7 articles Credit cards

The WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard is a relatively straightforward card attached to a straightforward loyalty program. It’s for people who travel on WestJet, and the card has some potentially compelling value.

Main benefits

This card has an annual fee of $119 (up from $99 in November 2017). The supplementary card fee is $59, but keep in mind that the checked bag benefit and companion fare voucher are only for the primary cardholder.

As a 1-time sign-up bonus, you get 250 WestJet dollars.

Every year, shortly after your sign-up anniversary date (and including the initial sign-up), you get an annual companion fare of $99 plus taxes and fees (which can add up to more than $99 dollars on their own) within Canada and the continental USA. This means that you have to pay the normal price for 1 ticket, but pay the $99 plus taxes and fees for your travelling companion (who can be anybody). The companion fare also applies to destinations outside of Canada and the continental USA but for a higher price: $299 plus taxes and fees to Hawaii, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean; and $399 plus taxes and fees for all other WestJet destinations.

With the card, you get the first checked bag free for the primary cardholder and up to 8 companions on the same flight. This applies to flights wholly operated by WestJet, not code share flights. The first checked bag usually costs at least $30 per flight direction, which really adds up on multiple flights and multiple travellers.

You earn 1.5% back in WestJet dollars on non-WestJet purchases made on the card, and 2.0% back in WestJet dollars on WestJet purchases (flights and WestJet Vacations packages).

WestJet dollars can be redeemed in any amount over 15 WestJet dollars against the base fare of a flight, including code share flights. 1 WestJet dollar is equal to $1. They can also be used for Member Exclusive fares, which I’ll explain shortly.

I’ve had this card for a few years, and personally I think it’s worth keeping the card beyond the first year if you fly at least a few times per year. With that minimum travel frequency, you can still keep your options open to fly on other airlines who might have a cheaper flight or more desirable route. (I always check options with a tool such as Google Flights first.) After all, you don’t want to choose a more expensive flight or one with less desirable timing or stopovers just so you can “benefit” from the card. If you don’t travel frequently, then you can always cancel the card after the first year and then consider re-applying in advance of your next flight. Just plan far enough in advance, since it can take 4-6 weeks after your first purchase on the card to get the WestJet dollars welcome bonus and companion voucher.

If you’re a super frequent WestJet traveller, you might already be getting some of the main card benefits such as free checked bags and companion vouchers.

WestJet vs Aeroplan / Air Canada credit cards

The WestJet credit card is not as popular as Aeroplan-affiliated cards, not just because Air Canada is the bigger airline and Aeroplan is the bigger flight network, but also because 1) there are just so many other Aeroplan-affiliated cards; and 2) there are more ways to earn and convert to Aeroplan points.

Compared to Aeroplan / Air Canada cards, I think the WestJet card is more generous. For example, with the lower Aeroplan-affiliated cards, you get the first checked bag free on rewards flights only. With the higher end Aeroplan-affiliated cards, you get the first checked bag free on all flights (up to a maximum cap in 1 case), but only for the primary cardholder. However, with Aeroplan it’s easier to accumulate many points fast by signing up for multiple credit cards with generous sign-up bonuses.

Insurance

If you’re under 65 years of age, the card provides out of province and country emergency medical insurance for trips of up to 15 days long; or for 3 days if you’re 65 or older. There is also flight delay insurance, hotel/motel burglary insurance, car rental insurance, and more. A missing travel insurance is trip cancellation insurance.

Member Exclusive fares

WestJet’s Member Exclusive fares are available to WestJet members in general — it’s not a feature specific to the credit card. However, it’s worth mentioning since you must be a WestJet member to benefit from the credit card, and having the card helps you to earn WestJet dollars.

In short, you can sometimes get much more than a $1 per WestJet dollar value when using Member Exclusive fares.

Member Exclusive fares are a bit of an under-advertised feature because WestJet doesn’t publicly post an “award chart”. You can see a bit of a breakdown in this blog post. I’ve definitely found that the hidden award chart is not a fixed number of dollars — certain flights and dates are more than the minimums listed in that post.

With Member Exclusive fares, you must have enough WestJet dollars to cover the entire 1-way fare (excluding taxes and fees) — in other words, you cannot do partial redemptions, although the fares are split into 1-way segments. For example, you must have at least 125 WestJet dollars in your account if the Member Exclusive fare is $125 (before taxes and fees).

