Should You Get The New Aeroplan Credit Card?

Ed Pizza: music. You want to have some idea of what you're thinking about and book that next cruise while you're still on the one that you're on.

Richard Kerr: Omni, Omi, Omicron. Omicron. Whatever the Greek alphabet we're on.

Ed Pizza: Yeah. Nope. No, no, no. Right there, folks. We have our cold open.

Speaker 2: Climb aboard. This is the Miles to Go Podcast, your source for the latest in travel news, reviews and strategies you can't afford to miss. And now here's your host, travel expert and road warrior, Ed Pizza.

Ed Pizza: Hey guys. Welcome back to the Miles to Go Podcast. Mr. Kerr is back in the saddle with me sitting at home, staring at me and not looking too pretty. But hey man, how you doing?

Richard Kerr: I'm doing great. Refreshed, relaxed, reenergized, recharged. We had 8:00 AM mimosas at the kids' neighborhood Christmas party over at the clubhouse. So we're doing great, man.

Ed Pizza: It's going to make for an interesting show.

Richard Kerr: Yes, because the adult party starts shortly after this, so we're keeping the train going.

Ed Pizza: So we've got your cruise to go over, which I think is going to be an interesting little tidbit to hear how that went. We've got a listener question that we're going to answer. We've got the brand new Air Canada Aeroplan credit card for folks in the US, which is pretty darn snazzy, and a quick update on the most recent changes for folks with traveling internationally due to ye old COVID and Omicron or Omicron variant.

Richard Kerr: It's funny. Last week, we were doing everybody else was doing calling it Omni crimes. Can we just call it Omni, make it easier? Because that's what everybody's saying.

Ed Pizza: Yeah, Omni. Yeah. Let's make ourselves sound even ignorant than we already are. All right. So let's dig into the cruise man.

Richard Kerr: Cruise.

Ed Pizza: Set it up for folks about why you ended up cruising at the last minute.

Richard Kerr: Yeah. First of all, this was a Disney cruise, four nights out of Port Canaveral, which is 45 minutes from the Orlando airport. I was surfing Instagram a couple weeks ago, a week before the cruise left. Saw an ad that said 30% off Disney cruises. I thought it was a third party travel agency trying to imitate Disney targeting me. I clicked on it. It brought me straight to the actual Disney cruise line website, and the rates I saw were fantastic.
Guaranteed grand state room. That's balcony in cruise ship talk. Ended up being between 6, $700 per person, which for a Disney balcony is just a fantastic price. Looked at my work calendar the week after Thanksgiving. Happened to be a little bit light. I actually have not taken any official days off since I started at Bilt and it was time to take a few days off.
So we got a great deal, man. It was 2700 bucks after taxes and fees and all that stuff. Got a couple hundred bucks in onboard credit from the travel agent IU, shout out to Howard Rappaport. Please hit me up if you want to book with him. Then we took off, man. So it was a great deal is why we decided to do it. Probably what sold me and pushed me over the edge to spending almost $3000 was fact that this boat was going to be empty, man, which ended up being fan freaking tastic.

Ed Pizza: So just for perspective for folks, you and I were talking about this earlier. I actually think you might have gotten more than 30% off even though they advertised 30% off. That rate for a Disney cruise is pretty banging. Disney cruises are expensive.

Richard Kerr: Really expensive.

Ed Pizza: For anybody who hasn't traveled with them. They do a great job. The food is significantly better. They do a great job catering to parents. The kids club stuff is super geared up for them as well. So even if you're not a huge Disney fan, I think you can do a Disney cruise without feeling overwhelmed. Service level is awesome, but you're going to pay through the nose and you didn't.

Richard Kerr: Yeah. My wife is not a huge Disney fan, and shout out to @TheMomEconomist on Instagram because she did a great recap in her stories of our cruise experience. It's not in your face. It's definitely Disney cruise, but you can be an adult and go on this ship and not feel overwhelmed with Mickey Mouse in your face 24/7 and have a great time because they have a significant amount of adults only spaces.
They got a nightclub, a champagne bar, a pub, two adult only restaurants in the back that are really nice. An adult only bar that actually has the best view on the ship, an adults only pool area. So you can go and have a great time and not feel like I'm Mickey Moused out with a gajillion kids. She really enjoyed it. She definitely said, "Now we've tried six different cruise lines. Looking back over our cruising history and Disney is now officially the Mom Economist go-to line."
So it was a great deal, a fantastic trip. That boat was about 30 to 40% full. I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, if you're comfortable going cruising, now is the time to go because we not wait in line. We did not have to hunt for a deck chair. Staff had plenty of time to help you with whatever you needed. Not having to wait in line for character photos. There were characters everywhere. They did a great job of making sure the kids got to see all the characters. We had the kids club. Typically your capacity to constrain there. But our kids were in the kids club for five hours a day and they wanted to go and they loved it.
They've made some changes to the kids club, which actually make it more organized and less chaotic, where it was just wild free play before. The kids go in 15 kid groups and stay there for the whole time. Our kids came out every time saying that they absolutely loved it and wanted to go back, which was great because then Emily and I had five hours a day to ourselves, which we can't remember three days in a row of five hours to ourselves.
Then you pick the kids up and you talk about it and you go do something fun. You go have a meal and then put them back in the kids club. And the mom and dad go in the hot tub, to the pub trivia, hang out, do nothing. Emily read a whole book throughout the cruise. It was just awesome, man. That non-crowded feeling right now is just spectacular.

