prince of travel youtube

Explore FI Canada

A podcast for Canadians, by Canadians

031: Canadian Miles and Points | Prince of Travel

In this episode, Money Mechanic and Chrissy interview Ricky Zhang from Prince of Travel! We talk miles and points in Canada, how to optimize your earning, and what to focus on now, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Money Mechanic Alright folks, thanks again for joining us on Explore FI Canada. Money Mechanic with you. And of course Chrissy. How are you doing this fine day?

Chrissy I’m great. How are you doing?

Money Mechanic Pretty good. I’m looking at some drizzly weather. So I’ve been trying to convince the dogs it’s not a walk day, but they’re not hearing any of it. So we’ll move on from that.

Money Mechanic Yeah, we’ve been wanting to talk about travel rewards and points on the show for a while now. So I figured I better get on the expert in Canada. We have Ricky from Prince of Travel with us on the show. Welcome, Ricky.

Ricky Hey, guys. Happy to be here. Thanks for having me.

Money Mechanic So Prince of Travel is your blog. And yeah, let’s just start off with a little off the wall here… so many people refer to traveling with on rewards points as travel hacking, you really don’t like that. You wrote a strong article about that a couple years ago. Just give us a sort of brief overview of what you feel this hobby should be more referred as.

Ricky Of course. So I guess a lot of people yeah, a lot of people know the practice of using rewards points and maximizing credit cards and loyalty programs to travel the world and they know that term. You know, they know that concept as the term travel hacking .

Ricky And I think it’s a bit unfortunate that that’s the term that has caught on originally because they just think it sends the wrong message, right? I think those who are, you know, those who are practicing this understand the sense that it’s kind of a hack…

Ricky In the sense that it’s a life hack, right, that allows you to do you know, it’s a clever way to use publicly available offers and products to get what you want kind of to travel the world. But I think externally, it doesn’t exactly send the best message in terms of what people’s intentions are.

Ricky I think it sends a message of, you know, there’s an element of shakiness or unethical in nature about it. Whereas, you know, I think it’s something really that is extremely natural and intuitive for people to try to be maximizing.

Ricky All the financial products out there all the credit cards, the loyalty programs, to pursue their goals, their travel goals. So really I like to call it you know, maximizing your credit card rewards, maximizing your credit card points.

Ricky Generally, on my website, I tend to just refer to the whole practice as, you know, miles and points. Miles and points landscape, the miles and points community. And that’s what we’re all a part of.

Chrissy Yeah, I agree with that view. I think it the term hacking does give it sort of an illicit kind of connotation. And we don’t really want that because everything we’re doing here is aboveboard, and it’s legal. It’s legitimate. There’s nothing wrong with what is happening here.

Ricky Absolutely.

Money Mechanic So you’ve got an excellent blog, PrinceofTravel.com , and you also have quite a good series of YouTube videos that are out there for all our listeners to go check out. So we’ll highlight some of those in the show notes.

Money Mechanic And one of the questions I wanted to sort of start off asking is I’m definitely a beginner in the traveling with miles and points, sort of hobby and I’ve never really gotten involved in it. I’ve definitely collected Aeroplan before, but those were just sort of from flight rewards.

Money Mechanic Anyway, I’ve collected Air Miles with my shopping. But I really haven’t dabbled into this. And you did a great video on some of the hard truths that is important for beginners to understand for when they’re going to start doing this… this, get serious about collecting miles and points. Can you outline some of those hard truths?

Ricky For sure, I think a lot of people are initially attracted to the idea of maximizing their miles and points by you know, the the promise of traveling the world and business class in first class, and kind of seeing the end results of it without necessarily appreciating the entire process of earning and redeeming points and all the thoughts and energy and effort that goes into it beforehand.

Ricky So I do think that when people are first starting out, it’s important for them to, you know, first of all understand the strategy and the process. And kind of the basic concepts that we talked about in the community, but also a few things that may not be immediately obvious.

Ricky So I guess a few of those hard truths that I had covered in the video would be, you know, in order to first of all, in order to be able to maximize and juggle many credit cards at once, you do need to have a high level of financial literacy, and a high level of organizational skills, right?

Ricky So that you never, for example, end up paying more fees than you need to or end up paying interest on missed payments. For example, you got to ensure that you constantly pay off all your credit card balances in full and on time.

Ricky Because any such additional fees aren’t going to quickly eat into the rewards that you earn and wipe out the value that you’re getting. So that would be I guess, the first, you know, major, hard truth that I tell people.

Ricky If you don’t have your financial house in order, then focus on that first before even thinking about maximizing rewards, because the rewards really is the gravy on top of having everything under control, which I’m sure many of our listeners, you know, the vast majority of our listeners do have their financial house in order. So that’s good.

Chrissy I think it’s important that you outline that because this could do way more damage than than good if you’re not if you don’t have your finances in order to start with.

Ricky Yeah, that would be the most major hard truth, I think to start out with the other hard truths, I think, is just to appreciate that maximizing your points is like anything else, you know, like building up other aspects of your, you know, financial strengths.

Ricky It’s also something that does require time and energy to learn and understand and try out for yourself in order to get good at, right. So when I say that, you know, I’m talking about the, the time and energy spent in terms of learning the learning the ropes at the start…

Ricky Of learning all the important concepts and strategies, but also in the sense that the miles and points is really a game that rewards people who are willing to spend some money in the first place on travel. Right?

Ricky I kind of I kind of like to say that it’s a pay to play game, where, the… sure that you’re able to get, let’s say $1,000 of value. If you don’t want to spend any money out of pocket, like if you want to spend zero dollars out of pocket, you’re able to take advantage of the credit card signup, bonuses that have, let’s say, first year free or no annual fee…

Ricky And you’re able to get, let’s say $1,000 in value from your flights and hotels as a result. But if you’re somebody who initially are are willing to spend, let’s say, $1,000 out of pocket, then you could potentially leverage the rewards to get $10,000 in value, like a much, much more significant amount of value, if you’re willing to pay to play at the start.

Chrissy Yeah, I like that concept that you outline that… as someone who has been in the game for a while and has seen the ins and outs of all the various credit card strategies. It’s nice to actually hear that you have to pay to play because a lot of us in the FI community, we are pretty frugal.

Chrissy We are really careful about how we spend our money. And it can be painful to have to pay those annual fees or anything else that might be involved in trying to earn the higher bonuses. It can be difficult to justify that. But when you really sit down and do the math, and you know what you’re doing, you’re right. When you pay to play, you can really get a lot farther ahead.

Ricky Yeah, absolutely. I think it’s something that most people in the community have had to deal with that change in mindset. I know I personally started out when I was a university student, and I didn’t have a lot of income.

Ricky At that point in my life, I was all about the frugality and, and spending as little money out of pocket as possible. And then, as I you know, developed some disposable income. I came to realize that Yeah, the value that’s really there to be attained is more available if you’re willing to spend a little more On, let’s say annual fees.

Ricky And, you know, the taxes and fees when you redeem points and that kind of stuff. So really, the mindset should be something like, you know, if you had an annual travel budget of a certain amount, regularly, you might be able to get, let’s say, one or two trips using your budget…

Ricky But with points by knowing how to maximize points, you could potentially turn that into four or five trips and in a much greater level of comfort to so business class in first class, for example.

Money Mechanic So I think it’s important to to point out pay to play means you can really level this up and leverage it up by paying for some of those fees. I mean, I’m definitely guilty of being adverse of paying any credit card fees, but that’s because I’ve never really made a plan to use the points I’m strictly a cashback person.

Money Mechanic So I think it’s really interesting. And the more I learned about that, as you can definitely start with the no-fee cards and I think the people in our community probably would want to start there. But like you’re saying you might get one trip a year out of that. But if you want to level this up and travel in some luxury, then you do need to have to invest a little bit of money into it,

Ricky For sure. And I think it’s also worth pointing out that, you know, even though I say that that’s the best way to unlock the most value, it doesn’t necessarily have to be the path that everybody goes down. I mean, at the end of the day, it really depends on your goals and what you want to get out of this.

Ricky How much you you know, enjoy traveling in the first place, how much of a priority travel is in your life, right? If it’s something that you really want to pursue, you know, in a larger quantities than than otherwise would be able to then the tools are there for you to do so.

Money Mechanic And I think that kind of leads us a little bit towards one of the next points we were going to have a little discussion about was having a good plan. Because for example, when I had my Air Miles , I was just getting them because I shopped Thrifty’s is in town here and I got Air Miles.

Money Mechanic I had no idea what I was going to use before. So for our listeners out there that just think that they want to start accumulating miles and points and maybe start turning some credit cards. Unless you’ve got a plan. Tell us a little bit about how to think forward and go, this is the end goal I want to have and how do I get there?

Ricky Absolutely. There’s two sides to the game, right? There’s earning points, which is most easily and most cost effectively done through credit cards and maximizing your return on spending and the signup bonuses.

Ricky And then there’s redeeming points for excellent value. So the idea there is, you basically acquire points for as low cost as possible, and then you’re aiming to redeem them as expensively as possible. As in for the most, the greatest value, the most expensive, possible stuff.

Ricky So usually, in terms of the retail tag price on stuff that’s going to be business class flights, first class flights. Now most people start out on the earning side, like you said, like kind of earning points here and there, you know, willy nilly without really putting much thought into what they’re going to be able to use those points for in the long run.

