For the record, anyone who think Air Miles gives points "at a very low rate" needs to have a closer look. I'm an Aeroplan Elite, but I carefully consider where I direct my points, and often Air Miles is the better value if your actually planning to use the points for travel.

For example, you buy $70 worth of gas at Shell and normally you would get about 4 points. If I buy premium grade (both my cars take it) and make a store purchase (lets say a $10 lottery ticket) I get 10x points, bumping me up to 40. I do that once a week for a year and my spend is $4160 (including the lottery ticket). that would net me 2080 air miles. By the way, that doesn't include any extra point for using an Air Miles credit card.

I live in Halifax, and because I hold a Air Miles Mastercard my travel redemptions are reduced by 25%.

Off season rate Halifax to Chicago or New York (with M/C reduction) is 956 Air Miles, so I actually have more than enough for two tickets. As an added bonus when you redeem it's like calling a travel agent, they simply buy the tickets, so there's no limited alotement of seats. I usually take my wife shopping in New York a couple times a year using them, AND I can normally get Aeroplan miles on the air Miles redemption trips (usually take Continental from Halifax to New York just after Thanksgiving).

$4160 at Esso gets you what, 1386 aeroplan miles. Well, your almost halfway to a $20 Uniprix gift card, enjoy!