This post is about the American Express AeroplanPlus Reserve Card. You can read our separate posts on the other three members of this card family, the Amex AeroplanPlus “Regular” Card, the AeroplanPlus Gold Card and the AeroplanPlus Platinum Card. Also, you can read our post on the comparison of the four cards here, where you’ll find all the information you need to choose which one is right for you.

Travel cheap or travel with style. You have to choose one or the other… or, do you?

With the American Express AeroplanPlus Reserve card, maybe you don’t have to!

I know what you’re thinking… How I could possibly say that, after seeing the card comes with an $899 annual fee?

In this post, I’ll show you that, if you’re a frequent flyer, this credit card will help you save A LOT MORE than the $900 you have to pay for it, just by giving you access to cheaper flights. On top of that, benefits like the Priority Check-in with Air Canada, complimentary valet and Priority Security Lane at Pearson Airport, unlimited worldwide Maple Leaf and Priority Pass Lounge access and the Amex concierge service, will make you feel like a true VIP while you travel.

All this and much more make the AeroplanPlus Reserve card one of the best options for a travel card, even after you’ve run through the amazing welcome bonus of 50,000 Aeroplan miles.

Of course, if you only plan to travel a couple of times during the next year, or if you don’t plan to fly at all, then don’t bother with this card. You’d do best to go for an everyday spending card like the Amex Cobalt Card (if you don’t plan to travel even once), or you could go for a less expensive card that’ll earn you points like the Gold Rewards Card, in case you really want to build up your Aeroplan Balance.

I’ve broken the post down into the following sections for your convenience:

A Quick Glance at the Overall Pros and Cons of the American Express AeroplanPlus Reserve Card

Here’s a quick glance at the things you’ll love and things you won’t about the American Express AeroplanPlus Reserve Card:

PROS	CONS
Huge 50,000 miles welcome bonus $200 annual travel credit Annual Complimentary partner ticket worth up to 25,000 miles Amex Concierge Unlimited access to Air Canada’s Maple Leaf Lounges and Priority Pass Lounges worldwide Awesome travel insurance coverage	Very high annual fee High fee on additional cards Not the best miles earning rate You’ll only truly see the benefits if you travel frequently.

AeroplanPlus Reserve’s Basic Features and Benefits

The American Express AeroplanPlus Reserve Card is loaded with excellent benefits, as you’ll soon find out. Here is the list of the most relevant and important features and benefits that come with the card:

Welcome Bonus	50,000 Aeroplan miles
Travel Benefits	$200 annual travel credit Annual complimentary partner ticket worth up to 25,000 Aeroplan miles Unlimited access to Air Canada’s Maple Leaf lounges Unlimited access to over 1200 Priority Pass lounges
Annual Fee	$899
Additional card Annual Fee	$299 each
Miles Earned Per $1 Spent On Partner Brands	Minimum 2.25 miles on all partners Minimum 3 miles on eligible Air Canada purchases
Miles Earned Per $1 Spent On All Other Purchases	1.25 miles
American Express Invites	✔
American Express Concierge	✔
Travel Coverage	$5,000,000 Emergency Medical Insurance (Out of province/country) Trip Cancellation Insurance Trip Interruption Insurance $500,000 Travel Accident Insurance Travel Emergency Assistance Flight Delay Insurance Baggage Delay Insurance Lost or Stolen Baggage Insurance Hotel/Motel Burglary Insurance Car Rental Theft and Damage Insurance
Purchase Coverage	Buyer’s Assurance Protection Plan Purchase Protection Plan
Eligibility	Canadian citizens or residents A valid Canadian Credit file An account in good standing (credit score of at least 650) Minimum personal income of $60,000
Type of Card	Credit Card
Applied interest rate	19.99% on purchases 22.99% on cash advances

Above: The American Express AeroplanPlus Reserve Card’s features and benefits.

Ok! Now, let’s take a closer look at everything separately so I can show you how much they’ll really be worth to you:

Features Explained

The Annual Fee

If you don’t want to pay a fee for your credit card, then you definitely have to look the other way.

The annual fee on the American Express AeroplanPlus Reserve card is probably one of the first things that stand out. You get a lot of perks with this credit card, but at a cost of $899 a year. Many might find this to be too much and, unless you’re a frequent flyer, it won’t make much sense pay for it. Even the additional cards come with a hefty fee of almost $300. Of course, the fee is a direct indication of the benefits that come with the Reserve card, and after you’ve finished reading this post, you’ll be convinced that it’s actually a pretty sweet deal.

However, as with all credit cards options, whether it’s a good idea to sign up or not is a matter of lifestyle. The AeroplanPlus Reserve card is a great choice for anyone who travels frequently throughout the year, and it will actually turn out to be a great way to make money, provided you have the income necessary to be able to take advantage of all its benefits.

Miles Earning Rate

This card comes with a basic 1.25x earning rate on all purchases, which is really not so bad, seeing that most cards will give you only 1 mile per dollar on any purchase.

The only other card to offer that same basic earning rate on any purchase is the AeroplanPlus Platinum card. One slight drawback the AeroplanPlus Reserve card has compared to the Platinum card is that, in the latter case, you can boost your earning rate to 1.5 miles per dollar on any purchase if you charge more than $25,000 to it during the year. You don’t get that option with the Reserve card.

Most cards also offer an increased earning rate on specific, eligible purchases, and the Reserve card is not the exception, because it’ll double your earning rate on eligible Air Canada purchases. All that is required for an Air Canada purchase to be eligible is that the purchase itself is made directly with Air Canada or with the American Express Travel service.

However, if you really want to ramp up your earning rate, the best way to do so is to access the increased earning rates that Aeroplan’s partners offer, because

“You can earn miles twice with the AeroplanPlus Reserve Card if you shop at a partner brand: once for the card purchase and once for the Aeroplan partner!”

There are over 150 Aeroplan partners, each one of which has its particular rewarding scheme. Air Canada for example, Aeroplan’s main partner, will reward up to 150% of the miles you actually fly (that’s why they called them miles in the first place).

What’s the highest earning rate you could get?

Let me give you a sneak peak at the one of the highest earning rates you can get with the AeroplanPlus Platinum card:

If you purchase a round-trip ticket from Toronto to Vancouver in Standard plus class and pay the $800 fare with your AeroplanPlus Reserve Card, you would earn 1,600 miles from the card purchase (assuming you booked directly with Air Canada or Amex Travel). If you give your Aeroplan number, you would also receive 1 mile for every mile flown. That’s 4,156 miles for the round trip! In the end, you would come out with 5,756 miles for an $800 purchase.

That’s an incredible 7.20 miles per dollar!

Valued at an average 2.5 cents per mile, those 7.20 miles are worth 18 cents.

The bottom line: When you pay for Air Canada flights with your AeroplanPlus Reserve card, you can get more than 7 miles per dollar and save up to 18% of the purchase price!

That’s one of the best-case scenarios, but Aeroplan has over 150 partners for you to choose from so that you’re not limited to using your card with Air Canada if you want a good earning rate.

Aeroplan’s Partner Brands

You’ll find the complete list of Aeroplan’s partners in the following table. You will also find more examples of great rewards like the example shown above, as well as details regarding miles earning rates, promotions and more on Aeroplan’s partners’ list here.

Airlines	• Air Canada • Adria Airways • Aegean Airlines • Air China • Air Creebec • Air India • Air New Zealand • ANA • Asiana Airlines • Austrian Airlines • Avianca • Avianca Brazil • Bearskin Airlines • Brussels Airlines	• Canadian North • Cathay Dragon • Cathay Pacific • COPA Airlines • Croatia Airlines • Egyptair • Ethiopian Airlines • EuroWings • Eva Air • First Air • GOL • Juneyao Airlines • LOT Polish Airlines • Lufthansa	• Olympic Air • Scandinavian Airlines • Shenzhen Airlines • Singapore Airlines • South African Airways • Star Alliance • Swiss • TAP Air Portugal • Thai Airways • Turkish Airlines • United Airlines
Hotels and Lodgings	• Le Club Accorhotels • Ac Hotels by Marriott® • Adagio • Adagio Access • Aloft Hotels • Americinn® by Wyndham • Angsana • Ascend Collection® • Banyan Tree • Baymont® by Wyndham • Best Western International • Cambria Suites® • Candlewood Suites® • Cassia • Chelsea Hot • el, Toronto • Choice Hotels® • Clarion • Coast Hotels • Comfort Inn® • Comfort Suites® • Cordis Hotels and Resorts • Conrad Hotels and Resorts™ • Country Inn & Suites by Radisson • Courtyard by Marriott® • Crowne Plaza® • Days Inn® by Wyndham • Delta Hotels and Resorts • Dazzler® by Wyndham • Dolce Hotels and Resorts® by Wyndham • Doubletree by Hilton(Tm) • Eaton Hk • Econo Lodge® • Element Hotels • Embassy Suites Hotels® • Esplendor® • Boutique Hotels by Wyndham • Even® Hotels • Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott® • Fairmont Hotels & Resorts • Four Points by Sheraton • Gaylord Hotels® • Gouverneur Hotels • Grand Mercure • Hampton by Hilton™ • Hawthorn Suites® by Wyndham	• Hilton Hotels & Resorts® • Canopy by Hilton™ • Curio – a Collection by Hilton™ • Hilton Garden Inn™ • Hilton Grand Vacations™ • Hilton Honors™ • Holiday Inn Express® • Holiday Inn® Hotels and Resorts • Home2 Suites by Hilton™ • Homewood Suites by Hilton™ • Hotel Indigo™ • Howard Johnson • Hualuxe® Hotels & Resorts • Ibis • Ibis Styles • Intercontinental® Hotels and Resorts • Jw Marriott® • Kerry Hotels • Kimpton® Hotels and Restaurants • The Langham Hotels and Resorts • La Quinta® by Wyndham • Le Meridien Mainstay Suites® • Mama Shelter • Marriott Autograph Collection® • Marriott Edition® • Marriott Executive Apartments® • Marriott Hotels® • Marriott Bonvoy™ • Marriott Vacation Club® • Mercure • Mgallery • Microtel® by Wyndham • 21c Museum Hotel • Novotel • Pan Pacific Hotels & Resorts • Park Inn® by Radisson • Park Plaza® Hotels & Resorts • Parkroyal Hotels & Resorts • Pullman • Quality® • Radisson®	• Radisson Blu® • Radisson Red® • Raffles • Ramada® by Wyndham • Regent Hotels® • Renaissance® Hotels • Residence Inn by Marriott® • Rixos • Rocketmiles • Rodeway Inn® • The Sebel • Shangri-la Hotels and Resorts • Sheraton Hotels and Resorts • Sleep Inn® • Sofitel Hotels & Resorts • Sofitel Legend • Splash Beach Resort, Mai Khao, Phuket • Springhill Suites by Marriott® • Staybridge Suites® by Holiday Inn • St. Regis Hotels & Resorts • Suburban Extended Stay Hotel® • Super 8® by Wyndham • Swissotel • Thalassa Sea & Spa • The Luxury Collection • Towneplace Suites by Marriott® • Trademark Collection® by Wyndham • Traders Hotels • Travelodge® by Wyndham • Tryp® by Wyndham • Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts™ • Westin Hotels & Resorts • W Hotels • Wingate® by Wyndham • Wyndham Hotels and Resorts
Car Rental	• Avis • Budget • Hertz • Payless® Car Rental
Parking	• Aéroports De Montréal • Park & Jet Calgary • Park’n Fly • Vancouver International Airport Parking
Online Retailers	• Aircanada.com • Home Hardware • Costco • Magellan’s
Aeroplan e-store Partners	• Aeroplan Estore • Aldo • Amazon.ca • Apple Store Canada • Banana Republic • Bass Pro Shops • Bloomingdale’s • Bogs • Chapters.indigo.ca • Clearly • Club Monaco • Crocs • Dell Canada • Ebay.ca • Footlocker • Gap Canada • Hudson’s Bay • Indochino	• Lands’ End • L.l.bean • Luisaviaroma • Macy’s • Microsoft Store • National Geographic • Norton by Symantec • Old Navy • Rakuten Kobo • Revolveclothing.com • Roots • Rosetta Stone • Saks.com • Sephora • Shoes.com • Shop Disney • Sierra Trading Post • Strawberrynet	• The Body Shop • Toms Canada • Tsc • Under Armour • Weightwatchers.ca • Well.ca • Yves Rocher • Nordstrom

Above: Complete list of Aeroplan’s partner brands

Eligibility

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Since the Amex AeroplanPlus Platinum Card is for Canadians only, the first condition to be eligible is to be a Canadian citizen or at least a Canadian resident.

