I find when I read discussions about travel rewards credit cards on forums, blogs and in the media there is talk about how you can get this or that flight for only this many points and so on. But, more often than not those articles or discussions don’t take into account what it actually takes to earn the points or miles for those flights. Or, as I frequently discuss here on RWRDS Canada, looking at both sides of the equation AKA your earn to burn ratio or in other words how much you have to spend to get a reward.
Those discussions can end up potentially misleading readers who are not well versed in the world of points and miles. They may think “Oh wow – I have to get Card A because the article or discussion says I can get a flight to XYZ for 50,000 points while Card B requiress 60,000 points” but then the article or discussion fails to mention that Card B earns up to 5 points per dollar while Card A only earns up to 2 points per dollar. Which means if that reader did take the advice from the article or discussion they would end up having to spend at least $25,000 to get the 50,000 point flight with Card A instead of having to only spend $12,000 for the 60,000 points on Card B.
With that being said, once you do bring the earn to burn ratio into light and are looking at both sides of the equation there is one credit card in Canada that stands out from the rest. It is untouched thanks to super strong earn rates coupled with the most flexible redemption options and that card is the American Express Cobalt Card. This card’s earn to burn ratio provides rewards to cardmembers for incredibly low spending that simply cannot be matched by other rewards cards in Canada.
While there are literally hundreds if not thousands of great travel redemption options that can be achieved with the Cobalt Card – in this post we highlight five of our favourite options to give you a small example of how quickly and more importantly, with how little spend you can be jetting away!
Five amazing flight rewards with low spend requirements
- The options below take into account round trip travel. In all of the examples outside of using American Express’ Fixed Points for Travel option you can redeem for one way travel for half the required points and thus half the required spend.
- As with all travel rewards, these rewards do have additional taxes and fees above the points requirement which you can pay for with your Cobalt Card and then redeem your points against that charge if you truly would like your flight(s) for free.
1. Popular Short Haul Flights in Canada and to the U.S.
Points required: 15,000 Membership Rewards points
Cobalt card spend required: $3,000 at the 5x points level (can be earned in just over one month and does not include welcome bonuses)
Program: American Express Membership Rewards
How to book: Book on the American Express Travel website utilizing the Fixed Points for Travel Option
American Express provides multiple travel redemption options within their own Membership Rewards program and one of those is Fixed Points for Travel. This is Amex’s fixed points flight reward chart that is akin to the RBC Avion Air Travel Redemption Schedule and CIBC Aventura’s Flight Reward Chart.
In Amex’s Fixed Points for Travel they have a “Popular routes: Canada/U.S. (Short Haul)” option that only requires 15,000 Membership Rewards points for a round trip flight. Those routes are (in either direction) Calgary-Vancouver, Montreal-New York, and Toronto-Montreal, Ottawa or New York.
From the example above you see the round trip flight is 15,000 Membership Rewards points which you can redeem for directly with American Express Travel to book these flights. With 5x points per dollar earning this reward only requires as little as $3,000 in spending. Check out the next option as well as you could potentially get some of these routes for even lower spend!
Comparable spend from other cards/programs:
Here is what you would need to spend (at a minimum) with some comparable cards and programs:
- $2,400 for points earned on the Cobalt Card and converted to Aeroplan
- $4,000 for points earned on an Aeroplan co-brand card and redeemed via Aeroplan
- $5,000 for CIBC Aventura
- $12,000 for RBC Avion Rewards
- $5,000 for RBC Avion Rewards when utilizing an Avion Card and ION+ card combo
2. Short Haul Flights in Canada and to the U.S.
Points required: 12,000 Membership Rewards points (on average, could be more, could be less)
Cobalt Card spend required: $2,400 at the 5x points level (can be earned in as little as one day if you spend $2,400 at 5x points in that one day 😉 and this does not include welcome bonuses)
Program: Air Canada Aeroplan
How to book: Convert your Membership Rewards points to Aeroplan Points and then book on the Air Canada website.