Ed Pizza: Yeah. The onboard restaurant Palo is one of the best restaurants I've eaten at on a cruise ship in all the time that we you've been cruising. So that's high on my list. Champagne bar was fun. Michelle and I hit that as well. Yeah, the kids club that our kids definitely loved the best. It's the only kids club they've actually stayed in on a ship. Every other one they're just like, "Eh, F it." But there were just so many things for them to do, even for our daughter's age. When we cruised Disney, she was probably 13 I'm guessing, based on it was right before the pandemic, was our second Disney cruise.
There's a teens club, a true legit teens club and there's a tweens club. For her, she really likes arts and crafts. So they had one person in the kids club that was literally just designated to more detailed arts and craft projects. So lots of, lots of different stuff.

Richard Kerr: Yeah. So the top questions we've gotten are what was the experience like on board from a COVID perspective? Then would we do it again? So everybody 12 and older had to be fully vaccinated. So two weeks have the second shot, and yes, you had to submit all this paperwork beforehand in the Safe Passage app and get a clear to sail, actually before they would even let you enter the terminal.

Ed Pizza: Well, and just interrupt you there. I think you ended up, we'll talk a little bit more about COVID later in the episode, but you ended up in an interesting wrinkle when the test results came back late, which everybody deals with. But talk to folks about what you actually got from the Walgreens in terms of your official test results.

Richard Kerr: Yeah. So 12 and older, mandatory vaccinated. 11 and younger, a negative PCR test within 72 hours of the sail date. So that means you got to go find some way to give you a test within 72 hours of departure date, and then hope it comes back in time to then upload it the day before your cruise in this app and get the clear to go. So the kids got tested at Walgreens because they had to go and get their second shot, actually anyways, while we were in Charleston, South Carolina for Thanksgiving.
It took over 48 hours for this test results to show up in my email. Literally what I got, I sent Ed the PDF. It didn't even say Walgreens on it. It literally, that just said their name and negative. It didn't say test date. It didn't say what kind of test. It didn't say any info. It was terrible, this PDF that we got. I was like, "Man, I hope this is going to be good enough." So I uploaded into the app and thankfully it took them probably four hours for it to process. It came back and said all clear.
Because literally you could just take a crayon and write negative on a piece of paper and upload it. That was what the equivalent I got from Walgreens. So my plan was, if we ran into problems, they had a contact number. I was going to call and say, "You got to give me more details or something like this." But anyways, the kids' tests came back the day before the departed. Uploaded it, everybody was clear, good to go. You get to the port, you cannot enter the terminal until one, you go and have another rapid test, everybody vaccinated or not goes and has a rapid test paid for by Disney in these tents that were across from the terminal.
You sit in a room, wait for 30 minutes until the test results come back and then you can go into the terminal. So you're all vaccinated. You've been tested once. Everybody gets tested again. And you hope that that keeps anything off the boat. So a little bit stressful. That whole app experience, it was not very user friendly. I could definitely see reading through some of the forums, some people running some wrinkles and hiccups and stuff. So just do your best, be diligent, get that PCR test or just get vaccinated for everybody 12 and above.
Then starting in January, everybody has to be vaccinated that's eligible. So what's the minimum age right now? Five is the minimum?

Ed Pizza: Yep.

Richard Kerr: For vaccination. So five and above have to be vaccinated starting in January. So my overall opinion of the cruise is Disney's going to make sure that there's no bad outfits coming off one of their ships. So the safety theater was what Ed and I, I think have called it. Safety theater on board was alive and well. You have to wear a mask inside at all times, unless you're in the process of eating or drinking. Kids had to wear their masks the entire time in the kids club. You can go out on the pool deck and outside and not have a mask on. On their private island, you didn't have to wear a mask.
But overall, you and I have been very supportive of mask. The only negative comment I'll have about the entire experience is by the fourth day, wearing a mask inside almost the entire time got really old, especially when you're like, "Okay, we've all been vaccinated. All the kids have been tested. We've all been tested twice. We've all done what we're supposed to do. Let's maybe not wear this mask." The mask wearing for four days in a row, it just got old. But that's the only negative comment. The rest of it is actually better.
So the pools were capacity, only 13 kids and adults in the pool at a time, which again, given the very light load on this cruise was not a problem whatever. It was actually awesome, because you're not in this little Petri dish, shoulder to shoulder with about 50 people in the tiny pool. The buffets, the crew now serve and the foods gated off by a piece of plastic, which is great just from a ... buffets are kind of weird and gross anyways. When people serve themselves on cruises, usually there's food everywhere. Kids stick their hands. It just much better having the crew was always right there to serve you. You didn't have to wait. Again, a low capacity on board.
Different things were weirdly social distanced, but then they would pack nine people in an elevator. So the safety theater again, it was ... They would be like, "Okay, everybody line up for the kids club," but each family has a line up six feet apart and only one adult could be up at the desk, but we're cool if 12 of you guys pack in this elevator. So it was like, "Okay, the safety theater's alive and well." But overall the changes to COVID were positive. It was a great experience.
I'm just telling you folks, now is the time to freaking cruise. Go in January and February before it gets crowded again. If you're on the edge of, "I've never cruised before," these sales for Disney are still ongoing. I just sent Ed and Summer and Julian a picture again, $2600 out of new Orleans in February for a family of four in a Disney balcony state room. Again. It's just such a great time to be on the fence to try and go for it. Just can't say enough positive things.
Disney's island was so uncrowded. I put a video of my Instagram stories, panning around the beach. Emily and I had her own private beach, basically. No lines for the water slides on the island or the Aqua duck on the ship. Me and Thomas literally rode the thing 20 times. Usually that's not going to be possible just because the lines are really long. I just cannot say enough positive things about all that stuff. Only downside, the mask wearing gets old and safety theater alive and well. But you know what? It's fine. The upsides way outweighed the downsides.

