It can be hard to navigate the Canadian Miles & Points scene. Influencers promise unlocking incredible experiences for pennies on the dollar. Credit card companies entice customers with points and discounts on annual fees.
But which product is right for your wallet? Today, we want to take a look at some products that can definitely enhance both your ability to earn points and the quality of your travel experience overall. While these cards may be different beasts, they also have some core similarities: a similar annual fee, a decent value proposition, and an urge to get in your wallet and stay there.
Let’s compare and contrast the American Express Cobalt Card, a favourite here at Frugal Flyer as the king of 5x points earning in Canada, with the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card, a product which is less flashy but definitely delivers a solid, quiet value relative to its annual fee.
With that in mind, let’s jump into our comparison of the American Express Cobalt card vs. the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* card to find out which is best.
Card Overviews
Welcome Bonuses
The American Express Cobalt Card offers a welcome bonus of 15,000 Membership Rewards, earned through the following structure:
- Earn 1,250 Membership Rewards for each monthly billing period in which you spend $750 for the first cardholder year (up to 15,000 Membership Rewards total)
The American Express Cobalt Card gives cardholders the opportunity to earn 5x Membership Rewards on eligible restaurant, food delivery, and grocery store purchases.
Check out our American Express Cobalt card review for more details.
15,000 Membership Rewards points
$9,000
$300+
$191.88
Yes
–
The TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card has a slightly more complicated setup. Eligible new card members can earn up to 40,000 Aeroplan points in their first year. The structure is as follows:
- Earn 10,000 Aeroplan points upon first purchase†
- Earn 15,000 Aeroplan points upon spending $7,500 in the first 180 days of account opening†
- Plus, earn a one-time anniversary bonus of 15,000 Aeroplan points when you spend $12,000 within 12 months of Account opening†
- Get an annual fee rebate for the first year†
The TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card offers benefits that include a free first checked bag on Air Canada flights and a $100 NEXUS membership credit.
40,000 Aeroplan points
$12,000
$840+
$139 (FYF)
Yes
–
The welcome bonus on the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card is definitely juicier. While both welcome offers take a full year to matriculate, the amount of points provided by TD for $12,000 in spend is greater than that which Amex will provide for $750 of monthly spend in a year (totalling $9,000 in spend).
Earning Rates
The American Express Cobalt card has a wide variety of bonus earning categories and earns a maximum of 5 Membership points per dollar spent. This volume of spend can earn up to 150,000 Membership Rewards points per year:
- 5 Membership Rewards points for every dollar spent on eligible food and drink purchases in Canada (including restaurants, food delivery, and grocery stores).
- A monthly spending cap of $2,500 applies, and cardholders who spend above this threshold will earn 1 point per dollar
- 3 Membership Rewards points for every dollar spent on eligible streaming subscription services in Canada.
- 2 Membership Rewards points for every dollar spent on eligible ride shares, transit, and gas in Canada.
- 1 Membership Rewards point for every dollar spent on all other purchases.
- 1 additional point on eligible hotel and car rental bookings via American Express Travel Online
The TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card earns Aeroplan points for all eligible purchases made on the card. Its ceiling is considerably lower than the Cobalt card because the maximum it can earn is 1.5 points per $1 spent:
- 1.5 Aeroplan points for every dollar spent on eligible gas, electric vehicle charging, grocery, and direct through Air Canada® purchases (including Air Canada Vacations®).
- 1 Aeroplan point for every dollar spent on all other purchases.
In our opinion, when it comes to earning, the American Express Cobalt card is impossible to beat on the Canadian market. Not only does it earn 5x the points on up to $30,000 in eligible annual spending, but its points can also be transferred to programs other than Air Canada Aeroplan. It also just has way more multiplier categories, including useful 3x and 2x ones that normal people use for services like streaming and public transit.
While earning Aeroplan points can be super valuable, and the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card will help you earn them, it has a lower ceiling for making your daily spend work toward your travel needs. The scalability is not at the same level.
Annual Fees
The American Express Cobalt card has a monthly fee of $15.99, which works out to an annual fee of $191.88. On the other hand, the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* has a lower annual fee of $139, though this is often waived in the first year for new cardholders as part of the welcome offer.
