I just booked 2 different itineraries using Aeroplan and had to do the double miles to get any flights. I don't think there's any Aeroplan flights available for "classic" other than a 4 am flight from Kelowna to Penticton. Which means it's time for the regular comparison between some rewards systems.
Aeroplan
I booked 4 tickets Vancouver to London Ontario for 200,000 pts + $600 in fees and 1 ticket Vancouver to SFO 40,000 pts + $115 in fees. Aeroplan does roughly 1 pt per $1 spent.
Buying the tickets to London would have been $3300 all-in, and ticket to SFO was $800. Obviously the flight costs change over time and are route dependent. The flight to SFO with less than 1 week to go is now over $1000, but the same flights in 3 weeks is $580. Also, I would have gotten status miles towards next years aeroplan card and I could have used an upgrade.
TD Visa
You get 3 pts per 1$ spent, and it takes 200 pts to buy $1 of travel. $3300 for London would have been $220,000 (3300 * 200 / 3) on Visa, and $800 for SF would have been $53,333 on Visa.
Dividend Card
A typical divident card offers a 2% dividend on purchases. $3300 for London would require $165,000 to be spent. $800 for SF would require $40,000 spent. Now I'm not sure if they have a maximum dividend per year.
Results
For London travel, the CIBC card ($200K card purchases + $600) seems to be underperforming the TD card by about 25% ( $220K card purchases) and about 33% for the Dividend card ($165K card purchases). The TD and Dividend card also have the benefit that you buy cheap tickets as well.
Leave a comment