what goes into a credit rating?

over the last few weeks, i've posted so much stuff about credit cards. i think credit cards are one of the easiest ways to earn a little something extra for the things that you would do everyday anyway. certainly, there is a whole culture out there who simply churn credit cards for the sign up bonuses. that is, they sign up, get the bonus, cancel, sign up again, get the bonus, and the cycle goes on. i haven't actually churned, but i've heard so many reports of how wonderfully it works.

i haven't done it so much because i'm always afraid of the hit to the credit rating. yes, credit scores do go down whenever you ask for credit. however, this is a temporary effect. but given that the bf and i are looking at buying a place in the near future, i'm not going to be so eager to do anything to hurt the credit rating, even if temporarily. you never know when the next big opportunity will arise, although i'm pretty sure it won't be within the next year.

my friend asked me about what goes into a credit score, and what to do about credit card accounts that were used primarily for obtaining the sign up bonus but aren't used anymore.

i dug up a thread that i thought was particularly helpful: it's redflagdeal's "ask me about credit scores" thread. there are certainly many opinions out there, as well as some facts available if you're interested. however, there are two other sites that i found very helpful:

1. you can use this canadian-based website to predict what your score would be. they give a very general ballpark as to what your score would be. it's anonymous and free.
2. another website gives you a more broken down version of what makes up your credit score (it's a much easier visual representation than what you'd find in the thread). to summarize:
• 35% = payment history. yes, if you screw up the basics of credit, then you've screwed up a big chunk of your credit rating. that's only fair.
• 30% = how much is owed. both the total amount that you owe at any given time (i.e., add up all that you owe on your credit cards) and the ratio between how much you owe and how much credit you have. for example, using up $1,000 of your total $100,000 credit limit looks a lot better than using up $1,000 of your $10,000 credit limit.
• 15% = length of credit history. the "older" the average age of your accounts, the higher the score
• 10% = types of credit used.
• 10% = number of new applications in the past 5 years. how it's actually calculated is beyond me, although most banking representatives that i've spoken with suggest that the impact of a new inquiry on your credit rating only lasts for 6-12 months or so. 

  

  http://www.mymoneycoach.ca/credit_rating/what-is-credit-score.html

this being said, different banks will look at the details of each part of your score. the interest rate that you qualify for may be score dependent, but can also be based on other individual factors within the credit report. for example, having 6 credit applications within a month may be viewed by bankers as a desperate grab for more money, which is definitely not what bankers are pleased to see.

what does this mean? the basic rules that i've taken from this (and someone please feel free to correct me if i'm wrong) are:

1. the most important of all: if you can't pay your balances (or minimums) on time, then credit cards are not for you. in fact, as a rule of thumb, if you can't pay off your card in full each month, then credit cards are not for you period.  the interest alone far outweighs the benefits of the points that you will earn.
2. if you have an old credit card, unless you're looking to churn it for another sign up bonus or there's an annual fee associated with it, don't cancel. i keep a whole deck of cards stashed in a drawer and never to be touched. it keeps the average age of your account older this way.
3. if you have a card that you no longer use, it doesn't hurt to keep the credit limit the same. reducing the credit limit may actually work to reduce your score in the 30% category.
4. if you are looking to apply for a mortgage in the near future where having a favorable credit score may mean the difference between a good rate and a great rate, then keep the number of credit applications to minimum.

and of course, as a reminder, you can get your free credit reports (not scores) from equifax and transunion every year. (the links above will take you directly to the forms to fill out -- no need to hunt on the website for them).

on becoming a singapore girl

my very first flight experience happened when i was in kindergarten. i was five at the time when we flew from calgary to southeast asia to visit extended relatives. the pictures at the time suggested we flew canadian airlines to LAX, and from there we flew on singapore airlines to SIN via NRT. it was my first 747 experience. and i remember the kebaya clad flight attendants, all dressed in the same uniform, only slightly different based on color that was assigned by rank. i remember as we were preparing for landing into tokyo, my stomach was really feeling the descent. the flight attendant by the galley had seen me and smiled, wiggled her hands and said, "like a roller coaster, isn't it?" i remember how warm it felt.

it's really hard to compare any flight, really, to a memory like that. singapore airlines is known for their service. they are consistent, they are attentive, and they pay attention to detail. flight attendants receive 16-weeks of training, compared to 8-weeks at air canada. for what it's worth, it's one of just six 5-star airlines as per skytrax's rankings. and although it is unfair, especially given different labour codes and cultures, that's the standard by which i hold all airlines to.

the singapore girl, the name for the singapore airline stewardess, is a part of their advertising campaign. these are typically young, beautiful women, wearing neatly fitted kebayas and company-assigned make up. they are a singapore icon, and on the amazing race a few years ago, the pit stop greeter for the singapore leg was indeed a singapore girl. and when they breeze through the airports, usually as a herd, you know exactly where they're going.

 

the above is a fun commercial from 2006. my friend tells me that for an airline, there's surprisingly little airplane involved in the video. but that's precisely the point -- the marketing tool is the singapore girl. warm, generous, beautiful.

this is all brought up because of a thread from milepoint, a frequent traveler message board i sometimes visit. in that thread, there's a link to a CNN video about becoming a singapore girl. easily the best three minutes of my sunday afternoon.

capital one's delta-affiliated credit cards

i don't often see advertising for capital one's delta skymiles world mastercard. i suppose this is just a reflection of how little market share delta has in canada.

about the card

• you earn 3 delta skymiles for every dollar spent on delta purchases
• you earn 2 delta skymiles for every dollar spent everywhere else
• after spending $25,000 a year, you get a 10,000 annual bonus (this is where manufactured spending, or paying your taxes through plastiq may make sense)
• a welcome bonus of 25,000 points in your first year after spending $1,000 in the first 90 days.
• it has an insurance package comparable to the capital one world cash back cards. in other words, it has out of province travel insurance, trip cancellation/interruption, travel accident, baggage delay/loss, extended warranty, purchase protection, rental car insurance
• annual fee of $120 a year

the annual fee is the same as most of the other premium cards, including the aeroplan-affiliated CIBC cards. however, you get twice the miles per dollar spent. so in the first year, if you spend $25,000 (and $1,000 in your first 90 days), you will receive 85,000 skymiles.

alternatively, you can go for the capital one delta skymiles gold mastercard which has no annual fee and still gives you a 1 mile per dollar spent. it also provides almost all of the same insurances as the world mastercard.

if you do decide to apply for those cards, make sure you apply via great canadian rebates and not the links above in order to receive a $30 (world) or $20 (gold) rebate paid via paypal. (note: i receive a referral from great canadian rebates if you sign up for the program, but i receive nothing for the actual cards).

about delta
delta is an american legacy airline that's a member of the skyteam alliance. the redemption chart is shown below. note that these are one-way prices.

