Capital One Aspire Travel World MasterCard Review

1. 1. Joseph

   I personally feel it’s hard to be the Aerogold Infinite card. The Hassle-Free cards do give you a better points earning power so that you can get more points faster but you have to consider the other side of the equation.

   Nothing beats Aeroplan for points redemption because of two things. Flight Zones and stopovers. While the other cards offer a points for dollar exchange with the Aeroplan you can do some pretty amazing things.

   Ex: I live on the east of Canada and for 80,000 points I can fly to Sydney Australia (as a stop over of several days) then fly to Hong Kong and back to Halifax. If you were “paying with points” that would be huge, but it’s a flat rate with Aeroplan.

   Hassle yes. But if you have the time, totally worth it.

   Jun 18th, 2010 @ 9:41 am

2. 2. PawDoc

   I currently have a Capital One Platinum No Hassle Rewards card. I have to say redeeming my points truly has been no hassle. I have only redeemed them once for booking a hotel stay. I clicked on redeem for rewards –> it gave me a list of possible purchases I had made that could be redeemed –> I selected the hotel bill and it was paid off the card.

   Any body know if 2 people have separate cards/accounts if they can pool their points? I would like to have my wife get this card.
   I have tried different reward cards in the past, but this one is super easy.

   I carry around a CIBC dividend card VISA and the Capital One M/C.

   Jun 18th, 2010 @ 10:18 am

3. 3. steve_jay

   I am completely clueless on travel reward cards. Can you buy a ticket, hotel room or vacation package on expedia or travelocity and still use the reward points on a card like this one?

   Jun 18th, 2010 @ 10:33 am

4. 4. Elbyron

   PawDoc, you can simply call Capital One and get a second card issued on your account for your wife to carry. If you want separate accounts, you can still transfer points between the accounts, though two accounts means two annual fees. Simply log in to the rewards center, click on the “Transfer Rewards” tab, and fill out the account number and name of the person you want to transfer to.

   steve_jay, the answer is yes. Absolutely anything classified as travel is eligible for redeeming points. I’ve booked a hotel with Expedia.ca and can confirm that they consider this to be travel. I haven’t tried travelocity, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t qualify.

   Jun 18th, 2010 @ 12:48 pm

5. 5. Calvin

   Have been using the MBNA Smart Cash for quite a while but just applied for this new Rewards card. Thanks!

   Jun 18th, 2010 @ 12:53 pm

6. 6. longtimereader

   how do you compare with the 2% american express gold card — I know it’s no longer offered but quite a few people have it . thanks.

   Jun 18th, 2010 @ 12:56 pm

7. 7. PawDoc

   I could get a second card for my wife, but I use my card for business purchases only. I would like to have one of these for her personal purchases and have her redeem all of the biz reward points. My fear is otherwise CRA would view this as a taxable benefit with the rewards.

   Jun 18th, 2010 @ 1:38 pm

8. 8. chuck

   I have had the CIBC Dividend platinum for years. the dividend rewards are pretty good – we get back about $800 / yr – don’t know how much we spend, but it’s insane maybe $50k/yr.
   BUT, it’s not really “fun”, and I’m cheap when it comes to travel so wondering about switching just to force me to spend a bit on travel or other things.
   When I’ve done the math in the past it just didn’t seem to add up though by how many points you get and what they are worth. Can anyone tell me if they’ve had the dividend and switched to points?

   Jun 18th, 2010 @ 2:18 pm

9. 9. Elbyron

   Even if you redeem all the points on a personal-use card, it is still a taxable benefit, isn’t it?

   Jun 18th, 2010 @ 3:11 pm

10. 10. FrugalTrader

    @ Elbyron, my understanding is that if the card is used for personal use, then the rewards are not taxable. However, an accountant should be consulted for the official word.

    Jun 18th, 2010 @ 3:30 pm

11. 11. colin49

    I thought that I read that points must be redeemed within 90 days of charge, does this mean I can’t stockpile the points?

    Jun 18th, 2010 @ 4:15 pm

12. 12. Elbyron

    chuck, your dividend platinum card only gives you 2% return once you’ve spent $35k on the card, and it gives you 0% (nothing) once you’ve spent 50k. Thus, if I did the math correctly, the highest you can possibly earn in a year is $656 cashback (after deducting the $79 fee). For someone who only spends 30k, this card would only pay you back $281 after fee. Furthermore, the only non-typical travel insurance is a 15-day medical coverage.
    If you switched to the Aspire card, you could get $980 (after fees) per year on 50k of spending, (30k gets you $580) and there is no limit on how much you can earn. But in order to claim this cashback, you have to travel and charge it to the card. And when you do travel, you’ll have much better insurance coverages, as listed in my review. About 1.5 years ago, I switched from CIBC’s crappy no-fee dividend Visa to the Capital One Miles Plus Platinum Mastercard, and have not regretted it! I still carry the old Visa as a backup though, since it’s free.

    Jun 18th, 2010 @ 5:02 pm

13. 13. Elbyron

    colin49, you can stockpile unlimited miles for as long as you like. They never expire. The 90-day thing is that you can only redeem the points on a travel charge that was put on your card in the last 90 days.

    Jun 18th, 2010 @ 5:05 pm

14. 14. chuck

    Elbyron, really? didn’t know there was some limit over $35k!
    What I’ve always been confused about is whether I would actually get better value from travel redemption than cash back? Would seem that it would be better to have $500 cash over a $500 credit towards travel. Or is my comparison wrong?

    Jun 18th, 2010 @ 5:42 pm

15. 15. Elbyron

    I agree that $500 cash is better than $500 that can only be redeemed for travel. But the comparison here is $656 in cash vs $980 worth of travel. In that case, which do you think is better? I chose the latter.

    Jun 18th, 2010 @ 5:53 pm

16. 16. chuck

    if that’s the case then I think I’m sold. that plus it gets me to start thinking about vacations rather than just seeing a small amount deducted once a year from my monthly bill. thanks for your help

    Jun 18th, 2010 @ 6:12 pm

17. 17. Kevin

    Great review! Any information on how they determine which purchases qualify as “travel”? You mention in the opening that the reward miles can be redeemed for car rental, does this have to be associated with an airline ticket purchase? Can I rent a car locally and pay for it with reward miles?

    I attempted to find this information online but couldn’t find any specifics.

    Jun 19th, 2010 @ 10:25 pm

18. 18. Elbyron

    SavingMentor, if your flights are always so expensive, then you’ll probably have plenty of them costing more than $600 after taxes & fees, right? In that case, you’ll never have to worry about tiers, as they disappear after $600 and the redemption becomes 100 points for each dollar of credit.

    Kevin, I’ve always wondered that myself, but I haven’t been able to find any specific criteria for determining what is considered “travel”. I’ve never tried renting a car locally (and probably never will), but I did stay at a local hotel on my wedding night and it was eligible for redemption.

    Jun 20th, 2010 @ 1:40 am

19. 19. Future Money-Bags

    Just to clarify:
    I have never been on any big trips or vacations where I needed to purchase travel insurance. I know that when I do plan one soon, I should purchase insurance for the entire trip correct? And that can cost hundreds $$.

    How can I check what insurance or coverage my current credit cards cover?

    I also am not really interested due to the fact this card gives points on dollars spent. Whenever I fly or stay in hotels, I ALWAYS find super cheap deals. This has made me stick with mastercards that offer airmiles for every few dollars spent.

    What is the best card to use to get points/mile travelled?

    Yes I lack much knowledge when it comes to this catagory. And since I am always eager and willing to learn anything about money and finances, I think this is important.

    Jun 20th, 2010 @ 8:02 am

20. 20. Henry

    Future Money Bags: I have been looking into Trip Insurance myself. I found buying trip interruption and trip cancellation insurance to be complicated due the huge number of exception clauses on the contracts. I would just use one from your credit card, but one should not be surprised if some of the claims are denied.

    On the other hand, travel medical insurance is pretty important and one must get it regardless of the situation. It is unlikely that one’s claim will be rejected like an emergency visit to the hospital. I found there were two competitive options for a single trip:

    1) Kanetix.ca: offers the cheapest travel insurance I could find with a 2 million dollar coverage
    2) Travel Cut travel agency: offers a 1 million dollar coverage that includes emergency medical services due to outdoor adventures

    Other options are more expensive due to high coverage limits like 10 to unlimited coverage. I find such high coverage limits are unnecessary in a single trip.

