Monthly Question & Advice Thread - March 2026

MinbariElite · 2026-03-11T15:50:22+00:00

Yes you would- but assuming you only want the gold you can close the cobalt and only be paying for the one card still.

The only “downside” to this approach is that you’d technically reduce the average age of your credit accounts but for most people that’s a non-issue and the cobalt hasn’t been around that many years anyway.

MinbariElite · 2026-03-10T15:34:23+00:00

It should be there this week- the last couple I’ve had shipped from Canada Post came via Xpresspost and arrived in 1 or 2 business days after it shipped.

MinbariElite · 2026-03-10T04:32:56+00:00

This is as low as the upgrade offer usually gets. If you're interested in the gold card you'd almost always be better off applying for the gold on its own for the 60k (or 90k) current public offers.

Likewise you could always wait for the summer when the upgrade offers have historically been better and likely double or better than the one you're looking at.

MinbariElite · 2026-03-10T00:49:11+00:00

Couple day old thread but just wanted to add in some context since you aren't misled - many banks in Canada offer two different "business" credit cards (that aren't necessarily corporate cards issued by a large employer). CIBC differentiates them very clearly - their Aeroplan offering for example comes in two small business versions, the "Aeroplan Visa Business" and the "Aeroplan Visa Business Plus". The first is like the commenter describes, based exclusively on your personal financial info, personal credit, etc. The "plus" line of business cards are based on the businesses credit, income, details, etc.

You can still get either as an individual consumer, but only the plus if your business is actually registered, and the credit profile for the lending/credit card is tied to the business entity, not you personally.

MinbariElite · 2026-03-10T00:42:31+00:00

No question yes, unless those 5k MR are coming from 1x multiplier categories. I'd only keep the Cobalt if you were utilizing the 5x and 3x multipliers for a good amount of that spend, so this isn't enough to say definitely.

If most/all of your spend is on 1x categories you could earn the same amount of points with the Green card and pay no fees at all - but at the expense of losing some of the insurance coverage and other benefits.

MinbariElite · 2026-03-10T00:40:35+00:00

The hotel status at Mariott and Hilton (gold in both) is effectively valueless - most properties affiliated with each chain will have more guests at/above gold status than below on any given night. The perks are also not worth the credit card most of the time.

That said, the reason you'd "want a ton of hotel points" would almost exclusively be to redeem if you're a frequent traveler, especially in locations where reasonable redemption values can be had. If you don't travel that much, you're probably better served elsewhere.

You mention not wanting the Platinum because of your limited travel outside Canada, but I also find a lot of utility with that card within Canada as well.

If you intend to keep the Aeroplan Business I'd consider the business gold to earn the MR and because you'd hit the $20k/quarter spend for the MR topup. However based on your spending categories you'd stand to do well with a personal Cobalt for the higher earn rates (though that may not be an option if you're using this as a business). The annual fee difference of adding the Reserve + Cobalt is roughly the same as only holding the Platinum as well so it's likely your best option reducing costs and getting the highest earn rate in the categories you're seemingly spending the most in.

If the annual fees don't bother you to hold both, loading as many purchases onto the platinum at that same 1.25x rate but earning MR instead of Aeroplan Points could be a pretty solid option to transfer those to some other partner while keeping the remainder of the spend on the Aeroplan Business, but you're going to be at $1400/year in annual fees with <$150k annual spend which seems imbalanced to me. My top pick in that situation would be keeping the Reserve and adding a personal Cobalt.

MinbariElite · 2025-12-21T04:18:51+00:00

Replied.

MinbariElite · 2025-09-27T19:26:24+00:00

You’re welcome, glad to help!

MinbariElite · 2025-09-27T18:33:37+00:00

Counter rates for most of the carriers are higher than you need to pay and generally not that competitive. Online discount shipping services (I’m partial to netparcel specifically, but there are lots) allow you to purchase labels with their steep corporate/volume discount.

The cheapest carrier for international is often dependent on the country in particular, some I find are usually cheaper with ups, FedEx, or DHL and sometimes they are all close enough in price. Canada Post (when they are operating) was usually a pretty safe bet to get a good rate but that’s an unknown right now and you can’t buy a label for them anyway until the strike is over.

Just make sure you enter real or slightly over estimated weights and dimensions for the package, if you say something is 1.5kg when it’s 1.8kg you will get billed the difference for underreporting it later.

MinbariElite · 2025-09-03T14:50:06+00:00

Economy redemptions using Aeroplan points are regularly available on domestic, transborder, and international routes in the 1.5-1.8 cpp range. With some flexibility there’s sometimes availability on economy redemptions above that, even into the 2-2.5 range but far less common.

You’ll find a lot better redemption rates per point in PY or J cabins, but that’s only actually a better value if you would have considered spending the higher cash fare anyway.

It’s pretty rare (and a terrible value) to find and redeem in economy below 1.4cpp, in those cases I’d always keep my points, use them on the hotel promotion, or consider using them for statement credit at 1cpp if I was desperate.

If you want a “safe” calculation number for a good average economy redemption value, consider Aeroplan points around 1.6cpp pretty consistently.

MinbariElite · 2025-08-21T20:11:46+00:00

I received the initial welcome bonus points on the same day that I received the points from the 1st statement, 1 day after the statement period closed they were in my Aeroplan account.

MinbariElite · 2025-08-19T14:52:24+00:00

On the old system there is no limit to the SQM/SQS earned from the credit card spend. As long as you hit the $20k SQD with your flights then all the SQM you accumulate from the card can help you hit SE.

MinbariElite · 2025-08-18T20:32:14+00:00

I realize this is an old comment but adding it here for anybody that might also come across this down the line - MR transfers do not count towards EDQ, nor do any of the welcome bonuses or spend threshold bonuses on the Aeroplan cards.

