One of the most popular travel rewards credit cards in Canada, the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card
was first reviewed by Rewards Canada in 2014 when it was introduced.
For the better part of six years the card didn’t change very much but
then we saw the entire Air Canada Aeroplan saga transpire for numerous
years which culminated in Air Canada buying Aeroplan back from Aimia and
launching a whole new Aeroplan in November of 2020 along with refreshed
credit card offerings. This mainstay Aeroplan card from TD underwent
many changes for the new program and thus the need for this updated
review.
If you want to see what the old card was like read our TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Review (Old 2014 version)
Overview
The TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card
hit the market on January 1st, 2014 when TD took over as the primary
issuer of Aeroplan co-brand cards in Canada from CIBC. The current
version of the card was revealed on November 8, 2020 to coincide with
the launch of the new Aeroplan program. The new card saw quite a few
changes take place that ultimately made the card even better than
version 1.0. Also with the launch of the new Aeroplan program we decided
to re-classify its co-brand cards as airline cards once again in our
Top Travel Rewards Credit Card rankings as we dissolved the coalition
program category. Hence this card returned to top spot in the
Airline category, a position it held from 2014 to 2017 and yes it
continues to be the best airline credit card in Canada.
Recommended reading: The New Air Canada Aeroplan Program All the resources you need
Costs & Sign up Features
The TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card
comes with a $139 primary card annual fee however with the current
promotion that fee is rebated in the first year. The annual fee is
higher than the old card’s $120 charge however the card does come with
more benefits and in fact we are starting to see more of these premium
cards bump up their annual fees from that $120 we have all become
accustomed to. Supplementary cards are now $75 each up from the previous
$50 however again these additional cards do come with additional
benefits. Additional cardholder’s (up to 3) annual fee is also rebated
in the first year with the current promotion on the card that runs until
September 5, 2022 Remember if you have a TD All Inclusive Bank account you can have the annual fees rebated on the cards.
Right now the welcome bonus on
the card offers up to 50,000 Aeroplan Points. These are over and above
the annual fee rebates already mentioned. We value the 50,000 Aeroplan
Points at no less than $750 but they are typically worth much more than
that. The 50,000 points offer ends September 5, 2022.
Here is how you can earn the current welcome bonus points:
- Earn a welcome bonus of 10,000 Aeroplan points when you make your first purchase with your new card†
- Earn 20,000 Aeroplan points when you spend $1,500 within 90 days of Account opening†
- Plus, earn an additional 20,000 Aeroplan points when you spend $7,500 within 12 months of Account opening†
The interest rate on the card
is 19.99% on purchases. 22.99% on cash advances and balance transfers.
These rates are equivalent to or below many cards at this level. The
minimum annual income requirements for the card are $60,000 personal or
$100,000 household.
Earning
The card earns Aeroplan points and earns those points as follows
- 1.5 points per eligible dollar spent Air Canada Purchases (includes Air Canada Vacations), Grocery purchases and Gas Station purchases.
- 1 point per dollar spent on all other spending
- For a limited time, earn 1.5 bonus Aeroplan points for
each $1 spent on eligible purchases at participating Starbucks®
locations†. Conditions Apply. Offer ends February 14, 2022
These earn rate are similar to the old TD Aeroplan Visa
Infinite card albeit you’ll notice the card no longer earns the higher
point rate at drug stores.
New to the card (and most other new Aeroplan cards) is
the ability to earn status points and segments with the card. You’ll
earn 1,000 Status Qualifying Miles and 1 Status Qualifying Segment for
every $10,000 spent on the card.
Point Valuation Chart
| Spending Category | Points earned per dollar spent | Effective Rate of return (Travel) * |
|---|---|---|
| Air Canada, Groceries, Gas, Starbucks | 1.5 | 2.25% to 7.5+% |
| All other spending | 1 | 1.5% to 5+% |
| * This is a very low minimum valuation. In most cases you should be able to easily pull more value than this especially if you redeem for business class or first class flights. |
||
Redeeming
This is where the strength of the Air Canada Aeroplan program comes through and makes the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card
shine. Aeroplan offers numerous redemption options but being a frequent
flyer program the primary redemption option is reward flights on Air
Canada and Aeroplan partner airlines. Overall you can redeem Aeroplan
points to well over 13000 destinations Worldwide which is one of the
reasons Aeroplan is so popular.
