This feature was originally published on the Rewards Canada website in October of 2019 and has been updated for 2021! With travel starting to open up more for Canadians many people will be looking to get away this winter to some sunny destinations and the good news is you can use your credit card points and loyalty programs for All Inclusive Vacations!
As Canadians we know what it’s like to live with long,
drawn out winters. We dread the short daylight hours and the biting
wind. So how do we as a nation battle the season we look forward to
before Christmas but are sick of by the first week of January? We
travel. We travel to warmer sun drenched locales and for many of us that
means an all inclusive vacation. Canadian winters and all inclusive
vacations go hand in hand.
However, when it comes to travel loyalty
programs and credit cards, all inclusive vacations are neglected. Have
you ever seen a credit card ad detailing an all inclusive
vacation? No, it’s almost always flights and to a lesser extend hotel
stays. That’s because we’ve been trained to think that credit card and
travel reward programs are just for flights. And we’re trained that way
because that’s what most programs used to be. Think about it, you ask
any Canadian on the street to name a travel reward program and you’re
almost guaranteed you’ll only hear Aeroplan or AIR MILES. Not much else.
And while those two are huge programs offering a slew of rewards, they
are synonymous with flights and merchandise. And while those are rewards
many people do strive for, you can ‘t just redeem for a flight on an
all-inclusive vacation, so many Canadians tend to just save up and buy
the vacation while continuing to try to earn enough points or miles for
other flights. So we’re here to dispel the notion that travel loyalty
programs are only for flights and show you how to use them to help you
save some serious cash on those all inclusives or even to get them for
free.
In this feature we take a look at the best
credit card programs that you can use for all inclusive vacations and
also some travel loyalty programs that let you redeem for them as well!
Primary tips to take away from the list of credit cards
- You don’t need the full amount of points
to redeem them towards a vacation. You can use them to make your
vacation cheaper or make it more luxurious. For example, if you have
$3,000 budget for your vacation and have $1,000 worth of points – you
can now buy a $4,000 vacation – perhaps at a 5 star all inclusive resort
instead of a 4 star. - You can buy all inclusive vacations from
any travel provider with these cards – doesn’t matter if it is Expedia,
itravel2000, redtag.ca, Air Transat, Air Canada Vacations, your local
travel agent or any other travel company selling the vacation packages (not applicable to the WestJet card) - You are not limited by time – you can buy
your all inclusive vacation package 6+ months to 6 hours prior to travel
and be able to use your points for them. - You can be on vacation at the all
inclusive resort and pay for something with your card (say an excursion)
and redeem points for it when you get home (not applicable to the WestJet card) - All of the below cards come with good to
excellent insurance benefits such as out of province medical coverage,
trip cancellation, flight delay and more. - The cards below have good to excellent
welcome sign up bonuses typically worth up to $500 that can be used
towards these vacations (not applicable to the Desjardin card as it does not a have standard welcome bonus)
The Best Credit Cards for All Inclusive Vacationers
There isn’t one credit card in Canada that is
all inclusive vacation specific – and you know what? That’s a good
thing. As Canadians we like to shop around for the best prices on all
inclusive vacations so using a proprietary credit card reward program is
ideal. You see, the best proprietary credit card programs aren’t tied
into one program, they let you book your all inclusive vacation how you
want, when you want and with whomever you want. Buying a super cheap
package vacation from Expedia? Not a problem. A 5 star package from
itravel2000? Still not a problem. The way these proprietary programs
work is that you buy the vacation you want with your credit card and
then when the charge shows up on your account you redeem your points
towards that charge. Don’t have enough points? Not a problem either.
Most of them allow you to redeem whatever amount of points you want. Say
you have 100,000 points that are worth $1,000 and you want buy an
$1,800 all inclusive package?
An example of American Express’ using points slider
You can redeem the points for a $1,000 credit
and now you have only paid $800 for that vacation. Have 180,000 points
to pay for it all? You can do that as well. And get this – depending on
the card you have, you can continue to collect points and use them
towards that charge up to 12 months after it posts! Yes, you buy it in
November, travel in February and can continue to earn and then redeem
points for it until the following November! All that being said, here
are the cards we recommend to All Inclusive Vacations, why we recommend
them and the all the details on how and when you can use the points.
