credit cards w/ travel points

[FreakyFriday]

I'm wondering whether anybody else here uses a credit card with a travel/rewards points feature. And why you chose the one you use.

I recently received my CIBC Aerogold Visa card and I'm already wondering whether I should have gone with the TD Gold Visa travel card. Cheaper annual rate, no restrictions on which airline, no travel restrictions, i.e. blackout periods. Now you're probably wondering why I didn't do my research ahead of time... it's because after a 12 hour flight, my brain had the processing power of a bowl of pudding (chocolate of course) and consequently got sucked into the sales pitch at YVR.

 

[ilovetolickher]

CIBC Sucks

The Aero gold has way to many restrictions. and who knows how long Air Canada is going to offer it. Your best bet is the TD card or the RBC Avion. Both have no restrictions on the use. I just booked a few tickets for the south peak time with no problem.

 

[drlove]

Re: CIBC Sucks

Your best bet is the TD card or the RBC Avion. Both have no restrictions on the use...

I was looking at the terms for booking reward travel with my Avion card in the rewards catalogue. Apparently, a Saturday night stay is required. Also, it says that the tickets are non-refundable. I'm assuming that they'll let you change your travel dates if need be though... does anyone know for sure??

 

[drlove]

Btw...

The Aerogold card does offer what's known as "Avenue Rewards" for a higher points redemption. It's supposed to eliminate the restrictions, which I agree are a pain especially when you need to book about three months ahead of time to get anything during the Summer months.

There is also the Aventura gold card, which works much the same way as the RBC Avion platinum card.

 

[Shades]

I have used Aerogold for years, for business, and never had a problem....booking has been pretty easy and maybe it is just luck but have not run into a problem with black outs.

Have also used TD Travel and booked travel through them. Only problem there is that they redeem the points in blocks of 5 or 10k points. (Can't remember the number now) So if you are short a few points of a block you leave a few thousand points on the table as it were.

The Aerogold lets you use all your points and if you are short a few points, buy them up to the reward level at a $1 per mile rate calculation. I've done this going to Japan, wasn't a bad deal at the time.

Amex have reward cards as well...you can, depending on the annual fee get up to 1.5 miles per dollar...but I think that card costs about $350 annually....so you need to do your arithmetic carefully.

Cheers

 

[FreakyFriday]

Thanks for the articulate responses.

I'm still considering the TD travel visa card. However since I've already activated the CIBC card so I'm definitely out $120 (the annual fee) if I switch to the TD card. That's $120 I could have lavished on some lucky lady! Back to the pros & cons, pros & cons...

 

[xarir]

Aeroplan has recently introduced merchandise rewards. It's not cheap - an iPod for example costs you something like 115,000 points. But if you're into point collecting for reasons other than travel it's a reason to stay with Aeroplan and by extension, the CIBC Aerogold Visa.

Personally I use RBC Avion but that's because I get a card with my regular banking package. At work we use AMEX which gives us Membership Rewards. These points are convertible one for one on Aeroplan, Delta SkyMiles and a few others I can't remember. You can also cash in points for merchandise as well.

 

[buckybruce]

I've used TD travel card points twice now....pretty good deal...any travel you do book gets 5 points per $, instead of the just the usual one...so it pays to book all travel with them...$99 fee...they will be very close to quoting against all the discount internet sites, maybe $50-75 more against the lowest price you can find anywere else...

I'm happy with them.

 

[drlove]

TD Points...

I've read that every 5000 points are worth only $75.00 toward travel et. al. Not bad, but with RBC 30,000 points gets you a free airline ticket up to and including $750.00, compared to a $450.00 value with TD.

 

[drlove]

...However since I've already activated the CIBC card so I'm definitely out $120 (the annual fee) if I switch to the TD card...

Not necessarily. Remember that the fee you've been charged is for the coming year. Therefore, if you decide to cancel, you're obviously not using the card and are therefore entitled to (at least) a partial refund.

I cancelled my Gold Amex after a few months because I had switched to another card, and they refunded me the full annual fee. Never hurts to inquire.

 

[drlove]

The great thing about using free travel cards for me is that when I combine my expense account/business spending with personal spending, the points add up rather quickly.