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.
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Best Current First Year Fee Waived Cards for August 2020

ByMatt

Some minor changes to this month’s list. HSBC cards have been taken off as they expired a week ago or so. The TD cards are next up. They will not make it to next month’s list. So if you are thinking about those cards, I would go for them. While Brim extended their offer another month, so you have a few more days left to take advantage. 

Keep in mind that this post refers to temporary offers. We also have an ongoingly updated Top Credit Cards pages that includes permanent first year fee waived offers too. Here are some of the more relevant ones that are more related to this post:

Air Miles Partners with Spotify, Nintendo, Xbox, PlayStation and More

ByMatt

The Air Miles reward program announced the addition of several new partners. Below are some of the details of each new partnership.

Spotify

Air Miles collectors now have access to Spotify, a digital music service that allows members to access thousands of songs using Cash Miles, in denominations of $10.

Will Movie Theatres Ever be the Same?

ByMatt

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.

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Top Cash Back Credit Card Offers for August 2020

ByMatt

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

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Marriott Bonvoy’s Lucrative Summer and Fall Promotion

ByMatt

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

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Changes to Aeroplan Co-Branded Cards

ByMatt

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. 

Preview of Top 3 Features of Air Canada’s Revamped Aeroplan Program

ByMatt

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.

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Top Credit Card Higher than Normal Sign Up Bonuses for August 2020

ByMatt

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

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Current Frequent Flyer Miles and Hotel Points Expiry Extensions

ByMatt

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.