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All you unhappy Aeroplan members, this one's for you.

Today's edition of the Personal Finance column completes a survey begun a couple of weeks ago of alternatives to the Aeroplan travel reward program, and it picks the best of the bunch. Aeroplan remains a formidable competitor, even if it has alienated a lot of customers with a new policy that allows their points to be cancelled in certain situations. But there's definitely something out there for you if you want to bail on Aeroplan.

Previously, we looked at Diners Club, CIBC Aventura and MBNA WorldPoints. Now, let's look at three others.

Air Miles. With a blue Air Miles card, you can earn points simply by patronizing stores and service providers that are partners in the program (some readers report super Air Miles deals at Safeway grocery stores). To speed up the process, use an Air Miles Bank of Montreal MasterCard or American Express card.

Both of these cards let you rack up points much faster, which is important because you accumulate Air Miles more slowly than with other programs.

With the BMO and Amex cards, you earn a single Air Miles point for every $15, $20 or $40 you spend, depending on which credit card you choose. Air Miles says flights start at 850 points, but Toronto-New York will cost you 1,050 points at low season and 1,300 in high season.

The best option is to use the BMO Mosaik Air Miles MasterCard with the WestJet option -- it offers flights within Canada and to several U.S. sunspots for between 800 and 1,600 points.

Cost: From zero to $80 a year, depending on the card and the rate at which you earn Air Miles.

Booking flights: Advance booking of two to seven days is required; economy tickets only.

Signing bonus: BMO is offering 150 Air Miles for its gold card, and 100 for its silver card.

More Info: bmo.com, americanexpress.com/canada, airmiles.com.

RBC Visa Platinum Avion. RBC has seized upon discontent with Aeroplan's changes to put a big push on for Avion.

This card is very much like Diners Club in terms of its reward flights in that it lets you book on a wide variety of airlines. Also like Diners Club, it includes fewer cities in its definition of short-haul flights than Aeroplan, and it requires 5,000 more points to book various categories of long-haul flights than Aeroplan.

Where Avion lags Diners Club is in the price cap it puts on reward flights. For example, Avion will cover the cost of a short-haul flight to a maximum of $350 if you have 15,000 points, compared with a ceiling of $400 for Diners Club.

Cost: $120 a year, plus $50 for a supplemental card.

Booking flights: Avion no longer requires 14-day advance booking or Saturday night stays for trips within North America; first-class seats are available.

Signing bonus: 10,000 points, plus another 5,000 on renewal (that's enough for a short-haul reward flight).

More info: royalbank.com.

TD Gold Travel Visa. This card has a loyal following because of its flexibility, not its ability to generate travel rewards quickly. You get one point for every dollar you spend on the card, but it takes 1,000 points to generate $15 in travel rewards.

The upside is a refreshing level of transparency. Just convert your points into dollars and apply them to cover part or all of your travel costs.

For example, 20,000 points would equal $300 that you can use like cash at TD's travel centre. It should be noted that TD has the option of cancelling points after seven years, as Aeroplan now does (TD says it's reviewing the policy).

Cost: $120 a year, plus $50 for a supplemental card.

Booking a flight: Pretty much anything goes, although TD prefers you to book 14 days in advance; first-class seating is available.

Signing bonus: 15,000 points on approval.

More info: td.com (You'll notice on the website that TD has a new travel card, TD AAdvantage Platinum Visa, that lets you rack up points on American Airlines.)

The best all-around Aeroplan alternative for generating reward flights as quickly and painlessly as possible?

It has to be Diners Club, which gets you flying quickly and easily on a wide choice of airline and is slightly more generous than RBC Avion in how it caps the price of your reward flights. The runner-up is the BMO Mosaik MasterCard with the WestJet option -- it can get you flying even faster than Diners Club and Avion, but you have to confine yourself to WestJet's limited service area to make it work most advantageously.

Even if you've soured on Aeroplan, don't give up on it until you check out the changes that Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce has made to its popular Aerogold Visa card. You can now earn 1.5 points for every dollar you spend at gas stations and grocery and drug stores instead of the usual one point, and CIBC is guaranteeing that you won't lose your Aeroplan points if your account is inactive for 12 months. Aeroplan now says you have to either add or redeem points in a year to retain your points.

rcarrick@globeandmail.com

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