    Jun 20th, 2010 @ 11:01 am

21. 21. The Passive Income Earner

    I have been using the ScotiaGold Passport VISA card from Scotia Bank. It’s also points based but I only get 1 point per dollar spent. Redeeming has been really easy as well. No blackouts. They pretty much have a mini-travel agency. Anything you book through them using your credit card gives you an automatic discount.

    I will have a look at the MasterCard since it would appear that I could accumulate points at twice the speed. With ScotiaGold, the 50,000 points is 500$ (last time I used it anyways). Looks like the same applies to the Capital One but you get 2 points per dollar.

    Jun 20th, 2010 @ 12:00 pm

22. 22. Play the odds

    100 points for $1 of credit seems quite expensive – no?

    That means that it would cost you $30,000 of spending for a domestic flight while something like Aeroplan would cost you only $24,000 worth of spending. I suppose though an advantage over an Aeroplan like program is that trips to Europe would offer greater value for your points – as those tickets cost 60,000 with Aeroplan while you can purchase such tickets for nearly the same price as a Canadian domestic flight.

    I’ve got the MBNA Platinum Plus Travel Rewards. $1 per point with a similar point system to Aeroplan. No blackouts. 2500 points on your anniversary. The fee is normally $89/year, but they waived it for me since I’ve been with them for nearly a decade.

    Jun 21st, 2010 @ 10:34 am

23. 23. Elbyron

    I haven’t been able to find out any details on the MBNA Travel Rewards card’s redeption system, but it seems like you can get close to 2% return. However, like the Avion card, you are restricted to using their travel agency to book your free travel. That means no hotwire or priceline, and so even if you get a $600 rebate from $30,000 of spending, perhaps that ticket could have been purchased for $500 elsewhere. Also, there is no travel medical insurance, no baggage insurance, and limited trip interruption insurance. No price protection either, but that’s a rare benefit: currently only available on Capital One and Citibank cards.
    Overall, there’s nothing about the MBNA Travel Rewards card that beats the Aspire card, even with the MBNA fee waived, since most people would argue that the medical insurance alone is worth the $120/year.

    Scotia’s card are hardly even worth comparing. Though it has good insurance coverage (almost as good as Aspire), it only earns 1% return and their travel agency is too expensive.

    Jun 21st, 2010 @ 1:05 pm

24. 24. Pete

    Does anybody know if they charge extra for a second card?

    Jun 21st, 2010 @ 2:06 pm

25. 25. FrugalTrader

    @ Pete, there is no charge for supplementary cards.

    Jun 21st, 2010 @ 4:01 pm

26. 26. Rico

    From what I understand, the best two options for a travel reward card are the Aspire World MasterCard from Capital One and the TD First Class MasterCard.

    Any thoughts on which has better value?
    Thanks

    Jun 22nd, 2010 @ 9:58 am

27. 27. Elbyron

    I thought it was pretty clear in the section “How Does Aspire Compare to Other Travel Cards?” that the TD First Class Infinite Visa was a close competitor, but as it only offers 1.5% on most purchases, it gets trumped by Aspire. The only way Infinite beats Aspire is when more than 16.7% of your credit card spending is for travel booked through the TD travel agency. And since TD doesn’t give you points on your free travel (believe it or not, Capital One does), you actually have to have more than 18.7% of your annual expenditures to be for travel, in order to beat Aspire.

    Jun 22nd, 2010 @ 12:48 pm

28. 28. FrugalTrader

    Elbyron, you certainly know a lot about this card! Have you received yours yet?

    Jun 22nd, 2010 @ 1:09 pm

29. 29. Elbyron

    Most of what I know comes from having the Miles Plus Platinum card, plus a fair bit of research. I haven’t applied for the Aspire card yet, because they currently cannot upgrade my existing one. They told me I can still apply for the Aspire, but I would not get any credit for the annual fees that I have already paid on my current card. So, rather than paying fees on two cards, I’ll wait until my current card is up for renewal before I apply. Or, maybe they’ll fix their system and get the upgrades working before then! I am a bit worried that by going with an upgrade I won’t get the 35,000 bonus miles, and that once an upgrade process is in place I won’t be able to apply as a new customer anymore to get that bonus!

    Jun 22nd, 2010 @ 1:37 pm

30. 30. sourbh_b

    I have an Amex SPG card (free for the first year), an MBNA Travel Rewards Elite (from my previous MBNA SPG MC), and an RBC Visa Gold No Fee card. How does the MBNA and Amex compare to the Aspire?

    Jun 22nd, 2010 @ 4:02 pm

31. 31. Elbyron

    I gave a comparison of the MBNA Travel card in comment #24 above. Basically it lacks insurance coverages and forces you to use their travel agency.

    The SPG card cannot be compared directly because its points are usually converted to Aeroplan or other airline miles, and redeemed for flights based on distance, not cost. If you usually fly out of a small town or from the East coast, or if you fly during peak times then the costs can climb very high while the # of Aeroplan miles remains the same. First class flights usually have high value for the miles too. So if you are among the minority who can benefit from using airline miles (and are willing to put up with the hassles of such programs), then the SPG card is better for you than Aspire. It also has the nice bonus of a free weeknight stay at any Starwood hotel once you reach 40k spending, and you can get good value for your points by redeeming for Starwood hotel upgrades.

    I think most people fly economy and can get pretty good deals on their flights and hotels, especially if you use priceline. For these people, the Aeroplan miles don’t have as much value and thus the return from the SPG card would be less than 2%. And I personally don’t care much about the Starwood benefits, as I’ve never stayed at one (even though I’ve travelled to the U.S. many times) and I probably never will.

    Jun 22nd, 2010 @ 7:51 pm

32. 32. Steve

    A quick question about the tiers: I chatted online with a C1 rep (”Stan”) and asked him how many points a flight at $250 would be – would it require 35 000 pts? His reply: No, it would require 25 000, with the other 10 000 being credited back to my account. Have I misunderstood something here? It seems to contradict what was said above.
    Thanks,
    Steve

    Jul 9th, 2010 @ 12:05 am

33. 33. Elbyron

    Steve, that definitely contradicts the redemtion tier system that is clearly outlined on their website. I seriously doubt that you would get 10,000 credited back. My experience with the reps who handle “new sales” leads me to believe that they have not been very well informed about the products they are selling. Not once have they been able to answer one of my questions without putting me on hold and consulting with a supervisor or some kind of documentation. Fortunately, the customer service (for existing cardholders) is much better.

    Jul 9th, 2010 @ 12:41 pm

34. 34. Steve

    Yes, I called this morning and the person I spoke to confirmed that the tiers are in effect. But while I’m at it, here are two other questions: (1) I will usually be buying several flights (usually 4) at a time, so the total cost will almost always be over $600 (the top tier). Does this mean that, in effect, I will never have to bother with that tier structure? And (2), do you know how competitive the TD travel agency is? 9x for points seems to be a pretty good deal (except, there is the pesky issue of the annual fee – see below). Here’s how I have worked it out as far as a quick comparison of the TD and Cap 1 cards go assuming annual spending of $30 000:

    Capital One

    • $1 spent = 2 points
    • Putting $30 000 on the card gets you 60 000 pts = $600 for travel (not including sign up bonus in first year, or the $20 fee in subsequent years, which makes it $580)

    TD First Class Travel Infinite Visa

    • $1 spent = 3 pts
    • 20 000 pts = $100 for travel
    • Putting $30 000 on the card gets you 90 000 pts = $450 for travel. But, if you buy your tickets with the TD travel agency (not required), you get 9 pts for every $1 spent. So, if you spend $4000 on travel out of the $30 000, that comes to 126 000 pts in total = $630 for travel (so, at first slightly better than Cap One, except that there is the $120 annual fee, which knocks it down to $510)

    Does this look about right to you?

    Thanks again.

    Jul 9th, 2010 @ 2:46 pm

35. 35. LSO

    @steve – this is Laurel from Capital One. First, I want to apologize for the misinformation that you received from our call centre. I can confirm for you that you would need all 35,000 reward miles to redeem a ticket costing $250.

    Jul 9th, 2010 @ 3:28 pm

36. 36. rookie

    Elbyron,

    good review. you have mentioned that the renewal bonus of 10000 points can be used up as 100$ towards annual fee. but 10000 points can be redeemed as only 75$. is annual fee treated different compared to cash back? how sure are you about this?

