When I was working at WestJet, one of the biggest perks was the ability to fly standby anywhere in the WestJet network. This was something that my family and I took advantage of at every opportunity we could.

The problem with standby is that there were occasions where you didn’t know whether or not you would make on the flight, which made it difficult to book your accommodations given that many hotels require between 24-48 hours of notice to cancel without penalty, with some even having less forgiving policies.

When flying standby, the only time you knew for certain that you had a seat was when the cabin door was closed and you started to push back.

So the question remains, how do you book your accommodations if you aren’t sure you are going to a destination until 1 minute before you push back?

Easy – onboard wifi.

Onboard Wifi Cost

Onboard wifi is absolutely incredible. You’re hurdling to your destination at 900 km/h at a height 40,000 feet in a chunk of aluminum while listening to the Raptors win the NBA Championship .. true story.

Given all the technology that needs to work together to make this all happen, it’s not a huge surprise that the experience comes at a very high cost.

But what if I told you that I could that you could get wifi for free? Like literally free … potentially forever.

Brim Financial and Boingo

Brim has been around for a little while now and made a splash with their very strong value proposition. In particular, the $0 Brim Mastercard offers significant value and quite frankly, I have been BLOWN AWAY with what it offers.

For NO ANNUAL FEE, you get a card that has 0% foreign exchange fees AND free global wifi via Boingo.

Let’s break down these two key features to understand their value.

What is Boingo

Boingo is an American company that provides access to mobile hotspots around the world and claim to have over 1 million connection points around the world. The value proposition of Boingo itself quite valuable as it has come in handy when travelling abroad but what really makes it sing is that Boingo works on airplanes.

For Canadians, that means free wifi on WestJet flights. Unfortunately, Air Canada uses Gogo instead of Boingo so if you are an AC flyer, this isn’t going to be of much use to you.

If you fly WestJet a lot, either personally or for work, the value you can derive is incredible. The Brim card carries a $0 annual fee and you get unlimited use wifi on WestJet flights. It’s a no brainer.

What makes this even more amazing is that there are a few other airlines around the world that also support Boingo. According to the Boingo website, Austrian Airlines, China Airlines, Air Europa, Singapore and WestJet use Boingo but from my own personal experience, I know that my flight from YVR-TPE on EVA Air (BR) had Boingo connectivity and I was able to get online with no issues. Wifi providers on airlines change all the time so keep an eye out for other airlines that support Boingo in-flight.

Let’s Talk About the 0% Foreign Currency Benefit

If free wifi wasn’t enough, the Brim Financial Mastercard also offers 0% FX for transactions made outside of Canada. Some of you may have a US card that has 0% FX but you also face the challenge of paying your bills in US currency. With Brim, it’s as easy as adding an additional bill to pay through your online banking, which makes your transaction frictionless.

Now, the promise of no FX is great but does Brim actually deliver?

In a word, yes.

When our family travelled to Shanghai this summer, we stopped in at Disneyland Shanghai and paid for a set of FastPasses (yes, that’s a thing in China) and we were charged ¥1,980 (Chinese Yuan) on July 19th, 2019.

Brim charged us an FX rate of 1 RMB = 0.190762626 CAD.

And here’s what the Bank of Canada had as its mid-market rate for the same day:

Accuracy to 3 decimal points is pretty great in my eyes and follows through on Brim’s promise of 0% FX. This means that you don’t pay a cent more than you need to when you make foreign transactions, which is HUGE.

A Points Program On Top of It All

In addition to the already amazing value proposition, Brim provides points with their purchases. With the $0 Brim Mastercard, you get 1 point per dollar spent and each point is good for 1¢ that you can apply against future purchases.

As an example, if you spend $1,000, you will get 1,000 points, which is good for $10 which can be applied against any purchase you make on the Brim Mastercard.

It’s not earth-shattering but with the free onboard wifi and the 0% FX, this is an incredible additional benefit.