TD also waives the annual fee for specific types of chequing account holders. Learn more about the best bank accounts to reduce credit card annual fees here.
The winner in this category is the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite. Not only does it come with a first-year fee waiver, but there’s also no need for many TD clients to pay any fee since it can be waived by holding the right bank account. The $191.88 cost of the American Express Cobalt card, while a good value, is simply unavoidable.
Income Requirements
The minimum income requirement is where there’s a big degree of difference between the two.
The American Express Cobalt card has no minimum income requirement at all, though it should be noted that American Express Canada has been more risk-averse in its lending requirements recently.
Conversely, the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite has a minimum individual income requirement of $60,000 annually for an individual, or $100,000 within a household.
The Cobalt card wins hands down because it has no minimum floor. This doesn’t guarantee you’ll be approved, but it does make it more accessible for any Canadian.
Benefits & Insurance Coverages
Both the American Express Cobalt card and the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card come with a variety of benefits and insurance coverages, which we will now detail, compare, and contrast.
Amex Offers
Amex Offers are an added benefit on all Amex network credit cards. They offer the opportunity to earn cashback or extra points when spending at certain retailers, but do note that you must first manually activate any offers in order to be eligible.
This benefit can be hard to measure because not every person weighs all retailers the same. For example, you may highly value a discount on Lululemon products, but not wish to go on a Norwegian cruise. Offers are targeted, and not all are available to all cardholders. Thus, if only the cruise offer is available on your Cobalt, then it may not have any value.
Regardless, Amex Cobalt is the only card in this assessment to offer such a benefit, and so it wins by default. Offers on things like Marriott can also be quite lucrative, so do keep that in mind when applying.
Free First Checked Bag on Air Canada Flights
TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* cardholders receive a free first checked bag on Air Canada flights. This benefit extends to up to 8 guests who are traveling on the cardholder’s itinerary and is a great way to save on Air Canada baggage fees. The American Express Cobalt has no equivalent benefit.
There are no baggage fee waivers on the Amex Cobalt, leaving the TD Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card as the automatic winner.
Accelerate Aeroplan Elite Status Earning
For every $20,000 in net purchases on the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card, cardholders will receive 1,000 Status Qualifying Credits (up to a combined total maximum of 25,000 SQC per Aeroplan Member per calendar year, for all SQC that may be awarded to that Aeroplan member in connection with any Aeroplan credit card held by that Aeroplan member).
Air Canada Elite status comes with some very valuable benefits; see our Air Canada Aeroplan status guide for more details.
There is no equivalent benefit on the American Express Cobalt card, as it isn’t a co-branded airline card, leaving the Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card as the default winner.
NEXUS Credit
TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* cardholders receive a $100 CAD NEXUS application fee rebate every 48 months. This is given in the form of a statement credit when using your TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card to pay for a NEXUS application fee or NEXUS membership renewal. This rebate will partially cover the $120 USD new application or renewal fee, but it does incur a 2.5% FX markup.
The American Express Cobalt card has no equivalent credit, but other, more premium Amex products with higher annual fees, such as the American Express Business Platinum Card, do.
This is an easy TD Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card win.
Insurance Coverages
The American Express Cobalt card and the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card offer several insurance coverages, mainly focused on travel, with the latter providing key additional benefits for Air Canada customers.
The American Express Cobalt Card offers the following insurance coverages:
- Emergency medical insurance (up to $5,000,000 for the first 15 days of the trip)
- Travel accident insurance
- Rental car theft and damage coverage (up to MSRP of $85,000)
- Lost or stolen baggage coverage
- Baggage delay insurance (Up to $500 on delays of six hours or more)
- Flight delay insurance
- Hotel burglary coverage
- Purchase protection
- Buyer assurance protection
- Mobile device insurance
The TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card offers the following insurance coverages:
- Travel medical insurance (Up to $2,000,000 for the first 21 days of the trip for customers under 65; 4 days for those over 65)
- Trip cancellation insurance
- Trip interruption insurance
- Flight and trip delay insurance
- Delayed and lost baggage insurance (Up to $1,000 on delays of 6 hours or more)
- Common carrier travel accident insurance
- Hotel and motel burglary coverage
- Rental car collision and loss damage coverage
- Purchase security
- Extended warranty protection
- Mobile device insurance
Out of the two, the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card is actually the clear winner. Why is that? The reason comes down to what happens with travel insurance when you make an award flight on your card.
