Miles Ahead: The Canadian Points Podcast

In episode 39 of Miles Ahead: The Canadian Points Podcast, Daniel, Jeff, and Josh from FrugalFlyer.ca break down Porter Airlines’ VIPorter loyalty program, covering how to earn VIPorter points, elite status tiers, and VIPorter points redemption value.

They review the BMO VIPorter World Elite MasterCard (with a current welcome bonus of up to 70,000 VIPorter points and first year annual fee free) and how it grants VIPorter Venture status with benefits like free seat selection and checked bags for the cardholder, plus up to eight guests, even on basic fares.

Finally, they discuss the Porter Airlines onboard experience and their approach to redeeming VIPorter points, particularly when working within Porter’s flexible award chart pricing. The episode wraps up with the team sharing their experiences with Porter Airlines and how they plan to engage with VIPorter going forward.

In Episode 38 of Miles Ahead: The Canadian Points Podcast, Daniel, Jeff, and Josh from FrugalFlyer.ca discuss Air Canada’s new Aeroplan partner award chart effective June 2026 and review several new credit card offers and FlyerFunds Rebates for May 2026. They cover the latest developments in fuel surcharges across the industry, in addition to airlines that have increased baggage fees.

Several new developments in the world of miles, points, and travel include Air Canada taking delivery of its first A321XLR, the new Tangerine Rewards World Elite Mastercard, Hawaiian Airlines joining oneworld, an Air France Canadian bonus points promotion, Flying Blue status match opportunities, Hyatt award category changes, and the new United MileagePlus Neo World Elite Mastercard.

The episode wraps up with two listener questions, where the team addresses a question about a points roadmap for a young student and whether the United Airlines MileagePlus status and/or program makes more sense to pursue versus Aeroplan.

In episode 37 of Miles Ahead: The Canadian Points Podcast, Daniel, Jeff, and Josh from FrugalFlyer.ca discuss the main tools they use to find and book flight and hotel redemptions. For flights, they cover FlightConnections and FlightsFrom for mapping airline routes and alliance options, plus they look at pairing Google Flights with Points Path to compare cash vs points.

The team highlights Seats.aero as a primary paid award-search and alerts tool, including fare class viewing and planning strategies like searching regions instead of specific cities, and they note AwardTool as a helpful supplemental tool that can surface award space that other tools miss. After booking, they use AeroLopa for detailed seat maps and seat selection to find the best seats on the plane.

For hotel award searching, the team starts the discussion by using Google Maps to see what hotel chains are available in their desired destination. They discuss rooms.aero and MaxMyPoint, emphasizing the value of setting alerts for aspirational properties, plus MaxFHR for browsing Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts when looking to use credits.

They also discuss tools that are adjacent to award travel, including TripIt for itinerary organization, and Flighty, ByAir, FlightAware, and FlightRadar24 for tracking flights.

In Episode 36 of Miles Ahead: The Canadian Points Podcast, Daniel, Jeff, and Josh from FrugalFlyer.ca discuss a first-ever Amex Canada 25% transfer bonus to Flying Blue and a WestJet sweet spot when redeeming Flying Blue miles. They review negative fuel surcharge trends, currently impacting the pricing of award seats on three popular frequent flyer programs.

Porter Airlines also becomes the flagship carrier at Montreal’s revamped downtown metro airport, with a new terminal opening in June 2026 with 12 new routes. The National Bank Lounge at YUL closes April 30 for renovations through 2027, with a temporary lounge planned.

In an interesting change, Marriott has increased free-night certificate top-ups to 25K points. YOTEL has joined the Hilton Honors program, while ITA Airways has now officially joined Star Alliance. They discuss the WestJet and Triangle Rewards partnership, plus review details of the Blue Rewards cards replacing the AIR MILES cards.

Finally, the team answers questions on business credit card implications and whether there is any way to work towards frequent flyer program elite status when flying on award redemptions.

In episode 35 of Miles Ahead: The Canadian Points Podcast, Daniel, Jeff, and Josh from FrugalFlyer.ca take a look at the state of the Marriott Bonvoy loyalty program, starting with some of the recently launched excellent offers on the co-branded Marriott Bonvoy cards, both in Canada and the United States.

They discuss Marriott Bonvoy’s new global promotion for bonus elite qualifying nights and points, and how members can best take advantage. They also look at where the program is today and what has changed over the last few years.

The episode wraps up with the team sharing how they utilize the loyalty program and how they get the most value out of their stays and points redemptions. They also make some predictions as to what is coming for the Marriott Bonvoy program in the future.