Air Miles Credit Card holders - pros & cons?

[Disney Addicted]

I'm looking at replacing my current credit card (visa) for a Air Miles credit card. Seems there are 4 different cards right now.

Which do you Air Miles credit card holders find best? If I opt for American Express - is it widely accepted? Or is Mastercard accepted more?

2 American Express
- 500 bonus mile rewards OR 150 bonus mile rewards (depending on card)
- 1 mile every $10 at air mile sponsors OR 1 mile every $15 at air mile sponsors
- 1 mile every $10 at other eligible gas/grocery/drugstores
- 1 mile for every $15 everywhere else OR 1 mile every $20 everywhere else
- $65 annual fee (waived 1st year) OR no annual fee


BMO Shell Mastercard
- 200 bonus mile rewards
- 1 mile every $20
- 1.25x rewards miles at Shell
- no annual fee


BMO Gold Air Miles Mastercard
- 150 bonus miles rewards
- 1 mile every $15
- 1.25 miles at Shell stations
- 25% discount on # of reward miles for flights
- $99 annual fee

 

[Gigi22]

I find that some smaller businesses do not take American Express. Happened to me twice in one mall on the same day recently. In future, I think I will just tell the store that they have just lost my business. After all, stores want to sell things.

 

[donkthemagicllama]

i have a BMO gold mastercard that was grandfathered from the old mosaik one with the westjet promo (that was amazing, 1400 miles to MCO from YYC, direct no less). Anyway, I've still got it, but have started using a Visa Infinite card instead.

Somehow airmiles flights seem to cost quite a bit in taxes and fees compared to other "miles" programs.

i also used to have the Amex card. it's more likely to be not accepted than mastercard or visa. i rarely had trouble with my mastercard, and i've never had trouble with my visa. i believe amex charges businesses more than the others, which is why they're more likely to not accept them.

 

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

I find that some smaller businesses do not take American Express. Happened to me twice in one mall on the same day recently. In future, I think I will just tell the store that they have just lost my business. After all, stores want to sell things.

There is actually a reason that some places do not except Amex it;s because they charge a higher processing fee to the merchant then either Visa or Matstercard.

 

[Gigi22]

Yes, they told me all about it at the time. But, I only want to shop at stores where I can collect points--so those two stores are now crossed off my list permanently.

 

[crazyfordisney2000]

We have the gold mc and I use it primarily to redeem Disney tickets. It takes us on average 2 years to redeem 4 tickets. I feel it is better use of the miles. The tickets are free, whereas flights you still have to pay taxes. We live close enough to the border that flying from the States costs almost as much as the taxes they charge you on the air mile tickets!

 

[tgropp]

I have 2 credit cards. The Amex SPG card which is good if you like staying in Sheraton hotels. Plus they were giving out 20,000 points which equalled 2 Free nights stay at the WDW Dolphin. $120.00 annual fee. My second one is the BMO M/C. I have also had this one since it used to be connected to WestJet. This airmiles card is beneficial for me because we usually use the airmiles for flights during the Christmas season. With the 25% off flights, it works out to 2350 airmiles and $170 in taxes. Regular fares at this time of year are usually $700 plus taxes. It all depends on your circumstances.

 

[ChisJo]

I had an CIBC Aeroplan visa until recently. I had it for 3 years. I really liked it, BUT I had a problem with the high interest rate (CIBC would not budge on the rate despite my impeccable credit) and the high annual fee ($129). There was an aeroplan card with a lower annual fee, but then gaining points would have been harder and taken longer. That being said, I pondered changing that card for a long time. I'm not a huge credit card user. I prefer to use cash as I can be one of those people who can get out of control with credit cards (luckily, I recognized this early on in my life). It took me 3 years to accumulate enough points to get a flight for 2 to Florida (with smaller points redeemed here and there). I realized rather quickly that spending the $129/year wasn't worth it for me since ideally I could spend that money on a flight in 4 years anyways.

I don't shop exclusively in stores to accumulate points, and I don't use my card with the sole purpose of gaining flights. I switched cards for many reasons, but truly it wasn't worth it for me.

 

[CindyV]

we have both american express and bmo gold. we got the american express one and got the bonus airmiles for signing up and using it. But we dont use it regularly. we use our bmo gold as our primary card. We get the majority of our airmiles from that card. We also put our gas on it from shell and some of our bills go on it.

 

[teekathepony]

I have an AirMiles AMEX and I don't get turned down too often by stores not accepting it. I carry a backup Visa and my debit card, just in case. Watch the AMEX bonus airmiles deals though, they sometimes have better ones! My DH got 1000 bonus airmiles for applying for one! I pay a small fee each year ($50 I think) and get an airmile for every $15 spent, or every $10 at airmiles sponsors. It's a great way to save airmiles and I've gained a lot this way.

DH has a BMO Mastercard, same deal as mine, he got a bonus for this one too. His is the gold and it gives us a discount on using our airmiles! (ie, a flight normally costing 4200 airmiles costs us just 4000 or something like that) We have our bills set up to pay from this card and then we just pay the card, we get airmiles for everything. We gain enough airmiles this way to keep us as gold collectors, and have been able to get two flights to Florida every year for the past 3

 

[My 2 princesses]

I have both the BMO Airmiles card and an Amex airmiles card. I don't believe in paying annual fees, so I just get the free ones. Amex is widely accepted and my card of choice, though I play around with the BMO ones to avoid big bills on one statment.

 

[dancin Disney style]

I have the Amex platinum....I find most places take it. I also have the TD Drivers Visa as a back up, it's good for oveseas travel where they don't take Amex at all.

I was recently looking at the mastercard only to get the bonus miles....I still might go for it. They are offering 1000 miles and the fee is $99. I'd have to spend way more than $99 to get that number of miles. I'm not sure if that's a public offer though...I'm a gold collector.

 

[Jozymouse]

I also have the mastercard and the amex (airmiles) so that way i have the mastercard for the many places that dont accept amex. I used to take the cards with no fees until amex offered me the platinum card for free for one year and also added extra miles if i took this offer and i did. Not sure if i will renew it or go back to the free one. I am tempted to keep this one since it has all the travel insurances + car rental insurances for a low annual fee. I used my points in August 2011 for 2 Universal Orlando tickets and now i have enough points for one 7 day Disney ticket + one Universal Orlando 2 day ticket. I also pay close attention to all the promos to get extra miles (Ebay 3X, Toys R Us 3X etc) and that helps alot! LOVE the airmiles credit cards!!!!! Try to get both if you can because Amex is accepted at only half of the places i go to......

 

[networktek]

i switched my cards to the amex air miles and the bmo airmiles my other rewards card have nothing good with there rewards and would take forever to collect we book our first flight to Los angelas from toronto and it only cost us 2500 airmiles per person

 

[Disney Addicted]

Thanks for all the feedback!!

We finally made our decision while in Costco on the weekend. I just found out the Air Miles Amex can be used in Costco. That pretty much clinched the deal right there and then. We tend to purchase a lot of groceries and other items from Costco. Plus I'll get 600 welcome bonus air miles.

And we will get a backup BMO Air Miles Mastercard for places that do not take Amex. This means closing our RB Visa but it is just a low-rate one that does not give any kind of reward so it does not matter to me.

As soon as our local Zellers has been closed/converted to Target, I am closing my HBC Mastercard. I purposely kept the limit low as I was only using it for the double-points that get automatically converted into Air Miles. Paid at the cash register with the HBC MC, and then promptly paid the MC with my debit card. I never use it for anything else.