on FFB:

In light of global events and a major slow down it travel we here
at FFB will continue with our mission of delivering frequent traveller
promotions to our audience but with some limitations. We will not be
posting offers that end in the short term – that is for March and the
first half of April. We will post offers that go beyond that or if it is
a short term one, it will be one that doesn’t require travel such as
free points for some sort of non-travel action, elite status matches or
other promotions like that.

 

Japan Airlines Mileage Bank has a 10% bonus for transferring Marriott Bonvoy points until May 10. Learn more about that bonus here.
Marriott Bonvoy points convert to JAL Mileage Bank miles at a 3:1
ratio and Marriott kicks in an additional 5,000 miles when you convert
60,000 points at once. That means 60,000 Bonvoy Points will get you
25,000 Mileage Bank Miles and this promotion will give you an additional
2,500 miles on top of that for a total of 27,500 miles per 60,000
points. Learn more about converting Marriott Points to Airline Miles here.

These are really the promotions to watch out for right now since travel is almost non-existent. 
JAL has some reward chart sweet spots in their program including the
ability to ‘renew’ status for only 5,000 miles when you are part of
JAL’s Global Club. A promotion like this will let you start getting
ready for those future redemptions when the world returns to normal.

Image via JAL

RBC Rewards is offering 2x points when you choose to
auto-convert Hudson’s Bay Rewards points until April 20. Now Hudson’s
Bay has closed all their stores but you should be able to set
auto-convert on existing balances and you can still shop online with
Hudson’s Bay and earn Hudson’s Bay Rewards points. Beauty of this is
that you can go through an online shopping portal like Rakuten, Aeroplan
eStore or airmilesshops.ca to earn in those programs, then earn the
Hudson’s Bay Rewards points from the Hudson’s Bay purchase and then of
course this RBC bonus! Find out more here!

Image via RBC

Posts since our last update:

Canadian Bonus Offers

Air Canada Aeroplan

– Triple Aeroplan Miles when you stay at Coast Hotels in Canada and the U.S.. More… Apr 13 – Jun 30, 20

Other Bonus Offers

ALL Accor Live Limitless

– 2,000 bonus Rewards points when you complete two stays at participating Accor Hotels Worldwide. More… Register and book by May 4 for stays until Sep 30, 20

Choice Privileges

– 13,000 Bonus Privileges Points when you book 5 nights or more at a vacation rental on ChoiceVacationRentals.com. More… Book by May 31, 20 for stays until Dec 31, 21

JAL Mileage Bank

– 10% Bonus Mileage Bank Miles when you convert Marriott Bonvoy Points to JAL Mileage Bank Miles. More… Until May 10, 20

Marriott Bonvoy

– Earn up to 5,000 Bonus Bonvoy Points for stays at more than 30 Marriott hotels in the Dallas area. More… Apr 1 – Jun 24, 20

World of Hyatt

– Instant World of Hyatt Explorist status and fast track to keep that Explorist or reach Globalist status. More… Register by Nov 16, 20

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