Best travel rewards credit card

[dopeyluvsgrumpy]

Since us Canadians can't get a disney points credit card, does anyone have any advise on a travel rewards program that can help pay for disney vacations?

 

[CDNmouse]

Since us Canadians can't get a disney points credit card, does anyone have any advise on a travel rewards program that can help pay for disney vacations?

I have aeroplan. No idea if it is good or not as I have never used the points yet.

I have a CIBC Visa that automatically gives me aeroplan points / miles when I use it.

Gary

 

[CanadianPaco]

I used my airmiles to buy our DL park hoppers for our next trip.

 

[dopeyluvsgrumpy]

Thanks. I've heard good things about the BMO Mosaik card but theres a yearly fee associated with it....not sure if its worth the fees or not. Also was told about CApital one Rewards Miles card that has no fees. Anyone use any of these?

 

[dis_guy]

Thanks. I've heard good things about the BMO Mosaik card but theres a yearly fee associated with it....not sure if its worth the fees or not. Also was told about CApital one Rewards Miles card that has no fees. Anyone use any of these?

We have the BMO Airmiles card. We booked an airmiles flight (4 of us Edmonton-Hamilton return) for the first time last summer and were surprised to have to cover over $600 taxes, fees or whatever out of pocket. It cost over 12000 points (included a car) plus the fees. Those same seats went on sale for $89 each way so it would have cost less than $1000. I don't feel we got much value for our points which is why we are switching to a much lower interest rate card.

 

[donkthemagicllama]

The BMO card was good when they were partnered with WestJet. It was 1400 points to go to orlando... now that it's over, it's around 3400 points (or more, can't remember exactly).

dis_guy, if you can book on an American airline, the fees and taxes are a lot lower. It's still pretty steep, and there's a "hidden" $20 fee per ticket that Airmiles charges.

Has anyone used the visa infinite cards? (from TD i think)... they sound promising, you book the best fare you can, then use your points to cover it, so you still benefit from sales. I don't know how the point collection and redemption works though...

 

[donkthemagicllama]

Not to hijack this thread, but
CanadianPaco: how long does it take to get the hoppers from airmiles?

 

[CanadianPaco]

2 weeks. It would have been sooner but we ordered them Dec 23rd and all the holidays delayed their arrival.

Side note: DD is 12yrs old so I ordered 3 adult DL 3 day hopper passes. I failed to do my DL homework because they are doing the "pay a child's rate" right through til when we go. It probably would have been better for us just to buy the kid's tickets and save our points. Lesson learned!

 

[mkmommy]

Alaska Air has a mastercard and the last couple of years around this time they have a signing offer of 20000 miles for getting the card. Last year I signed up and put everything on my credit card for 6 months and I got enough points for 2 direct flight tickets on American Airlines from Toronto to LA. I think the annual fee is only $75. The annual membership also comes with a free companion ticket I think but I do not fly Alaska Air so it did not help me.

 

[CanadianDISfan]

I would definitely recommend the Alaska Airlines Mastercard; we get 2 free flights from Seattle to Orlando every year just by using it as our main credit card and you get one $50 companion fare every year as well. When we had a Royal Bank Aeroplan card, we never had enough points to go anywhere!!

 

[hcortesis]

I have pretty much them all, Aeroplan, Air Miles, Aventura, Scotia Travel, Royal Avion etc. The best however in my opinion is the TD Travel Rewards card. You earn 1.5 times for every dollar spent vs. 1 to 1 for the other cards, but most importantly, you can charge anything to your card that is travel related, and use your points (dollars) to pay for any of those travel related charges.

 

[Tiger926]

My hubby is a bank manager at TD, so we have the new Infinite card. It is the best travel card on the market - you get cash back for all purchases (regular purchases are 3 points per dollar) and then when you book any kind of travel, you can apply the rebate to it. If you book travel through TD, you get 9 points per dollar. It adds up very quickly if you put all purchases/bills on the card. It is $120.00/year for primary card, and $170.00 for 2 cards.

You get travel insurance, purchase security, travel website (access to Zagat survey) with travel agents and extended warranty on purchases.

I would encourage people to check it out - we have already used 3 rebates since May. You can keep accumulating the points and then use them once you travel. You call up the number, and they will then verify your travel purchase on the card and once that's done, your rebate is automatically processed. You will see it on your next monthly invoice! It's great!

Just an FYI - TD has changed their travel cards. The card that hcortesis mentioned above has been changed - the structure of this program was changed in May. There are now 3 different travel cards - Student, Platinum and Infinite.

Good luck, Tiger

 

[MARYK1234]

We're considering driving to WDW with our 2 children 9 & 5 from Ottawa. We've heard nightmare stories from just about everyone we talk to. Any advice suggestions? Where to stay along the way.
Thank's

Mary

 

[OntFamily]

I suggest staying away from any credit card that charges an annual fee. I've found that between the annual fees/service charges/taxes, my "savings" are next to nothing.


Currently, my favorite card is MBNA's Starwood Preferred Guest card. You get Starwood points that get you free stays at their hotels (ie Swan / Dolphin, Sheraton, Westin, etc). 0 annual fee.

Every year, we get enough points for 7 - 10 free hotel nights.

 

[dancin Disney style]

We looked at all the cards because we were using the GM Visa and since they no longer lease cars it is of no benefit to us. We opted to go with the Amex Airmiles. The starting bonus was 350 AM plus an extra 25 for a secondary card. The annual fee is only $50 with a free secondary card. The AM are 1/$10 at a sponsor and 1/$15 everywhere else.

We try to live a very cash lifestyle so we don't use credit much. I calculated what we would have to spend to get enough points for 1 flight and it would most likely take us 2-3 years to bank enough points. So, no advantge when you add up the yearly fees to have the card. At least with the Amex and AM we can get park passes or car rentals.

 

[smeecanada]

We use the Mosiak Mastercard with airmiles and no annual fee. We use it basically to pay everything. We're finally lately that airmiles are much use for air travel as it's cheaper for us to fly out of Seattle with the airline fees being so high in Canada. Instead we are now using the points for the attraction tickets and hotel stays.

Have used points for DL passes and Best Western Gift cards. Surprised to see that I can get passes for Seaworld, Universal, Busch, Aquatica and WDW with airmiles for our upcoming trip in July.