Which Credit Cards Offer an Annual Companion Flight?

Save Money with an Annual Companion Flight

First Published Date: November 25, 2015

There are many perks and features credit cards come with that a lot of people aren’t aware of. Today, I will talk about how you can travel for a lot less with the annual companion flight that comes with some credit cards.

There are currently two credit cards that offer an annual companion flight. What this means is that you buy one plane ticket at regular price and you get a companion ticket at a heavily-discounted price. Here are the two cards:

WestJet RBC World Elite MasterCard – Buy a ticket at regular price anywhere within Canada or U.S. (excludes Hawaii and Puerto Rico) where WestJet flies and get a companion round-trip with you for $99 (excluding taxes, fees and charges). Read my WestJet RBC World Elite review here. Annual fee = $99.

MBNA Alaska World Elite MasterCard – Buy a ticket at regular price anywhere within Canada, U.S. (including Alaska and Hawaii) or Mexico where Alaska Airlines flies and get a companion round-trip with you for from $121 USD. Annual fee = $75.

There are some other cards that offer an annual companion flight with a catch, such as you have to fly on rewards points or spend certain amounts. Example: American Express Air Miles Reserve Card, American Express AeroplanPlus Reserve Card, American Express AeroplanPlus Platinum Card, and RBC British Airways Visa Infinite

Which Credit Cards Offer Airport Lounge Access?

Free Lounge Access with Credit Cards

First Published Date: December 13, 2015

When you are on a long international flight, the crummy and horrible waiting area can be a torturous place to spend your time. Your travel experience can get even worse if you have several never-ending layovers in between. Lounge access can make your whole journey memorable, with free amenities such as better food, resting area, shower facility, drinks, workstation, and much more that you would not have access to otherwise. Airport lounges are the travel industry’s best-kept secret and annual membership is expensive. But savvy travellers can score access to these calm, secluded, and ultimate relaxation area lounges for free, regardless of their flight class, with some credit cards that offer free lounge access.

Credit Cards with Lounge Access

1. BMO Air Miles World Elite MasterCard

Credit Card Annual Fee = $120

Lounge Access = 2

2. BMO World Elite MasterCard

Credit Card Annual Fee = $150

Lounge Access = 4

3. Amex Air Miles Reserve

Credit Card Annual Fee = $299

Lounge Access = 4

4. ScotiaBank Amex Platinum

Credit Card Annual Fee = $399

Lounge Access = 10

5. Amex Business Platinum

Credit Card Annual Fee = $399

Lounge Access = Unlimited

6. Amex Aeroplan Plus Platinum

Credit Card Annual Fee = $499

Lounge Access = Unlimited

7. Amex Platinum

Credit Card Annual Fee = $699

Lounge Access = Unlimited

Canada: The Genuine Alternative To America

Canada Welcomes the World

First Published Date: Sep 25, 2009

There has always been a feeling in this world that the near neighbours of the larger or more prominent and influential countries in the world suffer from something of an inferiority complex when placed against their neighbour. As New Zealand is to Australia, as Scotland is to England, there is a feeling that Canada is the poor relation to the United States of America. This feeling comes from nothing more than a cheap, basic reading of the geography and the media profiles of the countries, and is typically quite wide of the mark, but it is still prominent in the way that people talk about the “junior” neighbour. So it should be embraced and celebrated when it is made clear, in any way, that the so-called “little guy” scores a notable success.

For instance, in July the number of people traveling North to Canada from the USA increased by nearly five per cent. There is an increasing feeling that Canada is far from being the “poor relation” here, but rather the more grown-up, sensible alternative to the admittedly attractive superpower with which it shares a border. Since the global financial crisis really dug its claws in (and the vagaries of global trade are such that when it got to one major country its neighbours and trade partners would be affected too), there have been experts in Canada and outside falling over themselves to credit Canada with being uniquely well-positioned to deal with a recession.

Part of Canada’s problem, if it really has one to be concerned with, is that “sensible” is seen as being an unsexy word. There is something of a problem in this world with “dumbing down”, and a country which can claim to be sensible – a highly desirable quality to have, surely – will raise fewer eyebrows than one which can come out, all guns blazing, and promise to really put on a show you will never forget. However, there is now a sense that we are tiring of dumbing down, and that this world has more to offer than the typical and well-worn attractions of the “bigger” neighbours. It is not just Americans who are pouring into Canada. The increase in visitors from Japan in July was a huge 32.4% – and visitors from all over the world increased too.

What this means for Canada is something essentially quite simple. Where there is tourism, there are dollars. As Canada boosts its visitor numbers, it will increase its income from holidaying families and also increase the demand for jobs in its travel sector. This is something that will increase further in the New Year as Vancouver plays host to the Winter Olympics, bringing visitors to Canadian shores in yet greater numbers and showcasing a country that has plenty to be proud of in terms of natural beauty, ease of visiting and a thriving hospitality sector. When Canada welcomes the world, what the world sees is not simply a country which is sensible, but the country that many others would like to be.