Ricky I usually advocate if somebody is interested in starting out on the right path for them to think, you know, think very hard about what trips are possible using points, like what types of trips, which destinations traveling and what class of service staying and what level of hotel, what what’s attainable using the various points offers that are available on the market out there…

Ricky Thinking about the exact trip that they’d like to take using points. And then thinking about the best points to use to book those trips. And then finally, putting together a strategy to earn the amount of points required, using the credit cards that are available on the market, and then executing on that strategy.

Chrissy Well, that’s interesting, because you’re flipping the script, like most of us do it backwards, right? We earn the points first, and then we go, oh, what am I going to do is this pile of points. But what you’re saying is it might make more sense to first learn about these programs and see which one might work for the trip that we want, and then go backwards from there and figure out what the best credit card or whatever system might work best to earn us the points that’ll get us the trip that we want.

Ricky Yeah, that’s gonna be the way to do it. That makes the most sense. And that ultimately, is the most time and cost effective for you to prevent you from you know, ending up with small balances of points, divided into multiple different programs, and then scrambling to figure out how to use them.

Chrissy As most of us, me included, we have these little bits of points everywhere, and they’re useless because they’re spread out so far, right?

Money Mechanic You’ve got the 4,000 Aeroplan miles sitting over there somewhere and like the 1,500 Air Miles that don’t do anything.

Chrissy Yeah! That’s that’s fantastic to have that to help us focus our efforts in the right places at the right time. Because that will get us the most benefit. Thank you for pointing that out. It takes someone who knows that the ins and outs of this well, in order to see that overall concept that way, because we’re all so used to doing it the way that we all do, which is just earning first and then deciding later.

Ricky Yeah.

Money Mechanic Well, and I think, too, that the really nice part about looking at it from that perspective is, it’s pretty overwhelming for most of us that are beginners to look at the volume of programs that are there, whether they’re through the credit cards through the airlines through our banks, I just have no clue what to pick.

Money Mechanic But if you take a look at down the road and say, I want to do a trip to South Africa, what airlines am I going to get there on what points are going to work the best and reverse engineer just like you described? I think that makes people’s decision how they start so much better.

Ricky Yeah, and the challenge is, all the different programs are telling you that they’re the best, right? Of course, if you look at all the banks, all of the credit cards, they’ve all found some, you know, some obscure criterion to say that they’re the number one rewards program for Canadians or something like that.

Ricky And the thing is, they may be number one for certain types of travelers, like I know, there are travelers out there that value, you know, programs like let’s say, Air Miles, or let’s say CIBC points. Further, you know, reasons that have merits, but it may not be the program that has the highest value on paper.

Ricky And that’s where you’re thinking about: exactly which places you’d like to go, which airlines you’d like to fly, in what class of service? And then which programs make that possible? How do I earn those points? Those are the steps.

Money Mechanic One of the things I got from one of the videos I was watching is that you talked about the sort of different types of points , those points that are representative of a dollar value. And then there’s also points that are transferable and what was the third one? I’m stumped now. There’s one in the middle there.

Ricky Right. The third one was like fixed value points.

Money Mechanic That’s right.

Ricky That’s one cent per point.

Money Mechanic So just briefly outline those three for our listeners, because that’s kind of what we’re all sort of dealing with and how they can be put to use just sort of a quick summary for us.

Ricky For sure. So we’re familiar with, you know, the fact that there’s tons of programs in Canada. And in general, I’d say that they all fall into one of three categories. The first category would be an airline frequent flyer program.

Ricky So an example might be Aeroplan, which is affiliated with Air Canada. Or let’s say, British Airways, Avios. So that’s the program for British Airways, but they do have some involvement here in Canada as well.

Ricky Generally, for the airline programs, each point doesn’t necessarily have a fixed value of its own until you redeem it for something. So every program has their own charts and rules that you have to follow when you redeem your points.

Ricky And these charts will be based on let’s say which geographic zones you’re flying to or how, you know, how far you’re flying. It’ll charge you a certain amount of points for the certain class of service. So the value really depends on what you use it for.

Ricky And the more time you spend studying the charts and the sweet spots within the charts, the more likely you are to extract the highest value there. So after airline programs, we then have fixed value points. So when I say by fixed value points are programs like Scotia Rewards or CIBC Aventura rewards, or let’s say BMO Rewards.

Ricky These programs, you know, they all give you a certain fixed value for every point that you earn, which you can then usually apply against travel. So an example is Scotia Rewards which is basically has a fixed value of one point equals one cent.

Ricky And you can then make any travel purchase on your Scotia Rewards card, whether it’s a flight, hotel or car rental, and then you can go onto your, you know, Scotia online dashboard and redeem those points against that travel purchase at that fixed rate.

Ricky So the advantage of fixed value points is that they’re simple to use, right? You know, you’re getting this fixed value. You don’t need to worry about studying any rules and charts, you can just go make your travel purchase and then apply your points against that purchase.

Ricky Now the disadvantage is that once again, the value is fixed at one cent per points and you might not be able to extract higher valuations like 5, 10, 15 cents per point. But you would if you did study a flexible award charts and you know, redeem your points for let’s say, a business class or first class.

Ricky And finally, we have transferable rewards, which is kind of the best of both worlds because they can be used as fixed value points. You know, if you just have a travel purchase that you’d like to make, you’d like to use your points for it without the hassle of, of looking into all the rules and charts, then you can use your transferable rewards in that purpose.

Ricky And since they’re transferable these points can also be transferred out to a variety of different airline and hotel partners as well. So the best transferable rewards in Canada would be American Express Membership Rewards which can be transferred to Aeroplan and British Airways Avios at a one to one ratio.

Ricky As well as hotel points like Marriott Bonvoy , for example. And the other big one would be RBC Avion . RBC Avion points actually can be transferred to a handful of frequent flyer programs and redeemed for very good value there too.

Ricky Or as I said, these points can also be applied directly to a travel purchase if you just prefer that simplicity. So really transferable points best of both worlds and are probably the most important points currency to prioritize earning.

Money Mechanic Yeah, I think are a lot of our listeners are going to be pretty familiar with how to optimize their credit cards, if they’re been on a cashback. Trying to optimize that in the past, but if they’re looking for travel, and you mentioned the Avion and the Amex ones…

Money Mechanic And that flexibility I think will be attractive to a lot of our listeners that maybe don’t want to have multiple credit cards or, or be churning all the time. And just the ability to transfer those between programs. That sounds very powerful to me.

Money Mechanic I’m sure it would resonate with listeners that would like to optimize those things. So those two cards are really nice to have in Canada. But when it comes down to really accumulating points as a beginner, we have to start talking about churning . Can you just kind of give us a sort of overview of what that looks like as a beginner? How do I start going about churning cards?

Ricky Sure, yeah, I agree. When you’re first starting out as a beginner, the real way to sort of level up your points earnings, if you don’t have you know, huge organic spending is to quote unquote, churn the cards, which is basically the idea of getting the cards purely for the signup bonuses.

Ricky And then with a view of cancelling the card and eventually, perhaps within the first year so that you don’t pay the second year’s annual fee, and then reapplying for it in the future in order to get that bonus again. And, you know, this is a practice that’s perfectly aboveboard and legal perspective.

Ricky But you, some credit card issuers may not actually like it very much, because obviously, it can be unprofitable for them. So that’s kind of why some people might be, you know, feeling a little touch and go about it.

Ricky But generally in Canada, it works pretty well. You look for the credit cards, one of the best signup bonuses out there. Generally speaking, when you’re starting out, it’s it’s safest to hold the card for at least six months before thinking about canceling it.

Ricky The reason for that is because of the impact on your credit score, right? When you open a card for six months and keep it open for six months. It’s no longer too new to report to the credit bureaus and instead it’s treated as in good standing so it actually contributes positively to your credit score.

Ricky And that’s why we recommend to hold for at least six months. And then you know, let’s say that eventually you do decide to cancel if you do want to reapply for the card and get a shot at getting that bonus again, then again, it’s recommended to leave at least a six month gap there.

Ricky And that’s really just about your relationship with the issuer, you don’t want to come across as you know, you’re just trying to get the bonuses and being a bad customer in general, right, you want to at least give them some opportunity to make profits as well.

Ricky So you want to be spending regularly on your card ideally, and not coming across as you’re purely there to turn right. The bottom line is you don’t want to make that intention too obvious.

Money Mechanic Right, so you’d basically open a card, get the bonus, a lot of them are going to have a minimum spend, you make that minimum spend, but you continue spending on that card for say that, like you said, maybe six months or whatever you feel is appropriate. Yeah.

Ricky Exactly.

Chrissy That’s a good point because I tend to just get the bonus and then stop my spending. Then I leave it for a few months and then I cancel. So it’s great to have these very specific, actionable things that we should keep our our eye on and and to do so that we’re not taking advantage in a way that’s going to hurt the overall system and make it look like we’re just out for the points and then we’re gone.

Ricky Yeah, I think I think there, you know, there are cards out there that makes sense to spend on a day to day basis to in terms of the returns on spending. And those can be the cards that you prioritize in terms of your spending.

