What is your favorite reward credit card?

[Buster]

Wifey is going to be travelling to Houston on the regular now. Unfortunately, AC has shit flight (or no flights) to Houston now. Not sure if this is permanent or temporary.

We looked into the Westjet World Elite card...but it's total garbage. You can max out at $1500 per year in tier lift dollars. That barely gets you halfway to the first tier upgrade. Also, it looks to me like even platinum gets you pretty underwhelming benefits compared to super elite.

[killramos]

I wouldn’t rely on that WestJet card for any more than free bags and the companion voucher.

AC card probably still on for codeshares or star alliance or whatever it’s called though?

I can’t get excited about any of these programs anymore, is Bonvoy still ok? Figure a trip to Maui every year might make it worthwhile?

I still like my avion card in this regard, airline agnostic and they have made redemptions way less stringent over the last few years ( no 15 day notice, and can now book one way for half points which is sometimes useful ). Decent reward % of spend, not amazing. But always decent.

[flipstah]

Bonvoy is useless as Silver or Gold; it’s only nice status in Plat.

If you do those point collecting strategies you can do those dream hotel stays but they changed the redemption program recently that it sucks. Big discussion on FlyerTalk and other point blogs

https://milesopedia.com/en/rewards/m...chart-changes/

[Buster]

Bonvoy kinda sucks donkey dick now.

[killramos]

Yea. This is how I have come to the conclusion this is all more effort than it’s worth and just stick with my avion.

[ExtraSlow]

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Wifey is going to be travelling to Houston on the regular now. Unfortunately, AC has shit flight (or no flights) to Houston now. Not sure if this is permanent or temporary.

We looked into the Westjet World Elite card...but it's total garbage. You can max out at $1500 per year in tier lift dollars. That barely gets you halfway to the first tier upgrade. Also, it looks to me like even platinum gets you pretty underwhelming benefits compared to super elite.

I think if you are flying regularly, the "tier lift" is not a big deal since you'll accumulate sufficient spend on flights to get some form of status. The tier lift is not a major part of that card.

United does direct YYC/IAH flights, code-share with AC, but I think it's a united plane. United IMO is better than AC in terms of customer service.

[bjstare]

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Wifey is going to be travelling to Houston on the regular now. Unfortunately, AC has shit flight (or no flights) to Houston now. Not sure if this is permanent or temporary.

We looked into the Westjet World Elite card...but it's total garbage. You can max out at $1500 per year in tier lift dollars. That barely gets you halfway to the first tier upgrade. Also, it looks to me like even platinum gets you pretty underwhelming benefits compared to super elite.

The only real benefits for the WJ card are:

- Easy to get platinum if you fly regularly- much easier than getting any worthwhile status with AC
- Annual companion voucher, free checked bags
- Easy to redeem points. Most straightforward process of all of them since they’re just “dollars” and you don’t have to fuck around finding flights/routes that give you an optimal points return

And that’s about it. Tbh I wouldn’t really let the rewards stuff dictate which airline I flew with. Back in my days of frequent travel, I just went with the airline that had the best routes. Ended up getting AC and WJ status in the same year haha.

[Buster]

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The only real benefits for the WJ card are:

- Easy to get platinum if you fly regularly- much easier than getting any worthwhile status with AC
- Annual companion voucher, free checked bags
- Easy to redeem points. Most straightforward process of all of them since they’re just “dollars” and you don’t have to fuck around finding flights/routes that give you an optimal points return

And that’s about it. Tbh I wouldn’t really let the rewards stuff dictate which airline I flew with. Back in my days of frequent travel, I just went with the airline that had the best routes. Ended up getting AC and WJ status in the same year haha.

She's already super elite, do it's annoying that we can't really use it for her Houston travel.

Also I never want to travel enough to get status.

[bjstare]

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She's already super elite, do it's annoying that we can't really use it for her Houston travel.

Also I never want to travel enough to get status.

Work travel frequency and quality of life are often directly correlated for young people. As soon as someone has a family the correlation becomes inverse.

[killramos]

That’s deep

[Buster]

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Work travel frequency and quality of life are often directly correlated for young people. As soon as someone has a family the correlation becomes inverse.

What exists "before a family".

Is that like before the big bang?

[SkiBum5.0]

You need a United Chase (whatever their top tier is). Book using the United app in US dollars. It’s a great program and if wifey is business class, she will get 1K in less than a yeae

[max_boost]

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Wifey is going to be travelling to Houston on the regular now. Unfortunately, AC has shit flight (or no flights) to Houston now. Not sure if this is permanent or temporary.

We looked into the Westjet World Elite card...but it's total garbage. You can max out at $1500 per year in tier lift dollars. That barely gets you halfway to the first tier upgrade. Also, it looks to me like even platinum gets you pretty underwhelming benefits compared to super elite.

You said wifey. You seem like the type to say - the wife lol

[npham]

If you hate the family, travelling for work could be a perk!

[sabad66]

RBC has a decent deal on new signups for the WJ WE MC. $450 welcome bonus (spend $5k in 2 months), and also first year free.

Never had this card but thinking of signing up as I want to take 1 or 2 trips with the family (4 of us) this year. Planning on PVR in Mexico and one US trip to California. I’ll def get value out of the checked bags as I think we will need 2 at least for the 4 of us, but when I read about the companion pass restrictions I’m starting to get a bit turned off of it.

Is the companion voucher really that shitty to use? Any other reasons to talk me out of this that anyone can comment on?

[ExtraSlow]

Nothing shitty about the companion voucher. Very simple. Good card.

[RX_EVOLV]

The WJ companion voucher is pretty useless imo. You still have to pay a fee ($119 to $399) and taxes/fees on the second ticket, so you might not be saving that much money, if at all. It's only good value if you have to fly out during a very desirable/expensive time, like $800 ticket to Miami on Friday. But I think they let you trade in the voucher for 4 lounge passes now, which is pretty good! Technically that's $128USD in value there.

The free checked bag perk for everyone on the reservation is pretty handy thought. Our recent trip to Hawaii we saved 5 checked bag fees, which would've been >$300 otherwise I think.

[roopi]

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RBC has a decent deal on new signups for the WJ WE MC. $450 welcome bonus (spend $5k in 2 months), and also first year free.

Never had this card but thinking of signing up as I want to take 1 or 2 trips with the family (4 of us) this year. Planning on PVR in Mexico and one US trip to California. I’ll def get value out of the checked bags as I think we will need 2 at least for the 4 of us, but when I read about the companion pass restrictions I’m starting to get a bit turned off of it.

Is the companion voucher really that shitty to use? Any other reasons to talk me out of this that anyone can comment on?

You can't go wrong signing up for this right now. $450 to use against a trip or two and free luggage. Since FYF if you don't like the card cancel after first year.

[riander5]

Scotia gold amex paired with Scene Visa. Scene points wherever

Change my mind

[sabad66]

So an itinerary like this to Mexico, how would it work with the voucher?


I would take 1 base fare which is $608.02 and replace it with $399? All other fees stay the same? So something like this would be a $209 savings compared to not having the voucher? I suppose $209 off is decent but it’s not really as lucrative as I would have thought before digging in to the details.

To roopi’s point, with FYF it’s probably worth doing but I did want to avoid a credit check if it wasn’t worth it in the end.