Clarity Emerges For Existing Capital One Aspire Travel Cardholders
Earlier this year Capital One closed its popular Aspire Travel World MasterCard to new applicants. The card, which came with a generous 35,000 point sign-up bonus and 10,000 point anniversary bonus, was considered by many to be the best travel rewards card in Canada.
The decision by Capital One was clearly a disappointment for the industry and prompted many existing cardholders to wonder what would become of their favourite travel card.
After weeks of speculation, Capital One has finally released details in a letter to existing cardholders.
“Your Capital One Aspire Travel World MasterCard will be “upgraded” to the new Aspire Travel World Elite MasterCard. The new card should arrive in the mail within 4-6 weeks and your current card will be officially deactivated on August 16th, 2015.”
The biggest change is that the new card comes with World Elite MasterCard concierge services that give you access to experts in over 60 cities worldwide. You can call them to help with your travel questions – everything from dinner reservations to train schedules.
Will the existing benefits remain the same?
In a word, yes. In the letter, Capital One confirmed that even though existing cardholders are being transitioned to the new Aspire Travel World Elite card, they’ll continue to get two reward miles for every dollar spent, with no limits to how much they’ll earn. They’ll also continue to receive an anniversary bonus of 10,000 reward miles on their account each year.
Final thoughts
As an Aspire Travel cardholder I’m pleased to see that existing cardholders will retain the 10,000 anniversary mile bonus. The addition of the World Elite concierge service is also a nice touch.
Many readers were anxious to see whether they’d get to keep the bonus miles, so they’ll be happy to hear that the anniversary bonus remains intact.
Of course, that doesn’t help any new Aspire Travel World Elite applicants and so I have to be careful touting that benefit when reviewing the new card.
But all is not lost. For anyone considering the new Capital One Aspire Travel World Elite MasterCard – here is the best deal going today:
Right now, when you sign up for the Aspire Travel World Elite MasterCard through Great Canadian Rebates, you’ll get a cash back rebate of $75.
That’s in addition to getting 10,000 bonus reward miles on your first purchase, and two miles for every dollar spent.