How To Apply

The application process, when I went through it, was a bit clunky. When I applied, I did not receive an immediate approval and was told to call back in two days. I did so and was again told that they were still processing applications and to call back again in 2 more days. After calling back a second time, I was told I was approved and received this email.

If you apply for the Brim card through my referral link, you will receive 1,000 Brim Points and a chance at my undying love*.

* love conditional on back massage ability.

Conclusion

I love outsized value when it comes to the world of Travel Hacking and the Brim Financial card is something that I am in love with. I am actually shocked that there isn’t more coverage on this card because of its incredible value. Let’s look again at what you get for a $0 card.

• Free onboard and terrestrial wifi
• 0% Foreign Currency fees
• 1% cashback on all purchases
• $10 kick start by using a referral code
• My love

I challenge you to find a more valuable $0 card in Canada. You can’t.

Do yourself a favour and get a credit card that will bring you incredible value with NO ANNUAL FEE.

I always tell people new to the game that earning the points or miles is the easiest part of the equation. Understanding how to best leverage your miles and points into luxury travel and not pay an arm and a leg in taxes, that’s usually the crux of the problem. We’re not going to cover off finding the award availability here but I’ll break down one of the hardest parts of the equation, how to decide which airline(s) to fly so that you aren’t paying $800 in taxes for an “award” flight to Europe.

What Are Taxes Comprised Of?

For the most part, the taxes that you pay on an award flight are very comparable to what you would pay on a revenue ticket. Typically in Canada, that means that you are paying for things like airport improvement fees, security fees, GST, and other inescapable taxes. You may also notice things like US customs, immigration, and agricultural fees if you are flying to the United States. Each country has its own set of taxes that they levy on all passengers landing in their country.

Those taxes and fees don’t bother me and are just a fact of life. The one “tax” that’s on there that is purely a money grab is the “Carrier Surcharge”. This used to be called “Fuel Surcharge” until government regulations required that these “fuel surcharges” needed to be tied to the actual cost of fuel. This happened in and around 2012 and since that time, airlines tiptoed around that regulation and now call their cash grab “carrier surcharge”. You will often find people in the miles and points game refer to fuel/carrier surcharge as “YQ” as this is the code that most airlines use to file these taxes. I’ll be referring to Fuel/Carrier Surcharge intermittently though this article as “YQ”.

Avoiding YQ as an Air Canada Altitude Top Tier Member

There are a few ways to avoid fuel surcharge, chief among them is to avoid the airlines that charge it (which we’ll cover later). Another method to avoid YQ is to be an Air Canada Altitude Elite Member. Altitude Prestige 25K and above members receive a YQ waiver on Aeroplan Award Redemptions on Air Canada operated flights for travel within Canada and between Canada and the US. Those lucky few that make it to Super Elite receive a YQ waiver on all Air Canada operated flights when booking an award redemption, including international awards.

I’m going to assume that most of you are not Altitude Top Tier Members but you may know someone that is. A fun fact is that your Altitude Top Tier Member friend could book an award flight in your name and the ticket would be exempt from YQ. Getting the Aeroplan miles into your friend’s account is another matter. Definitely not impossible but it also carries some inherent risk.

Star Alliance Airlines that Do Not Charge YQ

The other and most common-sense approach to avoiding fuel surcharge is by avoiding airlines that charge it.

Now there are many blogs out there that claim that X, Y, Z airline doesn’t charge YQ but have they actually gone through the work required to prove it out? I don’t know the real answer but I expect that many of them are regurgitating previously posted information.

I didn’t want to do that so I am following up my previous post on Star Alliance Partners that don’t charge fuel surcharge and updating (to ensure everything was up to date) and adding something a little more visual.