If you redeem Aeroplan points to make a flight reward booking and choose to pay the taxes and fees portion with your Amex Cobalt, you will not receive the benefits of the card’s insurance protection.
Conversely, if you make any Aeroplan reward booking, either on Air Canada or a partner airline, and use your TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card to pay the taxes and fees, you receive the full advantage of the card’s insurance. So if your baggage gets delayed, you can still make a delayed baggage claim, no problem!
Redeeming Points
American Express Membership Rewards (MR)
The American Express Cobalt Card earns American Express Membership Rewards points, which are the single most valuable miles and points currency in Canada, as a result of American Express Canada’s list of transfer partners, which is also the most extensive in the country.
Whether you are looking to redeem for business class flights or luxury hotel stays, Membership Rewards can help you make that possible through transferring to British Airways Avios, Marriott Bonvoy, as well as Air Canada Aeroplan itself.
Since the best use for American Express Membership Rewards is to transfer them to another program, it can be difficult to accurately state the value per point. At the very minimum, each MR point is worth 1 cent because it can be redeemed as a statement credit on any purchase. However, if you are looking for flight or hotel redemptions, Membership Rewards are a better choice than earning only Aeroplan points.
Aeroplan Points
Aeroplan points are earned on the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card, and we have written a very detailed guide on the Aeroplan ecosystem before, and have a great episode of our Miles Ahead podcast dedicated to the changes to the program. Aeroplan is probably the best individual points program available for Canadians for one reason: usability.
The country is large and dispersed, so most folks will need to fly Air Canada at some point. On top of that, the program has lots of excellent partners, with the possibility to book business-class itineraries such as Turkish business class or Discover Airlines business class for fixed, set prices.
This means that while there is no way to determine the exact value of every Aeroplan point, you can often get a decent value exceeding 1.5 cents per point, or even higher on premium cabin redemptions. Finding award availability will often be your biggest challenge, but it can be made easier with flight award search tools.
Comparison Summary
| American Express Cobalt Card | TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card | |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome Bonus | Up to 15,000 Membership Rewards points | Up to 40,000 Aeroplan points |
| Welcome Bonus Details |
|
|
| Earning Rates | 5x Membership Rewards points at grocery stores & dining, 3x on streaming services, 2x on rideshare, gas, transit, and 1x everywhere else | 1.5x Aeroplan points on gas, electric vehicle charging, grocery, and direct Air Canada purchases (including Air Canada Vacations), and 1x everywhere else |
| Annual Fee | $191.88 | $139 (waived in the first year as part of welcome offer or with eligible bank accounts) |
| Income Requirement | No income requirements | Personal: $60,000 annual Household: $100,000 annual |
| Foreign Exchange Fee | 2.5% | 2.5% |
| Free Checked Bag on Air Canada Flights | No | Yes |
Conclusion
Both the American Express Cobalt card and the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card offer excellent benefits and are mainstays of the wallets of Frugal Flyer writers and contributors for a variety of reasons.
They’re also very different animals.
The American Express Cobalt Card is more useful for day-to-day earning via multipliers on expenses like groceries, eats and drinks, and transit. On these fronts, it is completely dominant because its 5x category allows you to scale up to 150,000 transferable Membership Rewards points every year.
Its benefits, insurance coverage, and welcome bonus are all much weaker, and its $191.88 effective annual fee is unavoidable.
On the other hand, the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card has a stronger welcome bonus of up to 45,000 points, and also comes with a variety of Air Canada benefits, and its insurance is magnificent for making flight reward bookings via Aeroplan.
However, its earning rate from daily expenses is much lower, capping out at a modest 1.5x. The points also aren’t really transferable, so you don’t have as much flexibility.
Our recommendation: if you’re a first-timer, go for the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card. It’s a good way to get started while you get more comfortable with Miles & Points.
If you’re feeling more adventurous and hunger for luxury experiences or business class flight redemptions, then the American Express Cobalt is the card for you, and don’t even think twice about it.
Kirin Tsang
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