The American Express AeroplanPlus Reserve Card is a credit card, so to be eligible you need to have two things:

• A valid Canadian credit file with a good to excellent credit score (most recommend at least 650, others above 700)

• A minimum personal income of $60,000 or more.

By now, you can tell that it’s not as easy to get the Reserve card as it is to get any one of the charge cards American Express Canada has to offer. In those cases, using your credit cards frequently and taking good care not to fall behind on your payments is about enough to be approved.

If you meet the requirements and you like what you’ve seen so far, then give it a go.

The AeroplanPlus Reserve Card’s Perks Explained

Let’s dive deep into everything you can get out of this wonderful credit card.

Benefit #1: The Welcome Bonus

The AeroplanPlus Reserve card comes with one of the biggest welcome bonuses of any card you’ll find, anywhere. The only possible way to get a bigger bonus is by signing up the Amex Platinum Card, which gives you a 50,000 Membership Rewards points sign-up bonus that you can turn into 65,000 Aeroplan miles as we explain in this post.

 This bonus is 10,000 miles bigger than the Aeroplan Platinum card’s and you can use it for all sorts of redemptions. Of course, you want to get the most out of your miles, so the best thing you can do is to trade them in for flight rewards.

Let’s take a look at some of the great things you could do with the 50,000 miles:

• A Round-trip from Vancouver to Hawaii for $77!

Whether you want to hit the Pacific surf at the Big Island, see some of the world’s most breath-taking active volcanoes or take a tour and enjoy award-winning Kona coffee straight from its origin, Hawaii is an absolute must in any travelers bucket list.

As you can see from the following snapshots of flight rewards booked on Aeroplan, you could visit this incredible destination for less than 45,000 miles +$77 in taxes and fees.

The same exact flight plan would cost $745 paid in cash with Air Canada directly (see below), so in the end, you would be saving almost $670

The great thing is that you would still have over 5,000 miles left over in the end.

• Round-trip from Vancouver to Paris for only $186

Yet another popular destination at barely a fraction of the price, visit The City of Light and save almost $700 when paying with the miles in your welcome bonus.

As you can see from the two images below, the round trip will cost 60,000 miles + $186 if you pay for it with your Aeroplan miles.

If you were to book the flight directly with United Airlines, the total cost would be $864, as you can see up ahead.

For this trip you have to commit more miles than the welcome bonus alone will give you. However, since you have to spend at least $3,000 in the first three months of cardmembership in order to receive the bonus, if you spend them wisely and take advantage of the increased earning rates that Aeroplan partners will give you, by the time you actually get the bonus you’ll already have the miles in your account.

• Take a weekend trip to LA and go sightseeing in Hollywood for $191

If getting the most value out of your miles is what’s most important to you, then use your bonus on domestic, business-class flights in Canada or within the continental USA, flying with Air Canada. A great example is this round-trip to Los Angeles, California.

Book the exact same flights with the exact same seats in cash, and you’ll end up paying almost $1400, as I show you below:

Those are just three very popular, faraway destinations you can access, at an incredibly low price, just for signing up to the AeroplanPlus Reserve card. There are hundreds of other options to choose from, and if you take our advice on how to get cheap flights with Aeroplan, there’s no telling where you’ll end up with the 50,000 miles bonus.

In addition, sometimes, if you’re lucky, you can even find Market Fare flight rewards to the same destinations but for less miles. Sometimes the difference isn’t too great, and you’ll end up saving 500 or 1,000 miles, but sometimes you can get tickets at almost half the miles of a regular fixed mileage flight reward, saving you tens of thousands of miles.

Benefit #2: An Annual Complimentary Partner Ticket

This is a benefit you’ll love! Once a year, if you redeem 15,000 or 25,000 miles for a short or long haul round trip, fixed mileage flight reward ticket in economy class, you can get a second ticket for the exact same itinerary, for FREE! You would still have to pay for taxes and surcharge fees, but Hey! That’s peanuts compared to the full price of the ticket.

The great thing about this benefit is that you get it annually, so it helps soften the blow of the high annual fee. A couple of things to take into account are that this benefit is not cumulative, which means that if you don’t use it before your anniversary date, you lose it; it’s not transferable, so don’t go thinking you can sell the tickets to get some extra cash; and, for the same reason, it’s not redeemable for cash either.

At an average 2.5 cents per mile, those extra 25,000 miles will be worth $625.

Two things to consider when looking for flights to use this benefit on:

#1 Only round-trip economy class tickets are eligible.

This means you can’t use it on one-way flight rewards, no matter what type of cabin, and you can’t use it or on any business class flight either.

#2 You can only choose fixed mileage flight rewards.

This means it’ll be either a short-haul round-trip ticket for 15,000 miles, or a long-haul round trip ticket for 25,000 miles. You can’t take extra advantage of lower rates on market fare flight rewards.

All and all, it’s still a great excuse to take a quick weekend trip for two, at least once a year.

Benefit #3: Annual $200 Travel Credit

This is another important benefit that will help soften edges on the annual fee. Aside from all the other benefits, you can get back $200, once a year, in the form of travel credit. You can use this credit towards any kind of travel related booking (flights, hotel rental, car rental, etc.) as long as you book through American Express Travel services and you charge the entire booking to your AeroplanPlus Reserve Card.

That’s simple enough, but there are a couple of footnotes that deserve mentioning:

#1 You can only get the travel credit towards a single travel booking of $200 or more

This means that you can’t spread the $200 in more than one travel arrangement. For example, you can’t use $100 of credit towards one trip, and the other $100 towards another. All $200 have to be credited towards the same, single travel booking. Additionally, the booking has to cost a total of at least $200. If you book a flight that costs $199, you won’t be able to use your credit.

#2 If you cancel the booking, you lose the $200 credit.

What this implies is that, after you request American Express to give you the $200 credit towards a particular travel booking, you can’t back down. It’s your decision whether to request the travel credit or not, but once you do, if you cancel your booking, you won’t get the credit back until next year (based on your membership anniversary date).

In summary: if you want to take advantage of the $200 travel credit, don’t ask for it until you’re absolutely sure you’re going to go through with your trip.

Benefit #4: Unlimited access to Air Canada’s Maple Leaf Lounges and Priority Pass Lounges worldwide

The American Express AeroplanPlus Reserve card comes straight out of the box with an Air Canada Maple Leaf Club membership that grants you full, unlimited access to any of the Maple Leaf Lounges around the world. These include 17 lounges spread across 11 airports within Canada; 3 lounges in the US (Newark, La Guardia and LAX); and 3 other lounges in key international locations: Frankfurt, Heathrow (London) and Charles de Gaulle (France).

For example, you could sit back and drink a good cup of coffee at the Calgary International Airport Maple Leaf Lounge.

This membership is equivalent to the Maple Leaf Club Canada membership plan, which has a value of $375.

In addition to the Maple Leaf Club membership, when you sign up to the AeroplanPlus Reserve card you also become eligible for the full-access, Priority Pass Prestige membership that will grant you access to over 1200 lounges around the world.

A great example of the Priority Pass lounges is the “Sala VIP Internacional” lounge in Quito’s International Airport (Ecuador), which won the 2018 Lounge of the Year Award.

Unlike the Maple Leaf Club membership, the Priority Pass membership doesn’t come with the American Express AeroplanPlus Reserve Card out-of-the-box. You can apply for it as soon as you receive your AeroplanPlus Reserve Card, but whether or not you are accepted depends entirely on Priority Pass Limited. If you’re approved, the US $429 fee (equivalent to around $577) will be waived, and you’ll get the membership free of charge, every year henceforth, as long as you keep your AeroplanPlus Reserve card.

Now, you may be wondering:

OK, they look great and seem really comfy, but what’s all the fuss about Airport Lounges anyway?

In other words…

Why would I want lounge access?

Well, these sleek establishments offer complimentary refreshments (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages), snacks, high-speed Wi-Fi access, cell-free quiet zones, a broad selection of newspaper and magazines, and business centers where you can print, make copies or fax anything you need. Most of them even have showers so you can freshen-up right before you hop on your plane.

Some of the higher-end Priority Pass lounges, like the one at Quito shown above, even have dedicated sleeping areas for long layovers…and massage rooms!

If this isn’t your definition of waiting for your flight with style, than I don’t know what is!

I’m at the airport. How do I get into the lounge?

Both Maple Leaf and Priority Pass lounge access is completely free of charge for the basic cardholder (not for supplementary cardholders), but you can bring guests with you (pending space availability, among other things) for a fee. In the case of Maple Leaf lounges, the fee is $20 per person (except for children under 12 who don’t pay a fee), and in the case of Priority Pass lounges, it’s US$27 each (around CA$36).

The only condition to access any Maple Leaf lounge is that you present your American Express AeroplanPlus Reserve credit card, along with a confirmed, same-day ticket for an Air Canada flight (or select partners).

 In the case of the Priority Pass lounges, you have to present the valid Priority Pass card you receive upon approval of your membership, along with a confirmed, same-day airline ticket. In this case, you’re not restricted to Air Canada or its partners; the ticket may be from any airline.

You can see that by owning this card, there’s a high probability that you will be able to enjoy the benefits of a great airport lounge wherever you go.

Try it out – you won’t regret it.

Benefit #5: American Express Concierge

Sometimes planning a trip can be a hassle, so having an expert to back you up and get things sorted out for you is just what you need to be able to really relax and enjoy the ride. Other times, the day-by-day stress, work and other obligations don’t leave enough time to plan something original for that special occasion you’ve been thinking of.

Whether you need to book tickets for a show you want to see, send a gift and you just don’t have the time to look for one, or you need advice on what to do at your city of destination, an American Express concierge will be there to help.

Having the Amex Concierge service is pretty much like having a 24/7 personal assistant, travel planner and lifestyle counselor, all rolled into one.

How Does Amex Concierge Work?

It’s really simple.

Whenever you have a requirement, all you have to do is contact a concierge anytime, from anywhere in the world, by phone or by email, to let him (or her) know what you need. Any one of the more than 5000 lifestyle counselors that work with American Express will answer and will ask a series of questions to get to know you a little better, get to know your likes and dislikes, and what you expect out of the service.

A little while later, he or she will let you know if he or she can do what you ask, and will get to work on it immediately. The service is completely free of charge to AeroplanPlus Reserve cardholders, but there may obviously be charges required to book and pay for tickets, pay for articles, packaging and currier services, etc. In any of those cases, the concierge will call you or write to inform you of the charges, and if you approve them, they will be charged to your AeroplanPlus Reserve Card.

Some tasks you can outsource to an American Express Concierge

The concierge is there to make your life easier. Therefore, knowing what sort of things a concierge will or will not be able to do for you is something you always want to keep in mind, if you are an AeroplanPlus Reserve cardmember. Here is a short list of tasks that a concierge is sure to be able to perform to the highest standards:

• Send a gift when you don’t have time to do so yourself

This is especially helpful for birthdays when you’re far away, special dates like anniversaries and the like, or simply to let someone know that they’re on your mind, regardless of how busy you are.

• Get tickets to events that are already sold out to the general public

You can get your concierge to be on the lookout for tickets to events as soon as they go on sale, so that you don’t miss it. However, for certain big events, American Express reserves a whole block of tickets exclusively for its cardmembers, so even if tickets get sold-out for the general public, your concierge wills still be able to get you in.

• Get reservations at highly coveted restaurants.

It obviously pends on availability, but concierges are usually quite efficient at securing reservations.

• Help plan an itinerary for a trip

You can ask your concierge to research events, good restaurants, spas, to book flights and hotel stays, to rent cars and more, so that everything will be planned out before you arrive.

• Help plan an event

Whether you need to look for available venues or even catering services, the Amex Concierge can help.

• Find special service providers near you and much, much more!

You can get pretty creative with the concierge service. In case of doubt, all you have to do is ask. You’d be surprised of the things they’ll be able to help you with.

Benefit #6: Air Canada Priority Check-in

The AeroplanPlus Reserve Card makes your life easier at the airport by saving you time when checking in. Where available, you can skip the regular check-in line and pass through Air Canada’s priority check-in.

For obvious reasons, this only applies to same day flights that are operated by Air Canada. It also applies whether you paid for your ticket in cash or whether it’s an Aeroplan flight reward.

Benefit #7: VIP Treatment at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport (YYZ)

If you’re flying from Pearson International Airport (YYZ), having an AeroplanPlus Reserve card will get you pampered as soon as you arrive.

Start off by getting complimentary valet parking service from terminals 1 and 3 just by flashing your card. You can also get a discount for parking rates and car care if you pay for them with your AeroplanPlus Reserve Card.