low, medium, and high don't refer to the travel season, but rather the number of capacity controlled seats available. there is lowest availability for the low seats (hence the lowest price), the highest capacity controlled seats available for the high seats (hence the highest price). i suspect that the difference between low vs. medium/high is equivalent to aeroplan's classic and classic plus redemptions. so in reality, the amount of miles required to redeem remain the same. however, i've also heard of reports that delta's award program is very, very broken. gary from view from the wing describes it here.

also, as of this post, delta miles do not expire unless you expire.

when does collecting delta make sense?
the credit card certainly has its positives, but it would then only make sense if you can actually use these miles. it is also helpful if you fly in delta/skyteam/partner cities so that flights could further accumulate points. so the biggest criteria is that you value the destinations that delta serves frequently, or that are a part of the skyteam. it would also help if you lived in an actual delta city or skyteam destination city. i've dug them up below:

• vancouver: alaska, delta, china airlines, china eastern, china southern, klm, korea
• toronto: aeroflot, air france, alaska, alitalia, delta, klm, korean
• montreal: aeromexico, air france, delta, klm
• calgary: alaska, delta, klm
• edmonton: alaska, delta, klm
• other alaska cities: kelowna, victoria
• other delta cities: saskatoon, winnipeg

for those who live close to border cities, it might make sense to drive across the border:

• seattle (vancouver):  alaska, delta, hawaiian, korean
• buffalo (toronto): delta
• burlington (montreal?): delta 
• detroit (windsor): delta

in other words, this card works best for canadians living in toronto or vancouver.

conclusion
the capital one credit card might be a good fit. it certainly is very interesting that you can earn without having to pay an annual fee, or earn double while paying an equivalent annual fee to the other major airline-affiliated credit cards. that being said, the utility of delta miles may be so limited in canada that the other major credit card issuers do not feel the need to either strengthen their card products or reduce their annual fees. i think they may be right.

alaska airlines as a helpful backup program

my friend was recently looking at booking a flight on klm / delta for their upcoming trip to tanzania. he's a star alliance kind of guy, and so flying skyteam seemed to be just out of character. what does one do in this case? certainly, i try to consolidate all of my flying onto one alliance so as to achieve status within a particular program. even if i didn't earn any status, i would still try to consolidate my points into a single program so that i could redeem for actual flights. a few hundred miles here and there in different programs are useless -- they're very much appropriately called orphan miles. in my friend's case, he consolidated absolutely everything into air canada's aeroplan.

so what does one do if you have to book onto skyteam partners? my practice has been to create an account with each of the alliances to credit points there. i currently have accounts with american airlines (AA, oneworld) and delta (DL, skyteam) so that i can credit those miles there. it's helpful because these points don't expire (as long as there is activity within 18 months for AA, and in the case of DL, miles do not expire). if i didn't have a whole bunch of miles on AA, i would definitely be looking into alaska airlines (AS).

AS has a very similar mileage earning and spending rate (aka earn and burn rate, respectively) as what you would expect on the other major north american airlines. but here are some of the benefits of consolidating your points into the alaska mileage plan:

1. AS partners with many airlines within different alliances without being in a major alliance itself.
• star alliance partners: nil
• oneworld: american airlines, cathay pacific, british airways, lan, quantas
• skyteam: delta airlines, korean airlines, klm, air france
• other: air pacific, era alaska, pen air (alaska), iceland air (partnership ending june 30, 2013)
2. earning elite status
• miles earned from AA and DL count towards status on alaska (and, for that matter, flights earned on alaska count as status miles on AA and DL). 
• benefits of mvp status (their elite tiers) will allow for some benefits on AA and DL. this includes checked baggage fee waivers, pre-boarding, and in the case of DL, upgrades.
3. miles don't expire as long as you have activity every 24 months
4. it's not that difficult to earn miles on actual alaska airline flights as a canadian
• alaska focuses on vancouver as a focus canadian city. they do this by having multiple flights departing from bellingham, a mere hour's drive away from vancouver. no other legacy airline flies out of bellingham.

once i deplete my AA points, i will open up an AS account as a part of my mileage strategy. star alliance partners will still be credited towards asiana airlines. partners of alaska will be credited to alaska. skyteam or oneworld partners who aren't credited to alaska will be credited as orphan miles to AA or DL. i don't expect much to happen as i rarely fly outside the star alliance, but just in case, it's nice to make sure that no mile goes to waste.

border-crossing tax

a friend of mine recently sent me a news link regarding america's decision to "study" the merits of introducing a land crossing charge at the us/canada borders. no specific amount has been proposed. one article had randomly used $5.50 per person per entry. if you had a full car with 4 adults, that's an extra $22 per car.

charging to enter the country isn't new. if you look at the fare breakdown on an airline flight, for example, you'll find many different immigration/customs fees:

if you were flying domestically within the states, the fees are much fewer. the following screenshot is from a dummy booking on united, SEA-LAX:

delta airlines provides a nicely formatted table that lists the various charges. the federal transportation tax is already built into the cost of the ticket price on the us-based airlines. doing the math, airline travel across the border would incur an agriculture fee, US immigration user fee, and a US federal customs fee. taken together, each flight into america costs $18.40. yet, despite the cost, i haven't complained about it so far. i wonder whether that will change in the near future.

i don't imagine that they will impose a border fee anytime soon, if at all. it seems like such a short term cash grab while ignoring the revenue that is gained from those impulsive cross border trips. and indeed, there are border businesses which thrive off of cross-border roadtrips. gas in blaine, washington last weekend was $3.99/gallon, or $1.054/liter. in vancouver, gas is about $1.33/liter. (in seattle, it was $0.948/liter.) business such as 24/7 parcels in blaine, washington would quickly die out as a $5-10 per passenger charge would quickly negate any potential savings. and the poor costco in bellingham won't have an influx of canadians trying to clean them out of their dairy products.

but if they did impose a fee, i'm sure that a (worst case scenario of) $18.40 per person fee would stop some people from going. i'm sure that it would strongly discourage the daytrip folks. those folks who were willing to pay an extra 12% (no duty free exemption for stays less than 24 hours) for lower-priced american products may not tolerate an additional fee. but provided that the fee is nominal, like 5-10$ a person, i'm not sure that it will affect my own road trip behaviour. my mentality has always been to make such roadtrips as a weekend away from home. to make up for it, i may pass up on other expensive options instead. maybe cut my shopping budget a little bit more. maybe i'll sink low enough to be one of those housekeeping cart raiders.

as a side note, as a nexus card holder, since we've saved the system money, maybe the nexus lanes should be exempt from these fees. after all, it does cost time (and thus money) for regular border agents to harass you about what you had for dinner, why you would want to visit your friends who live in a different city, or how it is that you're related to your brother who has the same last name as you do.

we will have to see whether a fee will come to be in the end.

