BMO AIR MILES MasterCard Review

(This post is a duplicate of the one found on our main Rewards Canada site)

Touted as BMO’s most popular credit card, the BMO AIR MILES MasterCard
becomes the first AIR MILES co-brand card that receives the Rewards
Canada review treatment! A constant top 5 finisher in our annual Top Travel Rewards Credit Card rankings for Travel Points Cards with no annual fee, this card has been a mainstay for the AIR MILES programs for many years.

Overview

The BMO AIR MILES MasterCard is one of two credit
cards for the AIR MILES collectors that comes with no annual fee.
Perfect for those just starting out with the program or with credit
cards in general or for those looking for an additional card for the
credit card portfolio that carries no annual fee (ie carry the American
Express AIR MILES Platinum and this card) The card makes it easy to earn
AIR MILES at an average rate and comes with a decent sign up bonus.

Sign up Features

The BMO AIR MILES MasterCard currently offers a 500 AIR
MILES Reward Miles bonus when you are approved for the card. We value a
AIR MILES Reward Mile in the $0.11 to $0.15 range when redeeming for
travel which means the sign up bonus translates to rougly a $55 to $75
value.

Costs

The BMO AIR MILES MasterCard has no annual fee for the primary or secondary cards. The interest rate
on the card is19.9% which is in line with most of the cards at this
level.

Earning

The BMO AIR MILES MasterCard earns 1 AIR
MIlES Reward Mile for every eligible $20 spent on the card. The card
offers a couple of Reward Mile accelerators as well, you’ll earn 1.25
times the miles on purchases at Shell and 1.5 times the miles Alamo and
National Car Rentals.

Redeeming

Being a co-brand card, redemption is actually done via AIR MILES not
via BMO. This is where the relative strength of the AIR MILES program
comes through to make the BMO AIR MILES MasterCard
worthwhile for some people as they can earn even more AIR MILES on top
of credit card spend via the vast amount of shopping partners that the
program has. AIR MILES offers numerous redemption options but of course
based on the name, the primary redemption option which most people dream
about are flights. Reality is however that roughly only 10% of
redemptions in the program are for actual flights. The remainder are for
other travel related redemptions (hotels, car rentals, attraction
tickets), merchandise or AIR MILES Cash. The majority of AIR MILES
Flight redemptions are on Air Canada or WestJet however they also offer
flights on American Airlines, United Airlines, Alaska Airlines,
Lufthansa, Alitalia, Calm Air, Canada North and Central Mountain Air at
their lowest redemption levels. Other airlines are available but cost
more AIR MILES than what is published on the AIR MILES website.
Redeeming AIR MILES Reward Miles for flights nets an average return of
11 to 15 cents per AIR MILE Reward Mile. If you look at what this card’s
base earn rate of 1 Reward Mile for every $20 means you’ll achieve a
rate of return of 0.55% to 0.75%.

AIR MILES also lets you redeem for lots of other
travel options like hotels, car rentals, cruises and more where you pay
with miles and then cash for taxes/fees. Hotels seem like a so-so deal
but we have found some really good deals for car rentals. You can also
redeem for gift certificates for travel providers like Greyhound, Marlin
Travel and several others. Then you have non-travel redemptions and
this is what AIR MILES seems to have become more famous for as of late.
From merchandise to tickets for attractions there isn’t much that you
can’t redeem for!

Finally you have the AIR MILES Cash option. This is different
from the redemptions above which are called AIR MILES Dream Rewards.
When you log into your AIR MILES account you can set a percentage of all
the reward miles you earn to go into your Dream Balance and your Cash
balance. AIR MILES Cash works just like cash at participating AIR MILES
sponsors like Sobeys, Rexall, Safeway, Rona, Shell and more. The Cash
option has a set redemption value of $10 for 95 AIR MILES Reward Miles.
As you can see the Cash Option has a lower rate of return based on our
numbers as those same 95 miles would get you on average $12.35 towards a
flight.

Features and Benefits

The BMO AIR MILES MasterCard offers
only two insurance benefits. Extended warranty protection and purchase
protection. These two benefits are standard on most cards whether or not
they have an annual fee. Extended warranty extends the manufacturers
warranty for items bought with the card while purchase protection
reimburses you for items you purchase on the card that may become
damaged, lost or stolen within 90 days of purchase.

What is good about this card

The best thing about the BMO AIR MILES MasterCard
is the current sign up bonus of 500 AIR MILES Reward Miles. Since the
card has no fee you are essentially getting those miles for free.

The miles accelerators for Shell, National and Alamo are also a nice feature of the card.

What is not so good about this
card

The regular earn rate of only 1 AIR MILES
Reward Miles for every $20 is on the low for a no fee card. Ranging
between 0.55% and 0.75% per dollar spent means you could be losing out
as other no fee travel cards like the American Express Blue Sky Credit Card or Capital
One® Aspire Travel™ Platinum MasterCard® earn up
to 1.25% while others earn a flat 1%. Granted, BMO is taking into
account that you will be double dipping and earning AIR MILES Reward
Miles at AIR MILES sponsors by swiping your loyalty card but nothing
stops you from doing that with any of the other credit cards as well.

The features and benefits of this card are somewhat weak as
well as more and more no-fee cards have been adding things like CDW Car
Rental Insurance, Travel Accident Insurance and more.

Conclusion

For newcomers to the miles and points
game, students, first time credit seekers or those looking for a no-fee
AIR MILES card to add to their credit card portfolio the BMO AIR MILES MasterCard
can be the right choice. The nice sign up bonus that comes at no charge
to you is the best part of this card. If you are neck deep in the AIR
MILES program but have an American Express AIR MILES card as your
primary card than this card can make a good back for those merchants
that don’t accept Amex like Costco. However if you have well established
credit, travel at least once a year, or are looking to rake in rewards
as fast as you can there are other options that are better for you.
Whether it is an AIR MILES card like the BMO AIR MILES World Elite
MasterCard, the American Express AIR MILES Platinum Credit Card or
roughly 50 other credit cards from other travel reward programs out of
the 80 plus in our market.

Care to comment? Do you agree or disagree with us? Tell us what think
about the BMO AIR MILES MasterCard by commenting below!

BMO AIR MILES MasterCard Review

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