Your advice/opinion needed - Travel Reward Credit Card

[Ashjen]

Hi Everyone! Please - I'm really looking forward to getting your opinion and advice. I'm lost when trying to decide. In the next several weeks, I will be cancelling my CIBC Aerogold Visa because I find it extremely rare/next to impossible to be able to book an early November flight to Walt Disney Word (from East coast - New Brunswick) for less than 50,000 points in the last year or two. I loved the days when it was no problem to get a ticket for 25,000 but those days are gone, I fear. I just can't find anything like that anymore. I specifically want a credit card that is for travel reward miles. I don't mind paying the yearly fee ($120-CIBC Aerogold) and always found it great to get 2 adults tickets from AC for the tax (1 ticket = approximately $133 / 2 for $266). What a thrill that was!

So...what travel reward credit card would you suggest that I get? If you really don't have an opinion as to what to get, are there any that I should definitely stay away from?? Thank you so much for helping me out with this - you guys are the best!!!

 

[smashing]

I also have the CIBC and find it very difficult to collect points at a fast rate.
I have just opened a travel AMEX with Scotiabank. I'm new to it so I'm still learning but the rewards seem good. You start with 15,000 (I had a promo for 20,000) points when you spend $500 in 3 months. You earn 1 point per dollar and 4x the points on gas and travel. There is lots of different rewards you can cash in for - including disney gift cards . But what I like and what they said is the best value of points to go pay points onto your trip. So if you book a Disney trip for $5,000 you would earn $200 back that you can apply to pay your trip with. I figured if I use the card for my regular purchases from now until my trip I should be able to knock $700-$800 off my trip. That helps eat that exchange rate a bit .
Also the airmiles AMEX looks good too. BMO also has airmiles but the points don't look as good.

 

[pangyal]

I have two that I absolutely love. The first is the WestJet Mastercard. It's a $99 annual fee, but the point ratio is 1.5% per dollar spent, and it comes with an annual $99 companion ticket good for anywhere in North America. It's really easy to earn enough for a free flight every year. The second is the BMO World Elite MasterCard. $150 annual fee, but the point earning ratio is 2% per dollar spent. It comes with awesome perks, like four free airport lounge passes yearly, and not just trip interruption insurance but trip cancellation insurance, which usually costs about $150 per trip anyway.

 

[bltman]

With Aeroplan you need to just charge everything you possibly can to the card to build up enough points to get you into the next tier of their distinction program (which brings down the cost of redeeming points when using market pricing booking). The classic rewards are completely useless.

One thought, if you want to stay in Aeroplan, is to switch to the TD Aeroplan card. As you may recall, the Aeroplan program was going to fully switch to TD, but the threat of a lawsuit from CIBC resulted in the vast majority of accounts being transferred to TD with CIBC retaining some of the cards (typically of those who also banked there). Switching to the TD version of the card will likely get you 15000 welcome miles.

 

[kuhltiffany]

We have the Capital One Aspire Travel World Elite Mastercard. You earn 2 points per dollar and can use them for ANY travel that you book yourself. Flights, park tickets, hotel, car rentals, etc. There is a yearly fee, but it also has amazing travel/medical/car rental insurance which is awesome and so easy to use (we've had to before).

We had Aeroplan in the past and got very frustrated. This card has been so easy to collect points and use them for whatever we want!

http://www.capitalone.ca/credit-cards/aspire-travel-world-elite/?Log=1&EventType=Link&ComponentType=T&LOB=MTS::LCTMMBESH&PageName=CA+HOME&PortletLocation=2&ComponentName=ca_primary_nav&ContentElement=7;Aspire+Travel^TM+World+Elite+MasterCard^®&TargetLob=MTS::LCTMMBESH&TargetPageName=Aspire+Travel+Rewards+Credit+Card&referer=https://www.capitalone.ca/ca-homepage

Whatever new card you apply for, you might want to see what incentives they are offering at www.greatcanadianrebates.ca. They often have great cash bonuses!

 

[hcortesis]

I have quite a few cards, too many actually, so I feel I know them all pretty well. Some AMEX offer 1.25. Some offer 1.5. Some TD offer 1.5. But in my opinion, the two best are the Capital One Travel (as mentioned above) and the new BMO travel card. Both offer 2 - 1, or 2 points per every dollar spent. The Capital One has some tiers when redeeming which is a little bit of a drawback. Also, for a limited time, the BMO card offers you a one time sign up credit of $300 in travel rewards.

 

[mom_rules]

Love my RBC Avion! Not only can you book any airline but you can also book business class seats, no black out periods and do points and cash trips plus a ton of added features- Purchase Security and Extended Warranty Protection Auto Rental Collision/Loss Damage Insurance Travel Accident Insurance Hotel/Motel Burglary Insurance Flight Delay Insurance Emergency Purchases Insurance Chip and PIN technology for enhanced security Earn RBC Rewards points faster with travel bookings through Carlson Wagonlit Travel Choose from other travel rewards including packaged holidays, hotels, car rentals, VIA Rail, cruises and tours
1pt for every $1 spent on the card. Think it's $120 per year?

