In This Issue:

 💺Unlock Business Class With Aeroplan’s Point Buying Offer

🎉 Points or Cashback 🤔 which wins?!

Unlock Business Class Luxury: Aeroplan's Point Buying Offer

Big news from Air Canada's Aeroplan program! They've just dropped a game-changing point-buying promo that's a goldmine for jet-setters! Check out the offer here. 

Here's the deal: More points purchased equals more bonus points in your hand. This deal is a dream, especially if you're eyeing those super comfortable business-class seats for a long-haul flight. 💺

But, wait: Before you nose dive into buying points, here's the deal-breaker—check the availability. Securing that business class spot with points can be like a treasure hunt. Confirm those seats are up for grabs at a fair price before splurging on points because you might be disappointed. 

There’s always a catch: While using points for business class is a money saver, it won't level up your Aeroplan status. Booking business class tickets helps rack up SQMs and SQDs, but you’ll miss out when booking with points. ⚖️

The perk: The potential savings on business-class flights are really good!

Let's break it down with an example:

Vancouver to Brisbane in Lie-Flat Comfort:

First, look for an outbound spot in business class:

Then, secure the return journey:

Now, let's get to the numbers:

• Let's buy 200,000 points for $3,500 CAD + $175 Tax, totaling $3,675 CAD.

• Tax rates vary by province. There is also no tax for foreign address users and credit card holders purchasing Aeroplan points.

• We redeem 149,000 points (equivalent to using $2,738.88 from our points purchase)

• Add $91 + $91 CAD for round-trip taxes and fees.

Total cost: $2,920.88 CAD for round trip Business Class from Vancouver to Brisbane! ✈️

Compare this to the cash price for the same flights:

Yes, you read that right. With the cash price for these seats being well over $13,000 Canadian dollars, you saved nearly $10,000!

And with that, I wish you safe travels as the holidays draw near!

Points or Cashback Cards, Which Wins?! 🤔

The announcement that Chexy Rent Payments will be classified as recurring bills from November 16th has generated considerable excitement within the community. However, it has also led to numerous debates and questions, specifically:

“Does this affect me as an AMEX user, or a user paying rent with a points card?”

In terms of impact, the recurring bill classification update only impacts cashback credit cards that offer additional bonuses on recurring bills (i.e. 2-4 times the usual cashback rate). See the full list here.

As far as I know, the TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite is the only travel point card that is positively impacted, earning 4 points for each dollar spent on recurring bills, or 2 more than on everything else. 

Now, the answer to whether you should or should not switch to a cashback card is not so easy. It ultimately depends on what you value more - pure cash $$ or travel points. This varies greatly based on how often you travel, the kind of traveler you are (especially your preference for luxurious travel), and your general financial goals.

I think the easiest way to explain this is by sharing my own Chexy experience - and how I select the perfect card to pay my rent with.

(If you want a quick summary, jump ahead to the last section of this newsletter 😉) 

Liza’s Points Journey with Chexy 

The following is a completely factual representation of my Chexy journey as a user. I currently live in Toronto, and pay $2,200 per month.

With the anticipation of the Chexy platform going live in March 2023, I signed up for the AMEX Platinum card and earned an 80,000 point sign-up bonus for surpassing the first $7,500 spending requirement - this was easily achieved after paying my rent from March to May (as well as some of my everyday spending!). 

After paying my rent and going about my everyday spending, I was able to rack up an additional 20,000 points on my Platinum by September 2023 - bringing the total to just above 100,000 points. 

My partner and I are avid skiers, and having selected France for our skiing trip in the winter of 2024, I started hunting for a good deal to make use of those hard-earned points! ⛷️

Here’s what I ended up redeeming these points on: 

Toronto - Montreal - Lyon

Paris - Toronto (I actually stumbled upon this amazing redemption as I was writing this blog post 😂)

The total cost of this trip was approximately 113,800 Aeroplan points + $237 per person. 

Now, let’s take a look at what this flight is going for when paying with cold hard cash: 

According to my calculations below, the value of these redeemed points was at about 2.4c (or what would be equivalent to 2.4% in cashback). My first thought - if I had been using a Scotia Momentum card earning me 4% cashback, would it have been better? 

What this doesn’t account for, however, is the significant value of the sign-up bonus, and what I actually paid for this flight out-of-pocket. 

The total out-of-pocket costs for me were about $967 (between the annual fees, Chexy fees, and tax costs for the fare). But, with the real flight worth $2,908, I saved $1,941 by using the Platinum card. 🤑

Had I been using the Momentum card this entire time, my net-of-fee cashback (assuming the current $200 sign-up bonus) would only be $497. This means to take the same flight I would still have to dish out an additional $2,400 (which would never happen). 

The sign-up bonus really shifts the economics in favor of the Platinum card. Without it, the card is not worth the $799/yr for me in the long run. I will be churning it and taking advantage of a different sign-up bonus with a new card next year. 

Although this strategy can be fruitful, I also understand that most people may not want to spend their time researching the best card bonuses and redemption opportunities 😆.

So, if you’re not looking to get a new card every year, the Scotia Momentum will give you the peace of mind of consistently earning 2%+ cashback on rent (net of Chexy fees) every month without breaking a sweat 🥵.

So, here is my “not financial advice” summary on how to make the most of Chexy: 

1. Use a points card if you are: 

   1. Looking to travel 1-2 times or more a year 

   2. Open to churning a card each year to take advantage of sign-up bonuses

   3. Care about luxury travel opportunities (like flying business and getting into airport lounges) 

2. Use a cashback card if you are: 

   1. Occasionally traveling and not interested in learning the “gamification of points” 

   2. Want to have one card for everything and keep it for multiple years 

   3. And, love the convenience of “set it and forget it” 

I hope this summary was helpful and gave you an insight into how someone inside Chexy thinks about the value we provide! 🚀

With my very best, 

Liza