    Jul 9th, 2010 @ 4:25 pm

37. 37. Elbyron

    I personally haven’t used the TD Travel Agency, but I’ve heard from others who have said that they can offer you any flight that you are able to find on Expedia or Kayak or an airline’s website. So they’re pretty flexible and can probably get you good value most of the time. You can’t use priceline via TD though, and it could potentially save you a fair bit on hotels (not so much for flights).

    I like your example, it makes the differences very obvious. The way the math works out, you have to spend over 23.4% of your total credit card expenses on travel with TD’s agency in order for it to beat the return of the Aspire card (with annual fees factored in). Actually, you need to have 25% of your expenses as travel when you include the free travel (the higher % is because you don’t get points on the free portion). Let’s say I spend $4000 each year on a vacation via TD and $26,000 on other stuff. After the first year I would have 126,000 points which I can use to reduce the price of the vacation to $3370. But now I only earn 3370*9 + 26000*3 = 108330 points, giving me only a $542 credit the next year (less $120 for the annual fee makes it only $422).

    With Capital One, you get points when you buy the travel, and you redeem for a credit later on. Unlike TD, you get to earn points on the free travel (the redemption amount). In the example above, I would get a $700 travel credit (counting the 10K annual bonus), for a net of $580, every single year!

    True, the redemption tiers do add some restrictions, but so does having to book everything through the TD travel agency. Everyone can have their own opinion on which is worse, but you can’t dispute the math: Aspire pays back more dough unless you spend more than a quarter of your annual expenses on travelling!

    Jul 9th, 2010 @ 6:22 pm

38. 38. Elbyron

    Rookie, this is not a cash-back card. It does have the convenient benefit of giving you a 1.5% return in cash if you should want that, but really this is a travel card and most people are going to use it to redeem for travel. Those interested in cashback should look at Capital One’s other cards (you can get a “up to 2%” card whose earning tiers are better than most competing cards).

    Of course, 10000 miles by themselves isn’t enough to redeem on travel, but consider the example in my comment above. Spending $30,000 plus the bonus gets you a total of 70,000 points, worth $700. Minus the $120 fee, you have a net gain of $580. The formula is 2% – $20 no matter what your annual spending is. The only caveat is that the points are only worth 2% if you travel enough, and can work around the redemption tiers.

    Jul 9th, 2010 @ 7:38 pm

39. 39. Steve

    A quick addendum: I got interested in all this because my CIBC visa aventura is up, and I am a little put off by the $170 annual fee (for two cards). Aventura also has a tiered redemption schema, but not annual bonus to offset the annual fee. Also, pts are accumulated on a 1 to 1 basis (except on groceries and gas, I believe). Suffice to say, it turns out it pretty much blows….

    Jul 9th, 2010 @ 8:09 pm

40. 40. FrugalTrader

    Oops, I asked the question on RFD and it was here the whole time. My concern was that if I booked a really expensive trip, say a $2k cruise, and only had 100k points, would I be able to use the points?

    The answer is in the online redemption system where they’ll allow you to split the cost of travel up into “tickets”. So in this case, I can split the trip into “2 tickets”, thus allowing me to claim my full 100k points in exchange for 1 of the tickets.

    The more I look at this program, the more I like it!

    Thanks again Elbyron!

    Jul 15th, 2010 @ 4:34 pm

41. 41. Dom

    Any worry that they will just cancel the annual bonus at some point in the future?

    Jul 17th, 2010 @ 11:56 am

42. 42. FrugalTrader

    Dom, since they created the program, they can always change it. However, if big changes are made, typically existing card users are grandfathered, meaning they retain all the benefits they signed up for, but new users would get the new rules.

    Jul 17th, 2010 @ 12:09 pm

43. 43. Scott

    Have a membership at Costco? Try this combo:

    Aspire (1.5 cash back on all, or 2% on travel) + Smart Cash (3% cash towards groceries and gas) + Costco TrueEarnings American Express (3% cash for eligible restaraunts)

    Oh yeah there is nothing like going all out to save small amounts of cash. Haha.

    Cheers.

    Jul 19th, 2010 @ 7:52 pm

44. 44. susandee

    What would be the best rewards card if you wanted to save up for a first class trip to europe or australia? It doesn’t seem that the TD first class or Capital One Aspire are the best for that…? thanks

    Jul 20th, 2010 @ 3:53 am

45. 45. FrugalTrader

    @ susan, if you want to travel first class, I think Aeroplan will give you the best bang for your buck.

    Jul 20th, 2010 @ 7:14 am

46. 46. susandee

    Thanks…so would CIBC Aerogold Visa Infinite be the best choice? The Amex has a 499. annual fee… I am just around a couple of thousand a month shopper on my card…sometimes more, sometimes less, but will be putting more on it for sure.. Again, thanks so much for your input

    Jul 20th, 2010 @ 3:49 pm

47. 47. FrugalTrader

    @susandee, I believe AMEX has a lower cost version as well (~$120 annual fee). Another option would be going with the AMEX spg card which can transfer 20k spg points for 25k aeroplan points. Personally though, I have the AMEX spg free for the first year, and there are a lot of retailers that do not accept AMEX. If I wanted to be dedicted to aeroplan, then Visa is probably a better bet.

    Jul 20th, 2010 @ 4:04 pm

48. 48. Elbyron

    Though the Amex (either AeroplanPlus or SPG) has a potentially higher earning rate, it is much harder to accumulate large enough amounts of spending due to its limited acceptance. I agree that Visa Infinite is the best choice for Susan, because of her desire to redeem for first class travel. She could easily get 4% or better return.
    But Susan, please be aware that a round-trip flight to most parts of Europe requires 85,000 miles. If 10% of your charges are for gas, groceries, and drug stores, then you would need to spend $81000 to earn this much… about 2 – 3 years of saving up your Aeroplan miles based on your current spending.

    Jul 20th, 2010 @ 4:41 pm

49. 49. susandee

    ok, so when one redeems through TD Infinite can you book first class? If so, then it sounds like the advice is to go with them. I agree that Amex is risky, given that not all merchants accept it, so I will rule Amex out. How is it to book through the TD Centre? Also, I currently bank with BMO and have accounts with RBC Dominion Securities… My plan is to save for a long time and take a nice trip overseas, so a couple of years of savings or more, is ok with me :) appreciate the advice…as it’s a tough decision to make.

    Jul 20th, 2010 @ 5:37 pm

50. 50. FrugalTrader

    @susan, you can redeem for first class with TD and the Capital one card. The difference is your return on spending where you would get 1.5% or 2% respectively. With an aeroplan card, you’d get around 4%-8% return (from my experience) by using first class.

    Jul 20th, 2010 @ 5:51 pm

51. 51. susandee

    So would CIBC aerogold be the best? How about Avion…. again, keeping in mind that I want to book a first class trip and am willing to wait.. i am also open to td infinite and capital one aspire…. decisions, decisions..

    Jul 20th, 2010 @ 6:07 pm

52. 52. Elbyron

    Yes, I believe CIBC Aerogold (or Aerogold Infinite if you qualify) is your best bet. Avion has maximum prices on the tickets you can redeem for, so it’s no good for first class travel. And as FT said, TD and Cap1 won’t give you as high of a return as the CIBC Aerogold card will, when redeeming for first class travel.

    Jul 20th, 2010 @ 6:24 pm

53. 53. susandee

    Well, I now have an Aerogold Infinite with CIBC on its way….but should I have gotten the Adventura Infinite? Again, looking for first class travel, when I can save up for it…. IT seems that Adventura points transfer into Aeroplan points, but not vice versa…. sigh…. thanks

    Jul 22nd, 2010 @ 4:50 am

54. 54. Elbyron

    I’m pretty sure Aventura doesn’t have the 1.5 points for gas & groceries, so in terms of earning your first class travel sooner, you got the right card.

    Jul 22nd, 2010 @ 12:46 pm

55. 55. susandee

    It actually does give the 1.5 for gas/groceries and it transfers 1 point adventura to 1 point aeroplan…the only catch seems that points can only be transferred in 10,000 increments… not so bad? I wonder if I should call them and switch it? Not clear on the difference between adventura and aeroplan…?

