Points and Miles: May

I don't know whether you've noticed or not, but it seems that over the last six months or so, points and miles offers, especially from hotel chains have become less lucrative.

One possible explanation for this is that the improving American economy (yes, it really is improving, at least for businesses) has resulted in lower hotel vacancy rates, and thus higher room rates, meaning less need for the chains to offer incentives to fill otherwise empty rooms.

As for airlines, competition has been reduced by mergers (Delta took over Northwest, United merged with Continental, Southwest bought AirTran), and the carriers have been cutting routes and retiring older, less fuel-efficient planes in response to high oil prices. This has meant fewer seats to fill, and combined with the improved business climate, less need to entice fliers.

On the credit card front, credit has gotten tighter, not just in the U.S., but in Canada as well; and reduced competition (BMO took over Citi's Canadian credit card portfolio and TD acquired MBNA's) has meant that rejections are more common, annual fees higher, and sign-up bonuses more meagre.

Throw in the fact that both Aeroplan and AirMiles, Canada's two most popular "loyalty" programs, recently devalued their programs and it looks like the glory days of point and mile travel bargains are behind us.

This may partly explain the current popularity of such "buy-a-deal" sites as WagJag and Groupon, but pitfalls abound with these deals, so buyer beware.

Anyway, points and miles programs aren't going away: they're hugely profitable for one thing. It just means we have to work harder and smarter to get the best value from them. So here are a few good offers for this month.

The Choice Privileges MasterCard usually offers a sign-up bonus of 8K points, but until June 13, you'll get 16K. That's enough for two free nights at many Choice Hotels. All the details are here.

Starwood Hotels (Sheraton, Westin, etc.) is offering CAA/AAA members a range of discounts and special offers at properties in the southern U.S. and Caribbean through the end of 2012. Check them out here.

And for Aeroplan members, earn either a 1500 mile or 16 500 mile bonus when you complete a range of partner activities during the month of May. You have a head start if you have an Aeroplan-branded credit card and/or are flying Air Canada during the month. This page will tell you what you need to know. I love this one, because it's a challenge to see how I can maximize my activities with a minimum of spending.

I'll let you know how I did when the points post.

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Points and Miles: April

I held off publishing the monthly points and miles post last week because, with the first quarter just ended and Easter weekend approaching, most of the major chains and airlines had yet to announce their second quarter promotions.

While that's still partly true, here are the best offers to surface so far. I've listed the name of the hotel chain, its loyalty program and principal brands, followed by the current bonus offers. Click on the name of the loyalty program to sign up if you're not already a member, and click on the links to register for the offers.

Best Western Best Western Rewards:

• Stay three separate times before June 3, and get a $50 Best Western gift card. Aeroplan members also earn 4X Aeroplan miles. Register here.
  

Choice Hotels Choice Privileges: Comfort Inn, Quality, EconoLodge, Clarion, Rodeway.

• Until May 8, earn enough points with two stays for a free night at any of more than 1,500 hotels in the Choice chain. If you're not a Choice Privileges member, you can join at the same time you register for the promotion.
  

Hilton, Hilton HHonors: Hilton, DoubleTree, Embassy Suites, Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton Inn, Homewood Suites.

• Register to earn double points or double miles for stays before June 30.
  

Intercontinental Hotels Group, Priority Club Rewards: Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites, Candlewood Suites.

• Buy or give Priority Club Rewards points by April 30 and receive up to 50% bonus points. Canadian residents must pay HST on purchases. See this post by The Loyalty Traveler for where the "sweet spots" are for getting the best value.
  

Petro-Canada Petro-Points

• You can donate your Petro-Points to the Canadian Cancer Society to help fight cancer.
  

VIA Rail VIA Préférence

• Seat Sale until April 17. 50% off economy class. Good for travel until August 29.

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Points and Miles: March

I didn't post anything on points and miles for February. The middle month of a quarter generally doesn't have much new happening and I had just returned from Florida and was posting about that. But things are beginning to heat up as we head into spring, so here are some offers you can use if you have a March break coming up.

Aeroplan

• Until April 30, when you link your Costco and Aeroplan numbers, you'll earn 50 bonus Aeroplan miles.
• Earn double Aeroplan miles at Esso stations. Until April 9.

Best Western Rewards: Best Western, Best Western Plus, Best Western Premier.

• Stay three separate times before April 8 and earn a free night plus 1000 Aeroplan miles. Register here.

Club Carlson: Radisson, Country Inns & Suites, Park Inn, Park Plaza.

• Until March 16, earn triple Club Carlson points on every stay, including food and beverage charges.
• Save up to 25% and earn 1500 bonus Club Carlson points per day with this offer from National Car Rental. Until June 15.

Hilton HHonors: Hilton, DoubleTree, Embassy Suites, Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton Inn, Homewood Suites.

• Register to earn a bonus of 1000 points per night or 5000 points per weekend. Valid until March 31.
• Hilton HHonors is unique in that you can set your earning preference to "double-dip": points plus points, or points plus miles in the airline program of your choice. Choose Delta SkyMiles and get 2012 bonus miles with any two-night stay. Choose American Airlines AAdvantage and earn double miles for any stay or US Airways and get triple Dividend Miles. All offers expire March 31.

Priority Club Rewards: Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites, Candlewood Suites.

• See the lists of bonus codes at these sites: Priority Club Insider,Rewards Canada, and flyertalk.
• Get up to 35% off a Hertz rental and earn double Priority Club points with these codes. Valid until June 30.
• Until April 30, earn double points on every qualifying stay, beginning with the second one. See the tip at the bottom of this post for a strategy to maximize this offer.

Starwood Preferred Guest: Sheraton, Four Points, Westin, W, Le Meridien, Aloft, Element, St. Regis.

• Through April 8, register here to earn a bonus of twice the Starpoints for stays of two nights, triple points for stays of three nights and longer.

Tip: If you'll be staying several nights at an IHG property (Holiday Inn, etc.) on your vacation, you'll want to earn the double points for that. So make that first stay a one-nighter. If you're flying, book a "Stay and Park" package at an airport location. If you're driving, make Holiday Inn your choice for an overnight stop on the road south. The same strategy will work with the "Stay three times, get a free night" offer from Best Western, if your third stay is at a Best Western on your return drive north.

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Points and Miles: December

This month sees one insanely lucrative promotion and numerous other offers to kick off the winter holiday season.

