Airmiles vs Aeroplan

[Sunshine25]

Is it just me...or does it seem like it takes forever to accumulate Airmiles. Last year I was able to redeem 1 Universal pass. Still trying to collect enough to get another pass for this year.

Is Aeroplan any better?

 

[ngm]

You do have to work at building AirMiles, but if you do work on it they can rack up relatively fast. I don't really do Aeroplan (other than on actual flights). If you watch for bonus miles on airmilesshops, check flyers for Metro/Sobeys, get your gas at Shell, etc., you can build up air miles.

 

[Donald - my hero]

You should pop over to the AIRMILES ALERT thread if you want some tips on how to grow those in a real hurry! I've been able to rack up almost 2000 since Jan 1st. Aeroplan though?? Good grief they seem to take forever and if you don't fly it's extremely hard to find anywhere you can actually earn them AND then on the odd occasion we have managed to get enough the rewards take forever and a day to actually get here .. a voucher for a hotel stay took over 6 weeks whereas i received my camera from Airmiles in a week.

 

[starvenger]

As a rule of thumb, I'd use Aeroplan to book flights (as the non-fluctuating rewards are still the best use of the points) and Air Miles for everything else.

But to be perfectly honest I don't find either one to be super great in the grand scheme of things (YMMV of course). Our primary card is a MBNA World Travel card (or whatever it's actually called) which is effectively the same as the Aspire/Infinite/Avion cards, and we can usually use that to book at least one flight a year. I do have the TD Aeroplan but mostly because my TD account lets me waive the annual fee and because I needed a Visa card.

 

[Sunshine25]

Thanks.
I have an AM Amex and I am now looking at getting the BMO AM Mastercard. There are 2 - the regular card that gets you 1 AM for every $20 with no fee, and the the World Elite - which is 1 AM for every $10 but $120 annual fee.
Trying to determine if its worth the $120/yr to get the Elite (I would get 3000 bonus AM which is 1 Disney tix

 

[starvenger]

My feeling is that the Premium levels are generally better than the basic ones.

Ignoring the bonus AM, it costs 3350AM for a basic 3-day WDW pass.

Your spend to get that would be $67,000 on basic and $33,500 on elite. If you go by that sole calculation alone (note: you probably shouldn't, but I can't think of what else to factor in), the $120 (+12AM) spent is probably well worth it.

 

[kuhltiffany]

I think it depends on where you live. When we lived in Ontario it seemed to take forever to get AM, but now we live in BC there are a lot more offers and opportunities here...

Is it just me...or does it seem like it takes forever to accumulate Airmiles. Last year I was able to redeem 1 Universal pass. Still trying to collect enough to get another pass for this year.

Is Aeroplan any better?