American Express Cobalt Card
| Earn rate: | 5 points/$ for eats and drinks
3 points/$ on select streaming services 2 points/$ for travel, gas, daily transit 1 point/$ on all other purchases |
| Where can you can redeem your points: | Any Travel Provider |
| Point redemption value for all inclusive vacations: | 1,000 points = $10 |
| Effective rate of return for these redemptions: | 1% to 5% |
| Duration of points redemption period: | 12 months (after the travel charge posts to your account) |
| Annual Fee | $155.88 (Billed as $12.99 per month) |
The American Express Cobalt card is considered Canada’s number one travel rewards credit card
by us and many others. It set the stage with 5x points earning that the
Scotiabank Gold American Express card now emulates. It also underwent a
small change in August of 2019 where the 5x points for eats and drinks
was capped at $30,000 annually. The card earns that awesome 5 points per
dollar spent on grocery store and dining (including select food
delivery services) purchases. Select streaming services will earn 3
points per dollar and it also earns 2 points per dollar on travel, gas
and transit (including taxi and ride sharing). All other purchases earn 1
point per dollar spent. The 5x points accelerated rate is earned until
you hit $30,000 annually however the 2x points rate on travel etc. is
not capped. This means, if you are able to maximize the card and spend
$30,000 in the 5x points category you would end up with 150,000 American
Express Membership Rewards points. That 150K of points are worth $1,500
towards any all inclusive vacation package that you book with any
travel provider. You have up to 12 months after the charge posts to
redeem points against that charge. Learn more about and apply for this card here.
Scotiabank Gold American Express Card
| Earn rate: | 5 points/$ for dining, groceries, entertainment
3 points/$ for gas, daily transit and streaming services 1 point/$ on all other purchases |
| Where can you can redeem your points: | Any Travel Provider |
| Point redemption value for all inclusive vacations: | 1,000 points = $10 |
| Effective rate of return for these redemptions: | 1% to 5% |
| Duration of points redemption period: | 12 months (after the travel charge posts to your account) |
| Annual Fee | $120 |
The Scotiabank Gold American Express
underwent some changes in August 2019 that propelled the card to being
one of the best in Canada for points earning and benefits. The card
earns an awesome 5 points per dollar spent on grocery store, dining
(including select food delivery services) & entertainment purchases.
It also earns 3 points per dollar on gas, transit (including taxi and
ride sharing) and streaming services like Netflix. All other purchases
earn 1 point per dollar spent. The accelerated rates are earned until
you hit $50,000 annually in for those categories. This means, if you are
able to maximize the card and spend $50,000 in the 5x points category
you would end up with 250,000 Scotia Rewards points. That 250K of points
are worth $2,500 towards any all inclusive vacation package that you
book with any travel provider. You have up to 12 months after the charge
posts to redeem points against that charge. And there’s one more
benefit to this card that all-inclusive vacations should like – it has
no foreign transaction fees, that means it saves you 2.5% on average on
all purchases made outside of Canada! Learn more about and apply for this card here.
Desjardins Odyssey World Elite Mastercard
| Earn rate: | 1.5% of spending up to $20,000
2% of spending over $20,000 + 20% bonus points per year up to 200 Bonus Dollars |
| Where can you can redeem your points: | Any Travel Provider |
| Point redemption value for all inclusive vacations: | 1 BONUSDOLLAR = $1 |
| Effective rate of return for these redemptions: | 1.5 to 2% |
| Duration of points redemption period: | 60 days (after the travel charge posts to your account) |
| Annual Fee | $130 |
A brand of card that doesn’t get too much
attention here on Rewards Canada but the Desjardins Odyssey World Elite
Mastercard is similar to the mbna Rewards World Elite Mastercard listed
above. It has a pretty simple reward system, not as simple as mbna but
close! You earn Desjardins BONUSDOLLARS as 1.5% on your spending up to
$20,000 then 2% on all spending above that amount. One Desjardin
BONUSDOLLAR equals $1 towards travel that you can use towards any all
inclusive vacation package that you book with any travel provider. You
must redeem a minimum of $20 Bonus Dollars at a time and you have up to
60 days after the charge posts to redeem points against it. Learn more about this card here.
WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard
| Earn rate: | 2% for WestJet & WestJet Vacations purchases
1.5% for all other spending |
| Where can you can redeem your points: | WestJet Vacations |
| Point redemption value for all inclusive vacations: | 1 WestJet dollar = $1 |
| Effective rate of return for these redemptions: | 1.5% to 2% |
| Duration of points redemption period: | You must have the dollars in account at time of purchase – partial redemption is allowed |
| Annual Fee | $119 |
The WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard is the
only card in this list that can’t be used towards booking any all
inclusive vacation. It can only be used for WestJet Vacation packages
but that’s not necessarily a bad thing as WestJet Vacations is huge and
with all the flights on WestJet they have most all inclusive
destinations covered! Much like the above cards you don’t have to have
the full amount of WestJet dollars to be able to redeem. As long as you
have 50 WestJet dollars in your account you can redeem them towards
WestJet Vacation packages. Note that you cannot use WestJet dollars
towards the taxes and fees on the vacation packages. The card also has
its famous no checked bag fee which saves you some more cash on those
vacations!Learn more about and apply for this card here
TD First Class Visa Infinite Card
| Earn rate: | 9 points/$ on Expedia For TD online purchases (6 points if completed by phone)
3 points/$ on all other purchases |
| Where can you can redeem your points: | Expedia For TD or any travel provider |
| Point redemption value for all inclusive vacations: | 200 Points = $1 via Expedia for TD
250 Points = $1 for any other travel provider up to |
| Effective rate of return for these redemptions: | 1.5% to 4.5% when redeeming via Expedia For TD
1.2% to 3.6% when redeeming via any other travel provider |
| Duration of points redemption period: | 90 days (after the travel charge posts to your account) |
| Annual Fee | $120 |
The final card in our list of best cards for
all inclusive vacationers is the TD First Class Visa Infinite Card. The
card is really good if you are a fan of Expedia and use it for your all
inclusive or other travel needs. The reason why is the earn rate of 9
points per dollar when you make online purchases on Expedia for TD. That
translates to a 4.5% return when you redeem those points for travel
booked via Expedia for TD. All other purchases on the card earn 3 points
per dollar spent which translates to a 1.5% return for those same
Expedia for TD redemptions. The First Class Visa Infinite Card also has
the option to redeem points for travel booked via any other travel
provider but that option is less lucrative than the Expedia redemption
one, but still great to have it on this card. You should also note that
since Expedia is an American company you cannot book all inclusive
vacations to Cuba with them. Learn more about and apply for this card here.
Other cards
Now you may be asking about some more popular
cards like the RBC Avion Visa Infinite or the CIBC Aventura® Visa Infinite cards. You can redeem the points earned on these cards for
package vacations but your redemption value is low, typically only 1%.
In most cases with these two cards you are better off redeeming for
flights via their specified reward chart options.
Practical Loyalty Programs for All Inclusive Vacationers
While not typically associated with traditional travel
loyalty programs, the all inclusive vacation has become a much more
integral part of many of them thanks to Canadian’s thirst for them! For
some of the programs, the value of redeeming points or miles for an all
inclusive vacation may not be as good as redeeming for flights only but
it is always good to know you have the option to do so. There are lots
of us who don’t collect enough miles or points in these programs to
redeem for a flight but the fact these programs allow partial
redemptions for all inclusive vacation packages make it a viable option.
Primary tips to take away from the list of loyalty programs
- For programs like Aeroplan and AIR MILES you will
typically get better value out of your miles when you redeem for flights
only – however you may never be in position to earn enough miles to
redeem for the flights you dream of so redeeming for vacation packages
can make a lot of sense. Same for people on the other end of the
spectrum – those with more miles than what the know what to do with, if
that’s the case, first off, lucky you, but using up some miles for
vacation packages may only make a small dent in your balance so it can
be worth it for you to redeem so you can save that cash. - For many of you, these programs can be your
secondary, tertiary or even lower programs so by making these partial
redemptions from them for these vacation packages it will use up those
miles or points you may have not known what to do with. - In most cases you can combine using the programs
listed below with the cards listed above to provide even more savings on
the purchases of all inclusive vacation packages.
