Hey Manish,

Check with your personal auto insurance provider first. They typically cover car rentals. That should be enough.

If you don’t have personal auto insurance, TD insurance is good enough for collision, but you would likely want to opt in for liability (ask them what liability they provide, as liability may be extra coverage).

Hey Pierre-Luc,

It’s really about combining points where you can. For example, RBC has an Avion card and WestJet Card. You can transfer your Avion points to WestJet. Alternatively, you could get a premium credit card in the Avion Visa Infinite and then a more basic card like the RBC Ion+ card. The points you get from the welcome bonus of the Ion card can be transferred to your Avion Infinite account.

What do you mean by “You can also pair an Avion credit card with another RBC credit card to rack up points quickly” in the RBC section?

Hey Xavier,

I personally prefer the Platinum / Cobalt combo since the earning potential for Aeroplan is much higher. Plus, the benefits are much much better. Getting the HSBC WEMC might be overkill for non Amex, but it does have some good perks.

The Avion/IOn combo isn’t bad, I just like Amex more.

Amex points will always be more flexible than RBC, which is why I favour those cards/points over everything else.

Looking to get into the travel card space and stuck between getting an AMEX PLAT (mainly due to the sign up bonus & perks) paired with the cobalt for everyday purchases along with HSBC WEMC for non amex stores.

2nd option is RBC Avion infinite privilege with RBC ION+ do you think having the 3x multiplier on everything and the covert to Avion Elite rewards.

Do you think the new Ion+ card with its 3x spending on everything and accepted everywhere will be a better option to the AMEX combo? My main goal is to accumulate as many points as possible to fly business class and stay at premium hotels 2 or 3x/year with my girlfriend. I like flexibility with booking as I don’t mind flying on less premium airlines (Egyptair, united, Finnair) along as im saving a lot compared to the more exclusive airlines.

Hey PS,

BMO just announced that the BMO World Elite Mastercard will now earn just 1 point per $1 spend for the base rate, so the value has gone down significantly.

As for your initial analysis, you’re not wrong. But here’s my counter argument and why I personally rank RBC Rewards higher. With RBC, you can get a value of 2 cents per point for the fixed points program. You can also transfer your points to Cathay and BA. If you used your points for business flights, you could get an even higher value.

I use the redemption schedule quite a bit for short haul flights e.g. Toronto to Ottawa or New York.

I’m not disagreeing with you. I’m just saying everyone has a different value and uses their points for different reasons.

Hi Barry,

Both earn rate and redemption are equally important which is exactly my point. More specifically, I’m comparing #7 ranked BMO with #2 ranked RBC. I hold both cards by the way.

Here’s some simple math so majority can understand the implications.

If you spend $100,000

BMO RBC
Basic Earn Rate 2 1
Accumulated Points 200,000 100,000
Redemption Rate for Travel Spending 0.67 1
Cost of Tickets Covered $1,340 1,000

Difference profit with BMO $340

Note: Ignore the options 1.25 points earn rate for RBC for travel or the 3 points with BMO for travel. Just work with basic earn rate for simplification.

It is clear BMO is better for the dollar spent. Add in much better insurance (MUCH better) + lounge access and its not even close.

I know people will say “Redemption Schedule” RBC. Has anyone actually used that to their benefit? It’s one of the biggest scams…its almost ALWAYS better to use their fixed 100 points for dollar conversion. So people need to stop saying redemption schedule as a benefit and see it as a unusable scam.

As for BMO portal, again please use it first. It covers all flights you would find on google. Never had an issues to find the lowest priced flight on google and then finding it on BMO portal. Its really easy to use and straight forward as well.

As for your American Express comment, yes that’s true. There are better travel cards but comparing it within the big banks….BMO World Elite is pretty much the best travel card.

Don’t trust me. Just try it and you will see.

PS,

The earn rate is just part of the equation. How you can burn your points is just as important. While the BMO World Elite has some higher multipliers, the base earn rate is one of the lowest for a premium travel credit card. BMO Rewards also forces you to use their travel portal, so it’s less valuable than other programs.

I personally favour American Express Membership Rewards since there are multiple ways to use your points and you can transfer your points to Airline and hotel partners. Plus, the American Express Cobalt Card has arguably the best earn rate of all cards out there.

It’s clumsy to just to look at redemption rate only…many bloggers on this are making the same mistakes.