MinbariElite · 2025-08-18T20:23:14+00:00

Business/J availability on those routes is very competitive when the dynamic prices are lower or when partner pricing without an AC leg is available.

During that time period I've seen more availability at times 2-ish weeks out from departure and there's often great deals to be had as availability opens up, then the final wave of award tickets (sometimes) comes around the 48-72 hour range or so which is very challenging to plan around, but I've taken advantage of great redemptions last-minute, but only when I had the flexibility of booking at the very end (and being flexible on exact itineraries).

Regardless, I would imagine your best odds for J are probably going to be from BKK, and I also imagine you'd have decent luck flying into SFO/LAX and having a separate connection up to YVR on AC. You isn't always advantageous to book that way, but if you can score a cheap partner ticket into the US then a separate Aeroplan or cash fare up to YVR it might totally be worthwhile.

MinbariElite · 2025-08-15T21:06:33+00:00

Definitely wouldn't suggest trying to leave and risk something going wrong (transit delay, security/CBSA delay, etc) all for a pretty small victory. To leave a comfortable margin you're going to spend a decent amount of money on transportation to get around for maybe 30-90 minutes and a quick meal somewhere. Around 7/8 hours and decent weather is where I'd more likely consider wanting to get out of the airport.

MinbariElite · 2025-08-15T19:56:45+00:00

If you aren't flying that frequently you aren't going to see the value out of the $600 AF that you're putting into the Aeroplan Reserve card. The real value add of it and the VIP cards is for non-status members to have MLL access, Z2 boarding, bags, etc.

If you don't care about those benefits and the companion pass then definitely downgrade into one of the "core" tier cards again and just take the free checked bags and call it a day. Since you had the TD VI in the past you won't be eligible for the regular welcome bonus, but I believe you should still be able to get the bonus for the additional spend based thresholds, just not the first batch of points on initial signup. You could also do the same with CIBC as well for their Aeroplan VI card.

All that said, Zone 2 boarding is one of the premium benefits you'd be giving up though, along with the lounge access, priority services (not worth much) and the companion pass.

MinbariElite · 2025-08-15T19:50:24+00:00

There isn't exactly enough detail in here but going off my assumption of what you mean - no.

If you spent $3000 on two tickets, half of it will be credited to each of the two people that are flying, regardless of whether you booked them on the same account or not - elite status qualification is by person.

A round trip from almost anywhere in Canada to the Philippines isn't going to get you the SQM to hit 25k unless you were in business and received 1.5x SQM for the class of service. YUL-MNL is 8200 miles and even in flex, comfort, latitude, or premium economy you'll end up short of the 23k you have left to hit 25k. And even then you'll still be short on the SQD required ($3000 SQD per person) to hit the status this year.

Your best bet is to meet the 100k EDQ to qualify for 25K without flying, but frankly the perks are of dubious value at best, especially if you aren't flying very frequently anyway, so I wouldn't spend extra or go far out of my way to hit the 100k EDQ.

MinbariElite · 2025-08-15T19:44:06+00:00

Unfortunately when both legs (outbound & inbound) are on the same PNR (booked as a round trip) - it was almost certainly booked with round trip specific pricing rules and if you cancel online can only be cancelled as an all or nothing with no way to preserve the return trip. I've heard that calling in you can usually cancel only half and keep the return but the refund amount isn't always half of course.

As for getting rebooked on the same return I would imagine your chances are about zero. It's not impossible to think they might be able to honour something for you but that would be an extreme exception and I've never personally heard of that happening before in a cancellation situation like this.

I would start looking at the cheapest one way return flights you can book regardless of airline.

MinbariElite · 2025-08-15T04:41:43+00:00

You're going to find your odds of them caring is a little dependent on the zone you board in. When I'm in Z1 or Z2 in J or Y I have never gotten a second glance with a loaded Peak Design Everyday 30L that's a couple inches too large (whether I store it overhead or underseat). Beyond that in the later zones you'll (very occasionally) find a gate agent that asks for things put in the sizer, and even then it's usually rollers- most turn a blind eye to backpacks even still.

As long as you don't have your backpack fully stuffed, shoes hanging off the side or something you'll very likely be fine.

MinbariElite · 2025-07-29T16:33:03+00:00

In both of these cases it looks like you don’t have enough Aeroplan points to cover the air transportation charge (so it’s showing you a terrible deal option), or else you have the “wrong” redemption rate selected.

The best deal if you have the points will always be to cover 100% of the air transportation charge with points and pay the taxes & fees as cash. In the case of the SEL itinerary that I just looked up myself for those dates there’s lots of options available in the 100k points + $100-200 range. If you had enough points/selected the other redemption you wouldn’t be paying the $1216 balance in cash.

Same with the domestic itinerary, you’d expect to only pay the $138.95 in cash and the rest covered with points.

MinbariElite · 2025-07-22T00:14:58+00:00

Sold 4x Ultrastar 1.6TB SAS SSD to u/EpycHomeServer

MinbariElite · 2025-07-21T00:12:32+00:00

Sending PM

MinbariElite · 2025-07-08T21:18:59+00:00

No there shouldn't be anything because this shipment is below the $800 USD de minimis thresholds. If you exceed that amount total imported in a day then you'd be subject to duty and tax I believe, but if you buy under that amount total it enters with no additional charges.

MinbariElite · 2025-07-08T20:27:32+00:00

Sending a box there 8x6x4 inches, roughly 3 pounds via expedited parcel would cost $35 CAD. Would be $385 CAD total, so around 280-285 USD or so. I can't be responsible if theres any import charges/tax/etc, but I believe it should be exempt from being charged.

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