Aeroplan Points for Amazon Shopping

Amazon and Aeroplan Team Up

If you shop on Amazon and feel frustrated for not getting any rewards, there is good news on the horizon. Amazon customers will soon be able to collect Aeroplan miles for spending money on Amazon. However, there are a few conditions that apply and I will go through those in this post.

Here is what you need to know to collect Aeroplan shopping on Amazon:

-          Starting April 24, 2018, Aeroplan members will be able to earn miles for shopping with Amazon Canada. This is only applicable to those shopping from Canada on Amazon Canada.

-          Aeroplan members will be able to earn at least one mile per dollar. Elite members will earn more; Black and Silver members earn at least 2 miles per dollar and Diamond members earn at least 3 miles per dollar spent on Amazon.

-          You must visit the Aeroplan website first to earn miles. Shopping directly from Amazon or their app will not earn you any Aeroplan miles.

Once you go to the Aeroplan eStore at aeroplan.com/estore, look or search for Amazon.ca. Then click and enter your Aeroplan number and last name, and hit shop now. This will take you to Amazon’s website and then continue shopping on Amazon as you would normally do to receive Aeroplan miles.

This is a good opportunity to earn lots of miles for those who shop on Amazon a lot. It’s even possible to earn miles 3 separate times on the same transaction. I am not talking about earning 3 miles but earning on 3 separate instances. I will do another post on how to do that after April 24.

Keep an eye on my YouTube Channel and on this website for more to come. I will see you shortly.

IHG Rewards 2018 Award Changes

Intercontinental Bora Bora Goes Up

IHG, or Intercontinental Hotel Group, has around 5000 properties around the globe and almost 10% of IHG properties will face a price increase this year. In Canada, 34 hotels will go through price adjustments.

Almost 500 hotels will increase in price by points and 192 are going down. These changes are effective as of Jan 16, 2018. Top tier hotels like the InterContinental Bora Bora, Hong Kong, and many others, will go up 60,000 to 70,000 points a night. Worse yet, these top tier hotels were just 50,000 points a night 2 years ago. So these are massive devaluations in the course of 2 years.

Although 192 hotels will go down in price by 5000 points, not a single property is going down to IHG’s lowest category of 10,000 points a night. In Canada, 34 hotels are changing value in points. 21 properties are going up and 13 are going down. To see the full list, go to the IHG Rewards Night page https://www.ihg.com/rewardsclub/content/us/en/reward-nights

This is one of the IHG’s worst devaluations ever and they haven’t notified their members in advance. I have some IHG points and I was hoping to visit upscale Intercontinental locations in Bora Bora and Asia in the future. But with this devaluation looks like it may not make sense and I better use my points for IHG PointBreaks.

PointBreaks is IHG’s highly sought-after feature that allows its members to stay in nearly 100 hotels around the world every quarter and each quarter brings fresh lists of new hotels. I will do a separate article and video on this in the future.

Air Canada Departs Aeroplan – 3 Things You Must Know

Aeroplan and Air Canada

The Date – The first thing you need to know is June 30, 2020 is that date when Air Canada terminates its contract from Aimia, which is the parent company of Aeroplan. After this date you will not be able to use Aeroplan to earn or redeem Air Canada or any other Star Alliance members’ points.

Aeroplan Points – The second thing you need to know is that your Aeroplan points after June 30, 2020 remain intact. Aeroplan points or miles will remain the same and they are not going anywhere. However, what you are losing is access to Air Canada or Star Alliance flights. Why this is so important? That’s in #3.

Flight Redemptions – The third and most important thing is that after June 30, 2020 you will not be able to redeem Aeroplan for flight resumptions for Air Canada or any Star Alliance members. Star Alliance is the world’s largest alliance and it has partners such as Air Canada, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Lufthansa, Swiss Air and many others—28 total. Because Air Canada is a part of this alliance, Aeroplan has access to any alliance members for flight redemptions, especially for business class flights. Once Air Canada departs Aeroplan, you will lose that privilege and will not be able to redeem points for flights. You will still be able to redeem Aeroplan for gifts and merchandise but you will not get value out of your points.

Let me give you an example. My business class flight for my upcoming trip from Toronto to Dhaka gave me 7 cents per point return. You will never get this type of return redeeming for non-flight categories. So the best use for Aeroplan would be to redeem them for business class flights before the termination.