    Jul 22nd, 2010 @ 5:06 pm

56. 56. Jerry Hung

    Just have both TD and Aspire cards, easy, I do

    I don’t pay TD annual fees due to Select Service, so that makes it easier. I do have to pay the Aspire annual fee though

    Use TD via TD Travel centres only (for 4.5% return)
    Use Aspire for everything else

    Shoot, now what do I do with my other cards.. AMEX 2%, TD Gold Elite, MBNA 0% BT (never used for non-BT anyway)…. ha ha

    Jul 22nd, 2010 @ 6:42 pm

57. 57. susandee

    hi again, any advice/info on aventura vs aerogold infinite cards? thanks
    suse

    Jul 23rd, 2010 @ 2:18 pm

58. 58. Elbyron

    Well, if they both have the 1.5 gas & groceries, then the differences are pretty minor. The advantage to the Aventura is that you have more flexibility in redeeming your points, but you probably wouldn’t want to use them because the best redeption value for you is to buy first class tickets with Aeroplan miles. The other slight advantage is that Aventura points don’t expire, whereas if you’re buliding up under AeroGold they will vanish 7 years from the date they are added. But if you plan to redeem every 3 – 4 years, it won’t matter. As you’ve pointed out, the disadvantage to Aventura is that you have to transfer to AP in 10,000K increments, and it may take a few days for the transfer to complete.
    So, by taking Aventura you can get some minor benefits that probably won’t apply to you, but have to put up with the hassles of transferring the points. I have no opinion one way or the other… you’ll have to decide this for yourself.

    Jul 23rd, 2010 @ 3:38 pm

59. 59. susandee

    THanks Elbyron, I think I will stick with the Aerogold as I have that specific goal, but I so appreciate your input. I had no idea a site like this existed.

    I wasn’t able to find the redemption schedule for Aventura and that’s exactly what I was wondering….Aerogold will do, I’ve decided and am done…perhaps a chick thing to want to know it all :) Thanks again

    Jul 24th, 2010 @ 12:53 am

60. 60. Joe

    Does the Aspire card redemption points have to cover the full cost of the ticket? So for example, if I had a $400 ticket, could I apply only 35,000 points (or $350) towards that purchase, leaving $50 unpaid? Is that a possibility?

    As a caveat to that, if I had 60,000 points, could I only apply 35,000 towards the $400 ticket? Leaving be 25,000 points for the future. Would that be allowed given the tier structure?

    Aug 11th, 2010 @ 7:38 pm

61. 61. Elbyron

    As I mentioned in the article, you can redeem for a portion of the ticket price in two ways:
    1) split the ticket into fractions with a denominator of 10 or less. So if you chose a fraction of 7/8, this would reduce the $400 to $350 exactly. It takes a bit of math to determine the optimal fraction to use, but with 32 unique ratios you should be able to get close.

    2) When buying the ticket, split the charge into two amounts (most airlines and all travel agents will let you use multiple credit cards, just use the Aspire twice with two separate amounts). So you could have one charge of $350 and another of $50. Then you would only use 35,000 of your points on the first charge, and save the rest of the points (if any) for the future.

    Aug 11th, 2010 @ 8:48 pm

62. 62. Kenny

    Has anyone confirmed this with Master Card or Capital One? Thanks.

    Excert from the artical.

    “…The policies for the various trip insurances state that in order for the trip to qualify, the “full cost of the common carrier travel must be charged to your Capital One card”. But as long as both charges are put on your card, you should technically meet this requirement. However, I am currently trying to get confirmation from MasterCard about this…”

    Aug 20th, 2010 @ 12:29 pm

63. 63. LSO

    This is Laurel from Capital One. If all of the charges are put on your card, you should meet the requirements.

    Sep 10th, 2010 @ 6:03 pm

64. 64. Elbyron

    Hi Laurel, is that just your opinion, or do you have an official source to back that up? Like a letter from the insurance company backing the policy, or a guarantee from someone at Capital One who has the power to decide what meets the requirements or not?

    Sep 10th, 2010 @ 6:09 pm

65. 65. LSO

    Hi Elbyron,
    I speak on behalf of Capital One, but the insurance policy is managed by another company To assuage any additional concerns, I did speak to that insurance company, and they have provided the following information:

    For the Common Carrier Travel Accident Insurance benefits, you are required to charge the full cost of the eligible trip to the Capital One MasterCard. If these charges are made over one or two instalments, that is not a problem. Please keep records such as MasterCard statements and travel itineraries confirming that the full cost of the eligible expenses were charged to the Capital One MasterCard.”

    Does that help?

    Sep 16th, 2010 @ 12:15 pm

66. 66. Elbyron

    Thanks Laurel! This gives a definite answer to the concerns about splitting charges.

    FT, could you change the last sentence of the 4th paragraph of the Redemption section to something like “This has been confirmed with the insurance company providing these coverages”.

    Thanks.

    Sep 16th, 2010 @ 12:46 pm

67. 67. FrugalTrader

    Article has been updated!

    Sep 16th, 2010 @ 1:00 pm

68. 68. Rob

    It says that you can also redeem for merchandise and gift certificates. Where does it say what choice of merchandise and gift certificate you can get. I do not see a catalogue

    Oct 18th, 2010 @ 12:23 am

69. 69. Elbyron

    Rob,
    To redeem your miles, logon to your account at capitalone.com and click the “Rewards Summary” menu. Then click the green “Explore Rewards” button to visit the redemption site. From there, you can find the merchandise section under the “Redeem” menu. Currently the catalogue has only 107 items, mostly electronics and small appliances. The gift cards include 8 restaurants, 28 retail stores, and some travel vouchers.

    Unfortunately, you would be a fool to redeem for any of the merchandise or the gift cards. The cost of most of them is 150 miles or more per dollar of value, and since you earn 2 miles per dollar you spend, you’re getting $1 for each $75, or 1.3% return. Since this card offers you cashback at a rate of 1.5%, it seems absolutely absurd to consider redeeming for a blender or a Home Depot gift card when you can get more cash for the same number of miles!

    Oct 18th, 2010 @ 1:27 am

70. 70. Naynesh Patel

    Is there restrictions to ‘redeemable points’? Here is the scenario:
    Dec1: Have 20,000 points
    Dec2: travel eligible expense of $300
    Dec3- Feb28: have another 10000 points
    Mar.1: (ie. with 90 days), can I redeem 30,000 points?…or am I restricted to redeeming 20,000 points accumulated just prior to eligible expense on Dec. 2?

    Naynesh

    Dec 7th, 2010 @ 11:02 am

71. 71. Elbyron

    Naynesh, I am fairly certain you can use the points that you accumulate in the 90-day period following an eligible expense. I have done something similar, where I split my vacation package into two charges and made one of them $850 even though I only had about 80,000 points at the time. I had calculated that I would easily earn the remaining 5000 needed within the next 3 months.

    Note that due to the tiered redemption system, a travel expense of $300 would actually require 35,000 points. If you were to earn 15000 before March 2nd, you would then be able to get the $300 credited back.
    Your return on this redemption would be 1.71%. You could get 2% if you were to wait until you’ve got over 60,000 points and have a $600+ travel expense.

    Dec 7th, 2010 @ 1:50 pm

72. 72. Ann Kuo

    Hi, I am Ann who emailed you minutes ago. I only have like 50340 miles and am going to purchase a 1025 air ticket. The online customer person told me that even i split my payments to three: 150, 350, 750. If those payments is in one receipt, it won’t work for reward mile which mean they have to be three separate bills.

    Dec 22nd, 2010 @ 8:55 pm

73. 73. Ann Kuo

    My first question didn’t get posted, so I will write it again..

    How can I split the cost of travel up into “tickets”? Where is this function? I asked the online chat customer person and he told me there is no such function and the screensot is not from Capital One. Please help me.

    Dec 22nd, 2010 @ 8:58 pm

74. 74. Elbyron

    Hi Ann,
    Please don’t believe the online chat representatives. They are not trained very well about the rewards redemption programs, and will either make a guess at how something works, or will have you call the rewards center. Read this forum posting for a great example of how those agents are misinformed about reward redemption: http://forums.redflagdeals.com/capital-one-aspire-world-mastercard-new-challenger-crown-best-travel-cc-897409/23/#post11972363

    The screenshot is from Capital One, but they’ve since changed the redemption website a little so it doesn’t look the same, and doesn’t quite work the same either. There were two main changes to the way it works that took effect as of mid-August 2010:
    1) now only airline tickets are eligible for the ticket splitting feature. You will not see any option for hotel & other travel charges, but it should give you some way to split it up after you select an airline ticket charge. The instructions on the page say: “If redeeming for airline tickets, select the number of tickets you purchased and how many you want to redeem for”. So this feature is definitely still available.

