Confessions of a YYC Travel Junkie

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by activeStick

It definitely helped! It's funny, my mom literally just got back home to YVR yesterday from a 5 week trip to China and when I told her I was getting these tickets for me and dad to go and I had assumed she wouldn't be interested, she told me she wanted to go with us too, and you can't say no to mom lol, but my 3 tickets cost less than her ticket which she got at a normal price.

I'm waiting for sales to Japan. I love that place, so hopefully we'll see some deals there soon. With their economy crashing so badly, I would have expected some pretty big discounts from ANA or JAL to lure tourists over to spend money.

Their weakening currency can likely have the opposite effect. More demand from North Americans looking for somewhere that isn't ridiculously expensive. Higher demand = pricier flights. I was in Kyoto a few weeks ago. The temples were swarmed with tourists from 6 AM onwards. Everywhere West of Kyoto (Okinawa, Kyushu) were by comparison, very relaxed. Prices felt very reasonable for pretty much everything. My rental car for a week in Kyushu was something like $120 CAD all in.

For a while there (2022 to March of 2024), flights to Japan were also in the very expensive range of $1500-$2000 roundtrip. The introduction of ZipAir (subsidiary of Japan Airlines) to YVR did help somewhat. ZipAir's flights have ultimately settled around the $1000 roundtrip price point for YVR to NRT by the time you truly factor in all the fees. And Air Canada usually seems content with pricing their flights about $200-$300 higher than ZipAir.

But yeah, nothing like pre-pandemic, where YVR to Tokyo was occasionally available with ANA in the $500s and $600s roundtrip. I do keep my fingers crossed that increasing the number of seats back to the region affects Japan prices as well.

[WideReceiver]

Heading to Japan in April. Any airfare leads?

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Originally Posted by WideReceiver

Heading to Japan in April. Any airfare leads?

The aforementioned Zip Air out of Vancouver, if you can find a way to Vancouver. $1,100 CAD or so is what I'm seeing.

If you have Aeroplan points, I'm going there in July as I was able to find 35,000 Aeroplan points on a direct flight from Seattle to Tokyo on ANA. The Seattle to Tokyo ANA flight also isn't too expensive, $600 or so one way from what I remember (you've just got to get to Seattle).

EDIT: If you go to https://matrix.itasoftware.com/ I see a handful of flights around $1,000 CAD from Calgary to Tokyo. Most go through Vancouver and have a longish layover there but that's a pretty good price. The best way to book flights through there is either go to the Airlines' website or if it's multiple airlines, you can click on the itinerary then copy where it says "Copy Itinerary with JSON" and from there, go to the website https://bookwithmatrix.com/ to paste that and book.

[Hanni]

Anyone have any experience with prepaid USD credit cards? It seems like a lot of banks have discontinued them, but apparently Canada Post has one. Our current credit cards charge too much in foreign transaction fees to justify using and it seems cash is becoming harder to use in some locations.

I don't think we travel to the States near enough to justify USD accounts or full credit cards (once every couple of years usually).

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Originally Posted by Hanni

Anyone have any experience with prepaid USD credit cards? It seems like a lot of banks have discontinued them, but apparently Canada Post has one. Our current credit cards charge too much in foreign transaction fees to justify using and it seems cash is becoming harder to use in some locations.

I don't think we travel to the States near enough to justify USD accounts or full credit cards (once every couple of years usually).

A good option for a card is the Hometrust Visa, which has no foreign transaction fees and also has no annual fees. So even if you don't travel there often, it's not a big deal.

https://hometrust.ca/

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat

A good option for a card is the Hometrust Visa, which has no foreign transaction fees and also has no annual fees. So even if you don't travel there often, it's not a big deal.

https://hometrust.ca/

I used to use (and recommend) the Home Trust card a lot. I find, along with many others, that it can have issues in some countries, or the tap won't work, but inserting it will. And also seems to trigger 'fraudulent charge' warnings way more than other other cards when using it outside the country. It's like the Home Trust tech is way behind other cards or something. But it might work better in the U.S. than other countries.

These days, I would highly recommend the Wise card. It just plain works everywhere. Have used it everywhere from Africa to Europe to Asia with zero issues.

