WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard: Should You Keep It?

WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard Review

First Published Date: July 19, 2015

The WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard is a MasterCard Elite series

high-end travel rewards credit card that lets you earn WestJet for everyday purchases that can be used towards WestJet flights and vacations without any blackout periods or restrictions.

The Cost

Annual Fee = $99. Additional cards = $49

Minimum annual income required = $70,000 (or household income = $120,000)

Rewards Points Snapshot

– Earn 2 WestJet dollars for every $100 spent on WestJet flights and vacations.

– Earn 1.5 WestJet dollars on everything else.

– There is no limit or restrictions on earning.

First Time Bonus

A $250 WestJet dollars welcome bonus when you use your card for the first time.

Anniversary Bonus

An annual companion flight for $99 (plus applicable taxes, fees and charges) to fly anywhere in Canada or the United States (excluding Hawaii and Puerto Rico).

Features & Benefits

– The primary cardholder (and up to 8 additional guests on the same reservation) awarded 1st checked bag for free on all WestJet flights.

– Emergency Medical Insurance (15 days<65, 3 days>65 or older).

– Travel Accident Insurance (Up to $500,000 CAD).

– Auto Rental Collision/Loss Damage Insurance.

– Trip Interruption Insurance ($5,000 each, maximum $25,000).

– Emergency Purchases (After 4 hrs,$250 day, maximum $2,500 per occurrence).

– Flight Delay Insurance (After 4 hrs,$250 day, maximum $500 per occurrence).

– Hotel/Motel Burglary Insurance ($2,500 per occurrence).

– Purchase Security (For 90 days, up to $50,000)

– Extended Warranty Insurance (1 additional year)

What’s Missing

Some of the important benefits this card does not offer:

– Price Protection Insurance

– Trip Cancellation Insurance

– Delayed and Lost Luggage Insurance

– No Concierge services

My Take

Although The WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard is missing some elements of insurance and services you would expect from a high-end credit card, its anniversary bonus makes it a card to consider adding to your credit card portfolio.

You can easily offset the annual fee and still stay on the plus side if you use the annual companion flight for $99 each year. Here is one example from my Las Vegas trip: Regular return trip fare from Toronto to Las Vegas = $600 (includes base fare, taxes, and fees)

My companion return trip would cost only $250 ($99 plus fees and taxes)

My total round trip cost for 2 = $850

That’s a $350 savings ($1,200 – $850)

Plus I would save on checked bags = $25×4 = $100

As you can see, you can save at least $450.00 on an average trip. Your savings can be lower or higher based on your trip distance. If you are not planning to use the annual companion flight feature every year, keeping this card makes no sense, as you can make more money with other cards that offer better returns and more benefits.

I personally hold this card as of this writing and I’m planning to hold it as long as I make one trip on WestJet every year. I use this card for some of my expenses as well. However, if I were not to use this card for any transactions, I would still hold it and would not mind paying $99 just to get the annual companion fare.

Disclosure: Information provided here may not be accurate and no longer valid. The mentioned card provider is not related to A Dawn Journal and neither monitor this site nor responsible for any inaccurate information. Contact the card company directly for accurate and updated information. A Dawn Journal or my YouTube Channel are not compensated by or affiliated with any credit card companies. All credit card articles are 100% unbiased and honest.

Philae Temple – The Temple of Isis at Philae | Aswan, Egypt

The Temples of Philae | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 3 (Part 26) 02D20

Egypt Travel Blog: 10 DAYS Egypt Explorer - Felucca Cruise & Red Sea

Our next destination is the temple complex of Philae. The Philae temple is the oldest temple that was built by the last of the Pharaohs, Nectanebo II, who was Egyptian. Once he died in 343 BC, his successors were Persian conquerors and then Greek kings. The Macedonian Greeks started the Ptolemaic dynasty, which began with the death of Alexander the Great and ended when Cleopatra died.

The original Philae temple was in the middle of the Nile, when it was first built more than 2000 years ago. Once the Aswan Low Dam was completed in 1902, flooding started to damage it more than ever.

In 1960, Egypt, UNESCO, and 30 other nations started an epic engineering rescue feat to move these colossal ancient Egyptian temples from floodwaters to another island.

I was literally shocked when my guide told me they moved the whole temple complex from one island to another. You can’t even tell these humongous structures were cut, moved, and reattached. I only saw some lines which the guide showed me that are the results of the joints. I would not have even noticed had the guide not mentioned it.

To this day, I find it unbelievable and remarkable how engineers managed to cut a complete temple apart and rebuild it exactly to its original specifications without being obvious.

To reach the present-day Philae temple, which is located on Agilkia Island, we had to take a boat. I will talk about the rest of the Philae Temple trip in the next post.

Cottage Country Canada – Part 3

Why Ontario Cottage Country Is So Popular

First Published Date : Jan 17, 2009

It is often considered one of the most beautiful areas in the world, with crystal clear lakes, prime fishing areas, thick and plentiful forests, luxury resorts, and some of the most amazing sunsets you’ll ever witness. It’s the choice of home to several millionaires as well as a summer playground to the rich and famous.  In Ontario, Canada, the area is known as cottage country and it consists of a large area of land that consists of several popular towns such as Muskoka, Peterborough, Bracebridge, Haliburton, Huntsville, Orillia, Minden, and Collingwood.