Below is a mindmap of sorts that shows you which airlines charge fuel surcharge, which do not, and which have an “it depends” attitude around YQ.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. Airlines in green represent airlines that do not charge fuel surcharge. Airlines in red represent those that do charge fuel surcharge. Airlines in yellow are oddly situationally based so watch out for those.
2. The mindmap is ordered by geography, which is handy so you can understand what airline you should be trying to find award availability on based on your destination. For example, if you are travelling to Europe, go to the Europe branch and look for the airlines that are based in Europe that don’t charge YQ.
3. Beside each airline, I list their hub airports and if there is a direct flight to a Canadian city, you’ll see a maple leaf.
4. In the mindmap, each hub airport has a link that takes you to the Google Map of that airport so you can see exactly where you are flying to.
5. To zoom in and out, simply press the CTRL key and use your scroll wheel on your mouse or use your keyboard and use the key combination of CTRL and + (zoom in) or CTRL and – (zoom out). You can also click the icon in the top right to go full screen.

List Format of Airlines and Their Associated Taxes

For those of you that want a simple way of seeing what airlines do and don’t charge fuel/carrier surcharge, fret not, the information is below. I have added screenshots of the tax breakdown for each airline and the routes that I searched. If the airline had a direct flight to Canada, that was what I used. If they did not, my next best option was direct flights to the US. Failing either of those, I searched for flights to major hub cities.

I include both short-haul and long haul (international) flights in my screenshots.

Airlines that DO Charge YQ (8)

Each airline sets their own YQ and it can be changed at any time so while it is true that some airlines charge more for YQ than others, it’s a bit of a fool’s errand to try to determine that because airlines often don’t fly the same routes so it’s not an apples to apples comparison anyways. Suffice it to say, you should avoid these airlines.

• Adria Airways (JP)
  • LJU-BRU
  • LJU-VIE
• Air Canada (AC)
  • YVR-YYZ
  • YVR-LAX
  • YVR-LHR
• Air China (CA)
  • PEK-SGN
  • PEK-YVR
• All Nippon Airways (NH)
  • HND-PVG
  • NRT-YVR
• Austrian Airways (OS)
  • VIE-BUD
  • VIE-YUL
• Asiana Airways (OZ)
  • ICN-PVG
  • ICN-SEA
• Lufthansa (LH)
  • FRA-LHR
  • FRA-YVR
• Thai Airways (TG)
  • BKK-LHR
  • BKK-PEK

Airlines that Cannot Make Up Their Minds on YQ (3)

There are three airlines that I have found that sometimes do charge YQ and sometimes don’t. I haven’t had enough time to determine why this is, just that there are inconsistent results. The lesson here is to exercise caution when booking these airlines. The only positive thing here is that only LOT has direct flights to Canada and the US so the likelihood of it affecting you is somewhat slim.

• Aegean Airlines (A3)
  • ATH-CAI (No YQ)
  • ATH-KRK (No YQ)
  • ATH-VIE (YQ)
• Croatian Airlines (OU)
  • ZAG-LHR (No YQ)
  • ZAG-VIE (YQ)
• LOT Polish Airlines (LO)
  • WAW-PRG (No YQ)
  • WAW-YYZ (YQ)

Airlines that Do NOT Charge YQ (16)

Here is what you’ve been after, the list of airlines that do NOT charge carrier/fuel surcharges (YQ). If you can use these airlines for the majority of your trip, you will have a very small amount of cash outlay required to book your award travel, and isn’t that really the goal?

Personally, I obsess over deriving the most value out of my miles so I go out of my way to avoid airlines that charge YQ. Hopefully, you can make use of this list and do the same.