Ed Pizza: For folks who are thinking about cruising, like Richard mentioned, there are a lot of discounts out there still, the 30% discounts. I think even though they're advertising 30%, like we said, I think their discounts are greater than 30%. The other thing to remember too, if you have cruised in the past, I would do some research. If you think you want to cruise again, I always do a couple hours of research on the cruising season for the year after the cruise I'm going on because the best discounts are always when you're leaving the ship.
So whether it's you take a Disney Vacation Club seminar or sit on Royal Caribbean, there's a desk where you can put a deposit down for your next cruise. But those rates are, generally speaking, they're almost always the best rates you're ever going to see with extra onboard credit, stuff like that. Then you can make changes later. The deposits usually are just a placeholder and then you have two years to switch around to different ships and stuff. But you want to have some idea of what you're thinking about and book that next cruise while you're still on the one that you're on.

Richard Kerr: Yeah. So it's 10% off future Disney cruise, $250 deposit. We did one with Royal Caribbean years ago that actually never expires. We paid $100 and to get you $200 and credit that you can combine with any other promotion. We actually still have that and looking to use it again, because the Royal Caribbean cruise is out of Florida in January, February, man. I was looking@vacationstogo.com. Vacations T-O-G-O.com has a 90 day ticker where they give you the best cruise deals that depart in the next 90 days.
I've used this website for over a decade. It's fantastic. Dude, you can get a seven night Royal Caribbean cruises out of Florida for 200 bucks a person.

Ed Pizza: Insane.

Richard Kerr: Just absolutely, and you're going to be on an empty ship where you have a wonderful experience and everybody by January is going to have to be vaccinated five and above. So you can feel confident there. So I'm going to have to tell my boss, "Hey man, I'm taking another four days off," because we're going again.

Ed Pizza: All right. So switching gears, we're going to tag a quick listener question here from Joe. If you guys do have questions, you can always email us Ed@PizzaInMotion.com. You can hit us up on ye old Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. I am @PizzaInMotion. I can't talk today. I am @PizzaInMotion.

Richard Kerr: I'm the one that's been drinking mimosas, man.

Ed Pizza: Well, I'm watching you drink wine right now.

Richard Kerr: I told everybody, we're keeping the bar to go until the adults' Christmas party starts a couple hours here. So I'm not starting over now.

Ed Pizza: He is @KerrPoints, K-E-R-R, as he likes to so eloquently spell out for everyone. You can text or leave us a voicemail at 571-293-6659. So Joe writes in and tells us that he loves the podcast. He's a religious listener every week, which is super awesome. "I want to get some advice," and I'm going to let Richard answer this one first. So long story short, past couple of years, he's been able to get some signup bonuses on various cards for different programs.
He's kept the majority of his spending with the major transferable programs, Ultimate Rewards, Membership Rewards, stuff like that. But he sometimes went for co-branded cards to top up his balance in major programs. He sites Advantage, United's mileage plus program, Delta Sky Miles and Southwest Rapid Rewards. His question is, "Do you think it's wise to go for these programs and their sign up bonuses to top off a balance and focus your earning on transferable points." Mr. Kerr.

Richard Kerr: Joe, I'll answer this with three, let's see, one, two, three basic points.

Ed Pizza: Good counting, great job.

Richard Kerr: Joe, I'm just going over the points in my head before. First point is make sure besides the signup bonuses, you're looking at the other benefits of co-branded cards. So I hear you going to top off the balances. No problem with that. But some of these co-branded cards have wonderful ancillary or primary benefits that make the card worth holding beyond just that signup bonus. I would argue the World of Hyatt card is one of those. If you're a regular American Airlines flyer, the Executive Card to get Admiral Club' access is something worth holding onto. So make sure you're not just focusing on that signing bonus.
Second point is I'm not a firm believer in trying to stay underneath 524. We've seen changes to 524 in just the last couple weeks with Chase removing that 524 approval requirement off of some other cards like the Amazon card. I think the opportunity cost of staying below 524 is too high compared to all the other signup bonuses you can get. So again, I'm a huge proponent of going and topping off those accounts you're talking about and not trying to stay underneath 524, which is what I'm reading between the tea leaves here when he is asking this question about going after other ones.
Third and final point is flexible currency number one, and then co-branded next. So your main strategy of let's focus on ensuring those transferable currencies in order to have as much flexibility as possible. Those balances are topped off high enough is the right strategy to have. When you have an opportunity to go after another card, pick up all those points and miles, but also make sure you're not overlooking some of those benefits that are worth holding onto. So those are my three points, Ed, if that made sense. That was off the cuff too.

Ed Pizza: Good job. Good job. So I largely agree with Mr. Kerr. I'll take it one step further though, and just say there was a blog post by, and I hope I picked the right blogger here. I think it was Miles for Family. They noted that they still can't apply for new Amex cards because they were one of the folks that was hitting applications pretty hard a couple years ago. Sorry, they can apply, but they can't get signup bonuses. So they're just ineligible for all signup bonus.

Richard Kerr: Oh, they get the pop up every time or whatever?