Ricky After you’ve completed that minimum spend, there are cards out there that, you know, don’t offer as competitive a return on your spending. And for those, you could just think about, you know, perhaps putting a few small purchases on it every now and then.

Ricky And I think the more the more serious people who are, you know, try to try to apply for as many cards and earn as many points from the signup bonuses as possible. Most of their spending is going to be going towards some of that minimum spend right in order to unlock the bonuses that they’re chasing.

Chrissy So, if our listeners would like to pursue a more minimalist approach and just get one or two cards that will just serve long term, they don’t have to keep switching around from card to card. What are a few that a handful or less that you might recommend that people just hang on to long term? They don’t have to worry about, you know, thinking about a new card every few months?

Ricky Right. It’s a good question. And I think a lot of people would probably benefit from a minimalistic approach. If they don’t want to, you know, go all gung ho with the credit card applications. I think it goes back to the fact that the transferable currencies are the most valuable…

Ricky Because they offer the best of both worlds, right in terms of the simplicity of fixed value points, and the flexibility and higher value of frequent flyer programs. So like I mentioned, the two best transferable currencies in Canada would be American Express , and RBC .

Ricky And that’s kind of where I would focus my attention on if I just wanted to build a kind of minimalistic credit card portfolio. So I would probably choose to have one American Express card and one RBC card. Because remember, not every issuer out there accepts American Express.

Ricky So you always want to combine that with an RBC Visa, for example. And the two cards, they’re are probably recommend for most people would be the American Express Cobalt and the RBC Avion Visa Infinite .

Ricky Now the Cobalt is very unique card in the sense that it gives you five times the points on food and drink purchases, which is an incredible return pretty much unparalleled right within Canada in terms of that five times the points return.

Ricky And I think since food and drinks, which includes groceries dining, food delivery services, and you know, cafes and bars and stuff, since that’s such a big chunk of spending for most households, I think it makes sense to choose the Cobalt as one of your core cards to hold on to…

Ricky And then combine that with the RBC Avion which you would use as a Visa card wherever the retailer doesn’t accept Amex, in order to rack up some of your points. which you can then again, transfer to a variety of frequent flyer programs.

Chrissy That’s perfect. I love how you just streamlined it and outlined it so clearly there because even me I, I would say I’m kind of an intermediate. I’m intermediate with my knowledge of credit card points. And it’s hard for me to wade through all that’s out there, all the noise, and figure out what would be the most beneficial but simple for for me to use. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

Money Mechanic Yeah, and I always find that every time I look on, you know, Rate Hub or any of the sites and kind of try and compare cards. The first thing I always see is the signup bonus. So it’s hard to sort of get past that initial bonus…

Money Mechanic And dig in and go well, what’s gonna give me more value with my day to day spending as I work towards a bigger goal. And because I haven’t done much with doing travel miles and points before, I haven’t spent a lot of time into that.

Money Mechanic I do dig more into the cashback in the past but I’m definitely at the point. Now I think I’m going to add a card into the rotation here to start doing ratings the miles and points to as we’ve I’ve got some time obviously right now before we travel again, so maybe it’s a good time to start leveraging up for that.

Money Mechanic Now before we move on too far, we talked a little bit about churning, you mentioned organic spending, which I think is fairly obvious. That’s our day to day type normal expenses. There’s another like type of spending, which I actually misunderstood…

Money Mechanic Because when I first heard what manufactured spending , I thought it was buying a gift card so that you could spend it later on but that’s not actually manufactured spending, by definition, that’s just, you know, using it’s an opportunity to spend ahead of time maybe to make your the signup payment requirement done that you know, you’re going to spend the money.

Money Mechanic So manufactured spending without going into some crazy detail on this, but it’s a really interesting subject just give us a little bit of a high level look at what manufactured spending is and how people that want to really level up their points accumulation are gonna need to do some of the research and learn how to do this for themselves.

Ricky Sure. So manufactured spending. Yeah, you’re right. So something like buying gift cards, and then using that gift cards for your regular spending, that still falls into the category of spending that you would have done anyway, right, you’re just kind of different or bringing it forward to spend right now.

Ricky Whereas manufacturers spending, the idea there is that you’re putting purchases on your credit card, that can be easily liquidated into cash, and then you then use that cash to pay off your credit card and bring you back down to a zero balance.

Ricky But then what you’re left with is the points from that purchase. So you kind of need to you know, think about this process a little bit and think about you know exactly how that works. But basically, it’s about generating points on your credit card through putting purchases on it that you can then easily liquidate into cash and then pay off.

Ricky So obviously, this is something that you know, seasoned practitioners, who are very familiar with the process can use to generate huge amounts of points, because it just looks like purchases, regular purchases on your credit card.

Ricky But having said that, seasoned practitioners tend to be very secretive about the exact methods that they use, to manufacture spend, because it’s something that necessarily imposes a cost onto a third party in the process of generating points, right.

Ricky So one example from the past might be the Royal Canadian Mint used to sell these face value coins that you could buy on their website. So it was like $20 for $20, you could pay with a credit card, and then you would get this coin that was worth $20, that was legal tender…

Ricky Which you could then use to pay off your credit card. So then people you know, bought up thousands of dollars worth of these points. And then you know, you use the thousand dollars to pay off the credit card leaving themselves with thousands of points on their account.

Ricky So when you think about this method, you need to think about who was actually paying for those points that people were earning. And the answer is the Royal Canadian Mint was bearing the cost of everything right?

Ricky They were, you know, producing this face value coin that was supposed to be a collector’s item. But then they were also accepting the coin back from the banks where these, you know, weird, big coins are being deposited, technically as legal tender.

Ricky And then they were, you know, they’re bearing the cost of transporting those coins back to the Mint, and also paying the credit card transaction fees, the interchange fees on every transaction on the website that people were ordering for.

Ricky And so eventually, because this imposes such a big burden on the Mint, they shuttered the program, and they stopped issuing the face value coins. And so the idea is yeah, manufacturer spending imposes a cost on a third party.

Ricky It’s somewhat exploitative, and that’s why people don’t like to talk about it too openly. Because if the methods, you know, got widely distributed, if everybody started doing it, then the methods would be shut down.

Ricky It’s definitely very high level very advanced method to generate points. I would say something that not everybody, absolutely not everybody needs to pursue. Only if you’re really, really serious about wanting to travel the world and business class or first class, then it’s something to consider.

Ricky And if you do you know, if you’re interested in at least want to hear more about the subject, then I would say the best way to actually learn more is to attend some in person events with people who know their stuff.

Ricky People in the miles and points community, where it tends to be much more open to talk about this stuff than online where nobody really knows each other. And there’s always the chance of, you know, speaking to too many people and getting it shut down.

Chrissy Interesting. Yeah, that’s what I’ve heard, like, both in Canada and the States where it yeah, it has to become kind of a secretive thing so that it doesn’t get shut down. because too many people are taking advantage.

Chrissy The, Ricky, part of the reason why we wanted to get you on the show now is because the landscape has changed a little because of the environment we’re in with the pandemic, and all travel has stopped.

Chrissy So we’re wondering, as expert you are, what kind of strategies should listeners… should anyone who’s interested in miles and points be focusing on right now, since we can’t travel? What, what should we be doing?

Ricky Right. Most of the advice that I have given so far right, is, is applicable during ordinary times when people are traveling when you’re always thinking about, you know, what’s the next big trip I can go on these days?

Ricky Obviously, there’s lots of uncertainty across all industries, including this one. So one of the elements of uncertainty in loyalty programs is that you know, nobody really knows whether the the future of the loyalty programs will remain the same whether or not they’re going to be devalued or the rules are going to change and stuff.

Ricky So the idea is right now the most important thing is to not have all your eggs in one basket, right? Not be collecting, you know, hundreds of thousands of the points only in one program, because on the chance that that program gets devalued or the rules change unfavorably…

Ricky Then the value of your points, entire points holdings has decreased, right? You want to remain as flexible and as versatile as possible. And again, it would go back to those transferable rewards currencies. If you held you know, major balances in American Express points , RBC Avion points…

Ricky Then let’s say that one of the transfer partners, let’s say, you know, let’s pretend that Aeroplan changes the rules and makes it much more unfavorable in the future for redemptions right? You’re kind of protected from that devaluation because you still have the opportunity to transfer your points to different programs…

Ricky Like British Airways or Delta or American Airlines, or WestJet, or hotel points too. So you’re definitely insulated from single programs devaluing if you focus on transferable currencies. Like American Express , and RBC.

Ricky In addition, I would also say that right now there’s a real case to be made to perhaps take things a little easier than ordinary times in terms of racking up points quickly. And I say that again, because nobody really knows when we’re going to be able to travel again… you know what that timeline looks like?

Ricky And so it could make sense to spend this time kind of doing more research and understanding what the possibilities are, and thinking about your own travel goals and developing strategies before jumping into action. hopefully sometime soon in the future when we’re able to travel again.

Chrissy That’s great advice. I think all of us need a bit of guidance right now with so much stuff up in the air. It’s helpful to hear your thoughts on it and helps me personally because I have been collecting kind of haphazardly.

Chrissy And now it it helps me realize that yeah, if we have all our points focus in certain programs is a bit of a risk. And it would be helpful to maybe start considering those.. what are those? The transferable points. That they sound like they have a lot of value, especially in times like these.