    2) The calculation for splitting used to be “Divide the charge by the number of tickets in the transaction, multiply by the number of tickets being redeemed, and then find the next highest tier to get the miles required”. Now the calculation is “Divide the charge by the number of tickets in the transaction, find the next highest tier to get the miles required, and then multiply this by the number of tickets being redeemed”. Basically what this means is that there are only 9 different amounts the charge can be split into, while it used to have 31 different amounts. So you’re likely to lose more on rounding up to the nearest tier.

    My advice would be to see if you can get the airline company or travel agent to break up the $1025 into two charges, $450 and $575 (tell them you want to use two credit cards, but give them the same card for both). These will show up separately on your rewards redemption screen. Pick the $450 charge and split it into 3 tickets, and redeem for all 3 of them. This gives you three $150 amounts for 15,000 points each, for a total of $450 credit for 45,000 points.
    Another option is to break the $1025 into $600 and $425, and redeem for the $600 charge when you’ve accumulated 60,000 points. Since you’re going on vacation, it probably won’t take long to get that many… the flight alone will get you another 2050 points. You have 90 days to save up enough.

    If you cannot break up the $1025, you can still use the ticket splitting feature but some points will be wasted. Dividing it into 3 tickets and redeeming for 1 will give you a credit of $342 in exchange for 35,000 points (a 1.95% return).

    Dec 23rd, 2010 @ 12:46 am

75. 75. Audree

    Just when I got all excite about this card, I read it’s not for Quebecers! Sucks!

    Feb 20th, 2011 @ 8:11 pm

76. 76. Ryan

    I currently use the CUETS Platinum Rewards Mastercard, but have applied for the Aspire card. They are very similar to each other, but the $150 annual fee for the card I currently have plus the $40 fee for the additional card my wife has is a hard pill to swallow every year. The biggest reason I’m switching is because of the net $20 annual fee. I now only need to spend $1000 annually to recoup the cost of my annual dues instead of the $9500 I had to on the previous card. The additional $170 toward travel each year, plus the 35,000 bonus points on my first purchase will go a long way toward paying for my next trip!

    Mar 10th, 2011 @ 1:56 pm

77. 77. Elbyron

    I’ve done a lot of research on credit cards, so I’m surprised that I’ve never heard of CUETS (a division of MBNA). Their platinum card is indeed very similar to the Aspire card, but in addition to the higher fees there are also a few other differences. As far as I can tell, the CUETS card requires that you redeem your points through their “exclusive” travel agency, so you may not have access to all flights and promotions (and certainly can’t use PriceLine). They also have a earning cap of 400,000 points per year, but that’s pretty hard to reach for most people. The benefits are very similar as well, but CUETS offers a 31-day medical coverage for up to age 75. That beats Aspire’s 22-day coverage, and is especially good for those who are 65 – 75 and would only get 8 days coverage on Aspire. And that’s the age when you’re most likely to need it!

    So, it’s a bit of a trade-off. With CUETS you don’t have to deal with redemption tiers, but are restricted to their travel agency. They charge $130 more per year (and $40 for extra card), but that may be worth paying if you frequently travel for periods longer than 22 days, or if you’re between 65 – 75.

    Mar 11th, 2011 @ 8:03 pm

78. 78. Ray

    whats the minimum monthly payment? I can’t seem to find it.

    Mar 29th, 2011 @ 8:46 pm

79. 79. Elbyron

    Ray, your question implies that you would not be making full payments. This is not a good card for carrying a balance, because of the 19.8% interest rate (subject to change). You might want to instead consider the Capital One SmartLine card, which has a guaranteed 5.99% rate for 3 years. I don’t know if it’s the absolute best low-rate card out there, as I haven’t researched these very much, but it seems pretty good from what I’ve heard.

    But to answer your question, my minimum payments shown on my statements are always 3% of the total balance.

    Mar 30th, 2011 @ 3:54 am

80. 80. FrugalTrader

    @ElByron, I think Capital One should hire you as a consultant!

    Mar 30th, 2011 @ 8:25 am

81. 81. Tyler

    Is it possible to redeem points to pay for a percentage of a travel expense?

    i.e. If I have saved 65,000 points, which can be redeemed for a $650 expense, can I apply that $650 against a trip purchase of $1000, and just pay the remaining $350 on the credit card bill? Or does the full purchase price of the transaction need to be credited with points (i.e require 100,000 points to pay for the full $1000 travel expense)?

    Mar 31st, 2011 @ 1:32 am

82. 82. Jerry Hung

    @Tyler
    Aspire only redeems at each block level, so answer is NO to your question.
    so what you can only do is to split the expense in their online banking and multiply it to get the best return possible. I still don’t understand why they make it this difficult..

    If you hold TD First Class Travel, then yes, you redeem your points for whatever amount you like and pay the rest on CC

    Mar 31st, 2011 @ 11:13 am

83. 83. Elbyron

    @Tyler
    The answer to your first question is YES, but the percentage has to be a ratio with a denominator lower than 10 (because you can split the charge into up to 10 tickets). Jerry said no because in your example, it would not be possible to redeem $650 of $1000 since there is no ratio that would work for that. But if you have 65,000 points and the travel expense is $1300, then you can simply use 1/2 ratio and get a $650 credit.
    Also, you generally don’t want to use the ticket splitting feature in a way that results in less than $600, because then the points required is rounded up to the nearest tier (as mentioned in the review above). For example, if you have 65,000 points and the charge is $1500, it is not good to split this into 1/3 as this would cost you 60,000 points for a credit of $500. This would only give you a 1.67% return, instead of the 2% that would be possible if you save up longer. However, this is still better than the 1.5% that TD Infinite or First Class Travel cards will get you! In fact, since you can always get 1.5% back in cash with the Aspire (no tiers), it’s almost always going to be better than TD – the only exception being if your travel costs comprise 20% of your total annual expenses and you book it all through TD’s travel agency… only then you could you get better than 2% return.

    Mar 31st, 2011 @ 1:24 pm

84. 84. Joe

    I have the Capital One Aspire World card. I called about details on my Travel Emergency Medical coverage. The agent told me my card did not have that. I asked what card had it, and he told me none of the Aspire cards did.

    It’s clearly on thier website that the card has Emergency Medical coverage. But I can’t get a verbal confirmation of that, let alone figure out how I would make a claim should I need to. Has something changed with the card? Has anyone come across this issue?

    The Travel Emergency Medical is not to be confused with MasterAssist Travel Assistance or Travel Accident Insurance.

    Can anyone shed some light?

    Jun 3rd, 2011 @ 6:28 pm

85. 85. Elbyron

    Of course I like the benefits this card, but the one thing that’s really bad about it is that there are very few intelligent and knowledgeable people working in their call center. It’s usually a waste of time to try and inquire about any details of your various insurance coverages. But usually they at least know which coverages you’re supposed to have! This one agent is truly stupid… he could just go to the website, or any of his documentation, and see that Emergency Medical is included.

    Hopefully you kept the booklet of insurance coverages that came with your card. It has a section for Emergency Medical. It’s very tiny print, but if you read it all it will likely answer the question you wanted to ask the agent.

    Jun 3rd, 2011 @ 6:46 pm

86. 86. Ryan

    I’ve found that each month, when I make my full payment, my statement for the next month always says that Capital One will waive my minimum payment for the next month (though interest will keep accruing, of course). Is this typical for everyone else who has this card? Not that I’ll ever take them up on that, since I don’t ever want be charged 19.8% interest on ANYTHING that I buy, but it’s a good ploy to get uninformed people to carry a balance for a month and get dinged with some extra interest!

    Jun 3rd, 2011 @ 6:57 pm

87. 87. Elbyron

    My statement mentions that I can “take a payment holiday” and my account will not become delinquent if I don’t make a payment. They don’t make it sound very tempting, as they finish the paragraph with “it will take more time to pay down your current balance and your account balance will continue to accrue interest”.
    I see it as a good feature, in case I were ever to accidentally miss a payment then at least I wouldn’t be reported delinquent to the credit bureaus! I don’t really see it as a ploy to trick stupid people into not paying their balance off, because they pretty clearly state that you will pay the interest.

    Jun 3rd, 2011 @ 7:06 pm

88. 88. LSO

    @Elbyron This is Laurel from Capital One. I’m see you’ve recently had a bad experience with one of our call centre associates. I’m sorry we were unable to meet your needs and have shared your feedback with our customer service team.
    Here’s the link where you can find more information about our World MasterCard’s travel benefits: http://www.capitalone.ca/documents/ca/World_MasterCard_Benefits.pdf

    I hope that helps.

