VANCOUVER ISLAND WINDTALK

Hey,

Not sure if this is useful here. I am looking at getting new Visa or Mastercard.

What do people think is best for Aeroplan type or travel points Visas?

I want to fly to Maui or Baja once per year.....and I spend a ton on gas.....and gear.

TD Aeroplan...$120 fee?...15,000 miles for signing up.

Capital One?

Thanks in advance,

K

my wife just signed us up for an alaska air card, i don't know the details but she said it was a good deal.

If you can, look for a card that has no foreign transaction fees. I have one just for travel abroad and for online purchases from the USA. You can save about 2% on the currency conversion. It seems small but it adds up.

I found Aeroplan points so hard to use. Limited seats so Ive found it always hard to fly on the dates I wanted. Seems like to many points too, I recall something like 35000 points Victoria to Cabo with huge layovers along the way. If you get and Aerogold it a point per dollar so you have to do some pretty heavy Visa spending each year. Then you have to pay Aeroplan fees and airport fees and taxes anyway so your still out hundreds. I said screw it.

I recommend the CIBC Aventura. Same thing buck per point but less points required. Any airline any time plus you can use additional points to cover taxes and whatever else. Just for signing up for the card last year they gave me enough points to fly to OBX return covered all costs. I recall that was about 30000 points. I think they still offer 20000 for just signing up. Look it up it's pretty kick ass.

Aeroplan...likewise....blackout periods, limited flights per seat. Got brutal for a while there, though I hear it has improved a bit.

I have RBC Avion, been very happy with it. Takes more points per flight, but you get to choose any airline up to a specified dollar amount -- find a cheap flight below the cap, upgrade to business class! The only thing is $120/year plus $50/year for 2nd card, so you better be earning minimum 1 flight per year or the fees would make it not worth it. You have to pay taxes and fees, so $200 on a $800 flight. Makes it maybe "half price flying" versus a free flight. (if you don't spend enough, better to get a free rewards card and just buy your flights)

CIBC Aventura highly regarded...I think more or less similar to Avion.

Amex Gold has a deal on right now....they waive $150 fee and give you 25,000 bonus aeroplan points for sign up, once you spend $500 in first 3 months. The key is you can transfer them to aeroplan any time....so transfer them, then cancel. That would be a good free option for a year.

If Mex and Hawaii is your interest, I hear the Alaska card is a good deal, because of the companion fare and waiving fees on things like luggage.

Alaska card is the best for your objectives. I did a lot of research before we went that route. Companion fare works for Hawaii and mex unlike westjet. That means two of us are flying return for under $500 next month. Points program is a partnership so some destinations are lucrative such as Lima, Peru return for 35,000 (10,000 shy of what you get to sign up) which is about the same as San Diego but would be really expensive if you had to pay.

I use Capital One Aspire World Travel Mastercard

$120 /yr but you get $100 in points on renewal so it really costs $20/yr
It's easy to use, just buy something travel (hotel, flights, rental cars etc.) related and then you can "erase" the purchase. No blackouts. Up to $600 there are tiers 0-$150 = 15,000 pts, $151-$300 = 30,000 pts etc.. but there are tricks to maximize your points(for flights anyways) because it asks you how many tickets you bought and how many you want to redeem

Check out this selector tool:

http://credit-card-selector-tool.moneysense.ca/

Keith for what you are describing, a trip to Maui, the Alaska card is the one to go with.

Aeroplan is the card to go with if:
1- you're looking to make really expensive flights cheap. For instance flying to the arctic is the same points cost as flying to Regina.
2- you don't plan to use it for routes where regular seat sales come up. For instance I was looking to fly to Baja this year and it was going to be 40,000 points. Why do that when you can easily get a seat for $550 to $650? 40,000 points can get you to expensive Central American destinations.
3- You can book "multi-city" travel for the same amount of points. For instance, it is 25,000 point from Victoria to Montreal, it is 25,000 points from Victoria to St John's, and it is even 15,000 to 25,000 points for Mtrl to St John's......but you can fly "multi-city" for the same as one round trip as long as it is within certain regions. So for example last year, I flew from Victoria to Montreal for a week, then Mtrl to St John's for 2 weeks, then St John's to Victoria, all for 25,000 points. Another example is flying Victoria->Peru-->Chile, for the same amount of points as only Vic-->Peru.


All the travel cards tend to have similar costs, insurance benefits, etc.... but it wouldn't hurt to compare those details.


Lastly, go for the Infinite card if you qualify for it. It generally gives you better multipliers at grocery, gas, and other retail purchases where they are trying to encourage more people to use cards. You're welcome bonus is usually more too.

Todd

Aeroplan - charges a "surcharge" on top of taxes (and sometimes an additional "fuel surcharge") that I have found is nearly equal to the cost of other airline tickets. For example I am flying to Europe next month and it was 72,000 points on Aeroplan plus about $1,000 "fees and taxes and surcharges" for coach. I have regular fare on another airline now for about $1,200 cash.

Go to their website and check out a few sample trips to see what it actually costs. I try to use my Aeroplan miles on United and other partner airlines which do not have the surcharge.

I would stay away from it, Alaska plan is awesome.

American Express covers a ton

our system in canada for collecting points is the best in the world.

aeroplan does have limits on the redemption though. i do a lot of travelling and always seem to spend the points though. back and forth to ontario is a great way to spend them 25 000 points gets you a return ticket that can be 700-800 bucks. taxes are usually around 100 bucks.

also doing long hauls to africa or asia is a good use.

if you are booking tickets to places in the 'low' season, you are not making good use of the points.

for example right now van to paris is about 900 bucks. it costs 60 000 aeroplan points and 500 taxes. stupid to use points for tickets like this.

another great use of aeroplan points is hotels. you don't pay taxes.

Amex just released the Reserve Card. annual fee 899. 50 000 points, worth minimum 500 dollars, or upwards of 1200 if you are using them with saviness. 200 travel credit with amex travel. one partner ticket short haul ($400) plus lounge access. on my last round with an amex card with lounge access, i went in 25x in one year. once for 7 hours in heathrow. it's worth it's weight in gold if you ask me.

The TD aeroplan visa is good too, and if you clal them at the end of the year and threaten to cancel the card, they will offer you 10 000 aeroplan points just to stay on. you have to pay the annual fee again though of 120, so they cancel out...

anyways, hope that's helpful.

Kevin

Good one Kevin.

One thing I forgot to add... you can play the game of playing the cards against each other. Use it for a year to get the welcome points promo, then quit and move to another card (or threaten to quit, see if they'll give you the promo again). With the amex one I have heard rumours of quitting and signing up again within the same year....25,000 points a pop.

Only thing to be careful of: some of the cards like avion, if you quit, your points are cancelled, they don't transfer anywhere. That is the good thing about aeroplan ones, the points are held by a 3rd party.

ya, all of what has been said,

AND

Alyeska...

I have a credit union mastercard that collects choice rewards "points". With the platinum you get 2 points for every dollar spent, and they can be redeemed through their travel agency dollar for 100 pts for anything you can book online +$26.00 admin fee per purchase (once for 3 flights to mex for our family eg.), or you can convert them to cash and applied to your bill.

http://www.choicerewards.ca/

very easy to collect, and to spend, no blackouts, book anything. I even heard someone use them to buy a bcferries 10 pass.....although you could do this easily by just converting the points to cash....


we would search our flights online through expedia etc, and then call the agency to book giving exact flight numbers, times etc. Even packages through sunwing, nolitours etc. all bookable.

my 2c.

I went for the Alaska Card....$20,000 limit. haha That could be a problem!

thanks all for great advice.

See Kus - I do take advice.....