the joys of an upgraded room

the starwood preferred guest by american express is a nice credit card to have. i've already described its benefits in previous posts somewhat, so i won't talk about it again here. however, one of the benefits i found out about by accident two years ago was the fact that it upgrades your status to preferred plus. the three main status levels are preferred (i.e., entry level), gold, and platinum. on the starwood site, it doesn't talk about preferred plus at all. asides from having an spg-affiliated credit card, you can also get the preferred plus status by having various corporate affiliations or by being a member of your local auto association.

searching the web reveals a little bit about the preferred plus level. according to the starwood lurker on milepoint (the company representative on a frequent traveler message board), it essentially gives you gold status minus the 50% bonus points. in other words, you are entitled to:

• space available room enhancements (upgrades)
• 4pm late check-out where feasible
• a welcome gift (of bonus points or beverages etc.)

the problem with having an unpublished tier and an unpublished benefit is that whether you actually receive the benefit is hit-or-miss at the hotel. you can't pull out an official webpage or show the check-in agent your membership package that explains the benefits when those same benefits are denied. you simply have no ground to stand upon. for example, i've never gotten a welcome gift. i've been told that i was only allowed a 2pm late checkout instead of 4pm. i'm 50/50 for room upgrades. the reason for striving for gold status (or higher) is so that i can get more consistently delivered benefits that come with being a frequent stayer.

the sheraton bellevue on this trip gave me an enhanced room. they put me on a higher floor, which i suppose counts as being enhanced. the stay before that, they had upgraded my room to a sheraton club room, which meant that i had access to the sheraton club lounge with free breakfast and internet. that was a very much appreciated room upgrade that had a quantifiable monetary value.

the last time i was at the four points seattle downtown, they didn't do anything to my room. what i paid for was exactly what i had gotten: a regular room on a lower level. when we arrived today, we indeed got a room upgrade to a pseudo-suite -- all that was missing was a wall to the bedroom:

a living room with a hide-a-bed

a sink, microwave, and a fridge in the cabinet below. had we known we were getting an upgraded room, we would have bought more cold snacks from the QFC next door!

our bed with another tv, just in case your eyes weren't good enough to see the other tv located 12 feet away

the nice, spacious bathroom with two separate entrances

now that's a benefit worth striving for. as the boyfriend says, "this room is bigger than our apartment." and indeed he's right ...

on the road to status: seattle mattress run + 24/7 parcels

and yet another episode of mattress running has begun. this is for stays #5 and 6 of the year for the starwood program. we arrived late last night, having left vancouver at around 7pm or so. we arrived at the sheraton bellevue and promptly went to bed. today, we are going to be moving to the four points by sheraton, downtown seattle. two different hotels, slightly more work, but totally worth the extra stay credit. as an aside, it is cheaper to stay in bellevue than it is to stay in seattle proper.

en route, we passed by blaine, washington, which is about a 30 minutes' drive from vancouver. we stopped off there to pick up my friend's um ... expensive ... boots that she bought from online. she introduced me to 24/7 parcels which is a service aimed specifically at vancouverites. they understand that american versions of websites (e.g., amazon.com) usually offer lower prices compared to their  canadian counterparts but have exorbitant shipping rates to canada. other sites don't even ship to canada. 24/7 parcels gives you an american shipping address in exchange for a $3 charge per parcel (and $0.50-$1.00/day beyond 7 days). there are no membership fees. it effectively cuts your shipping costs to $3 a shipment, provided you're heading en route to seattle anyway. it's best to lump this in with a weekend trip stateside so that you can avoid paying duty charges.

there are lots of shipping services in blaine. lots. they all charge roughly the same amount. some charge a yearly membership fee. most are open during regular banking business hours (9-5 m-f, 9-12 saturday). what i like about 24/7 parcels is that like the name suggests, you can pick up your parcels at any time. they text you a code that you enter to get into the building. you use that same code on a keypad inside that will then electronically open a storage locker. it then debits your account the amount owed.

the last time i did my mattress run, my friend had her package sent to blaine enterprises. i arrived on easter monday (not a federal holiday) at 4pm, thinking that they normally close at 5pm. but, to my irritation, i found that they decided that it was a holiday. they closed at 1pm that day and my trip was wasted. 24/7 eliminates that problem, and i think i will use them again.

why i'd rather choose the cibc adventura mastercard over their aerogold visa

aeroplan has another point conversion bonus promotion happening between now and may 13, 2013. this is something that happens 2-3 times a year for at least the last few years. if you're in love with the aeroplan program, or have super-elite status whereby you can redeem your points at the classic reward price for any available air canada seat, this is a great time to convert points. you receive bonuses depending on how much you transfer in. if you transfer 20,000, you get a 25% bonus. if you transfer 150,000, you get a 26.7% bonus.

i particularly like the starwood program because with the spg amex, you earn 1 point/dollar spent. 20,000 spg points can be converted into 25,000 aeroplan points. these extra 5,000 points are a regular part of the starwood program. if you transfer 40,000 spg points, you will then receive 50,000 aeroplan points. according to this aeroplan bonus, you'll get an additional 10,000 points. thus 40,000 spg points = 60,000 aeroplan points. great deal.

CIBC has a similar option to transfer into aeroplan. however, because aeroplan runs this promotion many times a year, it makes sense to earn your points via their adventura world elite mastercard rather than their aerogold visa. these cards are virtually identical, including a 50% bonus on gas, grocery, and drug stores, as well as the $120 annual fee. the adventura mastercard has a stronger insurance package.

the trick is that the adventura mastercard earns adventura points which can be converted 1:1 to aeroplan points (in 10,000 point increments). aerogold visa earns the aeroplan points directly. so during these promotions, you earn bonus points for converting your adventura points, but you get nothing from your aerogold because there's nothing to convert. therefore, if you're interested in earning more aeroplan points, the adventura mastercard effectively gives you a 25% bonus over the aerogold.

travel hacking -- obtaining free hilton hhonors gold status

it's a travel hack, but live from a lounge provides links and details on how to automatically get hilton hhonors gold status (space available room upgrades, complimentary wifi, water, late check-out, breakfast options etc). it normally takes 20 stays a year, or 40 nights, or 75,000 base points ($7,500 yearly spend). the offer is made to visa infinite card holders in certain countries. this particular offer is now for india. you can create your own indian credit card number via the generator that the blog links to. and then instant hilton hhonors gold

i haven't actually done this for hilton. i figure it's not something that i can maintain the following year, and i'm busy trying to consolidate all of my stays in the starwood program. there have been reports that this is still working. i did use a very similar hack for kingfisher airlines, an airline that was supposed to enter the oneworld alliance before suddenly suspending operations last year. with that trick, i obtained low-tier kingfisher status, which corresponded to oneworld ruby status and thus waived checked luggage on american airlines. i didn't end up booking that american flight, but it would have been nice to have to have.

note: i don't feel bad about posting this on the web ... this has gotten a ton of attention online already.

