Cruising on the Sapphire Princess (Part 2) & Earning Bonus Travel Rewards

On this week's show we'll catch up with my co-host, Travel Expert Onanta Forbes who is sailing on the Sapphire Princess along the Mediterranean. We'll see what she's been up to and where she's been. Plus, Patrick Sojka from Rewards Canada will stop by to talk about loyalty program bonus offers. Turns out many people are booking flights, hotels, going shopping etc. and not realizing they could be earning additional points and miles. So Patrick will share some tips on how to find them, earn them, which ones you should take advantage of and others that may not be so great. 

Transcript

Cruising on the Sapphire Princess (Part 2)

SPEAKER_02 0:06

Well, hello and welcome to the Informed Traveler Podcast, a weekly travel podcast where our goal is to help you become a more informed traveler. And I'm your host, Randy Sharman. In a few seconds, we'll catch up with my co-host, travel expert Onanta Forbes, who is sailing on the Sapphire Princess along the Mediterranean. So we'll see what she's been up to and where she's been. Plus, Patrick Soika from Rewards Canada will stop by to talk about loyalty program bonus offers. Turns out many people are booking flights, hotels, going shopping, etc., and not realizing they could be earning additional points in miles. So Patrick will share some tips and how to find them, earn them, which ones you should take advantage of, and others that may not be so great. But first, let's kick things off chatting with travel expert Onanta Forbes, who joins us each week to discuss some of the travel news and travel trends. You can follow her adventures on Instagram, Facebook, and ex at Onanta Forbes. OnantaForbes.com is her website. And this week we catch Onanta on the sapphire princess sailing along the Mediterranean. Hello, Onanta.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Yeah, things are winding up. We're we're a few days away from departing, um, a few days away from ending our smart advent snowboard snowbird adventure. Can't be bored, snowboarding.

SPEAKER_03 1:26

Um you could. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Yeah, that's gonna cause a little bit of um challenge. But yeah, it's uh it's been a wonderful time away from um the winter of can of home. Um but um yeah, we still were able to see some really good sites. I think the last time we chatted, we were just about to head into Naples. And in Naples we went to see Herculeum, and this is not far from the actual port, so only about a half an hour of driving. And it's it's uh another site similar to Pompeii, where it was buried during the eruption of Mount Vesucius, a very long time ago in 79 AT AD. And it's the same eruption that destroyed Pompeii, but what makes it different is how Herculeum was buried. So instead of being slowly covered in ash, it was hit by a series of superheated flows, so like fast-moving waves of gas and ash and volcanic material that essentially seal the town in an instant. So it created a kind of a timed capsule. So you're able to see um wood, furniture, even food that was carbonized and preserved. So when you walk through the site today, you're not just seeing ruins, you're seeing the structures that um still feel like they're lived in. So upper floors, doors, um, details survived in ways that you don't typically find in other sites. So you're actually seeing life as it happened, like you see some people kind of frozen in time, covering their face as the ash would flow on top of them. Um so it was quite poignant to see it. You saw great mosaics, you saw the way um it affected not just humans, but animals too, because of course animals lived with um the the humans back in the days, just like us today. And unfortunately, you know, they're part of the um of what happened. Uh so it was it was very interesting, very well uh preserved. I think the um they learned a lot from Pompeii when the archaeologists went and um kind of uncovered everything. So a very um interesting site to go and see, and one that I would recommend. You can go on uh uh uh excursion with the cruise ship or you know, a third party, or you could just take a cab or a train to the site yourself and go. Um there are cats in Italy, and they're cats that are part of this ruin, and they're cats that we were just sitting on a bench, and I'm saying this story. If you're a cat lover, you'll like the story. So I'm just sitting on a bench, and this cat comes up and just sits beside me, and then I um went for my MMs and they got on my lap and thinking there was treats for them. So cats are very friendly here. So if you like cats, you'll enjoy them.