To mark the opening of the new Radisson Blu in Chicago, Club Carlson is giving away 50K Club Carlson bonus points to the first 50,000 Club Carlson members to register and complete a stay at a Radisson by December 30. Even after the first 50,000 spots are gone, you can still earn 15,000 bonus points for the stay. What will 50K Club Carlson points get you? There are relatively few Carlson properties available at 9K points per night, but lots at 15K. So, stay once at a Radisson and earn 3-4 free nights at many Radisson or Country Inns and Suites locations. And if you book and stay on points at any Club Carlson hotel by January 31, you'll earn a 9K rebate, essentially staying for free at some properties. It looks like Carlson really wants to become a major player in North America.

With this offer code, enjoy a welcome credit at Hyatt Hotels of up to $150. Good for services such as drinks, meals, or spa treatments. Or, if you're a Costco member, get a 10% rate discount and $25 a day hotel services credit. Book with this code (tip of the hat to Ric, the Loyalty Traveler). And finally, CAA/AAA members enjoy a 10% discount and complimentary breakfast. The offer code is here. All offers are valid until February 29.

Starwood is offering special rates for Ontario and Québec residents for weekend stays before December 31. Here's the offer page. And there are other deals available, depending on the property. You can check them out here.

You could save up to 33% and earn 1,000 bonus Hilton HHonors points with Hilton's December Sale. Details are here.

I've not mentioned A Club, the loyalty program of Accor hotels, a European chain, before. Accor does have several Novotel properties in Canada as well as Sofitel locations in Montréal and in major U.S. cities. With this offer, get the third night free when you pay for two nights, plus earn triple points. And via this page, you can instantly become an A Club Platinum member, which entitles you to a host of elite benefits. If you're planning an Accor hotel stay in the next year, it would be worth the few minutes it takes.

Until December 12, when you convert hotel points to Aeroplan miles, earn a 20-25% bonus. This could be a good deal if you have an immediate need for Aeroplan miles, but as I pointed out in a post a few weeks ago (What's a Point or Mile Worth?), hotel points can be more valuable because, unlike flight redemptions, there are no taxes or fees payable when you redeem for a free room night. You do the math.

I'm sure when you're holiday shopping you're consoling yourself with the thought that, when the credit card bills arrive in January, at least they'll also bring a blizzard of points and miles. OK, maybe I'm the only one. But have you considered not only earning points and miles with your holiday gift-giving, but giving points and miles as gifts?

Petro-Canada is offering 50% more Petro-Points on purchases from its convenience stores. That includes items such as lottery tickets and gift cards. Guys, do your Christmas shopping when you fill up. Offer's good until January 2.

And when you order magazines as a gift, or even for yourself, from Rogers Magazine Service, receive up to 1,000 Aeroplan miles via this offer.

For yourself, or as a gift, you can buy Starwood Preferred Guest Starpoints for 20% off until December 31. Can be a good deal, because sometimes you can get a hotel room for less by paying with points than with cash. Also good for topping up an account to redeem for an award or to keep your account active.

You can also purchase Club Carlson points for yourself or to give for US$7 per 1,000 (plus GST/HST for Canadians).

And a final thought: one of the nicest things you can do with your points and miles is to give them away. While most plans either don't permit, or charge an exorbitant fee for, transferring points or miles to someone else, they do allow you to book rooms and flights for others. And most plans allow you to make a charitable donation from your points or miles account.

Merry Christmas.

Follow me on Twitter: @AeneasLane

Aeroplan Miles Expiration

Patrick Sojka, who produces the Rewards Canada blog, recently wrote in the Toronto Star (5 things loyalty card companies don't want you to know) that loyalty programs count on a certain proportion of points and miles going unclaimed. It's money in their pockets instead of yours. One way they have of ensuring this is by setting a date when points will expire.

Some hotel and most airline frequent flier plans have points expiry dates: if you have no activity in your account during a certain period of time, the points disappear. (Delta Airlines SkyMiles is an exception: points never expire.) That's why a points tracking service like AwardWallet, which tells you when your points will expire, is very useful. And it's also why you should learn how to earn miles in your plans without having to fly, such as through hotel stays, point swapping, and online shopping, searches, and surveys.

While points in most plans expire after 18 or 24 months of inactivity, Aeroplan is unusually harsh in snatching back your points after only 12 months. And Aeroplan is unique (to my knowledge) in adopting a policy, a few years back, of erasing points seven years after they've been earned, even if you're earning points every single day.

Imagine if you contributed to your savings account each week and your bank simply decreed it was going to take any money that had been in there for more than seven years.

And they call this a loyalty program?

Anyhoo, Aeroplan has taken a lot of flak over its policy, and deservedly so, but at least it is now notifying its members of the pending confiscation of their points. And I should stress, that no one has lost any points yet: the policy set the earned date of all previously held points as December 31, 2006. That means that Aeroplan won't take away points earned before then until December 21, 2013.

So you still have two years to redeem any points earned before 2007. And if you have redeemed points since 2007, you may have redeemed those at-risk points already.

How can you find out if your Aeroplan points are safe? Like me, you may have received an email recently with a statement of the points that will expire in 2013 and 2014. If not, you can check the status of your points by going to aeroplan.com, clicking on Your Account, Account Expiry Status, and Request Mileage Status.

When Aeroplan was simply the frequent flier program of Air Canada, maybe a seven year point expiration policy wasn't a big deal. Regular Air Canada customers earned miles from flying, hotel stays and car rentals, and were expected to "earn and burn".

But today Aeroplan is an independent loyalty program company: most members earn points mainly from affiliated credit card spending, and/or gas (Esso) and grocery (Sobeys) purchases. And since a pair of economy class seats to Europe requires at least 120,000 points and Australia 280,000, that dream vacation may require a decade of patiently accumulating one mile at a time. In other words, it's an impossibility for many members if their points are snatched back from them after seven years.

Simply put, Aeroplan's seven-year expiration policy is an abuse of its members' loyalty and a theft of their property.

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What’s a Point or Mile Worth?

It's a question I'm sometimes asked and it's a question I frequently ask myself. Because points and miles aren't really "free": you do pay for them, if only indirectly; and they do have value, which you want to maximize.

For example, the question of how much a point or mile is worth is part of the decision as to which credit card to choose, especially if you're paying an annual fee. And if you have more than one point-earning card in your wallet, which one you actually use depends not only on the number of points you'll receive for the transaction, but also the value of those points.