Ed Pizza: Yeah. So Amex will tell you before you officially apply, if you're not eligible for a bonus. There are cards that they're eligible for a bonus on and they still can't apply. I'll just say, I've applied for a very small handful of cards over the years where I just planned to sign up for the signup bonus and didn't really have a plan for anything else. Quite frankly, the Cap One spark miles card was the one that I really thought I would use it for business stuff, but I ended up really just using it for the signup bonus. There's really been nothing driving me to put more spend on it.
My personal opinion is I think you need to be careful about just signing up for cards for the signup bonus. I think you need to make sure, in my personal opinion, to have at least a one year commitment, and here's why. This isn't virtue signaling, like you shouldn't be just signing up for cards or signup bonuses is bad for the banks. Look, the banks have gotten a lot smarter about this stuff. In my opinion, I think Ultimate Rewards is an incredibly valuable program.
I wouldn't want to lose my ability to have my Sapphire Reserve or my other cards, I wouldn't want to jeopardize any of that stuff. I certainly also wouldn't want to jeopardize what we're going to talk about next, which is being able to apply for the new Air Canada airplane credit card. So would I sign up for a United Mileage Plus card just for the signup bonus and then cancel it right away? Man, I just wouldn't take that risk right now.
Banks are getting a lot more savvy about saying ... you're not "breaking the rules," you're not a good customer for them. So they're making a business decision themselves and restricting you from other stuff. So my two cents would just be, if you're going to sign up for the card, I would say to, Richard's comment about looking at the other benefits, make sure you can hold the card for at least a year. Because I think that that's going to safely navigate you around any problems.

Richard Kerr: Yeah. If you're signing up for a card get the signup bonus and then immediately close it, don't do that. It's putting a target on your back. I hope nobody's doing that.

Ed Pizza: Yeah. It really is putting a target on your back, and maybe you'll be okay. But the problem is that there's only, what? Four transferable currencies that we follow. Ultimate Rewards, Membership Rewards, Thank You points and Cap One.

Richard Kerr: And Bilt man. Come on. Geez. You hurt my feelings with that one.

Ed Pizza: Oh. Wa, wa, wa.

Richard Kerr: You said four. I can't believe you said Citi instead of Bilt. Ed, Ugh. Party fail, man.

Ed Pizza: Look, you can transfer Citi Thank You points to American Airlines.

Richard Kerr: No. No, you can't. Not anymore.

Ed Pizza: No, you can't.

Richard Kerr: No, you can't.

Ed Pizza: I was on a panel this last week talking about that. I specifically said, "How is it that American's own major co-branded partner can't transfer points, but Bilt Rewards can?" At any rate, you'd hate to get shattered-

Richard Kerr: No comment.

Ed Pizza: ... and kicked out of one of those buckets, which we've seen a couple of folks do. So just be wary of that. Again, this is going to sound a little virtuous, but look, at the end of the day, just be a good customer. They're going to give you a huge signup bonus, put some spending on the card, because they're going to get paid back by the interchange for what you spend. That doesn't cost you anything, but in the end, it helps the bank make back that signup bonus that they gave you.
That's just the right thing to do in my opinion. So not sure if that's exactly what you were asking, Joe, in terms of how long you'd keep the card. But for folks that are wondering here, just hold onto the card for a while.

Richard Kerr: Yeah. To your point of banks getting smarter, there are certain activities that I participated in from the years of, oh, 2011 to 2016, '17 that I would no longer participate in because I value my relationship with the different transferable point currencies. So we've seen it time and time again. I just want everybody, slow your role. Hopefully you're playing to live longer than being 40 or 50. So you want to have these points for years and decades ahead. So don't get lost in the short term game and lose sight of that end game there. Just learn from my mistakes and my behaviors.

Ed Pizza: You are such a pup and now you're saying you hope you want to live longer than 40 or 50. And you're literally talking to your cohost who's already crashed through one of those milestones and should be crashing through the next one any moment now.

Richard Kerr: But you have the energy of a sprite young ... I'm 35, 35 year old, even though you're ... how many decades older than me? I don't know. I lose count sometimes.

Ed Pizza: Yeah, yeah. Yes. A big number.

Richard Kerr: Speaking of wanting to maintain our relationships with those banks, such as Chase, our neighbors up north have a new credit card that we want to learn all aboot. So Ed, tell us all aboot the Arrow Plan card from Chase.

Ed Pizza: Yeah. We had the Aeroplan guys on the show a couple times when they relaunched the program last year. Doing a ton of interesting stuff. So I'll put a couple links in the show notes to those episodes so you can go back and see. But the big tasty stuff, family pooling, which is a great thing. The ability to gift status to someone else for a trip. Just some really cool stuff, especially for family travel. So we've been waiting for this card, this US based card to come out. We knew as of a few months ago that was going to be issued through Chase, which is great because now that means you can transfer your Ultimate Rewards points to Aeroplan as well.
But the new card is out and there's some really awesome things here. Then there's some what I'll call incredible, not in terms of like, oh my God, this is awesome. But incredible that they thought of this idea sort of stuff. So low annual fee card, 95 bucks, which I think is great. The signup bonus is in the form of certificates, which is interesting. So it's 100,000 points that you get for signing up after you spend 4000. But it comes in the form of two 50,000 point certificates.
These certificates are pretty valid in terms of how ... They're pretty flexible in terms of how you can use them. So you could book 100,000 mile business class ticket and knock 50,000 points off of it. You could book multiple people on one reservation using the same certificate. So they want you to book travel and not just hold these certificates for forever, though as far as I remember from reading through it, you can keep the certificates as long as you keep the card. So they're trying to encourage people to hold onto the card.
From an earning standpoint, I think there's some pretty straightforward stuff, and then some stuff that I think is a good little added extra. Three points per dollar in grocery stores and dining, as well as on tickets on Air Canada. So I think that's cool. I wish it had a travel bonus category, like a broader travel bonus category. But you also earn bonus points for spend on a monthly basis. So for every 2000 bucks you spend on a monthly basis, you can earn an extra 500 points. So that gives you a great multiplier on everyday spend.
Then for me, what I think is one of the best down to earth benefits, in other words, achievable benefits on the card is if you can spend $50,000 on the card in a year, which I understand for some folks is going to be difficult. But if you spend at least $50,000 on the card in a year, they're going to bump you up a status level. So if you're a 25K member, this will put you to 50K. Sorry, 35K. Then if you're a 75K member, you can get bumped up to their super elite status, which-