The Wise card is a similar concept to the pre-paid cards. You load it up with funds in a variety of different ways. But there is a key difference between Wise and the prepaid Canada Post or Canada Big Bank cards (do those still exist? I thought Canada Post discontinued their card). Those cards are still ripping you off with 3.5% exchange fees, they're just hiding it inside the terrible exchange rate they use.

Wise was built around offering the lowest fees possible, and any time you exchange currency with it, whether you're buying something abroad, or withdrawing from the ATM, they're using an exchange rate that is truly *very* close to the real exchange rate. At most, I would say they're usually taking 0.5% of your money in the exchange, which is about 7 times better than the big banks.

Another decent free option for an actual credit card is the Rogers World Elite Mastercard which essentially nullifies the typical foreign exchange fee by giving you 3% back on U.S. dollar purchases.

[WideReceiver]

Thoughts on long-term winter rentals and preferences from these destinations?

Cancun, Huatulco, Los Cabos, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta. We want somewhere where English is common, scenery, culture, relaxation, decent prices for a few weeks.

[Hanni]

Thanks! I'll check out the Wise card. The Canada Post one looks like it still exists, I couldn't find any through the big banks though.

It is very difficult to find information on exchange rates for different cards.

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by Hanni

Thanks! I'll check out the Wise card. The Canada Post one looks like it still exists, I couldn't find any through the big banks though.

It is very difficult to find information on exchange rates for different cards.

I would say that if a card's website / promo material doesn't go completely out of their way to brag about zero or low foreign exchange fees on their front page, there's close to a 100% chance it's the standard 3% that *nearly* every major bank, prepaid card, and credit card are taking from a person any time a purchase is made in foreign currency or they are withdrawing from the ATM in a foreign country. Sometimes it's 3.5%, sometimes it's 2.5%, but the average is 3%. They usually hide this info deep in the terms and conditions.

It's probably a lot easier just to focus on the cards that do offer zero (or close to zero) foreign exchange fees, because there are relatively few of them compared to the vast ocean of cards that charge the typical 3%.

In some cases you have to dig a little deeper to see how they're claiming 'no foreign exchange fees'.

For example with the Rogers cards you're getting cash back of 3% on foreign exchange purchases, which is equivalent to the typical foreign exchange fee.


Actual Credit Cards

Amazon Prime Rewards Mastercard

Rogers Platinum Mastercard - no annual fee

Rogers World Elite - no annual fee

Home Trust Preferred Visa - no annual fee

Scotiabank Gold American Express

Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite

Scotiabank Platinum American Express

Wealthsimple Visa Infinite - stay tuned, looks interesting, currently in testing


Prepaid Credit Cards

(Buy things just like you would with any credit card, but also useful for withdrawing from the ATM in foreign countries and avoiding fees).

Besides ATM withdrawal, I like to use these in other countries for things like restaurants, transit, small purchases, etc.

For things like a rental car and major purchases, you likely would still want to use a normal credit card (insurance, etc).

Wise Prepaid Visa

EQ Bank Prepaid Mastercard

Wealthsimple Prepaid Mastercard
--

Article: "What is the best way to exchange money or pay for things in a different currency?"

https://yycdeals.com/what-is-the-bes...erent-currency

^^ This article needs a bit of updating (Brim is useless now, HSBC World Elite is discontinued) but the rest of the info should still be solid.

--

[Johnny199r]

Originally Posted by cmyden

I used to use (and recommend) the Home Trust card a lot. I find, along with many others, that it can have issues in some countries, or the tap won't work, but inserting it will. And also seems to trigger 'fraudulent charge' warnings way more than other other cards when using it outside the country. It's like the Home Trust tech is way behind other cards or something. But it might work better in the U.S. than other countries.

These days, I would highly recommend the Wise card. It just plain works everywhere. Have used it everywhere from Africa to Europe to Asia with zero issues.

The Wise card is a similar concept to the pre-paid cards. You load it up with funds in a variety of different ways. But there is a key difference between Wise and the prepaid Canada Post or Canada Big Bank cards (do those still exist? I thought Canada Post discontinued their card). Those cards are still ripping you off with 3.5% exchange fees, they're just hiding it inside the terrible exchange rate they use.

Wise was built around offering the lowest fees possible, and any time you exchange currency with it, whether you're buying something abroad, or withdrawing from the ATM, they're using an exchange rate that is truly *very* close to the real exchange rate. At most, I would say they're usually taking 0.5% of your money in the exchange, which is about 7 times better than the big banks.