Back in the day Aeroplan was famous for their 15,000 mile short haul reward flights. These short haul rewards covered flights within a province or to a neighbouring province or U.S. state. While Aeroplan no longer has their set reward charts after moving to dynamic pricing they do state most reward flights in North America that are under 500 miles can be redeemed for as little as 6,000 Aeroplan points one way (12,000 round trip):
The beauty (or the beast) in dynamic pricing is that the published amount from Air Canada is only a guideline and the actual amount of points required may be lower or higher than that. And the former is the case in the above example of a round trip flight between Vancouver and Calgary that only requires 9,600 Aeroplan points!
You can get this reward by converting the Membership Rewards points earned from your Cobalt Card to Air Canada Aeroplan. Conversions run 1 Membership Rewards point to 1 Aeroplan Point which give us our average requirement of 12,000 Membership Rewards points or as little as $2,400 in card spending but with the example above you would only require 9,600 points or $1,920 in spending!
Comparable spend from other cards/programs:
Here is what you would need to spend (at a minimum) with some comparable cards and programs:
- $4,000 for points earned on an Aeroplan co-brand card and redeemed via Aeroplan (or $3,200 for the example above)
- $5,000 for CIBC Aventura
- $12,000 for RBC Avion Rewards
- $5,000 for RBC Avion Rewards when utilizing an Avion Card and ION+ card combo
3. Canada to Europe, North Africa or Turkey
Points required: 40,000 to 53,334 Membership Rewards points (Converts to 30,000 to 40,000 Flying Blue Miles)
Cobalt Card spend required: $8,000 to $10,667 at the 5x points level (can be earned in just over three months and does not include welcome bonuses)
Program: Air France KLM Flying Blue
How to book: Convert your Membership Rewards points to Flying Blue Miles and then book on the Air France or KLM websites.
This option is frequently discussed here on RWRDS Canada as Air France KLM Flying Blue is the best program for Canadians looking to travel economy class across the Atlantic. A standard redemption with the Flying Blue program requires as little as 20,000 miles* for a one way flight out of Canada to Europe, North Africa or Turkey (40,000 round trip).
And if you’re lucky, you can sometimes book these flights for even less when they show up in Air France KLM’s Promo Rewards which typically sees them offered with a 25% discount (but could be as much as a 50% discount!):
This is where you get the range of 30,000 to 40,000 miles we list above and you can get these rewards by converting the Membership Rewards points earned from your Cobalt Card to Air France KLM Flying Blue. Conversions run 1 Membership Rewards point to 0.75 Flying Blue miles which give us our requirement of 40,000 to 53,334 Membership Rewards points or as little as $8,000 to $10,667 in card spending.
Comparable spend from other cards/programs:
Here is what you would need to spend (at a minimum) with some comparable cards and programs:
- $14,000 for points earned on the Cobalt Card and converted to Aeroplan
- $23,333 for points earned on an Aeroplan co-brand card and redeemed via Aeroplan
- $25,000 for CIBC Aventura (these would incur much higher fees/taxes)
- $52,000 for RBC Avion Rewards (these will incur much higher fees/taxes)
- $21,667 for RBC Avion Rewards when utilizing an Avion Card and ION+ card combo (these will incur much higher fees/taxes)
4. Halifax to New York City
Points required: 16,500 Membership Rewards points
Cobalt Card spend required: $3,300 at the 5x points level (can be earned in just over one month and does not include welcome bonuses)
Program: British Airways Executive Club (for travel on American Airlines)
How to book: Convert your Membership Rewards points to British Airways Executive Club Avios and then book on the British Airways website.
This flight falls into the lowest mileage category for flight rewards within North America with the Executive Club program which means they only require 8,250 Avios one way to redeem for it (16,500 round trip)
From the above example you can see the round trip flight is 16,500 Avios and you can get this reward by converting the Membership Rewards points earned from your Cobalt Card to British Airways Executive Club. Conversions run 1 Membership Rewards point to 1 Avios which give us our requirement of 16,500 Membership Rewards points or as little as $3,300 in card spending.
