TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite Card Review
My TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite Card review may surprise some people. I think it’s a great all-around card, and TD Rewards is a good program despite how basic it is. Admittedly, this card doesn’t come with a ton of travel benefits, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good travel credit card.
Truth be told, the TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite Card was what my wife and I used for the longest time as our joint credit card since it’s TD’s flagship credit card for its TD Rewards program. This was a convenient way for us to earn points for travel. Keep reading my TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite Card Review and find out how the card works and if you should consider applying for it.
TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite Card
- $139 annual fee – First year free
- Earn 20,000 TD Rewards points after your first purchase
- 95,000 additional points when you spend $5,000 in the first 180 days
- Annual $100 travel credit (accommodations & vacation packages)
- Birthday bonus of up to 10,000 points
- Earn 8 points per $1 spent when you book on Expedia for TD
- Earn 6 points per $1 spent on groceries and dining
- Earn 4 points per $1 spent on recurring bills
- Earn 3 per $1 spent on all other purchases
Welcome bonus and earn rate
The TD First Class Visa Infinite Card is one of TD’s most popular cards. The welcome bonus is typically quite generous and hovers between 80,000 – 145,000 TD Rewards points. The welcome bonus is comparable to cards on my list of the best travel credit cards in Canada.
As for the earn rate, you’ll get 8 points per dollar spent on Expedia for TD purchases. 6 points per dollar spent on groceries and dining. 4 points per dollar spend on recurring bills and 3 points on all other purchases.
To give you some perspective, when using TD Rewards points on Expedia for TD purchases, 1 point is worth $0.50. That means the base earn rate gets you 1.5% back in travel rewards, which is quite good.
Although the card has an annual fee of $139, it’s usually waived for the first year. You can also get the annual fee waived every year if you have a TD All-inclusive bank account.
Benefits and perks
If you’re reading my TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite Card review, then you’ll want to know about all the benefits. What’s interesting is that this card recently had an update and now comes with some pretty fun perks.
$100 annual travel credit
When you book accommodations or vacation packages on Expedia for TD worth at least $500, you’ll get a $100 credit back on your credit card. This is a pretty unique benefit that puts money back in your pocket, but it does not apply to all travel categories. In addition, this benefit only applies to individual bookings and is not cumulative.
10% birthday bonus
One unique perk is the birthday bonus worth up to 10,000 TD Rewards points. To earn this bonus, TD will give you 10% of the points you’ve earned in the year leading up to your birthday. Welcome bonuses don’t count. For example, if you earned 93,000 TD Rewards points in the year leading up to your birthday, you’d earn 9,300 extra TD Rewards points on your birthday.
Save on rental cars
Cardholders get at least 10% off the base rate when renting vehicles in Canada and the U.S at Avis or Budget and paying with your TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card. If you’re travelling internationally, you’ll save at least 5% at participating locations.
Travel insurance
- Travel medical – $2,000,000 for 21 days / 4 days if you’re 65 or older
- Trip cancellation – up to $1,500 per person / $5,000 total
- Trip interruption – up to $5,000 per person / $25,000 total
- Flight/trip delay insurance – $500 per person – 4 hours
- Delayed and lost baggage – up to $1,000 / 6 hours
- Auto rental collision/loss damage – 48 consecutive days / $65,000
- Hotel/motel burglary insurance – $2,500
- Common carrier travel accident – $500,000
The travel insurance included is competitive and comparable to my list of the best credit cards with travel insurance, but it does lack two major types of travel insurance.
The 21 days of travel medical insurance is pretty good, but like many other credit cards, it only gives 4 days if you’re 65 or older. You’ll obviously need more coverage if you fall into that age range.
Note that was this card, you only need to charge 75% of your trip costs for your flight/trip delay and hotel/motel burglary insurance to apply. However, for trip cancellation and auto rental collision, you need to charge 100% of the cost to your card.
Mobile device insurance
Many people aren’t aware that the TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite Card comes with mobile device insurance. When you charge at least 75% of the total device or monthly plan cost to your card, you’ll be insured for up to $1,000. That said, like other mobile device insurance plans, depreciation applies when making a claim. Both cellular phones and tablets count as mobile devices.
Purchase insurance
- Purchase security – 90 days
- Extended warranty – Up to 1 additional year
The purchase security insurance covers your good from theft, loss, and damage for 90 days. With extended warranty, you your warranty doubled up to one additional year.
Visa Infinite benefits
- Concierge service – The Visa Infinite Concierge is available 24/7 and can help you secure concert tickets, make dinner reservations and more.
- Luxury Hotel Collection – You’ll get exclusive benefits such as resort credits and room upgrades when booking accommodations through the Visa Luxury Hotel Collection.
- Dining Series – Get access to some culinary events, such as celebrity chef meetups and tasting menus.
- Wine Country program – Your Visa Infinite Card gets you discounts and free wine tastings at participating wineries in British Columbia, Ontario and Sonoma Valley.