 

[starvenger]

I think it might be out of date, but Rewards Canada has a chart for side-by-side credit card comparison (http://www.rewardscanada.ca/cccompare.html)

I use the MBNA World Elite MasterCard that I share with my SO, plus I have a TD Aeroplan Infinite for personal/business use. Also have an Amex Blue Sky card, just in case people don't take MC or Visa. Pretty rare, but there's no fee so no risk for me in that regard.

To be honest, I miss having the MBNA Starwood card (which got discontinued). it wasn't great for booking Disney vacations, mind you, but if you wanted to book reward nights at the Westin Paris near the Louvre? It was pretty easy to accumulate the points to do that.

 

[lizzyb]

Hands down.. Scotiabank American express...4 points for every dollar on some items. No restrictions on redeeming points... you can book your own trip online and redeem. Great insurance coverages and annual fee is $99

 

[smashing]

I just received my Scotia AMEX last week and already have $300 to apply towards our trip . Thinking I'm going to use it to get MNSSHP tickets and apply any extra from now till then to our trip

 

[thr33boys]

I have the Capital One Travel Aspire Card as well. We accumulate points quickly as we charge everything and pay off monthly. One thing worth mentioning that I don't think others have pointed out, is you also collect points for purchases you redeem...ie) if a flight cost you $500 - you'll get 1000 points, within 90 days you decide to redeem that purchase, you keep the 1000 points earned. Because of the tiers, I always only make redemptions on purchases over $600. I've redeemed Undercover Tourist tickets, flights and hotels and it's been very easy. Unfortunately, Capital One no longer offers the 10,000 anniversary points to new cardholders anymore.

 

[DVCanadian]

Money sense magazine does a credit card comparison by type of reward
http://www.moneysense.ca/debt/credit-cards/canadas-best-credit-cards-of-2014

We found the travel cards restrictive and moved to cash back (scotiabank). Took 3 years of airmiles to get $800 of rewards. Earned $1200 back with scotiabank card in the first year. We use the cash back for travel.

 

[Nutbean]

I have the TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite Card. No monthly fee as we keep the minimum $5000 in our bank account. 3 points for every dollar spent, 9 points for every dollar spent with Expedia. 10,000 points = $50 in travel rewards. I got 20,000 points for signing up. Super easy to redeem online, travel related expenses qualify. Includes travel insurance coverage. I flew round-trip to Thailand (cost $900) for free this past November. I put absolutely everything I can on it and pay it off in full every month. I currently have another $950 worth of travel points and will use it to go abroad again next year.

 

[Madame]

We also have a TD Infinity card & put almost everything on it. In a little over 12 months we had $750 we could use on any travel-related expenses. + trip insurance of $1000 per person & up to a million in medical coverage including life-flights.

 

[East Coast Fanatic]

I also have the scotiabank amex as airmiles and aeroplane are a pain to use and we usually fly your of maine when we go. I love the flex ability of my rewards to pay off any part of our trip( hotel car rental flights). My DW and I are very regiment in using it whenever possible to make sure we maximize our opportunity to capture points. You can also get a visa to accompany the amex for places that do not accept the amex. This is our second year with the card and have averaged around $1000 worth of travel points for our trip each year. I find it helps soften the blow with the exchange rate as bad as it is.

 

[starvenger]

If I may summarize, I think the majority of responders have some form of "travel rewards" that are NOT tied to air miles or aeroplan.

Rather, we use a card with some sort of proprietary points system that allows for non-restricted travel booking, and in some cases you get a bonus for booking through a preferred site.

where the cards seem to differ is in non points related benefits, such as travel insurance etc. I would definitely use the comparison sites to help determine which card bests suits you in that regard.

Happy hunting!

 

[jeepwreck]

I have a TD Aeroplan Visa and I use it got everything. I usually transfer the money back onto it as soon as I get home so it almost always has a balance of 0. and I always fill up at esso and use both the visa and aero card to get double points. I find it they at up quickly that way


we are going to WDW in Nov too and planning on using the points for flights. I just looked up and round trip from Seattle or Orlando is 25K points and after taxes it would only cost me just over $30 for 1 ticket and I have enough for 2 tickets so all I would need is to pay for my sons ticket.

 

[HumblePie]

For those of you with the scotiabank Amex card, do you have issues where you encounter businesses that don't accept Amex?

 

[starvenger]

I used to have that's issue way back when I had an air miles Amex.

I think the best thing to do is sign up for a free MC or Visa, and carry that as a backup. It doesn't have to give you points (since you're not gonna use it much), but you might as well get one of those because why not? If you like going to movies a couple extra points via a scene visa is not a bad thing.

 

[lizzyb]

For those of you with the scotiabank Amex card, do you have issues where you encounter businesses that don't accept Amex?

There are some places that don't acct it but you can get a back up visa that collects the points as well for those instances.