The TD First Class Travel® Visa Infinite* Card offers a solid welcome bonus, generous earning rates, and strong travel insurance.
This card earns flexible TD Rewards Points, which can be redeemed a number of ways but are most valuable when redeemed for travel booked through Expedia® for TD.
In this review, we’ll explore what’s on offer with this card to help you determine if it might be worth adding to your wallet as part of your overall Miles & Points strategy.
At a Glance
- Annual Fee: $139
- Supplementary cardholders: $50 (for first card), $0 (for all additional cards)
- Minimum annual income: $60,000 (personal, $100,000(household)
- Estimated credit score: Good to Excellent
- Rating: 4/5
What we love: strong earning rates, good travel insurance, and flexible points redemptions
What we’d change: add lounge access and remove foreign transaction fees to make it a stronger travel credit card choice
Rotating Strong Welcome Bonus
In the last few years, the TD First Class Travel® Visa Infinite* Card has offered a welcome bonus that ranges from 75,000–135,000 TD Rewards Points, which are worth around $375–675 (all figures in CAD) in value depending on how you choose to redeem the points.
The welcome bonus is typically offered in a couple chunks, with a small percentage being earned upon your first purchase and the rest being earned after you meet a single minimum spending requirement.
As always, with a minimum spending requirement, you’ll want to be conscientious when applying for the card to make sure you have enough upcoming expenses to earn the full welcome bonus. Pleasantly, the minimum spending requirement for the TD First Class Travel® Visa Infinite* Card has historically been very reasonable, requiring around a $5,000 spend over a 180-day period.
With the card also often waiving the annual fee for the first year, this is a very strong welcome offer that can add some real value to your Miles & Points portfolio.
Strong Earning Rates
The TD First Class Travel® Visa Infinite* Card earns TD Rewards Points in a tiered structure, as follows:
- Earn 8 TD Rewards Points per dollar spent on eligible travel booked through Expedia® for TD †
- Earn 6 TD Rewards Points per dollar spent on eligible groceries and restaurants †
- Earn 4 TD Rewards Points per dollar spent on eligible recurring bill payments †
- Earn 2 TD Rewards Points per dollar spent on all other eligible purchases †
These rates are equal to a 4%, 3%, 2%, and 1% return, respectively, if you choose to redeem your points for their maximum value of 0.5 cents per point which can be achieved when you redeem them for travel through Expedia® for TD.
If you often book your travel through Expedia (or you’re willing to start doing so), these are some particularly generous earning rates.
Plus, earning up to 3% in return value on groceries and restaurants and up to 2% back on recurring bill payments is pretty good by any measure, albeit not the best in Canada.
It’s worth noting that there’s a $25,000 annual spending cap for each of the elevated categories. Once you’ve reached it, your earning rate will drop down to the baseline rate of 1 TD Rewards Point per dollar spent.†
Flexible Rewards Currency
As we mentioned above, the TD First Class Travel® Visa Infinite* Card earns TD Rewards Points. These flexible points can be redeemed in many different ways, including for merchandise, gift cards, statement credits, and travel.
Although TD Rewards Points can’t be transferred to any external airline or hotel loyalty programs, you can still redeem them for flights, hotels, and other travel expenses by either booking through Expedia® for TD or directly with any vendor.
These two options are the most valuable ways to redeem your TD Rewards points, allowing you to enjoy value of 0.5 cents per point when redeeming through Expedia® for TD and 0.4 cents per point when booking your own travel directly with vendors and exchanging your points for a statement credit against the eligible travel purchases.
Thanks to their flexibility, TD Rewards Points can be very helpful to have around since they can help cover travel expenses that can’t be booked through other loyalty programs, like cruises, tours, and Disney tickets, at a fixed value of 0.5 cents per point, which could save you a bunch of money on your next trip.
Additionally, with the Book Any Way feature, you can book an Airbnb or directly with a smaller boutique hotel and then apply your TD Rewards Points as a statement credit to offset the cost.
Also, if you redeem your TD Rewards Points against larger Book Any Way travel expenses, you’ll gain access to an improved redemption rate of 0.5 cents per point for any amount over $1,200.†
You can read more about these flexible points and how to maximize their value in our TD Rewards guide.
