In its current form, the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Platinum* Card has been around since the new Aeroplan program was revealed in November of 2020. This card is considered TD's entry to mid level Aeroplan co-brand card that is the stepping stone to eventually getting one of the higher end premium or ultra premium Aeroplan cards that TD offers.
Overview
The TD Aeroplan Visa Platinum Card is a card targeted towards Canadians who want to collect Aeroplan points on their everyday purchases but may not meet the requirements for one of the premium or ultra premium Aeroplan co-brand cards. The card provides increased Aeroplan earn rates on Air Canada purchases as well as on grocery and gas purchases. It also has preferred pricing on Air Canada award flights and a good insurance coverage package.
Recommended reading: The New Air Canada Aeroplan Program All the resources you need
Costs & Sign up Features
The TD Aeroplan Visa Platinum Card has an $89 primary card annual fee while supplementary/additional cards are $39 each. If you have a TD All Inclusive Bank account you can have the annual fees rebated on the cards.
Currently the card has a welcome bonus of up to 20,000 Aeroplan Points plus no annual fee in the first year. We value the 20,000 Aeroplan Points at no less than $300 but they are typically worth much more than that. The 20,000 points offer ends January 6, 2025. This offer is not available for residents of Quebec. For Quebec residents, please click here.
Here is how you can earn the current welcome bonus points offer:
- Earn a welcome bonus of 10,000 Aeroplan points when you make your first purchase with your new card†
- Earn an additional 10,000 Aeroplan points when you spend $1,000 within 90 days of Account opening†
The interest rate on the card is 20.99% on purchases. 22.99% on cash advances and balance transfers. These rates are equivalent to or below many cards at this level. There are no minimum annual income requirements for this card.
Earning
The card earns Aeroplan points as follows
- 1 points per eligible dollar spent Air Canada Purchases (includes Air Canada Vacations), Grocery purchases and Gas Station purchases†
- 1 point per $1.50 pent on all other spending†
- 50% bonus points at Starbucks when you link your TD card with your Starbucks® Rewards account.
Point Valuation Chart
| Spending Category | Points earned per dollar spent | Effective Rate of return (Travel) * |
|---|---|---|
| Air Canada, Groceries, Gas | 1 | 1.5% to 5+% |
| All other spending | 0.67 | 1% to 3.35+% |
| * This is a 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 Platinum 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 1,300 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
As it is an entry level card, the TD Aeroplan Visa Platinum Visa Card doesn't provide many benefits and additional features. The only extra benefit it has are the aforementioned preferred pricing on Aeroplan reward flights and extra points for Starbucks purchases.
Insurance
The TD Aeroplan Visa Platinum Card has quite good insurance coverage for a card that is only $89 per year. The coverage is as follows:
- Common Carrier Travel Accident Insurance
- Flight Delay Insurance
- Baggage Delay Insurance
- Lost or Stolen Baggage Insurance
- Car Rental Theft and Damage Insurance (48 days; up to $65,000 MSRP)
- Hotel Burglary Insurance
- Purchase Security
- Extended warranty
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 economy class redemptions can earn run up to a 2% value.
The preferred pricing discount on Aeroplan’s dynamic flight award pricing for travel on Air Canada. Cardholders can typically save between 10 and 30% of the number of points required on Air Canada award flights compared to those who do not hold Aeroplan co-brand cards.
The insurance coverage package is quite good for a card that only charges $89 per year.
What is not so good about this card
The base earn rate of 1 Aeroplan point for $1.50 in spending is on the low and not so good. While our valuation puts that at a 1% value (based on 1.5 cents per point) some people won't be able to achieve that. Not only that, it means you have to spend more compared to other cards to earn a meaningful amount of points.
Outside of the base earn rate, most of what is not so good lies 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. With this card 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)
Who should get this card
- Those who have Aeroplan as the primary reward program but don't need or don't want the benefits of the premium or ultra premium Aeroplan cards
- Those who have Aeroplan as the primary reward program but don't meet the income requirements to get the premium or ultra premium Aeroplan cards
- Aeroplan members looking to take advantage of the preferred points pricing on Air Canada flight awards
- People who bank with TD and have the All Inclusive banking plan as that will pay for the annual fee on the card
Conclusion
If you are in the market for an entry to mid-level Aeroplan co-brand card the TD Aeroplan Visa Platinum card is one to consider. The one to one earn rate in select categories combined with the preferred pricing on Air Canada award tickets and relatively strong insurance coverage make this card ideal if you are just starting out with Aeroplan and/or the world of airline and travel loyalty programs.
Once your income is higher or you get more comfortable with the ins and outs of the Aeroplan program you can look at getting yourself a premium or ultra premium Aeroplan co-brand card to earn more points on your spending and avail of all the extra benefits like getting your first checked bag free on Air Canada flights.
Latest card details:
TD® Aeroplan® Visa Platinum* Card
Earn up to $500 in value†, including up to 20,000 Aeroplan points† and no Annual Fee for the first year†. Conditions Apply. Account must be approved by January 6, 2025.
Annual Fee $89 | Additional Cards: $35 † | Annual interest rate 20.99% on purchases and 22.99% on funds advances
- Earn a welcome bonus of 10,000 Aeroplan points when you make your first purchase with your new card†
- Earn an additional 10,000 Aeroplan points when you spend $1,000 within 90 days of Account opening†
- Get an annual fee rebate for the first year†.
- To receive the first-year annual fee rebate, you must activate your Card and make your first Purchase on the Account within the first 3 months after Account opening and you must add your Additional Cardholders by January 6, 2025.
- Earn 1 point† for every $1 spent on eligible gas, grocery and direct through Air Canada® purchases (including Air Canada Vacations®) made with your card
- Earn 1 point† for every $1.50 spent on all other eligible purchases† made with your Card
- Earn points twice when you pay with your Card and provide your Aeroplan number at over 150 Aeroplan partner brands and at 170+ online retailers via the Aeroplan eStore (www.aeroplan.com/estore).
- Your Aeroplan Points do not expire as long as you are a TD® Aeroplan® Visa Platinum* Cardholder
Card Benefits/Travel Benefits
- Flight/Trip Delay Insurance†: Up to $500 in coverage per insured person if your flight/trip is delayed for over 4 hours.
- Delayed and Lost Baggage Insurance†: Up to $1,000 overall coverage per insured person toward the purchase of essentials such as clothes and toiletries if your baggage is delayed more than 6 hours or lost.
- Common Carrier Travel Accident Insurance†: Up to $500,000 of coverage for covered losses while travelling on a common carrier (for example, a bus, ferry, plane, train or auto rental).
- Hotel/Motel Burglary Insurance†: Up to $2,500 of coverage per occurrence for eligible personal items stolen from your hotel or motel room that belong to the Cardholder on the Account and eligible family members travelling with the Cardholder.
- Auto Rental Collision / Loss Damage Insurance†: Coverage for up to 48 consecutive days.
- Emergency Travel Assistance Services†: Help is just a call away. Toll-free access to help in the event of a personal emergency while travelling.
This offer is not available for residents of Quebec. For Quebec residents, please click here.
† Terms and Conditions apply.
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Other cards to consider if you are looking at this card:
- American Express® Aeroplan®* Card
- American Express Green Card
- CIBC Aeroplan® Visa* Card
- RBC ION+ Visa Card
- WestJet RBC Mastercard
The review was first posted on March 19, 2024 and is updated on a regular basis
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