UPDATE: so i tried this one out, and i had trouble making this work. perhaps the trick has gone stale, perhaps the offer got pulled. however, i leave this up only so that i can link back to it in the future, when it works again :)

paying taxes via credit card -- plastiq.com

plastiq is a service that has recently been introduced in canada. it has a simple idea: if you are being forced to pay for something online via debit or cash, you can now pay for it with credit card via plastiq. the merchant has probably elected not to use credit cards because of the processing fees that mastercard / visa / amex charge (around 2-5%). plastiq lets you pay for the item but instead will charge you a flat transaction fee of 2%. they promise that it counts as a purchase, not as a cash advance which would accrue interest charges immediately.

this, in itself, is not that exciting. if you use a points credit card and you get one point per dollar spent, you're ending up paying an extra 2c per point. it's not that great a deal. how it is helpful is for helping one meet minimum spending targets. for example, the starwood preferred guest american express will give you a free weekend award night after spending $40,000 a year. what if you're expecting to be shy of that number at the end of the year? you may need to manufacture a little bit of extra spending in order to reach that threshold. this is where plastiq comes in handy.

i did my taxes online with h&rblock.ca again this year (thanks to my $7 coupon code from pcfinancial). this time, they announced their partnership with plastiq, saying that you could pay your taxes online. i figured it was legitimate enough and i wanted to test it out.

1) this was the initial webpage after paying my taxes. i clicked the orange tab.

 2) this is plastiq's landing page. the next page asks you for your canada revenue agency details, the amount owed and credit card details.

 3) review and submit your payment. note that the math was correct in terms of the fee.

4) after hitting submit, you get to see a confirmation that your payment has been completed. they e-mail you a receipt and a transaction number that you can follow up with.

easy! i'll check back to make sure that it works, of course. i'll also be keeping an eye out to make sure that none of it is treated like a cash advance. if it works out, then this will be a great tool to generate additional spend on my cards in order to meet minimum thresholds.

just as an aside, the amount that i owed was $1,203.29. i paid $1,227.36. using my 2% cash back card, i expect to $24.55 back in rebates. so the actual amount that i paid in taxes was $1,227.36 - $24.55 = $1,202.81. in other words, i actually saved $0.48. just a small detail, of course ...

air canada's "earn your wings" challenge -- yvr-sea just became so much more rewarding

air canada has a new promotion called "earn your wings". for this promotion, certain flights let you earn "wings". you earn 100 wings for every time you take off or land at an airport serviced by air canada on an air canada marketed flight. you also get bonus wings for earning badges. there are certain criteria for these badges, for instance, arriving at a certain airport, or hitting a certain combination of airports between the promo period. only flights booked and completed from april 11 - june 16 count. registration is required.

the real value of these wings is that for every 2,000 wings you earn, you will get 1,000 aeroplan points. and for every 10,000 wings, you'll get a bonus 5,000 aeroplan points on top of that.

this promotion has led to great discussion on flyertalk about how to best maximize this promotion. one of the strategies was to use the yvr-sea route. both airports are heavily bonused in this promotion, which may have been unintentional by air canada, and remains highly lucrative.

YVR-YYJ-YVR-SEA-YVR same day trip, may 11, 2013, is selling for $453 all in. this is a flex fare (except for YVR-YYJ, which is tango), and so one will earn 750 status and 63 non-status miles. the real value is in the wings you earn in this promotion:

200 points for talking about this on social media
100 wings for taking off at YVR
100 wings for landing in YYJ (victoria)
100 wings for taking off at YYJ
100 wings for landing in YVR
100 wings for taking off from YVR
100 wings for landing in SEA
100 wings for taking off from SEA
100 wings for landing in YVR
500 wings for taking off specifically at YVR (the YVR badge)
500 wings for landing at YYJ (the YYJ badge)
500 wings for taking off at YYJ (the YYJ badge)
500 wings for landing at YVR (the YVR badge)
500 wings for taking off at YVR (the YVR badge)
1000 wings for landing at SEA (the SEA badge)
1000 wings for taking off at SEA (the SEA badge)
500 wings for landing at YVR (the YVR badge)
5000 wings for flying YVR-SEA (the TCA badge can only be earned once)
5000 wings for touching down at YVR (the olympic badge can only be earned once)
5000 wings for 3 take off/landings at SEA/YVR/YYJ (the pacific coast badge)
5000 wings for 3 take off/landings at SEA/YVR/YYJ (the pacific coast badge)

your total is 26,000 wings. under the rules, you would earn 13,000 points for having 13 x 2,000 wings, and 10,000 points for earning 2 x 10,000 wings. this means a net total of 23,000 bonus aeroplan points. for the entire trip, you will earn 23,813 aeroplan points. the cost per point is 1.89c/point. they recently changed some of the rules so that you can only earn some of the 5,000 wing badges once ... so before their correction, you could have earned tens of thousands more wings than before. for comparison sake, if you were to buy top up points from air canada, they would charge you 3.15c/point.

(by the way, if you just did a YVR-SEA run, you would have earned 13,400 wings, 11,000 bonus aeroplan points, or 11,500 aeroplan points in total for $371. the cost per point is 3.23c/point).

is this worthwhile? it simply depends on how much you value an aeroplan point. if you value your aeroplan point at 1.26c per point, those 22,813 points earned from this promo will only be worth $287 -- a net loss. if you value these points at 6c each, these same points will be worth $1,369 ... very worthwhile for its cost. the true value is somewhere in between. of course, you have to factor in the cost of a day's worth of travel as well. make sure you eat your meals in the lounge.

i won't lie: i'm kind of tempted.

the value of an aeroplan point

in my previous post, i looked at the value of the cash back credit card. the return value is very transparent: you will get x% back in cash or y% back in travel dollars. you know the exact rate of return, which is not such a bad thing. my current card, the no-fee MBNA world points mastercard gives 2% cash back. the other card i was talking about, the capital one aspire travel world mastercard, gives 2% back in travel dollars with an effective annual fee of $20.

what's harder to calculate, however, are those that give travel reward points, especially for airlines. the big question is: what is an aeroplan point (or whatever point you choose to collect) worth? so i chose to do a quick estimation of worth using aeroplan. i chose a sample date, and i chose awards that closely approximated what i could buy using cash (i.e., a revenue ticket). of note, there are some limitations:

