There's third-party lounge access, and then there's the actual, you know, that are tied with Air Canada, for example, or WestJet, or with an airline, right?

That's right, yeah.

So third-party lounge access, so that is these programs like Priority Pass.

That's probably the most famous one.

But there's also Dragon Pass and a couple other companies out there who, you know...

Basically, you buy a membership with them and then you get a discounted entry rate.

So when I said like, you know, maybe a lounge is $40 to $60, you may pay only $30 to $50 or something by buying one of these memberships.

Like is an Air Canada lounge better or are they all kind of the same? We're

And are we seeing more of that now?

We are.

Yeah.

So that's what I like to call the any travel at any time credit cards.

And that is your, that's my other tip for getting price for free is using those cards.

And yeah, so basically you can book whoever you want.

You're not stuck with a single program or, or like an ecosystem, you know, people, some people love their arrow plan, but others will be like, well, I, you know, Canada and their partners aren't the right airlines for me.

So it is important to don't assume that you can't afford to fly in a different class.

It's

not hard to be driving a car worth $65,000.

And once it's over that MSRP, again, you will not be covered.

And with a lot of rental car companies offering upgrades and people buy the upgrades, or if you're a member of their loyalty programs, whether it's like Hertz Gold Plus Rewards, National Emerald Club, where you can just pick a car off the lot, you know, there might be a nice Mercedes sitting there.

I'm going to grab that Mercedes.

Like, well, hold on a second.

What is the, what is it worth? Then, then you need to look and say, it's like, okay, well, I'm going to buy the insurance.

Yeah.

Patrick Sojka, tell me about the best way to save on gas this summer.

That's what I was going to say.

You know, it's basically taking advantage of any of these linked loyalty partnerships or these credit card savings.

You know, it comes down to where you buy your gas.

I mean, if you're indifferent, like say you have, you know, every station, you know, under the sun near your house or near your cabin or wherever you're traveling, that's... that summer, then just pick the one that works the best for you, that you like.

Otherwise, you look for the promotions.

ScenePlus has been doing some big promotions.

We don't want them in the bank.

And I think there's some wait lists if I read properly on some of the credit card options that are out there trying to create a little demand.

Yeah.

So yeah, if you join this wait list, cause if you don't have one of the blue rewards card or if you don't have an air miles card right now, and then you apply for a blue rewards card when launches, if you join this wait list, you'll be entered.

I believe to win 1 million.

blue points, so quite a bit of points, a lot of value there with the credit card.

And yeah, so basically at the start of this year, they shut down the new applications for AirMiles cards as they go for this transition.

And then sometime, I'm assuming after June 1st, we'll see them open up applications for these new blue rewards cards.

i'm assuming after that unrolls then everybody else reacts

Lots of pets.

Pets, a lot of global pet food.

And then it's new when Blue Rewards launches.

You know, even though they were going away from travel in terms of the terminology and marketing, they're adding Porter Airlines.

They're adding Accor Hotels, like Fairmont Hotels, Novo Hotel, Sofitel, all those different brands.

They're adding travel brands.

But then they have the MTY group of restaurants.

There could be a real fight on our hands that loyalty rewards bring in customers.

Now, for the average person who isn't flying monthly, what's the most honest answer here? Are points programs still worth chasing, or are they, um, in your mind mostly marketing?

Um, no, they're definitely worth, uh, definitely worth chasing.

Uh, they've gone way beyond.

You know, some of the earliest loyalty programs were the frequent flyer programs.

Um, they launched, a lot of them launched during the 1980s.

Um, but they, they've gone way beyond that.

A lot of them are providing this kinda everyday value, where you're earning on online shopping, you're earning on your credit card, you're earning with getting your coffee, you know, whether it's Tim's or Starbucks.

... six or seven of these, or should you consolidate some of them?

What do you have got for the best ones?

So the best, we have two categories in cashback.

There's fee and no fee.

And on the fee-based card is the Simply Cash Preferred card from American Express.

So this card earns 2% on all your purchases except for a couple of categories like grocery and gas where it's bumped up to 4%.

So it's a very strong cashback earning card.

This is one of those holdouts that I was mentioning that you only get your cashback once per year.

But how can we have some fun with some points?