It is an ideal area to purchase real estate as there are thousands of waterfront cottages, homes, and condos available for those who are interested in residential properties. There are also quite a few commercial properties available in the area. Many people have owned homes and cottages in the region for years and they are passed down from generation to generation. However, there are still many of them for sale on the market. These properties are an excellent investment and they are often rented out for extra income.

One of the most attractive things about cottage country is that it’s almost just as popular in the winter as it is in the summer. While people swim, water-ski and boat on the lakes in the summer, they snowmobile, fish, and play hockey on them during the winter. This is ideal for those who want to purchase real estate with the intention of renting it out. It is also known as one of the best areas in Canada to retire to.

The real estate prices vary greatly in cottage country as cottages are sold as low as about $100,000 and can reach as high as millions of dollars. If you have a price range in mind as well as a specific location , there are hundreds of real estate agents in the area that are more than willing to help you out. You should be able to find something suitable for just about any budget.

It is also possible to by land, such as waterfront properties, to build your own dream home or cottages on. This will also take a little bit of time and research and the help of a qualified real estate agent. There are many websites to help you in your search. These sites will give full details of the properties and buildings that are for sale and generally come with a series of photographs and contact information for the seller. While some property and homes are sold privately, you will find that most of them involve real estate companies.

The options are endless in cottage country because of the size of land it encompasses. If you do decide to look for residential or commercial property in the area, it’s a good idea to do some homework so you know what to expect when it comes to pricing. If you’re unfamiliar with the area, you may want to enlist some professional help. If you decide on using a real estate agent, it’s recommended to ask for some referrals or testimonials as it’s important you get a good agent to help you out.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the realestateexpedition.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to A Dawn Journal. This article originally published on the above website on Jan 17, 2009.

Car Loans Getting Easier

Loan Approvals Have Risen To Their Highest

First Published Date: June 28, 2009

Canadians looking to purchase a new car in the second half of 2009 should find it easier than they did a few months ago, according to a new report which gives broadly positive news on the likely availability of car loans for new customers. The report, released this Thursday, 25 June 2009 says that loan approvals have risen to their highest level in more than a year, and since the recession was declared. At the time of the recession’s onset, getting credit for any purpose became a great deal more difficult, with affordable loans comparable to the Golden Fleece for anyone not in possession of a world-beating credit score. With financiers more willing to lend now than they were a year ago, the motorist is getting a green light to secure funding for the vehicle they want.

The main reason for this ease would seem to be the federal government’s move to secure the finance of $12billion worth of car loans which will allow the financing companies to lend to deserving customers who have a decent credit rating. In any recession there will be a reluctance to lend to anyone but the absolute “can’t miss” customers, who often have little need for a loan in order to buy a car and borrow more for convenience than out of necessity. This latest move will open up the chance to buy a new car to a wider range of individuals and allow a greater fluidity of cash through the industry, which will in turn help stimulate an economy in need of some good news as it battles its way through the recession.

The withdrawal of some major lenders from the auto-loan business over the past year is also believed to have played a major part in the absence of credit – with the Bank of Canada being a notable exception. The car companies themselves, though, had in no small part either removed their lending branches or increased the credit score necessary for them to forward credit to new customers. Although there is good reason for being circumspect in giving out new car loans, it did have the effect of creating a vicious cycle which saw fewer customers able to buy cars, and consequently fewer cars being bought.

The overall impression emerging from the latest news is that the credit-worthiness and the intent to buy new is experiencing a rise in Canada and that there will be increased growth in the Canadian auto market as the year progresses. Household credit ratings are improving as the lessons of the recession are learned, and in combination with an increase in the amount of retail and durable goods purchases over recent months, the least that can be said is that the worst of the recession is over. How quickly this translates into growth of a reasonable amount remains to be seen, but it is a relief for any financial commentator to be able to say that better days are very nearly here. How much better depends on how ready people are to believe it.

To streamline and minimize blog maintenance, I will be discontinuing maintaining the Canadapersonalfinancewebsite.com website (however, I will still hold the domain). I will gradually move all articles from this site to A Dawn Journal. This article originally published on the above website on June 28, 2009.

Is It Still Possible to Make Lots of Rewards Points from Credit Cards?

Rewards Points Opportunity Still Exists

First Published Date : July 23, 2015

In the past, credit card rewards points explorers were able to take advantage of juicy sign-up rewards bonuses over and over from the same cards and various different cards. However, some credit card companies closed the loophole that existed and others are working on closing it.

If you check the footnotes underneath credit card profiles on issuers’ websites, you will see that some of them are started to add something like this: Bonus offer is applicable to new members only. If you have held this card in the past, we may still approve your application, but will not reward you with any bonuses.

So this raises the question: Are the rewards points parties that existed until now all over? The answer is actually surprisingly both yes and no. Yes in the sense that like many points explorers did in the past – opening 5 to 10 accounts every year to rack up rewards points and then close those accounts after 3 months and then reopen them again to continue this rewards points party cycle – again and again are over. Credit card companies became aware of these parties and are closing the loopholes that existed.

However, the other answer is – no, it is still possible to make decent rewards points from bonuses every year and year after year. Slow and steady process is the key here and if you carefully apply for one credit card every six months, you can still make decent points without damaging your credit score.

But to succeed with this slow and steady process, there are other details you need to carefully consider and that’s what I will talk about in my upcoming book Credit Card Hacks: What Credit Card Companies Don’t Want You to Know. A full chapter will be dedicated on how to travel for free or with very little money from rewards points. Stay tuned for more once the book is published.