• various programs will charge fuel surcharges on certain airlines, while others won't
• various programs charge differing numbers of points, although they tend to be similar
• reward seats are much, much, much more limited than revenue seats
• to use reward seats, some sacrifices may have to be made within reason to scheduling
• low season vs. high season rates affect rates of return
• there are possibilities for open jaws, stopovers for points, but usually you can build those into your revenue tickets yourself for not that much more
• revenue seats can earn points that can be re-invested into booking future reward tickets

the international traveler on air canada:
route: YVR-HKG, sample dates oct 23-30, 2013
economy revenue ticket: $946 + $344 in taxes = $1,290
economy reward ticket: 75k miles + 344 in taxes.
by booking a reward ticket, you use 75k miles to save $946, which is a return of 1.26c per point.
miles not earned due to using a reward ticket: 6,378 (status miles)

business revenue ticket: $5234 + $344 in taxes = $5,578
business revenue ticket: 125k points + $344 in taxes (note: you connect via PEK)
by booking a reward ticket, you use 125k points to save $5,234, which is a return of 4.19c per point.
miles not earned due to using a reward ticket: 15,893 (status miles)

the domestic traveler on air canada:
route: YVR-YYZ, sample dates oct 23-30, 2013
economy revenue ticket: $418 + $133 in taxes = $551
economy reward ticket: 25k miles + $152 in taxes. (they charge an extra fuel surcharge!)
by booking a reward ticket, you use 25k miles to save $399, which is a return of 1.60c per point.
miles not earned due to using a reward ticket: 1,038 (non-status miles)

business revenue ticket: $2,946 + $260 in taxes = $3,206
business revenue ticket: 50k points + $152 in taxes
by booking a reward ticket, you use 50k points to save $3,054, which is a return of 6.11c per point.miles not earned due to using a reward ticket: 6,231 (status miles)

overall rates of return
from the comparison here, for domestic travel, one can get 1.26 to 1.60 cents per point. for business travel, one can get 4.19 to 6.11 cents per point. the value for the business redemption is slightly inflated because it assumes that you would be willing to pay that much to fly business. i'm not sure if i would pay $5,578 to book a business ticket to hong kong. these redemption rates are also assuming that you can actually book a ticket. if you're unable to find/book the ticket that you want, then it brings the rate of return to a disappointing 0 cents per point.

implications for mileage reward cards:
the vast majority of mileage reward cards have a $120 fee. there are some exceptions (bank of america's alaska airlines = $75, royal bank's cathay pacific card = $150). if you earned 24,000 points per year from the card, each point that you have earned cost 0.5c per point due to the annual fee. if you earned 36,000 points, that cost per point earned drops to 0.33c. so you would need to readjust the value per point by subtracting the cost per point earned from the potential value of each point.

when is it best to use a mileage reward card?
if you're planning on using it only for domestic travel, it's best to use the capital one aspire travel world mastercard or something that gives you 2% return. if you're planning on doing business travel, and are willing to hunt for business seat availability, then by far, the mileage reward cards are the way to go. even if you halve the cost that you were willing to pay for a business class ticket, the potential rate of return would still be 2.09% to 3.05% -- values much better than the simple cash back cards.

(note: if you choose to apply for the capital one aspire travel world mastercard, book through great canadian rebates to get an additional $30 rebate via paypal).

credit cards: cash back comparison

i'm still in that transition between idolizing the frequent flyer miles and the cash back credit cards. at the end of the day, i try to figure out which card would get me the best rate of return possible.

my baseline cashback card is capital one aspire cash card. it provides a 1% return and a 50% bonus yearly. this means an effective return rate of 1.5%. there's no annual fee, there's extended warranty, purchase protection, travel medical, cancellation, interruption, and car rental insurance. it's a very strong insurance package. there's no annual fee. (if you apply for this card, make sure you sign up for the card, make sure you use the link via great canadian rebates for an additional 30$ bonus sign up credit).

something a bit better is the capital one aspire travel world mastercard. while it has a $120 annual fee, you get $100 a year back in points. this makes the effective annual fee of 20$. you get 2% back that can be used against the purchase of travel (provided the travel purchase is $600 a more). it has all of the insurances as the aspire cash card. compared to the capital one aspire cash card, you would then need to spend $4,000 in order to break even with the annual fee. that is to say, after spending $4,000 a year, that extra 0.5% return will mean earning an extra $20, enough to cover the annual fee. (again, using great canadian rebates, you can get an additional sign up bonus).

so all other cards have to beat a 2% return rate (assuming you spend more than $4,000 a year).

the raw data:
1% or less:

• PC financial = 1% return in groceries 
• TD no fee cash back = 1% return
• other TD annual fee credit cards = 1% in travel  
• CIBC no fee cash back = up to 1% in cash
• Scotia no fee momentum = 1% return 
• BMO no fee cash back = 0.5%

1% -1.5% return:

• BMO $79 cash back card = 1.25%
• TD $120 annual fee first class visa = 1.5% in travel 
• CIBC $79 annual fee cash back = 2% only on purchases above $50,000 per year
• Chase financial cards with no forex fees = 1% - 1.5% return 
• National bank -- all cards = 1-1.67 points per dollar, 1 pt = 0.91c, so 0.91 - 1.52%
• 1.67 point/$ card carries an annual fee of $125 and assumes a max spend of $30k/yr

1% regular + 2% or more for special categories:

• RBC no annual fee cash back = 1% regular purchases, 2% groceries
• could make sense to combine the aspire one cash back card with this card to use specifically for groceries 
• MBNA smartcash = 1% regular purchases, 2% gas and groceries capped to $400 a month
• Scotia $39 momentum = 1% regular purchases, 2% groceries

2%+ crowd:

• MBNA world points mastercard = 2% return on all purchases, no annual fee. however, this card is no longer being issued, previous holders are grandfathered.

can we increase the rate of return beyond 2%?
if you're willing to use a high-annual fee card in combination with either the aspire travel card, you can possibly get a better rate of return:

• Scotia infinite momentum: 1% regular, 2% drug and recurring payments, 4% gas and groceries. $99 annual fee.
• if you use this card for only your gas/groceries, and leave all of the other spending on your 2.0% aspire travel card, you'd need to spend $4,900 on those categories in order to break even with the annual fee. any additional spending will increase your overall rate of return.
• Scotia bank gold american express  = 4% for gas/grocery/dining/entertainment, and 1% for all else. rebate can only be used for travel in the future.
• given its $99 annual fee, like the scotia infinite momentum above, one would need to spend roughly $4,900 in these categories to break even with the annual fee. the benefit of this card is that there are additional categories to get bonus spending. however, the downside is that amex is not accepted.

conclusion:
if you're willing to pull out the right card for the right type of merchant, you could end up with a rate of return greater than 1.5% (provided a minimum spend of $4,000 a year on the aspire card and $4,900 on the gold amex).

my current card strategy:

1. gas/dining/grocery/entertainment: scotia bank gold amex for 4% return
2. all other purchases, and non-amex merchants: MBNA world points master card for 2% return
3. all foreign transactions: sears financial mastercard for 1% return and no forex fees
• for foreign gas/dining/grocery/entertainment charges, i will probably use the amex because the 4% return outweighs the 1% sears return + 2.5% forex savings 

links from the web -- april 9, 2013

1) remember checkout 51? next thursday, according to smart canucks, will have new offers. apparently, the glade plugins scented oil starter kits will have a 5$ rebate. but wait! i had coupons from websaver.ca delivered to my house a few weeks ago, which also included a 5$ off coupon for the same product. i looked at walmart.com, and these starter kits are going for 4.88$ in the states. so there's probably a good chance that i'm gonna make money off of this deal. it's too bad that i don't actually use these products ...