SPEAKER_02 4:39

That's very funny. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

So from there, the journey uh uh shifted to Corfu, and that's in Greece, and it's a beautiful destination. Just sailing into the island was amazing. It was a um one of our days that were beautiful blue sky, sunshine, nice weather. Um, it was an opportunity to explore the old town on foot in Corfu, and it was one of those places where wandering really is the best plan. And it was an opportunity. Um, they got us in there early enough so that there wasn't a lot of crowds. The streets are narrow and winding, and they're beautifully like lined with pastel-colored buildings, um, balconies and like laundry hanging overhead. And one of the um little tidbits I learned along this journey is people in the um you know olden days would hang their laundry out, not just to, you know, dry their clothes, but also to show their class, because the type of laundry you and clothes that you hang on would reflect on your show-off kind of thing, right? Yeah, absolutely, and how much money you may or may not have. Um so it it was an interesting tidbit to pick up. And so when you're in Corfu Old Town, um you find small local shops selling everything from Hadmain Crafts to olive oil products, along with lots of cafes tucked in great little corners. Now there's an open square that um appears between all the mazes of um the streets, and it's just buzzing with life. So it's it's this is where you can spot like a lot of Venetian influences in the architecture, reminders of the island's history, along with churches and uh fortifications and glimpses of the sea as you move through the town. It's um it's it's really like it's fun just to wander. And I I it you don't have to have a plan because you're never gonna get lost. It's just a small town. Um, so just enjoy that part of it. And then we all then we also went to visit um gardens called um they're in um, I guess they're they're reflecting of um uh Achilles, and it's their the gardens have a really fascinating story where it's a palace itself. It was built in the late 19th century by Empress Elizabeth of Austria, and who was deeply inspired by Greek mythology, especially the story of Achilles. And so she created these gardens as a kind of a personal sanctuary. It's filled with statues. There's a one huge one of Achilles, um terraces and sweeping views over the land. And um it's it's just a beautiful way to walk through the gardens. Um, there's a lot of storytelling uh that's a part of it. So it's really good to go on a tour with a guide that you can get a sense of what you're seeing. And then statues of Achilles appear throughout, and it symbolizes um his strength, the beauty, but also the tragedy, and it has a beautiful view of um the port and uh the old town. It's it's really quite lovely. Um, so again, a lovely opportunity to visit uh Greece in our journey, not just Italy. We were supposed to go to uh Kotor, which is in Montenegro, but um there was a front that was coming through, and this is a port that had um was planned for a tender. So due to the weather, the um it was deemed that it was unsafe for tender conditions, so it was canceled. So not everything goes according to plan, but that's just part of travel, right? Um unpredictability is part of the experience.

SPEAKER_03 8:38

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

But it it and then so we had an extra day at sea where you could relax, do your laundry, to, you know, just enjoy um the boat. Because it's the the boat's also a destination. Lots of opportunity to go to presentations. And for an example, this morning there was a presentation hosted by the Maitre D as well as the executive chef, and they showed us um or cooking demonstrations for an appetizer, the main dish, and a dessert. And um intermediately there was uh crew members that came out and sang for us. So it's really quite entertaining as well. Um, but you know, as I mentioned, not everything goes according to plan. And one of the things that um it wasn't for anything serious, but I happened to visit the the medical doctor on board, and so I got to know a little bit about what they do. Um he is a ship's doctor, he's actually um from he was born in Paris, but he's from Cape Town, and he's a he's an emergency doctor. And so they're yes, he's quite knowledgeable. Um they're equipped to handle a wide range of medical situations from minor illnesses to urgent care, and they are available around the clock. Saying that though, they do have clinic hours that you um should note. Um it's only an urgent that they are available around the clock. Um and we had to make an appointment, and the appointment came with a cost. So um then I'm gonna do that little plug about what's absolutely essential when you travel is insurance, because now I can take that um that charge and um claim it back through my insurance, as well as the doctor's visit and the medication. Um, but just keep in mind the medical center on a ship isn't a full hospital. So if something serious happens, you and you may need to have an evacuation, specialist treatment, or care once you're back online. Again, that's where your insurance comes in handy. Um and then because these these costs can escalate quickly. We're talking about potential emergency transport, hospital stays in another country, or um even changes to your travel plans due to illness and misports, even though it was just weather related. So it's not about, you know, worst-case scenarios, it's about peace of mind for me and giving yourself flexibilities because when things don't go as planned, you're protected, and then you can focus on adapting rather than worrying, because you know, if you're that person where it's your partner or your family member that's um in medical distress, you would just want to focus on them, right? Um so it was uh it was it was uh a good experience to learn um firsthand, um, in a very non-emergency way, you know, what's on board, what's available um to you. And you cruising um depending on the cruise line, could have more of a mature audience where things that you know could happen will happen. So you have to navigate the unexpected.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