Once you’re inside the airport, and once you’ve taken advantage of Air Canada’s priority check-in (if you’re flying Air Canada obviously), you can save more time by bypassing the regular security check line, and going through the Pearson Priority Security Lane during peak hours.

All this will leave you with a lot of leisure time, which you can enjoy at the Maple Leaf Lounge.

Benefit #8: Extensive Travel and Purchase Coverage

The American Express AeroplanPlus Reserve Card comes with one of the most extensive travel coverage of any Amex card. It brings in all the policies that come with the Aeroplan Platinum card that include, among other policies, Trip Cancellation Insurance, Trip Interruption Insurance and Emergency Medical Insurance.

Keep reading to find out more about the travel coverage that comes with the AeroplanPlus Reserve Card:

• $5,000,000 Travel Emergency Medical Insurance

Nothing eases your mind like having a good medical insurance policy. Many travel cards come with travel accident insurance or similar, but that only covers you while in transit, and not while you’re actually at your destination.

The Travel Emergency Medical Insurance policy is a group policy issued by Royal and Sun Alliance Insurance Company, and it will cover you as the basic cardholder, your spouse and any dependent children, as well as any supplementary cardholder, his or her spouse and children, during the first 15 days of your trip. The coverage is for up to $5,000,000 per person under the age of 65, and comes into effect once you leave your Canadian state or province of residence.

• $500,000 Travel Accident Insurance

This is an AD&D policy underwritten by the Chubb Life Insurance Company, which covers you, your spouse and your children under the age of 23, as well as any additional cardmember, his or her spouse and children. The only condition is that you are all traveling in the same carrier (plane, ship, train or bus). The only downside is that this policy will only cover you while in transit, and not when you’re at your destination, but that’s what the Travel Emergency Medical Insurance policy is for.

• 24/7 Travel Emergency Assistance

This gives you access to legal and medical assessment over the phone during your trip. This helps a lot, especially if you’re in a country whose laws you’re unfamiliar with.

• Trip Cancellation and Interruption Insurance

Sometimes, trips can get canceled for unforeseeable reasons like accidents. Other times, you may have to cut your trip short and return home. In both of those cases, if you have pre-paid travel arrangements, you could ask for a refund, but companies will seldom refund the whole price, so you’ll end up losing money.

This policy covers you for the non-refundable portions of prepaid trips, in case your trip is canceled before it even starts. If, after you begin your trip, your trip gets interrupted or you miss a connection or similar, the policy will cover non-refundable unused travel arrangements, as well as the most cost effective flight fares either to rejoin your tour, to your point of departure or to your next destination. It also covers pocket money for small daily expenses.

The maximum sum covered is $1,500 per person for a maximum of $3,000 for all insured persons combined in the case of trip cancellation, and a maximum of $6,000 for all insured persons combined in the case of trip interruption.

In the case of out-of-pocket money, the maximum is $100 a day per person, with a cap at $1,000.

• Flight and Baggage Delay Insurance

Flights can be delayed for long periods, and during this time, you may have unplanned expenses like eating at a restaurant or even staying at a hotel. Your baggage not arriving on time can be just as frustrating and can also generate more expenses. Amex’s Flight Delay and Baggage Delay Insurance cover you for up to $500 of these, and other sundry expenses.

• Lost or Stolen Baggage Insurance

If your baggage disappears altogether, is damaged or stolen while in transit, you’re covered for up to $500.

• Hotel/Motel Burglary Insurance

This policy covers up to $500 in lost personal items in case your hotel gets burglarized, as long as you paid for the room with your AeroplanPlus Reserve card.

• Car Rental Theft or Damage Insurance

This one is a money-saving jewel. When you rent a car, you’re required to buy a Theft and Damage policy which can cost anywhere from $16 to $23 per day!

To give you an idea, if you were to rent a car for a one-week business trip, this could add up to as much as $161 just for the insurance (not counting the car rental itself). If you pay for the car rental with your AeroplanPlus Reserve card, you can decline the company’s own policy and use your card’s instead, without paying a single dime, therefore saving you the $161. Keep in mind that this insurance policy will cover any rental car with a MSRP of up to $85,000, so don’t go renting a Ferrari.

• Purchase Coverage

Regarding purchase coverage, you’ll get the Buyer’s Assurance Protection Plan, which doubles the manufacturer’s warranty on any purchase paid in full with the AeroplanPlus Reserve card for a maximum of one extra year. You’ll also get the Purchase Protection Plan that covers your purchases against accidental damage and theft, for a maximum of $1,000.

As you can see, if feeling safe while you travel essential to you, than the AeroplanPlus Reserve card is definitely a great choice to consider.

Additional Benefits

• Complimentary first-checked bag

For both the basic cardmember as well as for any supplementary cardholder, your first standard size and weight bag will be checked-in, free of charge, for any Air Canada flight. You can only use this benefit up to 5 times a year.

• Hertz Gold Plus Rewards membership

This is Hertz’s loyalty rewards program, and it earns you 1 point per dollar. The points can be redeemed for free car rentals.

• Aeroplan Priority Booking

You get priority access to Aeroplan’s Contact Center where you can book your travel arrangements and more.

• Emergency Card Replacement

In case you lose your card or it is stolen while you’re abroad, it’s good to know you can call any time and get a new one sent to you, wherever you are, ASAP.

Do the benefits justify the annual fee?

Definitely, year after year!

You can see that the first year is a no-brainer. The 50,000 miles welcome bonus alone is enough to cover the $899 fee and more, and you still get a bunch of other benefits that make it a winning deal. With a single trip that’ll get you more than 2.5 cents per mile, the 50,000 miles will turn into more than $1,200. Add in the other benefits and you come out well ahead the annual fee.

After the first year, things will still look great, as long as you travel a lot.

Let’s add up all the long-term benefits:

Travel Credit	$200
Complimentary annual round-trip partner ticket, which is worth up to 25,000 miles	$625
Air Canada Maple Leaf Club Canada membership	$375
Priority Pass Prestige membership	$577
Pearson Airport Valet	$25
Total Benefits	$1,602
Annual Fee	($899)
Total Profit	$703
Additional Benefits	Yes

In the end, the long-term benefits will get you an extra $700 in value, after counting in the annual fee, and that’s without even counting the value of the full insurance coverage, which is hard to estimate, and the Amex Concierge service, which can also prove to be invaluable to most customers.

The largest part of the benefits comes from the two lounge access memberships, which together are worth more than the annual fee itself. You would only count that as a benefit if you’re a frequent flyer, and you actually use those lounges a lot.

Think of it this way: You wouldn’t pay over three hundred dollars for a Maple Leaf Club membership and nearly six hundred more for a Priority Pass membership if you weren’t going to use them, would you? Therefore, if you’re not a frequent flyer, the card wouldn’t really be saving you the $900+ on those memberships, because you don’t really need them anyway. It would make a lot more sense to pay way less for cheaper membership and pay the $20-$30 entrance fee every time you took a flight, if you really want to visit a lounge.

However, if you do want lounge access, and especially if you plan to travel more than once a year, then this card is a great choice for the long term as well!

Alternative ways to build your Aeroplan balance

Even though any of the AeroplanPlus cards would seem like the likely candidates if you want to earn Aeroplan miles, they’re actually not the only choices. There are other Amex card options that will also give you great welcome bonuses, good miles earning rates and much better long lasting benefits.

Here are our personal recommendations of alternative ways to earn miles:

The American Express Platinum Card

One of the best cards for Canadians, the American Express Platinum Card is the absolute best way to bulk up your Aeroplan miles and travel around the world in style. It comes with a heavy annual fee of $699 but also with a whopping 50,000 Membership Rewards (MR) points welcome bonus you can transfer to Aeroplan miles at a 1:1 rate. That’s the biggest welcome bonus you can get! Using them wisely, these miles alone will be worth over $1,250.

But the Platinum Card isn’t the best choice just for the welcome bonus. The points earning rate is also the best one around. You can get 2x points on travel purchases and even 3x at eligible dinning in Canada. This flexibility makes it a lot easier to access great earning rates most of the time, and all that without having to charge the card with more than $25,000 to do so. Give your Aeroplan number on selected purchases on a partner brand, and you’ll crank it up even more (refer to the “Miles Earning Rate” section for more details).

It’s easier to access a higher points earning rate with the Platinum card than with any of the Aeroplan cards!

Add in long lasting benefits like $200 in travel credit and complimentary access to more than 1,200 airport lounges across the globe (valued at almost $500 a year) and you’ll see why you definitely need this card if you like to travel.

Sign up to the Amex Platinum Card today.

The American Express Gold Rewards Card

Another great way to earn Aeroplan miles is using the American Express Gold Rewards Card. This card comes with a very decent welcome bonus of 25,000 MR points that are transferable to Aeroplan miles at a 1:1 rate, and will only cost you $150 a year. That’s a 37.5% smaller bonus compared to the Aeroplan Platinum card, but it’ll cost you 70% less, so it’s a much better deal. You’ll also receive $100 in hotel credit and many other benefits that’ll make this a smarter choice, year after year.

You could get the same bonus for a bit less money and many more benefits with yet another option, the Marriott Bonvoy card, but the Gold Rewards card has a much better points earning rate, if you plan to transfer the points to Aeroplan miles. You could get 2x points on travel and a lot of everyday purchases, which is a much easier and more flexible way to earn points (read miles) than with the Amex Marriott Bonvoy card. This card is an Aeroplan winner at a modest fee.

Sign up Gold Rewards Card now

The Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card

Even though we don’t really recommend doing so, you can transfer your Marriott Bonvoy’s 60,000 points welcome bonus to Aeroplan Miles at a 3:1 rate, and even earn an extra 15,000 Bonvoy points when doing so. If you transfer those as well, you would get 25,000 Aeroplan miles just for signing up to the Marriott Bonvoy American Express card, which are worth around $625. All this for a card that’ll only cost you $120 a year, and gives you great long lasting benefits like one free night a year at a five stars hotel.

With the American Express Marriott Bonvoy Card, you can get the same welcome bonus as with the Gold Rewards card + much better benefits, for an even lower fee.

These miles are enough for a long-haul round trip in economy class or a one-way flight in business class.

Sign up now to the Marriott Bonvoy Amex Card

The only downside to using the Marriott Bonvoy card as a means to earn Aeroplan miles is the earning rate. The best rate you can get is 5x points on participating Marriott Bonvoy properties, which when transferred to miles at the 1:3 ratio translates into  miles per dollar. It’s not bad, but you’re limited to Marriott Bonvoy properties alone, and the other mentioned cards will get better rates on more flexible spending. On every other purchase, the Marriott Bonvoy card will match 2 points to a dollar, or 0.67 miles, which is not good at all.

How To Apply

If you decide that the American Express AeroplanPlus Reserve Card is the one for you, applying is as simple as clicking the link below and filling out the application form. It only takes about 5 minutes, and you’ll get a response almost immediately. All you need to be eligible is to be an adult Canadian resident with an account in good standing.

FAQs

How much are my Aeroplan miles really worth?

You can get anything from 0.7 cents per mile to more than 4 cents per mile, depending on how you redeem them. To get the best value from your miles, just follow our pro tips:

Tip #1: Only redeem your miles for flights

Tip #2: Use your miles for domestic flights with Air Canada

Tip #4: When flying international, choose airlines that don’t impose fuel surcharge fees

Tip #4: Fly in Business class instead of Economy class

These tips probably won’t get you the cheapest possible fares, but they’re sure to get you the highest possible value per every beloved mile.

Is my Aeroplan number the same as my American Express AeroplanPlus card number?

No, it isn’t. Your Aeroplan number is the one you get when you sign up to Aeroplan itself at www.aeroplan.com. It’s actually your Aeroplan account number (where your miles are saved), and it’s the one you should give whenever you’re purchasing at a partner brand in order to earn more miles, regardless of your payment method.

Your AeroplanPlus number, as you may have already guessed, is the actual American Express Aeroplan credit card number (the one printed on your card).

If I already have an American Express AeroplanPlus card, am I still eligible for the welcome bonus if I sign up to a different one?

Yes, you are. The welcome bonus is meant for anyone who signs up for any Amex card for the first time. If you already signed up to the AeroplanPlus Gold card, for example, and claimed its welcome bonus, you can still sign up to any one of the other three AeroplanPlus cards and get its bonus, because they are all different cards.

How long do I have to wait to get my welcome bonus?

This is very important question if you plan to use your bonus to pay for a trip. You won’t get the bonus right away after signing up for the card.

First of all, in order to get the Aeroplan Platinum card’s bonus you have to reach a minimum of $3,000 in purchases (any purchase) charged to your new card in the first 90 days of cardmembership. This could take a while.