2) from the same site except posted here, you can get a mail-in rebate for a free finish quantum 20-ct of dishwashing detergent. just purchase and print off the mail-in rebate for up to 8.49$ on any quantum product.

3) tucked away and not broadly advertised on their site, uxb on flyertalk had posted a new starwood promo: stay 3 nights and get a 50$ ticketmaster cash code. stay one night, and check in on foursquare while you're a registered guest, and you'll get a 10$ ticketmaster cash code. stays have to be between apr 5 and may 5. sadly, my upcoming stays all fall just outside of that range.

4) starwood also recently released details about their second quarter promo on flyertalk. double points on eligible stays from may 1 - jul 31. (registration required, but not yet released).  furthermore, if you book on their iphone app, you get 500 extra points per booking.

• for a 100$ hotel night, you get 300 points for base spendings as a gold member
• you receive a ~250 points or more for a gold check-in (i think?)
• you receive an extra 200 bonus points from this promotion
• you receive 500 points a night since you're booking on the app (booking separate nights can be more lucrative).

so for a 100$ hotel night stay, you can receive up to 1250 points, which i value at 25$. if you choose to convert those starpoints to air canada's aeroplan, you will receive up to a 25% bonus, or 1,563 aeroplan points. not bad!

10-50$ off of your domestic airfare from flight centre

flight centre is a full service travel agency with both an online presence and multiple retail locations. their agents are not super advanced, no more so than what expedia.ca can pull up in terms of deals. in fact, some of their agents can be pretty unhelpful. for example, during the days of HST in BC, they were unaware that if you booked a BC to AB flight as two separate one-way tickets, you'd save the HST on your AB-BC segment. if you booked it as a roundtrip, you were charged the HST on both segments.

but if you do your homework, know what flights you want and how you want to book things, then flight centre may actually present you with some cost savings for your airfares. the warning, however, is that this is only applicable to domestic round trip airfares. flight centre does not charge booking fees for domestic travel. they do, however, charge an additional 65$ for transborder or international itineraries. also, the two discounts i mention below only work for retail locations and not online. finally, if you need to change anything in your itinerary, they will charge you another 50-60$ above and beyond the airline change fees.

1) 10$ savings -- student price card
with the student price card, you will receive a 10$ off domestic round trip airfare coupon. there are higher discounts available for transborder and international flights, however they are both less than the 65$ booking fees. therefore, those discounts will actually cost you money if you were originally planning on booking online anyway. as a UBC resident, you get a library card which looks identical to a student identification card. alternatively, you just need to find someone who is able to book that flight for you.

2) 50$ savings -- taxi game
quite frequently, flight centre advertises a game in taxi cabs. i've only played it in vancouver, but i suspect it's in other major cities as well. in vancouver, the blacktop cab and yellow checker cab brand have in-seat entertainment on the passenger side headrest. flight centre has a world trivia game currently running. you don't have to actually play the game. there is an option to skip the game and enter your e-mail address for a chance to win a sweepstakes. but in even doing that, they will e-mail you a 50$ coupon for any roundtrip domestic airfare.

but wait -- there's more! in the e-mail, there is no unique code. there are no unique links. there are no identifiers. there are no names. you can print off that coupon as many times as you want and present over and over to physical flight center locations. if blogspot had a server that i could link to, i'd scan it and host it right here. all the agent has to do is enter the code FCTAXICONTEST1012. and to top it off ... the coupon had a broad expiration policy. i played the game back in january 2013, and the coupon expires june 30, 2013. if you're a point-seeker, you pay the full amount on your credit card first, and flight centre then writes you a 50$ refund cheque. bonus points for nothing.

go out ... and ride those taxis!

have frequent flyer miles dictated who you fly with?

i wrote about how i chase status on the star alliance a few days ago. i took a look at my booking patterns and realized that yes, frequent flier (FF) miles do actually dictate who i book with.

of my last 32 paid transborder/international segments in the last 24 months, i have:

• 3 segments with air canada (2 of which were re-bookings post cancellation)
• 2 segments with us airways (both of which were re-bookings post cancellation)
• 27 segments with united airlines

not surprisingly, i do have a booking algorithm that i have when booking. this assumes that both airlines:

• have flight times that fit within my desired schedule
• do not exceed a pre-determined maximum number of connections

1) domestic travel
if westjet (WS) and air canada (AC) are the same price (comparing WS fares with AC's tango fares), i'm pretty neutral. i'm willing to book on AC simply because of the bonuses of status and the in flight entertainment which i think is a lot more flexible than WS'. if westjet is a few dollars cheaper (my threshold is 5-10$ -- a very small threshold), i'll book with WS. at least with WS, i will get 100% non-qualifying miles via their partner, american airlines. (note: only valid on fare codes Y/V/B/Q/L/M/P/G/X/D -- they don't make it easy to find on their own website,  but fare codes can be easily found via expedia or the on the fly app on iphone). this is in comparison to the 25% non-qualifying miles that i can get with AC.

being based out of YVR, it's quite easy to drive to SEA and fly from there back home to canada, although it's certainly more inconvenient. recently, i flew to ottawa from seattle instead of vancouver so that i could earn 100% status miles on united (UA). on a semi-mileage run, i booked SEA-SFO-IAD-YOW to maximize the points while paying a cheaper fare than what YVR-YOW direct would have cost.

2) transborder travel
recently with AC, they re-arranged some of their booking codes to include fare codes T/L/K in their tango category for international flights. unfortunately, this means that for many other frequent flyer programs (like asiana airlines), all T/L/K booking codes, regardless of whether they are flex (previously tango plus) or not, now only earn 50% miles. flights within canada or between canada and america can be labeled as flex but are booked under fare code T/L/K. frustrating, really.

if i leave from vancouver, i will choose a star alliance carrier over a non-star alliance carrier. if the price is the same and i can get 100% status miles on asiana airlines, i will book AC. otherwise, i book with UA. non-star alliance carriers need to be 100$-200$ cheaper for me to book with them as that is the cost of a) baggage fees, b) extra time needed to travel without the benefits of status, c) cost of lost status miles.