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 Sep 25, 2009.

The Moving Skyscraper of Dubai

Moving Towers

First Published Date: May 22, 2010

No, you did not read that wrong. There is indeed a skyscraper being built, which will be completed this year, which moves. It doesn’t move around the city but each floor within the skyscraper does move, giving the skyscraper a consistently changing shape. Called the Dynamic Tower, it is the first such skyscraper in the world to be called a moving skyscraper.

Designed by David Fisher, the tower has 80 floors and each floor spins on a central column for a total of 360 degrees. Each apartment in the tower is expected to cost between $3.7 million and $36 million, with the total cost of the Dynamic Tower reaching roughly $800 million.

Each floor of the tower rotates independently of other floors, completing a full rotation in the space of about 90 minutes. Each floor rotates at the speed of roughly 20 feet per minute. One of the more interesting aspects of this tower is that it is the world’s first prefabricated skyscraper. What this means is that the tower is made up of 40 factory-built modules for each floor and 90 percent of The Dynamic Tower will be built in a factory and shipped to Dubai. Amazingly, this allows the tower to be built in the space of just under two years, which is truly monumental and 30 percent faster than what a typical 80 storey skyscraper takes to be built. The only part that is built at the construction site is the central core that the floors all spin on.

This also makes construction of the tower much safer for workers since most workers will be located in factories where they preinstall kitchen and bathroom fixtures, along with pretty much everything else that the apartments in the tower need.

Now, the really cool thing about The Dynamic Tower is that it is extremely environmentally-friendly. Water is recycled within the tower and the entire tower is powered by wind turbines and solar panels. This gives enough surplus electricity for Dubai to power five other 80-story buildings within the vicinity of The Dynamic Tower. Each floor will have turbines hooked up to harvest the high winds located well-above ground level. In theory, these turbines could generate 1.2 million kilowatt-hours of energy. Each floor will also have solar panels attached to the roof.

For the people who live near the tower, they will never be bored by the look of it. The designers say that the tower will never have the same look at any time in its life. So, when you see it, you are seeing something that will never look that way again. A truly revolutionary concept that could change how skyscrapers look, are powered and are made from now on.

This concept of moving towers has proven to be so popular that there are already plans for a 70-story moving tower to be built in Moscow. It won’t be long before these moving skyscrapers are being made across the United States either.

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 May 22, 2010.

Canadian Consumer Confidence Up Again

Consumer Confidence Is Important

First Published Date: Oct 8, 2009

For the seventh month in a row – almost unheard of in a global downturn – the consumer confidence felt by surveyed Canadians is on the increase. This was the finding of the latest monthly survey from the Conference Board of Canada, which found that, based on a fairly complicated index of statistics and consumer response, the confidence of Canadians with regard to potential future jobs and larger-scale purchases has rises by two and a half percentage points to break the 90% mark (at a total of 90.9%). Meanwhile, south of the border in the United States, the level of consumer confidence sits at 53.1%. This is due in no small part to the deeper nature of the recession in the States – an economy which is showing recovery, but later and slower than that in place in Canada.

Of course, although these statistics sound great for Canadians and less so for the American public, there is a reason that they are not trumpeted as broadly as harder financial figures. The clue is in the wording of the results and indeed the questions asked. “Confidence” and “sentiment” are hard things to measure exactly. The indices used are based on a lot of different data, and prone to be skewed by false confidence or misguided bullishness depending on the prevailing public opinion of the time. Another survey entirely, carries out by the University of Michigan in collaboration with Reuters, puts the US numbers up at 73.5, on a rise and therefore going in a completely different direction from those of the US Conference Board. Which is right? Possibly both, possibly neither, it depends on the questions asked among many other variables.

However, this is not to say that consumer confidence is unimportant. It most certainly is not, in fact there is a great deal to be said for having a consumer force out there who are confident of earning and ready to spend some money. This in itself helps drive recoveries, and if belief can be spread at such a crucial time it is not something that we should be cynical about. Of course, we’re talking about finance here, so there is going to be cynicism – indeed, if you could bottle a sneer and sell it, the entire global economy could be expanding by multiple percentage points tomorrow – but the knowledge that people are ready to start making purchases again is certainly something to be pleased about.

The pattern of skepticism in our world is something that makes it difficult to read anything into any package of figures released – and more so when the figures contradict each other so frequently. It would be interesting to fast forward into 2011 and see if people are still as dubious about the recovery and how it will hold then. Perhaps this tougher crust will at least enable us to see the warning signs ignored by so many when they were being waved frenetically a few years ago. If not, then this crisis has taught us nothing. What we seem to be seeing in the latest figures is encouraging in that respect – a guarded optimism that takes nothing for granted.