Every Canadian points blog will tell you a card’s welcome bonus is “worth” a certain dollar amount. Almost none of them ask real families what a free flight actually costs once you count annual fees, minimum spend, and how long it takes to redeem. We’re asking. This page is the start of an original Ms Miles survey of Canadian families on what they actually pay for their travel points, and what they actually get back.
This page currently shows the national data we’re using as a benchmark. Original survey results will be added here once we reach our target sample size — see the methodology note below.
Why we’re doing this
Most Canadian card-comparison sites value a welcome bonus using a best-case redemption — first class to Tokyo, business class to Europe — a value almost no family with two working parents and two kids actually redeems for. We wanted real numbers from real Canadian households: what people pay in annual fees, how long it takes them to redeem, and whether the points genuinely funded a trip they couldn’t otherwise afford.
What we already know: the national picture
Canadians are projected to spend $47.6 billion on travel in 2026, with the average household budgeting $4,169 for vacation spending, according to Ipsos’ 2026 Canadian Travel Spending Outlook (n=2,001). Domestic travel spend hit $20.3 billion in Q2 2025 alone, up 13.5% year over year, according to Statistics Canada. Neither figure says anything about how much of that spending was funded by points, or what it cost families in annual fees to earn them — that’s the gap this survey is built to close.
What we want to find out from families like you
- The average annual fees Canadian families pay across their travel/rewards cards, compared with the redemption value they actually receive
- What share of families redeem their points within 12 months of earning them, versus letting them sit
- Which everyday spending category (groceries, gas, dining, bills) earns the most points for real households
- What share of families say their points funded a trip they otherwise couldn’t have afforded
- How Ms Miles’ family-focused readers compare to the Ipsos national average household vacation budget
Take the 3-minute survey
If you’re a Canadian parent or guardian who uses (or has used) a travel or rewards credit card, we’d like to hear from you. The survey is anonymous, takes about three minutes, and asks about your cards, fees, and what you’ve redeemed — no account or sign-in required.
Methodology
We’re distributing this survey through the Ms Miles newsletter, Instagram audience, and relevant Canadian parenting and travel-points Facebook groups, targeting 200 to 500 responses before publishing results. Every figure we publish will be dated, will state the sample size it’s based on, and will be checked against the Ipsos and StatCan benchmarks above rather than presented as a national statistic on its own. If the sample skews in an obvious way — toward a single loyalty program or income band, for example — we’ll say so directly rather than smoothing it over.
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