Today’s post is inspired by an article on CBC that reported that Cineplex lost $98.9-million in the second quarter, which represents a 90% decrease in revenue. To further the woes, the previously announced Cineworld takeover is now scrapped.
You may notice that I put a lot of emphasis on Cineplex, as they control the largest percentage of movie goers in Canada, as well as offer a competitive loyalty program called Scene Rewards.
Another month, another short list. One offer coming due this list before we make it to the next list is the TD Cash Back card.
Keep in mind that this monthly post only includes temporary offers with higher than normal cash back offer. We have a list of ongoing offers in the Top Cash Back Credit Cards page with a more complete list.
Top no annual fee cash back credit card offers for August 2020
As travel is slowly opening up Marriott Bonvoy is launching its rest of the summer and fall promotions. More than likely, we will probably see more people focusing on road trips, rather than long haul flights. So this promotion is a great way to rack up more bonus points. The details are as follows:
Bonus offer runs from August 13, 2020 to October 18, 2020
In Canada, we are fortunate enough to have 3 credit card companies who have partnered up with Air Canada to offer co-branded credit cards. Since Air Canada has bought out Aeroplan, the plan, at the moment, is for all 3 companies to continue offering such cards, with some changes. The expectation is that the launch of these changes will occur on November 8, 2020, along with a host of other changes to the revamped Air Canada frequent flyer program.
See also: Preview of Top 3 Features of Air Canada’s Revamped Aeroplan Program
Today’s post will preview some of the changes that we can expect to see. Some details still need to worked out, so we will be watching closely.
Air Canada announced the features and benefits of its refreshed Aeroplan loyalty program, along with the additional benefits that come with TD, CIBC and American Express affiliated credit cards that will come into effect in November 8, 2020. We will be discussing the credit card benefits in another post.
In today’s post, I ranked my top 3 changes based on my level of excitement. You’ll also probably notice that it is probably also ranked as top current Aeroplan complaints.
A new month, a list new, but there are no changes from last month. Do note that some offers end sometime this month and the rest at the end of October.
Top Higher than Normal Sign Up Bonuses for August 2020
For the rest of the credit cards, I ranked the credit cards by the price of the annual fees (lowest to highest):
BMO Air Miles MasterCard
See also: COVID-19 Updates for our most up-to-date tracking.
Things have evolved quite a bit since March 2020 when the coronavirus lockdowns hit the travel industry. As time went on, airline and hotel program made adjustments to stay afloat. They also tried to make things more generous for customers, while trying to juggle their balance sheet.
Many people would argue that airlines would get government bailouts anyway, so all they really need to do is sit back and relax. Whether true or not, today’s post focuses on extensions given to member account balances. Several of those extensions have now expired, while some programs made some more permanent changes to their expiry policies.
I’ve held off writing this post for a while now because I am still a little shocked and sadden by the changes.
You may have read about the Capital One World Elite Aspire Travel MasterCard that was discontinued almost 3 years ago to new applicants. However, existing cardholders were allowed to keep their cards with the same features and benefits. At the time, I found that to be a very generous move by Capital One. I am proud to say that I kept the card all this time.
This month’s list has really trimmed down with CIBC now offering more permanent first year fee waived offers. Because of that, I have also taken off the ongoing first year fee waived offers as that list grew too long.
Keep in mind that we have an ongoingly updated Top Credit Cards pages. Here are some of the more relevant ones to this post:
Top Cash Back Credit Cards
Top Hybrid Credit Cards
Top Specialty Credit Cards
Aeroplan initially paused Aeroplan miles expiry until July 14, 2020. When that came to an end, a few days later, on July 20, 2020, Aeroplan announced that it will be expanding its expiry policy from 12 months to 18 months. Basically miles continue to stay active as long as there is an activity, i.e. earn or redeem.
Since we are this topic, here is a quick recap of their current policies due to the pandemic. Also note that we have a page that is continually updated found on the menu bar called COVID-19 Updates.