Airport lounge access membership has become synonymous with many premium and ultra premium credit cards in Canada. Whether it is the annual membership fee covered or covering the fee plus annual free visits, many cards have this benefit to make your travels a little better. But did you know even with those free or paid visits from your credit card you can be earning points at Plaza Premium Lounges towards future free visits, lounge benefits, merchandise and more? That’s the topic for this Loyalty Lesson.
Plaza Premium Lounges
Plaza Premium is an airport lounge operator with over 250 lounges around the globe. They are the largest independent lounge operator in Canada with 14 lounges in Edmonton, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Winnipeg. These lounges are open to all who want to access them – that is you don’t have to be flying business or first class, although some airlines such British Airways do utilize Plaza Premium lounges for their premium customers.
Recommended reading: Rewards Canada’s Business Class Lounge Reviews
You can access the lounges by paying the walk up fee, pre-booking a single lounge visit or by using Plaza Premium multi-visit passes. The most popular option however comes from credit card lounge access memberships which in Canada are American Express Global Lounge Collection, Mastercard TravelPass by DragonPass, and Visa Airport Companion powered by DragonPass.
Recommended reading: Rewards Canada’s Guide to Business Class Lounge Access
The Plaza Premium Smart Traveller program
What many travellers are unaware of is that Plaza Premium has their own loyalty program called Smart Traveller. And the beauty in this free program is members can earn Arrture points for each lounge visit even if you access it for free from your credit card! No matter which method you use to access a lounge, paying a fee, credit card pass, flying business class with an airline that uses the lounges and and so on, you’ll be able to earn Arrture points. You might be wondering where did the name Arrture come from? That was the name of the program up until a few years ago after which it was renamed Smart Traveller a few years ago.
Joining the program
All you have to do is sign up for the program (it is free to join) and then download the Smart Traveller app onto your mobile device, log in, and then start collecting your points!
Earning Arrture Points
Earning Arrture Points with the Smart Traveller is easy. The points are earned when you visit a participating Plaza Premium Lounge and show your Smart Traveller card when checking in to the lounge. They do state it can take up to 6 weeks for the points to post to your account.
January 21 update: Thanks to our long time reader Aselwyn1 for alerting us to Priority Pass entries no longer counting towards to points earning
Points are awarded as follows for lounge visits:
Plaza Premium Lounge (Updated Janaury 21, 2024)
100 Arrture Points for entry via airline invitations, corporate vouchers, credit card entitlements and selected lounge aggregators (excluding Priority Pass)
100 Arrture Points for any Complimentary Entry (via credit cards, airline invitation, travel passes, corporate, etc.).
150 Arrture Points for Paid Entry (via Online Booking or Walk-in).
Except for Walk-in Paid Entry using Smart Traveller member’s discount, points earning are not valid and points will not be issued with any other promotion, discount, and/or entries using gift cards or vouchers.
Plaza Premium First (Updated Janaury 21, 2024)
150 Arrture Points for entry via airline invitations, corporate vouchers, credit card entitlements and selected lounge aggregators (excluding Priority Pass)
150 Arrture Points for any Complimentary Entry (via credit cards, airline invitation, travel passes, corporate, etc.).
300 Arrture Points for Paid Entry (via Online Booking or Walk-in).
Except for Walk-in Paid Entry using Smart Traveller member’s discount, points earning are not valid and points will not be issued with any other promotion, discount, and/or entries using gift cards or vouchers.
The bolding and italicizing of “via credit cards” is mine
You’ll notice the key point to earning points is that you can earn 100 to 150 point per complimentary entry when using the lounge access from your credit card which is the focus here since it the primary method Canadians use to access these lounges. So if you are accessing the lounge with your Platinum Card from American Express where you don’t ever pay a fee to enter, you’ll still earn these points!
It is also good to note how you can earn points on all the other entry methods as well. Here in Canada we don’t have Plaza Premium First lounges so you can expect to earn 100 to 150 points at any of the 14 locations.
Birthday Bonus: If you have your date of birth in your Smart Traveller profile you will earn double points on all eligible lounge and dining transactions during your birthday month.
Earning additional points
The program doesn’t stop at awarding points for lounge visits. You can also earn points when dining at Plaza Premium’s airport dining partners. Currently in Canada there is only one which is Room98 in the arrivals area at the Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport. As well you can earn points when buying Plaza Premium multi visit lounge passes, staying at Plaza Premium’s in airport Aerotel Hotels and more.
Click here to see all the Smart Traveller partners where you can earn Arrture points.
Redeeming Points
So what can you get with the points you earn from visiting the lounges and other earning options? Lot’s of things! You can redeem your points for lounge visits, lounge shower packages, premium drinks, gift cards, merchandise, and more.
Free lounge visits around the world range from 1,800 to 4,200 points with all the Canadian lounges requiring 2,800 points. That’s a lot of lounge visits you need to make to be able to earn one free lounge visit but there are other options that don’t require as many points.
One option is to redeem 1,500 points for a lounge shower package to use at Plaza Premium Lounges globally that have shower options.
If you are traveling out of or via Toronto you can redeem for a Premium Drink with 600 points:
There are also e-gift cards from Best Buy, H&M, Home Depot, Ikea, Walmart and more.
Click here to see all the Smart Traveller Redemption options
Wrapping it up
The rewards may take quite a few lounge visits to achieve (unless you are earning with their other partners) but no matter what if you are visiting these lounges you might as well be getting something back for doing so! There is no cost to join Smart Traveller and with Plaza Premium being so prevalent in Canada and in many major cities around the world you really should join the program.
Feel free to use Rewards Canada author David M’s referral code when joining: RH9UI
Click here to learn more about and to join the Smart Traveller program
Rewards Canada’s recommended cards for free lounge visits:
- Platinum Card from American Express – Unlimited free visits for the cardmember + Spouse and 2 children or one guest
- Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite Card – 6 free visits annually
- CIBC Aventura Visa Infinite Card – 4 free visits annually
- TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege Card – 6 free visits annually
Want to learn more? Have a question? Join our Facebook group to ask the Rewards Canada community!
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Title image via Dee/Rewards Canada