Chrissy So maybe we’ll move on to the next point we’re going to talk to you about: what should we be looking at as in the future, as far as booking travel? Should we just be focused continuing to focus on learning about the systems and accumulating these more flexible points? Do you have any ideas on what we should be looking ahead to as far as planning and booking future travel?

Ricky Yeah, it’s a good question. And it goes back to what I was saying about, nobody’s really sure about the timeline in terms of when we’re going to be able to travel. So the strategies as a result are a little bit all over the place.

Ricky And there are a few different items to talk about, but I’ll try to touch upon all of them. One of them is, you know, the future of whether or not we’re going to be able to get value out of our points compared to, let’s say, just paying cash for travel for flights and for hotels, for example.

Ricky You know, I’ve talked about how the reason that we’re able to get such high value out of our points in ordinary times is because we’re able to redeem for business class or first class. We understand that, you know, those fares that people pay for business class…

Ricky Regular people who buy these tickets are business travelers, right? That’s the reason why the fares are so high because business travelers just pay a large amount of money for for these fares often on the last minute basis too.

Ricky Now, with the future of travel uncertain, with the future of business travel uncertain because people are doing more work online, etc. nobody really knows if those fares are going to stay nearly as high. And indeed, we’ve already seen like in the past few weeks or so we’ve already seen a bunch of cash fares for business class flights and economy class flights that are way below the usual amount, right?

Ricky Because, again, nobody’s traveling right now, it makes sense, the cash fares are lower. I think for the foreseeable future, we’ll see cash fares that are generally lower than what we’ve expected to see them in the past.

Ricky So there’s definitely reason to kind of also think about the cash side of paying for travel in addition to rewards points, right? When you think about the relative value that you could be securing, so that’s one thing.

Ricky The other thing is, is now the right time to be planning and booking travel? And I think, and I think that depends on, you know, your appetite for traveling soon after, let’s say, the worst of the pandemic passes, right.

Ricky I think it will be a gradual process in terms of governments relaxing the travel advisories and countries opening up their borders and relaxing the requirements for quarantines, for example. So it depends on if you’re willing to kind of play that game and trying to travel as soon as possible.

Ricky Or if you feel more comfortable waiting for everything to blow over first, maybe you’ll be waiting, you know, six months, one year from now, before taking a trip. And whatever decision you make. Another thing that you need to be thinking about is how you’re paying for these flights and hotels, and especially flights.

Ricky And I say that because right now the airlines all around the world are strapped for cash, right? They have negative revenue because more people are canceling than booking travel, obviously, because nobody’s traveling.

Ricky And so what’s been happening what we’ve been observing is a worrying but somewhat understandable trend, where if you book you know, a ticket with an airline, and they’re the ones who canceled your flight, then they actually refuse to provide you with the full refund to your original method of payment.

Ricky And instead they they provide you with the travel credit for the next 24 months which is, you know, under under law, they’re supposed to give you a full refund. So that’s a risk that you’re taking by booking tickets right now, booking regular tickets with your cash.

Ricky And instead, I would say for anybody who has points on hand, use your points to book trips that you’d like to take over the next six to 12 months. Because even if those trips need to be canceled, the loyalty programs have been a lot more generous about providing those refunds refunding your miles and the taxes that you’ve paid compared to the airline’s themselves who badly need to hold on to that cash.

Chrissy That’s so interesting. And I found in the past too, that loyalty programs do tend to be more generous with their refunds. They often don’t even charge a fee or if they do, it’s much smaller than if you had paid in cash.

Ricky Yeah, it’s also a benefit of loyalty programs in ordinary times too, because you’ll find that a lot of their cancellation policies are much more friendly. Sometimes they don’t charge a fee if you’re canceling, let’s say 60 days or more before your date of departure…

Ricky And even if they do charge a fee, it’s like 75 bucks, and you get all your miles back, for example, compare that to oftentimes when you’re booking, let’s say, the cheapest economy class ticket. It’s fully non refundable, right? It’s like take it or leave it.

Ricky Or even if you cancel, it becomes a travel voucher that you have to use in the future. So in general, traveling on points is much more flexible than traveling the normal way. And and that’s one of the reasons we love it so much.

Chrissy So personally, for you, what are your plans? Are you going to be booking travel? Are you going to wait for six months, 12 months, or are you going to start booking earlier than that? Because there might be some deals to be had?

Ricky Yeah, I’m definitely on the more eager side, right. I love traveling. I built my whole website around the idea of traveling as much as possible. And so I’m looking to obviously get going as soon as it’s safe and appropriate to do so.

Ricky Now exactly what when that is, I’m not sure, but I think my strategy will be to book trips and reschedule my existing trips for the future, but with the understanding that they might not materialize, and I may need to make further changes or push it further into the future as well.

Ricky So I’m staying flexible. Right now, for example, I was supposed to take another like round the world trip in May, but I’ve pushed that into August. Some people are still saying, like, you’re not going to be able to, you know, enter these countries by August, and there’s a good chance that that happens. And I’m comfortable with the fact that I may need to call that trip off eventually, as well.

Ricky But yeah, I’m just remaining flexible and keeping an open mind in terms of being able to make the bookings, again, using my points instead of cash to take advantage of the flexible cancellations. But also having that open mind and being willing to cancel if need be.

Chrissy So if someone like me, needs to be booking on cash because I’m a family of four and it’s really hard to accumulate enough points to book a trip all in points for a family of four, would you recommend it’s probably safer to hold off then?

Chrissy Because we don’t know what the refunds are going to be like in a year from now. If we were planning to travel in a year, it would it be safer to hold off on booking anything on cash? And if you have enough points and use that, but if not, maybe don’t make cash bookings right now.

Ricky I think right now, like as, as of the time that we’re recording this, I think that’s probably true. I know that many passenger advocacy groups in Canada are working hard to have, you know, have the Canadian transport agency, have the government review these rules on refunds…

Ricky And kind of step in and, you know, stick up for consumers rights in terms of if the airline cancels your flight, you’re entitled to a full refund. Right, end of story. Until that happens, yeah, I would kind of observe the situation and see if there’s any changes to this worrying practice of the airlines just holding on to everybody’s money.

Ricky Having said that, you know, I have noticed that in the US and in Europe, the governments have stepped in and have said that airlines should be providing the refunds. And they’ve given airlines a little bit of a relaxed timeframe to do so.

Ricky But they have said they have kind of put their foot down and said that, yeah, it is your obligation to provide the refunds. So if you’re booking travel, you know, to Europe or on a European carrier, then they will be subject to those rules.

Ricky But again, it you know, if you’re more risk averse, it is a situation that’s worth monitoring for a while before jumping in on a hot deal.

Chrissy So that covers my questions. We have a few more but…

Money Mechanic I’ve got a I’ve got a really important…

Chrissy Yeah, okay…

Money Mechanic Really important question. This cant, this can’t wait. Do you have any idea, how… do you keep track of how many credit cards you’ve had?

Ricky I do I do. You need the you need the organizational skills right. You need to be on top of everything. So…

Money Mechanic For fun, how many of you had in your lifetime for travel, for accumulating miles and points?

Ricky Um, yeah, that’s a question that I get all the time. And I’m just pulling up my spreadsheet now, because I, you know, I don’t keep it off the top of my head, but so I think I personally have had 45 in Canada, open and closed life to date.

Money Mechanic I thought it would be more actually interesting, okay.

Chrissy Yeah.

Ricky Yeah. And here’s the thing. I know, I know, a lot of people out there actually do have a lot more, because they, you know, they go for like 12 new cars per year or something. But then that’s just under my name in Canada.

Ricky You know, there are more dimensions to this game to, obviously getting credit cards for your household for your family members, for your friends. And there’s the US side of the game to us credit cards, obviously, much more lucrative than they are here.

Ricky So across, you know, all all the accounts that I manage, maybe across all geographies, it’s probably closer to 60, 70.

Money Mechanic Wow.

Chrissy Wow!

Money Mechanic That’s, that’s pretty cool. Yeah, well, I think we, you know, we’ve just barely scratched the surface. And that’s why we wanted to have you on the show because you’re a wealth of knowledge. And definitely let our listeners know where they can go and dig into this. where they can find you.

Ricky Yeah, absolutely. So I mostly share my content in in blog form over on PrinceofTravel.com . That’s my website, I usually publish seven to eight times per week in terms of new content. And, you know, there’s always lots of new stuff to talk about exciting news and developments in the miles and points space…

Ricky As well as my own analysis, and advice on the best deals and the best opportunities. In addition, I also publish video content on my YouTube channel . So Prince of Travel, you’ll be able to find it. And that’s really, I noticed that there were a lot of YouTubers in the US were talking about credit cards and optimizing your credit card holdings and portfolio anf stuff…

Ricky But not really anybody in Canada doing it. So I decided to also jump into the video space too. And that’s been a lot of fun. And I know a lot of people have found that valuable. And finally, you know, I’m on Instagram a lot.

Ricky I share the highlights of my travels, you know, the fancy business class pictures and stuff that’s kind of showing people the end results right and getting people interested in what’s possible and learning more about that.

Ricky Yeah, so I would say those are the three main platforms that you will find me on PrinceofTravel.com , the YouTube channel , and the Instagram .

