Hi everyone! What are your thoughts on the best travel rewards credit card and why? I'm looking for one without travel restrictions, if possible. Thanks!

Following! I've been considering Amex Cobalt and Scotiabank Amex Gold but I'd love to hear other people's experiences. Sadly our travel rewards cards here are terrible in comparison to the ones available in the US.

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As far as Canadian credit cards go, I have a few:
-Home Trust Visa (zero foreign transaction fees, good rental car insurance and medical coverage)
-WestJet RBC Mastercard
-Any credit card that is partnered with Star Alliance as lots of the major airlines that fly international are Star Alliance partners
-Scotiabank Bank American Express
***Best Credit card overall is the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, but you need an American account***

Have you tried opening an American account to get the Chase Sapphire Preferred? I wonder if it would be worth it to go through the hassle. I shop quite a bit in USD so just the Foreign exchange transaction fee savings might be worth it in the long run.

Following

BMO elite

Home trust visa. Free. No foreign transaction fees. Not much for reward but good for booking anything online in US dollars

Home Trust. 1% cash back

Agree with this. For travel credit card the BMO elite is good and free if you bank with BMO with a certain amount in your account. However, for non-BMO users like myself, I find the Capital One Aspire travel is good for cash back/points. However I don’t see the 2% back anymore online.. not sure if they changed??

Jade I have the capital one aspire with 2% back. I recently recommended it and someone commented that it's no longer offered.

me too, allows you to retroactively redeem your points/dollars off of any travel related purchase. Book as you normally would and still use points

Following

following

Td first class infinite visa and scotia bank passport visa! Always good for free insurance

I really like TD travel rewards. Rewards are collected and used through expedia. You get extra rewards when you book travel

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I have both the Scotia Amex Gold and the BMO World Elite. I think it's a great combo for a couple reasons. Amex earns 4 points per dollar on groceries dining Gas and entertainment, however, Amex is still not widely accepted so the World elite is a great backup because I get 2 points per dollar on every purchase.
The Amex gold is the superior redemption card as you can book through any travel site and apply points on your monthly statements. The world elite gets airport lounge access which I love. It is great to have more than one in my opinion although I get that's not feasible for everyone.

Royal bank visa avion..can travel on any airline, no blackouts..forget star alliance..Air Canada is bbbaaaddd

Agree! But you do need to book two weeks in advance.

I have the west jet Elite and love it. I really like the companion voucher. My husband and I each have one and took our 2 kids to Europe last year. The companion fare is $399.00 to Europe regardless if economy or economy plus and less if traveling in North America. Your first checked bag is free when travelling west jet and I have not had an issue with black out dates yet.

Problem with west jet is you’re restricted to west jet..I do believe, and they are limited as to where they fly

Lisa You would be surprised where they have expended to. They are now 4 major cities in Europe and they are adding a 787 to there route for the longer flights like the south pacific and Asia. Take a look at there web site for all the cities they serve.

Margo also you can fly delta with purchased or collected west jet dollars, just booked incredibly cheap flights this way Japan to Vancouver all on west jet dollars using partner delta

I didn't know you could also book with delta!

Whitney yes phone westjet travel ask for specialist then they can book you on all westjet partner flights

Janet - that is awesome. Thank you for that info.

Janet thanks for the info. I also have the westjet card and am very happy and need to get to Portugal next year!

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I really dislike being restricted to travel on a certain airline every time. We love our TD Travel Platinum Visa and that is one reason why. Another reason is there is no yearly fee as long as you have $5000 or more in your bank account. Super easy to get your rewards, and you get more rewards if you use expedia but don't HAVE to use Expedia.
https://www.td.com/.../travel.../platinum-travel-visa-card/
TD.COM
Apply for a td platinum travel visa Card | TD Canada Trust

Second this

MBNA alaska airlines. Have flown multiple free flights in the 7 years I’ve had it and they have partner airlines.

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Love Amex - no restrictions and any airline - easy to book online -

Which one?

AMEX Blue Sky is what I use

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Amex Cobalt - It's a $10 monthly fee - you earn 1 point for every $1 spent, 5 x on eats and drinks, 2 x on travel and transit. We use the card for everything as we save up for Japan.
https://www.americanexpress.com/ca/en/credit-cards/information/cobalt-card/?cpid=100295285&dsparms=dc_pcrid_248454078446_kword_amex%20cobalt_match_e&gclid=CJCggau7s90CFYt7gQodQFEMWQ&gclsrc=ds
AMERICANEXPRESS.COM
Cobalt™: The Card that rewards you for being you | Amex CA

Following

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Any Avion card or westjet card

R the points on AM EXPRESS COBalt comparable to Visa aeroplan Gold

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AMEX Platinum is a good travel card

Following

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Depends on what airline you fly with an how often you fly. If you fly with westjet a lot and have checked baggage west jet Mastercard is a great option: Free baggage, companion fare etc. (and because it's a Mastercard you can use it at Costco as Costco doesn't take Visa). I like the Scotiabank Visa Passport Infinite (no international transaction fees and 6 free lounge visits= free food and alcohol). If you travel a lot and have lots of layovers, the 6 lounge visits are really great! My RBC Avion has served me well and had provided me with 2 round the world airline tickets and smaller flights. There are lots of options depending on your travel needs.

Do these cards have fees associated to them?