Aeroplan
Air Canada’s Aeroplan is one of Canada’s best
known loyalty programs and is most famous for flight award options.
However since it grew into a coalition program model years ago they
expanded the catalog of awards to include many options, one of which is
for Air Canada Vacations packages. They’ve come full circle back to more
of a Frequent Flyer program model instead of coalition when they
relaunched the program in November of 2020 but you can still redeem your
Aeroplan points for Air Canada Vacation packages! This is ideal for
this feature since it’s all about the all inclusive vacation! This is
one of the programs we allude to where the value may not be the best
when comparing to flight awards but at least there is the option to use
points. The beauty of using Aeroplan points towards Air Canada Vacations
packages is that it works in the same manner as many of the proprietary
credit card programs listed above in that you don’t have to have the
full amount of miles. You can redeem as little as 5,000 miles to up to
500,000 miles. The value of the redemption is basically $10 per 1,000
points redeemed or 1 cent per point. Compare this to flights where you
can get 1.5 cents to well over 10 cents per mile. But as we said, maybe
you’ll never earn enough miles to get to a flight you like so being able
to redeem, say 10,000 points for a $100 credit to an Air Canada
Vacations package will be ideal for you. And it gets even better, once
you redeem the miles you still have to pay the rest of the vacation on a
credit card, so why not use one of those listed above (sans the WestJet
card) and then use those points against the charge from Air Canada
Vacations once it posts? Now are seeing the big picture here? You don’t
have to limit yourself to just one program to help bring down the costs
of an all inclusive vacation! Learn more about using Aeroplan miles for Air Canada Vacations packages here.
When you redeem Aeroplan points for Air
Canada Vacations you’ll find two different redemption options. One is a
drop down menu used for Mexico, the Caribbean, Hawaii, Las Vegas, Los
Angeles or Orlando packages. If you are booking a Canada, Europe, or
cities in the United States not listed above package you’ll be presented
with a points redemption slider:
You can redeem 5,000 Points and up towards an Air Canada Vacations vacation
For European vacation packages you’ll be presented with this slider as your points redemption option
AIR MILES
Just like Aeroplan, AIR MILES is one of the
best known travel rewards loyalty programs in Canada and is one of the
largest of all loyalty programs in our great nation! A couple of years
ago they added the option to be able to redeem AIR MILES Reward Miles
for all inclusive vacation packages from redtag.ca. This again is one of
the programs we allude to where the value may not be the best when
comparing to flight or other awards. Just as we saw with Aeroplan, AIR
MILES redemptions for redtag.ca packages work in the same manner as many
of the proprietary credit card programs listed above in that you don’t
have to have the full amount of miles. You can redeem as little as 909
miles for a $100 credit towards your booking. The value of the
redemption is roughly 11 cents per AIR MILES Reward Mile. That’s higher
then the cash reward rate of about 10.5 cents per miles but lower than
our average of 13 to 15 cents per mile for flights. As we said before
though, there’s the possibility you’ll never earn enough miles to get to
a flight you like so being able to redeem the 909 miles for a $100
credit to a package then that’s great! Again, once you redeem the miles
you still have to pay the rest of the vacation on a credit card, so why
not use one of those listed above (sans the WestJet card) and then use
those points against the charge from redtag.ca after it posts? Learn more about using AIR MILES Rewards Miles for vacation packages here
You need to have at least 909 AIR MILES Dream Miles to use them for a redtag.ca vacation package
More Rewards
More Rewards is mini-coalition program in the
likes of Aeroplan and AIR MILES though smaller and better suited for
those living out west. Most points in this program are earned at grocery
stores like Save-On Foods, Urban Fare and Overwaitea all of which are
only in the west. You earn points for shopping at these groceries stores
and other More Rewards partners. You can then redeem the points via
More Rewards Travel which is a full fledged travel agency that sells
flights, hotels and of course, all inclusive vacation packages.