    Jun 6th, 2011 @ 3:25 pm

89. 89. Cliff

    I travel to the US frequently and wanted to know if it made more sense to use the Aspire card or a US credit card like the BMO US Dollar MC? I’m trying to avoid the extra percentages tacked on for the currency exchange.

    Jul 27th, 2011 @ 4:48 pm

90. 90. Elbyron

    The Aspire card, like the majority of credit cards, has a 2.5% currency exchange fee. When you purchase something in another currency on your card, the credit card company will create a multiplier from the current exchange rate as provided to them by Mastercard (usually a tad bit higher than most banks) and then increase that multiplier by 2.5%. The resulting number is shown in the description for that charge, and the charge amount shown is your original purchase amount multiplied by this number.
    So back to your question… since Aspire can give you a 2% return, it does help to offset some of that exchange fee, but you’re still losing a bit. In fact, no matter what you do, there’s going to be some cost to changing Canadian money into USD. If you use a US Dollar credit card (watch out for high annual fees), then you still need to pay off that card in USD. If you pay it from your CAD chequing account, your bank is going to charge you for the currency conversion, which will likely be a 2 – 2.5% fee.

    Jul 27th, 2011 @ 7:07 pm

91. 91. Elbyron

    To answer the question “how do I get the best USD exchange rate for amounts under 10K”, I would suggest checking out the forums at Red Flag Deals, since there are a variety of methods and some work better for some people than for others. My Dad uses xe.com for his small foreign exchanges. If you can find a way to exchange cheaply enough, then the USD credit card might make sense – provided that your method of exchange lets you easily get the resulting funds to be applied to your credit card (a USD chequing account might be needed).

    If you can’t obtain USD funds cheaply and easily, then you’re probably better off just using a CAD credit card, and the Aspire is the best one for most people who travel!

    Jul 27th, 2011 @ 7:07 pm

92. 92. Cliff

    @ Elbyron,
    Thanks for the details. I actually ran a few scenarios with similar RFD CC tools and the BMO US Dollar MC came up as the best solution. But wanted to compare with the Aspire 2% return.
    Your explanation was quite thorough and so I am still on track to use the BMO US MC.
    It has a $25 US fee, but refundable if you buy $1k a year
    For payments you need to pay in US funds as you say or lose out on the conversion at the bank. What I’d do is go to my local foreign exchange place in Ottawa (rate is 1.4% buy/sell range) and then go into the BMO (it’s right next door) and pay by cash. I don’t have a BMO account so I can’t pay online from my institute.
    btw – capital one world approved me as did the BMO US dollar MC so I’ll be cancelling a few cards in the upcoming weeks :)
    Cheers
    Cliff

    Jul 28th, 2011 @ 1:11 am

93. 93. Dawn

    Hello Elbyron

    You seem to be very knowledgable on this subject, I have enjoyed reading this…my questions is my husband & I want to get a new credit card, as we travel to Hawaii every other year, plus travel other places also. Apporoximately 1 air travel trip/year, and one driving trip a year. (2 Adults, 2 young children). We spend approx. 25,000/yr on credit, and could try to pump that up by adding bills, etc….to it. We do collect areoplan, air miles whenever possible, but currently have RBC rewads visa & PC Financial MC. And I feel we need to be collecting some sort of reward points/miles to more wisely benefit from them. I don’t mind paying an annual fee if it financially makes sense…can you help? I like having the extras like extra yr. warranty or auto rental insurance.

    Aug 31st, 2011 @ 6:08 pm

94. 94. Elbyron

    @Dawn
    If you frequently fly first class, or fly out of a remote location, then you can get a lot of value out of Aeroplan points. The CIBC Aerogold Infinite might be the best choice in this case, although be aware that blackout periods and limited seat availability can make it hard to redeem for the vacation at the times you want. Also it would take you about 2 – 3 years to save up enough Aeroplan miles for 1 first class round-trip ticket (80K points for Hawaii).

    But I’m guessing that you fly economy and like to find the best deals when booking your flights – and probably don’t want to have any restrictions on when you can fly. So in that case, this Aspire Travel World card is your best option. The PCF card is getting you 1% return, which is not bad for a free card but you should replace it with Aspire. Also ditch the RBC rewards card, it is truly crappy with a return well under 0.5%. Once you and your husband have the Aspire card and start getting 2% of your spending back as travel credit, you’ll have a free flight in no time.

    The annual fee may be $120, but with $100 worth of annual bonus points it doesn’t cost you much in the long run. It only takes a mere $1000 of spending to earn that $20 difference, so it definitely makes financial sense for you.

    Sep 1st, 2011 @ 3:53 am

95. 95. Andrew

    Laurel, thanks for your helpful information. Could you tell us where your call centre(s) are located?

    Oct 3rd, 2011 @ 2:24 pm

96. 96. Mansbridge

    How does the Capital One Aspire World MasterCard compare to the American Express Gold Rewards Card?

    for someone who flies a) business class b) economy

    Thanks

    Oct 27th, 2011 @ 6:38 pm

97. 97. Elbyron

    Well, the rewards for the Amex Gold card is structured very similar to the Aspire card, with the same 100-1 point to dollar ratio, and you can redeem against any travel charged to the card. But the big difference is the amount of points. Where Amex gives you 1 point per dollar and 2 points on gas, groceries, drugstores, and travel, the Aspire card just gives you 2 points for everything.
    The annual fee on the Amex is $150, though they waive it for the first year. Aspire is $120, and gives you $100 worth of points as a renewal bonus. The insurances are similar but Amex only gives you 15 days of travel medical, vs 22 for Aspire, max 1 year of extended warranty instead of 2, and has no price protection.
    But possibly the worst thing about the Amex Gold card is that it’s Amex. You can use it everywhere that major credit cards are accepted, except the ones that only accept Visa and Mastercard. Lol. How can you ever accumulate enough points to justify the huge annual fee when you can only use it at half the places you shop?

    Oct 27th, 2011 @ 7:43 pm

98. 98. Gerard

    My RBC Avion Card is up for renewal in January. If I do not renew and switch to Capital One Aspire Travel World MasterCard willl the points I earned still be good to use later?
    Can you transfer the points to Capital One Aspire Travel World MasterCard?

    Nov 27th, 2011 @ 10:13 am

99. 99. Elbyron

    @Gerard
    If you cancel your Avion card, you will have 90 days from the cancellation date to redeem the points. You cannot transfer the points to Aspire, as they are not even close to the same point system, and are two different competing banks. However, if you want to preserve your points, you could call RBC and ask to switch your Avion for a no-fee RBC Gold Rewards card. Your Avion points would then get transferred to the new card as RBC Rewards points, which are less valuable, but at least you wont lose them.

    If you’ve saved up a lot of points, and you’re not planning any travel in the next 4 months, it might be best to keep the Avion card until you have a good opportunity to use them up, then switch immediately to Aspire. It really all depends on a variety of factors:
    How many Avion points do you have right now?
    Do you have any plans to fly somewhere between now and 90 days from your renewal date? If so, please indicate where you plan to fly from & to.
    How much do you spend on your credit card per year?

    If you answer these questions, I can give you a cost-benefit analysis to help you make your decision.

    Nov 27th, 2011 @ 2:51 pm

100. 100. Gerard

     Elbyron,

     Thanks for your speedy reply.

     I opened the account around Jan. 7th 2011. So my renewal will be around Jan. 7th. 2012.
     I have 64,000 points.
     I was planning to continue collecting points for another couple of years before using.
     I am planning on booking a trip from Halifax to Cancun, Me. in the next couple of weeks. I would be traveling April 7 to April 14th. 2012. The best deal I have found is with Hotwire or Bookit.

     Should I or could I use the points I have on this trip and pay the extra with a new Capital One Aspire Travel World MasterCard? I know I have to go through their travel agents. Can they book through Hotwire for me?

     Thank you,
     Gerard

     Nov 27th, 2011 @ 3:58 pm

101. 101. Elbyron

     Your Cancun trip could use up 45,000 Avion points, but of course as you mentioned you have to book through RBC’s agents (Capital One doesn’t make you do this). I don’t know about Hotwire, but presumably they could get you the direct Westjet flight for $767, of which the points would pay for $658 since they won’t cover taxes & fees. That gives you a return of about 1.5¢ per dollar spent, which is not bad for Avion. I believe they also let you use points at 100 / $1 to pay for the taxes and fees, so the remaining $109 could be paid for using 10900 points; a return of 1¢ per dollar. That leaves you with 8100 points. If you’re buying a second ticket, maybe they will let you use them up at the 100/$1 rate. If not, you could just use them as RBC Rewards and get a $50 gift card. Overall, using your 64000 points this way would get you $817 (1.28% return).