• Air India (AI)
  • DEL-BLR
  • DEL-LHR
• Air New Zealand (NZ)
  • AKL-PVG
  • AKL-SYD
• Avianca (AV)
  • SAL-SJO
  • SAL-YYZ
• Brussels Airlines (SN)
  • BRU-PRG
  • BRU-IAD
• Copa Airlines (CM)
  • PTY-SJO
  • PTY-YYZ
• EgyptAir (MS)
  • CAI-ADD
  • CAI-YYZ
• Ethiopian Airlines (ET)
  • ADD-NBO
  • ADD-YYZ
• EVA Air (BR)
  • TPE-SGN
  • TPE-YVR
• SAS (SK)
  • ARN-CPH
  • CPH-EWR
• Shenzhen Airlines (ZH)
  • SZX-PHN
  • SZX-LHR
• Singapore Airlines (SQ)
  • SIN-PVG
  • SIN-SFO
• Swiss Airlines (LX)
  • ZRH-VCE
  • ZRH-YUL
• South African Airways (SA)
  • JNB-NBO
  • JNB-JFK
• TAP Airlines (TP)
  • LIS-MAD
  • LIS-BOS
• Turkish Airlines (TK)
  • IST-BUD
  • IST-ORD
• United Airlines (UA)
  • IAH-YYC
  • SFO-LHR

Interesting Findings

While doing the research for this post, there were a few interesting things that I ran into because I had to validate all these fuel surcharges, specifically how difficult it was to find availability for certain airlines and/or routes.

While I’m sure you will run into your own patterns, here are some of the things I found:

• Air India routes between Delhi (DEL) and North America were very difficult to find
• Singapore Airlines routes between Singapore (SIN) and North America were very difficult to find.
• Air New Zealand routes between Auckland (AKL) and North America were very difficult to find.

In addition to the above, I ran into one WTF moment when I was searching for Ethiopian Airlines (ET) routing between Addis Ababa (ADD) and Toronto (YYZ). Not only was YQ applied on an airline that doesn’t charge YQ, but airport taxes were charged for France, Germany and Ethiopia.

It is notable that the routing is a direct flight (not non-stop) as it routes through Dublin (ADD-DUB-YYZ) but the only countries that could possibly charge taxes are Ethiopia, Ireland and Canada so why the airport fees were charged as they were, I have no idea.

What you should take from this is that errors do happen in the automated calculation of taxes so be diligent and check them over.

Conclusion

For the standard collector and member of Aeroplan, the idea that you might pay hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in taxes and fees make the program unattractive. Those in the know understand that there are ways to avoid a very unnecessary tax, fuel/carrier surcharge (YQ).

My hope is that you bookmark this post, share it with friends, and use the hell out of it so that you too can derive the most value possible out of the Aeroplan program.

A few days back, Lucky from One Mile at a Time posted a good article on some ways to keep your Aeroplan Miles from expiring.  While we respect the hell out of Lucky and the OMAAT team, the article missed out on the easiest way to keep your miles from expiring.

Aeroplan Expiry Policy

As most of you know, Aeroplan’s expiry policy is actually pretty good in comparison to some others out there.  Your miles only expire if you have 12 months of inactivity, meaning that any activity in your account renews your miles for another year.

Some Ways to Renew Your Miles

As Lucky correctly identified in his article, there are quite a few ways to earn or redeem your Aeroplan Miles, all of which will renew your balance for another year.  These include:

• Present your Aeroplan card when making purchases at affiliated retailers including:
  • Home Hardware
  • Costco
  • The UPS Store
  • Primus
  • Novus
  • Car rental agencies
  • Almost every hotel chain
• Shop at the Aeroplan eStore
• Donate miles to charity
• Redeem for travel or merchandise

But the Easiest?

The dead simplest way to earn miles to keep your account from expiring is to allow Aeroplan to text you.

All you need to do is to update your profile with your cell phone number (this should work even if you are in the US).

Once you are sure your cell phone number is in your profile and saved, wait a full 24 hours (to allow Aeroplan’s systems to catch up) and then simply send a text message to 27767 with the word “JOIN” in the message.

You’ll receive a text message confirmation that your opt-in has been received and another one when your points have been deposited (about 24 hours).

If you’re lucky you may even earn up to 1,000 Aeroplan Miles for your efforts but it’s most likely that you will earn 100 Aeroplan Miles.

The great thing is that you can opt-out at any time and those 100 Aeroplan points, although only worth about $1,00, are enough to keep your miles from expiring for another full year.