The new Aeroplan program has done away with their
standard award charts (Classic Flights) that were the norm with the
program since its inception in the 1980s. That being said, for travel on
Air Canada, they do provide a range of points you could expect to
redeem for flights on Air Canada with the claim that approximately 80%
of redemptions will fall in that range but 20% could end up being less
or more than what is published. Essentially what Air Canada has done is
made the old Market Fare awards (any available seat at any time for a
dynamic range of points) as their standard redemption model now for Air
Canada flights. Flights on partner airlines will still follow a fixed
price reward chart model. You can see all the redemption values in this PDF here.
What hasn’t changed in the Aeroplan program is the
ability to redeem for Economy, Premium Economy, Business and First Class
flights. With the latter three tending to provide outsized value when
you compare to any other loyalty program in the market. Speaking of
premium flights, just in case you didn’t know you can redeem Aeroplan
points to fly in Etihad’s ultra luxurious Apartment first class seats.
And the great news with the TD Aeroplan card (or any Aeroplan co-brand
card) is that you receive preferred award pricing when you redeem points
for flights. This discount varies by route, date, time etc. but we have
seen it in the 10 to 30% range. The discount gets slightly bigger if
you have Air Canada elite status but that only adds a few percentage
points to the overall discount – the biggest portion does come from
having the credit card.
On top of all this the new Aeroplan program no longer has
to those dreaded carrier surcharges that could run into hundreds and
sometimes thousands of dollars. While the surcharges have been done away
on all airlines Aeroplan does charge a reasonable $39 fee for booking
flights on partner airlines. The removal of the surcharges does however
translate into an average higher cost in points for a lot of the
redemption options albeit in many of our searches the increase in points
is much less than what you used to have to pay for those surcharges.
We didn’t want to make this review go on forever so we
have kept the redemption section to a very top level description however
it you want to learn more about redeeming for flights with the Aeroplan
program we recommend reading the following articles:
- The New Air Canada Aeroplan program is now live
- A guide to the new Air Canada Aeroplan program flight reward redemption process
- The
new Air Canada Aeroplan reward flight pricing compared: no status no
credit card pricing versus elite status + credit card Preferred pricing
Finally you are also able to redeem Aeroplan points for
non-flight rewards including hotels, car rentals, Air Canada Vacations
packages, gift cards (soon to be electronic only so you’ll get them
right away!), merchandise (the catalog is being expanded greatly thanks
to partnerships with new retailers) and more.
Features and Benefits
The new TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card
is chock full of benefits and additional features that complement and
go beyond the Aeroplan program. Some have already been mentioned – the
preferred pricing on Aeroplan reward flights is one such benefit. As
well as the elite status earning portion of the card and now will take a
look at more of the benefits.
Probably the most popular or
will be the most popular benefit that has been added to the card is the
first checked bag free benefit. Provided for the cardholder and up to 8
companions on the same reservation this benefit waives the fee
associated with basic and standard economy class fares. This saves the
cardholder $30 per bag on flights in Canada, to the U.S., Mexico &
Caribbean. It will also save $70 per bag if you buy the cheapest economy
basic fares to Europe. (Pricing was current as of February 17, 2021)
The next benefit is one we saw CIBC bring to our market a
couple years back and that is a NEXUS fee rebate. TD now offers it on
this card and also the higher up Aeroplan Infinite Privilege card. They
will provide the cardholder with up to $100 in rebates every 48 months
and with NEXUS having a 5 year expiry you can easily never pay again for
NEXUS for one person and cover a significant portion of the fee for a
second person. (NEXUS fees are US$50 per person 18 years of age and older, free for kids – current as of February 17,2021)
Air Canada benefits are also extended to additional
cardholders which for this card is primarily the first checked bag free.