Very true. And especially uh the longer you go somewhere, the higher chance that something might happen, right? Even if it's not an illness, you might twist your ankle. You were talking many times about cobblestone streets and things like that. Uh it's easy to twist an ankle or just trip and you know, even even uh uh to cut yourself or something that might need a stitch or two. So it's it's always that un unexpected thing uh that you want to be prepared for.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Absolutely. And I'm glad you brought up a couple cobblestone streets because I I swear if um the one thing I'm glad I brought was my runners or good walking shoes. It's it really and you know it it you what you say is really um wise because when we were visiting the gardens, I was just walking up some steps and for whatever reason my shoelace got caught in between the steps. Oh my goodness, and I I couldn't move my foot. But you know, it's just little things that you um that's why they're called accidents, right?

SPEAKER_03 13:06

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 13:06

Yeah at the end of the day. Exactly. And it doesn't have to be serious, but it's it's enough, like you say, to do uh to make a visit to a a clinic or if you're on the ship uh to the infirmary uh just for uh even a band-aid or something, right?

SPEAKER_00 13:20

Yeah, that's it. Or even if you get seasick, right? Because these you're on a ship and you're you it the lots of um motion can happen. So that's just um something to keep always in mind. Um and again, I use the phrase peace of mind because that's what you need when you travel, because you know you want to know that it you're gonna be taken care of no matter what happens. So tomorrow is our last port day. We're going back to Naples. It's the birthplace of pizza margarita. This gentleman way back in the day created pizza um with um tomato sauce and um cheese and basil to reflect the colors of the Italian flag. And so that's um part of you know the joy of going to Italy and to Naples is to have some pizza. And um, there's actually a festival going on that they are celebrating pizza. So there's gonna be lots of um friendly competition between the locals in an area about a um 30 minutes away from the port. So good place to go if uh you're that person that that's your favorite food or one of your favorite foods. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

We'll be interesting to see the the comparison between North American pizza and Italian pizza.

SPEAKER_00 14:39

Oh, yes. You know, it it's all, you know, like I I've shared this before. One of the best things for me to travel is to eat. And you're right. So yes, it's a great comparison to be able to share.

SPEAKER_02 14:53

Well, we look forward to seeing uh more of your images and and videos on Instagram and Facebook and X. Uh, people can follow you uh at HonandaForbes and they can check out your website for lots of great tips, honandaforbes.com. So uh safe sailing for the rest of your trip and uh for the rest of your cruise and uh safe trip home, and we'll talk to you uh next week.

SPEAKER_00 15:15

You bet. You take care. Have a good week.

Earning Bonus Travel Rewards

SPEAKER_02 15:25

This is the Informed Traveler Podcast. I'm Randy Sharman. Just want to remind you of our website, theinformed traveler.org. That's where you can find our contact page if you have any questions or comments about the podcast. You can also email me too with any questions you might have. My email address is randy at theinformedraveler.org. And you can check out our social media pages too at facebook.com slash informed traveler, Instagram at informed traveler, or on X at Informed Traveler. That's where you'll find a number of videos and reels from our adventures throughout the year and audio clips from our past shows. Plus, you can sign up for our monthly newsletter. It's released at the beginning of every month. Our March issue is available now. Just go to our website, the informedtraveler.org, click on the newsletter button, it'll take you right there. Or better yet, you can subscribe to it and have it arrive in your inbox each month. Well, once a month or so, Patrick Soika from Rewards Canada stops by to talk about loyalty programs. This time around, we're gonna talk about bonus rewards and offers, how to find them, how to earn them, which ones you should take advantage of, and others that may not be so advantageous. So Patrick joins us now, his website, rewardscanada.ca. Hello, Patrick.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

Hey Randy, always a pleasure to be back on.

