pokee

True...but there is decent earning potential for me as a second major card: 5x the points at Marriott hotels, 2x points at restaurants and US $ shopping. It's the status and bonuses that keep me hanging onto it!

sailingman22

Anyone using Choice points for travel in Europe this fall should check their reservations and call Choice Customer Service to adjust their point redemption. The hotels that I have booked in Rome, Venice, and Paris just dropped to 8,000 points per night.

Choice points are given for each stay and during promotions. Check out their website if interested.

bigjon94

Hello everyone,

I have been reading Flyer Talk for months now and have reality started to take control of FF points and programs.

My question is pretty specific to Canadian Credit Cards. I already have a travel rewards card with TD. I am a student so after talking with them they let me have the card. I pay off all the balances every month and after 5 months my credit score was updated and shows excellent credit.

However, I would still like to have a second card to help earn more points (TD is 2 TD points for each 1$).

Does anyone have any suggestions as to some good cards that are also accessible to a student? I don't have the income requirements for Amex and even with an excellent credit score I know Amex can freeze your account if it has questions about your income.

So some things to consider

1. I don't mind paying annual fees (so long as it's not 200$+ a year)
2. Interest rates don't bother me because I pay the balance off every month
3. Looking for a travel card that will allow me to accumulate a reasonable amount of points with a good redemption rate

Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

Thank You All!

jerry305

Glad to hear you pay your balance off completely every month. Anyone who can't, or doesn't, do that, shouldn't even be thinking about travel reward points.

It sounds like you have the TD Classic* Travel Visa* Card or something similar. That card carries a small annual fee.

If you decide to quit your TD credit card at some point, remember to find out what happens to your points. In some cases, you need to use those points up immediately. You might be stuck keeping that card until you earn enough points to claim a reward, and then get out. (In contrast, if your credit card earns Air Miles card or Aeroplan, and you cancel that card, your Air Miles or Aeroplan account is held by a program outside of the bank, and the account remains active.)

Generally, if you have a good travel card, you can expect to earn 1% to 2% of your spending in points. So if you spend $200 per month, for example, the value of all your points, over a year, is going to be $24 to $48, tops. Your opportunity to earn points may be better from signup bonuses than on spending over time.

Read through the MilesBuzz! forum thread. You'll find lots of links for travel cards. Pretty much all the cards in there should give you a good number of points in the first year.

somedude3210

For Canadians collecting CX Asia Miles, I just wanted to add to the thread. I originally posted this in the CX forum, but thought it could be of interest to Canadians who rely on CC spend to accrue their miles. I didn't post to the Canadian Miles Buzz thread since there's no real promo with the card.

I've been taking a look at different options regarding this and I actually think the Sears Financial Voyage Mastercard might be the best option for all around spend in Canada when it comes to accruing AsiaMiles.

Everyday spend: $1 = 1 Sears point --> 12 Petro Points --> 1.2 Asia Miles
Gas/Groceries/Travel: $1 = 1.5 Sears --> 18 Petro Pts --> 1.8 Asia Miles
2pts/$ for spend at Sears, 3pts/$ for spend through Sears Travel (both which would be either zero or negligible spend levels for me so I don't consider it a factor).

Annual fee is cheap at $39/annum, and a huge thing (to me) is the card is issued through Chase Canada which means no FX fees. Couldn't find a reference to transfers to Petro Points on the Sears Club website, but it's listed as a transfer partner on Petro Points website.

Amex gold rewards is worth getting for the free Amex points (first year free), but for everyday and even travel spend I don't think it's worth it for Asia Miles accrual.

Everyday spend: $1 = 1 Amex MR --> 0.75 Asia Miles
Gas/Groceries/Travel: $1 = 2 Amex --> 1.5 Asia Miles

Annual fee after the first year free is $150 and FX fees with Amex are awful.

RBC Avion isn't a bad option since $1=1 RBC Rewards --> 1 Asia Mile; $1 travel spend = 1.25 RBC -->1.25 AM. Another poster mentioned transfer promos to AM but I haven't seen any, just the usual tsf promos to Avios and AAdvantage. I like my Avion points but if transferring to miles, I transfer to AA since I value those miles more. Also, RBC Visas will have FX fees and $120 annual fee.

The RBC CX Visa isn't very good IMO. $1 = 1 AM for everyday spend and the only spend bonus are for spend on CX. 2 AM/$ spent on CX certainly is nice but the $ spent on everything else isn't that good for a card with $150 annual fee plus FX fees.

crimedog74

I have been a CIBC Aerogold holder for many years. With the move of Aerogold to TD, I'm curious if there is a better card / program for me.

