Air France KLM Flying Blue Promo Awards – Save 25% on Business Class award tickets between YYZ/YUL & Europe for Jan/Feb Travel + MORE Nov 1st

Raising one or more children? Get every penny you’re entitled to when filing your 2014 tax return this April by understanding the new tax measures for families recently introduced by the federal Conservatives.
Remember, some of these provisions could wither if the current government does not regain its mandate at the next election and a new government overturns them.
Q: What’s the new “Family Tax Cut” all about and how do I claim it?
A: The “Family Tax Cut” essentially allows for income splitting whereby a higher earning spouse can transfer up to $50,000 of income to their lower earning spouse by way of an adjusted non-refundable tax credit on the income that is transferred to an “eligible relation.” This is a Canadian resident spouse or common-law partner with whom you have a child under the age of 18 (the child must reside with one or both of you). The calculation of the credit, which provides tax relief to a maximum of $2,000 in 2014 and future tax years, is calculated as the difference between the combined taxes payable (after all credits are claimed) and the combined taxes that would be payable if the higher earner notionally transferred up to half of his or her income, to a maximum of $50,000, to the spouse…

(Kali Nine LLC/Getty Images)
OTTAWA – Canada’s major banks and credit card companies have reached a deal with the federal government to cut the fees charged to merchants for credit transactions, sources familiar with the negotiations say.
The voluntary agreement could mean cost savings for up to 700,000 large, medium-sized and small businesses across the country.
However, it remains to be seen whether the cuts will translate into savings for consumers.
The deal will result in lower interchange fees charged to retailers and service providers for using credit cards to complete direct transactions, said sources speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The fees would then be capped for an unspecified period of time.
The agreement comes after years of back-and-forth among retailers, the federal government, banks, credit card companies and the Competition Tribunal.
Interchange fees currently range between $1.50 and $3 or more for every $100 worth of transactions, depending on the credit card…

Canada’s major banks and credit card companies have reached a deal with the federal government to cut the fees charged to merchants for credit transactions, sources familiar with the negotiations say.

We haven’t seen Canadian cities included in Air France KLM’s Flying Blue Promo Awards since June so its nice to see two of them back for this latest set of offers. These will be bookable as of November 1st and are good for award travel in the first two months 0f 2015.  The offers this time are for 25% off Business Class between Montreal or Toronto and Europe on both Air France and KLM. Don’t have the miles? You could always consider transferring Starpoints earned via the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express to Flying Blue.What are the promo awards? The promo awards are a discount of 25-50% off the regular Flying Blue mileage requirement for select Air France, KLM, Air Europe and Kenya Airways award ticktes in select cabins.  Due to increases in the regular award mileage requirements some time ago the promo awards are not as grand as they used to be but overall are still considered a great deal when compared to the regular mileage requirements…

Many of you have been asking and we are pleased to let you know  that the much coveted 50% transfer bonus for RBC Rewards points to British Airways Executive Club Avios is back! This offer is for all of you RBC Avion cardholders (Infinite and Platinum) and runs from tomorrow November 1st to December 31st so now is the time to ramp up your spending if you have been planning to take advantage of this great transfer bonus! As always BA Avios are a great option for flights to Asia (via Cathay Pacific), short to medium haul within North America (Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, US Airways see this post here) and even though huge surcharges are added to their UK/Europe redemptions they can still be an alright value because of this bonus transfer based on your spend with the credit card (see my post about Earn & Burn for an explanation). As always though with any frequent flyer program you will have to be flexible in your options when redeeming due to seat availability issues (ie it may be hard to get tickets to Europe in Summer etc…