Transferring American Express Membership Rewards to Aeroplan
I’m a HUGE fan of American Express’ rewards program, Membership Rewards (MR) for a couple of reasons. MRs can be transferred to the following programs: Air Canada Aeroplan at a 1 to 1 ratio British Airways Avios at a 1 to 1 ratio Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles at a 1 to 0.75 a ratio Alitalia’s
Read morePro Tip – Visas and Immigration Requirements
As an experienced traveler, I feel like I know what I’m doing when it comes to efficiently moving through all the security and immigrations requirements for travel. As you can see from my recent milage run, I’m a stickler for details so when I ran into a problem that almost derailed our Round the World
Read morePro Tip – How to Not Worry About Aeroplan Points Expiring
One of the things that worries people about Aeroplan is that the points expire and while it is true, it really isn’t something to worry about. Aeroplan points expire 1 year after the last account activity but keep in mind that Aeroplan is a very prevalent rewards program in Canada so there are a lot of partners
Read more1,000 Free IHG Points for your Birthday!
I know everyone that plays this points game loves free points so here’s another one for you. IHG, the parent company for the hotel chains of Candlewood Suites, Crown Plaza, Even Hotels, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Hotel Indigo, IHG Army Hotels, IntercContinental and Staybridge Suites has a gift for you on your birthday. All
Read moreFree 1,000 Aeroplan with Easy Fairmont Sign Up
From now until November 15th, 2017, sign up for a Fairmont President’s Club account (free) and receive 1,000 Aeroplan points. Now 1,000 Aeroplan points isn’t gonna get you to Tahiti but it will provide you with 1,000 points towards your next redemption and perhaps more importantly for some, will extend the expiration date of your
Read moreTools I Use – AwardWallet and Mint
This entry is part 1 of 5 in the series Tools I UseOne of the most common questions I get asked is “how many credit cards do you have?” and “how do you keep track of everything?”. Well a conservative estimate of my credit card count is around 20 active cards. I understand that this is
Read morePointsNerd is Speaking at PointsU!
I’m happy to announce that I will be speaking on the advanced topic of Close In Award Availability at PointsU in Toronto on October 22nd, 2017. PointsU is the first points conference by Canadians for Canadians and a wide variety of topics will be covered. The conference is suitable for beginners into Travel Hacking, grizzled
Read moreHow I Hack – Heavily Discounted Uber and Lyft Rides
How I Hack – Heavily Discounted Uber and Lyft Rides How I Hack – Tools to Keep Track of Miles and Credit Cards Today marks the first in a series of posts that I am calling “How I Hack”. The goal of this series is to provide some insight into how I approach Travel Hacking.
Read moreDeal of the Year for Canadian Disney Enthusiasts
I’ll start off by saying that I am a HUGE fan of Disney. Since my daughter was born, we have been to Disneyland, Disney World, Disneyland Hong Kong, Disneyland Paris, Aulani and two Disney Cruises. That being said, one of the hardest pills to swallow is the big upfront cost of Disney. There’s no two
Read moreThe Comprehensive List of All Star Alliance Partners and Their Fuel/Carrier Surcharges
Background In 2008, Air Canada introduced Fuel Surcharge into base fares for North American travel and for other travel outside of North America, it used the term carrier surcharge. Both are known in the industry simply as “YQ”. If you look at the taxes for your next flight and see a charge for YQ, that’s
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