I fly out of Toronto, mostly to destinations in the U.S.
LA is my most frequent destination but I usually do one European trip / year with the family.
I have been Elite/A35 for the last 5 years and have enjoyed regular upgrades to business class, so I'd like to have that option still.
AMEX is an option for me as it is readily accepted where I shop.
I pay off my bills monthly.
I just started my own business this year and have used up all my AP points on reward travel. So I have no points left, and no loyalty to them.

Basically, I want to accumulate points for redemption on short haul and cross-continental travel.

Should I jump at one of the sign up offers from CIBC Aventura or Gold AMEX?
Should I stay with Aerogold and switch over to TD?
Should I abandon AP all-together and move to a different FF program?
Please help!

Thanks

gonzalesflyer

Gold AMEX is free for the first year, has a 25k sign-up bonus and gets you 2x points on groceries, gas etc, so that is probably better than aerogold. AMEX aerogold has a 30k sign up bonus via referral also is free for the first year but the earn rate is lower. AP may still work out as the best FF program for spending Amex MR points, though upgrades are harder to get than they used to be at the E35k level. You can of course use your points on United to avoid the YQ. You could also get *G on A3 or get the Amex plat for lounge access, forget about upgrades and just take whichever airline is cheapest/most convenient.

jerryhung

Really depends on where you want to go in future
AMEX MR can transfer to BA Avios, so YYZ-LAX is 25K Avios RT + $60 CAD
YYZ-Europe RT in Y is 60K AE, so AMEX AeroGold is 30K, half-way already. But AE has limited availability and high YQ on most routes nowadays @@


In short, I'll get both AMEX Gold (25K MR) and Aeroplan Gold (30K Aeroplan) and start using the Gold cards, and see where they take you, to decide whether to renewal or not. Gold card is the better card in general, for everyday use

CanucksHKG

Seems like there's only 2-3 posts referencing the Citi (CIBC) Petro MasterCard.

Anyone have any past experiences with transferring your Petro-Points to Asia Miles? Do you recall how long it took?

jerry305

• CIBC Aventura offer: CIBC Aventura offers 30,000 points, which is allegedly good for 3 short haul flights. Reality is that points are worth .01 toward airfare, so YMMV dramatically. The window for applying if you plan to transfer to Aeroplan is probably over, because you don't see all 30,000 points until the following statement is issued. So it's not bad, but not great.

• No reason to abandon Aeroplan entirely, because there are many opportunities to earn miles. But you may find other programs are more lucrative.

• Other threads debate whether to hold on to Aerogold. My thought is to cancel by Dec 31, and hope that this means more opportunity for signup bonuses.

• Another card with a good bonus right now is Marriott Rewards Visa. The card awards hotel stays, of course, not airfare, but it's got a great signup right now, and is very good for US$ spending. See MilesBuzz! Canada post here.

• Most important thing is get an Amex Gold for the 25K MR signup bonus.

nabeelj

I've traded my PetroPoints -> CX for other items on CC in the past. The transfer took 5-7 business days.

CanucksHKG

When was your most recent transfer?

It's been 4 weeks for me already

All my other cc took less than a week.

nabeelj

February of this year.

vicsz

Any suggestions on any Canadian Credit cards to supplement my travel spending habit and flying on United ? It's seem like information on Canadian options isn't as readily available as for Americans.

Background and goals:

Do a lot of flying into the US .. predominately on United, (1K status). Stay a lot at Marriotts. I would settle for AeroPlan instead of MilagePlus points.

I don't really care about credit cards no-transactions fee as I usually expense my actual cost (in CND). Already have a TD US Dollar Card for personal purchases.

50K spend on credit cards per year.

Preference to TD Cards (as I have all my accounts at TD).

Have been using 1% cash back in the past but I don't think it's the best option, especially insight of TD getting Aeroplan cards.

Getting airline points is a plus.

I don't have a permanent address in the US, nor do I have an American SIN number, just ITIN. So I doubt I'll be able to get any American credit cards. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Suggestions?
I was eyeing one of the new TD Visa Aeroplan, like the Infinite Card.

Cheers

CorSter

There are no Mileage Plus credit cards in Canada, so Aeroplan is your only choice for Star Alliance.

That being said, Aeroplan just snuck in a change to mileage accumulation on UA flights that seriously devalues the program if you fly them on a frequent basis (discount economy now only earns 50% miles) so it may not be the right program to collect in. Check out the thread in the AC forum for more on this.

I would look towards the Amex SPG Card or the Amex Gold Rewards Card, as those two give you points that can ultimately be transfered on a 1 to 1 basis to a number of different frequent flyer programs. You may find one that suits you better than Aeroplan.