After you hit that goal, American Express can take up to 8 weeks to transfer the bonus to your Aeroplan account.

Consequently, we estimate that you could get your bonus in about 16 to 20 weeks (or four to five months) after signing up.

You might get it earlier, but it’s better to play it safe. Be very careful not to sign up any later than 20 weeks prior to your planned trip!

What will happen with my unused miles after Air Canada’s takeover of Aeroplan in 2020?

It’s common knowledge that Air Canada closed a deal to buy-back Aeroplan and turn it into a brand new loyalty rewards program. This has many Aeroplan members worried about what will happen to their unused miles after the sale comes into effect next June 2020. There’s a bit of uncertainty around Aeroplan’s future.

However, Air Canada is assuming liability for all unclaimed miles, so it’s a fact that you won’t lose them. However, many experts agree that Air Canada is bound come up with a way to devalue the miles in order to soften the blow, so it’s likely that after June 2020 your miles won’t be worth as much as they are now.

On the bright side, you don’t have to worry about clearing out your Aeroplan account on any unplanned trip just yet.

“Worldwide lounge access, a $200 annual travel credit, platinum hotel memberships, extra insurance, a metal card and I get 50,000 points on top of all that? Are you serious???”

That was my reaction when a friend first told me about the American Express Platinum Card for Canadians.

Needless to say, I was more than a little intrigued…

And now that it’s been over 4 years since I’ve had my own Platinum Card, I can’t tout it highly enough.

Are you ready to learn why?

This American Express Platinum review is broken down into the following 10 sections:

#1 The Basics & Benefits

Welcome Bonus Points	50,000
Points Earned Per $1 Spent On Dining	3
Points Earned Per $1 Spent On Travel	2
Points Earned Per $1 Spent On All Other Card Purchases	1
Companion Tickets	✔
Fine Hotels & Resorts Exclusive Benefits	✔
Hotel Elite Statuses	✔
Amex Platinum Concierge	✔
American Express Invites	✔
Comprehensive Travel Insurance	✔
Annual Fee	$699

The card also comes with additional American Express benefits that come with all of their cards. These include Front Of The Line, which offers cardholders advanced access/tickets to concerts, sporting events and shows across Canada.

#2 Three More Special Amex Platinum Canada Benefits

Special Benefit #1: Worldwide Airport Lounge Access

On top of the 50,000 Membership Rewards points that come with your Amex Platinum Card, you also receive a Priority Pass Prestige membership, which holds a value of $429 USD per year. Your Priority Pass membership gets you into more than 1,200 airport lounges around the world without paying a dime. All of the lounges have free food (some offer full meals, while others have an array of snacks), drinks (many, though not all, offer alcoholic drinks as well), and many include additional amenities like nap rooms, showers, libraries, printing, and games rooms.

My Priority Pass is definitely the American Express Platinum benefit that I use the most, and it’s completely changed the way that I travel. I seriously can’t imagine flying anywhere without stopping in the lounge first now.

Where can you use your Canadian Platinum lounge benefit in Canada? How about the 24-hour SkyTeam Lounge in Vancouver (YVR)?

Or the National Bank Lounge in Montreal (YUL)?

Toronto (YYZ) has a whopping seven Priority Pass lounges—and you’ll be able to access all of them for free.

You’re stepping up your travel game already.

Special Benefit #2: $200 Annual Travel Credit

This is exactly what it sounds like: $200 for you to use on travel, every single year. In the past 3 years alone, I’ve used my $200 travel credit on a flight to Asia, a flight to South America, and a flight to Europe.

The Amex Platinum Card comes with a $200 annual travel credit you can use anywhere in the world!

Pro Tip: Use your $200 annual travel credit on the first hotel or flight booking you make with your Platinum Card. You don’t want to forget to use it!

Special Benefit #3: Hotel Elite Statuses

Your Amex Platinum also upgrades your statuses with a handful of hotel chains. This means you get special benefits: exclusive discounts, early check-in and late check-out, complimentary breakfasts and more.

These are the sort of status upgrades you can expect with your Amex Platinum Card:

• Hilton Honors Gold Status
• Shangri-La Golden Circle Jade Membership
• Radisson RewardsTM Gold Status
• Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite Status

#3 How To Turn 50,000 Points Into 65,000 Points

The 50,000 welcome bonus points that come with the American Express Platinum are great, but if you know what you’re doing, you can actually turn them into 65,000 pretty simply.

How? At least once per year, American Express offers a 30% transfer bonus when you transfer your points to a program like British Airways Avios or Aeroplan. Just by transferring your points smartly, 50,000 Membership Rewards points all of a sudden become 65,000 Avios points.

You just gained another 15,000 points—worth at least $300 if you use them at a value of 2 cents per point or above—just for being in the loop.

Here are 3 realistic scenarios of the value you can achieve with the Amex Platinum:

	Very Easy	Very Easy	Moderate Difficulty
Redemption Type	Cash (against statement balance)	Flights	Flights with creativity
Redemption Value Per Point	1 cent	2 cents	3 cents
Total Value Of 65,000 Points	$650	$1,300	$1,950
Less: Annual Fee	($699)	($699)	($699)
Plus: $200 Annual Travel Credit	$200	$200	$200
Profit From Points	-$50	$600	$1,250
Additional Benefits	Yes	Yes	Yes

Most of you will find yourselves in columns 2 or 3 in the $801-$1,451 profit range, since you can just read our other blog posts like how to get cheap flights to Asia and how to get cheap flights to Europe to find tons of flights that get you 2-3 cents per point of value.

But if you’re ambitious and want to push your points even further, it’s completely possible to surpass what’s listed above with a value of 3 cents per point or more. Just send us an emailand we’ll help you sift through your options to ensure you get a great bang for your buck.

#4 How To Use Your 65,000 Points

Case Study #1: Visiting Asia

Suppose you want to take a trip to Hong Kong to visit family or friends. The Amex Platinum is your perfect companion, since one of the easiest, best ways to use your 65,000 Avios points is on direct flights to Hong Kong with Cathay Pacific.

Since Cathay Pacific is a premium airline, these flights normally cost at least $1,000 from Vancouver, and even more from Toronto. You won’t be paying anywhere close to that.

Roundtrip flights from Vancouver to Hong Kong cost just 60,000 Avios points + $90 in taxes and fees. Roundtrip flights from Toronto to Hong Kong cost 70,000 Avios points + $100, though you can pay a little bit more in cash (~$50) and drop the points down to 65,000 if you want.

Of course, Hong Kong isn’t your only option. Tokyo is a bit closer than Hong Kong, so flights between Vancouver and Tokyo are just 50,000 points.

Are you getting excited yet?

Case Study #2: Going Round-The-World

Let’s suppose you want to go around the world using your Platinum card.

No problem.

If you’re in Vancouver, you can fly from Vancouver to Hong Kong to Dubai to London to Vancouver (or the opposite direction) for 74,700 points + $742 in taxes and fees.

Yes, 74,700 is a bit more than 65,000, but don’t worry—you’ll earn the extra 10,000 points (and more!) after a few months of using the card.

Toronto works just the same.

Flying from Toronto to Hong Kong to Dubai to London to Toronto (or the opposite direction) costs just 74,500 points + $761 in taxes and fees.

Did you ever imagine you could fly around the world for $750?

That’s the power of the Platinum Card.

Route	Points Needed	Taxes & Fees
Roundtrip: Toronto to Hong Kong	70,000	$100
Roundtrip: Vancouver to Hong Kong	60,000	$90
Round-the-world: Toronto to Hong Kong to Dubai to London to Toronto	74,500	$761
Round-the-world: Vancouver to Hong Kong to Dubai to London to Vancouver	74,700	$742

These round-the-world trips offer a value of well over 4 cents per point, meaning the $699 fee you paid just saved you several thousand dollars on flights.

#5 Is The Amex Platinum Canada Worth The $699 Annual Fee?

Absolutely.

Here’s the magic in the $699 annual fee: it’s impossible not to make money by having this card, even after paying the fee.

Huh? Sounds confusing, right?

Here’s how it works.

If you use your 50,000 points in the worst way possible, they’re worth $700 to you. Why? Because American Express allows you to apply your points against your statement balance at a value of one cent per point, which means 50,000 points = $500. Add in your $200 travel credit for 2019 and you’re at $700.

It’s impossible not to make money with the Amex Platinum Card.

And that’s not even considering the other benefits you get from the card. The travel/emergency/baggage insurance and additional purchase insurance (for theft/damage of your items), the worldwide airport lounge access, the premium hotel memberships, and everything else you see hereeverything else you see here are all just cherries on top.

So even if you use your points in the worst way you could—by applying them to your statement balance as a cash equivalent—you still come out way, way ahead.

But if you use them in the ways we’ve suggested in sections #3 and #4 above, you can reasonably expect to save $800 or more after accounting for the annual fee.

#6 Travel Insurance

The Platinum Card also comes with an impressive travel insurance policy. Here’s what it includes:

Benefit	Description	Coverage Limit
Travel Accident Insurance	You, your spouse and your children are covered in the case of accidental death or dismemberment while traveling	$500,000
Car Rental Theft and Damage Insurance	Damage or theft of your rental car	$85,000
Flight Delay Insurance	Hotel, motel, restaurant expenses and other sundry items when your flight is delayed	$500
Baggage Delay Insurance	Reasonable and necessary emergency purchases when your baggage is delayed	$500
Lost or Stolen Baggage Insurance	Loss or damage to your luggage or personal effects while in transit.	$500
Hotel/Motel Burglary Insurance	Loss of most personal items if your hotel/ motel is burglarized.	$500
Travel Emergency Assistance	Medical & legal referrals by phone 24/7	N/A

Every American Express card also comes with two other insurance benefits:

1. Buyer’s Assurance Protection Plan doubles the manufacturer’s warranty on your purchases and will repair/replace faulty or damaged items up to $10,000.
2. Purchase Protection Plan insures your purchases against accidental physical damage and theft for the 90 days after purchase, up to $1,000.

Fraud protection, global emergency card replacement and 24/7 express customer service are included with every American Express card, too.

#7 The Amex Business Platinum Card

This entire review has been about the Amex Platinum Card, though there’s also an American Express Business Platinum Card for Canadians, too. There are a few key differences between the two cards:

• 40,000 welcome bonus points for the Business Platinum Card (10,000 less)
• $499 annual fee for the Business Platinum Card ($200 less)
• No $200 annual travel credit for the Business Platinum card

Since the Platinum Card’s higher annual fee is offset by its $200 annual travel credit, the biggest difference between the two is that you get 10,000 fewer welcome bonus points with the Business Platinum Card.

#8 Three Less Expensive Cards To Consider

Even though we’ve clearly shown how you can save thousands of dollars with the Platinum Card, the $699 annual fee still rubs some people the wrong way.

So here are a few less expensive, high-value cards you can consider instead:

#1 The Marriott Bonvoy™ Amex Card

Released in March 2019, the Marriott Bonvoy™ American Express Card is the best travel credit card available in Canada right now. It comes with an incredible 60,000 welcome bonus points at an annual fee of just $120. You also receive a free hotel night every year after the first year with the card, which you’re able to use at some of the swankiest hotels in the world. While this current offer lasts, we can’t recommend the Marriott Bonvoy™ Amex Card highly enough.

#2 The Amex Cobalt Card

The Amex Cobalt Card is the best everyday spending card available right now. Why? Because you can get up to 10% cashback on your spending when you use the Cobalt Card at coffee shops, restaurants, bars and grocery stores coffee anywhere in Canada.

#3 The Amex Gold Rewards Card

You can think of the Gold Rewards Card as the classic American Express card. It comes with 25,000 welcome bonus points, which is enough for a roundtrip flight anywhere in North America. With its $150 annual fee, the Gold Rewards Card has offered good value for years, though the current offer on the new Marriott Bonvoy™ Card provides better value right now.

#9 How To Apply For The American Express Platinum Card

Applying is as simple as clicking the button below, taking 3 minutes to fill in the application form, and waiting a few days for your card to arrive!

It’s important to take action now, though—the welcome points bonus used to be 75,000 on this card, but Amex has reduced it several times over the past few years. Grab yours while this sweet offer is still available.

#10 FAQs

What Is The New American Express Platinum Metal Card Like?

Honestly—it’s pretty cool!

If you didn’t already know, the American Express Platinum is now made of metal. It has a significant heft to it, weighing in at 19 grams (for reference, a typical plastic credit card weighs 5 grams). It’s sure to impress your friends when you “accidentally” drop it on the table as you pay.

All new Platinum cardholders now receive the metal card, so that’s a nice bonus on top of all the other benefits we’ve talked about above. Existing cardholders can also request to have their old plastic card exchanged for a metal card at any time.