3) international travel
AC has quickly made many fares for international destinations into tango fares. not that they made these fares any cheaper, rather, they simply reduced the mileage earned to 50%. UA, in contrast, still provides 100% on all economy fares. their prices, at least out of YVR, are close enough to AC's to justify the extra cost for double the status miles. therefore, in order to maximize mileage, i have started to hunt around on competing non-AC star alliance carriers. for instance, there is a trip to hong kong and another trip to mumbai being planned at the moment, and i'm finding myself looking more and more at UA rather than AC. for the same price, why not get twice the miles?

short conclusion:
yes -- the availability of frequent flyer miles really does affect which carrier gets my traveling dollar. what are other variables that you use to determine who you fly with?

air canada changes domestic check-in times

found via flyertalk.com last week, air canada is changing its domestic check-in times (except for flights from YTZ) starting on april 10, 2013. i can't find the actual thread anymore, but the announcement on aircanada.com was apparently dated on march 22, 2013. instead of the 30 minute check-in deadline and bag drop off cutoff time, it's now 45-minutes. no other changes to other flights. this is in line with westjet's policies. thank goodness for flyertalk -- these are all things i never would have known until it was too late.

i guess they've had too many issues with people like me, coming right under the wire because i end up booking those 8am flights, waking up approximately 90 minutes beforehand and getting my luggage in right under the wire. maybe it just started taking too long to get the luggage from the drop-off station to the airplane, delaying the flight. or maybe it allows control of the flight to be transferred by the gate agent a little bit earlier, allowing for confirmation of e-upgrades to occur before the actual boarding time. current boarding time is now at the 35 minute mark, although in reality, it has never started on time in my experience in the last 4 years. heck, sometimes the plane hasn't even arrived at that time.

so it just means that i'll have to arrive earlier if i have baggage. which means that i'll have waste time in the lounge using my star alliance gold status.

credit cards without a 2.5% foreign conversion fee

update: sears no longer transfers to petro-points, so my new recommendation is the amazon.ca rewards visa.

most credit card companies in canada charge an extra fee for making purchases in non-canadian dollars. typically, this amounts to 2.50% of the purchase price. so if something were to cost an equivalent of 100$ cad, you'd end up paying 102.50$. this becomes tricky when using your rewards-based credit card. if your original rate of return was just 2%, then after the foreign conversion fee, you'd end up with a net loss of benefit. this charge is usually built into the exchange rate that you see.

the solution to this is having a no-forex credit card. in the states, there are lots floating around. i'm sure there are lots floating around in canada too, being offered by the various credit unions in canada. chase canada, however, has consistently removed the forex fees among most of its card offerings. so if you would normally pay a 2.50% fee using your rewards credit card, then by using a no-forex fee card, your immediate return would be 2.50% -- not bad!

here are a list of cards they have that do not have a foreign exchange fee:

1) best buy rewardzone visa: very, very limited program. 1 point per 1$ spent, 400 points = 5$ reward certificate for best buy. this is equivalent to a 1.25% return per dollar spent at regular merchants, or 2.5% return per dollar spent at best buy. no annual fee.

2) amazon.ca rewards visa: more versatile than the best buy rewardzone visa, you receive 1% straight cash back on all purchases, or 2% back on purchases from amazon.ca. no annual fee.

  

3) marriott rewards visa: this carries a hefty 120$ annual fee, although the first year is waived. this is made up for, however, by the free category 1-4 hotel night stay that you receive each year for having the card. (note, a hotel in downtown seattle is a category 5, so i can only imagine hotels in more or equally desirable cities would be at a higher category). 

you receive 1 point per dollar spent on regular purchases, 2 points per dollar on airline tickets, car rental, or restaurants, and 5 points per dollar spent at marriott purchases. a category 5 hotel (e.g., in seattle), costs 25,000 points per night, or 20,000 points per night if you book 5 nights. using a category 5 hotel, in this instance, courtyard seattle downtown/lake union, for a random date (june 8-9) would cost 243.60$. mind you, this is for their advertised rate -- whether you would actually pay nearly 250$/night in seattle is a different story altogether. at best, each point is worth roughly $0.01. for most purchases, this card would give you a 1% return.

probably more importantly about this card is that it gives you a credit for 15 nights a year in the marriott rewards program. this automatically vaults one into their silver status, meaning that in order to get gold status, one only needs an additional 35 nights a year rather than 50. 

4) sears financial mastercard (no annual fee) / voyage mastercard (39$ annual fee): the no annual fee version is the one that i carry. 1$ spent = 1 point spent. you'll get twice the points for sears purchases, and on the voyage mastercard, you'll get three times the points for travel purchases. what i like most about the card is its versatility. 1000 points = 10$ at sears, meaning a 1% return on most purchases. 

if you don't want to shop at sears, you can convert these points. that is the best feature of it all. 1,000 sears points = 12,000 petro points. 12,000 petro points can be used to pay for 12$ worth of travel. following this logic, each 1$ spent on the card at regular merchants gives you a 1.2% return on travel. still not enough? 12,000 petro points can then be exchanged for 1,200 cathay pacific asia miles. so in reality, 1$ spent on the card gives you 1.2 asia miles on cathay pacific (better, really, than CIBC aerogold, for example). that is the real benefit of this card.

and all of this is on top of the 2.5% "savings" you get with the foreign exchange fee waived. note, however, that none of these cards offer extra insurances, such as purchase protection or extended warranty. only the marriott visa gives car rental insurance, but nothing else. something else to consider.

my strategy:

1) use my MBNA 2% cash back card at almost merchants in canada

2) test out my scotiabank gold amex at gas/grocery/dining/entertainment for 4% cash back

3) use my sears financial mastercard for all my international spending needs.

earning star alliance gold for the less frequent traveler

one of the rules about airline travel is that by consolidating your miles on one particular airline (or even one particular airline alliance), you will get you more benefits than flying on a multitude of airlines. and of course, this is all within reason -- sometimes, price really is a determining factor.

almost all airlines have a reward system. and most airlines provide elite levels -- the more you fly with them (and their alliance partners), the more likely you will earn these elite levels, and the more benefits you get when traveling.

canadian travel is limited really to two major airlines: air canada, and west jet. air canada is affiliated with the star alliance, and therefore, benefits are extended to 27 member airlines. westjet is not affiliated with anyone ... and on top of that, there really are no benefits to their reward program asides from reward redemption. that's why when i talk about accruing flight mileage, i am more of a star alliance person.

air canada's (AC) altitude program (nicknamed "attitude" for their sometimes hostile customer policies), is the elite program for the airline. it has 5 tiers with various benefits based on the amount of status miles earned/flown. 25k, 35k, 50k, 75k, and 100k miles flown per calendar year. star alliance gold starts at the 50k mark. indeed, almost all airlines within the star alliance provide star alliance gold benefits at the 50k mark. (exceptions where the threshold are lower are: turkish airlines, greece's aegean airlines, and south korea's asiana airlines). the benefits of star gold/silver apply to all member airlines of the alliance.

the benefits of star gold are numerous:

1. at the airport: priority check-in (skip the line to drop off your bags), extra luggage (+1 free bag, usually to 3 free pieces of checked luggage), priority baggage (your bags come out first at your destination), lounge access (free food, drinks, internet), priority boarding (seated first, putting your stuff in the overhead compartments without worrying if space will run out).
2. in the case of irregular operations (e.g., weather delays, flight cancellations etc): priority reservation waitlist and priority airport standby (if your flight gets cancelled, you'll be higher on the standby list than other passengers with star silver or no status.
3. on certain airlines, like united, it's not uncommon for them to simply bump me to economy plus for free (extra legroom, less crowded) so that they can give non-status standby passengers my old regular economy seat. i've experienced this bump on the majority of my united airline flights.

