aeroplan or airmiles or avion

[Jayson]

Hey guys just needed advice on which one to go with, and which card/company to go with.

Need it for a business, any feedback would be useful thanks

[B17a]

I use both Aeroplan and Air Miles. I accumulate Aeroplan through flying, and AirMiles through my BMO Mosaik Mastercard. I've used both for travelling, Aeroplan you can book first class tix, Air Miles you can't. I think both are about the same for booking, Aeroplan you can go online, Air Miles you need to call in. Hope that helps.

[ExtraSlow]

I have the air miles mastercard, and I find it's a hassle to find a flight that I want. However, i do use the miles for gift certificates and merchandise, and that's been pretty good.

[Jayson]

yeah i think airmiles is the worst so far from what i've been hearing.

I've used areoplan, and they are ok... and i've heard avion is pretty good because they allow you to book with any company

[interlude]

air miles is kind of a rip off, you need to spend alot for so little points. If you look at the rewards, you need to spend alot to get them. On the other hand, aeroplan is easier to accumulate.. but i am getting 1.5 points for every dollar i spent.

I have all 3, and i have been using my cibc aeroplan visa the most.

[ExtraSlow]

Originally posted by interlude
air miles is kind of a rip off, you need to spend alot for so little points. If you look at the rewards, you need to spend alot to get them. On the other hand, aeroplan is easier to accumulate.. but i am getting 1.5 points for every dollar i spent.

I have all 3, and i have been using my cibc aeroplan visa the most.

You need to be careful when you compare points programs. I may only get one miles for every $15 , but I can buy a plane ticket calgary to toronto for 1400 miles. I suspect you need more aeroplan points for that same flight.

[UndrgroundRider]

I have an avion card. It's not a bad program. It's more convenient than most programs, because there's no blackouts. You don't even deal with the airlines, you actually deal with a travel agent and they book the ticket.

Edit: I forgot to mention they buy the ticket from the airline in cash, so it's a normal ticket that you collect frequency flyer points on.

You need to spend 15k for a trip to an adjoining province/state, 30k for a trip within US/Canada, 45k for Mexico, 65k Europe, 100k Asia.

There are some catches though. You have to book at least 1 week in advance. And the ticket price has to be below a certain dollar amount (eg. for a ticket to the states, your ticket must cost less than $750, or they bill the extra to your credit card). If you book smart, you won't go over these limits.

If you do the math, it works out that you get $1 back for every $50 you spend.

I've bought round trip tickets for me and my GF to Hawaii, Mexico, Japan and Chicago all on points. So I can't complain.

[89coupe]

I prefer my TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite Card. You can view the perks here.

http://www.tdcanadatrust.com/tdvisa/...lasstravel.jsp

[JRSC00LUDE]

I like AVION. I've had it for nearly 4 years now and have used it to go to asia, a couple short trips (vancouver, winnipeg) and have enough points to go to asia again so it's pretty sweet imo. Love the hassle free booking, just find a flight and buy it.

[98type_r]

Originally posted by 89coupe
I prefer my TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite Card. You can view the perks here.

http://www.tdcanadatrust.com/tdvisa/...lasstravel.jsp

[UndrgroundRider]

Originally posted by 89coupe
I prefer my TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite Card. You can view the perks here.

http://www.tdcanadatrust.com/tdvisa/...lasstravel.jsp

That's not a bad card either. Its returns are slightly less than the Avion (works out to $66 spent for every $1 returned in air fare). The nice thing is that it has tons of insurance and protection, a lot of which is applicable to all trips you take regardless of how you book it.

The avion has travel insurance, but I don't think it has the trip cancellation coverage or trip interruption coverage. I doubt this is make or break for anyone though, since it's near impossible to qualify for reimbursement, short of an immediate family member dying.

[89coupe]

Originally posted by UndrgroundRider


That's not a bad card either. Its returns are slightly less than the Avion (works out to $66 spent for every $1 returned in air fare). The nice thing is that it has tons of insurance and protection, a lot of which is applicable to all trips you take regardless of how you book it.

The avion has travel insurance, but I don't think it has the trip cancellation coverage or trip interruption coverage. I doubt this is make or break for anyone though, since it's near impossible to qualify for reimbursement, short of an immediate family member dying.

I really like the concierge services they offer. I just booked two restaurant reso's in Vegas through my card. They have a wide array of services in it.

I'm not sure if you can see this link without being a member or not but I will post it...LOL.

http://www.visainfinite.ca/en/td/InfiniteHome.aspx

[Ajay]

Aventura is what I use personally.

It's pretty much the same as the Avion except it's offered by CIBC.

I used to have the Aerogold Visa with CIBC and I switched it up the the Aventura because I found Aeroplan to be quite restrictive and expensive (points wise) when booking flights. Also, with Aeroplan you're limited to Air Canada flights and that's it. Much like the Avion, with the Aventura you can book with whomever you like as long as you have the point qualifications.

[89coupe]

With the TD Infinite Card you can book with any travel agency, any airline, any car rental, or any hotel.

Plus after you have booked you can redeem your TD Points against that booking, regardless of where or whom you booked it with.

[Euro838]

For those that use Avion and go to Asia, you should convert your points to British Airways miles. If you fly on one of their partner airlines i.e. Cathay Pacific, it will only cost you 50K BA miles. The normal conversion is 1 avion = 1 BA mile. They often have a promotion once or twice a year where you can get a 50% bonus when converting Avion to BA miles. So for example, rather than using 100K Avion points to have one person travel to Hong Kong, you could use the promotion to convert to 150K BA miles and have 3 trips to HK. The only real catch here is that Cathay only flies from Vancouver to HK so you have to figure out how to get to VAN but you could use aeroplan or find a seat sale or something on AC or Westjet. Hope this helps.

[Jayson]

Actually Aeroplan lets you fly on singapore airlines as well, any airline part of star alliance

[HRD2PLZ]

I've been happy with my Avion card

[broken_legs]

Airmiles - FREE - Never any seats available, wait on hold for hours, decent airline selection

Aeroplan - FREE - Never any seats available, dont wait on hold as long, different airlines

AVION/INFINITE TRAVEL - 70 bucks/year? - Book on any airline, actually get a seat without booking 4 months in advance


Bottom line, use AVION or INFINITE for purchases and use your airmiles/aeroplan card at the sponsors when you get gas or buy merchandise etc... Definitely not worth it to buy stuff with those credit cards when you can use that money towards avion

The show 'Shopping Bags' on teh womens network did a show where they showed how much money youd ahve to spend on each card for a flight to Some tropical destination

Avion was around 40k, Aeroplan was 70k and Airmiles was 100k

[ckangarloo]

True about the cards but with Airmiles and Safeway you can rack up the points like nothing. The Safeway by my house always has the $100 100 Airmiles bonus promo going on.

[VWEvo]

My two cents;

Avion has a restriction that prevents you from booking seats within 2 weeks of departure. Air miles are generally the most useful at this time. Overall Avion isn't bad, but I would definately go with Aventura as they are esentially the same, but don't have this restriction.

On a side not, you can exchange Avion points, twice a year to british airway points. You actually get 1.5 British airway point for every 1 avion point. The next deadline is May 31.