How Can I Sign Up With An American Express Platinum Referral?

To get the best available welcome points bonus, which is currently 50,000 points, sign up here. After you’ve signed up, you can refer your own friends to the American Express Platinum for a referral bonus of 15,000 points.

Say you’re a travel savvy Canadian resident looking for credit card options that’ll get you around the world on a budget and you happened to stumble into the Aeroplan credit card. You immediately start wondering what it’s all about; what are its pros and cons, its upsides and downsides, and, in general, how they compare with other American Express credit cards for Canadians.

The name itself, Aeroplan, catches your attention right away and tells you that this is a card for travelers (even if you never heard of it before, the word is a bit of a giveaway), but you ask yourself:

How will it help me travel?

In the following post, I’ll clear everything out for you. We’ll do the math and crunch down all the numbers so you can make an educated decision when choosing the right card for your lifestyle: the one that’ll get you the highest amount of benefits for the least amount of money.

We’ll cover everything from the basics of Aeroplan and Aeroplan miles, to the more interesting and specific aspects of the four American Express Aeroplan card options (the Standard, Gold, Platinum and Reserve cards)

At the end of the post, we’ll also give you our professional advice on which card is best in which scenario, all this to help you make sense of it all. By the time you finish reading, you’ll be weighing the ups and downs like a pro, and you’ll have learned how to make the best of every option.

To help you navigate through this post, I’ve broken it down in the following sections:

What Is Aeroplan?

Aeroplan was originally Air Canada’s mileage rewards loyalty program. It was later spun off as an entirely separate company from Air Canada in 2008, continuing to function as the airline’s exclusive loyalty program, but at the same time partnering with other Star Alliance airlines and different travel brands, including hotels, car rentals and consumer goods.

As of today, the company provides its customers the best benefits when flying with Air Canada. However, thanks to is many partners, it also provides plenty of flexibility, allowing travelers to set up itineraries with other airlines that cover over 1,300 different destinations in more than 90 countries worldwide.

What Are Aeroplan Miles?

If you have ever owned a rewards credit card or are familiar in any way to loyalty programs, you probably already guessed what Aeroplan miles are: They are the “points” or “credits” you earn for every purchase at any of Aeroplan’s partners. In other words, “Aeroplan Miles” are what Aeroplan calls its loyalty reward points.

There are different ways to earn Aeroplan Miles. However, the most obvious way is to fly on a partner airline or to shop at a partner brand, in short, to be loyal to Aeroplan and all its partners (that’s why they call them loyalty programs).

Another great way to earn miles is to use any of the American Express Aeroplan cards, or even other American Express cards like the Gold Rewards card or the Marriott Bonvoy™ card, but we’ll get back to that in a minute. Read on to find out how to maximize your miles, and how to spend them to get the most out of this very popular loyalty program.

The American Express AeroplanPlus Cards

American Express partnered with Aeroplan a little while ago to bring forth the Aeroplan Credit Card, also called AeroplanPlus card. This card’s most important feature is the fact that it rewards Aeroplan miles for every dollar spent on any purchase, that go directly to your Aeroplan balance, whether or not you’re purchasing at an Aeroplan partner brand.

If you do decide to shop at a partner brand or pay for flights on partner airlines with your American Express Aeroplan Card, you can still give your Aeroplan number to earn miles in the regular way. If you haven’t put two and two together yet, this means that

…you can earn miles twice on the same purchase if you pay at a partner brand with your Aeroplan credit card, once for using your card, and once for shopping at the partner brand.

Add in Aeroplan’s occasional short time offers that can boost mileage-earning rates to as high as 8 times the normal rate, and you could be earning well over 10 miles for every dollar spent. That’s an almost unrivaled earning rate!

As it happens with so many Amex cards, there are different types of American Express Aeroplan Cards:

• The AeroplanPlus Card (which we’ll refer to as the “Standard” card)
• The AeroplanPlus Gold Card
• The AeroplanPlus Platinum Card
• The AeroplanPlus Reserve Card

Read on to find out the key features of these four cards, their most important pros and cons, and, in general, how they compare in different aspects with each other, and with the other American Express cards we recommend. However, before we dive into the differences that set these cards apart, let’s take a look at the common features they share:

Common Features Across The American Express Aeroplan Card Family

Below you’ll find a list of the main features that all four AeroplanPlus cards share.

• Earn miles for every dollar in any purchase whatsoever.
• Earn miles twice with every purchase on partner brands (as explained above).
• Earn miles and rewards faster with additional cards.
• Access to American Express’ Front of The Line program, which gives you access to tickets for great events, even before they are sold publicly.
• Emergency card replacement.
• Travel insurance coverage.
• Online account management.
• 24/7 customer service

You’ll find that many of the perks on the above list come with other Amex cards as well, not just with Aeroplan cards, so they’ll be more of a plus that comes with choosing American Express. To see the real tiers, we have to look at each one of the Aeroplan Cards separately.

Aeroplan Credit Cards Comparison

In the table below, you’ll find a summary of the most important characteristics of each of the four American Express Aeroplan Cards:

	Standard	Gold	Platinum	Reserve
Annual Fee	$60	$120	$499	$899
Additional Cards	$20	2 for free, $50 for each additional card.	$199	$299
Welcome Bonus (Miles)	5,000 (after spending $500)	15,000 (after spending $1,500)	40,000 (after spending $3,000)	50,000 (after spending $3,000)
Aeroplan Miles Earning Rate	1 mile per $1 in purchases	1 mile per $1 under $10,000 purchases. 1.25 miles per $1 over $10,000 in purchases	1.25 miles per $1 under $25,000 purchases. 1.5 miles per $1 over $25,000 in purchases	1.25 miles per $1
Complimentary Partner Ticket			1 per year (short-haul, up to 15,000 Aeroplan miles)	1 per year (long-haul, up to 25,000 Aeroplan miles)
Travel Credit				$200 per year
Priority Pass Airport Lounge Membership			✔	✔
Amex Concierge				✔
Aeroplan Priority Booking				✔

Let’s start squeezing out the info on the table above and see how these cards compare in the most important aspects you should take into consideration when choosing the right card for you:

#1 Card Type

There are basically two types of Amex cards: Credit cards and Charge cards.

Only the Reserve card is an actual credit card, the rest are charge cards.

A charge card – like the Standard, Gold and Platinum cards – is a card that you have to pay in full every month, or else you will get a high annual interest rate of 30% applied to any unpaid balance. The APR on the Reserve card, on the other hand, is only 19.99% for purchases.

That’s a thumbs-up for the Reserve! However, there are more important things to take into account, in particular if you have a good credit history and always pay your credit cards on time.

#2 Annual Fee

You can see right away that there’s a huge difference in the annual fees for each card. Even the Standard card, with its not-too-steep $60 fee, isn’t really cheap, especially considering that there are other Amex cards that’ll give you a lot more benefits for a comparable fee.

If you’re looking for a card with a mid-range fee, you might be tempted to choose the Aeroplan Gold card that goes for $120 a year. However, you’ll get a much better bargain with other options like the American Express Gold Rewards card that’ll cost you $150, but with which you will get $100 in hotel credit and an additional card, for free, that’s worth an extra $50, so the card will pay for itself in no time. You can also transfer your reward points to Aeroplan miles at a 1:1 rate, so you can still earn your beloved miles and trade them in for flight rewards, later on.

The annual fees for the Platinum and Reserve cards are almost prohibitive, but you’ll learn further down this post that the benefits help offset then, at least for the first year. For a long-term credit card, the numbers really don’t add up, in our opinion.

#3 Welcome Bonus Comparison

Before comparing the welcome bonuses let’s get an important fact out of the way:

…you have to reach a minimum of purchases charged to your card in order to get the welcome bonus. This means that you won’t have the welcome bonus miles available right away, and it may take a couple of days for the miles to be available in your Aeroplan account even after you do become eligible for the bonus.

This is not an actual downside to the Aeroplan cards because it happens with all other cards as well. Having said that, the Aeroplan card that offers the best bonus to minimum purchase ratio is the Reserve card, which will get you a 50,000 miles bonus after you charge $3,000 to it. The runner up, the Aeroplan Platinum card will get you 10,000 miles less for the same $3,000 of purchases.

However, when you consider that the fee on the Reserve card is 80% higher than the Platinum Card fee (the $400 difference is 80% of $500), but the bonus is only 25% higher, it gets you thinking…

….maybe the Platinum is a better deal than the Reserve.

Don’t decide just yet, there are other things we haven’t factored in.

#4 Miles Earning Rates

This is a very important aspect of the different cards, especially if you’re considering a card for the long term. The Standard AeroplanPlus card will get you only 1 mile per $1 spent on any purchase, no matter how often you use your card. You can double that if you give your Aeroplan number at a partner brand, but that’s also true for all other American Express Aeroplan Cards as well.

With the Gold Aeroplan card, you’ll start off at the same 1x rate on the first $10,000 in purchases, but Amex boosts your earning rate to 1.25x on every $1 above those $10,000.

Amex’s AeroplanPlus Reserve Card will give you a 1.25x rate, right off the bat, no matter how often you use it, and a 2x rate on a rather short list of eligible Air Canada purchases.

The winner in this category is….

The Platinum Aeroplan card, which starts off at 1.25 miles per $1 of purchases on the first $25,000, then boosts you up to 1.5 miles per $1 above $25,000, on all purchases.

#5 Complimentary Partner Ticket, Travel Credit And Other Perks

Both the Gold and the Reserve cards offer a complimentary partner ticket once every calendar year. The Gold card for a short haul (worth up to 15,000 Aeroplan miles), and the Reserve card for either a short or a long haul ticket (the latter worth up to 25,000 miles). This is an added, long lasting bonus (unlike the welcome bonus that you’ll only get once), which will help offset the high annual fees of both cards after your first year. The Reserve card also offers $200 in travel credit every calendar year that’ll further help thwart the $900 fee.

Other benefits like Priority Pass Airport Lounge access, Aeroplan Priority booking, Amex Concierge, travel insurance and more, only keep adding value to a card that, all of a sudden, doesn’t look that bad, even for $900 a year.

Crunching The Numbers

Now that we’re crystal-clear on how much your Aeroplan miles are worth, and how many miles you can expect to earn with your Aeroplan Credit Cards, let’s do the math and see what the best options are.

We’ll play a little game of worst-case/best-case scenario and calculate how much cash your miles would save you if you spent them in both the worst and the best ways possible. Remember that, in the worst of cases, you would get roughly 1 cent (or $0.01) per mile (it’s actually 0.7 cents, but we’ll round it up make numbers easier to follow), and in the best of cases you would be getting about 4 cents (or $0.04) per mile.

I’m going to break it down in two: the benefits during the first year of card-membership (the short-term benefits) and the benefits after the first year (long-term benefits)

Card	Annual fee	Welcome Bonus + extra earned miles	Worst Case Scenario: Miles x $0.01	Best Case Scenario: Miles x $0.04	Average: Miles x $0.025
Standard	$60	5,000 Miles	$50 (net loss of $10)	$200 (net win of $140)	$125 (net win of $65)
Gold	$120	15,000 miles	$150 (net win of $30)	$600 (net win of $480)	$375 (net win of $255)
Platinum	$500	40,000 + 15,000 (complimentary ticket)= 55,000 miles	$550 (net win of $50)	$2,200 (net win of $1,700)	$1,375 (net win of $875)
Reserve	$900	50,000 + 25,000 (complimentary ticket) = 75,000 miles	$750 + $200 (travel credit) = $950 (net win of $50)	$3,000+$200 (travel credit) = $3,200 (net win of $2,300)	$1,875 + $200 (travel credit) = $2,075 (net win of $1,175)

Notice I also added an average value of 2.5 cents per mile, which is the most likely value an average cardmember will get.

For the long term, neither the Standard nor the Gold cards offer miles bonuses or travel credits, so the only benefits you’ll receive will come entirely from the use you give them. If you use them enough, you’ll obviously be able to accumulate enough miles to offset the annual fee and come out wining in the end, but they won’t pay themselves as they do during the first year.

