The New Best Travel Mastercard For Shopping At Costco

creditcardGenius Team
updated on May 4, 2022
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Whether you like shopping in bulk or not, Costco has something for everyone, including excellent prices on books, competitive pricing on fruits and vegetables, and an unbeatable return policy.

Using one of our top-listed Costco credit cards can increase the value of your membership and shopping experience even more. The American Express® Aeroplan®* Card is one of the most valuable choices, largely due to its travel benefits.

This article reviews this BMO card and how it can benefit your budget, whether you're spending at Costco or elsewhere.

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Shopping at Costco? You need a Mastercard

Finding the best card for Costco is important to a lot of people.

We want our oversized Costco sheet cake, with our credit card rewards on top.

Costco only takes credit cards that are part of the Mastercard network – thus eliminating about half the credit cards in Canada – and although we thought we had it figured out, another bank has come along to throw their name in the ring.

And the award goes to…

3.6 Genius Rating
3.4 (55) User reviews
award seal ×1 Award winner
Annual fee
$120.00 $0
1st year waived
Welcome bonus
$1,143
9,000 miles
Annual rewards
$323
GC Ends: Oct 31, 2025
Credit Card Genius Cash IconGC: $150
BMO AIR MILES®† World Elite®* Mastercard®*
Instant approval: Yes
Credit estimate:
3.6 Genius Rating
3.4 (55) User reviews
award seal 1x Award winner
Annual fee
$120.00 $0
1st year waived
Welcome bonus
$1,143
9,000 miles
Annual rewards
$323
GC Ends:
Oct 31, 2025
Credit estimate:
 (560 - 659)
Instant approval: Yes

Surprised?

We sure are.

But BMO has recently made some changes to the BMO AIR MILES® World Elite®* Mastercard®*,are we’re pretty darn giddy about it.

This card was already the best AIR MILES card in Canada, and, friends… it just got better.

All the exciting details

The BMO AIR MILES® World Elite®* Mastercard®*,already had a lot of really great things going for it.

  • An unmatched 1 mile for every $12 you spend…everywhere.
  • Triple miles when shopping at participating Air Miles partners.
  • A welcome bonus of 3,000 miles.
  • 15% discount on AIR MILES flights within North America.
  • 14 out of a possible 17 types of purchase and travel insurance included for no extra cost.

And now, if you can believe it, this card is even better.

For starters, BMO is waiving the annual fee for the first year.

Anytime you can get a premium credit card for no annual fee, it’s something to get excited about.

And with this sign-up bonus, cardholders will have enough AIR MILES in their account to earn them a short-haul flight right off the bat, not a bad way to start things off.

3.6 Genius Rating
3.4 (55) User reviews
award seal ×1 Award winner
Annual fee
$120.00 $0
1st year waived
Welcome bonus
$1,143
9,000 miles
Annual rewards
$323
GC Ends: Oct 31, 2025
Credit Card Genius Cash IconGC: $150
BMO AIR MILES®† World Elite®* Mastercard®*
Instant approval: Yes
Credit estimate:
3.6 Genius Rating
3.4 (55) User reviews
award seal 1x Award winner
Annual fee
$120.00 $0
1st year waived
Welcome bonus
$1,143
9,000 miles
Annual rewards
$323
GC Ends:
Oct 31, 2025
Credit estimate:
 (560 - 659)
Instant approval: Yes

The changes don’t end there

The BMO AIR MILES® World Elite®* Mastercard®*isn’t the only card that BMO has decided to update.

Although the updates aren’t nearly as impressive, the BMO Ascend World Elite®* Mastercard®*and the both are changing for the better.

The BMO Ascend World Elite Mastercard

The BMO Ascend World Elite®* Mastercard®*comes with:

  • 4 complimentary Mastercard Airport Experiences provided by LoungeKey passes,
  • a sign-up bonus of up to 100,000BMO Rewards points,
  • rewards that can be redeemed a number of different ways, and
  • the same impressive insurance package that you get with the AIR MILES World Elite Mastercard.

Starting today, new cardholders will have the annual fee waived for the first year.

Now is the perfect time to try this BMO credit card out to see if it is right for you.

3.4 Genius Rating
2.3 (52) User reviews
Annual fee
$150.00 $0
1st year waived
Welcome bonus
$670
100,000 points
Annual rewards
$262
GC Ends: Oct 31, 2025
Credit Card Genius Cash IconGC: $125
BMO Ascend™ World Elite®* Mastercard®*
Instant approval: Yes
Credit estimate:
3.4 Genius Rating
2.3 (52) User reviews
Annual fee
$150.00 $0
1st year waived
Welcome bonus
$670
100,000 points
Annual rewards
$262
GC Ends:
Oct 31, 2025
Credit estimate:
 (300 - 559)
Instant approval: Yes

The BMO AIR MILES Business Mastercard

The BMO AIR MILES Business Mastercard is the other card we wanted to let you know would be changing.

This card will now come with the same:

  • 3,000 mile sign-up bonus,
  • waive the annual fee for the first year…

Just like the BMO AIR MILES® World Elite®* Mastercard®*.

