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.

Follow me on Twitter: @AeneasLane

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

Points 5: U.S. Airline Frequent Flier Programs

When I described the SPG Amex card I explained the advantage of belonging to American frequent flier programs. But even if you don't have the annual spending that makes this card's fee worthwhile, there are other ways to earn miles in these plans.

Most of the airline programs offer a joining bonus. It's usually only 1,000 miles, but it's a nice start. However, you'll need to find ways to keep earning miles because most plans' points expire if you have no activity during a 12-24 month period.

You can, of course, take a flight, but for most of us leisure travelers, that's an occasional thing, and our choice of airline usually depends on price and schedule, not loyalty points.

But you can also fly on one airline and credit the miles to another airline, as long as they are both members of the same alliance. There are three global airline partnerships: Star Alliance, SkyTeam, and oneworld. For example, you can fly on United Airlines and credit the miles to Aeroplan, and vice-versa, because both Air Canada and United are members of the Star Alliance.

Remember I told you to join the loyalty program of every hotel you stay at? Here's why: you can earn miles in your chosen airline's frequent flier program. That's right: you can stay at the Hampton Inn or the Super 8 and earn Aeroplan miles (for example). You don't have to accept the hotel program's points. Join online prior to your stay. When you set up your account, in your "profile", set your earning preference to the airline program of your choice (you'll have to register your frequent flier number). You can change it as often as you want in order to keep the points in different plans alive.

And if you've earned a significant number of hotel points, but not enough for a free night, you may be able to swap them for airline miles. Many hotel plans let you do this, but they all have differing minimum point levels and exchange rates.

There's another way to keep frequent flier points alive and that's through Points.com. It's a free point tracking and swapping website and it allows swaps between HBC points and airline programs, including Aeroplan, Alaska, Cathay Pacific (Asia Miles), Delta, and US Airways. They do exact a hefty premium for their service, but if you want to keep points alive, or boost your total to the level where you can redeem for a flight, it might be worth it. You can even swap Petro Points, if you first exchange them for Asia Miles at the Petro Points site and then swap Asia Miles at Points.com.

There are also several annual-fee credit cards available to Canadians that earn points with U.S. airlines. I'll tell you where to find out about them when I describe the blogs and websites that I find useful. But first, I want to go into a bit more detail on hotel programs.