Points 9: The End of the Trail

I'm concluding my series of posts on travel rewards with a recap and a look at some of the best sites and blogs where you can go to learn more.

I was remiss in not including the Shoppers Drug Mart Optimum points program when I discussed Canadians' favourite points programs. Remiss, because it's my wife's favourite program. She likes the store and MBNA has a MasterCard that earns her Optimum points on all her purchases, extra when she uses it at Shoppers. Shoppers also has frequent bonus points days, usually on Saturdays. You redeem for discounts on purchases.

I mentioned Rewards Canada previously, but it's worth reiterating: this is the single best travel rewards site for Canadians. Especially useful are the charts and reviews comparing travel reward credit cards, and the comprehensive listings of bonus offers for airlines, hotels, and rental cars. Both are accessible from the right side of the home page.

A faithful blog reader reminded me that a nice feature of Priority Club was the ability to redeem for hotel rooms with a combination of points and cash. The same is true for Starwood Preferred Guest, though in practice, I've found that most Starwood properties don't offer this option. It can be a valuable way to both stretch your points and save you money, but you need to do the math to determine whether cash, points, or a combination is the best value. That brings us to the question of what is the value of a point? Fortunately, there's a blog that is dedicated to hotel loyalty programs called Loyalty Traveler, written by an American called Ric Garrido. He is extremely knowledgeable, and his analysis of the value of hotel programs and bonus offers is rigourous and complete. Not always applicable to Canadians, but there are none better at what he does.

There are a lot of aspects of point collecting that I haven't touched on, including mileage running. That involves finding the cheapest flight that offers the most points, usually through a combination of bonus offers and convoluted routing. Earning points is not the only goal of a mileage run, though. So is gaining elite status. Those who fly many thousands of miles a year enjoy perks such as upgrades and special treatment that frequent fliers find worthwhile. If you're interested in that aspect of travel rewards, there are two blogs, One Mile at a Time and View from the Wing, that cover the subject well. And I've also mentioned flyertalk before. This is a forum by and for frequent fliers and points junkies. You can find your airline or hotel program by jumping to the forum on Miles & Points.

Finally, on Thursday, October 7, the Toronto Star published a special section on travel rewards. In the search field, type "travel rewards" to find a list of the articles that appeared in the print version.

That concludes the series on points and miles. I'll keep my eye out for good deals and from time to time pull together the best ones in a post. Safe travels.