What are Hybrid Cards?

These cards allow you to funnel all your spending to one account, that of the proprietary credit card program but then you have the option to transfer or convert those points to airline, hotel and other loyalty programs. For example if you have the American Express Gold Rewards Card you'll collect Membership Rewards (MR) points on the card but those points can also be converted to Aeroplan. So right there you have two programs to work with as you can swipe your Amex card for everyday spend to earn Membership Rewards Points and then swipe your Aeroplan card if that merchant happens to be an Aeroplan partner

Essentially you're banking more points in MR and in the future you can decide if your redeem them via Amex's TripFlex Feature or convert them to Aeroplan (or MR's other airline/hotel partners) to top off the miles you've already earned for a redemption. All the hybrid cards above let you use the proprietary points for booking travel how you want.

Related: Why proprietary credit card reward programs are the best option for most Canadians

So there is your first step in diversification. Get yourself a hybrid card and make it your primary program and your primary credit card. The second step is that you can and should still carry loyalty cards from Aeroplan, AIR MILES and any other programs you may frequent such as Cineplex's SCENE, Shoppers Optimum, etc. As you will be earning your points for purchases on your hybrid card but there are so many partners out there for these other programs that you should be earning with them as well. You may never get to a flight award with AIR MILES but you may get yourself enough miles to redeem via the AIR MILES cash feature to save you some money or maybe have enough for a free night at a hotel. Once again you are focusing on putting all your spend on your hybrid card and then collecting points and miles wherever else you can. A totally different step in diversification is to say screw it to travel rewards and go with a cash back credit card so that you can just use that cash back reward to anything you want. The only thing to be aware of is that you'll potentially have a lower rate of return on your spending than on travel rewards cards (the gap is closing between the types however) and most cards only give you the cashback once per year whereas the travel rewards cards allow you to use your points whenever.

Hybrid Card Details

	American Express Membership Rewards	RBC Rewards	Diners Club Club Rewards	HSBC Premier
Primary Card for Earning	American Express Gold Rewards Card	RBC Visa Infinite Avion	Diners Club Club Rewards Mastercard	HSBC Premier World Mastercard
Proprietary Program Point Value (Percent Return on each $ spent)	1 to 2%	1 to 2.33%	1.7%	1 to 2%
Programs you can convert points to	Aeroplan Alitalia MilleMiglia British Airways Executive Club Cathay Pacific Asia Miles Delta SkyMiles Etihad Guest Hilton HHonors Marriott Bonvoy	American AAdvantage British Airways Executive Club Cathay Pacific Asia Miles Esso Extra Shoppers Optimum WestJet Rewards	19 Airline & Hotel Programs	British Airways Executive Club Cathay Pacific Asia Miles Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer

The risks of diversifying

When you diversify you aren't putting all your egg in one basket. Just as any financial planner will tell you, this is what you need to do with your financial portfolio and as we have always spoke to, loyalty programs should be part of your financial portfolio. That being said too much diversification will bite you in the behind. It's like putting $100 into this mutual fund and $100 into that one and so on and so forth. Those minor amounts, even with growth, won't amount to much. You need to be careful when you diversify your loyalty programs. If you stay at hotels 4 or 5 times per year you are better off staying at one brand rather than a different brand for each stay so that you can build up those hotel points in one program. One stay a year across multiple hotel loyalty programs won't get you anything. Or better yet if you are that typical Canadian above funnel the hotel stays into your Aeroplan or AIR MILES account and pay for it with your hybrid card. Getting gas one week from Esso to earn Aeroplan miles and then one week from Shell to get AIR MILES won't amount to much either. Try to pick one and stick to it. Ultimately you risk earning only a few miles and points in a lot of programs that won't amount to much and you'll just have a bunch of orphaned miles and points.

As you can see you need to look at how you spend your money, where you spend your money, where you travel and how you want to be rewarded from your loyalty program(s) to determine your level of diversity. Honestly, loyalty programs follow the saying the rich get richer as the more money you can spend on your credit cards, the more you travel etc. the easier it is to diversify and remain loyalty program rich. Unfortunately for many of us we just can't afford to live a lifestyle like that. Pick a credit card, stick to it. Use both Aeroplan and AIR MILES but focus on one more than the other and throw in other programs for places you may frequent often. That's about as far as you should diversify.

Other diversification options

What if you don't use credit cards?

If you don't use credit cards and are strictly a cash and debit user your diversification strategy is tougher. As with almost any situation for a Canadian your portfolio should still include Aeroplan and/or AIR MILES plus any others of places you may frequently shop at like Shoppers Drug Mart. The problem is your earning potential is lessened greatly and if you use too many programs you'll spread yourself too thin as the miles and points earned without a credit card on shopping purchases are quite minimal. You could always grab the Scotiabank SCENE debit card to reward yourself with free movies for your debit card spending or grab an AIR MILES account with BMO to earn miles on debit purchases although we find that account to be quite expensive (they don't have a minimum balance waiver) and not worth the AIR MILES you earn with it.

I'm a frequent traveller, should I diversify my elite status options?

You fly. You fly a lot. Enough that you earn status with your airline of choice early in the year. What do you do for the rest of the year? If that airline doesn't grant you the status benefits early, you could shift your travels to another airline to earn status with that other airline. Ultimately it would be ideal if each airline was from a different alliance (SkyTeam, Star or oneworld) so you could enjoy benefits across the dozen's of airlines in these alliances. However, if your original airline does grant you early status recognition you need to decide what is more valuable to you. Using those benefits right away for your travels for the remainder of the year and of course for the next elite year, or not enjoying the benefits so that you can fly with another airline to earn status with them so that in the following year you can enjoy benefits across multiple airlines and multiple alliances.

The same principles apply to hotel frequent guest programs. Enjoy the benefits early or go for the gusto and earn status across multiple programs.

Of course, you may not have to diversify your loyalty to actually get status across multiple programs as many airline and hotel programs will match your status from a competitor! Find out about many current status match and/or challenge offers on Rewards Canada's Elite Status Offers page.

So what is your final answer?

Yes you should diversify your loyalty programs but to what extent will depend on your personal situation. You should always have one focus program if you aren't a frequent traveller or high spender coupled with some secondary programs to ensure your aren't bitten by the devaluation bug but also aren't spreading yourself to thin with too many programs.

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