Chrissy I would throw in your email list too. I’m your, one of your email subscribers, and you often send out these last minute deals or these breaking news articles that we need to pay attention to if we’re serious about earning points. So join Ricky’s newsletter it’s it’s been really helpful for me I’ve I’ve learned a lot and I’ve gained a lot from it.

Ricky Yeah, absolutely. And thanks for that, Chrissy. If you’re on PrinceofTravel.com , you can join the newsletter which you’ll receive on weekly basis every Sunday, that gives you the latest, you know summaries of the posts of the week as well as the biggest news from the week.

Ricky You can also choose to join my Insiders email list, which is basically a license for me to email you whenever I want, when time sensitive deals and just thoughts that come to my mind and stuff like that. Yeah, I hope to see you all on the list too.

Money Mechanic Well, and fair warning to our listeners. If you start watching Ricky’s videos, you’re gonna get caught up, he has got an awesome intro to your videos, and the music’s quite catchy. It’s stuck in my head.

Ricky Yeah, I would agree with that. Actually, I find myself watching the intro quite a few times… editing too.

Money Mechanic Yeah, it’s a good one. Yeah, I enjoyed all your videos and it’s been an absolute pleasure talking to you today. There’s so much to learn in this area and for any of our listeners that are interested in it. Ricky’s a great place to start with his blog and his YouTubes.

Money Mechanic And yeah, it’s I’m kind of a little bit excited about this. Now there I do have some time to learn more about it and that’s sort of downtime. And I’ve never really put as much thought into this as I have recently. So thanks again for being on the show. Great talking with you.

Ricky Thanks so much for having me. Chrissy and Mister Money Mechanic.

Chrissy Yes, thank you, Ricky, we’re happy that you are sharing what you know, in the Canadian space because there’s not enough info and you put out great content. So thank you for sharing it. And thank you for coming on to the show.

Ricky Yeah, it’s my pleasure. Thank you guys.

Transcribed by Otter.ai

Outro Thanks for listening. If you’ve been getting value from our content, please support us in the following ways:

Leave us a review and subscribe in your favourite podcast player.
Tell your friends and family about us.
Use our referral links at exploreficanada.ca/recommendations .

All of our show notes can be found at exploreficanada.ca . You can also find us at our own blogs figarage.ca , or eatsleepbreathefi.com .

Our music today was provided by Purple Planet .

Prince of Travel YouTube videos

What Is Manufactured Spending? (If you know, you know…)
The Major Points Programs (Aeroplan, Alaska, Avios, and more)
Credit Cards & Points: The 9 Types of People You Meet
Some Hard Truths on Credit Cards & Points
The Minimalist Credit Card Portfolio (Canada)
How I’m Getting Through Quarantine (Credit Card Strategies, The Future of Travel, etc.)
The Credit Card “Churn” (How to Rack Up the Points)

Episode transcripts created in:

Help us grow by:

Leaving a review and subscribing in your favourite podcast directory.
Sharing our show with family and friends.
Using our referral links on the Our Recommendations page.

Thanks for your support!

“I Find That Knowing a Bit of the Language – Even Just a Few Words – Helps Make My Travels Richer and More Meaningful”

Signing up for credit cards through partner links earns us a commission. Terms apply to the offers listed on this page. Here’s our full advertising policy: How we make money .

Update: One or more card offers in this post are no longer available. Check our Hot Deals for the latest offers.

Welcome to the next installment of our interview series where folks share their thoughts about Big Travel with Small Money! If you’re interested in reading more articles like this one, please subscribe to our email newsletter ! This interview has been edited for content and clarity.

Miles & Points Interview: Prince of Travel

This week we’re interviewing Ricky from Prince of Travel . You can follow his adventures on Instagram , Facebook , and YouTube .

How and when did you start collecting miles and points?

I grew up in China. I was on a school trip when this obsession started. During some downtime at the airport, a friend and I tried to sneak into a lounge. Well, sneak perhaps isn’t the right word. We just waltzed in there and proudly took a seat on the nearest couch, before we were promptly booted out by the lounge staff. That was when I realized that “airline status” was a thing.

Fast forward to 2013, when Aegean Airlines Miles+Bonus was offering an extremely easy path to Star Alliance Gold Status . You could earn it by accumulating 20,000 status miles! And the status would then be valid for 3 years.

I was flying back and forth between Toronto and Beijing at the time because I was visiting my family while attending university in Canada. I realized I could credit all my Air Canada flights to Aegean and earn Gold status with just a handful of round-trip flights! I could finally experience the airline lounge life I had been craving ever since getting unceremoniously ejected from an airport lounge all those years ago.

In researching the Aegean Star Alliance Gold Status trick, I stumbled upon FlyerTalk and miles & points blogs. I haven’t looked back since.

I didn’t get into collecting points through credit cards until about 2015. But since then I’ve racked up millions of points and turned my love for travel into a lifestyle.

Why did you start your blog? What’s special about it?

I’ve always been passionate about travel and learning more about the world around us. But I never considered properly investing time in that passion until I realized I had accumulated a wealth of knowledge about how to travel the world using points (especially from a Canadian angle). And it’s nice to share that knowledge.

Once I got into the miles & points hobby and started traveling much more, I spent about a year toying with the idea of starting a blog. I wanted a domain name I really liked.

Then one day “ Prince of Travel ” came to me as I was sitting in a coffee shop by my house and I snapped it up. I think it has a nice ring to it, as it emphasizes my love of travel while also promoting – granted, perhaps with a tinge of self-importance – the luxury and lifestyle that comes with being able to use points to fund my adventures.

I’d like to think everything I do at Prince of Travel ties back to learning more about the world and being a global citizen. I find many blogs get bogged down in the nitty-gritty details of using points without tying it back to why we do all of this.

For me, I can talk about the sweet spots of earning and redeeming points for hours on end. But only because it’s ultimately being done for the love of travel and the ability to satisfy that undying curiosity about the world without spending lots of money. I do my best to make sure my readers never lose sight of this as they build their credit card spreadsheets and calculate their costs.

What’s the one single thing people can do to get more miles?

For me it comes down to one central tenet: Taking action! I believe experience is the best form of learning. I see too many people thinking that reading blogs and scouring forums is enough when it comes to racking up miles. While research is important, ultimately there are certain things you can only figure out by trying it yourself.

The way I see it, by researching blogs and forums and following the advice you find there, you might be able to earn enough points for 1 or 2 luxurious trips around the world per year. But at some point, you’ll need to take matters into your own hands if you want to get the most out of this hobby.

What’s your most memorable travel experience?

Admittedly for a self-styled Prince of Travel, I haven’t quite seen as much of the world as I would like. But the most unforgettable experience I have had is when I visited Brazil for the World Cup in 2014. I’ve been a huge football (soccer) fan since I was very young. Being able to attend a celebration of the game in a country as passionate for the sport as Brazil was a truly special experience.

I spent about a week in both Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, and got to watch one of the quarterfinals matches in Rio’s Maracanã Stadium, one of the world’s great footballing venues. This was also my first independent trip to a part of the world that some might deem unsafe – indeed, many were warning me about the dangers of Brazil prior to my trip – and I found it to be an eye-opening experience that helped me grow as a traveler in many ways.

Visiting Brazil in person and seeing my fears were unfounded helped make me aware of the significant influence of the media and our social circles on our perception of other countries and peoples. This further elevated the importance of travel in my mind as a means of overcoming these warped perceptions.

What do your family and friends think of your miles & points hobby?

Traveling on points is sort of my “thing” and everyone knows it at this point. They’re all pretty amazed by the First Class flights and fancy hotel stays. But no one in my circle has taken it to quite the same level as I have.

I recognize not everyone is as obsessive about travel. But at the same time, I’ve offered to help people through the entire process of booking a 2-week luxury vacation for little money out-of-pocket, and there haven’t been many people taking me up on that offer.

I find that my friends who do show an interest tend to be good with numbers, comfortable with their finances, and at least slightly more interested in traveling the world than your average vacationer. And they are at least slightly more of a risk-taker than your average person.

Meanwhile, the typical travelers tend to look at me like I’m a snake oil salesman when I talk about this stuff.

Is there any tool or trick which you’ve found especially useful in this hobby?

Plenty! I spend hours upon hours playing with the Great Circle Mapper. As a Canadian points collector I love making use of Aeroplan’s generous routing rules. I also enjoy using Wikipedia’s airport articles and Google Flights to figure out which airlines fly where.

I also swear by ExpertFlyer as an essential tool for someone who’s engaged in this hobby. The number of hours it’s saved me when searching for awards is too much to count! Throw in the useful info on fare availability, minimum connection time, and flight loads (especially in a pinch during irregular operations!) and it’s something I can’t live without.

What was the least expected way you’ve earned miles or points?

This would have to be the time when I asked American Express Membership Rewards to move 30,000 points from one account to another, except they ended up adding 30,000 points to both accounts! Whoops, free 60,000 AMEX points for me!

What would your readers be surprised to know about you?

I’m very passionate about learning foreign languages, and always try to pick up as much of the language as possible before embarking on a trip. My native languages are English and Mandarin. And I picked up some Cantonese as a result of living in Hong Kong for a few years. Then I studied French and Spanish in a classroom setting before tackling Portuguese and Japanese as part of my travels in recent years.