And then there's the question of those cards (like American Express Membership Rewards) that let you convert its points into points in other airline and hotel programs. Which conversion offers the best value?

Unfortunately, there's no clear, simple answer. For one thing, the points in different programs have different values. Hotel points, particularly, are all over the map. While it might take 7-10K points for a free stay at a Starwood property, an equivalent Priority Club hotel might require 15-25K, and Hilton 30-35K. And the points you earn per dollar spent on paid stays generally reflects their value. At Starwood it's 2, Priority Club 10, and Hilton 15 (with the bonus points double dip option).

While (most) airline miles are (roughly) equivalent in value (for example, 25K miles are required to fly within North America), what you redeem for affects the value of your miles. Since Aeroplan is the most popular airline loyalty program with Canadians, let's see what an Aeroplan mile is worth.

Say you want to redeem for merchandise, an Apple iPad2 WiFi 16GB. With tax, it's $586.47 at Apple stores in Ontario. It's 72,500 Aeroplan miles. So an Aeroplan mile is worth .8 cents.

What if you want a gift card instead? A $50 gift card from Home Hardware, the Bay, or Esso costs 6,500 miles, making a mile worth a little less, .77 cents each.

Maybe you want to actually take a flight. Now the value of your miles depends on where and when you want to fly. For example, a flight from Toronto to San Diego, leaving on March 1 and returning on March 8 is 25K points. Expedia charges $684.78, meaning a mile is worth a little more than 2.7 cents. But wait: Aeroplan charges an additional $105.66 in taxes, fees, and surcharges, meaning the 25K miles covers only $579.12, making a mile worth actually just over 2.3 cents. That's still pretty good. And I'm sure there are even better values out there.

One reason I like to redeem for travel rewards, rather than cash back or merchandise, is the greater value. Considering that many cards offer two points or miles for spending on gas, groceries, drugstores, and travel, and taking advantage of double-dipping opportunities (see this post on the topic), a return on credit card spending approaching 10% is possible.

Getting the best value from your points and miles requires a little work. Pay for a hotel room or flight if it's cheap (and earn points and miles!) and save your points and miles to use when rooms and flights are expensive, in order to maximize their value.

One final point to consider: hotel points have an advantage over airline miles that affects the calculation of their value. A free hotel night redemption has no extra fees: there's nothing else to pay, even the taxes are included.

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Points and Miles: October

All the major hotel chains have now launched their fourth quarter promotions. If you're planning a Thanksgiving getaway, or a cross-border shopping trip, you might also refer to Points and Miles: September for the chains that were first out of the gate with their offers last month.

Country Inn and Suites by Carlson offers a free night if you complete a two-night stay by December 1. Various terms and conditions apply, so read them carefully. And a car rental from Avis could get you 9K Club Carlson points. Here's the link with the code you'll need.

You're probably not familiar with Wyndham Rewards, but you may recognize many Wyndham Hotel brands: Ramada, Super 8, Days Inn, Howard Johnson, Travelodge. Every stay through November 18 earns double points or miles, and every second stay gets you a $20 VISA gift card. Registration is required via this link.

Priority Club is the loyalty program of Intercontinental Hotels (Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Hotel Indigo, Crowne Plaza). You earn 10 points for every dollar spent. To redeem for a free night at a Holiday Inn or Holiday Inn Express usually requires 15K points, but some hotels offer "Pointsbreaks" specials for only 5K points a night. Here's where to find hotels offering Pointsbreaks. Until December 31, Register to earn 500 bonus points per night. Your bonus will be doubled or tripled if you stay at more than one brand. There are lots of other bonuses available. Find them here. The bonuses can add up quickly: two paid nights at Holiday Inn can easily earn you a free night.

Unfortunately, there are few Hyatt Hotels in Canada. Until November 15, receive 5K bonus Hyatt Gold Passport points after every three nights you stay. Combined with the regular 5 points per dollar earned, that's enough for a free night at many Hyatt hotels.

The airline space presents a couple of interesting offers. If you're a Royal Bank customer and collect RBC Rewards points, until November 30, earn a 30% bonus when converting RBC Rewards points to American Airlines AAdvantage miles. And, only until November 15, RBC is offering up to $350 in WestJet dollars for signing up for its WestJet RBC MasterCard.

If you'd subscribe to the magazine anyway, and the price is right, Rogers magazine service is offering 250 Aeroplan miles when you add a magazine to your account. Gift subscriptions also qualify.

And finally, CIBC has taken over the Petro-Points MasterCard and is offering 15K as a sign-up bonus. Petro-Points aren't worth much: 15K points will get you a $10 gas card. You do save 2 cents a litre at the pump, earn points for your spending, and receive a monthly 5K ($3.33) bonus if you spend over $1,000.

The card is no-fee, and there is a calculator on the site to let figure out how you'd do. My own calculations show that I'd save about $4.00 a month on gas and earn a $10.00 gas card about every other month, giving the card a value of a about $120.00 per year, or a return of about 1%. That represents a lost opportunity of several hundred dollars compared to several other cards I know and use that offer a 2% return and whose points can sometimes be leveraged for even greater value.

If you spend a lot (over $25K per year), especially on gas, the 2 cent a litre discount could increase the card's value to the $250-$300 range. But there's still the lost opportunity cost to consider. If you're putting that much spending on a credit card, a travel rewards card that offers double points or miles for gas, grocery, drug store, and travel purchases could be worth your while, even if it comes with a fee.

It just goes to show that there's no one right rewards program for everyone. How much you spend, where you spend, and what kinds of rewards you're after all determine what's best for you.

You can now follow me on Twitter: @AeneasLane

Points and Miles: Annual Update, Part 2

Last fall, in Points 4: Double-dipping, I described how you can often earn points in at least two different programs for any transaction (My personal record is a quintuple dip). The principles I outlined still apply, but as I mentioned in Part 1, the specific example I gave of converting points earned with the Club Sobeys MasterCard to Aeroplan miles is no longer valid.

The reasons for joining multiple airline and hotel rewards programs that I explained in Points 5: U.S. Airline Frequent Flier Programs still pertain. So does my opinion about the value of Points.com. Personally, I don't use Points.com to track the balances in my programs any more. I've found another free site, AwardWallet, which is easier to use, works faster, and is more accurate. It will even keep track of flight, hotel, and car rental reservations for me, which I've found very useful. It doesn't allow me to swap points the way Points.com does, so I still use the latter occasionally.