Comparable spend from other cards/programs:
Here is what you would need to spend (at a minimum) with some comparable cards and programs:
- $4,000 for points earned on the Cobalt Card and converted to Aeroplan
- $6,667 for points earned on an Aeroplan co-brand card and redeemed via Aeroplan
- $12,500 for CIBC Aventura
- $12,000 for RBC Avion Rewards converted to British Airways Executive Club
- $5,000 for RBC Avion Rewards converted to British Airways Executive Club when utilizing an Avion Card and ION+ card combo
5. Toronto to Dublin, Ireland
Points required: 26,000 Membership Rewards points (Converts to 26,000 Avios)
Cobalt Card spend required: $5,200 at the 5x points level (can be earned in just over two months and does not include welcome bonuses)
Program: Aer Lingus Aer Club
How to book: Convert your Membership Rewards points to British Airways Executive Club Avios and book with BA or choose to transfer Avios from British Airways to Aer Lingus Aer Club and book on aerlingus.com
This is another flight reward that has been frequently discussed on RWRDS Canada and is a perennial favourite of our community. There are several programs that use Avios as their loyalty currency and two of them, British Airways Executive Club and Aer Lingus Aer Club have Off-Peak flight reward options which offer discounted Avios requirements. The great news with the Off-Peak rewards is that they are available for a good portion of the year outside of the busy summer travel season, Christmas/New Year and March break. (Click here to see the 2024 Aer Lingus Off-Peak/Peak calendar)
It is with these Off-Peak flights that both programs feature round trip economy class rewards between Eastern Canada and the UK and Ireland for only as little as 13,000 Avios one way (26,000 round trip). That being said, flights to and from the UK incur huge taxes and fees at this 26,000 Avios redemption level so they are not worth it but the flights to Ireland when booked via Aer Lingus (Avios.com) still maintain somewhat reasonable fees that can make this a worthwhile redemption option:
From the example above you see the round trip flight is 26,000 Avios and you can get this reward by converting the Membership Rewards points earned from your Cobalt Card to British Airways Executive Club. You can then initiate and complete a transfer of those Avios from British Airways Executive Club to Aer Lingus Aer Club (they transfer 1:1) Conversions run 1 Membership Rewards points to 1 Avios miles which give us our requirement of 26,000 Membership Rewards points or as little as $5,200 in card spending.
Comparable spend from other cards/programs:
Here is what you would need to spend (at a minimum) with some comparable cards and programs:
- $14,000 for points earned on the Cobalt Card and converted to Aeroplan
- $23,333 for points earned on an Aeroplan co-brand card and redeemed via Aeroplan
- $25,000 for CIBC Aventura (and these would incur much higher fees/taxes)
- $20,800 for RBC Avion Rewards converted to British Airways Executive Club
- $8,667 for RBC Avion Rewards converted to British Airways Executive Club when utilizing an Avion Card and ION+ card combo
How and where do you earn 5x points with the Cobalt Card?
The 5x points is earned on Eats and Drinks, that is groceries, restaurants, fast food, food delivery, take out, coffee shop, bars, bakeries and more. The 5x points is earned on the first $2,500 spent monthly on eats and drinks on the card.
To see which locations award 5x points you can always reference our Confirmed Multiplier Locations feature that the RWRDS Canada community has been contributing to for six years now! The list is by no means every possible location but it does give you a good indication of the sheer number of places you can earn the 5x points
Click here to check out our Cobalt Confirmed Multipliers list.
Wrapping it up
Since its introduction in 2017, the American Express Cobalt Card has had the honour of being the best overall travel rewards card in Canada as ranked by RWRDS Canada (and by the majority of other points/miles/finance sites) thanks to earning up to 5 points per dollar and for its multiple redemption options that all provide amazing value. Above we only provide five of those redemption options and just from those handful of examples it really is no wonder why this card is the best in Canada and why it should be in everyone’s wallet.
Click here to apply for the American Express Cobalt Card
Originally posted on October 18, 2023 @ 2:45 pm