These fares sometimes provide great value, but the system runs a bit contrary to the simplicity of the WestJet dollars system; outside of these fares, you can apply any number of WestJet dollars against your travel. The lack of a fixed award chart probably prevents this from being a more popular feature as well.

Other notes

An unexpected benefit I’ve used is that you get 3 cents off per litre at Petro-Canada gas stations if you link your WestJet credit card to your Petro-Points card. This applies to most RBC credit or debit cards.

The WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard has a minimum personal income of $80,000 or a minimum household income of $150,000. If you don’t meet these requirements or don’t want to pay such a high annual fee, you can consider the WestJet RBC Mastercard (basically, the non World Elite version), which has a $39 annual fee, a 50 WestJet dollars welcome bonus, and a 1.5% WestJet purchases / 1.0% “everything else” earn rate. It doesn’t have a “free checked bag” benefit or annual companion fare.

After the first year of using this card, I felt a bit uneasy about continuing to pay for it. Sometimes a WestJet flight makes sense, and sometimes a different flight makes sense. However, especially with a few flights per year for my business, I’ve been able to factor in the card’s benefits when deciding which flights to take. The card has so far realized more than enough value for me to keep holding it.

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The American Express Cobalt credit card earns 5 points per dollar spent at grocery stores and restaurants, and even with a $10 per month fee (essentially $120 per year), I find the points reason enough to continue to hold the card.

5 points per dollar on food-related purchases, but not 5% cash back

If you are somebody who pays off your credit card balance every month, then the card benefits are important while the interest rate is not. Top of the benefits list for the Amex Cobalt is that the points are redeemable for travel purchases at a rate of 1000 points for $10 back, or essentially each point is worth 1 cent. These travel purchases can be made anywhere and then you redeem points after the fact; or you can book through American Express’s travel agency and apply the points directly at the time of purchase.

This works out to 5% back on food-related purchases when your points are redeemed against travel purchases… until you deduct the $10 monthly fee (and technically you should factor in the travel purchases made on the card too). So for this to work for you, you have to 1) shop at grocery stores that accept American Express and/or eat out a lot at restaurants / coffee shops / bars that accept American Express; 2) make enough food-related purchases each month to offset the $10 monthly fee; and 3) make enough travel purchases each year against which to use those points. At $1000 per month spent at grocery stores and restaurants you get $40 of travel points after subtracting the monthly fee. That’s a 4% value. At $500 per month spent at grocery stores and restaurants you get $15 of travel points after subtracting the monthly fee. That’s a 3% value.

If you redeem the points for non-travel purchases, then 1000 points only get you $7 back. Using the $1000 grocery store and restaurant monthly spending example, that’s a 2.8% value. At $500 of food-related purchases, that’s a 2.1% value.

There are many other things you can do with the points, called Membership Rewards (MR) points. Because the Cobalt earns points to the “MR Select” tier, you cannot transfer the points directly to Aeroplan or other airline programs directly. You can, however, transfer to Marriott Bonvoy or Hilton Honors. In the case of Marriott Bonvoy, you can transfer at a rate of 1 MR point to 1.2 Marriott Bonvoy points. You can then transfer Marriott Bonvoy points to Aeroplan miles at a rate of 3 Marriott Bonvoy points to 1 Aeroplan mile. That means an MR point is worth 0.4 Aeroplan miles or more, depending on whether you transfer enough to get a bonus (if you transfer 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points to Aeroplan miles, you get 20,000 + 5,000 bonus Aeroplan miles) or transfer during a promotional period. I won’t get into all the ways one can value or redeem these other points and miles.

You can also use the American Express Fixed Points Travel Program. This could get you a higher value per point.

Lastly, you can redeem points on the Membership Rewards store for items such as kitchen appliances and electronics. This is likely to get you a lower value per point!

Earning rates for other purchases

You get 2 points per dollar spent on travel, gas, and transit purchases, and 1 point for all other purchases. I try not to use the Cobalt for anything other than grocery store and restaurant purchases, as well as the travel purchases I’m going to redeem against. For some people, the Cobalt might be worth it for non-food purchases, but for me I prefer the rewards I can get on such purchases with other credit cards.

Monthly fees, not annual fees

The Amex Cobalt is unique in that it charges a monthly fee (of $10) rather than an annual fee or of course no fee at all. The monthly versus annual fee element does not make a material difference for me; in the past when I cancelled cards with annual fees, I always did so right before the yearly fee date. I’ve also heard of other annual fee cards giving you partial rebates if you cancel mid-way through the year.