That’s easier than finding a retailer that accepts Aeroplan (more and more rare these days) and much less costly than redeeming your miles for something you don’t need.

Does It Work?

Absolutely it does, but keep in mind that the SMS opt-in bonus will only be in effect until December 31, 2019.

Conclusion

Having miles expire sucks but in the case of Aeroplan, the solution is very quick and simple (and free).  Simply opt-in to Aeroplan’s SMS service and your problems are solved – at least for another year.

In our world of Travel Hacking, maximizing the number of points or miles you earn whilepayingn the least amount of money is always our goal.  Many programs make that difficult for you by imposing strict churnig restrictions such as American Express’ “once in a lifetime” rule for earning sign up bonuses.  There still are cards out there that you can churn easily, like the MBNA Alaska World Elite card, but did you know you can switch credit cards with RBC?  In fact, it’s one of the best perks of using RBC’s suite of credit cards.

Many of the popular RBC credit cards offer a decent amount of sign up bonuses which you’ll definitely want to take advantage of!

I’ve personally done the RBC credit card product switch and you can check out my video below where I talk about my experience going through the product switch process.

The Four Benefits

Benefit #1: You can double dip or triple dip on the welcome bonus points/miles

If you sign up for the RBC British Airways credit card, you will receive 40,000 Avios after getting the welcome bonus points and meeting the minimum spend requirements.

You can then do a product switch to say an RBC Avion, and now you have another 15,000 Avion points, which can be transferred to British Airways Avios, American Airlines, or Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles.

For the a similar amount of annual fee, you have now collected 55,000 Miles instead of just 40,000.

From here, you have the option of product switching again to earn more points or find an RBC credit card with no annual fee to “park” yourself in the meantime and get the annual fee you paid for the second credit card pro-rated.

This leads us to…

Benefit #2: Your annual fee is pro-rated

After completing the RBC product switch, an RBC representative will refund you the remainder of the annual fee you paid.  Let’s say you decided to keep the RBC British Airways VISA for 3 months after the switch.  You can actually get a refund for the other nine months that you did not hold the card. Essentially, you are only paying $41.25 for the annual fee instead of $165.

They’ll then charge you an annual fee on your next card which is most likely going to be $120. After getting the welcome bonus points and holding the card for three months, if you do another product switch, they will refund you the remaining nine months which means you only paid $30.

This brings the total annual fee you paid to $71.25 if you’ve gotten the British Airways Avios and RBC Avion VISA.  Keep in mind; you’ve also earned 55,000 miles in the process and that’s a pretty awesome deal if you ask me!

Benefit #3: Test drive other frequent flyer programs

 You don’t really know how useful a frequent flyer program is until you’ve tried it.  One of the best way to test drive several different frequent flyer programs without paying full price for the credit card’s annual fee is to use the RBC product switch method.

This will allow you to test drive some of the frequent flyer programs that are partnered with RBC such as:

• British Airways Avios
• WestJet Rewards
• Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
• American Airlines (Transfer from RBC Avion)

Benefit #4: Prevent your credit score from dropping

Every time you sign up for a new credit card, your credit score will drop a few points (if you don’t know the ins and outs of credit and your credit score, take a quick read here).  However, when you do a product switch, RBC uses the credit score from the credit check they used to approve you for your original card.  For every new credit card you get, your credit score will be unaffected.

Conclusion

Frequent flyer programs such as British Airways Avios is one of the best in Canada and I highly recommend you getting the RBC British Airways Avios card and/or the RBC Avion card. I personally used them when I travelled around the world for a year (check out my points and miles redemption breakdown in this blog post here), and it was a life saver when I travelled through South America, Asia, and parts of Europe.

Just remember that the minimum spend bonus points is only valid for the first card you apply for so you’ll only qualify for the welcome bonus points for your consecutive credit cards.

Good luck in your application and reap the benefit of this RBC product switch strategy!