Whats the best Credit card for airmiles?

[Homer_J]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Who says you have to fly anywhere with your Air Miles? Go buy a schwack of DVD's with them, or other fun stuff. They're not just for plane tickets, you know!

Exactly. Last year we cashed in our Aeroplan points and Airmiles for Futureshop & HBC giftcards. We got an HDPVR and a PS3. Not bad.

[Sylvanfan]

Originally Posted by Homer_J

Exactly. Last year we cashed in our Aeroplan points and Airmiles for Futureshop & HBC giftcards. We got an HDPVR and a PS3. Not bad.

Depends though...I was looking at Aeroplan merchandise and often a $400 item costs more points to redeem than getting 4-$100 gift cards. I did some number crunching on my card and in 7 years I collected about 170,000 Aeroplan points through my CIBC card. In that time I spent $840 in card fees. In terms of merchandise....I think I could get like $1300 worth of gift cards or equivilent merchandise. Whereas with a 1% dividend card with no fee the 160 grand I spent would have returned me about $1400 when I factor in the lower dividend rate until I get to a certain level and I would have paid no fees, I'd be well ahead.

Of course I could use the 170,000 miles for a flight(s), but with that I still pay fees and likely don't end up that much further ahead. Unless you travel a lot, plan to travel a lot, or spend more than 75g's a year on the card it's probably not worth it. I even did some crunching last night on a 1% CIBC dividend card versus the 2% card, and unless you're spending at least 23k a year it's not worth getting the 2% card over the 1% one. But thats with Aeroplan and NOT Air Miles.

[Winsor_Pilates]

Originally Posted by truth14

So with the BMO Mosiak Westjet card, can you still get any Westjet flight for a max of 1600 air miles?

If you book before July 31 you still get the deal. I'm at 1450 points, and plan on booking a trip before July is over.

[Fobby]

Originally Posted by Sylvanfan

Depends though...I was looking at Aeroplan merchandise and often a $400 item costs more points to redeem than getting 4-$100 gift cards.

Don't plan on using Aeroplan to redeem merchandise as it will never equate to the same as 1% or even 2% because you can also collect miles for the miles you fly vs the money you spent on the ticket.

AP is perfect if you want to get a cheap flight ticket. Example, a $500 GC from Futureshop will set you back 63000 points. Where 1 flight from Calgary to Toronto will set you back 25000 points. The flight usually cost $600, but you do pay the airport tax which cost me 100 bucks/ticket. Still a saving of 500 bucks with 25000 points.

The PS3 bundle is 73K.. that's almost 3 return flights to anywhere in NA... If you cash out your 170k in AP, you would get close to 1400 in FS GC...

[Sylvanfan]

I was looking at a Kayak that Aeroplan would give you for 69,000 points. That same Kayak costs $350 at Sport Chek. I'm not sure how those pre-paid American Express Cards work, if you can use them anywhere that takes American Express, but I can get $500 worth of those for 67,000 points as an example.

[Fobby]

I would take the cadillac fairview as there's a sportchek at chinook and marketmall.

[Sylvanfan]

I don't live in Calgary though...closest Cadilac Fairview Property to me is 400km away.