     If you were to fly to Europe instead, you could use 65,000 points for an approximate redemption of $900. But since you would have to hold on to the Avion card until you buy that trip, you would be continuing to collect more points, creating a bit of a cycle that’s hard to break. If you’re tired of just getting 1 – 1.5% return and paying $120/year for it, you should probably use up the points for Cancun, and switch to the Capital One Aspire card. Then your future rewards will be 2% and you can book through Hotwire or anyplace you like!

     Nov 27th, 2011 @ 4:33 pm

102. 102. shaheem

     How does Capital One Aspire Travel World card compare to MBNA Alaska Air Platinum card?

     Nov 30th, 2011 @ 4:16 am

103. 103. Ryan

     Just booked a trip to Mexico through itravel2000. I only had enough points to cover one person, not both of us, so I had the travel agent put it through as 2 transactions on the same card, each for $1085. The charge showed up in my online banking 2 days afterwards, and I put in the claim that day for travel redemption. 2 days after that my account had been credited the $1085. Nice and easy! I love this card.

     Nov 30th, 2011 @ 12:38 pm

104. 104. Elbyron

     @shaheem
     While Alaska Air Platinum might be better than Aeroplan (mainly due to the $99 companion ticket feature), it is still subject to all the limitations of a airline mileage club. The biggest drawback to that type of card is having a very limited selection of seats – or else pay even more points to get better selection. And while Alaska Air is partnered with AA, BA, Delta and Cathay, you cannot use the points with Air Canada or Westjet, meaning no flights between Canadian cities.
     In terms of rewards, mileage club cards like this do have the potential to produce better than 2% return. For example, flying Edmonton to Miami on Mar 24 – Apr 1, 2012 could cost as much as $700 plus taxes and fees, but only requires 25,000 miles (plus taxes & fees). If you also use your once-per-year option of getting a companion ticket for $99, then after subtracting $25/ticket for booking with a partner airline, your total savings is $1251. For $25,000 spending, this works out to a return of 5%! But this is a rather extreme example, where I chose one of the most expensive destinations that a continental US flight can go, and chose dates that are more costly.
     In terms of benefits, the Aspire World card has travel emergency and luggage insurances that are not available on the Alaska Air card, which doesn’t come in a “World” level.
     In summary, if you’re willing to put up with the limited availability of mileage clubs, the AA Platinum card can likely earn you better than Aspire’s 2% return if you take advantage of the $99 companion ticket feature each year.
     I think Ryan just gave us a good example of why Aspire is such a great card: he booked through itravel2000, got the dates he wanted, got help from a travel agent, and had no trouble claiming his reward. If he tried to fly to Mexico using AA points, he would have had a lot more trouble, and might have needed flexibility in his travel dates. However, he might have saved a lot by getting the companion ticket for $99. It is difficult to put a price on convenience, so each person needs to make their own choice.

     Nov 30th, 2011 @ 1:27 pm

105. 105. Mansbridge

     elbyron, you’re awesome.

     Dec 1st, 2011 @ 6:19 pm

106. 106. Dawn

     Elbyron:
     I want to thank-you for your reply…..I never saw it until today! I thought this site would email me when you replied….and I never received an email, & forgot this websites’ name….so I just found it again…..duh….I appreciate your help…we do not (unfortunately) travel 1st class:( Anyhow, we are re-reading your site to choose between CIBC Areoplan Visa Gold Infinite and Capital One Aspire Travel world…leaning towards Capital One. we travel out of Toronto Pearson or Buffalo (which ever is cheaper). Since we travel to Hawaii, our Areoplan cards earn over 9,000 miles just for that trip (when on Air Canada flights), so we are trying to weigh that in too. (if even to factor that into it)….thanks for this website, truly helpful!!!!

     Dec 11th, 2011 @ 8:24 pm

107. 107. FrugalTrader

     @Dawn, you can subscribe to this comment thread below which will send you updates when new comments are made here.

     Dec 11th, 2011 @ 10:00 pm

108. 108. Elbyron

     @Dawn
     I’ve run some numbers for you, using a couple of key assumptions: that your annual spending is about $30,000, and that about $6000 of that is for gas & groceries. Thus with the Aerogold Infinite you would earn 33000 aeroplan miles per year.
     Currently, aeroplan requires a minimum of 45000 miles for 1 round-trip ticket to Hawaii. Running a quick search on Kayak.com, a flight from Toronto to Hawaii costs about $827, but about $109 of that is taxes & fees, which aren’t covered by your 45000 miles redemption. So the value, to you, of those miles is $718, or 1.595 cents per mile. By earning 33000 miles on your card, you are, mathematically speaking, getting a reward of $526.53 each year, or 1.75% return. In practice however, you aren’t going to have exact multiples of 45000 when it comes time for your Hawaii trip, and there will always be some leftover points sitting around. And when booking flights using miles, certain days do not qualify for their “classic” system and require you spend nearly 3x the miles for “classicPlus” seats. So depending when you like to fly and how much flexibility you have, you might encounter some difficulties in using the points.
     In regards to the 9,000 miles you earn for flying to Hawaii, keep in mind that you don’t earn those when you redeem miles for a free flight! So by using an aeroplan credit card, you are actually reducing the number of miles you might otherwise accumulate.
     Now, the Aspire rewards hardly need repeating, but obviously getting a 2% return is better than 1.75%. And since you can book any flight you want, anytime, through any source, it makes things a lot easier for you. Each round-trip ticket to Hawaii is going to be over $600 (unless you get some amazing deal), so you need not worry about the tiering.
     I’ll skip discussing the benefits, but Aspire’s are better. And finally, the annual fee is an important consideration. Aerogold Infinite costs $120 per year and offers no annual bonus. Aspire also costs $120, but gives you back $100 worth of points each anniversary.
     Overall, counting rewards and annual fees, over the course of 10 years you would be $1750 richer by using Aspire World Travel, versus using Aerogold. But, if you were to always buy first class tickets, it could be an entirely different story!

     Dec 12th, 2011 @ 3:43 am

109. 109. Sve

     Great thread!

     Having read this and other reviews of the Aspire card it sound much better than my current BMO AirMiles Gold + BMO US cards (plus a BMO US account) except for the fact that a large part of my travel expenses are paid for through US agencies together with many trips and purchases in the US. I should also meet the qualification requirements. If we assume that 20-40% of annual credit card purchases are in US funds, will Aspire still deliver value considering the 2-2.5% fee for converting purchases to Canadian funds? As I find returns on AirMiles reducing every year even if cost of flights remain almost constant (and they are now introducing a 5 year limitation on using the points), another option would be to switch to another BMO premium card (or the Aspire for Canadian purchases?) and retain the use of the BMO US card for US payments?
     Recommendations/comments please!

     Dec 31st, 2011 @ 3:05 am

110. 110. riamo

     hi all,

     Just wanted some clarity on redeem rewards.

     I am planning on purchasing some airline tickets worth $1300 from westjet for our family.

     I currently have 60000 rewards. I understand that I can ask wesjet to charge me $600 and then $700 so I can redeem the 60000 rewards.

     But I also understand that I have 90 days to claim my rewards. So, if I anticipate in the next 90 days getting another 20000 rewards – have to make some big purchases. Can I go ahead and charge $800 and $500 so that in approximately 90 days when I hope to have another 20000 rewards I can claim 80000 rewards or is the rewards based on how many points you have on the date of purchase?

     Sorry if this has been asked already but could not find the post by searching.

     thanks!

     Jan 3rd, 2012 @ 1:02 pm

111. 111. Elbyron

     Sorry for the late response… for some reason I didn’t get an email when you commented. Maybe I need to re-subscribe.

     @Sve Unless you have some form of US dollar income (or are familiar with Norbert’s gambit maybe?), you’re going to have to convert CAD to USD at some point in the process, which always has a cost. It sounds like you’re currently doing this conversion with BMO, but is their rate any better than Mastercard’s? By using Aspire you’re paying a 2.5% fee, but getting back 2% of that in rewards. The BMO US card’s only reward is not having to pay the annual fee if you spend over $1000. So to determine which one provides the best value, you’ll have to see if Mastercard’s rate + the 0.5% difference is higher or lower than BMO’s rate.
     For Canadian purchases, you should probably lose the AirMiles Gold card and get something better. Maybe Aspire, maybe SmartCash; that depends on how much you spend annually on Canadian purchases and of that amount, how much is on gas & groceries.

