This is the last update for this week as we are off tomorrow. Regular updates will return on Monday!
News, Tips & Tricks
Looks like the BMO World Elite changes we mentioned
yesterday are being noticed! We received a few emails of people who are
happy about the changes. I just wish BMO would have responded to our
requests for upcoming changes to cards back in June as the card would
have definitely ranked differently in the ‘Travel Points Credit Card with annual fee” category for our 2013 Canada’s Top Travel Rewards Credit Card. Chances are and I am saying this without
looking at the full metrics of the change that the card would have
ranked second or third. The main thing keeping this card back is the
fact that you have to book with BMO Rewards, which means you have to
have the points upfront, even if it isn’t the full amount where the
other cards at the top of the category allow you to book via any method
and give you time after that booking to redeem your points which means
you can earn more points to make that one travel charge cheaper or that
you can redeem for something you may book while you are on vacation like
a train ticket. So unless no other cards change (which isn’t going to happen given that CIBC will have some new cards) you’ll see the BMO World Elite move up in the 2014 rankings!
And as we mentioned this is not the only card to see changes coming
this September, another one of Canada’s best Travel Rewards cards (we
can’t mention the name yet) will get even better as of September 3rd!
Stay tuned.
Reader Question:
One of our readers posed this question to us via email and asked for us to comment:
“The Taxes and other fees charged by Airmiles on Westjet flights
greatly exceed those charged by Westjet for the same flight. This seems
wrong. Will you please comment?”
The reason why the taxes and fees charged by Air Miles on WestJet
fights are higher than WestJet is due to two reasons. One is Air Miles
charges a service fee for their bookings that fall into those fees but the primary reason is that
you are paying a fuel surcharge with the Air Miles redemption. Many
years ago both Air Canada and WestJet starting charging fuel surcharges
on their flights and they showed up as a separate line item but this raised tons of complaints because the cost of a flight ended up being
way higher than the advertised base fare. In response, Air Canada and WestJet
did built those fuel surcharge into the base fare, so when you book
the flight directly you don’t see this. However WestJet breaks out the
fuel surcharge when charging Air Miles for the ticket and Air Miles
passes along that surcharge to person redeeming. So what in fact is
happening is you are only redeeming Air Miles for the absolute base fare
of flight and have to pay the same taxes and fees seen from WestJet but also the fuel surcharge which you don’t see on their bookings. The same happens when you redeem Aeroplan miles for Air
Canada flights or many of their partner flights. I hope this explains
why there is the difference in taxes and fees for the exact same flight!
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