Originally Posted by
Nathalie.OroLoyalty
Hello Canada
I am a new Amex user as well. I have the AMEX SPG. I received 20K SPG points for spending 500$ in 3 months. I found it somewhat difficult to find points of sale that actually support AMEX. I'm not sure it's worth spending the annual fee when I can't use it so easily. AMEX users, was it the same for you?
@bmabnorth @jerry305 I also called for the 500 points promotion with TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite and was told that it wasn't available
My favorite card to use so far is still the Capital One Aspire Travel. 120$ annual fee, 10K points on anniversary every year = 100$, so the card ends up costing 20$ a year. 2 points per 1$ spend. Downside, can't seem to recommend it to friends. Anyone knows if we can earn points by recommending this card?
Welcome to FlyerTalk!
The trouble with the Cap 1 card, is that it has the same shortcoming at its core, similar to other cards like the BMO Rewards World elite, where you have to spend a LOT on the cards annually, to get value out of these cards. If you have such a resource to tap into where you can throw $100k/$200K or more onto it each year, then you're laughing. No need to sign up for, or churn CCs to get up to par with the REAL FFs. And then from the redemption side of things, you're getting at most 2 cpm (correct me if I'm wrong), though you do then get the flexibility to book whatever revenue fare offerings are available. However, after giving a couple of these spend-based cards a trial, I came out feeling less than satisfied. It was particularly bad from the BMO front, since they require you to book through the BMO Rewards site, and for me, that loses a lot of possibilities and options.
Since I am not a bonafide true frequent flyer, I had never been much of an Aeroplan player until I started churning cards, and even though it has huge holes in it's redemption model, if you can learn how to overcome those obstacles then, at least for our family, it's been the most rewarding program where we are redeeming at 2cpm to +12cpm (mainly long-haul business class). From the input end there have been so many different CC offers in recent years from Amex, TD and CIBC, to earn gobs and gobs of Aeroplan (or convertible 1:1 Amex Membership Rewards) points. And when you have good credit ratings, the churn comes into play and now you're doubling, tripling quadrupling the flow.
Sadly, the torrential rainfall of free points has been significantly impacted lately, with several new policies and system enhancements by Amex. Even the TD stream is tightening up, compared to how free flowing they were handing out their cards when the launched into the Aeroplan race. Fortunately CIBC didn't bow out of the race and moved/adjusted their conduit of points flow. So, while the landscape has changed recently, there's still enough open grazing pastures out there, to keep the game alive. So if you want to look at Aeroplan offers, have a look at the Wiki at the top of these web pages (if you're viewing on a browser), if you want to visit the various threads on Amex, CIBC and TD cards.
You have to decide what type of 'water' you want to play in, and then whether you want to cruise an ocean in a sail boat, or navigate the rapids with a kayak. Both can be satisfying.