You can set your watch by it. Every time an Olympic Games year rolls around, out come the stories about over-priced tickets and soaring hotel prices. I was the main Olympics reporter for the Toronto Star for 15 years or so, and I’ve seen it happen time and time again, from Vancouver to Athens and Sydney to Salt Lake City. Now it’s Paris’s turn to take the brunt of the criticism. The New York Times reports that tickets for the Opening Ceremonies, which will feature a flotilla of barges carrying athletes down the River Seine to the foot of the Read more
January 2024
Happy Anniversary to TD Bank and Aeroplan. The Toronto-Dominion Bank is celebrating a 10-year milestone as the primary credit card issuer for Aeroplan, Canada’s Top Airline Loyalty Program. The first TD Aeroplan credit cards were issued in January 2014, and have provided more than 1 million Canadians with accelerated Aeroplan point-earning potential, Air Canada travel benefits and flexible redemption options ever since: TD Aeroplan credit cardholders have travelled to more than 1,800 destinations worldwide with Air Canada and 45+ partners Aeroplan members earned over 300 billion Aeroplan points on TD Aeroplan credit cards TD Aeroplan credit cardholders have redeemed more Read more
Manulife, one of Canada’s leading insurance providers, and Aeroplan, Canada’s premier travel loyalty program, are excited to announce a new, multi-year loyalty partnership. Through this first-of-its-kind agreement in Canada, the millions of Canadians who are eligible Manulife Group Benefits members will have the ability to earn Aeroplan points by engaging in behaviours and activities that encourage health and wellbeing. This spring, Manulife will launch a modernized and upgraded benefits platform to offer members a digital-first user experience that integrates health, wellness and benefits into one place. With the addition of Aeroplan in early summer 2024, eligible Group Benefits members will Read more
The annual Trip Advisor Best Beaches List is out again, and there’s plenty to like. For the world, Trip Advisor users named Baia de Sancho on the idyllic island of Fernando de Noronha in Brazil as the top beach, followed by Eagle Beach in Aruba and Cable Beach in Broome, Western Australia. I haven’t made it to Cable Beach, but I can tell you that beaches in Western Australia are some of the best – and least crowded – in the world. In world voting, Grace Bay in the Turks and Caicos was fifth, Varadero Beach in Cuba ninth and Read more
Kudos to Canada. And a nod to Hawai’i, as well. A study by Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection has anointed Canada as the safest country on the planet for 2024. Montreal came second in the world for safe cities, beaten only by Honolulu. Berkshire Hathaway nalyzed the responses of 1,702 travelers who were polled between August 24 and September 13, 2023, along with third-party data sources to evaluate concerns such as terrorism, weather emergencies, health measures, and the safety of underrepresented groups. The Berkshire Hathaway rankings also take into account data and information sourced from the U.S. State Department, The Economist, Read more
