The Best Travel Rewards Locum Card

The Canadian healthcare system sometimes feels like its held together by a shoestring and good intentions - and part of those good intentions are manifested via the work of Locum Physicians. I'm likely biased having locumed in varying capacities across Northern Ontario (including Fort Frances, Dryden, Timmins, Wawa etc) and New Brunswick. Inevitably this involves quite a bit of travel, flights, hotels, and car rentals. So the question arises - What's the Best Travel Rewards Locum Card?

In this article I'm going to explore what's important for a locum card, some of the best options and opine on why some are better or worse depending on the nature of your work. I'm also going to reveal just how significantly I under earned by using the wrong card for years as a locum. Referrals and disclaimers at the bottom.

What to Look For

Good locum cards are ones that maximizes earning while also having meaningful perks that enhance the locum travel experience.

Spend Categories

The most important category to earn on will be travel or specific subsets of the travel category such as flights, hotels, car rentals etc. Food is also important, and likely depends on the community and your personal patterns, but for me personally, looking at my locum expense records for week long locums from 2019-2021 I found:

• flights $600-1200

• hotel or airbnb $700-1200

• car rental $500-1000

• food $200-300

Perks to Consider

• lounge access for when youre stuck at the airport

• priority airport service for when you get to the airport last minute

• Perks that save the system money may be a nice to have but aren't as "felt" (eg. free checked bag)

Cards in Depth

For the sake of narrowing the pool for the discussion I'm focusing on variable value and transferrable point cards easily available in Canada, that means Aeroplan, Avion, and Amex. Fixed value rewards can be useful too, and expect an article discussing the pros and cons of fixed vs variable, but these cards generally don't have as much upside or big perks like lounge access. Also, note that whether or not a card is labled as a business card it can be used as your business card so don't feel limited in that regard, but consider that holding an expensive card as your business card avails you to its benefits, while diminishing the relative impact of the annual fee. Jump ahead to the discussion.

Aeroplan Personal Core Cards

TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite

• Annual fee $139

• Earn rates

  • 1.5x on AC flights, gas, grocery

  • 1x base

• Lounge access - none

• Airport/Airline perks

  • free checked bag

  • 1000 SQM and 1 SQS (points towards frequent flyer status) with every $10k spent

CIBC Aeroplan Visa Infinite

• Same as TD except additional 1.5x on ev charging

Amex Aeroplan

• Same as the above except:

• Annual fee $120

• Earn Rates

  • 2x AC flights

  • 1.5x dining and food delivery

  • 1x base

Aeroplan Personal Premium Cards

TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege

• $599 Annual fee

• Earn rate

  • 2x on travel booked specifically with Air Canada

  • 1.5x on gas, groceries, travel, and dining

  • 1.25x base

• Lounge Access

  • Unlimited access to Mapleleaf lounge (MLL) for you and one guest

  • 6 visits through the Visa Airport Companion Lounge Program

• Airport/Airline Perks:

  • free checked bag

  • priority check in, priority boarding, priority baggage handling

  • Annual companion pass if over $25k per year in spending

  • 1000 SQM and 1 SQS (points towards frequent flyer status) with every $5k spent

  • SQM and eupgrade rollover

CIBC AP VIP

• Same as TD except additional 1.5x on ev charging

Amex Aeroplan Reserve

• $599 Annual fee

• Earn rate

  • 3x AC travel

  • 2x dining and food delivery

  • 1.25x base

• Lounge Access

  • Unlimited access to Mapleleaf lounge (MLL) for you and one guest

  • Priority pass membership but no included visits

• Airport/Airline Perks:

  • free checked bag

  • priority check in, priority boarding, priority baggage handling

  • Annual companion pass if over $25k per year in spending

  • 1000 SQM and 1 SQS (points towards frequent flyer status) with every $5k spent

  • SQM and eupgrade rollover

  • Pearson perks (unique to Amex cards)

    • complimentary valet

    • 15% back on pearson parking

    • priority security lanes

      
      

Aeroplan Business Core Cards

TD Aeroplan Business

• Annual fee $149

• Earn rates

  • 2x on AC flights

  • 1.5x on travel, dining, shipping, internet, cable and phone

  • 1x base

• Lounge access

  • one MLL pass per $10k in spend up to a max of 4 in a year

• Airport/Airline perks

  • Free checked bag

  • 1000 SQM and 1 SQS (points towards frequent flyer status) with every $10k spent

CIBC Aeroplan Business

• Same as TD except Annual fee $180

Aeroplan Business Premium Card

Amex Business Aeroplan Reserve

• Very similar to the personal Amex AP Reserve except slightly different earn rate

  • 2x hotel and car rentals (instead of dining and food delivery)

Avion Cards

The avion cards are easy to compare as they all have the fixed earn rates. The personal Avion VI is 1x as is the Business Avion, the Avion VIP and Business VI are 1.25x (the business to a cap of 75k per year). The Avion VIP comes with 6 Visa airport collection lounge visits per year.