This means additional cardholders don’t have to be travelling with the
primary cardholder to enjoy the benefit.
On the insurance side of
benefits the card has well rounded suite of coverage. The card has
flight delay coverage, lost/stolen/delayed baggage insurance, trip
cancellation and trip interruption, travel medical coverage for up to 21
days for those under 65, four days if you are 65 and over. It also has
pretty standard CDW car rental insurance, hotel/motel burglary
insurance, purchase protection and extended warranty.
The card also provides Mobile
Device Insurance – a relatively new type of coverage that we are
starting to see on more cards here in Canada. As with virtually all
credit card mobile device insurance there are deductible and
depreciation costs applied to any claims made.
Recommended reading: The New Aeroplan credit cards compared
What is good about this card
By far the best thing about this card is the value that the Aeroplan
points earned can be worth. As with most frequent flyer programs there
is the potential for some outsized value when you redeem for flights.
This is especially true for when you redeem for business class or first
class flights on Air Canada or Air Canada’s partner airlines. Rarely
will a premium class redemption fall below 2 cents per point in value
and in fact many economy class redemptions run up to that 2% value.
The next great thing about the card is it’s direct attack on the
WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard by offering the first checked bag
free. This benefit alone is why so many people got the WestJet card as
it can provide huge savings and now Air Canada has it. A single round
trip vacation for family of four would see first checked bag fees of
$240+tax which alone makes it worth paying the $139 annual fee!
Then you have your additional Aeroplan benefits of Elite Status
earning which really helps right now since there is a lot less flying
going on and then when you are ready to fly the preferred pricing for
award flights is major plus for this card.
Add in the NEXUS rebate and the decent insurance coverage and you have a pretty amazing card.
What is not so good about this
card
There isn’t too much that is bad about this card outside of your
traditional frequent flyer program issues. In fact the issues lie more
with Aeroplan than the card itself. There is less flexibility when it
comes to economy class flights when you compare Aeroplan to many of the
proprietary credit card reward programs. Some of the other top programs
allow you to book flights on any airline at anytime including low cost
airlines such as Flair Airlines. You are strictly limited to redeeming
on Air Canada and their partner airlines.
Although you have access to any available seat at any time you are
still competing for a more finite amount of seats and routes when
compared to any airline any flight credit card programs. Want to redeem
for travel during Christmas season? You’ll be up against a lot of other
Aeroplan members and regular revenue ticket buyers which will most
likely bump up the cost in points for those flights. That’s the one
downfall there is the potential to have to spend a lot of Aeroplan
points for the redemption you want due to the dynamic pricing of reward
flights (but on the flip side it can be the opposite)
One could also say the annual fees aren’t so good – yes you get a lot
of benefits but for someone shopping around even having those benefits
at $139 for the primary card and $75 for additional cards may sway them
to getting a card that is only $120 and $50 respectively.
Who should get this card
- People who have Aeroplan as the primary reward
program but don’t need or don’t want the benefits of the higher end
ultra premium cards - Individuals, couples or families who fly Air Canada
and check luggage on those flights to take advantage of the first bag
free benefit - Aeroplan Elite Status members who may come up shy of reaching the next elite level from their flying alone
- People who bank with TD and have the All Inclusive banking plan as that will pay for the annual fee on the card
Conclusion
It’s no wonder the newly revamped TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card has been crowned as the Top Airline Credit Card in Canada. When
you take the complete package of what the card offers and the value
that the Aeroplan programs brings there isn’t too much bad to say about
it. Yes it is Aeroplan specific and you have to want to use the Aeroplan
program to make the most of this card. If Aeroplan isn’t your primary
program or you don’t fly Air Canada often (think less than once a year)
there are other more flexible options out there for you. If you are an
Aeroplan utilizer, fly Air Canada at least once per year with checked
baggage and/or you want access to some of those amazing business class
or first class experiences then this card should definitely be on your
radar.
Click here to learn more and to apply for the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card here.