April 2007

I finally got my new CIBC Aerogold and have been using it for a few weeks. Because I applied for it online I received 15,000 bonus Aeroplan miles.

The 1.5 Aeroplan miles per dollar on gas, groceries, and pharmacies is my favorite feature on this card. If you use your Aerogold credit card at places that take Aeroplan- for example Uniprix, you can get 2.5 Aeroplan miles per dollar spent!

This makes a huge difference in collecting for your next trip.

I have to say I am already liking this card….

Has anyone noticed that more and more airports are moving their rental car locations much further from the actual airport- forcing you to take a long shuttle bus on your arrival and drop off.

I have just come back from a trip where I went to Dallas, Phoenix, and Las Vegas. All three of these airports have car rental facilities which are far from the actual airport.  I know for sure in the case of Phoenix and Las Vegas that this is new. What it means to me is that I have to make sure to come to the airport even earlier in order to take into account the shuttle back.

As reported in Upgrade- Travel Better, there are two new websites for people wanting to figure out the best deals they can get with their frequent flier miles or hotel points.

MileMaven helps travelers find the most number of frequent flier miles for your flights. PointMaven does the same thing, but for hotel points.

I often find it is difficult to find information about ways to earn extra points and these guys consolidate it pretty well.

There is a lot of info available- check them out!

I have used CIBC Aerogold visa in the past, but stopped using it a couple of years ago in favour of the CIBC Aventura card. I have decided to switch back to Aerogold instead of staying with the Aventura Visa.

Why am I doing this? The cards are actually similar in benefits and cost- they both have a not-so-small fee of $120 per year.

Benefits of Aventura over Aeroplan

• You can transfer Aventura points to Aeroplan miles but not the other way around
• Aventura points can be used on several different airlines

Benefits of Aeroplan over Aventura

• The big difference is that now you get 1.5 Aeroplan miles at grocery stores, gas stations, or drug stores. This will allow me to collect many more miles
• Applying over the internet gives you 15,000 Aeroplan miles as a bonus. This is more than half of the points needed for a trip within North America

I know that using Aeroplan more extensively will sometimes be limiting because Air Canada does not fly everywhere, but I think that the additional points will be worth it.

In addition I still keep the MBNA Starwood card which is a great way to earn Starwood points which can be transferred to many airline programs (other than Aeroplan). For those of you who do not like to pay fees this card gets you points, it is a platinum card so you get additional benefits such as rental car insurance, and best of all it is free.

I have been an avid user of Priority Pass for the last 5 years but my time with them has come to an end. It wasn’t that the service was bad- it is just that

1. My travel habits have changed- I am taking more flights within North America compared to international, which does not give me the same opportunity to use the pass
2. My new company will not pay for it.

If I did think that Priority Pass was worth the money I would certainly still pay for it myself- but I had forgotten about one of their bad habits- charging your credit card automatically for the next year’s service. My current Priority Pass is valid until April 2007- it just expired today in fact. Three weeks ago I received my new pass for next year- along with a charge on my credit card. The credit card charge was on March 5th- even though I had another card valid until April 1st.

OK so they charged my card early, I thought. I called Priority Pass to ask for the card to be cancelled and was told that I had to mail back the card. So I sent back the card immediately and have now been waiting three weeks and still have not gotten my money back. I hope that I do not have to wait too long because pretty soon I will dispute the charge with my credit card company.

I still think Priority Pass can be worth the money- but you really have to look carefully at the airports you will be using. For example, some of the main reasons I stopped using it is that I cannot use it in Montreal (my home airport), and JFK as I often pass through the Delta terminal.