With the demise of CP Visa, it is time to start thinking about the best alternative. My card comes up for renewal next month so the announcement by Royal Bank is timely. What are the travel cards that are available and what are their benefits?
Since there is not much information on any of the websites, I have to rely of fellow FT members to supply the "dirt" on the cards.
I have been experimenting with a Diners Club (Canada). This is the regular Diners/En Route, not the one with the Maple Lounge benefits - I now get those anyway as CP Gold. My experience so far:
Pro:
1 Aeroplan point per $1Cdn charged
12000 miles for signing up (5000) and using for transactions over $Cdn20 (14x500)
Annual fee only $Cdn65 - worth it for the bonus into miles alone!
Airport lounge access in a bunch of places, particularly Europe, that I actually travel to.
Con:
Not enough places take the card. But ask - sometimes I have been surprised.
I am happy so far, customer service beats the pants off Amex, and I like the shiny silver card.....
I had a Diners card a couple of years ago. Got 10000 Aeroplan points for signing up. I was deceived when I got it. The telephone rep said that I would have access to airport lounges all across Canada! NOT.
Cancelled it and kept the 10000 points. I got even with them!
I agree with out - there are not too many establishments that take it. That's a definite drawback to this card.
For travel purposes Diners is fine since all major hotels, car rental agencies and airlines accept it, and in many foreign countries Diners is as widely accepted as Amex. You are correct, however, about confusion with "Maple Leaf" version of the old enRoute Club gold card that exists in the minds of some of their phone reps. However, the international lounge access program is not bad if you are not a SuperElite/ExecPlatinum or Elite/Gold and thus have no STAR lounge access, or are not flying a STAR partner and need a lounge. (When flying LH, I found the J-class lounge too crowded and sterile, so went to the more intimate Diners lounge at FRA for a quiet and pleasant drink before my flight.)
One used to have the option of taking a revolving credit card, or one that (like Amex) had to be paid in full each month.
Further to my post on this subject, I called Diners and explained the situation with lounge access now available under my Cdn+ Gold status. They faxed me a "change of product" form to transfer my "Maple Leaf Club" card to a regular Silver one. Seems only difference besides MLL access is the out-of-province medical coverage and a lower accident insurance level. As I already have the Ingle Aeroplan trip medical insurance which I bought to replace the Canadian Plus version, I will save about $200 transferring my card this way.
After I hung up, got a call from a market research company. They were surveying people about credit cards with travel point features, and laid out a half-dozen options being considered by various institutions. All I can say is, we are in for some heavy battles among card issuers in the next few months with a variety of enhancements to existing products, and a few new options. So any decision you make now is likely to be reconsidered once these campaigns start bombarding us. Things may be quiet in the sky, but on the ground they've just started to heat up.
I'd be interested in hearing from anyone else who got this survey, so we can get an idea of who they are calling: i.e. are they going after just Cdn+ members, Canadians in general, etc.. I feel one should respect the confidentiality of the specific contents and details of the questions themselves, but impressions about which this could mean are fair to comment on in a public forum like this one.
One used to have the option of taking a revolving credit card, or one that (like Amex) had to be paid in full each month.
Actually, they still have both versions of the silver card. When my final 4k bonus miles post soon (promotion from last year), I'm going to switch my credit card to a new 60-day charge card. They told me that both cards are identical except for the grace period and the fact that the charge card carries no credit limit.