Redemptions work in the same manner as many of the proprietary credit
card programs listed above in that you don’t have to have the full
amount of points. You can redeem as little as 100 points for a $0.43
credit towards your booking. The value of the redemption is just under
0.43 cents per More Rewards point. Again, once you redeem the points you
still have to pay the rest of the vacation on a credit card, so why not
use one of those listed above (sans the WestJet card) and then use
those points against the charge from More Rewards Travel once it posts? Learn more about using More Rewards for vacation packages here
A sample booking from More Rewards Travel
When redeeming More Rewards points online
they have a slider as you can see below where you can set the amount of
points you would like to redeem towards your vacation package:
The More Rewards points slider in action – my 19,208 points are worth $82.40
Petro-Points
Petro-Points is not a program that would come
to lots of people’s minds when it comes to redeeming points for travel
let alone all inclusive vacation packages but you can! Other than the
obvious option of Petro-Canada, the program has a partnership where you
can earn and burn points with itravel2000. itravel2000 is a full fledged
travel agency that is most famous for selling all inclusive vacation
packages. Redemptions work in the same manner as many of the proprietary
credit card programs listed above in that you don’t have to have the
full amount of points. You can redeem as little as 10,000 points for a
$10 credit towards your booking and must redeem in increments of 10,000
points after that. Again, once you redeem the points you still have to
pay the rest of the vacation on a credit card, so why not use one of
those listed above (sans the WestJet card) and then use those points
against the charge from itravel200 after it posts? Plus you’ll also earn
Petro-Points on the vacation package purchase! Learn more about using Petro-Points for itravel2000 vacation packages here
You’ll find this box to select the amount of points you want to redeem
on the right hand side of itravel2000 Petro-Points booking page during the booking process
Expedia Rewards
While better suited for hotel stays the
Expedia Rewards program can also be utilized for all inclusive vacation
packages. The program allows you to redeem Expedia Rewards points
towards a package voucher that then can be used towards a vacation. They
allow you to redeem points for up to a C$300 voucher that can be
applied towards your all inclusive vacation package. And just as
stated with all of the other loyalty programs above, once you redeem the
voucher you still have to pay the rest of the vacation on a credit
card, so you can use one of the credit cards listed above (sans the
WestJet card) and then use those points against the charge from Expedia
once it posts? Plus you’ll also earn Expedia Rewards points on the
vacation package purchase! Learn more about using Expedia Rewards points for vacation packages here.
Directions on how to use Expedia Rewards points towards a package vacation
WestJet Rewards
The final loyalty program we look at is
WestJet Rewards. We won’t delve into too much since we’ve already
discussed it for the credit card above. Essentially WestJet dollars are
earned from flying on WestJet, buying WestJet Vacation packages,
spending on their credit cards and for booking cars or hotel via
WestJet. You can then use the WestJet dollars you have earned to redeem
for WestJet Vacation packages as long as you have a minimum balance of
50 WestJet dollars. You can redeem anywhere from 50 WestJet dollars to
as much as the vacation package(s) cost before taxes and fees as WestJet
dollars cannot be redeemed for the taxes and fees. The remainder of the
vacation package cost can be paid for with any of the above cards
listed and if you choose to use the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard
you’ll earn 2% back of whatever amount is charged to the card. Learn more about using WestJet dollars for WestJet Vacations here.
There you have it!
With the variety of loyalty programs we have
in Canada you can be happy to know that you are not limited to flights
or hotels with travel rewards programs. The all inclusive vacation is
synonymous with Canadians and these type of vacations can and are
readily available in the points and miles world. You just have to know
which are best for package vacations and we hope we did a good job of
explaining them all to you in this guide! As always with any information
provided on Rewards Canada it may change at anytime and we do our best
to update these features as much as possible but we recommend double
checking with the programs to see what they offer or feel free to contact us anytime for further information or for advice and help with the programs!