As alc mentioned, if you're strictly after a no-fee No-ForExFees card, you should go for the Chase Amazon.ca (or Sears) Visa instead. A lot of people, myself included, applied for the Chase Marriott Visa first, to get the 50K $0 FYF and 1-nite e-cert. But, if you can't justify paying the $120 AF on renewal (they will issue you another e-cert for up to Cat 5) then you'll want to cancel, and THEN you will likely find that you miss the No-ForExFees, so you'll eventually end up getting say the Amazon.ca card anyway, and keep it. You get a $20 credit to your Amazon.ca account on signup, plus you earn 1% everywhere (2% at Amazon.ca) and can redeem as cash rebate, not tied to being a Amazon.ca credit (eg, not like accumulating and being stuck with Canadian Tire money).

The Chase Marriott Card is not easy to churn, though some people are reporting getting 50K and $0 FYF.

As for converting the the 50K Marriott Rewards points, to something like Aeroplan...I would never do this, with Marriott, Best Western nor Choice Privs...their value on hotel stays exceeds the value of the points when converted to Aeroplan, at least from my personal experience.

someone should edit to add mbna sony card of 10k bonus points + wireless speakers.

also regarding hotel points and best western, I ran too many credit hits, and got denied for choice, but looking back I'm not sure if I should regret it because maybe when my score is back up next summer, western @ 60k vs choice @ 24k will be worth it more?

I honestly think only place to redeem choice would be in montreal where taxes on regular rooms are high (19%) and hotels are crazy expensive but point redemption isnt bad (or they havent updated their point redemption systems properly yet, wouldnt be surprised I bank with some french banks and I'm SMH every single time i have to deal with them)

that said you guys think we can get a western 50-60k offer anytime soon and is western a higher end hotel in general than choice? Redemption isnt that great, usually 20k min

edit: cant wait for 6 months, not touching my equifax score till then in order to get approved for marriot's 50k (had only 1 inquiry, limit increase on LOC like a month ago, and clean slated completely before for like 6+ months and they still denied me just because of it, whereas next inquiry 72 hours after chase at BMO World CC automatically approved me lol)

not sure if these these are that great, but the net benefit even after annual fee seems decent to me

BMO Air Miles Gold World Mastercard
2000 Air Miles, $99 annual fee
offer good until August 31, 2014

link is directly available from BMO website
http://www.bmo.com/home/personal/ban...les-mastercard

RBC British Airways VISA Infinite
15K Avios + 15K after 5K spend in 2 months, $165 annual fee
offer good until December 31, 2014

link is from Avios website click thru (not sure if targeted)
http://www.rbcroyalbank.com/credit-c...4B6D7B056C1DAF

I just got a targeted offer from British Airways Avios, 30k instead of regular 15k Avios for sign up.... but problem is the rbc card doesnt waive the $165 fee in any shape or form.... and 30k for $165... especially since unlike TD you cant get annual fee waived with a $5k chequing account... any input guys?

edit: someone needs to edit wiki, add sony card as above, and delete the choice, promo ended on 10th

wow just saw this, i got a personal email from British airways directly, but im going to dig deeper to see if i can get 30k + 15k extra.. for 45k avios maybe $165 annual fee is worth it?

edit: nvm its the exact same thing british airways sent me, so 30k after $5k spend in 2 months with fixated $165 annual fee is not worth it in my personal opinion (especially since you can get amex MR or rbc rewards and convert to avios during 50% bonus)

also dont bother with airmiles, presumably the program sucks but if youre really interested, amex has FYF and offers 1500 airmiles https://www.americanexpress.com/ca/e...ilter=airmiles

air miles has decent value. its easy to redeem for 20 cents per mile value net, after all fees/surcharges.

of course i prefer to not have to pay AF and get the same net benefit, but once no AF offers are on cooldown, 2nd best is better than nothing.

I updated this thread's wiki for link to latest Marriott 50K promo (expires July 31st, 2014).

But, I left the link to the MBNA Choice Privileges card, and just added a note that the promo has expired, and that MBNA has chosen to stop issuing any more new Choice Privileges MCs. We can remove that in another few weeks or month, but for now I left it there in case anyone wants to find that thread discussion.

I abandoned collecting Air Miles a decade ago (or more), but with the free points from the Amex (currently 1500 AMs and $0 FYF, till June 30th) and BMO MC (500 AMs, no AF) cards, I would get those before going for the BMO Gold MC at $99 for 2000 AMs....but, yes, if you are hungry for points, go crazy and get them all.

Without very, very LITTLE effort on my part to spend to collect Air Miles, and just mainly using card signups, plus Amex allowing two different card accounts to funnel points into the same Air Miles account, we've collected over 6000 Air Miles in the past year and a half.

I rarely go out of my way to shop to earn Air Miles, yet surprisingly it's been fairly easy to accumulate the points. We only needed to get to 3000 points for 2 tix from YYZ to YYT, but overshot our target by two-fold! :cool:

is the ba offer a personlized link? or just an offer code?

Assuming the 50% MR to Avios comes back....

Not sure but the guy just one post below was able to post the link, if you can log in and still be able to go through with the application, then its probably a general offer, but for myself it was a personal offer (like one you would get from western or marriot for new cc sign up)

That said i personally dont recommend signing up, 15k on signup, and must spend $5k (only get 1pt per $1 no exceptions like groceries so its horrible) to get 30k avios..
why are you guys so pessismitic, look at the history, theyve been offering it 2x, but atleast 1ce min (usually oct-dec) time... Avios are great for short travel and diversifying your points is essential so yes look forward to this, but also have other types of account open and available as well.

edit: also to add to wiki, mbna sony s offering 10k sign up bonus points + wireless speakers (read it on rfd).. probably could double dip via GCR to get $60 more

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Canadian residents are everywhere :))

Mr prmetime and I both received the RBC BA 15K + 15K after $5000 spend in the first 2 months offer. I doubt that I will take them up on this offer as I believe the past couple of years the offer was for 50K and 45 K respectively (please correct me if I am wrong). Big spend requirement as well and no offer of FYF.

You are right. Back in 2012 I got 50000 avios with 5000$ spent within three months. I was interested in the card at that time, but found it not so usefull and very expensive considering its low benefits.

Now that would be interesting. I could probably justify the high spend for that.