I think it's interesting that 62% of people say that their rewards points don't cover taxes and fees from the airports. That's a problem I had with my travel rewards card. While I have more than enough points to travel and cover the taxes and fees, I still can't use it to pay for taxes and fees.

if your plan is to travel as cheaply as possible and you've spent the time saving your travel plans but why not be able to use them for taxes and fees. I understand why because those are hard Cash items. With tickets they can be discounted from the airlines because they want the bums in seats. Taxes and fees have to be related to the government and whoever else the fees go to.

That's something I like about the capital one rewards card. You can use rewards to pay for all of the ticket costs, taxes and fees.

Make sure you have the right travel rewards card

Forty-three percent of Canadians with travel rewards cards have used or redeemed travel rewards in the past year with 80% of those redemptions being used for airfare. However, 62% of survey respondents say their rewards card does not allow them to pay for taxes or surcharges with rewards points and a further 20% are unsure what costs their card covers.
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/March2010/08/c7753.html

this is the news article that talks about American Express giving one or one air miles reward mile for every $15 in purchases. It looks like it's a new American Express card, which is kind of neat.

Maybe they're just trying to be more competitive with other credit cards.

it's interesting to read in this article that the air miles program was founded in 1992. In that time it's become pretty popular with consumers.

TORONTO, March 22 /CNW/ - American Express and AIR MILES Reward Program(R) announced today an enhanced no-fee American Express AIR MILES Credit Card, redesigned to give consumers a faster way to earn AIR MILES reward miles on a no-fee Credit Card.

The new American Express AIR MILES Credit Card earns Cardmembers 1 AIR MILES reward mile for every $15 dollars in purchases charged to the Card at AIR MILES Sponsors. Cardmembers will still earn 1 reward mile for every $20 in purchases charged to the Card everywhere else. Reward miles in the Collector's Account do not expire and can be redeemed for a variety of travel, leisure, entertainment, and merchandise options.
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/March2010/22/c3709.html

I just got a letter in the in the mail and then said my American Express business Gold card now gives me one point for every $15 spent. So it is on an existing credit card. And there's probably a new product out there that gives the same rewards. In doing my analysis I hate to say that air miles are pretty expensive relative to other rewards points.

For example I did an analysis where I was in a travel from Regina to Puerto Vallarta Mexico. With air miles it would've taken approximately $97,000 spent to buy the points to get a return ticket to Puerto Vallarta and back.

With Capital One travel rewards or Aero plan the dollar spent is approximately half of what it would be with air miles. So I wasn't terribly impressed.

I've been spending a lot of time lately trying to figure out which cards you have to ultimately spend less money with in order to get travel benefits. And air miles doesn't seem to be coming to the top of the list is the cheapest.

Amex has a card that you can earn a point for every dollar you spend. I believe the annual fee is high.

You can now earn miles faster with the new changes Amex did with their airmiles rewards programs. Amex recently launched a new business card that offers rewards for every $15 dollars spent. Now, existing Amex air miles credit cards can automatically reap the new benefits from their cards. Every $15 spent on air miles sponsors will get 1 rewards miles, and a $20 purchases everywhere else will get 1 rewards miles.

Plus, new AMEX rewards miles cardholders will earn 150 bonus rewards miles the first time they use their cards.