Supplementary / additional cards are free, which can useful if you’re not the only one in the family who does the grocery shopping.

Sign-up bonus

The sign-up bonus for the Cobalt is spread across 12 months, presumably to match how the fee is monthly, and so that people are not tempted to cancel the card earlier than a year in. You get 2,500 bonus points for every month in which you spend at least $500 on any purchases on the card. This adds up to 30,000 points in the first year if you meet the minimum every month. That puts the minimum spend in a year at $6,000 to get the full bonus.

Points accrue immediately

It’s worth mentioning that you get the Membership Rewards points as soon as a purchase posts to your account. You can also use those points immediately. This is unlike some cards where the points might accrue monthly and in some cases you can only redeem them yearly.

Insurance benefits

If you’re under 65 years of age, the Cobalt provides out of province and country emergency medical insurance for trips of up to 15 days long. There is also flight delay insurance, baggage delay insurance, hotel/motel burglary insurance, car rental theft and damage insurance, and more. A missing travel insurance on the Cobalt is trip cancellation insurance.

Other benefits

Occasionally, American Express runs promotions, usually for extra points, on the Cobalt. There is no regular schedule or promise that such promotions will happen in the future, and sometimes they are targeted only at certain cardholders. As such, I try to consider them as “nice to have” rather than a main reason to keep the card. The promotions that I have benefited from were:

• In December 2017, you got 10 points per dollar spent on food-related purchases (up to $2,000 in total spend), rather than 5 points per dollar
• On November 26, 2018, you got 5 points per dollar spent on Amazon.ca (up to $500 in total spend)
• From December 17-19, 2018 you got 10 points per dollar spent on Amazon.ca (up to $1,000 in total spend)

I’ve also seen offers for Etsy, Holt Renfrew, Levi’s, and special dining events.

Other similar and complementary cards

American Express is accepted at fewer places than Visa or Mastercard, and the Cobalt card becomes much less interesting if your main grocery store(s) don’t take Amex. There are competitor cards such as the Scotiabank Momentum Visa Infinite and the CIBC Dividend Visa Infinite, both also with annual fees, that give you 4% cash back (not points) on gas and groceries, although not restaurants.

If you make a lot of purchases in US dollars or other foreign currencies, there are quite a few cards that do not charge a 2.5% foreign exchange fee, such as the Rogers World Elite Mastercard (no annual fee), the Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite ($139 annual fee), and the Hometrust Preferred Visa (no annual fee).

You could also optimize your earning rate in the other spending categories with cards tied to other programs like frequent flyer miles on WestJet or Aeroplan.

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Most credit cards charge a 2.5% transaction fee on top of the exchange rate on US-dollar and other foreign currency transactions. There are a few credit cards that currently do not charge this fee; they are all Chase-issued cards:

• Amazon.ca Rewards Visa Card (no annual fee)
• Sears Financial MasterCard (no annual fee) and Sears Financial Voyage MasterCard ($39 annual fee)
• Marriott Rewards Premier Visa ($120 annual fee waived for the first year)

They are worth considering if you do a fair amount of purchases each year outside of Canada. $1000 of purchases would typically cost an extra $25 in transaction fees; $5000 would typically add another $125 in transaction fees. Of course, there are many other factors to consider when choosing a credit card, such as rewards program, annual fee, insurance benefits, customer service, interest rates (if you do not pay your balance in full each month), and much more.

If you have a US-dollar bank account, you could also look into US-dollar credit cards, such as this one from BMO that has a $25 annual fee ($35 starting September 1, 2012) that is waived if you spend at least $1000 US in a year. This saves you the transaction fee for US purchases, saves you the exchange rate buy-sell spread (since you almost never get the mid-rate), and insulates you from exchange rate fluctuations. At the moment there are no Canadian-issued, US-dollar credit cards without an annual fee (except when part of a banking bundle or with a minimum spend).

