Originally Posted by
yscleo
When in foreign countries, the Chase Marriott premier card (also recently got that in their first year fee waived promotion with bonus points and 1 night free) is probably the best. The saving onthe forex fee of usually 2.5% is better than the reward points.
Ha, when I used to have the Amerx gold reward card, I also bought GCs at Sobeys, to use at Freshco or Price Chopper.
Let us say I spend $5000 during this trip (I am also going to Singapore and South Korea for a combined period of one extra week, on top of the week in Perth), for those travel related expenses that can be covered by the AMEX Gold Rewards card - and get double the Aeroplan mileage. But I have to spend the 2.5% transaction fee. Or I use the Marriott, where I may get some increase in the Marriott Rewards points, but no transaction fee.
Now, remember that as a SE, much more than 1/2 of my Aeroplan miles comes from personal spending. I use all of those points for reward travels for my family (less so for myself - I am buying revenue tickets so that I can achieve SE status for the following year) - using IKK for J class travel. So, should I use the Gold AMEX Rewards card and AMEX Aeroplus Platinum card and pay the 2.5% extra transaction fee for foreign currency, or do I use the Chase Marriott card?