I don't have the Amex Starwood Preferred Guest card anymore, so I'm not earning SPG Starpoints the way I described in Points 6: Starwood Preferred Guest Program. But, if I want to, I can convert Amex Membership Rewards to Starpoints. All the virtues of the SPG program remain. Ben Schlappig, who writes the One Mile at a Time blog, recently explained the best ways to realize the value of Starpoints in this piece on travelsort.

Since the beginning of the year, I've also collected a fair number of Club Carlson (formerly goldpoints plus) points. You can read about that and my legendary quintuple dip in this post from back in May. I'm hoping to pull off something similar this fall. I'll let you know if it works out.

Marriott Rewards was a program I hadn't paid much attention to in the past. There hadn't been many Marriott properties in Canada, and I generally find Marriott's rates higher, both for paid stays and points redemptions. But recently a number of reasonably-priced Fairfield Inns have opened in Canada that compete with Hilton and Intercontinental in the Hampton Inn and Holiday Inn Express space. Currently, there's also a stay twice, earn a free night offer and a 15K sign-up bonus for a $75 annual fee Chase VISA card that have me planning some Marriott stays this fall. And speaking of Hilton, a double points offer this summer meant our week in D.C. earned a nice bunch of points in a program that also had not been a focus for me in the past.

As I described in Points 7: Priority Club, this is where my hobby/obsession began about seven years ago, and it remains a favourite program for its ease of earning points (lots of bonus opportunities) and plentiful locations. I mentioned that there wasn't a way Canadians could earn PCR points with a credit card, but that will change this November when Capital One will launch $120 annual fee and no-fee versions of a PCR MasterCard. You can be sure I'll be signing up and letting you know which is the better value, depending on your circumstances.

If you want to know more about points and miles collecting and how to get the most out of redemptions, check out the resources in Points 9: The End of the Trail.

And one final point: unless you're able to pay your credit card balances in full each month, the interest you pay will far exceed the value of any points or miles you earn.

You can now follow me on Twitter: @AeneasLane

Points and Miles: September

This is the first monthly summary of the best travel rewards points and miles offers that come my way. Look for it the first Thursday of each month. Now that the busy summer travel season is winding down, we're starting to see more lucrative offers from the airlines and hotel chains. The sputtering economy is also contributing to this.

Delta Airlines has a code, good through December 31, for up to 2,500 SkyMiles and 40% off a Hertz rental. And, also to December 31, beginning with your second stay, you'll receive thousands of bonus SkyMiles for stays at Marriott hotels. You must set your earnings preference to SkyMiles in your Marriott Rewards account.

Until September 18, you can earn as many as 5,000 bonus miles when you convert points from several hotel programs to Aeroplan. All the details are here. Purchases at Home Hardware earn double Aeroplan miles until September 10. And Air Canada will join the major U.S. carriers in charging $25 for the first checked bag, starting October 11.

The big news on the airline mile front is the annual "Grand Slam" promotion from U.S. Airways. Various activities earn hits. Hits earn Dividend Miles, as many as 110,000, if you earn the maximum 40 hits. Registration is open now. Play begins September 14 and continues until November 14. And until September 15, you can earn a 100% bonus on purchased or gifted Dividend Miles, up to 50,000 miles. This also counts as a "hit" if you do it on September 14 or 15.

Starwood Preferred Guest members can earn double the usual points (triple if the stay includes a Thursday or Sunday night) for stays through December 18 at Sheraton, Westin, and other hotels in the Starwood family. Registration is required via this link. And SPG members save 35% and get a free continental breakfast for city weekend getaways, until December 30.

Until November 3, register to get 4X ChoicePrivileges points for stays at Choice Hotels (Comfort Inn, Quality Inn, EconoLodge, etc.).

Here's a code for 15% off at budget chain Red Roof Inn, valid during September for those over 50.

It can sometimes make sense to purchase hotel points to redeem for a reward. For example, you may be only a few points shy of the number needed, or the room rate may be greater than the cost of the points. Until September 30, receive a 20% bonus when purchasing Hyatt Gold Passport points: 1,200 for US$24.

Points.com is not usually a good deal when swapping points among your programs, but until September 15, some swaps earn a 15% bonus, which softens the blow a little. Even with the poor exchange rates Points.com offers, there are times when it's worthwhile: you may have "orphan" points in a program that could provide some value somewhere else, or a swap into a program could count as activity to extend the life of your points in a program. And a swap into U.S. Airways counts as a "hit" for the Grand Slam promotion.

And finally, I don't think PETRO-POINTS have a lot of value (I buy gas at Esso to get Aeroplan miles), but until October 31, when you buy a coffee and swipe your PETRO-POINTS card, you could win free gas for a year.

You can now follow me on Twitter: @AeneasLane

Points and Miles: Annual Update, Part 1

As promised, here is the first part of an update to last fall's series on collecting travel reward points and miles. I've highlighted changes and provided links to the original posts.

In Points 1: Canada's Favourite Points Programs, I said that, unlike many points experts who advise you to focus on one program, I take the opposite view. All points and miles have potential value, so I believe in signing up for almost any program, focusing on several, and taking a patient, long-term approach. If like me, you want to collect with the goal of travel, you have to be prepared to play the long game.

Start with a credit card, preferably no-fee or that waives the fee for the first year, that gives you a nice sign-up bonus and 1-2 points per dollar of spending. Add additional cards as better opportunities present themselves and cancel cards you no longer need. Keep several different cards, though: that gives you flexibility. Within a year or two, you'll have enough points for a holiday. Within five years, you can build a large enough portfolio of points and miles to pick and choose your vacation opportunities.

The advice I gave in Points 2, about how to earn Aeroplan miles with a no-fee credit card, no longer applies. Shortly afterwards, Bank of Montreal suddenly changed the terms of its Club Sobeys MasterCard, so that Club Sobeys points earned by spending on the card were no longer eligible for conversion to Aeroplan miles. I described the whole sorry fiasco in Points 8: BMO Club Sobeys MasterCard Snafu. There is one revision to that post: I was allowed to autoconvert the enrolment bonus points. But as I said, this is no way to build loyalty: I cancelled the card. Club Sobeys points earned by shopping at Sobeys can still be converted to Aeroplan miles.

There have been some changes to what I wrote in Points 3: Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Card. Sign-up bonuses have gotten bigger and smaller, and waiving of the annual fee for the first year has come and gone. All the other advantages of the Starwood program and the American Express card still pertain, but best check the details if you're thinking of applying.

