Canada Day! Mid-Term Report
Happy Canada Day!!
We are halfway through the year, which means our annual mid-term report on our New Year’s wish list. Below is my 2019 wish list for the rewards world and a blurb on the progress so far this year. The final report will be on New Year’s Eve.
Keep in mind that all wishes are generally a win/win/win scenario for everyone (rewards company, retailer and customer) involved in the transaction.
Here’s a quick recap of the grading system:
- A+ Exceeding expectations with nothing more to improve on (almost impossible to achieve this grade, but I listed it to put some perspective on the spectrum)
- A Awesome job
- B+ Good job
- B Decent, met expectations
- C Acceptable
- D Better than nothing
- E Nothing changed, no improvements
- F Fail, went backwards
1) Incentives to Retain Credit Cards
The Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite Card is currently offering a nice retention bonus where you can earn 10,000 Scotia Rewards bonus points after spending $40,000 in a calendar year, as well as 2,000 Scotia Rewards bonus points after every $10,000 in addition to the first $40,000 in a calendar year. That’s a very nice touch in terms of retention bonuses.
Grade: B+
2) More Co-Branded Airline and Hotel Loyalty Credit Cards
2017… 2018… halfway through 2019… (probably further back, really)… still nothing…
Grade: E
3) A Brand New Transferable Points Program
This wish item was triggered by the Capital One program in the United States, so why not in Canada as well? For now, still nothing. This was going to be a long shot in reality.
Grade: E
4) More Progress Towards High Speed Trains
A few days ago, there was an announcement that VIA Rail is going to receive funding to upgrade its system. This is definitely a positive time. It will probably be a long time before any construction is completed, but definitely a step in the right direction in my books!
Grade: B+
Conclusion
At the time, when I created this wish list, I felt that I lowered my expectations. I was really only hoping for one of the 4 items listed above to happen. Who would have though that 2 of them came true! This has been a great start to 2019 from my perspective.
Enjoy the rest of the day as the evening celebrations begin!
we got Scotia passport infinite last year as we were going to be doing a lot of travelling. It is a card aimed at travellers.In this first year we have had it blocked FOUR – 4!! – times due to travel related expenses. We didn’t even know until further expenses were denied. Scotia Visa said they informed us but they did not. I checked all phones and emails.After the first time we were blocked I phoned them, explained we were travelling and to where (was told we didn’t need to do that anymore but I told them I wanted them to know anyway). All four blocks were within a 4 month period. I even phoned them a week or so before we were due to leave to repeat the information that we were travelling and to where, explained that I would not have a phone or email for 6 weeks only to have the card blocked 10 days after we got on a cruise ship for items that were listed on the statement as “onboard expenses”. How is that not even obvious to Scotia Visa that a person is on a cruise ship – as they had been told? I had to spend one of my shore leave days contacting Visa instead of visiting the sights to get this put right and was then told I needed to phone back as the help desk didn’t have anyone senior enough to deal with it! I made enough of a fuss about that that I did not need to call back – nor could I have as the cruise ship with no internet was leaving that afternoon
That’s awesome! Thanks for sharing your experience with us!