Find out all the details here:

Updated BMO credit cards at a glance

There you have it.

With many cards being devalued and changed for the worse, it’s nice to finally have a card get better.

And while these cards already had some very redeeming qualities, we love that these cards are now significantly better.

Card Name New Notable Features Learn More
BMO AIR MILES World Elite Mastercard * 3,000 welcome bonus points
* Annual fee is waived for the first year
Learn More
BMO Ascend World Elite Mastercard * Annual fee is waived for the first year Learn More
BMO AIR MILES Business Mastercard * Annual fee is waived for the first year Learn More

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Editorial Disclaimer: The content here reflects the author's opinion alone. No bank, credit card issuer, rewards program, or other entity has reviewed, approved, or endorsed this content. For complete and updated product information please visit the product issuer's website. Our credit card scores and rankings are based on our Rating Methodology that takes into account 126+ features for each of 229 Canadian credit cards.

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Showing 10 comments

Joe
Joe
October 6, 2018
I signed up for this card earlier this year before they offered the free companion voucher. Does anyone know if BMO allows you to cancel the card and re-apply to get the welcome bonus?
creditcardGenius Team
creditcardGenius Team
October 9, 2018
Hi Joe! After reaching out to BMO customer service on Twitter, this is the response we got from one of their representatives: "Hi there, thank you for reaching out to us. You can absolutely re-apply for a new BMO Work Elite Mastercard to take advantage of a promotion! You can choose to cancel your existing card, keep it as is, or downgrading to to a no fee card. What ever works best for you with the current BMO Mastercard promotion! ^NC"
Mary
Mary
October 3, 2018
I disagree as Amex and BMO usually waived the card fee once a year and offerd 2000 to 3000 miles or the equivalent in Aeorplan points when spending $1500 over 3 months. The spending requirement has doubled to $3000 over the past year... and hoping AMEX will top the BMO offer....in the coming weeks.
Stephen Weyman
Stephen Weyman
October 3, 2018
I thought you were saying that there was no spending requirements at all. Yes, you are correct, there have been quite a few across the board spending requirement increases to qualify for sign up bonuses. One trick I always use is to simply purchase gift cards to my favourite stores ahead of time if I'm having trouble meeting the spending requirement.
Mary
Mary
October 2, 2018
Just checked the World Elite AMiles. Not a true 3000 sign up bonus as we have to spend $3000 in first 3 months to get it. Was I looking at an old offer ?
Stephen Weyman
Stephen Weyman
October 2, 2018
Unfortunately almost all credit card sign up bonuses are subject to some sort of minimum spending these days. There are still a few left that don't require this, but that is the exception and not the rule. No fee cards are more likely not to require a minimum spend.
Sharon
Sharon
October 2, 2018
My experiences with Air Miles has been that the fees and taxes are so high that after you used your miles to redeem for flights, you ended up having to pay similar price to one single ticket anyway. I just don't know how they figured that out. How is Air Miles still worthwhile?
Stephen Weyman
Stephen Weyman
October 2, 2018
The taxes and fees dilemma is mostly a function of what route and airline you choose to fly on. People often dream of travelling to London, Paris, or other cities in western Europe, and those are precisely the places where taxes and fees are crazy and can add up to the same cost as discount airfare during seat sale. However, domestic flights and other destinations around the world tend to have much lower taxes and fees. The general rule of thumb is to avoid Europe when redeeming miles. For example, I just checked a flight between Halifax and Toronto on WestJet from Nov. 10 to Nov. 17. This would not be considered to be a high value route because there are no connections and neither city is particularly remote. Actual cost according to Expedia is $362 including taxes and fees. Cost on airmiles.ca is 1415 miles + $152.72 in taxes and fees. That makes 1 mile worth 14.8 cents. Apply the 15% flight discount this card gives you, and you're at 17.4 cents. We generally estimate a flight value of 16.8 cents (19.8 cents with 15% flight discount) because we assume people will put in a minimal effort to find a reasonably valuable route.
Sharon
Sharon
October 4, 2018
Thanks, Stephen. Actually, the flights I had redeemed with miles in the past were in North America, like California or east coast United States with Air Canada. I have also tried to use it for short haul like Vancouver to Calgary, and it still worked out to almost buying one ticket. I'm currently shopping for a new mastercard since I will be cancelling my MBNA World Elite and Rogers cards. I prefer good cash backs, but I came across this card on your site and it looks tempting with all the sign up bonus and no fee for a year; However, I'm not sure if this is the best there is out there right now. Which is the best cash back credit card currently available?
creditcardGenius Team
creditcardGenius Team
October 5, 2018
Sharon, Currently, the best cash back card available, in our opinion, is the Scotiabank Momentum Visa Infinite. Especially if gas and groceries are two of your biggest expenses, as it has the highest cash back percentage (4%) of any other card in those categories. The SimplyCash Preferred by American Express is also a really good cashback option, and you can always pair it with another card like the Tangerine Money-Back Mastercard for the times where Amex isn't accepted.
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