As you may already know, I am a big fan of trains and it is by far my favourite way to travel. Especially in Canada! Unfortunately, there is limited news that I can write about in Canada as VIA Rail has a fairly stable product and rarely do they shake things up, aside from last year’s Unlimited Pass for only $150 that sold out in less than a day.
A Pointshogger reader alerted us today that American Express Canada has revamped its Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card, one day after the Marriott unification announcement. The major change is the elimination of the 20,000 sign up bonus points and changed into a statement credit instead.
Marriott International announced, today, that it will introduce one set of unified benefits across Marriott Rewards, Ritz-Carlton Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest for its members that will come into effect in August 2018.
Personally, I am very excited by what they have to offer. I think that they found a way to merge many of the good aspects of all 3 programs. It’s not perfect, but it does offer a lot of value.
Not much has changed this past month in the cash back scene.
Keep in mind that we also have an going Top Cash Back Credit Cards page which consists of permanent and temporary offers, while this post focuses on temporary offers only.
Note that we also have two other types of recent monthly lists going on:
As Air Canada continues to phase out Aeroplan, they are putting more emphasis on creating their own loyalty program. Air Canada already has an elite qualifying program called Altitude. Some changes were made to their earning options in their Economy fare pricing. Some of the highlights are as follows:
Canadian Tire’s loyalty program, Canadian Tire Money, is introducing Triangle Rewards, a free loyalty and credit card program. Triangle Rewards is a loyalty program that allows you to collect and redeem Canadian Tire Money at Canadian Tire Corporation retailers, including:
Canadian Tire
Sport Chek
Gas+
CIBC has been running a Mexico Contest where you can qualify to win flights for two to Mexico by loading your Air Canada AC Conversion Visa Prepaid Card with at least $100 of foreign currency.
This contest ran from February 26, 2018 to April 8, 2018. The prize is an Air Canada travel promo code for economy class travel for two to a city in Mexico serviced by Air Canada Odds of winning depend on number of eligible entries received.
Quite a few credit cards has promotions that expired compared to last month’s list, so we have a much less impressive list this month. Note that we also have two other types of monthly lists going on: Top Cash Back…
It has been over a year since this post was lasted updated. With some changes to their airline partners and an upgrade to the co-branded RBC credit card, this post is due for an update.
Expiry Policy
First of all, one change that I was hoping for has yet to occur. The expiry policy for Asia Miles continues to be 36 months after your miles are deposited. This means that you need to redeem your miles within 36 months of being deposited unless the member pays $40 USD for every 2,000 miles to renew for another 3 years. That means, you will be paying 2 cents for every mile that you want to renew. Not worth it to me.
Scotiabank has decided to jump into the foreign transaction fee competition that seems to be heating up in Canada.
Last month, the new Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite Card was launching. Below are the highlights of the credit card: