Author: Matt

Matt has been an avid points collector since 1992 (an elementary school student), when his dad signed up for the new (at the time) Air Miles program. Since then, Matt took a keen interest in learning how the miles and points world works. He quickly found out that there is a lot of value in leveraging miles and points to fund his passion for travelling.
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WestJet’s Takeover of Sunwing Moving Forward

WestJet’s purchase of Sunwing has been in the works for a couple of years now. It is now taking a step forward as the Canadian Federal Government WestJet gave their stamp of approval that moves them closer. There is still some work to be done, but this is as major milestone.

Today, I wanted to share some of my thoughts on this potential merger. Let’s discuss this from the perspective of each airline.

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BMO Bailed Out Air Miles?

March 10, 2023 was a crazy day for Air Miles collectors. At the beginning of the day, it was announced that LoyaltyOne Co. (which offers Air Miles) had gone into bankruptcy protection. The fear was that member  miles would be lost forever!

Later in the day, BMO Financial Group signed a deal to acquire the Air Miles rewards program from LoyaltyOne Co.. As a result, below is a screenshot what we might currently see on the Air Miles website:

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Top Credit Card Higher than Normal Sign Up Bonuses for March 2023

Today we feature the top credit cards with a higher than normal sign up bonus. Since the new year, we have been putting a commentary under each credit card instead of the usual blurb at the start of the post. 

This post is designed to list all the temporary higher than normal sign up bonus offers across the country. The cards are listed by expiry dates, with the ones expiring first at the top. If there is a tie-break in terms of expiry date, then it is sorted in alphabetical order.

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Best Current First Year Fee Waived Cards for February 2023

We are back this month with the top first year fee waived promotions. We have now added a commentary to each card instead of a short summary at the top of the page. For this post, we are only listing cards that offer a limited time first year fee waived promotion, rather than permanent offers.

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Is the Cineplex’s CineClub Worth it?

Cineplex’s rewards program, Scene+, has gone through a major revamp the past couple of years. One of its latest additions is the CineClub paid membership designed for movie lovers, but there is more to it. Today, we will break down the features and benefits of the program to see how to maximize its value, and whether it is worth it.

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Current 10% and Above Cash Back Offers for February 2023

You may have noticed by now that we started adding or expanding our commentaries to our monthly posts. Today is no different as we list the top cash back credit cards currently offering at least a 10% cash back bonus promotion. There are many other cash back offers out there too, but because the market is very competitive now, only the 10% and above promotions make it to our monthly list.

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Rundown of Air France KLM Flying Blue for Canadians (updated February 10, 2023)

Air France KLM has really upped their game in terms of expanding their presence in Canada, which definitely warrants a full blown post. Today, we are going to provide a rundown of how relevant Air France KLM is to Canadians by going through some of the features of its Flying Blue frequent flyer program.

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Credit Cards which offer Free Airport Lounge Access (updated February 8, 2023)

This post was due for an update. With travel pretty much back in full swing, airport lounges are filling up again, overcrowding if anything. Part of the reason is because there are quite a few credit cards out there that offer free lounge access. Even just 10 years ago, there were only a handful of Canadian credit cards that offered free lounge access. Since then, the list seems to grow longer and longer. 

Thoughts on Credit Card Surcharges

Back in the fall of 2022, credit card surcharge changes came into effect. Basically, Canadian businesses are now able to pass on credit card surcharge to their customers. The real question was how many merchants would decide to pass on the fee?

The new rule allows merchants to charge consumers “interchange or swipe fees” for every transaction, commonly known as payment processing fees.