The Platinum and Reserve cards will give you long lasting benefits that include partner tickets and travel credit (the latter only for the Reserve card):

Card	Annual fee	Long term benefits	Worst Case Scenario: miles x $0.01 (balance)	Best Case Scenario: miles x $0.04 (balance)	Average: miles x $0.025 (balance)
Gold	$120	2 additional cards (worth $100)	$100 (net loss of $20)	$100 (net loss of $20)	$100 (net loss of $20)
Platinum	$500	15,000 (complimentary ticket)	$150 (net loss of $350)	$600 (net win of $100)	$375 (net loss of $125)
Reserve	$900	25,000 (complimentary ticket)	$250 + $200 (travel credit) = $450 (net loss of $450)	$1,000+$200 (travel credit) = $1,200 (net win of $300)	$625 + 200 (travel credit) = $825 (net loss of $75)

Just looking at the colors in both tables tells you all you need to know. During the first year, the welcome bonuses on all four cards are more than enough to counterweight the annual fees, even if you redeem your miles in an average way. Among the four cards, the Reserve card is the one that’ll get you the highest amount of savings, easily surpassing $1,000, even after accounting for the $900 fee.

After the first year though, things look a little different. The Platinum and Reserve cards can still pay for themselves with the value of the complimentary partner ticket and the travel credit, but only if you take great care in spending your miles wisely (following our recommendations in this post).

On the other hand, if you redeem your miles carelessly and don’t do the math, you’ll end up losing well over $100 a year, just for having any one of these cards in your wallet.

How To Earn Aeroplan Miles

Earning Aeroplan Miles is easy—all you have to do is follow these simple steps:

Step 1: Sign up for a free Aeroplan card. It takes less than 5 minutes and everyone is accepted.

Step 2: Start earning points by doing any of the following:

• Give your Aeroplan number whenever purchasing products or services at a partner brand.
• Apply for an American Express Aeroplan Card and use it to receive a great welcome bonus, as well as one or more miles for every dollar spent on purchases (wait for iiiiit…).
• Transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to Aeroplan miles at a 1:1 rate.
• Transfer Marriott Bonvoy™ points to Aeroplan miles at a 3:1 rate.

These are the most important and effective ways to earn Aeroplan miles. Aeroplan occasionally offers bargains and deals through their partners that increase your mileage-earning rate, but those promotions are usually of short lived so we won’t cover them here.

How Much Are Aeroplan Miles Really Worth?

Before we dive into the American Express Aeroplan Cards, it is essential to be able to estimate how much your miles are really worth, in order to get a clear view of the benefits you’ll receive by signing up to any of the four AeroplanPlus cards.

Aeroplan miles vary in value based on how you use them.

If you’ve read any of our other posts, you may already have an idea as to how to estimate the worth of reward points (or miles in this case). It all boils down to how you redeem them. As mentioned above, Aeroplan offers different ways to spend your miles including flight rewards, car rental, hotel bookings and purchasing different products and services.

Read on to learn the best and the worst ways in which you can use your Aeroplan miles in order to estimate how much they’re worth, while at the same time learning the math behind those estimates.

Flight Rewards: What Aeroplan Miles Are “Supposed” To Be Used For

The best way to redeem miles in Aeroplan is to trade them in for flight rewards, which means paying for flights with miles instead of cash. You could spend hours trying to find good deals that’ll give you more for your miles, but I’ll show you the most important tips that’ll turn you into an Aeroplan flight-hacking guru in no time.

Tip #1: Use your miles for domestic flights, and fly Air Canada whenever possible.

It was only to be expected that the best benefits of using Aeroplan miles should come from trading them in for flights on Air Canada, the company that gave birth to Aeroplan in the first place. However, things aren’t as simple as they seem, as this only applies to domestic flights.

Why?

Because Air Canada imposes fuel surcharges on flights paid with Aeroplan miles, which can add up to several hundreds of dollars for international flights, but which are more manageable for domestic flights.

To give you a clearer view of what I mean, let me start by showing you the following international round trip flight from Toronto to Prague on Air Canada, advertised by Aeroplan as a “Great deal” on their landing page:

Example 1: Aeroplan Flight Reward round trip from Toronto to Prague on Air Canada

As you can see, the round trip will cost you 61,800 miles + $597.26 for taxes, fees and surcharges. That means that, besides spending a very large amount of miles, you still have to pay almost $300 in cash for each fare of the round trip!

The same round trip, on the same fight, paid in cash, booked with Air Canada directly would cost $1,066, as shown below.

Same flight as above, booked directly with Air Canada runs for $1,066

Ok, let’s crunch some numbers, it’s a lot easier than you think: If you were to use your miles, you would be spending 61,800 miles but you would also have to spend an additional $597.26 in cash. If you were to pay cash only, it would cost you $1,066.28.

This means that the 61,800 miles are saving you the difference of $469, in other words, that

61,800 miles = 1,066 – 597 = $469

At this rate, you would be getting roughly 0.8 cents per mile (all you have to do is divide the worth in cash by the number of miles to get the amount of dollars per mile, than multiply by 100 to get cents).

-Ok, this number alone may not tell you much yet, but you’ll soon find out that you can do way better than that.-

Now let’s take a look at a domestic, long-haul one-way Air Canada flight from Vancouver to Montreal.

Example 2: Aeroplan fixed miles Flight Reward one-way trip from Vancouver to Montreal

Same flight as above, booked directly with Air Canada runs for $519

To compare these numbers with the above example, since this is a one-way trip, we should multiply everything here times 2. Notice the huge difference in the number of miles (12,500 x 2 = 25,000 compared to 61,800) and in surcharge fees ($73 x 2 =$146 compared to $597), even though the actual price in cash is almost the same ($518 x 2 = $1036 compared to $1,066). This combination boosts the value of your miles.

Using the same logic as before, the 12,500 miles are saving you $518 – 73 = $445, which means you’re getting 3.6 cents per mile.

That’s close to 5 times more than what you would get from a “good deal” on an international Air Canada flight! (I can’t imagine what a bad deal would look like)

Flying domestic on other partner airlines also gives you a good rate, but not as good as an Air Canada flight of equal distance (see summary table a little further down)

Tip #2: Spend your miles on international flights that don’t impose fuel surcharges.

You can see clearly that the problem with Air Canada’s international flights is the surcharge fee.

But, does that mean that you’re limited to using your miles only for domestic flights, if you want to get a good exchange rate?

No, it doesn’t. There are a number of Aeroplan partner airlines that don’t add fuel surcharge fees on international flights, even if you’re paying your ticket with miles. The following list includes some of the best ones

1. United Airlines
2. Swiss Airlines
3. Turkish Airlines
4. Singapore Airlines
5. Air New Zealand
6. Eva Airways (SE Asia)
7. Air China

You’ll usually have to pay more miles with these airlines than you would with Air Canada for the same flight plan, but you save hundreds of dollars on fuel surcharges, so you come out wining in the end.

Let me illustrate this with another example, a one-way trip from Toronto to Singapore flying Eva Air. As you can see bellow, this example illustrates two very important differences with the international Air Canada flights: It costs more miles (remember that the 61,800 miles were for the round trip) but only a small fraction of the cash in fees.

Example 3: Aeroplan one-way Market Fare Flight Reward from Toronto to Singapore

Same flight as above, booked directly with Eva Air runs for $747

With Eva Air, flying from Canada to Singapore can cost you as little as $54 plus 45,000 miles (that’s even better than my previously posted Asia to North America flight for $75 ), instead of the regular price of $747. This gives you a value of 1.5 cents per mile. That’s almost twice as good as flying international with Air Canada (though not as good as flying domestic).

Tip #3: Use your miles for business class flights.

If you like traveling with style and comfort and you can’t suffer economy-class flights, but you still want to save money while you’re at it, then the best way to spend your miles is definitely flying in business class. As you’ll see from our example below, the cost in miles is twice what you would be spending for the economy-class ticket, but the price in cash is more than double whilst the surcharge is not. This combination gets you more value per mile.

Example 4: Aeroplan Flight Reward for a one-way trip from Vancouver to Montreal in business class.

Same trip, same flight in business class booked with Air Canada paid in cash.

In this case, you get 4.1 cents per mile. The same applies when flying business class on the other examples, but I’m sure you get the idea.

The following table summarizes everything I’ve explained so far. In it, you’ll find real examples of the value you can get out of your miles by redeeming them for different flight rewards, including the examples already shown above:

Flight Plan	Airline	Cost (Booked with the Airline)	Cost (Booked with Aeroplan)	You Save:	Estimated Value (¢ per mile)
From:	To:
Aeroplan Miles	+	Taxes, fees and surcharges
Toronto (round trip)	Prague (round trip)	Air Canada	$ 1,066	61,800	+	$ 597	$ 469	0.8
Vancouver	Montreal	Air Canada	$ 519	12,500	+	$ 73	$ 446	3.6
Toronto	Singapore	Eva Air	$ 747	45,000	+	$ 54	$ 693	1.5
Vancouver	Montreal	Air Canada (Business class)	$ 1,142	25,000	+	$ 112	$ 1,030	4.1
Seattle	New York	United	$ 265	12,500	+	$ 7,5	$ 257.5	2.1
Vancouver	New York	Air Canada and United	$ 532	12,500	+	$ 125	$ 407	3.3
Vancouver	New York	Air Canada	$ 594	43,100	+	$ 81	$ 513	1.2

Summary of the estimated value of Aeroplan miles redeemed for different flight rewards. Unless specified otherwise, all flights are in economy class.

The absolute best value comes from flying domestic on Air Canada in business class. After that comes the same flight in economy class. Flying United inside the US is a great way to save both miles and cash, as the said airline doesn’t impose surcharges on its domestic flights.

Using Your Aeroplan Miles For Hotel Bookings

Another way to redeem your miles is to use them to pay for your hotels. The following is a short list of lodging options in Rome, which you can pay for in full with Aeroplan miles.

Example of some partner hotels in Rome you can pay in full with your miles.

This is but a short list of the many available options. The first one, marked as a “Great deal”, normally costs $2.400, but you can pay 259,850 miles instead. In other words

259,850 miles = $2.400

This sums up to 0.92 cents per mile, so it’s really not a good deal, especially considering the insane amount of miles you would be spending. With that amount of miles, you could travel around the world and still have miles left over in the end.

Using Your Aeroplan Miles For Other Purchases

You can also trade in your miles for car rentals, vacations packages and purchases with Aeroplan partner brands, but you’ll never reach even an acceptable value for your miles. In fact, probably the worst way to spend them is to trade them in for a gift card at a partner brand. A $500 gift card will cost you 70,000 miles, giving you an appalling value of 0.7 cents per mile.

The Bottom Line

In the worst-case scenario, you’ll get a little under a cent per mile. On the other hand, if you spend like a pro, you can easily get away with 4+ cents per mile.

Now that you know how much your miles are worth, let’s go back to the American Express Aeroplan Credit Cards!

In Summary

If you really want to get an Aeroplan card, we recommend getting the AeroplanPlus Reserve Card. The first year is a net win for you -the 50,000 miles bonus + 25,000 miles complimentary partner ticket + $200 travel credit combined are worth about $2,000 in the first year alone.

If you’re looking for a card that offers lounge access and the Amex Concierge, definitely go for the American Express Platinum instead.

For a card you should keep year after year, we’ve done the number crunching and firmly believe that the Marriott Bonvoy™ American Express Card is the best card for most Canadians. It offers an exceptional welcome bonus of 50,000 Marriott Bonvoy™ points, and gives you lasting benefits like a free hotel night every year, which you can use at some of the most spectacular hotels in the world.

If you’re really keen on building your Aeroplan balance though, we can suggest a couple of alternatives:

• Transfer your Marriott Bonvoy™ points to Aeroplan miles.
• Get the American Express Gold Rewards card that has a fee of only $150, gives you a welcome bonus of 25,000 MR points, a $100 hotel credit, a great MR points earning rate and, best of all, you can transfer all your points to Aeroplan miles at a 1:1 rate.

The Request:

Feb 10-24, Toronto to Europe
Destinations are flexible
Arrival/departure cities must be different

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As you learned in our How to Fly from Asia to North America (and vice versa) for $75 post, you can save up to 90% off the cost of your flights by using Aeroplan points if you use them correctly. So today, thanks to Sarah, you’re going to learn how to use your Aeroplan points to their absolute fullest when flying to or from Europe.

The first step is in knowing the best airlines to fly with. These are the top 7 airlines you’ll want to fly with when redeeming your Aeroplan points:

1. United Airlines
2. Swiss Airlines
3. Turkish Airlines
4. Singapore Airlines
5. Air New Zealand
6. Eva Airways (Southeast Asia)
7. Air China

As you can see, two of the top seven airlines are based in Europe – Turkish Airlines and Swiss Airlines – which means that their hub cities, Zurich and Istanbul, are great places to start looking. United Airlines services Europe extremely well, too, so the cities that United serves heavily will also be good targets.

A quick search shows that our logic is spot on: Sarah can get to either Zurich or Istanbul for $50.