Additional Perks & Benefits
In terms of perks and benefits, the TD First Class Travel® Visa Infinite* Card offers a $100 travel credit on your first eligible hotel or vacation package bookings over $500 made through Expedia® for TD,† and the card also offers discounts on car rentals through Avis and Budget.†
Additionally, you’ll receive a Birthday Bonus of points on your card’s yearly anniversary which is equal to 10% the total number of points you earned throughout the past 12 months, up to 10,000 points.
What Else Does the Card Offer?
In addition to the strong earning rates, flexible points, and the perks listed above, the TD First Class Travel® Visa Infinite* Card also offers strong and varied travel insurance, including travel medical insurance, flight/trip delay insurance, trip cancellation/trip interruption insurance, car rental insurance, and more.
In fact, this card was voted as the winner of the 2023 Prince of Travel Awards for Best Credit Card for Travel Insurance!
The full breakdown of the insurance offered on this card is as follows:
- Common carrier travel accident insurance: Up to $500,000†
- Travel medical insurance: up to $2 million for 21 days (aged 64 and younger) or 4 days (aged 65 and older)†
- Flight/trip delay insurance: Up to $500 for delays of four hours or more†
- Trip cancellation insurance: up to $1,500 per person ($5,000 maximum)†
- Trip interruption insurance: up to $5,000 per person ($25,000 maximum)†
- Delayed and lost baggage insurance: Up to $1,000 for delays of six hours or more†
- Auto rental collision/loss damage insurance: Up to 48 consecutive days†
- Hotel/motel burglary insurance: Up to $2,500†
As a cardholder, you’ll also enjoy access to product protection and extended warranty coverage, plus mobile device insurance, all of which can save you a ton of money if your new mobile device or product gets accidentally damaged or stolen.
Other Cards to Consider
If you’re not sure that the TD First Class Travel® Visa Infinite* is quite right for you, here’s two other similar cards that you might want to consider. Alternatively, consider how the below cards might fit into your strategy in addition to the TD First Class Travel® Visa Infinite* Card.
TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card
The TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card is similar to the TD First Class Travel® Visa Infinite* Card in that they’re both Visa Infinite products, and they have the same annual fee, minimum income requirement, and some overlapping features.
However, the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card earns Aeroplan points instead of TD Rewards Points, and earns them at a rate of up to 1.5 Aeroplan points per dollar spent, allowing you to build your stash with premium travel experiences in mind.
To help you towards your travel goals, this card typically offers a generous welcome bonus, preferred pricing on Air Canada Aeroplan redemptions,† $100 NEXUS application credit,† and solid travel insurance, including on Aeroplan redemptions, making it a strong addition to your wallet.
If you’re looking for one of the best airline loyalty credit cards in Canada, consider adding the TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card to your Miles & Points roster.
American Express Cobalt Card
The American Express Cobalt Card is one that we recommend across the board, in no small part due to its excellent earning rates that help you quickly accumulate flexible and transferrable American Express Membership Rewards (MR) points.
Earning 5 MR points per dollar spent on groceries, restaurants, and bars, the Cobalt Card is an incredibly valuable addition to any Miles & Points strategy.
The MR points earned by the card can be transferred to many hotel and airline loyalty programs, such as Aeroplan, Air France KLM Flying Blue, Marriott Bonvoy, and more.
Plus, the card comes with a handful of perks and benefits, like access to Amex Offers, travel insurance, mobile device coverage, and more, helping to round out this card’s offerings.
Conclusion
The TD First Class Travel® Visa Infinite* Card is a great card for offsetting travel expenses thanks to its generous earning rates and consistently strong welcome bonus.
Earning TD Rewards Points, this card is particularly good at helping you cover travel expenses that are otherwise difficult to access with loyalty programs, such as Disney tickets, boutique hotels, and activities/tours.
Plus, with its solid travel insurance coverage, this card can support your adventures in more ways than one and is certainly worth considering if you’re able to take advantage of its many features and benefits.
† Terms and conditions apply. Please refer to the TD website for the most up-to-date product information.