     Jan 11th, 2012 @ 5:18 pm

112. 112. Elbyron

     @riamo
     The amount you can redeem is based on how much you have in your account at the time of redemption, not at the time of purchase, so you can wait up to 90 days to collect more points to use. I have actually done the same myself, knowing that the trip would incur a lot of charges (including the very flight I intended to redeem upon) which would earn me more points. When choosing the split amount to be higher than what you can redeem for, just be sure that you’ll be able to earn enough points in the next 90 days, and leave a large margin of error, in case you don’t end up charging as much as planned.

     Jan 11th, 2012 @ 5:24 pm

113. 113. Darin

     After reading the fine print of Laurel’s document of the travel insurance ( page 9 Benefits) , am I correct in saying that when it comes to trip medical coverage that my personal extended health and any other travel medical insurance I have will have to pay their maximum and then Cap One’s insurance provider will pay the remainder?
     Another question is say I have 70 000 points and purchase $2000 worth of flights.Do I still have to break the charge up into $700 and $1300 ?
     Elbyron, thanks for all your time you have given for this topic.

     Jan 12th, 2012 @ 12:36 am

114. 114. Elbyron

     @Darin
     You are correct about the insurance being secondary. They will only cover amounts that aren’t paid by a GHIP, any group or individual health plans, insurance policies or reimbursement programs. So if something has 50% coverage under your employer’s health plan, you can still submit the other half to Capital One (after first submitting to your spouse’s plan, if applicable).

     The only way you can redeem for a portion of a travel charge is to use the ticket splitting feature (which only works on airfare AFAIK). This lets you break it into as many as 9 equal pieces. So one way to handle the $2000 charge is to divide it into 3 pieces of $666, and redeem 66600 points. If the airline is willing to break up the charges, you could also just do as you said, and have them split it into $700 and $1300.

     Jan 12th, 2012 @ 1:15 pm

115. 115. Ryan

     @ Elbyron

     When I booked an all-inclusive vacation in December I was given the option of splitting it when I went to redeem. Because the travel agency had already done the splitting for me I didn’t need to do it, but it was an option available to me.

     Jan 12th, 2012 @ 1:41 pm

116. 116. Elbyron

     The last time I had a hotel charge, I was unable to split it even though it was available to redeem against, so it does seem like only certain transactions can be split. It’s good to know that it works on travel agency charges.

     Jan 12th, 2012 @ 1:47 pm

117. 117. reg

     hi, elbyron
     i’ve had RBC’s infinite avion for many years now, two cards @ $170 per year. i’ve been able to find flights on my own and book through RBC with no problem, but there’s been at least one instance when flights dropped in price dramatically after i redeemed my points and i don’t like the steep fees. i believe i read in your article that the aspire card has a 60 day price protection plan up to $500/year?

     currently i earn approx 40,000 points per year with RBC ($1 per point). my annual expense for flights is approx. $3000. if the flights are cheap i’ll pay and save the points for more expensive fares. my current balance with RBC is 115,000 points. based on this can i expect to earn roughly 125,000 points on the aspire card after a year (40,000 x 2 + 35,000 sign up + 10,000 after the first year)?

     if so how would i work the point splitting to maximize my $3000 (roughly six airline tickets per year @ $500 each). thanks for your expertise.

     Jan 13th, 2012 @ 7:03 pm

118. 118. Elbyron

     First, the price protection doesn’t cover flights or tickets of any kind – that would be too good to be true. It also excludes phones, computer-related things, vehicles, animals, food/perishables, and a few other things.

     Your math is correct, with your current spending you would earn 125K miles after the first year, and 90K at the end of each subsequent year. Now tickets at ~$500 each are not ideal, as they would still require 60K miles due to the redemption tiers. But if you buy them together in 1 charge, or occasionally buy tickets over $600, then you won’t have to worry much about splitting. Just redeem for your charge of $600+ every time you have enough points to do so. If it’s a really big charge, like all $3000 at once, then use the ticket-split feature to reduce that down to smaller chunks that are still over $600, and you’ll be able to maximize your benefit.

     Jan 13th, 2012 @ 7:24 pm

119. 119. Conor

     Can you please explain how you can get up to 4% rewards with RBC avion??

     I’m trying to figure out which card to go with, the Capital One Aspire World or RBC Infinite Avion…

     Maybe its because I’m tired, but as best as I can tell the Capital One card gets you 2% for $20 per year… or $17500 spent on your card = 35000pts = $350 off travel

     The RBC infinite avion gets you 2.3% for $120 per year…
     or $15000 spent on your card = 15000pts = $350 off travel

     So to make back your $120/yr fee with RBC card you must spend $5217.39 on your card before you start to net points for the year… Where as with Capital One you only have to spend $1000 to offset the $20 fee…

     My wife and I mostly travel from Calgary to Toronto or Calgary to Halifax a couple of times per year during peak travel times (summer, christmas and march break) because she is a teacher. Every other year we like to take a vacation which may be to Hawaii or Caribbean, etc.
     It looks to me like the Capital One card has the best value, but I am intrigued by the comment in your blog stating if you fly to places that are more expensive or in peak times that an RBC Avion card may yeild up to 4% rewards or more. How is this possible?

     Thanks for your time and help. Your article is VERY helpful.

     Jan 25th, 2012 @ 2:59 am

120. 120. Elbyron

     First of all, let me apologize for including Avion with the other mileage club cards – due to their maximums, it is never possible to get better than a 2.3% return. And even getting that maximum can be difficult, as most short-haul flights (same or adjacent province/state) cost less than $350 before taxes. So if your flight from Calgary to Vancouver is $200 before tax, you are redeeming 15,000 points and only get back $200, which is only a 1.3% return. Same problem with long-haul: I doubt your flights to Halifax or Toronto ever cost more than $750 before taxes, except maybe on very specific departure and return dates.

     The 4% I referred to is generally obtained by collecting Aeroplan points, and then using them for business class seats to Europe or Asia. For example, flying business from Calgary to Berlin costs about $4900+tax, or requires 90,000 Aeroplan miles. Using the CIBC Aerogold Visa Infinite card with 10% of spending on gas, grocery, and drug stores, one would have to charge $85715 to earn those 90K points. So that works out to a reward of 5.7% without taking the annual fee into account.
     But most people fly economy, and the reward isn’t so high for that. Calgary to Jamaica over March break might cost $600+tax, or 40,000 Aeroplan miles obtained by spending $38096 on Aerogold with 10% gas/grocery/drug. So that works out to only 1.5% return. This flight using Avion would require 55,000 points which is only a 1% return.

     Given your travel plans, and assuming you typically fly economy, you will get a better return (and lower net annual fee) by going with Aspire.

     Jan 25th, 2012 @ 8:15 pm

121. 121. Lynn

     Wow! This has been incredibly helpful. Thanks! Would you happen to know if a vacation at a Muskoka resort booked directly with the resort would qualify?

     Jan 30th, 2012 @ 12:59 pm

122. 122. Elbyron

     @Lynn
     Anything that gets classified as a flight, hotel, car rental, vacation package, or travel agency will qualify for redeeming points. The classification is done by Mastercard based on the merchant code used by the merchant. I would expect a vacation resort would get classified as hotel, but if it doesn’t, you can simply phone Capital One and explain that it should be eligible, and they have the power to make it available for redemption (or so I’ve heard).

     Jan 30th, 2012 @ 1:47 pm

123. 123. Larry

     Regarding eligibility: I am interested in know whether the two cards limit is still in place (as mentioned in this article.)

     Currently, I have 2 cards from Cap1. I wish to apply for the Aspire Travel World card. Will I be able to do that given that I already have 2 cards from them?

     Any info will be appreciated.

     Feb 1st, 2012 @ 6:46 pm

124. 124. LSO

     @Larry – This is Laurel from Capital One. We do allow customers to have more than two products with us, but it really depends on the cards you currently hold and the card you’re applying for. Based on the information you’ve given, you wouldn’t be able to apply for Aspire Travel since you already have two cards, but you might be eligible to apply for our Delta SkyMiles MasterCard or Priority Club Rewards MasterCard.

     If you’ve decided that Aspire Travel is the right fit for you, you will have to cancel one of your current cards, wait 45 days, and then apply for Aspire. I’d suggest calling one of our customer service reps as they’d be able to advise you on the best option, based on your personal situation.

     Feb 2nd, 2012 @ 11:17 am

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