SPEAKER_02 16:42

Let's talk about bonus offers. What am I missing out on? Seems like I'm missing out. I should be taking advantage of more things. So, so uh like talk about uh just the basics of what what's out there for bonus offers and and what we can look for or sign up for or what we should be doing.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, this is so this is something this is something I've been doing for 25 years. Trying to to I guess educate or or get people's, you know, get into their routine that they they should always try and see if there's ways you can earn more points or miles on your travels, on your shopping, on all that stuff. You know, my whole my whole other website, not Rewards Canada, but Frequent Flyer Bonuses is dedicated just to bonus offers, you know, for travel. And that one's global. Rewards Canada, we do the same, but we do it just, you know, if the offer is not available to Canadians, we don't post it on Rewards Canada, whereas Frequent Flyer Bonuses, it's a free-for-all, you know, 170 plus programs with with you know the different offers there. But yeah, but you know, basically what I try and educate people is that there's, you know, you know, we have thousands of people who book travel. We'll focus on travel because there are bonuses. For there's bonuses for going shopping, for getting gas and all those type of things, which we can touch upon. But let's focus on travel. And there are thousands of Canadians who go right now, they will go to uh, you know, an airline website or a hotel site, and they'll book their hotel, they're book, they'll book their flights, not knowing that they can be earning more points. They might earn their base points, you know, they'll put in their frequent flyer number, they'll put in their frequent guest number, they'll earn their base their base earn rates, but they may not be aware that they could be earning even more on top of that. You know, there's a teach me. Teach me. So there's a lot of bonus offers. So the big one is hotels. Hotels are so easy to earn a lot of offers at. There's you know, most of the major chains run what we call system-wide bonus offers or like global. It's like what you do is all you have to do is register for the offer, and then anytime you stay with that, and then once you do register, you just book your stays as you normally do, and then you go and you'll you'll earn those bonuses. So, for example, you know, like Marriott right now with their Marriott Bonvoy program, you register for their offer, and you're gonna earn 2,500 bonus Bonvoy points per stay, and that's over and above your regular earnings. And then they're also giving one elite night credit for each different Marriott Bonvoy brand you stay at. So with uh, I think they have 35 brands now. So technically, you could earn 35 elite nights if you if you hotel hopped. There's people who will hotel hop or mattress hop, they call it, or mattress run, where you know, I'm I'm sorry, I'm kind of going off off topic, not off topic, but uh going down a different path here. In, you know, some people will be like, oh, well, I have a five-night business stay in Toronto. Well, I'm gonna stay at a different myriad every night. You're a different brand. And just so they can so they'll earn five elite night credits rather than one bonus elite night credit, you know, things like that. So so some people really push taking advantage of the bonuses, and that's great, and that's what I try to tell people. But so many people are not even just earning those base points. You know, you have one, or sorry, they're earning their base points, but not even a single bonus. You know, you might have one merriet stay during the promotional period. Well, you could earn an additional 2,500 bonus bonvoy points, and that's worth about$25. So you're people are leaving money on the table by not doing this. And yes, you get all the major brands, Wyndham Rewards. So even your, you know, we talked, I said Marriott Wyndham Rewards, your basic hotels like Super 8, Days In, a lot of promotions there. IHG, Hilton, they all all choice privileges. Um, you name it, Can Alta Hotels here in Western Canada. They're they're running a bonus for Sunday night stays at their hotels. There's there's just so many different offers out there. Um, and so I guess the main tip that I tell everybody is the minute you learn an offer of learn about an offer, if it's one you have to register for, don't wait. Go register for it right away. And then then you can forget about it. Because in the future, if you forget about it, you may be missing out. You know, you'd be like, Well, I may not be staying out of Marriott. It's like register anyways, just in case a marriage comes up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:31

Yeah, because you never know, right? That's right. And and to register, all you have to do like if you're like let's use Marriott Bonvoy, for example, uh, and they have thousands of hotels. Like it doesn't even have to have the Marriott name on it. They may be part of it. So you don't even know half the time if they're a Marriott hotel. But anyway, so you get the the newsletter, right? And that's where they'll tell you. Because I was gonna ask you, like, where do you find the bonus offers? Well, usually they're emailed to you, right?