But be careful redeeming for business class flights, as some of the Star Alliance members charge hefty fuel surcharges. I have a video discussing the details of everything I mentioned here:

| Aeroplan & Air Canada Departure | 3 Things You Must Know Now |

How to Apply for Indian Tourist Visa

India Tourist Visa from Canada

For my upcoming trip to Asia in November, I just finished going through the process of applying for an Indian tourist visa. And I decided to write about it to give those who will be visiting India in the future some ideas. I will only mention my own experience obtaining a regular tourist visa.

There are other types of tourist visas (such as e-Visa, medical visa, etc.) and/or different procedures for obtaining them, which I am not talking about here. This process is applicable in Canada and possibly very similar to other European countries or the USA. The process and links mentioned below to obtain a visa from the country you are reading from could be very different. For that matter, the process in Canada may have totally changed by the time you are reading this. So check the Consulate General of India website first before starting your application.

To break it down to its simplest terms, here are the steps you need to go through to obtain an Indian tourist visa:

1. Except for a handful countries, citizens of most other countries require a visa before arriving in India. See the BLS link for those countries whose citizens can be issued a visa upon arrival. Link 1: http://www.blsindia-canada.com/touristvisa.php

2. You need to fill out and submit an online visa application and get a printout. Link 2: https://indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/index.html Obtain other documents, such as an appropriate picture, passport, fees, and anything else mentioned under the Requirements tab on the Link 1 website.

3. BLS International, an outsourcing company, looks after India visa processing, and you need to submit everything required to BLS Centres assigned to your area. You can find your BLS Centre by visiting the Contact section under Link 1. If you have any questions, call BLS to clarify before going there.

4. Once you submit, your passport with visa will be mailed out to you or you can pick it up at BLS once available.

There is the option to mail out everything to BLS instead of physically going there, but I do not recommend this because everything will be delayed if they found any mistakes on your application. The benefits of physically submitting an online printout at BLS is that if there are any errors, BLS will tell you right away and you can correct it by submitting another online application on the same day if time permits.

My application was declined the first time, as I put Canada as place of issue instead of Gatineau. I had one hour left before the cut-off time for that day. I rushed to a computer store next door to resubmit online with a new printout (once you apply online it cannot be modified if there was a mistake and you need to redo the whole thing again) and was still able to make it.

The full process is not that difficult. However, with a Canadian passport I am not used to getting a visa because I can travel most places without a visa. For those few countries where a visa is required, I feel slightly weird about going through the process of obtaining it. I have a video on this as well for which I will provide a link on the top left of this article.

What Will Happen to Aeroplan Without Air Canada?

Air Canada Will Start Its Own Loyalty Program

Air Canada is leaving Aeroplan to launch its own frequent flyer program. Things will be business as usual until June 2020. After that, Air Canada and Aeroplan will travel their own paths. Today, I will talk about the future of Aeroplan and what to expect in light of this breakup.

Aeroplan has a network of 5 million members, 75 worldwide partners, and 150 brands. However, most of these members are in Aeroplan for Air Canada, not for Aeroplan itself. A lot of these members not even aware of that Aeroplan is not owned by Air Canada and is actually a separate program. It is questionable how many of these members will stick to Aeroplan once it is is no longer with Air Canada.

Aeroplan will lose access to Star Alliance partners and fantastic redemption opportunities through its partners. Star Alliance is the largest alliance of 27 airlines and some of its partners are airlines like Thai, Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa, Swiss, Brussels Airlines, Turkish Airlines, and Air Canada. For example, my business-class flight from Toronto to Asia cost me only $61 instead of $4000/$5000 (watch the YouTube video for proof) and a fantastic redemption opportunity like this on Aeroplan is possible only because of being a member of Star Alliance through Air Canada. On its own without being part of an alliance, Aeroplan will lose lots of its members, as it will not have access to any alliance.

Aeroplan will be able to provide flight redemptions on its own like other proprietary programs such as Scotia Rewards program, BMO Rewards program, or Air Miles. However, it will no longer be able to provide significant value like before to redeem for business class flights.

Air Canada is leaving Frequent Flyer loyalty program Aeroplan. What it means for travel rewards credit cards & programs? How about frequent flyer partners? Financial author Ahmed Dawn's insights.

Banks and retailers will be reluctant to renew Aeroplan contracts once existing contracts expire. Aeroplan will have to work on new credit card partners and retailers to offer its programs once Air Canada leaves.

The end result will actually be good for consumers due to more competition. There will be new credit card offers with hefty sign-up bonuses from both Air Canada and Aeroplan as both of them will fiercely try to grab market share. Also there will be an extensive fight to secure retailers to offer Air Canada or Aeroplan points, thus more opportunities for consumers with more promotions and bonuses. I can’t wait to see all these after 2020.