Here is a friendly reminder that the current bonus of up to 40,000 Aeroplan Miles on the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card will come to end this weekend as new offers will released on December 2.
Now before you jump on the offer you should be aware that the
requirements to reach 40,000 miles are a bit tougher than the 30,000 miles
offer earlier in the year. When you receive the card you will be awarded
with 15,000 Aeroplan miles on the first purchase made. Then you will
receive double Aeroplan miles on eligible purchases in the first three
months, up to 20,000 miles, for a total of 35,000 miles. This is all
with the first year annual fee of $120 waived on the primary card. You
can also earn an additional 5,000 miles when you add an authorized user
to your account (an additional card, formerly known as supplementary
card). The latter however is still subject to the $50 annual fee. Of
course if you have a TD All Inclusive Banking plan you don’t ever pay
fees on the primary or first additional card. Even if you fore go the
additional card (you’re single or don’t want to pay the $50) the 35,000
Aeroplan miles you can earn at no cost other than your credit card spend
is higher than any other bonus we have seen on the card before.
Now, what you need to consider is how you go about getting the most
miles possible because to earn 35,000 miles you need to max out your
spend on the card in the first three months to take advantage of double
Aeroplan miles. If we take the 20,000 mile maximum earn for double miles
it will take $6,666.67 to $10,000 in card spend to get all the miles
possible. That means you need to budget just over $2,200 to $3,333 in
spending per month. The range in spend is due to the earn rates on the
card, the card earns 1.5 Aeroplan miles per eligible dollar spent on
grocery, gas, drugstore and aircanada.com purchases which translates to 3
miles per dollar during the double mile earning period. All other
purchase earn 1 Aeroplan mile per dollar which doubles to 2 per dollar
during those first three months. If you have been planning some home
renos, booking a vacation, buying a car, etc. this would be the time to
do it and put that spend on this card to get you the most miles.
I would also recommend that if you play the credit card sign up bonus
game or are a credit card churner – you may want to take a break from
other cards when you get this card. The reason why is so you can focus
your spend to reach that 20,000 double mile limit without stretching
your finances to meet the minimum spend requirements on other cards at
the same time. We’ve heard too many stories of people scrambling because
they signed up for and received too many cards in a short period of
time and struggled to hit the minimums to earn the welcome bonuses.
That aside – once you do have this card and have earned the 35,000 to
40,000 Aeroplan miles at no expense for the former and only $50 for the
latter you have a lot of travel reward value at your disposal. Looking
at the Aeroplan Classic Flight reward chart there are lots of round trip
options that run from 15,000 to 40,000 miles and even more one way
options since they are exactly half of the rates listed on the chart:
Here are some of the possible redemption options for the 35,000 mile level:
- 2 Round Trip Economy Class Short Haul tickets (with 5,000 miles left over)
- 1 Round Trip Economy Class Long Haul ticket in Canada and the U.S. (with 10,000 miles left over)
- 1 One Way Economy Class Ticket to South America or Europe (with 5,000 to 10,000 miles left over)
Here are some redemption options at the 40,000 mile level:
- 1 Round Trip Premium Economy Class Long Haul ticket in Canada and the U.S.
- 1 Round Trip Economy Class Short Haul ticket and 1 Round Trip Economy Class Long Haul ticket in Canada and the U.S.
- 1 One Way Economy Class ticket to Asia (with 2,500 miles left over)
- 1 One Way Premium Economy Class ticket to Europe (with 2,500 miles left over)
The value you get out of the sign up bonus will really vary based on
what you redeem your miles on. For example a one way business class
ticket from Toronto to Los Angeles and then returning in economy class
would cost you 37,500 miles plus taxes and fees for a flight combination
that will be well north of $2,000 or over 5 cents of value per mile.
Other redemption options may push over 7 cents per mile or you may be as
low as 1.2 cents but even at that lowest level that is still up to $480
in value – not many cards can provide that sort of value just with
their welcome miles or points.