SPEAKER_01 20:59

Use it as email to you, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:01

And you just have to register, and all it is is just clicking on a link and then you're automatically registered because they have your envoy number and everything, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:09

That's right. If if you get the email directly from Marriott from Best Western, a lot of times it is a one-click registration because it's all embedded in there. But if not, you would just log in. You know, you you you like you get to the landing page of the offer and it says uh log in and register. You know, so it's it's a couple clicks, you know, less than a minute usually. You know, sometimes you you know, sometimes you have that two-factor authentication that you have to wait for your email and your text. So it may take a little, may take more than a minute, but yeah, it's a very easy process. And then that's you know, and that's where we come into play. You know, that's you know, we list all the bonus offers we're tracking. We even are our newsletter on Saturdays. You know, we have our general loyalty credit card newsletter on Fridays, and then Saturday, our newsletter is just bonus offers. So that's you where you can catch up, you know, just in case maybe you deleted the email or you didn't catch. You know, sometimes you know the hotel chains aren't that aren't bad with it, but sometimes airlines they don't do a very good Job of notifying you of an offer. It may just be at the bottom of an email saying, oh, and by the way, you can earn two times points flying to Europe, you know, but you have to register. So people may miss it. They may just delete the email. So that's why I say, you know, you can always come check out our site and you'll see those bonuses and you can go register. And so I basically just tell everybody before you book any travel, double check. You know, double check that you can earn more. And like you said, you have to also learn some of your brands, like choice privileges. There are no choice hotel. There is not a single choice hotel in the world. That is just their name, it's choice privileges. But it's cut, you know, it's comforting. It's um they have the Radisson group, they have the Radisson hotels in the Americas. I mean, Radisson's is separate for the rest of the world. There's they have their own Radisson rewards, but choice, you know, choice hotels bought Radisson in North America. So, you know, your your Radisson hotel stays can stay with you is choice privileges. And yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:48

Same with Hilton. And like Hilton has a lot of brands that you wouldn't even know that are under their umbrella, right? Like Marriott, right? So it's and a lot of times too, it seems to me that the bonus offers they last for quite a while. Like it's not just like this week. Like they'll last, and you forget all about it, and suddenly, okay, I I book a hotel, not even realizing that it may be a Hilton or a Marriott, and suddenly you got your points.

SPEAKER_01 23:13

Exactly. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I'm just looking at my list here. Like I say, best westerns. Theirs ran from February, started February 2nd, runs until May 10th. You know, Marriott's was February 25th to May 10th. Um, that when you register by April 26th. So they do typically run roughly about a quarter for the hotels, it's usually about a quarterly, you know, roughly, you know, per year. Um, and like I said, some like Hilt Hilton is well known for almost running constant promotions. There may be a couple weeks in between where they don't have a promotion. Um, so yeah, you just have to keep on the ball. And then there's a lot of targeted offers too. Marriott sends out a lot of targeted offers. They call it um especially for you, I think. Yeah, that's what it's called. And so depending on your stay history, they'll look at your stay history and you may get a bow, you know, they'll be like, stay three times, get 10,000 points, or earn an elite night for every night you stay. They'll they'll look at your history and try, you know, they're encouraging you. That's what these bonus points offers too. It's trying to, you know, encourage your behavior or switch your behavior, you know, instead of you know staying with Hilton all the time, maybe you'll stay with Marriott and vice versa. Um, so there's a lot of things out there. Yeah, there's just so many points out there. And I guess for me, maybe I'm passionate about it because I've been here for 25 years and I see it and I and I'm always trying to take advantage of it. Um, but the key, a lot of it is you have to register. You know, a lot of them, a lot of them they they used to give out points, you know, this was before technology caught up. Um, you know, you would just you would get the bonuses even if you didn't. Oh, I remember I this is one I my anecdotal story that I tell everybody. This was remote 1988 or 89, so well before the internet um, you know, flew Calgary to Frankfurt. Um, and then a couple months later I get my airplan statement in the mail. That's when they still everything was sent by mail, you know. But I had my airplan number on my booking. And look at my statement. There's the miles for Calgary to Frankfurt, and it was double miles, so I got extra miles, you know, had no clue. And but yeah, so so they the the airlines and hotels are to the most part uh curbing that. They're not just giving out points willy-nilly. They learn, it's like, well, you know what, let's let's not just give out points if you have if we don't have to. So that's why you that's why it's on the owner, the onus is on the consumer now. Most cases, you know. This year, though, what surprised me is Air Canada Aeroplan in January ran a 50% bonus on all flights, and then they upped it to 100%, like two times my or two times points on all flights. And you didn't have to register. So anybody who booked and flew during or booked during that period, it was for flights for the whole year, but booked during the period of the promotion, you would get 50% uh bonus points. And you know, I just um my wife and kids, they just flew Air Canada just recently, and yeah, sure enough, in their account, 50% bonus, not having to register. So I'll surprise Air Canada did that. So everybody who was booking flights during kind of January, February period, they'll be and you put your aeroplan number on there, and it's and if you fly by the end of December, you're gonna see an extra bonus there. Nice.