Richard Kerr: I have right now.

Ed Pizza: Very nice. And I'm hoping to be there soon. Super Elite is a really great status. They've done a really good job with it. So I feel like if you're traveling on Air Canada or you're a US based flyer who's crediting to them instead of, say, crediting to United and you think you can get to 75K, well then it's a complete no brainer to have this card because now all of a sudden you're Super Elite. I'm going to stop and take a breath there and get your reaction.

Richard Kerr: Everything Aeroplan has done, this is forward thinking and I love it. So overall comment, I love it. Love the little differences, love the little nuances or forward thinking. But they're also business smart. Why are you doing a 50K certificates instead of giving 100,000 miles or 100,000 Point? Breakage, right? People are going to use those certificates for 35,000 point flights. It's going to cost you less. People are going to forget the certificates. I haven't seen how long these certificates are valid for, but I imagine there's an expiration date of some point.

Ed Pizza: There is, and there isn't. I think they did a smart thing. If you keep the card, the certificates don't expire.

Richard Kerr: Well, there you go. It's some smart folks behind here. We love to see it. That's quite frankly why Aeroplan and Bilt get along. So you can transfer your build points to Aeroplan. We both like to think that we're forward thinking. I love the stuff that this team continues to do. So certificates, I think is pretty ingenious. I love that you can top it up. So I wanted to make sure I actually asked Ed this, I think this morning. If I book a 70,000 one way business class flight to Europe, I can top it up with 20,000 points and use a certificate? Yes. You can do that. So I love the flexibility of these ... It's not like Bonvoy in how difficult they make the certificates to use.
We don't want to talk about those people. I really like it a lot. Then I like the status teaser as well. Just a lot to like here. So for 95 bucks, if you're eligible and you know how to use the power of these points to fly Star Alliance, I think it's a no brainer. $4000 in three months. I like it. A lot to like here. Then additional 10,000 points plus 10 E-upgrade certs if you sign up for the wait list before. Don't forget about that. You can still sign up until February 15th of 2022 to get those extra 10,000 points. Really like it. So it's something I will be taking a look at. However, Ed, do you want to know the one reason I'm not going to apply for this card right now, even though I'm 424?

Ed Pizza: You're 424. How about that? I am 624. So I want to apply for the card, but I have not yet.

Richard Kerr: I am not applying because the persistent rumors of the new Ink products continue. I am going to sit back and wait another couple months until whatever this thing is or is not comes too light. So I'm going to sit tight, even though I really like this Aeroplan card. The new Ink product that has been rumored now for quite some time and is continuing to spin up recently, has me chilling in my heels. Quite frankly, man, I got more points and miles and certificates than I can ever use.
Thanks to Hyatt's new promotion of 30,000 points after 10 nights, I just hit that and got another 30,000 points. I hit 60 nights last week, which gives me another cat one to seven certificates. So I continue to be up to my eyeballs in points and miles and certificates that there's no reason for me to jump on this. What is, I think, a great product right now.

Ed Pizza: Yeah. So the only reason why I'm not applying for it is I need to drop a card off to get under 524.I think I have one dropping soon, but I'm going to go over one other benefit in the card that I view as off the charts.

Richard Kerr: It's $100 statement for pre-check. Is that what you're excited about?

Ed Pizza: Yeah. How'd you know? You know me, I do crazy things and sometimes they don't have positive outcomes. But I invited you on to be the cohost of the podcast a few months ago and it hasn't burned me yet. So we're going to go for something else crazy.

Richard Kerr: Am I officially the co-host of the podcast? Is that Facebook official?

Ed Pizza: We'll have to put a poll out. We'll have to put a poll out and see if people want that.

Richard Kerr: Okay, fine. They may not want that.

Ed Pizza: So we'll get on that. So the guys at Air Canada decided that they were going to add a benefit for people who have a lot of spend. I have a lot of spend. We've talked a little bit about in the show. I've started to look at possibly going for Delta lifetime status. I've been racking up a bunch of Delta spending. So here are the spend thresholds. They have these certificates, they're 50% off certificates for rewards. So if you spend $100,000 on the card, you get 50% off of a priority reward redemption. Based on what status level you are, that can be all the way up to a business class ticket.
So if you're a Super Elite and you spend $100,000 on the card, you get half off of a business class award redemption. Now there has to be available, but availability has been pretty good since the program relaunched. So that's appealing enough. And there are thresholds at 100,000, 250,000, 500,000 and 750,000 in spend in a year. But if I'm going for it, this is really what I'm-

Richard Kerr: That's a lot of spend.

