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Originally Posted by Rocket252
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The above is an intersting website if you are looking for a travel related credit card. However, I do find their results a bit suspect.
First, they conclude that the Aeroplan Infinite card is the best airline card because:
1) You can earn 1.5 points on food, drug and gas purchases. This for me as a single person is not a big deal.
2) There is good redemption rates, especially for business class. I find ,in practice, that this is not the case. If you are looking for a card to maximize your flights then who cares about business class redemptions anyway. I personally look to maximize the number of flights.
3) Air Canada has the best flight coverage both domestic and international. And while, this may be true, it is a good reason to be an aeroplan member but really does not sway me to give preference to a credit card that supports Air Canada. I suspect that even though they reviewed the Alaskan Mastercard, they did not give that card much weight given that no one in Eastern Canada would really consider using it since Alaskan does not fly out of Eastern Canada. That is despite the fact that they could potentially redeem points on Alaskan's partner airlines. Makes sense that the Aeroplan cards would be the most popular. However, being the most popular does not make it the best card to have...
When I look for a travel related card, I compare what it takes to get a basic flight. In most cases that would be spending $25,000 to get 25,000 miles in order to fly anywhere in North America. From a purely Edmonton perspective, that usually means connecting through somewhere like Toronto or Denver to get to some place farther south like Florida and the cost of a typical flight ends up at around the $600 to $800 price. Stripping off the taxes from such a flight might bring you in the $500 to $650 of benefit for every $25,000 spent.
When you take that into consideration, an airline credit card makes more economic sense than a credit card that gives back, say 1.5% of your purchases because the potential value can be greater with an airline card (potential $650 in value verus 1.5% of $25,000 or a potential $375 in travel dollars).
With Aeroplan Infinite and Alaskan Mastercard, 25,000 points can get you to Florida in both cases. But like I said in a prior post, the extra costs to book the flight on Aeroplan and the restrictive availability added with the extra value of a companion ticket with the Alaskan Mastercard makes the Alaskan Mastercard the best deal around.
I have married friends with two children. Both spouses have an Alaskan mastercard so that they can double up on the companion tickets for their families when they travel.
The Westjet RBC cards, depending on which card you would get, provides a maximum of 1.5% per dollar spent (not considering Westjet purchases). So, for me at least, that card is not the best in terms of optimizing value. That being said, if you are planning a Westjet flight in the near future and if you qualify for the higher credit card, it does make sense to apply for it to take advantage of the $250 welcome bonus and the potential companion flight. At a minimum, after the cost of the annual fee of $99, you are still ahead $151 for a future flight.
As far as the air miles program is concerned, that program is okay and worth being a member. However, I am not sure whether getting an air miles mastercard makes sense. Once again, looking at spending $25,000, what can you get by using an air miles credit card? At 1 point for every $20 spent, that equates to around 1,250 miles. And right now you can get a movie pass for 400 miles, WOW!!! A big $45 in savings when you spend $25,000!!! Mind you, you could fly to YVR for that many points so the saving from a flight is greater. In my opinion, an air miles credit card is not the way to go.
So...after all that, I am still convinced that the Alaskan Mastercard is the best card for someone in western Canada who has access to Alaskan flights. And, I think that card would also be good for eastern Canadians as well because of Alaskan's many airline partners and the fact that most major cities in eastern Canada have great access to those partner airlines.
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