- Entertainment access – Throughout the year, cardholders get invites and exclusive access to the Toronto International Film Festival.
- Troon Golf – Troon Rewards Silver Status is given to cardholders. With your status, you’ll get 10% off green fees, merchandise and lessons.
How to redeem your points
TD Rewards allows you to book travel in multiple ways, giving you more options. Given the flexibility, many people love TD Rewards. However, your points will have a different value depending on how you redeem them.
Expedia for TD
Expedia for TD is TD’s main travel redemption option. 200 TD Rewards points get you $1 off Expedia for TD travel bookings. This essentially makes one TD Reward point worth $0.50. Expedia for TD is nearly identical to Expedia.ca. That means you’ll get access to a large inventory of flights, hotels, car rentals, all-inclusive packages and attraction tickets.
To redeem TD Rewards points on Expedia for TD, you have to log in to TD Rewards and click on the Expedia for TD link. When you’re ready to pay, you’ll be given the option to use your TD Rewards points. Generally, Expedia has very competitive prices.
Booking on your own
TD Rewards points can also be used to offset travel expenses you charge directly to your TD First Class Travel Visa. The redemption rate is 250 points = $1 (or a value of $0.40 per point). That means you get 20% less value than using your points on Expedia for TD. That said, when you make a travel purchase on your own that’s more than $1,200 in value, any amount that’s $1,201 or above would have a redemption value of 200 points for $1.
Even though you get less value by booking on your own, there are a few reasons to consider this option. The first reason is that you are not restricted to what is available on Expedia for TD, so you can use points for bookings on Airbnb or booking.com. The second reason why booking on your own travel is handy is that most hotel chains will require that you book directly with them to enable loyalty membership status and perks.
TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite Card eligibility
- You’re a Canadian citizen, or you’re a permanent resident
- You’re at least the age of majority in the province or territory where you reside
- You have a minimum annual personal gross income of $60,000 or a household income of $100,000
As a Visa Infinite card, there are very specific eligibility requirements. Even though there’s no formal credit score requirement listed, you’ll likely need your credit score to be at least 660 to be approved. That’s because a credit score of at least that number would put you in good standing or higher.
How the TD First Class Visa compares to others
You’re probably wondering why the TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite Card doesn’t make my list of best travel credit cards in Canada. The reasons are that TD Rewards points value is topped at 0.5c per point, TD points can’t be converted into any other loyalty program, and the card doesn’t offer premium travel perks like no foreign transaction fees, airport lounge access or hotel elite status.
It may sound like I hate this card, but TD has turned these weaknesses into a strength. TD’s strategy with this card is to focus on how easy to use and redeem your points while offering a good earning rate. Travel hacking and award redemption can be complicated. I can see the appeal of using a very easy and comprehensive earn/redeem program with no complicated reward charts and no blackout period. If you wanted a credit card with more perks, I’d suggest looking at the BMO World Elite Mastercard or the Scotiabank Gold American Express.
Final thoughts
My TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite Card review is positive. Although it may have the best earn rate or the most benefits, the earn rate when booking through Expedia for TD is incredible. In addition, TD Rewards is the easiest travel rewards program to understand when you compare it to the rest of the banks in Canada.
Hi Barry! Thanks for another great post. I currently use the AMEX cobalt as my everyday card and wanted to get a supplementary card to use when AMEX is not accepted. I currently have an All-Inclusive banking plan with TD, which would waive the annual fee for the TD First Class Travel Visa Infinite Card & the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card. Which one would you recommend between the two?
Hey Sylvia.
It sort of depends on your goals. If you got the TD Aeroplan VI card, you could pool the points with your Cobalt since those points can be converted to Aeroplan. The TDFCTVI is good if need to make non-Aeroplan bookings such as car rentals or hotel bookings.
You state the following: “Note that was this card, you only need to charge 75% of your trip costs for your travel insurance to be valid.” However, my review of the wording indicates that under Trip Cancellation, you must charge the full cost of your trip to the card to get coverage. This is under the definition of Covered Trip.
Steve,
You’re right. the 75% only applies to hotel/motel burglary and trip delay.
Calculating rewards with the new and improved TD First Class Travel makes it a good competitor to the Aeroplan card. I feel like it’s hard to get a good value with Aeroplan (2 cpp). More than often international travel gives around 1.4 cpp making the First Class card more valuable (if booking something via Expedia to get the $100 credit that is. Am I missing something? Would the Aventura or RBC Avion otherwise be better?
Hey Philippe,
I haven’t had too much trouble finding Aeroplan value between 1.8 – 2 CPP. Then again, I booked most of my travel before there was crazy demand.
Aventura and Avion both have a fixed travel program where you can get a higher CPP, but I personally find Aeroplan to be more valuable. I typically try to collect American Express Membership Rewards points and then transfer them to whatever program gives me good value when I need to make a redemption.