I find that knowing a bit of the language – even just a few words – helps make my travels richer and more meaningful by a huge margin, because you’re able to communicate and form a local–visitor connection with so many more people you meet along the way. I’ll be heading to Russia for the World Cup this summer – continuing on the tradition from 2014 – and so picking up a bit of Russian is my next big challenge!

Any parting words?

Ultimately, you just gotta be thankful this all exists – somehow amidst all these institutions of banks, airlines, hotels, and credit bureaus, our tiny subset of consumers is able to figure out a way to travel the world almost for free! It’s kind of crazy when you think about it, and it might not be around forever, so let’s enjoy it while it’s here.

Ricky – Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Big Travel with Small Money!

If you enjoyed this article, please take a second to subscribe to our email newsletter !

Contributor

Toree Roy is a contributor to Million Mile Secrets. She covers topics on points and miles, credit cards, airlines, hotels, and general travel.

Join the Discussion!

Comments are closed.

These radical, sustainable travel tips could help save the planet

May 26, 2021 0

Revenge vacations: The most unique places you can travel to in 2021

April 30, 2021 0

Our Favorite Partner Cards

New Prince of Travel membership, a guide to using Awayz, and more...

Text-only version of this email, the latest emails sent by prince of travel.

Air France KLM Mastercard Offer Flies Away Soon, Get 100% Bonus on Aeroplan Points Purchases, and more...

Air Canada supports Canada's Olympic team, find out about the best credit cards for gas stations, and more...

Find out if Amex Platinum is still worth the annual fee, get tips on using FlightConnections, and more…

Get the most out of Google Flights, Alaska Airlines launches new Toronto route, and more…

Earn a 30% bonus on your RBC Avion points, 8 tricks to save money on flights, and more...

Earn 50,000 Marriott Bonvoy points, apply for a Flying Blue status match, and more...

More emails, deals & coupons from prince of travel.

Comparing Aeroplan and Flying Blue, the best credit cards for foodies, and more...

Lynx Air exits Canadian skies forever, last call for HSBC Rewards transfers, and more...

New offer on the Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard, Aeroplan's targeted status extension promotion, and more...

The launch of Prince Collection, HSBC closes off new card applications, and more...

A new grand prize for The Travel Summit 2024, extended offer on the Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard, and more...

A cornucopia of new credit card offers, a refreshed guide to Aeroplan Elite Status, and more...

New credit card offers from TD and Scotiabank, hotel deals in Edmonton and Vancouver, shopping for Air Canada fares, and more...

Prince of Travel's Black Friday Deals Are Here

Double or triple refer-a-friend bonuses with American Express Canada, Alaska Airlines launches a new route, and more...

Prince Collection: Our In-House Luxury Travel Agency

Email offers, discounts & promos from our top stores.

Beat the July heat with 2x points 🔥

How to Make Homemade Limoncello, the Perfect Summer Night’s Drink

Good news! Instant Dutch Oven Slow Cooker is now on sale for a limited time + Warehouse Sale!

Hurry! 50% Off Winter Edit Ends Tonight

4th of July SALE is Live: 30% OFF Cabinets!

🎁Get your FREE e-book and 10% OFF discount code!

4th of July Weekend Savings! 🎇

🎆 Save up to $150 in our Early Access 4th of July Sale‼️

No.23 / Make New Time for Old Friends

Desio☀ LAST HOURS 2+1+ POCHETTE FREE

Red, White, and Pool Party! ☀️

You're Invited 💌 To Our Deal Days Party 🥳

Maximize Your Travel Dollar With These Tips From Prince of Travel

Traveling is a wonderful way to experience new cultures, meet new people, and broaden your horizons. However, the world of tickets, bookings, and miles can be confusing, especially if you are traveling for the first time or are a little rusty after the pandemic. The good news is that with a little bit of clever planning and creativity, it is possible to make the most of your budget and have an amazing travel experience.

“The globe is my passion, and I’m on a never-ending quest to gain a complete understanding of every square inch of our beautiful planet,” says Ricky Zhang, the founder of Prince of Travel. “And with the magic of Miles & Points at your fingertips, you don’t have to be rolling in the dough to travel. You don’t even need to spend much money at all. Some of the most satisfying, most luxurious travel experiences out there can be almost free, simply by maximizing travel rewards.”

We will provide you with tips and strategies from Prince of Travel, so you can see the world without breaking a sweat or the bank.

5 Travel Tips That Make A Difference
6 Simple Tips on How NOT to Get Lost while Traveling
5 Tips on How You Can Balance Your Career and Travel
The Complete Travel Gear and Packing Tips for Female Travelers
Budget Travel Tips for Young Adventurers

Table of Contents

Rack up the Credit Card Points

One strategy for making the most of your travel budget is to take advantage of credit card points. Many credit card companies offer rewards programs that allow you to earn points for every dollar you spend. You can then travel on credit card points by redeeming them on expenses such as flights, hotels, and rental cars. By using a travel rewards credit card for your everyday purchases, you can earn points that can be used towards your travel expenses, effectively reducing the overall cost of your trip.

Just be sure to choose a credit card with a rewards program that aligns with your spending habits and pay off your balance in full each month to avoid interest charges. If you are unsure which credit cards offer the best rewards for travel, Prince of Travel has a comprehensive guide on their website that can help you choose the right one.

Join a Loyalty Miles Program

Another way to make the most of your travel budget is by joining an air miles loyalty program. Almost all major airlines offer loyalty programs that allow you to earn miles or points for each flight taken. These miles can then be redeemed for free flights, seat upgrades, or other travel-related expenses. By signing up for a loyalty program and consistently flying with the same airline or alliance, you can accumulate miles more quickly and earn elite status benefits such as lounge access and priority boarding. Additionally, loyalty program members are often offered exclusive deals and promotions, providing even more opportunities to save money on travel expenses.

However, note that not all air miles loyalty programs are created equal, so you should research and compare different programs before committing. Prince of Travel has numerous resources on their website that can help you navigate the world of loyalty programs and find the one that works best for you.

Take Advantage of Offers

Airlines, hotels, and other travel providers frequently offer deals and discounts to attract customers, so it is worth keeping an eye out for these opportunities too. For example, you may be able to snag a discounted flight or hotel room during a flash sale or take advantage of a package deal that includes airfare and accommodations at a reduced price. Signing up for email newsletters or following travel providers on social media can be a great way to stay informed about these offers. Additionally, many credit card companies and travel booking websites offer exclusive deals and discounts to their members, so be sure to check for these before booking your trip.

Prince of Travel suggests that you can also be strategic with your bookings to maximize your miles. For example, try booking flights during promotions or sales, as you can earn bonus miles during these periods. Similarly, consider booking flights with a layover instead of a direct flight, as this can often earn you more miles.

Join a Travel-Savvy Community

Finally, if you are serious about traveling smart, join a travel-savvy community. Prince of Travel offers membership into their Miles & Points community, where you can connect with like-minded individuals who share tips and insider knowledge on how to maximize your budget while traveling. Membership also comes with access to exclusive content and invitations to live events, allowing you to deepen your knowledge and expand your network in the world of travel. In addition, members of these communities may have valuable information about hidden gems, recommendation accommodations, or special deals or promotions.

Members of the Miles & Points community also benefit from accessing the preferred partner programs of major global hotel chains like St. Regis and Hyatt Regency. Examples of the perks that can be enjoyed when booking through these programs include room upgrades, free breakfasts, late check-outs, and double loyalty points.

So, there you have it! Traveling without breaking your budget is not only possible but extremely rewarding—in more ways than one. By taking advantage of the expertise of the Prince of Travel, you can stretch your travel dollar and make the most of your trip. To connect and access more travel resources, visit www.princeoftravel.com

Written by Two Monkeys Travel - Contributor

Two Monkeys Travel Group – Community Travel Blog is a travel blog and website. We quickly grew into a valuable source of inspiring travel stories, advice, itineraries and travel guides, with the aim of demonstrating how to live a sustainable life of travel, whilst living your own definition of success. If you'd like to contribute and write a guest post, contact us at [email protected]

Africa Unveiled: Discovering the Continent’s Hidden Gems and Iconic Landmarks

The digital nomad’s tech guide 2024, discover turkey’s lesser-known gems for the adventurer, the lesser-known beaches of the aegean coast: relaxing on pristine stretches of sand away from the crowds of popular resort towns, 48 hours in tokyo – exploring japan’s vibrant capital, related posts, how to open a unionbank account: online bank account with no initial deposit, 9 best things to do in obidos, portugal and where to stay, pasta on a mission – zak the baker and the artisans of italy #pastaonamission, what to do on a 5 day honeymoon trip to easter island – diy travel guide, previous post, pack your bags: shades for your next vacation, top romantic things to do in las vegas at night, subscribe to our newsletter.

Receive tips on how you can live a sustainable long-term travel lifestyle!

First Name *
Email This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Book Travel

Credit Cards

Below are the top credit cards in the Canadian marketplace for the purposes of earning points and maximizing rewards.

Compare Credit Cards

First-year value, first-year annual fee, required spend, rewards program, payment network, personal income, household income.