SPEAKER_02 25:59

Um it doesn't matter where you do the booking, right? Like if I go on, I don't know, any booking site, booking.com, for example, for hotels, it it doesn't matter. I'm uh it's it it's all tied in with the loyalty number, right?

SPEAKER_01 26:12

Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up. That's gonna be the next thing I talk about. It does matter.

unknown 26:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 26:17

It does matter for hotels, especially. Flights, not so much. Airlines are pretty pretty open to where you book, but hotels, because they pay such big commissions to booking, to expedient all that, you'll see that in their terms and conditions, you don't even earn your base points by booking through a third party.

SPEAKER_03 26:33

Really?

SPEAKER_01 26:33

Yeah, it has to be booked direct with them or through an authorized, excuse me, like a GDS travel agent. So you're you're um you know your traditional travel agents.

SPEAKER_02 26:44

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you're interesting. That is good to know. Because I always thought that on like you know, upon check-in, like I always check, I said, Do you have my you know, my Marriott Bonvoy number and uh on file? So at least you get but you wouldn't get that if you booked it through Expedia or wherever.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

And so and then you'll find Yeah, interesting. Hey, so what you'll find on these promotions too, they'll say um the points are awarded on an eligible point earning stay. And so if you book through Expedia, it's not an eligible point earning stay, so you won't earn the bonus. And yeah, so you book typically have to book direct or through your yeah, through your preferred travel agent, but an online travel agency or third party agencies, those will almost never work. Um there's slight there's slight occasions where I I think some promotions have allowed it, but I I I would say 99 times out of a hundred you you won't with the hotels. Airlines are different. They'll they'll say you have to book through us, you know. Because sometimes what what an airline to uh may not have you register for the offer, but they'll give you a promo code. And that promo code can only be used on you know the airline site. Yeah. So those types of things. Um, but like something like this Air Canada, the the the 50% and uh and uh two times points that they were giving out earlier this year, I'm pretty sure that was for any flight. So it didn't matter when you booked those flights, you would get that bonus. So as long as your airplane numbers attached. So yes, you do have to be aware. Um, but yeah, but definitely for for hotels, like I said, if anybody's listening right now, 99 times out of 100, you'll have to book direct to get those bonuses. Um and there's, you know, yeah, yeah, I think that's the biggest term. I was gonna say car rental bonuses are kind of the same. Usually you have to book direct with the car rental company. Um bonuses on car rentals are very they're they're they're few and far between. Enterprise likes to run them, Avis likes to run them. Um now there are a lot of airline bonuses. You know, you can earn extra bonus airline points or miles on like Hertz rentals, budget rentals. Six, you know, six is starting to break into the Canadian market. Um, so they have a lot of offers, but same thing, they they give you know specific codes that you have to use for booking, and that has to be used on you know the Hertz site or the you know budget site, those type of things.

SPEAKER_02 28:57

And we've talked about this before, too. If you're using, for example, aeroplan uh credit card and you're booking on Air Canada and you got bonus points. Well, you're getting the points from your aeroplan credit card plus the bonus points for flying on Air Canada or one of their alliance partners. Uh so then you can really uh rack up the point. This is how you rack up the points. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 29:21

We like to call that, we like to call that a triple dip because uh what one is your and this is just specific. Your base earning is dip number one, your bonus is dip number two, your credit card is dip number three.

SPEAKER_02 29:32

Yeah, and it's not and it's also WestJet or whatever. It doesn't necessarily I'm just using aeroplan as an example. Yes, there's lots of examples.