I did cancel the SPG Amex after the first year, but did not go with the BMO Club Sobeys MasterCard as my main spending card (for the reason I described above). Instead, American Express offered me its new Gold Rewards card. This card has an annual fee of $150, waived for the first year. I received 15K Membership Reward points as an enrolment bonus and earn 2 points per dollar for spending on gas, groceries, drug store, and travel. All other purchases earn 1 point. This is a "hybrid" card: points can be used for travel booked through American Express; redeemed for merchandise; or converted to points with Air Canada, Delta, British Airways, Hilton Hotels, Starwood (Sheraton, Westin, etc.), Priority Club (Holiday Inn, etc.), and other travel partners, at various conversion rates. Since Aeroplan and British Airways have recently devalued their award charts, and Continental is leaving the program with its takeover by United Airlines, the value of Membership Rewards points is decreasing. Unless there are significant enhancements to the value of the card, I won't be paying $150 to renew it next year.

I'll conclude this update in Part 2, next Tuesday.

You can now follow me on Twitter: @AeneasLane

Late Summer 2011 Travel and Points Offers

Now that August is here it's time to take a look at the travel and points offers available for late summer getaways. Summer being peak travel season, there aren't a lot of great offers out there right now: better offers will come along in the fall. But here are the best of what's available.

Instead of points, Hyatt Gold Passport members can register to receive 2,500 Aeroplan miles per stay. The offer is good until September 30.

Until September 30, earn double points or double miles for stays at Hilton hotels (including Hampton, Doubletree, and Embassy Suites). You must register here. If you're a Delta SkyMiles collector, you can earn triple miles with this link.

And you just might find a good deal, because participating Hilton properties are offering up to 40% discounts if you book by August 22 and stay by September 5. Here's the offer page.

Capital One is now offering a Delta SkyMiles World MasterCard to Canadians. There is a 25K miles first purchase bonus, and each dollar spent earns one SkyMile. The card has a $120 annual fee. There is also a no-fee Gold MasterCard which earns one SkyMile for every $2 in purchases. All the details on both cards can be found here.

Until the end of the year, Starwood (Sheraton, Westin, Le Meridien, Four Points, Aloft, W) hotels across Canada are offering the third night free when you pay for two nights during holiday long weekends. This link has the promo code you need when booking.

You'll receive 500 Continental OnePass miles for every $100 Best Western travel card purchased by August 31. All the details are here. And you have until September 30 to transfer American Express Membership Reward points to Continental OnePass. After that date, OnePass is ending its association with American Express as part of its merger into United's MileagePlus program.

Club Carlson (Radisson, Country Inn & Suites) lets you earn double points (40 points per $1 spent, including food and beverages) for stays up to September 15. Free nights begin at only 9K points, so a two-night stay could earn a free night. Registration is required.

Check back for the second part of A Week in Washington coming up in a few days and the regular summer cocktail recipe on Thursday.

Summer 2011 Travel and Points Deals

Summer's finally here and I thought I'd present a round-up of the best travel and points offers available for July and August.

Choice Hotels has numerous low-cost locations across Canada and the U.S., often in small centres where other chains have no presence. Until August 11, if you stay twice, you can earn enough points for a free night in many of their hotels. Here's where to register and get all the details.

Best Western is another chain with many small town locations across North America, making it another excellent road trip option. Through August 14, you'll earn a bonus of 750 Aeroplan miles (in addition to the usual 250) for every stay. You must register through this link prior to your first stay and have your earnings preference (in your profile) set to earn Aeroplan miles.

You can also register to earn 1,500 Aeroplan miles for every $100 Best Western travel card you purchase before August 31. Combine these two offers for a five-night road trip at $100 per night and you'll earn 12,500 Aeroplan miles, halfway to a flight anywhere in North America. If you make your purchase with a credit card that gives you Aeroplan miles, you'll earn a minimum of another 500 miles.

If you'd rather have US Airways Dividend miles, Best Western has a less lucrative offer of 500 miles for each $100 card purchase. Register and purchase here. Make sure your earnings preference is set to US Airways Dividend Miles.

If you're staying at a Marriott before August 31, you can earn quadruple US Airways miles with each stay, starting with the second. Registration and full T&C's are here.

And, until June 30, you'll receive a 100% bonus when you buy US Airways miles, effectively making them half-price. Usually buying miles is not a good idea, but if you've ever wanted to fly to Europe or Asia in First or Business class, this can be a bargain way of doing it.

Hertz is not always the cheapest option when you're looking to rent a car, but I have used them on several occasions and have found their service to be better than some other companies (which I won't name here). Here's an offer for a 40% discount and a big bunch of Delta SkyMiles. Check it out to see if it's worth it for you.

Here's a site that I'm in the process of test driving for an upcoming trip. Several travel bloggers whose advice I trust have recommended it: AutoSlash. Basically, you enter the location and dates you wish to rent a car and AutoSlash gives you a list of vehicles available from various companies. If you make a booking, AutoSlash will continue to monitor rates and if they drop will notify you. If you wish to take advantage of the lower rate, you tell them. They'll cancel the previous reservation and make you a new one. There's no obligation on your part: unlike a hotel reservation, you don't provide your credit card. Here's what The Points Guy had to say about his recent experience with AutoSlash.

And finally, Great Canadian Hotels is offering a coupon for a free night if you stay two nights before September 5. Plus, if you book by June 30, they'll give you a $25 hotel credit. All the details are here.

Early Summer Points and Travel Deals

Given the cool, wet weather here in Southern Ontario this spring, it may seem premature to be thinking about summer getaways, but the airlines and hotel chains have sent some tempting offers my way recently than you might want to factor into your coming vacation planning.

Choice Hotels is offering enough bonus points after two stays to provide you with a free night at over 1,500 of their lower tier properties. Registration is required, and be sure to read the terms and conditions. Stays between May 19 and August 11, 2011 qualify. Click here for details.

Like most hotel points programs, Choice Privileges points can be traded for airline miles, generally at a rate of 5:1; that is, 5K Choice points for 1K airline miles. But until June 6, 2011, if you transfer Choice points to United Mileage Plus, you get twice the miles. Here's a link.