Here Are 10+ Cheap Flights To Europe From Canada

But Sarah wants more than just two options, so here are two more that work just as well:

What if Sarah was leaving from Vancouver or Montreal instead of Toronto? No problem.

Or what if Sarah wanted to fly from New York to Oslo for $35, or San Francisco to Madrid for an amazing $15?! You got it.

Okay, so we know that we can easily meet Sarah’s needs of getting her to Europe on her ideal date, and she’s got 10+ great options of cities to choose from. Finding cheap flights to Europe using Aeroplan is a breeze!

But what about her flight home? As it turns out, getting home is just as easy.

Just like flying to/from Asia, it’s easy to get to/from Europe for next-to-nothing. But we’ve skipped over the most crucial part: how Sarah got her Aeroplan points in the first place. So here it is: the dead-simple two-step process that Sarah followed to a tee to save over $700 on her trip.

STEP 1 OF 2: GET YOUR POINTS

In November, Sarah got herself an American Express Gold Rewards Card, which gave her a whopping 25,000 points, more than enough to get her to Europe. Her card arrived in 2 days.

STEP 2 OF 2: USE YOUR POINTS

That same day, Sarah got an Aeroplan Card. You’re going to transfer your American Express points into Aeroplan points in order to take the flights above, so you’ll need one of these. Fill out their 60-second online form and you’re all set – everyone gets approved automatically.

And that’s it.

Sounds too good to be true, right? I thought so too, until I helped dozens of people like Sarah follow these exact steps and get on flights like the ones above. Not all great things have to come at high prices.

The Germany Limitation

There are just two hiccups you’ll come across when booking your flights to/from Europe, and they’re both easily avoidable. The Germany Limitation comes as a result of the majority of Aeroplan flights in and out of Germany being operated by Lufthansa, which matches Air Canada as the worst airline for redeeming your Aeroplan miles, so you need to change the airlines you fly with. But doing that within Germany is a bit tricky, just like Thailand proved to be in our deep look at flying from Asia to North America for $75, so our recommendation is the exact same – get out of Germany. Even when I did find a Frankfurt to Toronto flight with United Airlines, the German government-imposed fees added nearly $100 extra on to what the flight should’ve costed. Here’s a breakdown of those taxes and fees.

Given how small European countries are and the ease of flying between them – starting from the major cities in Germany, you can fly internationally in multiple directions for under $20 – there’s no real need to fly to Canada directly from Germany. Do yourself a favour and add on a day or two in a nearby city like Amsterdam, Zurich, or Paris; not only will it add colour to your trip, the cost of your flights will drop significantly. That’s what you call a win-win. Here’s a breakdown of the taxes and fees when departing from Zurich instead, a full $75 cheaper.

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The UK Limitation

The second hiccup is the Air Passenger Duty applied to flights departing the UK for North America – and it’s a big one – but you have two options for avoiding it. You could take the same approach as with Germany above and just leave the UK before you start your return journey, or you could book a flight that has European connections built-in. Switzerland is nearby so you could jump on a Swiss Airlines flight with a connection in Geneva or Zurich, or find a United Airlines flight that stops in Paris or Madrid. However you do it, just don’t fly directly back from the UK, or you’ll be hit with a fee like the $145.50 one below.

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Bonus: Hacking Istanbul

There are a few sweet spots that only those of us really deep in our Aeroplan knowledge know about, and one of them is Istanbul.

When I run a search for Istanbul, things look good at first: since you’re flying with Turkish Airlines – one of the top 7 airlines listed above – you don’t pay any fuel surcharge, which is why the price is so low. But upon a closer look, there’s a problem: the Aeroplan points required for that flight, which are 30,000 for the rest of Europe, now sits at 37,500. That 25% jump is substantial, but luckily for you, you won’t be paying it.

Instead, you’re going to skip a leg.

Let’s open up another search tab and look back at one of our previous destinations: Rome. The search results look like any others, but there’s something highly interesting hidden within them: the Turkish Airlines flights from Toronto to Rome have a stop in Istanbul!

You’ve probably put things together by now: The best way to get to Istanbul is not by buying a ticket to Istanbul; instead, it’s by buying this ticket to Rome and getting out in Istanbul.

But we need to be very clear about something: this method of purchasing a multi-segment flight and skipping the end of it is not viewed positively in the airlines’ eyes. Last year, United Airlines and Orbitz.com, one of the world’s largest online travel agencies, collectively sued a website that was making it easier for travelers to find these types of tickets. So if you’re going to do it, do yourself a favour and don’t flaunt it.

Something else to consider: you should not check luggage when skipping a flight segment. While it is sometimes possible to check your luggage to an intermediate destination, it’s not a sure thing, and assuming you don’t want your luggage to end up in Rome while you’re exploring Istanbul, it’s better to just avoid checking bags altogether. Luckily, at the time of this writing, Turkish Airlines allows one piece of carry-on cabin baggage up to 8kg plus an additional personal item, which is enough for most people.

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So what’s the point of all this?

Two things.

First, to give you the knowledge you need to make smart, informed decisions about finding cheap flights to Europe, and back to Canada as well. If you’ve been trying to buy cheap flights to Europe, or anywhere else, without this type of knowledge, you’ve probably been over-paying by a substantial amount. That stops now.

And second, to show you that flying doesn’t need to be expensive. With the right tools in place, you can cut your flight costs by 50% or more. Invest 5 minutes to save $500-$1,000 on your travels today.

If you enjoyed this post, you’ll probably like its sister post How to Fly from Asia to North America (and vice versa) for $75, or our new post on the best American Express Aeroplan cards.

Flying from Asia to Canada can be expensive—but it doesn’t have to be. If you have the right knowledge and tools, you can do it for less than $75. This post will give you the knowledge and the tools you need to do it yourself—all in 10 minutes or less. Getting yourself an American Express Gold Rewards Card is the first step.

The American Express Gold Rewards Card for Canadians is an excellent travel card for Canadians looking for a high-impact card with a low annual fee. It comes with a welcome bonus of 25,000 points—which we value at between $500-$750—plus an impressive travel insurance policy, $100 in hotel credit, and much more. With an annual fee of just $150, this card pays for itself several times over in just a single trip to Asia.

I need to come home.

Not because I’m homesick. No, it’s because I have flights booked that are taking me to LA, San Francisco, Vegas, Toronto and more, all scheduled for the next couple of weeks.

So I’m going to book my flights in the next 60 minutes. And while I do it, I’m going to document exactly how I do it. Here’s my situation:

I need to get from Asia to Los Angeles, where I’ll be visiting a few friends. I have unfinished business in both Guangzhou, China and Singapore, so I’d like to leave Asia from one of those two cities.

Oh ya – I want to do it as cheaply as possible.

Luckily, I have a secret: I know how to drop the cost of these Asia to North America flights by 90%.

Yes, that’s right, I’m going to pay 10% of what the passengers on my left and right paid.

How will I do it? I’m going to use 37,500 Aeroplan points, which are an exceptionally valuable tool when used in the right way.

And right now, in the next five minutes, I’m going to show you both a) how to get them, and b) how to use them the right way.

This Is How Flight Experts Find Flights

First, you need to know which are the best airlines for using your Aeroplan points with:

1. United Airlines
2. Swiss Airlines
3. Turkish Airlines
4. Singapore Airlines
5. Air New Zealand
6. Eva Airways (SE Asia)
7. Air China

Why are they the best? Because they don’t make you pay the fuel surcharge, which is a fee several hundred dollars in magnitude on international flights. In other words, these airlines are a lot cheaper to fly with.

And when I open up the Guide, something jumps out at me right away. Three of the top seven airlines on the list, my personal favourites, are based in Asia: Singapore Airlines, Air China, and EVA Airways. That tells me something even more important: their hub cities, Singapore, Beijing, and Taipei will definitely offer some great prices to North America.

Just thirty seconds into my search process, my decision is made for me: I’m leaving from Singapore.

A quick search on the Aeroplan website confirms it: I can get from Singapore to LA for $73.80 CAD. I’ll book it right now.

(5-minute pause while Jordan books his ticket)

Okay, I’ve booked the Singapore-LA flight for $73.80. But now I’m curious – what are the prices like from those other two cities? As expected, they’re exceptionally cheap, just like my Singapore flight:

Okay, that all makes sense – the Guide basically gave that one away. But what if I just wanted to go to LA directly from Chiang Mai?

Good question. And I’d tell you that’s a bad move.

Why? Well, the entire key here is that the most important factor in booking your flights with Aeroplan is the airline, which is why the first thing I did when thinking about my flights was determine which airlines are based where in Asia. So in keeping with that thought process, we need to think about which airlines are based in Chiang Mai. The answer?

ZERO

Not a single one. In that case, we need to look to other airlines based in the same country or region. Here in Thailand we’ve got Thai Airways which, without surprise, dominates traffic in and out of Chiang Mai.

But there’s a problem: Thai Airways isn’t anywhere on our list of good airlines to fly with. In fact, on a global scale, it’s one of the worst for Aeroplan flights. I avoid them at all costs when booking with Aeroplan, and you should too. From a practical perspective, Thailand is a bad place to fly into or out of.

That sounds harsh, but when you see all of the other options you have, it ceases to matter. Here are just a few amazing flights from cities all over Asia that I found in a couple minutes of searching:

There’s actually something exciting here for you if you need to reach Thailand: you can visit another Asian city and still pay less than you would by flying into or out of Thailand. Bonus!

Also, do you notice anything about the above examples? That’s right, we’re also using United Airlines. United is another favourite from Page 7 of the Guide, so any flights you can take with them are going to be cheap as well. Just like I did with the Singapore to LA flight, combining one of Singapore Airlines, Air China, or EVA Airways with United Airlines is a fantastic, replicable way of getting from Asia to North America.

So that’s that; my flight is booked, and there’s a myriad of other options for anyone else leaving from Asia as well.

But some of you are thinking, “This doesn’t apply to me, I’m not going to LA!” Take a look at these next two flights. Yes, this strategy works to anywhere in North America.

Okay, maybe this is all a bit overwhelming. After all, you just want to get from A to B as cheaply as possible, right?

Exactly. So here’s the 80/20, or how to get the most value from this post. (Canadians only )

STEP 1 OF 2: GET YOUR POINTS

Your ticket to 25,000 points (and a $75 flight to Asia) is in the American Express Gold Rewards Card. Just take 3 minutes to fill out this form, and you’ll have your Gold Rewards Card in your hands within a week.

STEP 2 OF 2: USE YOUR POINTS

As soon as you close that tab, get yourself an Aeroplan Card. You’re going to transfer your American Express points into Aeroplan points in order to take the flights above, so you’ll need one of these. Fill out their 60-second online form and you’re all set – everyone gets approved automatically.

And that’s it! You’ll be enjoying authentic dim sum in no time.

If you want to show your friends how much of a flight hacker you are, share this post with them. Or if you’re not quite there yet and still need some clarification, we’re easy to reach via email, and we deal with these sort of problems every single day. I’d love to help you explore the world in a deeper, more meaningful way in 2019 and beyond.

Oh, and let us know if you got any value out of this post – depending on the response it receives, we may create similar posts for reaching the other continents, like this one to Europe. Yes, you can fly to any continent in the world for under $100 (except Antarctica – we haven’t quite cracked that one yet). Help us help you by sharing this post and giving us your feedback!

I’ve been using British Airways’ Avios program for a long, long time, yet there’s a good reason why I’ve never written about it.

Simply put, it’s because Yore Oyster is about delivering concise, actionable material to Canadian travelers when they need it. Rather than trying to teach you everything, we’d rather just give you the tools to do the things that have a real, positive impact on your life starting today.

But there’s also a reason why I am choosing to write about Avios now: it’s the perfect complement to Aeroplan. And as you’ve probably seen through our posts How to Fly from Asia to North America (and vice versa) for $75 and How to Fly from Canada to Europe (and vice versa) for $75, Aeroplan is extremely powerful when used correctly. So starting today, with the addition of Avios to your toolkit, you’ll be flying more smartly and more cheaply than 99% of the other people who step onto the same plane.

If you don’t want to spend hundreds of hours reading and learning every intricacy, but would rather have 95% of the information you need to get a cheap flight right now, this post is for you.

Using British Airways Avios In Canada

What is Avios?

British Airways’ Avios is a points program that works just like Aeroplan: you gather points on your credit card or by flying, and then you redeem them for flights in the future. So from a very high level, the two programs are doing very similar things – helping you fly more cheaply – but when you get into the details, you start to notice their differences.

Avios has one of the widest-reaching airline partner networks out there, which is a fancy way of saying this: no matter where you are in the world, there’s a very good chance that you can buy a flight with Avios points instead of cash. I’ve personally used it for flights between Colombia, Brazil, Peru and Uruguay, within South Africa, between Thailand and Hong Kong, and a lot of other places. It just works.