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The heavily advertised American Express Business Gold Rewards credit card has a few intriguing features:

• a welcome bonus of 25,000 Membership Rewards points if you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months; convertible to Aeroplan miles, SkyMiles, or Asia Miles. 25,000 Aeroplan points is good for an economy ticket within almost anywhere in Canada and the US.
• annual fee waived for the first year; supplementary cards free for the first year as well
• earn one point for every dollar spent

I signed up for this card for the bonus points and to see what it was like to have an American Express card. A note on applying for a business credit card: if you don’t own a business, you can still legitimately claim to run a business under your own name as long as you have even a small amount of outside income. Even though I own a business, I did not apply for this card under that business name.

Premium service

American Express is known for having the highest-spending users (not me!), relatively high annual fees, and for requiring merchants to sign separate and sometimes exclusive agreements with them. As a result, American Express takes good care of its customers. Three main things stood out to me:

• The application process was easy. You can apply online and the approval process happens either immediately or within about a week if they need to verify any details. Once you’re approved, your card arrives in about another week. Customer service for this process was straightforward and friendly.
• The online management interface is fully-featured and easy to use. Tasks like viewing past statements, signing up for e-statements, viewing spending reports broken down by type of purchase, changing account details, and making account requests are intuitive and accessible.
• Points appear immediately. You don’t have to wait for your next statement for your account be credited with points. Transferring the points to Aeroplan is simple, and sometimes there are even redemption promotions.

As simple as those things sound, many credit card companies and banks fail to achieve such a pleasant level of service.

Extra perks

The main perk that I’ve benefited from is AMEX’s Front of the Line for buying event tickets. For the average person, Front of the Line provides two main benefits: pre-sales access and reserved seating blocks during normal sales. This is quite nice to have, but treat it more like an extra option when looking for seats. Sometimes, using other types of fan pre-sale codes, or buying tickets during the normal sales period early or with good timing luck can yield better seats. Tickets purchased through Front of the Line privileges are sometimes but not always better.

It’s not that widely accepted

I was a bit fearful that American Express would have a low acceptance rate, compared to Visa or MasterCard. For me in Vancouver, Canada, AMEX is accepted at noticeably fewer places, so much so that it has become an annoyance to ask companies whether they accept the card.

Lots of commonly frequented places accept American Express, such as London Drugs, parking machines, major grocery stores, and gas stations. However, I’ve had to use a Visa or MasterCard backup at several restaurants, retail stores such as Swimco, the dentist office, an optician store, and Choices Markets. Also, some online merchants that accept credit card payments through PayPal might not necessarily accept American Express, due to the need to sign a separate vendor agreement. The rate of American Express acceptance at places that I’ve been to that accept credit cards is potentially as bad as 50%.

Annual fee

After the first year of no-fee bliss, the annual fee is $180 for the first card and $50 for each supplementary card.

Aeroplan points

I cannot comment on the value of SkyMiles or Asia Miles, but I do collect Aeroplan points. The value of an Aeroplan point is open to debate, and depends on how you use your points. If you’re looking for an airline rewards card or even just a rewards card, is it worth it to collect Aeroplan points? Consider the following:

• The reward chart is quite general, as it divides routes into broad regions. For example, most long-haul economy flights within Canada and the USA can be had for 25,000 points — you’re getting the most value if you fly from one corner of that area to the opposite corner.
• It’s more worth it to the Aeroplan credit card reward points if you’re also collecting Aeroplan points elsewhere!
• You cannot redeem all of your points at once, so there’s always some left over.
• You still have to pay some airline ticket fees. If you end up redeeming Aeroplan points for a flight that you wouldn’t otherwise have taken, you’re technically spending more and also polluting the earth more!
• The pool of available Aeroplan seats is smaller than the total available seats.

Conclusion

Some areas that I have not touched upon include interest rates and insurance features. These are not very important to me at the moment.

The sign-up bonus is certainly valuable, as is the reward structure. If you’re looking to earn Aeroplan points on an ongoing basis, there are cards from CIBC (such as the Aerogold Visa) with a lower annual fee and that give you more points per dollar spent. Also, there might be some other American Express cards with a more suitable fee + reward calculation structure.

As for rewards in general, I prefer a cash back card such as the MBNA Smart Cash credit card, which has no annual fee. When you get cash back, you can choose to spend it on whatever you want, and you don’t have so much of an issue with leftover points.

The deal breakers for me with the American Express Business Gold Rewards were the annual fee after the first year, and the high percentage of companies that simply didn’t accept it.

And a final note: the shiny gold card is a bit too flashy for my taste! Sometimes I feel that when I bring it out, I’m trying to appear wealthier or more obsessed with status than I actually am…

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