Scotiabank Passport® Visa Infinite Business* Card

First Year fee waived
No foreign transaction fees
Six Priority Pass lounge visits per year

American Express Gold Rewards Card

$150 net annual fee
Plaza Premium Lounge passes
NEXUS credit

Business Platinum Card from American Express

$799 annual fee
Unlimited Priority Pass lounge access
$200 annual travel credit

American Express Business Gold Rewards Card

$199 annual fee
Additional 10,000 MR Quarterly Purchase Bonus
Airline & hotel partners

American Express Business Edge Card

$99 annual fee
3x MR points on office supplies, electronics, rides & gas, and eats & drinks
Transfer to hotel partners

American Express Platinum Card

American Express Aeroplan Business Reserve Card

$599 annual fee
Unlimited Maple Leaf Lounge access in North America
3x points on Air Canada flights and vacations

RBC® British Airways Visa Infinite†

$165 annual fee†
3x points on British Airways†
Companion award voucher upon $30,000 spend†

American Express Aeroplan Reserve Card

Unlimited Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge access in North America

CIBC Aeroplan® Visa Infinite Privilege* Card

Maple Leaf Lounge access within North America†
Six complimentary DragonPass visits†
Priority check-in & boarding with Air Canada†

RBC® Avion Visa Infinite Privilege†

$399 annual fee†
Six DragonPass lounge visits†
Redeem points at 2cpp for premium flights†

Air France KLM World Elite Mastercard®

Earn up to 60,000 miles
60 XP in the first year
Free Boingo Wi-Fi

CIBC Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card

Up to 50,000 Aeroplan points†
1.5x points on gas and groceries†
Free first checked bag on Air Canada†

Best Credit Cards

No Foreign Transaction Fees

Man Holding Credit Card And Using Cell Phone holding credit card with shopping online

American Express

No Annual Fee

About our credit cards.

Credit cards can be intimidating to the uninitiated. There’s a prevailing mythology that credit cards are too complicated, not worth it for the rewards, or bad for your financial well-being.

As a result, a lot of the public discussion on credit cards revolves around how and why not to use them. How you can benefit from credit cards is a mere afterthought.

You may have noticed that we do things a little differently here at Prince of Travel. There are immense gains to be had by leveraging the power of the best credit cards. We’ve identified how to do so, and we’re here to share our approach with you.

We don’t rank credit cards by calculating points earned from your monthly budget for each spending category, because that’s not an efficient way to maximize your rewards quickly. Those amounts are too inconsistent to make a meaningful difference, and you’ll earn way more rewards by focusing on the big picture instead.

We don’t rank credit cards by their interest rates, because you should never be carrying a balance from month to month. Compound interest rates on debt will annihilate your rewards faster than you can earn them. If you can’t pay your balance in full every month, you’d be better off forgoing rewards entirely and using a debit card instead.

We don’t rank credit cards by how easy it is to get approved, because there are so many unknown variables that make up each bank’s individual algorithm. Besides, the credit score you can see isn’t the one that the bank uses – it’s more of a general guide to indicate that you’re on track with a healthy credit file.

Instead, we’ve broken down the best credit cards in Canada and organized them by the features we use to determine if the rewards are worthwhile.

First and foremost, we look at the net value you can expect to earn when you apply for the card. The cards with the most valuable bonuses will help you earn rewards fastest. Our calculation includes the welcome bonus points, their value, the regular points you’ll earn on spending as you satisfy the conditions to meet the welcome bonus, and any annual fees or credits.

We only consider what you’d pay and earn in your first year with the card. This is where the strongest value proposition lies, as the bulk of your rewards will come from the signup bonus more often than not. A year down the road, you can determine if the card is continuing to give you enough value to justify the cost of keeping it.

The only subjective element here is how we value each rewards currency . As actual redemption values may vary, these aren’t an average, but rather a baseline. Based on our experience with each rewards program, we recommend that you always try to redeem your rewards at a “cents per point” rate higher than our valuations, and we consider those rates to be very achievable in the vast majority of situations.

You’ll also notice that some credit cards offer “up to” a certain amount of points. Those cards have a welcome bonus that comes in two or more parts upon meeting different conditions, but we consider part of it to be unrealistic or inadvisable for most people to try to earn. Any mention of “up to” indicates the maximum achievable bonus, but our sorting and filtering options only measure what you’d earn by reaching our recommended spend threshold, which may be lower. You can read more details on each credit card’s page.

If you’re less concerned about speed, and more concerned about keeping your upfront costs down, you can sort and filter by the first-year annual fee. Many good cards have an annual fee waiver for the first year, so you can still earn a solid bonus at no cost. However, even many cards with an annual fee are worth it – our first-year values do incorporate the costs of having the card, and you may be surprised to find that many of the cards with the highest annual fees actually have the highest value for you!

If you’re a low spender, you can sort and filter by the spending requirement. Many good cards have a minimum spending requirement that you must meet in order to earn the welcome bonus. If you won’t be able to reach that threshold, you should instead consider cards with more achievable targets for your cashflow.

We’ve also added options to filter by bank and by rewards program, so that you can tailor the list of credit cards to your goals. You can read more about each loyalty program to see how they might meet your needs.

Because we know that you, like us, are value-hunters and dream-chasers, we strive to always provide the best available offer to you. Our affiliate partnerships have no bearing on our rankings, reviews, and valuations, all of which we update on a regular basis.

If you want to learn more about overall credit card strategy, feel free to browse our Best Credit Cards lists . These aren’t definitive rankings, rather a broad collection of ideas as you consider the finer details that separate one card from another.

Whether you’re looking for travel points or cash back, flights or hotels, domestic economy or round-the-world in First Class, we hope that you’ll find ways to put your credit cards to work to reach your goals faster than you thought possible, and perhaps even set the bar higher than you’d ever imagined!

International

D-Day 80th anniversary in Normandy

By Joshua Berlinger, Antoinette Radford, Shania Shelton and Kyle Feldscher, CNN

Our live coverage of the 80th anniversary of D-Day has ended. Read more about D-Day here or scroll through the posts on today's events below.

French President Emmanuel Macron: "Let us be worthy of those who landed here"

From CNN's Joshua Berlinger and Emmanuel Miculita in Paris

France's President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during the International commemorative ceremony at Omaha Beach marking the 80th anniversary of the World War II "D-Day" Allied landings in Normandy, in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, in northwestern France, on June 6.

French President Emmanuel Macron closed the international ceremony marking 80 years since D-Day with a speech honoring the soldiers who fought in the largest seaborne invasion in human history and, as other leaders have done throughout the day, drawing parallels to the current geopolitical unrest — most notably the war in Ukraine.

Perhaps the strongest part of Macron's speech was its end, in which he honored Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — who was in attendance — and the Ukrainian people's fight against Russia.

"Faced with the return of war to our continent, faced with the questioning of everything they fought for, faced with those who claim to change borders by force or rewrite history, let us be worthy of those who landed here. Your presence here today, Mr. President of Ukraine, says it all,” Macron said, followed by a brief interruption of the roar of a fighter jet flyover.

Europe has not seen the type of ground conflict that is raging in Ukraine since the end of World War II, and this year’s anniversary comes as Russian forces advance on the battlefield – handing Kyiv a series of tactical defeats and poking holes in the already fragile Western alliance opposed to the Kremlin’s war.

"We know that liberty is a fight for every morning," Macron added. "For everyone in this world that lives hoping for liberty, for equality, for fraternity the sixth of June is a day without end, a never-ending dawn."

World War II veteran dies while traveling to France for D-Day anniversary

From CNN’s Dakin Andone

US Navy veteran Bob Persichitti attends the 74th Reunion of Honor ceremony on Iwo To, Japan, March 23, 2019.

Robert Persichitti, a 102-year-old World War II US Navy veteran, died last week while on his way to France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day , according to Honor Flight Rochester, a veterans organization.

Persichitti was a “wonderful, pleasant, humble guy,” who was “easy to talk to,” said Honor Flight Rochester President and CEO Richard Stewart, who told CNN he learned of his friend’s death last Friday.

“We miss him,” said Stewart.

While Persichitti passed away bound for Normandy — where the Allied forces’ landing on June 6, 1944 , laid the foundation for the defeat of Nazi Germany — he served in the Pacific as a radioman aboard the USS Eldorado, Stewart said. His tour of duty included Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Guam, according to Stewart and the New York State Senate Veterans Hall of Fame , into which Persichitti was inducted in 2020.

Persichitti fell ill last week during a stop in Germany while headed for Normandy, Al DeCarlo, a friend who was traveling with Persichitti, told CNN affiliate WHAM . Persichitti was airlifted to the hospital and died soon after, DeCarlo said.

“The doctor was with him. He was not alone, he was at peace and he was comfortable,” DeCarlo said. “She put his favorite singer, Frank Sinatra, on her phone and he peacefully left us.”

Persichitti had heart problems in the past, “but for 102, I would say he was in superb health,” Stewart told CNN.

Persichitti was born in a coal mining town outside Pittsburgh, Stewart said, describing his friend's “humble, poor beginnings.” After the war, Persichitti worked as a carpentry teacher in Rochester, New York, according to the Veterans Hall of Fame, and in 1972 received a degree from SUNY Buffalo.

Trump posts tribute on 80th anniversary of D-Day landings in Normandy

From CNN's Kate Sullivan

Former US President Donald Trump on Thursday posted a tribute to the “immortal heroes who landed at Normandy” to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy.