So if you signed up for that no-fee Choice Privileges MasterCard I told you about last month, you could not only be turning your credit card spending into free hotel nights, but faster free flights as well. And since United is a Star Alliance partner with Air Canada, you can credit flights on Air Canada to Mileage Plus (and vice-versa) and use Mileage Plus miles to fly on Air Canada or any other Star Alliance partner airline.

Country Inn and Suites has extended its Spring Getaway Offer until May 31. Stay twice and be rewarded with a $30 Amazon.com or Amazon.ca gift card as well as 3,000 bonus Club Carlson points. U.S. hotels also throw in a $5 T.G.I. Friday's coupon. Country Inn and Suites offer reasonably priced accommodation and include free wireless and buffet breakfast. Most locations are in the U.S. To book this offer, click here.

From May 16 through August 15, 2011, Priority Club (Holiday Inn and associated brands) lets you earn double points starting with your second stay. You can register for this offer here.

Priority Club Insider maintains an extensive list of other bonus codes here. Registering for multiple offers has sometimes meant that I have earned almost enough points for a free night with just one paid stay at a Holiday Inn. It's always worth the effort.

And Priority Club also offers some "Pointsbreaks" properties at only 5K points, one-third the usual 15K points required for a free night. You can find the list here. Bookmark the site, because the eligible properties change every month or so.

The excellent Rewards Canada website has made its "Choosing a Travel Rewards Credit Card" comparison chart more extensive and much easier to use by splitting it up into five separate charts based on the type of card. If you're a Canadian looking for the best travel reward credit card for you, you need to start your shopping here.

Finally, did you know that you can earn Aeroplan miles for subscribing to your favourite magazines? Rogers Magazine Service offers 250 Aeroplan miles for each subscription if you go through their portal. The prices seem to be in line with other offers, but for comparison purposes, I value Aeroplan miles at about 1.5 cents each.

More Spring 2011 Points Offers

Thought you might enjoy a break from all the election news, so here you are:

Until June 30, Hilton Hotels is offering 1,000 bonus Hilton HHonors points with each night's stay. That's in addition to the regular points and airline miles you earn. Hilton's plan is unique in that members "double dip", earning both for each stay. You must register for the promotion here.

If your plans include several nights in hotels over the next few months, Hyatt hotels is offering 10K bonus Hyatt Gold Passport points after you stay five nights, and an additional 5K bonus points for every two nights you stay beyond five. That's on top of the regular earning rate of five points per dollar spent. Free nights begin at 5K points, with most hotels being in the 8K and 12K point categories. So a week at a Hyatt property could get you two or three free nights. You must register here.

Goldpoints Plus is now Club Carlson and it's offering an excellent promotion until June 15: stay twice and earn a free night. This can be an economical way to stay in an expensive city. Two low cost Country Inn and Suites stays can get you that free night at a Radisson. You must be a Club Carlson member and register for the promotion. You have until December 31, 2011 to use your free nights.

Choice Hotels, in conjunction with MBNA Bank Canada, is offering a no-fee MasterCard that lets you earn Choice Privileges points for every dollar you spend on it. There's also an 8K point sign-up bonus. Details and application form are here.

And speaking of credit cards, back in the fall I told you about the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express card. The card is still available with a 10K point sign-up bonus, but unlike last year, American Express is no longer waiving the annual fee of $120 for the first year (or for renewals).

So, as intended, I cancelled my SPG Amex card (I keep all my Starwood points). But when I called American Express, they offered me their new Gold Rewards card with 15K points as a sign-up bonus and no annual fee for the first year. So I accepted that offer. I earn one point per dollar spent on the card, two for spending on travel, gas, grocery, and drug store purchases. Amex Membership Reward points can be applied directly to your Amex bill for travel related spending, or converted to points with several hotel and airline partners (for example, one to one to Aeroplan). I'll keep you posted on what I see is the best way to "earn and burn" these points.

To conclude, Niagara Spring Flings is offering Ontario and New York residents a chance to win a getaway in the Niagara peninsula. There's also a downloadable "Perks Card" offering such things as free wine tastings (yum!). Check it out here.

Have a Happy Easter.

Spring 2011 Travel and Points Offers

Lately there has been a raft of offers as the spring travel season approaches. Here are some of them.

Until December 31, you'll earn 100 bonus Aeroplan miles when you join Park 'n Fly Rewards. You'll also earn 50% more Aeroplan miles each time you use Park 'n Fly.

Most airline miles expire unless you have activity in the account every 12-24 months. Delta Airlines recently announced that it has eliminated mileage expiration. Good news for the casual traveler. And remember, you can earn up to 2,000 Delta miles for a three-night stay at most Hilton hotels until March 31. All the details are in my January 6 post.

And while I don't usually recommend exchanging miles using Points.com because of the steep commission they extract, it can be worthwhile, if for example you need to keep points in a program alive, need only a few points to reach an award level, or have points in an "orphan" program. Until March 31, exchanges for Delta SkyMiles get you 50% bonus miles, which makes the pain a little less. Some of the programs you can exchange with are Esso Extra, Hbc Rewards, and Priority Club.

You do intend to participate in Earth Hour don't you? This year, it's between 8:30-9:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 26. And you won't just turn off your lights, right? You'll put on a sweater (better yet, snuggle with a friend) and turn down the thermostat a degree or two? To reward you for your virtuous behaviour, Starwood Preferred Guest will give you 100 Starpoints.

Country inns and Suites by Carlson has a Spring Getaway offer good until April 30 at participating hotels in Canada and the U.S. Stay two or more nights and receive a certificate code provided via email post-stay to redeem online for a US$30 Amazon Gift Card* or a C$30 Amazon.ca gift certificate, a T.G.I. Friday's offer (US hotels only), and 3,000 bonus Gold Points.

Choice Hotels' offer to triple your points after the second stay continues until April 13. Find the details here.

Best Western has been on the move lately. Though the world’s largest hotel chain, it lacked a clear image in many travelers’ minds because, unlike all other major chains, there was no way to differentiate among different quality levels of its properties. That’s all changed. Best Western has now rebranded itself into three quality tiers: Best Western, Best Western Plus, and Best Western Premier.

Not a member of Best Western Rewards? Join by April 11 via this link and get 250 American Airline AAdvantage miles when you set your earnings preference to AA. Then earn up to 1,000 AA AAdvantage miles per stay. There’s a similar offer for Aeroplan members here. Or, register and stay three times by April 11 at any Best Western in Canada or the U.S. and earn a free night with this offer.

