My 2022 Predictions for the Miles and Points World
Back in 2016, I began a tradition of trying to predict the travel / rewards market in Canada. The first year was rough, but it got better over the years. How did it go in 2021?
Author: Matt
Matt has been an avid points collector since 1992 (an elementary school student), when his dad signed up for the new (at the time) Air Miles program. Since then, Matt took a keen interest in learning how the miles and points world works. He quickly found out that there is a lot of value in leveraging miles and points to fund his passion for travelling.
Happy New Year! 2022 Wish List
Happy New Year Everyone!!
A new year means a new wish list. Note that we generally provide a mid-term report on Canada Day (July 1) and a final report on New Year’s Eve. To be fair, all wishes have the goal of being a win/win/win scenario for everyone: “loyalty company, credit card company and customer”. In some cases it is just win/win because one party is not involved; for example a credit card company who offers in-house loyalty program with the customer as the other party.
New Year’s Eve! Recap of 2021
As we close out 2021, we continue with our year-end series of grading our wish list from our first post of the year. This report card is a continuation from our yearly mid-term report back on Canada Day (July 1st of every year).
Merry Christmas from Pointshogger!
Over the years, during our Christmas Day post, we would provide shopping tips ahead of Boxing Day tomorrow. We’ve accumulated quite a bit of tips that you can refer to: 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019.
For this year, I would like to emphasis on online shopping, which has really taken off.
Bank of Montreal (BMO) | Brim Financial | HSBC | Laurentian Bank | Scotiabank | Toronto Dominion (TD)
Best Current First Year Fee Waived Cards for December 2021
TD had most of their promotion ending from last month’s list, but they ended up extending most of their offers to March 2022 (with some minor tweaks to the offer) or May 2022.
The Brim offer is coming to an end this month. Usually they extended it by 1 month at a time. This time around, they extended by a rare 2 months in one shot, so there is a chance this will really come to an end this time. Or maybe they will offer something different instead starting January. Either way, if you have been thinking about this card for a while now, as is as good a time as any to go for it.
Alterna Savings | American Express (AMEX) | Bank of Montreal (BMO) | Brim Financial | Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) | Canadian Tire | Capital One | Desjardins | Home Trust | HSBC | ICICI Bank | Laurentian Bank | Manulife | MBNA | Meridian | National Bank | Neo Financial | Plastk | President's Choice Financial (PC Financial) | Rogers Bank | Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) | Scotiabank | Simplii Financial | Tangerine | Toronto Dominion (TD) | Walmart Financial
Ranking the Credit Card Portfolios of Each Canadian Financial Institutions (updated December 21, 2021)
It has been just over a year since our last update (December 1, 2020) of the rankings list. The timing works well to update again this month, since we are coming to the end of the year. Now we get a snapshot of 2021, as we head into 2022.
Canadian Travel Advisory (Jokes Warning!)
SARCASM WARNING – I know it is not April 1, but there is already so much negativity out there, so I am going to have a little fun with this one and give my comedy career a try. So please don’t take this post seriously! I just hope that this puts a smile on your face by the end (even if you are just laughing AT me for how bad my jokes are)!
AIR MILES Reduces Number of Dream Miles Needed for Merchandise
As we approach the holiday period, AIR MILES is reducing the number of Dream Miles needed to redeem on over 500 merchandise rewards by at least 100 Miles each. Here is the fun part, the new rollback is NOT a limited-time offer and will be available to all AIR MILES collectors.
Aeroplan and Uber Canada Further Expanded Partnership
Air Canada and Uber have been expanding their partnership over the past 18 months; every few months, we see more features added. Effective today, December 15, 2021, Aeroplan members based in Canada will be able to earn Aeroplan points by linking their Aeroplan and Uber accounts.
Be sure to link Aeroplan and Uber accounts together to be able to earn Aeroplan miles with Uber. Below are the steps to get linked up:
Current 10% and Above Cash Back Offers for December 2021
There was only one change to this month’s list. Tangerine had their two 15% cash back offers extended to the end of January.
Keep in mind that we still have the Top Cash Back Credit Cards page, which includes permanent and temporary offers if you wish to see a more complete list of cards, not just cards that offer at least 10% cash back.
Note that we have split up the list into temporary (limited time) and permanent offers (indefinite, but can end any time without notice).