“Today, we honor the immortal heroes who landed at Normandy 80 years ago. The men of D-Day will live forever in history as among the bravest, noblest, and greatest Americans ever to walk the earth. They shed their blood, and thousands gave their lives, in defense of American Freedom. They are in our hearts today and for all time,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

France's Macron awards 3 more people the Legion of Honor

From CNN's Emmanuel Miculita and Joshua Berlinger in Paris

French President Emmanuel Macron awards US WWII veteran Arlester Brown with the Legion of Honor during the International commemorative ceremony at Omaha Beach marking the 80th anniversary of the World War II "D-Day" Allied landings in Normandy, in Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, in northwestern France, on June 6.

French President Emmanuel Macron used the international ceremony commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day to award the Legion of Honor, France's highest military or civilian distinction, to three more American veterans: Joseph Miller, Richard Calvin Rung and Arlester Brown.

Earlier in the day, Macron awarded the Legion of Honor to Christian Lamb , a 104-year-old British woman credited with having made the maps for the D-Day landing, and 11 other American veterans.

Testimonials and musical performances are taking place during international ceremony

As the international ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day on Omaha Beach is underway, testimonials from those who fought in the war are currently being read out.

Along with the testimonials, musical performances are demonstrated in front of attendees.

French President Emmanuel Macron is set to deliver an address later during the ceremony.

Austin says "Ukraine matters" in the midst of D-Day ceremonies

From CNN's Shania Shelton

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin discussed Russia's war in Ukraine while participating in D-Day ceremonies, telling CNN's Wolf Blitzer that "Ukraine matters."

"I have engaged members of Congress on both sides, in both parties. I have seen throughout strong support for Ukraine, and even though it took a while to get the legislation through, I was confident that that the right thing was going to happen."

He continued, "Because anytime you see that type of support on both sides of the aisle for a cause, Congress will find a way to get things done, which is what they did in this case, because it's the right thing to do."

The international ceremony is underway

From CNN's Josh Berlinger in Paris

The international ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day on Omaha Beach has begun.

More than 20 heads of state and government and representatives from royal families across Europe are in attendance.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrives at international ceremony to standing ovation

From CNN's Joshua Berlinger in Paris

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived at Thursday's international ceremony to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day to a standing ovation and a rousing applause.

Zelensky's presence — and Russian leader Vladimir Putin's absence, despite Soviet Russia's key role in winning the war in Europe — is highly symbolic given how the war in Ukraine is casting a shadow over the day's events.

Several world leaders have already used their speeches to cast parallels between Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the aggression of Nazi Germany that sparked World War II.

Watch the moment here:

Please enable JavaScript for a better experience.

IMAGES

Prince of Travel
Prince of Travel Debuts on YouTube
How to Travel for FREE from USA to Canada
Video: The Best First Class Flights
Video: How to Actually Get Started Travelling on Points
Prince of Travel Featured by Million Mile Secrets!

VIDEO

prince travel
[FMV] The 1st Shop Coffee Prince (2007) _ Gong Yoo x Yoon Eun Hye
2011 trip route national # 1 Haiti!
Official Prince Channel Comes to Youtube!
St. Petersburg Vacation Travel Video Guide • Great Destinations
Mega Drive Longplay [471] Prince of Persia

COMMENTS

Prince of Travel
Prince of Travel was founded on the principle of "If we can do this, then anyone can!" Here on the YouTube channel, we're sharing all my knowledge to help you do the same, as well as the ...
Prince Of Travel
Share your videos with friends, family, and the world
How I Get FREE Hotel Upgrades Every Time (Suite Talking!)
Join our community at http://princeoftravel.com (enter your email) Get your ALL NEW Prince of Travel merchandise now! https://princeoftravel.com/shopOne of t...
Prince of Travel
Super one
Your Home For Smarter Travel
For the vast majority of people, "rewards" or "points" are an afterthought at best. Most people don't realize that leveraging travel rewards to their full potential can truly transform the way you travel. Check out our Newbie's Guide to equip you with all the basic knowledge you need for racking up the points and travelling the world.
About Prince of Travel
Welcome to Prince of Travel! My name is Ricky, and I started this website to help you raise your travel game. The globe is my passion, and I'm on a never-ending quest to gain a complete understanding of every square inch of our beautiful planet. The lay of the land. The amazing people that inhabit this land.
Video: Air Canada eUpgrades Explained
Air Canada's eUpgrades are a special rewards currency that rewards Aeroplan Elite Status members with the ability to upgrade into a higher class of service. And with the Aeroplan's recent relaunch, eUpgrades have taken on a more prominent role in the strategy for booking premium travel at a fraction of the price.. By adopting the "Latitude Attitude" and booking an economy class flight ...
Welcome to Prince of Travel: Amy, Kirin, and Tiezheng!
Tiezheng will cover all things aviation, from premium cabin comparisons, to airline-by-airline analysis, to some of his best tips for the flying experience whether you're a first-time flyer or a frequent business traveller. Similar to T.J.'s contributions, you can expect to hear from Amy and Kirin once every couple of weeks to a month or so.
Prince of Travel's YouTube Stats (Summary Profile)
View the daily YouTube analytics of Prince of Travel and track progress charts, view future predictions, related channels, and track realtime live sub counts. ... YouTube Stats Summary / User Statistics for Prince of Travel (2024-02-15 - 2024-02-28) DATE. SUBSCRIBERS. VIDEO VIEWS. ESTIMATED EARNINGS. 2024-02-15 . Thu +100. 97.3K +5,193. ...
Guides
Miles & Points for Beginners: Why Flexible Points Matter. Guides May 24, 2024. On this installment of Miles & Points for Beginners, let's take a deep dive into flexible points that you can... Read more. Scroll to Load More.
Blog
Air Canada Introduces Complimentary Premium Snacks, Beer, and Wine for Economy Passengers. News Jun 5, 2024. Air Canada passengers travelling in economy on domestic and transborder routes will now enjoy complimentary beer, wine, and premium snacks. Read more.
Prince of Travel
Prince of Travel, Montreal, Quebec. 4,554 likes · 696 talking about this. Canada's leading resource for using frequent flyer miles, credit card points, and loyalty programs to travel the world at a...
031: Canadian Miles and Points
Yeah, we've been wanting to talk about travel rewards and points on the show for a while now. So I figured I better get on the expert in Canada. We have Ricky from Prince of Travel with us on the show. Welcome, Ricky. Ricky Hey, guys. Happy to be here. Thanks for having me. Money Mechanic So Prince of Travel is your blog.
Prince of Travel (@princeoftravel)
Please dont make the same mistake 🫣🫥 #milesandpoints #europe #europeansummer. Prince of Travel (@princeoftravel) on TikTok | 1.4M Likes. 103.5K Followers. Your Home for Smarter Travel. 🇨🇦.Watch the latest video from Prince of Travel (@princeoftravel).
Prince Family Travel
Full Time Traveling Family living on a 40 Foot school bus turned tiny home. Adventure with us as we spend 24/7 together as a family of four touring the Unite...
Prince of Travel Interview
Then one day "Prince of Travel" came to me as I was sitting in a coffee shop by my house and I snapped it up. I think it has a nice ring to it, as it emphasizes my love of travel while also promoting - granted, perhaps with a tinge of self-importance - the luxury and lifestyle that comes with being able to use points to fund my adventures.
Prince of Travel (@princeoftravel) • Instagram photos and videos
Prince of Travel (@princeoftravel) • Instagram photos and videos. 24K Followers, 95 Following, 622 Posts - Prince of Travel (@princeoftravel) on Instagram: " ️ The leading platform to elevate your travel through Miles & Points. -- 👇🏼 Travel tips, guides, and news".
New Prince of Travel membership, a guide to using Awayz, and more
From the desk of T.J. Dunn Editor-in-Chief, Prince of Travel JOIN IN ON THE FUN Introducing: The New Prince of Travel Membership We're thrilled to announce the launch of the revamped Prince of Travel Platinum Membership, designed to provide more value to our members, including an exciting all-new benefit that we're introducing for the first ...
Maximize Your Travel Dollar With These Tips From Prince of Travel
Prince of Travel suggests that you can also be strategic with your bookings to maximize your miles. For example, try booking flights during promotions or sales, as you can earn bonus miles during these periods. Similarly, consider booking flights with a layover instead of a direct flight, as this can often earn you more miles.
Credit Cards
American Express Platinum Card. 100,000 MR points. $1,361 first-year value. $200 annual travel credit. Unlimited Priority Pass lounge access. Airline & hotel partners. Learn More.
Champions League final result: Real Madrid crowned Kings of Europe for
This was Real's 15th European Cup, its sixth Champions League in the last 11 seasons and it elevated four of the players onto a new plane of achievement. Carvajal, Luka Modric, Nacho and Toni ...
Live updates: D-Day 80th anniversary in Normandy, Biden, Macron
Mark Gibson/US Marine Corps. Robert Persichitti, a 102-year-old World War II US Navy veteran, died last week while on his way to France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day, according to ...
Parc du Petit Prince
Welcome to Easy Record.Prepare to be overwhelmed by the cuteness - Parc du Petit Prince is the most adorable theme park you'll ever see!Parc du Petit Prince ...