Parveen Yes. I put everything on my credit cards and just pay them off every month. The yearly fee is worth the amount I pay for them due to the travel points/perks I receive. It's important to figure out how many points/perks will you get based on your spending (i.e. I have two businesses, so I have expenses that go on these credit cards... not everyone will use their card enough to make it worthwhile). There are some google sites that compare the cards and tell you how much you need to spend each year to make the yearly fee worthwhile.

Follow The Points Guy

Lemur Lincolnmire

Scotiabank visa (passport) has NO foreign exchange rate which I think is the only one of its kind. Plus 6 free lounge accesses with priority pass (free sign up) 1:1 points which isn't awesome but all the rest, insurance etc...

BMO world elite travel MasterCard for booking tickets and for insurance. Home trust visa for no foreign exchange and 1% cash back to use on the trip.

Also rogers world elite mastercard for 4% back on foreign currency purchases (but 2.5% foreign exchange fee applies), and 1.75% back in Canada. Benefits are decent too.

@mike wootten

Alaska Mastercard.

Thanksssss everyone

Bmo world elite.

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Rogers World Elite. Nothing beats real cash back, and 100% guaranteed no blackout dates or restrictions when you use cash to pay for your travels.
BMO WE used to be great, but they recently lost Priority Pass and devalued the points substantially

Regarding the BMO WE, I thought they just switched to another lounge program called LoungeKey (but the same lounges) and increased the value of the points. Maybe I misunderstood their brochure. I got 4 extra passes for their new lounge program. Is it supposed to be different from priority pass?
I also have Rogers world elite and it’s a great card as well.

The points devalue was (not accidentally..) written to sound like it’s an improvement. One dollar of spending now buys less travel than it used to. You earn more points, but the penny-value of each point went down.

Will Lauri Ahonen Ah okay, good to know. I may need to consider using my Rogers world elite card as my main ones. What about the LoungeKey program? Is that not as good as the priority pass?

Alaska mbna

Alvin Loong
Curtis Law

I use Rogers fido mastercard. Every year in January I get about $500 credit back. Low annual fee etc... I use it for everything. I’m not a Rogers or Fido customer but every January my rewards is credited back onto my card so I can use it for anything. I wanted a card that had cash back with a low annual and no restrictions. If you have any issues and have to call them their customer service is fantastic. No waiting on hold etc

best travel card hands down is TD aeroplan visa but there are restrictions to the travel. you can fly first class with your points which is the best use of points dollar wise. $120 annual fee. for $99 fee you can get the RBC westjet mastercard. comes with a 250 west jet dollars, an annual companion fare plus you get west jet dollars. oh and free luggage for you and everyone who flies with you on the same reservation. a pretty good card to have

The only downside is that if you are a secondary card holder and not travelling with the primary cardholder you don’t get many of the perks like free luggage

The only downside is that if you are a secondary card holder and not travelling with the primary cardholder you don’t get many of the perks like free luggage

Ps its also 119 annual fee now. Went up from 99

RBC Avion

Following

RBC Avion for any travel also comes with Travel health protector and numerous insurances. No blackout periods, no restrictions.
RBC westjet Mastercard Elite gives you a companion flight annually for 99.00 you build WJ dollars with every purchase and earn more when booking travel. Carry on baggage included too. Lots of perks on these 2 cards. Highly recommend.

Agreed. Just booked a direct round trip to Australia and paid under $200 in taxes!

Jessica Gray what route did you take?

Vancouver to Brisbane and Melbourne to Vancouver, both with air canada

Jessica Gray with the Avion card?

you know it!!!

Following

We put everything on our RBC Avion and have booked multiple European trips with it. No blackout periods and the customer care staff is excellent. Once I only had enough points to buy three tickets and ended up trying to book my daughter’s ticket separately but as she was a minor I wasn’t able to. I was frantically trying to book her on the same flight as the rest of us and ended up calling Visa and the customer agent totally understood my panic. She was very friendly, refunded everything and rebooked it all for me. Another time I wanted to add on an extra three days in Paris to a multi-leg flight that was already booked on points and they were able to figure it out for me. With no extra fees!

Scotia bank American Express gold is easy to accumulate point with 4X the points on gas, groceries and dining.
Scotia bank visa passport: zero foreign transaction fee, 6 free priority pass to airport lounges, 2x points on dining, gas and groceries.

Thanks boo

We have Avion infinite Preferred Elite and get 1.25/$1. Also have WJ just to book flights with them for the free luggage and companion fare and Costco puchases. Follow The Points Guy if you are into Loyalty programs.

Pam the points guy?

Fritz yup. Its his brand The Points Guy. Search for him.

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Scotiabank now has a new one that is better than the AMEX, called Passport Infinite Visa. It has: no foreign exchange fees; reward points; trip cancellation, lost baggage, rental car dammage & travel health insurances just like AMEX, as well as free Priority Pass lounge membership with 6 free visits per year.

Have the card and I second this! Booked my Europe airfare (through a Europe website) and all trip accommodations through the card and got the 25,000 bonus points as well ($250) and the no foreign exchange fees has been a godsend! Excited to try out the airport lounges as well

Following

We have RBC Avion Privilege.

Visa aventura

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Capital one aspire (2 to $1 point system) or the AMEX platinum (expensive but RFD for point bonuses) for travel credit, lounge access, platinum concierge etc

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