You can also earn Best Western Rewards with a no annual fee MasterCard from MBNA. You may need to quote the code CJ4A to get a 20,000 sign up bonus. You can apply here.

And finally, need a way to keep track of all your points and loyalty programs in one place? I use Award Wallet. The basic service is free, and it securely tracks all your program balances and will even warn you about point expiry for the first three programs. For a small fee, it will monitor the expiration dates of all your programs. It even creates a trip itinerary for you by linking the numbers of your airline, hotel, and car rental loyalty programs. Very neat.

Happy trails.

More Winter 2011 Points and Miles Offers

With Family Day long weekend and the March Break fast approaching, I thought I'd highlight some hotel and points offers that have come my way the last few weeks.

You can earn 250 American AAdvantage miles just for joining Best Western Rewards. The offer is valid until April 11, 2011.

Priority Club's (Holiday Inn, etc.) first promotion of 2011 lets you earn 3,000 bonus points for every three nights you stay, up to 30,000 bonus points for 30 nights. It's good for hotel stays from February 1 to April 30, 2011. You have to register via this link: Priority Club 2011-Q1 Bonus Points Promotion registration link.

Priority Club is also offering an easy 500 points for completing three simple surveys. Click this link to find the Flyertalk post with links to the surveys and anwers. Points post right away.

Until April 13, 2011 Choice Privileges (the loyalty program of Comfort Inn, EconoLodge, Clarion, Quality, and several others) is awarding triple points after your second stay. If you're planning a road trip south and back in the next few months, this is potentially a very valuable offer as these are generally budget properties common at Interstate exits. You can join and register for the offer via this link.

Carlson Hotels' Radisson chain is offering 10,000 bonus Goldpoints through February 28, 2011 for booking the "Experience the World of Radisson" promotion. Here's the link.

Air Canada's Winter Extravelganza lets Aeroplan members earn double miles and other bonuses if they register and fly selected routes between now and April 30, 2011. Details are available here.

Marriott Hotels Weekend Bonus offers a $100 Bonus Bucks coupon good toward a future two-night weekend getaway as well as up to $100 off airfare. Just spend a Friday or Saturday night at participating JW Marriott or Marriott Hotels & Resorts. Book by February 11, 2011, and stay from February 10 through March 27, 2011. Details are here.

I haven't written about Wyndham Rewards before. It's the loyalty program of such well-known chains as Ramada, Super 8, Howard Johnson, Travelodge, and Days Inn. Until April 30, 2011, members earn double points with their second stay, triple points with their third, and quadruple points with their fourth. Like the Choice Hotels offer, this one also has great potential for Florida-bound snowbirds, as these hotels are also common along the Interstates. You can join the program and register for the promotion here.

And for the truly adventurous, Hyatt is offering 2,000 bonus Gold Passport points for a stay at the Grand Hyatt Cairo. The offer is good until April 15, 2011. Details are available via this link.

Safe travels.

Points 8: BMO Club Sobeys MasterCard Snafu

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in. Seems like the final points blog on best websites will now be number 9.

Yesterday afternoon (Wednesday, October 6), an anonymous comment was left on post Points 2: Earn Aeroplan Miles with No-Fee Credit Card. That was the post where I told you how the BMO Club Sobey's MasterCard earned you Club Sobeys points, points that could be automatically converted to Aeroplan miles. Well, fuggedaboutit.

The comment said: "Please note Club Sobeys Points earned on the new BMO Club Sobeys MasterCard are not eligible to be converted to Aeroplan Miles."

That sounded suspiciously like official corporate speak. I guess I should be flattered who's reading my blog.

So I searched the Club Sobey's website, particularly the pages relating to the BMO Club Sobeys MasterCard for any mention in the Terms and Conditions about this exception. Nothing.

I called Club Sobeys, where a very nice Customer Service Representative (CSR) told me that they had been informed just that day of this change to the Club Sobeys program. Customers who simply collect points and redeem for groceries will not be affected, but those who, like me, autoconvert to Aeroplan, will have points earned on the card saved, and when the number of points required for a grocery redemption is reached, will receive a grocery gift card by mail.

Now, I'm speculating here, but I think the reason for this sudden, unannounced, and after the fact change, is that BMO offers a number of credit cards affiliated with Air Miles, while other banks are tied to Aeroplan. There are probably exclusivity agreements that are being breached if the Club Sobeys arrangement is construed as BMO offering Aeroplan miles, even indirectly.

Again I'm speculating, but it sounds like someone didn't do their due diligence on this one when BMO bought CitiBank's Club Sobeys business.

This certainly isn't any way to run a loyalty program, the purpose of which is to keep customers happy, and well, loyal. If you're a Sobeys shopper who likes to redeem for groceries, this won't make any difference to you. The BMO Club Sobeys MasterCard could still be worth your while. In effect, it now acts just like the PC Financial MasterCard from President's Choice.

But if, like me, the only attraction of the BMO Club Sobey's MasterCard, and indeed of the Club Sobey's program period, is the conversion to Aeroplan miles, then this is a huge disappointment. That's what I told (nicely) the CSR, and asked her to pass my comments on. She said she expected to get the same reaction from other customers.

I've already made a purchase on the card to qualify for the enrolment bonus, which contrary to my expectation, won't be converted to Aeroplan miles. I'll pay my bill and cancel the card.

Points 4: Double-dipping

A faithful blog reader asks, "What about double-dipping?"

A very good question. So, before we continue with the advanced course material on hotel loyalty programs in Points 301, I'll explain how "double-dipping" can earn you extra credit (pun intended).

Essentially what points hounds mean by double-dipping is getting two sets of points on the same transaction, and it's a powerful strategy for padding your point and mile balances. For example, if I use a credit card that earns points, at a retailer that offers points, I'm getting points twice for the same purchase. In fact, the banks that issue Aeroplan VISA cards encourage this and point to it (groan) as an added benefit of their cards. They further encourage double-dipping with frequent bonus point promotions. For example, CIBC is currently offering to double the points earned when purchasing tickets on Air Canada. Earning bonus points while you're double-dipping might even be considered "triple-dipping".

So say you buy gas at Esso, using your CIBC Aeroplan VISA card, and you present your Aeroplan card. You earn 1 point per dollar because you used your credit card, and another point for every $3 dollars in gas because Esso is an Aeroplan retail partner. In effect, you earn 1 and 1/3 points per dollar you put on your card at Esso. You can make this easier for yourself and earn an extra 200 Aeroplan miles if you sign up for a Speedpass and link you credit card to your Aeroplan account. It's actually not as complicated as it sounds and here's the website that explains it all.