Another decent free option for an actual credit card is the Rogers World Elite Mastercard which essentially nullifies the typical foreign exchange fee by giving you 3% back on U.S. dollar purchases.

Do you like Wise over Wealthsimple? I have the Wealthsimple card and think it’s great.

[getbak]

I looked into cards during the summer as I was planning to travel to Spain in the fall. I tried applying for the Home Trust card but it would not process my application for some reason.

I eventually gave up and got the Amazon MasterCard. It served me well for my trip and even though you pay the foreign transaction fee, you get bonus "cash back" to negate the fee (if you're Prime member). It's not really cash back because they give it to you as an Amazon gift card, but if you are a Prime member who regularly orders from Amazon, it's just as good as actual cash back.

About two weeks after I got back from my trip and probably 4 months after I tried to apply for it, I got an email from Home Trust saying my application (which never completed submitting) was denied.

[Winsor_Pilates]

Heading to San Diego beginning of February.
2 couples & our 2 year old boys.
Any advice on family friendly locations to stay?
Leaning towards and Airbnb so we get a full kitchen/living room etc but open to hotels with suites at decent pricing.

[cmyden]

Originally Posted by Johnny199r

Do you like Wise over Wealthsimple? I have the Wealthsimple card and think it’s great.

Wise, Wealthsimple, and EQ Bank are the only 3 of these types of cards I would consider.

Wise is not necessarily better than Wealthsimple. Purely from a numbers standpoint, you can make the argument that both Wealthsimple and EQ Bank are better than Wise. Because those two give you cash back on top, and allow you to earn interest on your balance.

Wealthsimple: 1% interest on your balance, 1% cashback

EQ Bank: 2.5% interest on your balance, 0.5% cash back

Wealthsimple also offers higher daily ATM withdrawal limits.

But I signed up with Wise before Wealthsimple and EQ Bank came out with their cards. And I don't keep a large enough balance on this type of card to bother making it worth my while to switch.

Also note with EQ Bank I believe you may still need to use your EQ Bank account to load the card.

-

[JonDuke]

Anyone get a passport renewal lately? Curious as to what the current turnaround time is. Planning on heading south first week of Feb.

[Amethyst]

Originally Posted by JonDuke

Anyone get a passport renewal lately? Curious as to what the current turnaround time is. Planning on heading south first week of Feb.

I got it before the strike and it was the 10 days plus mail time that it said on the website. (Might have been a day or two less.)

[calgarygeologist]

There is a new alcohol policy at the US lounge at YYC (probably also applies to the international lounge) where there is no booze until 11am. This must have changed recently because it wasn't long ago when I could get a beer before my 10:30 flights.

Also, the US Nexus is down to only two scanner kiosks for some reason. Hopefully this is only temporary.

[Ryan Coke]

As far as the US bound nexus machines, I don’t use them often but if I recall now they only do a quick biometric Face ID then you continue to talk to the border agent. No more questions so it is very quick, and if they don’t work then you just go and talk to the agent and do the face scan there. So while it looks worse, they’ve actually streamlined it substantially.

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by Ryan Coke

As far as the US bound nexus machines, I don’t use them often but if I recall now they only do a quick biometric Face ID then you continue to talk to the border agent. No more questions so it is very quick, and if they don’t work then you just go and talk to the agent and do the face scan there. So while it looks worse, they’ve actually streamlined it substantially.

Yeah, we went through in November and they were using facial recognition machines but they were slightly different and they still had 7 or 8. These machines appear to be a bit quicker and they only have two at the moment.

Also, it has been a few years since I flew to Houston with WestJet and I didn't think it was possible but their setup/operation has gotten even ####tier at that airport. I thought they had the crappiest gate available before but the Houston airport apparently found an even crappier gate for WestJet. What a dump.

[Engine09]

Was just looking at booking an Air Canada flight with Aeroplan miles and saw the miles change for the exact same flights after each identical search within 20 mins:

1st search: 51,574 points
2nd search: 52,274 points
3rd search 57,274 points

Am I correct is assuming Air Canada are doing dynamic pricing that is adjusted with every single search that shows interest in that flight?

[Acey]

Yup, I think there's not a piece of paper on the planet long enough to codify all the factors that go into the point pricing on any given search.