And there’s another neat feature that Avios has that most other programs don’t: you can choose between different cash and points splits when you pay for your flight. For example, on this direct Toronto to London flight, you can choose any of the following payment options:

To choose which option you’d like to pay, it just comes down to how much you value your points. I generally opt for paying more cash so that I can keep my points for another flight in the future, but if you’d rather just pay the minimum amount of cash, that’s totally fine too.

In short, Avios gives you options. And when you’re traveling and don’t always have your next step planned to a tee, options are a very, very valuable thing.

Okay, so where is Avios most valuable?

That’s a tough question: if you’re only flying within North America, finding a great way to use Avios in Australia isn’t very useful to you. But if we do step back for a minute and look at things from a global level, three particular areas stand out.

Region 1: Within South America

I spent a few months in South America this year, and I noticed something very peculiar about the flights: while domestic flights in nearly every country were super cheap – $30 for the 650-km flight from Bogota to Cartagena in Colombia, or $90 for the monstrous 2,100-km trip from São Paulo to Recife in Brazil – international flights were extremely expensive.

For example, Quito, Ecuador is a similar distance from Bogota as Cartagena, but a flight to Quito regularly sits at 10x the price of one to Cartagena. And from São Paulo? Buenos Aires is 500 km closer than Recife, but you won’t find a flight for less than double the price. So trust me when I tell you: you need Avios in South America.

Lucky for you, Avios has two major partners in South America – LAN in Chile and TAM in Brazil – who dominate air traffic in South America. And this plays into a very straightforward strategy when in South America: buy domestic flights with cash, and buy international flights with Avios.

When I was there, I applied this strategy ruthlessly. Even when I needed to book a flight just a few days in advance, there was almost always a seat available for me, and I saved at least $200-300 on each flight that I otherwise would’ve had to shell out. In fact, I never booked a flight more than two weeks in advance, and I made it on all of the 10+ flights that I wanted, saving over $2,000 in the process. The Avios flights became so cheap that I stopped looking at ground transportation altogether; that’s the sign of a strong program.

Region 2: Intercontinental Flights to/from South America

This is a sweet spot in the Avios program that few very people know about, but using Avios to fly between South America and any of Australia, North America, or Europe is extremelycheap. Let’s look at a few examples.

First, an amazing direct flight from New York to Rio de Janeiro that costs you just $8. No, that is not a typo, $8! This flight runs daily so availability is extremely easy to get, and the same flight at the same prices works from other cities like Miami, too.

Santiago-Sydney is the only direct flight between South America and Australia, but thanks to Avios’ wide reach, you can get on it. A cash ticket for this highly sought-after flight will run you about $2,000 one-way if you buy it within the recommended purchase window, which is about 2-3 months before you fly. But with Avios? It’s just $73 + 50,000 points.

Buenos Aires-London is another behemoth of a direct flight, and this one you’ll actually be flying with British Airways. Again, cash tickets normally go in the range of $1,000+ for a one-way ticket (and much more if you want to be on this direct British Airways flight instead of one through the US with 1-2 stops), but here you’re only paying $344 and 22,750 points.

Avios is starting to look pretty good, isn’t it?

Region 3: North America to Asia

There are so many ways to use your Avios points here, but I’ll talk about just one: Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a sweet spot because it’s the home of Cathay Pacific, an Avios partner airline, and Cathay flies direct to several North American hubs like Vancouver, Toronto, and New York. So if you’re going to Hong Kong, or really anywhere in Asia, this is the way to do it. (Note: If you want another surefire way of getting to/from Asia, see our post How to Fly from Asia to North America (and vice versa) for $75).

Those are just two really good ways of using your Avios points, but there are plenty of other ways that you can make them work for you. For example: need to buy a last-minute flight between Toronto and New York departing tomorrow? Cash ticket prices will be through the roof, so Avios is the perfect solution, since last-minute tickets purchased with points are the exact same price as if you bought the ticket months in advance.

You might’ve noticed something else in our examples: flights with Avios are much, much more direct that Aeroplan flights. In fact, it’s tough to find any of those intercontinental flights (with the exception of Vancouver to Hong Kong) without at least one connection if you’re using Aeroplan. That’s another win for your new friend, Avios. Time is money, and Avios is saving you both.

Wait – if I’m not going to South America or Asia, is Avios a waste of time?

Good question, but definitely not. Avios is fantastic for flights within North America (you can use your Avios points on any American Airlines flight), Europe (British Airways and Iberia Airlines), and a lot of other regions as well. I could give a thousand more examples of how to use your Avios points effectively, but instead I’m going to let you discover them on your own.

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This post is just an introduction to Avios, so I won’t go any deeper right now, but hopefully you can see how valuable Avios is as a #2 program. By leveraging the strengths of Aeroplanand Avios together, all of a sudden you go from playing by the airlines’ rules (not fun) to making your own rules (very fun. This is how you become the passenger who paid the least amount for their ticket, every time.

In the next few weeks, we’re going to be releasing a brand new map tool that will tell you the best way of buying flights all around the world. You won’t have to play the guessing game of “Am I getting a good deal or not?” any longer – in a few seconds, you’ll know exactly how to buy your next flight with confidence.

Before we launch that, it’s a good idea to get familiar with the Avios program so that you aren’t left behind when it goes live. Here’s the quickest way to do it (and how to get twoToronto-London roundtrip flights at the same time):

The 80/20, or how to get the most value from this post: (Canadians only)

STEP 1 OF 2: GET YOUR POINTS

Your ticket to 25,000 Avios points is in the American Express Gold Rewards Card, which gives you 25,000 American Express points.

All you need to do is spend 3 minutes filling out this form, and you’ll receive your card in a week.

STEP 2 OF 2: USE YOUR POINTS

As soon as you finish your application, join Avios. The application takes two minutes and everyone is approved, plus you’ll get access to their search tool, so you can start searching for your ideal flights while you wait to receive your card from Step 1.

Once you’ve spent 4 minutes on the two steps above, you’re set. Add 20,000 points of your own to the 25,000 points coming your way with the card and you’ll have enough for any of the following flights:

• Roundtrip New York to Brazil
• Roundtrip Toronto to London twice (technically this will cost you 52,000 points, but who’s counting)
• The South American Rally: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Montevideo, Uruguay, to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Santiago, Chile to Lima, Peru to Bogota, Colombia, to São Paulo, Brazil – yes you can do ALL of these flights and still have Avios left over!
• An absolutely crazy itinerary connecting eleven countries across Europe. This one deserves a blog post unto its own.

I hope this marks the beginning of a prosperous new friendship: you and British Airways Avios!

For more destination-specific information on redeeming points, see our other similar posts on Asia and Europe.

The American Express Cobalt card has been receiving a lot of attention since its fall 2017 launch, and with good reason: it’s an extremely compelling offer. $10/month for a card that gets you 5x the points on food and drink purchases in Canada and 2x the points on travel purchases anywhere in the world is an excellent deal.

But of course, as we’ve come to expect from American Express through their other offers—like the Platinum Card, the Business Platinum Card and the Business Gold Rewards Card—there’s much more to the Cobalt than meets the eye. Once you learn the ins and outs of this card, I’ll be surprised if you aren’t applying for one of your own by the end of this post.

If you don’t want to read this entire post, here’s the gist:

We recommend applying for both the Amex Cobalt Card and the Amex Platinum Card to maximize both your travel options and your statement savings.

The question is…why?

The Amex Cobalt card is the first and only American Express card to offer a monthly fee in lieu of an annual fee. It’s marketed at millennials and near-millennials, so if you fit either of these, you’ll definitely want to give the Cobalt card a closer look.

Normally, I recommend using your American Express points on flights, since you can get exceptional deals like these that we mention in our post on the Platinum Card:

Roundtrip Toronto to Hong Kong 70,000 points $100 total taxes/fees	Roundtrip Vancouver to Hong Kong 60,000 points $90 total taxes/fees
Round-the-world Toronto to Hong Kong to Dubai to London to Toronto 74,500 points $761 total taxes/fees	Round-the-world Vancouver to Hong Kong to Dubai to London to Vancouver 74,700 points $742 total taxes/fees

But the difference with the Cobalt card is that you use a different points system when spending your points on flights. American Express has introduced a new tier of points called Membership Rewards (MR) Select, which are usable for just about everything that the other MR points (which you receive with the Platinum, Business Platinum and Business Gold Rewards cards) are, including hotel stays and travel purchases, but you can’t transfer them to loyalty programs like Aeroplan or Avios. So rather than valuing these MR Select points at two or three cents per point, I suggest a value of one cent per point, since that’s what you can redeem them for directly against your American Express statement.

So the Amex Cobalt comes with both good and bad. The bad is the change I just described: the method for redeeming your MR Select points for flights is a bit different, so many of our strategies for flying from Asia to North America for $75 or from Canada to Europe for $50 are less relevant.

But the good is really, really good: once you know how, you can save 10% on your monthly spending using the Cobalt card.

Save 10% on your spending with the American Express Cobalt

If you apply for the American Express Cobalt card today, you’ll receive 2,500 MR Select points for every month of the first year that you charge $500 to the card.

On top of that, you also earn 5x points for every dollar you spend on food and drinks, and American Express is generous with their definition of food and drinks:

Restaurant, quick service restaurant, coffee shop and drinking establishments in Canada, stand-alone grocery stores in Canada, delivery of food and groceries in Canada…

In other words: you earn 5x the points at all restaurants, bars, cafés, grocery stores, and food delivery services (UberEATS etc.), making the magic $500 monthly threshold fairly easy to hit for most of us (about $120/week in food). And when you do…

You’ll save 10% on that month’s spending.

Here’s the math to show what I mean:

2,500 bonus points for spending $500/month

+ 2,500 points (5x points on $500 spent on food/drinks)

= 5,000 points earned per month

When you apply those points at the one cent per point valuation I mentioned above (which is as simple as applying them against your American Express statement, nothing more), you get $50 back on your $500 of spending. That’s a savings of 10%!

Here’s how it looked when I applied 4,000 of my MR Select points against two flights I’d recently redeemed my regular MR points for on Aeroplan:

Of course, it’s not a problem if you don’t spend $500 per month on food and drinks. Let’s imagine that one month you only spend $300 on food and drinks and the other $200 on something else:

2,500 bonus points for spending $500/month

+ 1,500 points (5x points on $300 spent on food/drinks)

+ 200 points (1x points on $200 spent on other items)

= 4,200 points earned per month

In this case, you end up with 4,200 points, worth $42, for a savings of 8.4%. This trend continues: the more you spend on food and drinks, the higher your monthly savings will be.

While we’re at it, let’s look at some of the other benefits of the Cobalt card:

Emergency travel medical insurance	Extended purchase insurance	Flight delay insurance
Hotel burglary insurance	Lost/stolen baggage insurance	Car rental damage/theft insurance
Plus much more…

What About Foreign Currency Exchange?

While you earn 2x the points on travel purchases like flights and hotels, you still pay a currency exchange fee with the Cobalt card, which normally adds about 2% to the purchase price. 2% isn’t huge, but if you spend $5,000 over the course of a month-long Europe trip, that’s an extra $100 you’ve thrown away in currency exchange fees. Instead, I recommend picking up the N26 Black card, which leverages TransferWise’s technology to offer zero currency exchange fees and free ATM withdrawals around the world. Since getting my N26 Black two years ago, it’s been my go-to travel card, and I absolutely love it.

Did you know: Cobalt cardmembers receive regular perks such as bonus reward offers and access to great events

Boosting Your Points With Fixed Points Flight Rewards

The one cent per point valuation I’ve suggested above is extremely easy to achieve: all you need to do is apply your points against the spending on your American Express statement, nothing more. However, American Express’ Fixed Points Flight Rewards offer value that’s up to twice as good. Here’s how to capitalize on that.

The table below shows the redemption costs for various destinations around the world using the Fixed Points system. As you can see at the very top, you can redeem 15,000 points to offset $300 (value of 2 cents per point) on short-haul routes like those between Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and New York, as well as between Vancouver and Calgary. Longer flights offer a slightly lower valuation (1.5-1.75 cents per point), though if you choose your routes wisely, they can still save you hundreds of dollars more than what you’re already saving by applying your MR Select points directly against your American Express statement.

At the end of the day, you really can’t lose.

The Bottom Line

Once you add in all of the other benefits, this card is an excellent choice. Add it to your arsenal of the Platinum Card, the Business Platinum Card and the Business Gold Rewards Card, and you’re laughing.

So…will you take advantage of the Cobalt card or let it pass you by?