Amex Membership Rewards Cards

Note the below Amex cards earn an extra 1 pt per dollar when booking hotels or car rentals through Amex's travel portal

Amex Gold

• Annual fee $250

• Earn rate

  • 2x on travel, dining

  • 1x base

• Lounge

  • 4 plaza premium lounge visits

Amex Business Gold

• Annual fee $199

• Earn rate

  • 1x on everything

  • Extra 10k points in any quarter where you spend $20k

    
    

Amex Platinum

• Annual fee $799

• Earn Rate

  • 2x - travel, dining

  • 1x base

• Lounge Access

  • access to over 1000 airport lounges worldwide

• Pearson perks (unique to Amex cards)

  • complimentary valet

  • 15% back on pearson parking

  • priority security lanes

• Other Benefits

  • annual travel and dining credits

  • hilton gold

  • marriott gold

Amex Business Platinum

• Similar to the above except:

• Earn Rate

  • 1.25x on everything

• Instead of a dining credit a mobile phone and Dell credit

Discussion

The Avion cards are the clear losers in this comparison. They lack the travel perks and their earn rates are constant without any category bonuses. The business gold amex is similarly a poor performer with a low multiplier and no perks.

The Platinum cards are strong contenders with their Pearson Perks and lounge access, although I personally prefer MLL over what they include. The issue for me is in their earn rates. The personal platinum earning 2x on many categories and 1x base and business platinum earning a flat 1.25x, both with the potential to earn an extra 1x when booking hotels and car rentals through the amex portal. If you plan to use their portal that can make the personal platinum appealing as it will be earning 3x on hotels and car rentals, 2x on flights and food, and 1x on everything else. The business platinum would be 2.25x on hotels and car rentals, and 1.25x on everything else. Some people are happy to use travel portals, others prefer to book directly with hotels, car rentals etc to make sure that their elite status is recognized and their stays/rentals are credited. For those focused on earning alone, the personal gold is another good choice earning in the same territory as the personal platinum. It's 4x plaza premium visits will disappear fast and are relatively lackluster however and it doesn't come with the Pearson specific Amex perks (parking and security related).

Of the Aeroplan cards, the premium tier personal and business cards appeal the most given their airport and airline specific perks. The amex business aeroplan reserve edges ahead in my opinion with its higher earn rate of 3x on AC flights and 2x on hotels and car rentals. The Pearson specific perks put it over the edge for me as the best. How different would the point earning be between the competition? Let's look at the locum spending data I shared, and reveal that the card I was using at first was a Scotia Passport Business card which earns a fixed 1.5 scene points per dollar spend on all categories, worth a fixed 1c per point each. I compared the cards in a spreadsheet I made using various estimates of variable point values with and without using the amex portal etc. Ignoring the airport, airline, and status benefits, I'll show an exerpt of the spreadsheet below:

I could have earned an extra $100+ in untaxed travel rewards per locum, plus lounge access, airport perks, and status acceleration with the business AP reserve or even more with the personal platinum if I used the portal... Oh well, hopefully you can learn from my mistake!

Conclusion

While the best card will ultimately depend on how much you spend, where you travel from/to, what perks you value, how often you locum and more, there is the potential to make a significant change with a simple swap of your current locum card. If you travel with Air Canada, I would suggest the Amex Business AP Reserve as likely the best for you with high earning and the best airline and airport perks. If you aren't travelling with AC, another consideration would be for the the Personal Platinum, particularly if you use their travel portal. If you want to go through the calculations, and see how the numbers compare with your current card, including considerations for your specific situation reach out for a consult.

Referrals

If you're considering any business labeled Amex cards, reach out to me directly, your business situation is likely a bit more complex and may benefit from my expert help, so reach out! We can select the best card, and discuss techniques like tax payments via credit card.

Business Aeroplan Reserve

Business Platinum

If you're on the fence, or wondering about other cards reach out to me for a free consult, and if you sign up for a card through my link, let me know and I will walk you through advanced tricks and personalized advice to help you get the maximum benefit both from earning and redeeming points - getting your travel journey going faster than you ever thought possible.

Check out my Keeper Cards series to see other cards worth exploring

Disclaimer

This should not be taken as financial advice and details are subject to change. I have made good intentioned efforts to be accurate but ultimately consult card terms and conditions. I may receive points or other compensation from some of the included links.