SPEAKER_01 29:42

If your card earns points or miles, you know, some have travel accelerators, you know, or you have things like um, you know, if we go back to Marriott Bonvoy, they have their American Express card, you earn five points per dollar at for Marriott Stays. So ideally that's the card you use for Marriott Stays. Yeah, it's just there's so many ways to rack up those points. Um, you know, of course, you have your your bonuses on credit cards for signing up. We won't go into that. I mean, that's a whole nother market of bonuses. Um but then there's also, you know, and it may not be bonus points or miles, you know, something like um say say Best Western's promotion right now. They theirs is a$50 gift card after three years. Yeah, exactly. Sometimes it's a gift card or it's uh free night, or it can be a free night or something like that. There's so many different types of offers. Yeah. Um Best Westerns, the reason why, you know, I I try to call them out on this sometimes because the the gift card it because it's a bonus gift card, they're allowed to put an expiry date on it. So, you know, so they're looking for breakage, so they know everybody else. Yeah. So points are usually the best one because they, you know, most programs don't expire unless you know, unless you're inactive in that program, right? So if you're inactive in the program after two years, you may lose those points. But yeah, so there's so many bonuses, and there's even bonuses like for transferring like hotel points. You know, one just launched this week, choice hotels privileges. You convert those points to Air France KLM, they'll give you double the mods.

SPEAKER_02 31:02

I've done that, yeah. I I did that with my Marriott Bonvoy points. I transferred them over to Aeroplan because there was a if you do this, you get a bonus low.

SPEAKER_01 31:10

Yeah, the promotions, you have the bonus, you know, it's a good way to use. So, like, I'm probably gonna take this choice Air France KLM offer up because I don't really stay at choice hotel brands. Um, and I have some what I call orphaned points there. And I've actually keep I kept them alive doing the same as you. I converted a couple years ago, I converted choice privilege points over to AeroPlan, just the minimum amount, but that kept my points active in choice privileges, and there's still points in there, so I may transfer to uh Airplanks KLM, take advantage of bonus, and it keeps my choice privileges you know account active.

SPEAKER_02 31:44

I think it would be a full-time job just looking after all the points that you have. Oh my god, it can be.

SPEAKER_01 31:49

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. You know, maybe we can touch upon the the shopping bonuses quickly. Another one to watch out for is you know your scene plus, because scene plus can be used for travel, especially if you have one of their credit cards for Scotia. Watch for the bonuses. Um, they come out every Thursday for your grocery shopping, Sobey, Safeway, you know, uh IGA, places like that. Load those bonuses because that that pools in with the points from your credit card, and you can use that for travel. Um, a lot of the programs, Air Miles 2, your they're gonna be Blue Rewards soon. They they have a lot of bonuses that come out every week. Um, so keep track of those. Those shopping bonuses can rack up as well. And I guess it's not really a bonus yet, but this past week, um, which is you mentioned WestJet, they announced the Westjet Canadian Tire Triangle Rewards partnership. Uh and what is unique about this one is you you can earn WestJet points at Canadian Tire over and above your triangle money. So you're so it's great. So if you're a shopper at any of the triangles, you know, Canadian Tire, Marks, Party City, places like that, link your WestJet rewards to your Canadian Tire. You're gonna get um, it's not a huge amount, you get one WestJet report WestJet rewards point for every two dollars, so that's 50 cents. But you know what? If you go spend a few hundred dollars every time at Canadian Tire or Marks, you'll over it can, you know, you'll you'll be boosting your WestJet points by you know a few dollars a year, and that's an extra savings on your WestJet flights. And vice versa.

SPEAKER_02 33:08

The gardening season is coming up, so you know, chances are you'll be shopping at Canadian Tire.

SPEAKER_01 33:13

Exactly. Or um, and then and then vice versa, you can earn CT money on WestJet flights over and above your West Shift points. So there's absolutely no reason to not link your accounts because all of this earning, what they this is I I love this because they went over and above. It's not either or. You know, you don't have to pick one or the other. You just link your accounts and continue on like you were, you know, you were before, and you're gonna earn CT money and West Ship points on your West Shift flights. You're gonna earn West Shift points and CT money on your triangle purchases. So it's a win-win.

SPEAKER_02 33:44

It's a win-win, exactly. That's what we like. Uh lots of things to learn. And of course, the best thing to do is to sign up for the Rewards Canada newsletter because you could you learn all this stuff from Patrick Zwika. He is the founder of Rewards Canada. RewardsCanada.ca is the website where you'll find uh lots of information to do all this and get take advantage of these bonus bonus offers. So thanks, Patrick. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 34:07

Thanks, Randy.

SPEAKER_02 34:13

That was our show for this week. If you have comments or questions, we'd love to hear from you. Or if you have a show idea, send that alarm as well. My email is Randy at meinformed travelers.org. And if you like what you heard, tell a friend of course. You can check out our website too. It's theinformed travelers.org. In the meantime, thanks for listening to Travel State Force and Be an Informed Traveler.