Everything you need to know about BMO Ascend World Elite, from what travel rewards are included to whether it’s worth the annual fee.
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If you’re itching to travel again, BMO has a card designed to help you get there. With an attractive insurance package and perks like airport lounge access, the BMO Ascend World Elite Mastercard seeks to tempt users into the BMO Rewards program. But here’s the big question: Is the card good enough to justify the $150 annual fee? We delve into what the card offers and show you exactly how it stacks up against other travel reward cards.
Apply for the BMO Ascend World Elite Mastercard*
With BMO Rewards, the redemption process is as simple as logging in to your account. To redeem for rewards, you can avail yourself of the full-service online travel agency or shop from their catalogue. You can book with any airline without blackout dates or seat restrictions, and BMO also offers price matching, so you can be sure you’re getting the very best deal.
Points redeemed for travel come in at a value of 140:$1 ($0.007 per point), meaning that you’ll need 35,000 points for $250 towards travel expenses. Importantly, you don’t have to redeem a minimum number of points, or any, to book travel—and you can pay whatever your points don’t cover by charging that amount to your card. Redemptions for gift cards and merchandise are just as simple (you select from an online catalogue), but you’ll typically get less value from your points compared to travel. Finally, you can redeem your points for financial products, but this option comes at a steep reduction in value. For 7,000 points you can get $50 in a BMO investment account (which is about $0.007 per point), or for 15,000 points you’ll receive $50 towards your credit card bill (about $0.003 per point). With all these redemption options, the BMO Rewards program is extremely flexible—this is one of the main reasons it’s so popular—but for the very best point-to-dollar ratio, travel rewards are the way to go.
The BMO Ascend World Elite Mastercard has a strong travel coverage package, the card offers both trip cancellation and trip interruption insurance. The card has got you covered for up to $2,500 for the non-refundable and non-transferable portion of your canceled trip. As for trip interruption, BMO has also got your back, as it will cover up to $2,000 for the cost of one-way airfare departure and any unused non-refundable prepaid arrangements.
With the BMO Ascend World Elite Mastercard, you get a free membership to Mastercard Travel Pass, which gives you four annual airport lounge visits that can be used at 1,000 airport lounges worldwide.
Even though the BMO Rewards program offers numerous redemption possibilities, travel rewards give you the very best value—with no seat restrictions or blackouts. Add to that the card’s airport lounge access, and travel and medical insurance, and you’ve got a very competitive product for travellers.
Despite a very strong showing in many respects, there are a few drawbacks you should be aware of. The first is that the BMO Ascend World Elite Mastercard commands an income threshold of $80,000 per year for an individual (or $150,000 per household) and an annual fee of $150 (most travel cards come in around the $120 mark). An extra $30 per year may not matter much to high-earners, but the fee may give you pause, especially when you consider that some cards offer more lucrative bonus categories. The Scotiabank Gold American Express, for example, offers 5 Scotia Points on restaurants and groceries. Finally, the BMO Rewards website could use some work, given that it’s the portal through which users must make redemptions. Improvements to site speed would go a long way to keeping customers happy, and would help cement the brand’s reputation as a top-tier provider. The $150 annual fee on the BMO Ascend World Elite Mastercard is nothing to sneeze at, but for frequent flyers, the travel rewards more than make up the expense. Still undecided? New cardholders get their money back instantly in bonus points and a fee waiver, so you effectively have a year to see for yourself. If you’re interested in BMO cards, but don’t want to collect travel rewards, check out our list of BMO’s best credit cards.
The answer to whether the BMO Ascend World Elite Mastercard is worth the high annual fee of $150 will depend on a variety of factors. If you’re a frequent flyer and traveler and earn more than the card’s income requirement, the answer is yes. The annual fee would most likely be canceled out by the free lounge access and travel insurance, if you’d be paying for those two services out of pocket each time you travel. On the other hand, the card’s high-income requirement and annual fee may be a barrier for some and a reason to choose another card instead. And, if you’re a fan of earning cash back instead of points then may not be the best choice since there is no such offering with the card.
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The points redemption on this card are not advantageous at all. On top of using a lot of points you also have to pay money, at a rate that makes absolutely no sense compared to, say, one of the Aeroplan cards. I got this card a year ago and I am getting rid of it before they ding me for the annual fee….
THe redemption program has not been working form the past ten days. No solution no eta
I have 453,000.00 points to use.
Don’t use this credit card, terrible service
Do not use your points to get merchandise. They don’t give you a tracking no. Merchandise not received, no able to get an answer from them. Finally canceled the merchandise but did not get my points back. Terrible service, waited 1h30 to talk to somebody but still did not get my points.
Do not get BMO Mastercard World Elite
‘…any airline without blackout dates…’ NOT TRUE!
Flights on Qatar Airways from YUL are not available on BMO rewards.
IF YOUTHINK YOU HAVE TRAVEL INSURANCE WITH BMO WORLD ELITE ADMINISTERED BY GLOBAL ALLIANZ DON’T WORRY YOU DON’T
So twice I’ve used my points. First time for a coffee maker…. Took at least 5 calls because they couldn’t except my address… go figure, had to have it mailed to a friends house! 2x booked a trip before Covid and so was told I had a year to rebook… spent 3 days calling and a minimum of 4 hours each time on the phone ( at least 3-5 x a day) no answer. Finally got through and they couldn’t find my rescheduled number although this was what they gave me when I called about canceling because of Covid! Took down all my info and said they would call back… it’s been 3 days and nothing!
And I’ve sent 5 emails today to see what is going on…. Not even a response. So do I get my points back or is this just another SCAM?? Disappointed customer of BMO rewards
I would hold back off using any BMO credit cards for points right now. They have a new travel system and it has been a disaster. For instance, I used my points on their website for a value of almost $2000. However, the booking didn’t grab the points and after waiting over 3 hours to speak to someone, they said they had to do it manually. I thought it would take a few weeks at most but it seems that this is a very common issue for them right now and it takes about 3 months to get your money back. Basically, i’m set back $2000 for a couple of months. Their supervisor on the phone tried to make me feel better by telling me that I wasn’t the only one and alot of people are facing this issue. He proudly told me that people from April are now resolved and they’re working through cases from May now. When I signed up for this card many years ago, 100 points were worth a dollar, then it became 140 and now it is 150. The entire program has been devalued massively. The extreme difficulty in resolving an issue with your points together with how regularly it seems to be happening makes this one of the worst cards I’ve ever owned. It’s no point having perks you have to painfully jump through hoops to use. Me and my partner will be cancelling all our BMO products after this. I recommend other credit card companies where you are not tied to a bad redemption system. Also, the fact that BMO credit cards ad BMO rewards don’t work together is a huge issue since the bank can’t do much to help resolve your issue. Strongly recommend everyone stay away from BMO credit cards for this reason.
They brag about the returns but they used to be 2 percent return on all money spent and the second card used to be paid for considering getting rid of the card. It also takes almost three times the points to get plane tickets compared to what it used to. Very disappointed.
I believe that Mastercard have removed the complimentary lounge passes. You now have ACCESS, but it will cost you $32 USD per person. This drastically reduces the benefit of this card, compared to others.