Boxing Day sales for travel

Some Boxing Day/Week sales in Canada to keep track of:

1. Air Canada: 15% off all flights, booked before December 28th for travel until June 28. Some notable blackout dates (think every weekend in March, and the February long weekend, as well late April - early May for Asia/Australia). Also valid on numerous code shares including Swiss, Asiana, Lufthansa, Brussels, and EuroWings.
2. Westjet: interesting promo that I totally missed out on earlier. Set number of discounts available that ran out throughout the day. They initially had 50% off basic and econo fares, then 30% off basic and econo fares. What they have leftover are now the 15% basic, economy, econoflex, and premium fares (ie., are there any other fares to really book on)? More blackouts than Air Canada's (think Valentine's Day, Easter, and the May long weekends)
3. Flight Centre: 100$ bonus gift card for any roundtrip fare valued at over $1000. Or book any vacation package on certain places valued at greater than $1000.

• Interestingly with Flight Centre, I'm so used to having the gift card promotion where you'd get $10 bonus for every $100 purchased up to a max of $50 bonus for $500 purchased. This was offered during Black Friday but not on boxing day

I'm sure there are many, many more to be had, but this is a quick reminder to compare what the deals are for next year.

the looming MBNA devaluation, and introducing its replacement

I used to love my MBNA World Elite Mastercard and I would link to it all the time. This was a fantastic card because it would give you a 2% cash back rebate across the board. You wouldn't have to wait until you were booking travel, you could simply just ask for cash back in the form of a statement credit or even a check. How great was that?! I even had the grandfathered version, where the annual fee was permanently waived.

Back in September 2018, I received a letter from them telling me about a important devaluation for this card. From what I've gathered, this is only for the grandfathered $0 annual fee World Elite Mastercards.

• points earning would go down from 2 points per dollar to 1 point per dollar (except for a few handful of categories where it would stay at 2 points per dollar up to the first $5,000 in spending a year). earnings would decrease by 50%
• points redeeming would remain the same if spent on travel purchases. If not, they could be redeemed at a rate of 200 points = 1 dollar. this is a devaluation of up to 50%. 
• taken together, this card has gone from getting a 2% return on all purchases, to a 0.5%-1% return on most purchases

This isn't going to work for me.

Their equivalent is a $120 a year MBNA rewards world elite mastercard. If you sign up through great canadian rebates, you'll receive a $60 rebate. 

MBNA Rewards World Elite Mastercard

Their new card (which isn't actually new, and is going through its own devaluation) still isn't quite as good as the old one.

• first, an annual fee is still present. In fact, it becomes $120 a year
• point earnings are still 2 points per dollar spent
• redemptions remain 2% return if used for travel, but 1.66% return if used for cash back.

I'm currently using the TD First Class Visa for its 1.5% return on general expenses (if redeemed for travel purchases) and 4.5% return on travel purchases (if redeemed for travel purchases). Its 120$ annual fee is waived because I have the TD all inclusive banking account.

TD First Class Travel Visa

So the difference between the MBNA Rewards World Elite Mastercard and the TD First Class visa is:

• $120 annual fee 
• 0.5% higher rate of return with MBNA
• one requires a $24,000 spend in order to break even.

Do I just make the switch and pay yet another annual fee? Time to think about this some more ...