Ed Pizza: It is, but I've got a bunch of restaurants to renovate in 2022. A lot of the vendors allow us to use credit cards. And a lot of them don't charge a fee.

Richard Kerr: Or else they would not be Ed [Pizzarel's 00:31:13] vendors. Let's be honest.

Ed Pizza: Right. Yeah. So here's what I'm thinking. This would likely be hard to achieve, but if you spend a million dollars on a card in a year, you get essentially, not to steal the phrase from Southwest, you essentially get an award companion pass. They're calling it Global Plus One. So if you spend a million bucks on the card, it means that for the entire rest of the year that you do this plus the following year, and that's where I say it's a little bit difficult, because there's no way I could put a million bucks in spend on this card quickly.

Richard Kerr: What's your credit line going to be, man?

Ed Pizza: Right. We paid all our cards off mid month. So if I could do this, then in theory, my wife could fly with me in business class anywhere that Air Canada flies for an entire year free.

Richard Kerr: Is it only Air Canada Medal or does that extend to Star Alliance partners?

Ed Pizza: It's a good question. I don't know.

Richard Kerr: It's got to be Air Canada Medal.

Ed Pizza: I would imagine, but we're going to have to find that out because if it was partners, that's off the chart incredible.

Richard Kerr: There's no way they could reimburse the partners for that. No. Trying to compete the interchange off a million bucks real quick. No, that's not going to work.

Ed Pizza: But first off, great fun headline for us travel nerds to talk about. But I actually am thinking, is there some crazy way that I could pull this off? If so, it's like, "Honey, pack your bag. We are going to hit every possible destination we could think of."

Richard Kerr: We're going to tear up Dulles to Toronto four times a month is what you're going to do.

Ed Pizza: Oh God. Yeah, Dulles. The three most popular routes for the year would be Dulles, Toronto, Dulles, Montreal, Dulles, Vancouver, to get to all the gateways.

Richard Kerr: Then Dulles, Vegas, trying to get that Delta lifetime status is what you could do.

Ed Pizza: I would say, no question, if I think this is actually achievable, I will put exactly $0 on Delta credit cards next year. Because the sooner I could get this, if somehow I could pull this off by October, then that gives me 15 months with my wife flying free everywhere we go.

Richard Kerr: Then you have a million Aeroplan points as well, which is more than ... you definitely want that more than you want a million Sky Miles.

Ed Pizza: Absolutely. And I'll burn those million points down booking stuff, and then getting rebates on all the trips for my wife.

Richard Kerr: Yeah. That would be quite something. Now for those of us plebeians who have no chance of putting a million dollars without breaking some pretty stringent rules on how to do that in a year. That's not even on my radar and I'll continue to hold off for the new Ink product that may or may not come anytime now. So guess we'll see.

Ed Pizza: All right. Well, that's what's on my radar. Wrapping up today, let's talk a little bit about the recent changes. So for folks who haven't been paying attention, if you were traveling internationally previously, you needed to test within 72 hours to return to the US if you were required to have a test. So now the new regulation is everybody needs a test and everybody needs that test within 24 hours. Now the only real saving grace here, and what doesn't make this an absolute cluster, is that the US is accepting antigen tests, which means the rapid tests that you can do at home or in your hotel room, which we used for our Canada trip this summer, the Abbott BinaxNOW test, which you've used a bunch of those as well yourself, right Kerr?

Richard Kerr: Yeah. Although I did not skip borders and border hop and break rules like you did.

Ed Pizza: I skipped one border. One border.

Richard Kerr: Everybody go back and listen to Ed's Canadian episode recap where he skipped the border.

Ed Pizza: We may have violated a border crossing, yes. But just one. So they're not expensive. If I remember correctly, they're 25 bucks a piece for the ones that you can get a certificate for. So essentially, you take the test with a proctor watching you via camera on your laptop or on your phone. Takes 15 minutes once you have somebody on the line. There have been some delays getting people on the line from time to time. But then you get your test result and it pops up in the app and you get a QR code in the Abbott BinaxNOW Navica that's good for 72 hours.
So I guess the easiest way to explain these new travel restrictions to anybody who's traveling internationally right now is the TLDR is go buy some BinaxNOW tests. Make sure you get the ones that are certified for international travel. Throw them in your closet for your next trip, because you're going to need them for a while. Don't leave this to chance of like what's the hotel got? How long's the test going to take? And are you going to get a piece of paper like Richard that I could have mocked up in Microsoft Word in 90 seconds? Just go get some BinaxNOW tests.

Richard Kerr: Yeah. Because at least around here, whenever Delta, like where we are now with Omnicron, God, I wish they would just make it Omni.

Ed Pizza: Don't you wish I would edit stuff like that out?

Richard Kerr: Omicron, Omicron, whatever the Greek alphabet we're on.

Ed Pizza: Oh, okay. Right there, folks. We have our cold open.

Richard Kerr: As soon as Delta really got into the headlines in day to day, and you couldn't find these tests anymore, they were sold out everywhere. So now is the time to stock up. Although I keep hearing from folks, man, that the liquid in the little tube evaporates. So if you have these into your cabinet for few months and you open that thing, there's no more liquid. So I hope that's ...

Ed Pizza: They do have an expiration date on them. No question.

