Lesser known travel credit cards with perks

During these unprecented times when travel is limited and restricted, one tends to look for other ways to redeem the points one accumulates using their credit cards. Desjardins has two cards that not many are aware of, and these come with a variety of benefits and travel perks.

First is the Desjardins Odyssey World Elite Mastercard

and the second is the Odyssey Visa Infinite Privilege

Lets check out the costs, features and benefits:

Odyssey World Elite Mastercard
– Annual Fee $130
– Additional card free for members ($40 for non members)
– Comprehensive travel for upto 60 days for you and your family
– Earn upto 3% in Bonus dollars on your purchases
– 3% on groceries
– 2% at restaurants/Entertainment/Public transportation
– 1.5% on all other categories
– Access to the Desjardins Odyssey Lounge at Montreal airport
– Get 8 free passes
– Access to other airport lounges provided by LoungeKey (USD$32 applies per visit)
– Discounts at Hertz, Thrifty and Dollar.
– and many more.

Odyssey Visa Infinite Privilege
– Annual Fee $295 for members ($395 for non members)
– Additional card free for members ($95 for non members)
– Comprehensive travel for upto 60 days for you and your family
– Earn upto 4% in Bonus dollars on your purchases
– 4% at Restaurants/Entertainment/Public transportation
– 3% on Groceries/Travel
– 1.75% on all other categories
– Access to the Desjardins Odyssey Lounge at Montreal airport
– Get 12 free passes
– Discounts at Hertz, Thrifty and Dollar.
– and many more.

So what are “BONUSDOLLARS”?
1 BONUSDOLLAR earned = $1 you can redeem for
– rewards and gift cards
– Rewards like appliances, electronics, luggage, toys etc,
– Gift cards for AirCanada, Bed Bath & Beyond, BestBuy, CanadianTire etc.
– Entertainment – Just use the credit card to pay for tickets and redeem BONUSDOLLARS later
– Travel – Just use the credit card to pay for part or all of your travel expenses and redeem BONUSDOLLARS later
– Financial products and services – Use your BONUSDOLLARS to invest in RRSP, RESP, TFSA, Insurance etc.
– Donations – Support a cause by paying with your credit card and redeem BONUSDOLLARS later
– Restaurants – Enjoy a meal and then redeem BONUSDOLLARS later
– Public transportation – Redeem your BONUSDOLLARS for public transport.
– Account credit – Use your BONUSDOLLARS to cover an amount charged to your credit card account.

While the best value can be had in redeeming miles and points for flights in premium cabin, these two cards allow you the additional option to redeem for non travel related areas.

I will look into more details on the cash back cards in a separate post shortly.

Meanwhile, it great to see that there are other options for accumulating and redeeming points.

Stay safe.

Written by Dominic Fernandes aka CanadaPointsGuy.

Image courtesy of Aleksandra Fornalczyk on Unsplash