the benefits of star silver are less:

1. you get same irregular operations benefits as above, except you're below the star golds.
2. on certain airlines, your first or second checked bag free is waived. also, on united airlines (UA), you get the priority boarding and check-in as well.

but really, how easy is it to earn 50k miles a year? if you're an infrequent traveler like myself, it's hard to do this on a north american-based airline program. so you have to hunt around.

in 2008, after much contemplation, i decided to join asiana airlines. their qualification period is 24 months, and their star silver and star gold levels are much, much easier to achieve. asiana gold status (star alliance silver) requires 20,000 flight miles on star alliance carriers in 24 months. asiana diamond status (star alliance gold) requires 40,000 flight miles on star alliance carriers in 24 months. lifetime star alliance gold status (diamond plus) can be had for 500,000 lifetime flight miles. in terms of earning, you will earn roughly the same number of miles from star alliance flights with asiana as you would with air canada or united (some exceptions apply: many of air canada's flex/tango plus fares still only earn 50% qualifying miles). the redemptions, i do acknowledge, are a bit more expensive than air canada for the same amount of flying.

  
so if you fly <10,000 miles a year, feel free to apply your miles to any one program you wish. even if not earning status, it's better to at least consolidate your miles in order to redeem for an award. if you fly 10,000-25,000 miles per year (20,000-49,999 miles every 2 years), credit to asiana so that you get star alliance silver or gold status. some status is better than no status. if you fly 50,000+ miles a year, ditch asiana and go for the airline program that you fly with the most as there are additional airline specific benefits that are only accessible by the members. upgrades are one particular example.

case example
my one and only mileage run occurred in 2010, just before my 2-year qualifying period was to end. i was 1,700 miles short of star gold status with asiana airlines (i.e., i had about 38,300 miles in my qualifying period). i ended up booking a 348$ same day, return trip from YVR-LAX (2,160 miles total). i had a 6 hour layover in the airport which i spent in the lounge thanks to my brother's single-use lounge certificate. i achieved star gold and have maintained that ever since.

asides from the non-quantifiable benefits of status (e.g., priority check-in, priority luggage, fast-track security at most major airports in north america, not having to gate-check luggage because of space limitations in the overhead bins, priority waitlist for times my flights were cancelled at the airport, the seat upgrades to economy plus), i calculated the quantifiable benefits. note: my memory is hazy now, so approximate but conservative numbers are being used.

1. checked luggage within canada. i made roughly 15 round trips between YVR and YYC between jun 2009 and mar 2011, and during those times, i was shuttling my bf's stuff to our home in YVR. all of those trips involved having two pieces of check-in luggage, two trips involved three. i saved 8 x 25$ second bag fees (200$), and 4 x 50$ third bag fees (100$). (originally they allowed two free checked bags within canada, but then pared that down to two). that was a savings of 336$ after tax.
2. checked luggage to the states. i made 6 trips to the states, requiring checked luggage on 4 one-way segments. i saved on 4 x 25$ first checked bag fee. that's a savings of 112$ after tax.
3. lounge benefits. during our trip to asia, we had a 10 hour layover in hong kong. so joe and i lounge hopped between the singapore airlines, united airlines, and thai airways lounges, showering before the flight and eating the equivalent of 4 meals. the amount of beer we lifted from the lounges over the years was impressive as well. that's a value of at least 50$.

for 348$ in spending, not only has life become easier when traveling, but also much more cost effective, having saved at least 484$. and now it's hard to justify losing status.

walmart's internet-to-go: cheap cellular data in america

i have become addicted to my iphone over the years, and one of the things that i've learned that i can't live without these days is my cellular data. it's easy enough to find in canada, but i learned a few years back how expensive it was to roam when i'm in america. most of my leisure destinations, after all, is in america.

my wireless carrier, rogers, would offer me a 60$ package that would give me 50MB of roaming data while in the states. i don't actually need text or voice, as i can do both of those now with data (iphone apps: talkatone for gmail chat's telephone service, whatsapp / imessage for texting). if i was going to use more than 50MB, there was a 10$ monthly option where they'd charge just 1$ for every MB. one week in hawaii a few years ago set me back 80$. i asked rogers for the ability to upgrade the data portion of my cell phone plan so that it would be usable in the states as well. that option is available to all new subscribers for 10$ more a month. they refused to do so. i'm glad they did -- it made me research my options.

roam mobility came by and offered its own mifi (mobile wifi hotspot) device which gave you a small device that you could carry that would grab signal in america and let your various wireless devices latch onto it for a fee. roam mobility's data-only option started at a base price of 29.95 for 500MB that would expire after a month. alternatively, you could do the talk-text-data version for 3.95$ a day, or 11.95$ for 3 days, or 27.95$ for a week. still very, very expensive! and even if you had an unlocked iphone, the signal that they use is not compatible with the iphone. not ideal at all.

t-mobile and verizon offered their own mifi devices and rates. they have great coverage, 3 to 4G speeds, and are reliable. i'm not going to cover them here because i think that they're still a really bad deal -- you put in money (no contract) and you can buy data, but that data still expires. however, by accident, i had stumbled upon "internet to go," sold at walmart in america. and it is my go-to device for all my travels. (if you use a rebate site like bigcrumbs to access walmart, you will get an additional 2.8% back).

internet-to-go is a 3G device that works off of the sprint network. to be honest, it probably isn't as fast as 3G, but i still get the majority of what i want to get done done. it is reliable, and covers the major metropolitan centers. if you're expecting to get good service while camping in the middle of nowhere, well, you have been warned. it is small, easily fits in your pocket. i used a starbucks gift card below as a size comparator. the speed in seattle was 0.92Mbps for downloads. in comparison, my wifi at home gets me 15.80Mbps. but it still works well, even with youtube videos.

there are two payment options, both pay-as-you-go, both only available for purchase at walmart. 10$ gives you 500MB, and 45$ gives you 4GB. that works out to just 1.1 cents per MB. but here's the best part of the deal: the value does not expire as long as you use the device at least once a year. so if you use 10 MB a day, and you go to the states one or two days a month, you would not have to reload for years. if you used verizon, t-mobile, or roam mobility, you'd have to fork over more money each month you use it. that is very expensive. the actual unit itself is quite affordable compared to the others as well. walmart recently reduced the price to 79.99$. i bought mine at 99.99$.

other specifications: it comes with a password located on the back so that not just anyone can use it. you can change the ssid and password to whatever you want. it supports 5 devices at any one time. while it doesn't specify a range, i've left the device in one corner of my hotel room, and was able to use it in a completely different room (20 feet or so). it takes 4 hours to load, and can withstand ~2-3 hours of continuous use, and maybe 5 hours of standby. it can only be charged using a wall plug though, not usb.

this is how i get affordable internet in the states. it would be a poor choice as someone's primary internet source (e.g., if you were living there), but it's perfect for the occasional traveler like myself.