Richard Kerr: I hope that's not too bad because got a lot of travel. So back to Air Canada, I did the status match. So I have the 75K Elite right now and I've got to do one round trip to Canada to extend that through all of next year. I really want to. I've been wanting to go to Quebec City for years now and I just really want to go. Ticket prices are always expensive out of Atlanta on Air Canada. I think I'm just going to suck it up and go do this trip and get the trip done. Then a side benefit of the trip is a United Club access all next year. So I think it's worth it.

Ed Pizza: That's a benefit?

Richard Kerr: Yeah. Well, out of Atlanta. The United Club in the T terminal. Number one, it's always dead empty because everybody's in Delta Sky Club. Number two is recently remodeled within the last couple years. It's got basically no use the last few years. So it's really nice. The agents in there are always nice. It's really empty and you're two seconds from your gate. So yeah, it would be lovely. The only problem is then I have to get on a United plane. I don't really want to do that. I don't fit in the United States. That's the problem.

Ed Pizza: Yeah. Don't stop with the Dulles clubs unless it's the Polaris lounge.

Richard Kerr: Oh, there you go.

Ed Pizza: On that status match, I'm in the same boat as you. I've done the status match part. I have my 75K status. I'm loosely looking at a flight later in December, but it would just be a same day turn up to Montreal or Toronto. That's assuming that things don't change.the wrinkle there is-

Richard Kerr: Exactly, yeah.

Ed Pizza: ... Canada requires PCR tests. So this is that same problem that you almost had with the cruise. Canada actually, last time I checked, and I assume it's still the same, uses 72 hours not three days. So you have 72 hours from the time you take the test to get across the border. Not when you get the test results. From the time you take the test.
So the problem is that typically it's a day or two to get the results. So if I wanted to fly to Canada on Friday, if I've got a morning flight, then Tuesday morning's really the earliest I can actually schedule my PCR test. But if I schedule it for Wednesday or Thursday, I might not get it in time to get to the airport on Friday. So my general advice for folks is take the test later in the day, but not super late. So you've got some wiggle room there, like a Tuesday 1:00 or 2:00 appointment. And just hope that you get it by Friday morning and you can actually get on your flight.

Richard Kerr: When we did the kids' test at Walgreens, it was originally at 3:00 PM for this reason. The next day the Walgreens called me and they're like, "Hey man, it's the day after Thanksgiving, the LabCorp guy just called and said he's going to pick up all the tests at 1:00. You got to come in in the morning or else you're going to not have your test picked up until two days later."
I was like, "Thanks for calling. That would've really sucked." At what point, then you're not even getting test results until five days after you take ... What good is even a test then? What in the world? Those games are fun, but I got to find ... everything Air Canada out of Atlanta is just crazy expensive for the rest of the year. They got a couple flights a day to Montreal and Toronto. But dude, they're 700 bucks round trip for economy the rest of the year.

Ed Pizza: Spoiler alert. You can do it in January.

Richard Kerr: You can do in January.

Ed Pizza: You can do it through 15th of January. So look at flight prices for those first two weeks. When I looked, those flight prices were a bit cheaper.

Richard Kerr: The problem is I already have so many trips want to take in January. There's no way.

Ed Pizza: I'm with you. I'm with you.

Richard Kerr: Hey, all right, here it is. Here's the reader question and solicitation of the week. My sister really wants to go somewhere before she has to start teaching again. She's a high school teacher in Houston. She's going to be in the Southeast at my parents' in South Carolina here in Georgia for the holidays. Where can I go with my sister and my kids after Christmas for that week in between Christmas and New Year's? Where should we go? Who's got the great ideas? Obviously everything is a gajillion dollars. It's fine. I'll work it out. Where should we go? That's the question of the week. @K-E-R-RPoints.

Ed Pizza: No, not going. Worst, worst.

Richard Kerr: Not going on a cruise that week. Not going to Disney that week. Nope. We'll go somewhere else. But I am taking my daughter to Disney in January for daddy daughter trip, which she talks about every morning when she comes in and wakes me up. She's like, "Hey, we're still riding slinky dog?" I'm like, "Yeah, only 40 more days."

Ed Pizza: 40 days to someone her age is an eternity and a half.

Richard Kerr: Yeah. That's why we're going to keep doing this for the next 40 days. Yeah, we're still riding slinky dog.

Ed Pizza: Daddy, is it 40 days yet?

Richard Kerr: Nope.

Ed Pizza: Nope. All right, man. Well, you traveling this week?

Richard Kerr: I am. We're recording this on Sunday the fifth. I got to wake up butt crack of dawn on the sixth for an entire week in New York City. So we have the Bilt Rewards holiday party Wednesday night on the eighth, which also is my wife Emily's birthday. So instead of dragging my poor wife up on her birthday to go to this and said, "Hey, why don't you drag your mom and parents and kids all up? And we'll do New York City Christmas time for a few days."
Her parents and actually her have always wanted see New York City at Christmas time. So we got a big week ahead in the city. So actually, man, we just got back from this cruise. I got to do planning for that. They want to go to the Rockettes and all that stuff. I got a lot to do today before this adult Christmas party and before I got to wake up tomorrow morning and fly to New York. I don't even know where the time goes, man.

Ed Pizza: Well, New York City's great at Christmas. Radio City Christmas Spectacular is awesome. The windows in the stores are generally pretty awesome. Macy's on 34th Christmas Fairyland up on the top floor is awesome. One of my favorite places to be the holidays, I will not be there in December this year, unfortunately. I'm not traveling for work this week.

Richard Kerr: Really? You're not going out west?