But it works with any point-earning card. You can earn AirMiles at the LCBO, or Shell, or Metro grocery stores, as well as Aeroplan miles, if you use your Aeroplan-branded credit card and present your AirMiles card at these (and other) AirMiles retail partners.

The same goes for the Club Sobeys BMO MasterCard I told you about in Points 201, part 1. You not only earn ½ Aeroplan mile for every dollar spent, but when you present your Aeroplan card (at Esso, or Home Hardware, for example) or AirMiles card, you earn those points too.

That means using the no-fee Club Sobeys MasterCard at Sobeys earns 1 Aeroplan mile for every dollar: you receive 1 Club Sobeys point for every dollar in groceries, which transfers into ½ Aeroplan mile, plus ½ Aeroplan mile for every dollar you put on the card.

If I shop at Sobeys and I use the SPG Amex card I told you about in Points 201, Part 2, (which I always do) and then transfer to Aeroplan and receive the 25% bonus, I'm getting 1 and 3/4 Aeroplan miles per dollar spent. Yes, I dipped, and then I dipped again.

In Points 301, I'll explain why you should sign up for multiple hotel and airline loyalty programs.

Points 3: Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Card

The problem with collecting Aeroplan miles is that millions of other Canadians do too. So when it comes time to redeem that flight on Air Canada or one of its Star Alliance partners, you're competing with a lot of other people for a few seats. Of course you can always pay more points for "extra access", but that could end up costing more than twice as much as a regular award.

However, few Canadians belong to the plans of the major U.S. airlines – American, Delta, United, and US Airways – so flights from Canadian cities are often readily available at the lowest rate, typically 25K points for a return economy class flight in North America.

That brings me to the Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) American Express card. Starwood is the chain that includes Sheraton and Westin hotels, among others, and SPG is their loyalty program. You earn 2 SPG points for every dollar spent at Starwood hotels (bonus offers let you earn faster) and free nights start at 2,000 points, with most hotels in the 7-10K range. For example, both the Sheraton Centre and Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto are 7K points for a free night.

The SPG Amex card earns 1 SPG point for every dollar spent. MBNA used to be Starwood's partner, and the card was no-fee, which was a terrific deal, but early this year they switched to Amex and now their card costs $120 a year. Given Amex's limited acceptance and the less generous insurance benefits, it's generally not as good a deal as the Aeroplan bank cards.

Except SPG has one really big advantage: you can trade its points one for one with almost any airline's. And if you swap 20K points, they give you a 5K bonus, resulting in 25K airline miles. This amounts to 1¼ miles for dollar spent. So if you have the annual spending to justify a $120 annual fee card, the 25% extra miles and ability to redeem with virtually any airline might make this card worthwhile to you.

You can apply online, there's a 10K point sign-up bonus, and you'll be automatically enrolled in the SPG program.

I accepted the card last spring because Amex waived the annual fee for former MBNA card holders for the first year. They also offered an 11K point sign-up bonus and my wife got a card too. We recently swapped 20K of those points for 25K American Airlines Advantage miles for free return flights from Palm Springs to Toronto.

I plan to cancel the card next year unless Amex lowers the annual fee (in the U.S. it's only $65 a year) or offers a hefty renewal bonus. Otherwise, it won't be worth it to me. I'll bring the Club Sobeys MasterCard out of mothballs and focus on earning free Aeroplan miles with it.

The SPG card enables you to benefit from membership in a host of airline plans. In Points 301 I'll explain why you should join the plan of every hotel chain you stay at as well.

Points 2: Earn Aeroplan Miles with No-Fee Credit Card

In Points 101 I began by saying I like to focus on travel rewards and highlighted three of the loyalty programs most popular with Canadians. Next I'd like to discuss credit cards that earn points and show you how you can earn travel without paying hefty annual fees.

Several Canadian banks issue credit cards that earn 1 Aeroplan mile for every dollar spent. And though they usually come with a sign-up bonus, they also carry an annual fee, generally in the $120 range (plus extra for secondary cards). Since I value an airline mile at about 1 cent (that's open to debate, but let's assume), the sign-up bonus can make the fee worthwhile for the first year, and even thereafter, if you spend over $25K a year. There are other benefits that come with these cards, such as travel insurance, that may have additional value for you, but if, like me, you're not a high roller and don't need those benefits, there's a free way to earn miles.

Remember how in Points 101 I mentioned you can earn Aeroplan miles by shopping at Sobeys? You do this by setting up your Club Sobeys account to automatically convert points to Aeroplan miles (2 Club Sobeys points equals 1 Aeroplan mile). But you can also earn points with a Club Sobeys MasterCard, issued by Bank of Montreal. It gives you 1 Club Sobeys point (equal to ½ Aeroplan mile) for every dollar you spend anywhere. And it's a no-fee card. So, pay $120 year for 1 Aeroplan mile per dollar spend, or pay nothing and get ½ Aeroplan mile per dollar spend. As I say, this could be a good deal if you're putting less than $25K a year on the card.

I got a few thousand Club Sobeys points/Aeroplan Miles when I originally signed up for the card about two years ago. It was issued by Citi Bank then, but this summer Bank of Montreal bought Citi's credit card business in Canada. Next month, I'll receive 2,600 Club Sobeys points (equalling 1,300 Aeroplan miles) when I get my new BMO Club Sobey's MasterCard and make a purchase with it, but you can cash in too. Club Sobeys and BMO have an introductory offer on right now. You'll get a welcome bonus of 2,000 Club Sobeys points/1,000 Aeroplan miles after making a single purchase with the card. You can apply online. Enter offer code CS1.

I carry the Club Sobeys MasterCard as a back-up when I travel, but haven't used it much. That's because I have a free card that earns even more Aeroplan miles (and miles on many other airlines besides, if I choose). I'll tell you about it in part 2.

So, if you're keeping track, I belong to PC points, but only incidentally; I don't actively collect. I don't collect Air Miles, mainly because of poor earning potential where I live. I belong to Club Sobey's, but only to earn Aeroplan miles. I have a Club Sobeys MasterCard, mainly for the sign-up bonuses. Aeroplan is a focus program, but I don't have the annual spending to make paying a $120 annual fee worthwhile when there are cheaper ways to earn miles.