Ed Pizza: I am not, but I am taking my son on a surprise trip Disney now that he is fully vaccinated. So we're going to do a short, hit it and quit it. I think that the wife and daughter might be joining us, but we're looking at 48 hours in Disney. Kerr is laughing at me in the screen now.

Richard Kerr: Yeah, I was supposed to crash that part with you guys, but I'll be up in New York City because as Disney's Finest annual pass holder, I really want to get the most out of my money here.

Ed Pizza: That is a really wicked definition of Finest, but ...

Richard Kerr: It's not up to you. It's up to me. It's up to me.

Ed Pizza: The only real trouble for me right now is, in immortal words of every road warrior, I have to pack two suitcases. So I'm going to Disney with my son. I will come back and land in the morning. Then I will literally, if everything goes as planned, drive home, check the mail, grab the other suitcase I have packed and head back to the airport for a nighttime flight out with-

Richard Kerr: I hate everything about this idea. I hate all that. You're going to be so tired of me.

Ed Pizza: Yes. I hate all of that too.

Richard Kerr: At your age, how in the world are you doing that? Your wife and daughter need to join so that your son can fly back with them and you can go straight out west from Orlando. That's what needs to happen.

Ed Pizza: But my daughter has an opportunity to potentially race an invitational track meet. I will say, one brief moment of dad brag before we run out of time, she ran winter track for the first time. She ran the 1600 meters and the 3200 meters, two events I will never ever run in my entire life.

Richard Kerr: That's four and eight laps around track. Yep.

Ed Pizza: One mile and two mile too, for those keeping track at home.

Richard Kerr: Keeping track, see what you did there.

Ed Pizza: She had the 10th best time all time for her school in the 1600. And the 7th best time, all time for the 3200 for her school.

Richard Kerr: What'd she run those in? You remember times? I want to compare them to mine. That's why I'm asking.

Ed Pizza: Well, she beat Summer, according to Summer, because Summer never broke seven minutes. She was six and change for the mile. But I don't remember the exact number.

Richard Kerr: Yeah. I've never broke seven minutes for a mile. At one point, Edward, believe it or not, I ran a 7:29 mile.

Ed Pizza: Don't believe that.

Richard Kerr: I did that. That is true. It's very true.

Ed Pizza: You just used my full name. A little scary. Then her time for the 3200, which is two miles, was 13:53 and she'd never broken 14 before.

Richard Kerr: Disgusting.

Ed Pizza: It is really disgusting.

Richard Kerr: Disgusting.

Ed Pizza: So she might get invited to a very special meet next weekend. So we might be splitting up parental duties and have my wife go one way with the daughter and have me go the other away with our son. To be continued.

Richard Kerr: You're going to be going three different ways, it sounds like. It's going to be a really long day.

Ed Pizza: Probably not going to let the 10 year old fly home on his own from Orlando, but yes.

Richard Kerr: Unaccompanied minor, man. That's fine. What is that, 100 bucks?

Ed Pizza: Nope. Nope. Nope. There are two things I will never leave with an airline. I understand folks who do it. My buddy Summer does that all the time. I will never leave my kids or my pets with an airline. Just not going to trust them.

Richard Kerr: Really?

Ed Pizza: Nope.

Richard Kerr: See, I'm definitely going to stick my kids on a plane to go visit sister, grandparents or something.

Ed Pizza: No, no, no, no. Nope. Trust airlines, not at all. Nope.

Richard Kerr: Actually, when we landed, when we were waiting to leave Orlando, we got there early. The plane landed, and I've never seen so many unaccompanied minors on a single flight. We thought the plane was done boarding and we were waiting. Then a flight attendant came out. I kid you not, there were 11 or 12. They had little packets around their neck. You know how they stick it on there? There were 11 or 12 unaccompanied minors, I guess, traveling home for the holidays or something, man. I was like, "Wow. I thought there was a limit of how many kids could be on a flight or something like that." There was a lot.

Ed Pizza: Nope, Nope, Nope. Nope.

Richard Kerr: I'm not going to do connecting itineraries, but I'd definitely throw them on a flight to Houston. Two hours. Sister will be there. It'd be fine. Nothing bad ever happens with US airlines, man. What are you worried about? Every flight goes perfectly. It's just like the Japanese, man. There's nothing to worry about here.

Ed Pizza: Yep. Recorded for posterity when you only have one kid left.

Richard Kerr: I'm moving back to Japan as soon as the borders open.

Ed Pizza: I like it.

Richard Kerr: That's it. It's final.

Ed Pizza: All right. So wrapping up real quick guys. If you actually listened to 45 minutes of this Shtick and still are listening, that's awesome.

Richard Kerr: We said wrapping up 10 minutes ago.

Ed Pizza: We had some folks who tweeted out there that we were their number one podcast that they listened to on Spotify all year, clocking in over 1000 minutes listening to us to losers, which is pretty scary stuff. But if you do love the show, do us a favor. Give us a five star review wherever you're listening. Five star rating, sorry, and a review. Those things are super, super awesome for us. Turbocharges a show, gets more people listening.
As he said earlier, he is @K-E-R-RPoints on all of the Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, tick, tock, tick, tock, TikToker. I am not a TikToker. Kerr is showing his Bonvoy card right now to me in the window, which is pretty scary. You can find me @PizzaInMotion on all of those same platforms. Email at Ed@PizxaInMotion. If you want to text or call us, leave a voicemail, 571-293-6659. He is in New York this week. I am at Disney with my son for plenty of surprises. Until we upload again. We've got Miles to Go.
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