Is the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege Card worth the annual fee?

Usually yes only for frequent Air Canada travellers who will repeatedly use the premium travel features, because the $599 annual fee is easier to justify when you actually use the lounge access, free checked bag, priority services, NEXUS rebate, and stronger insurance rather than focusing only on points.^{1, 3}

Does it include Maple Leaf Lounge access?

Yes. TD says primary and additional cardholders get complimentary access to eligible Air Canada Cafes and Maple Leaf Lounges in Canada and the U.S., and each can bring one guest through December 31, 2026; the card also includes a Visa Airport Companion membership with 6 complimentary lounge visits per membership year.^{1, 5}

Does the card waive foreign transaction fees?

No. TD indicates foreign-currency purchases are subject to a foreign currency conversion charge, so this is not the premium travel card we would pick mainly for overseas spending or foreign-currency online shopping.⁴

Is it better than the cheaper TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card?

It is better for heavy Air Canada users, but not automatically better for everyone. The Privilege card adds lounge access, more airport priority, broader insurance, a higher Air Canada earn rate, and more status-related features, while the regular TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite keeps the annual fee much lower at $139.^{1, 2, 6}

Who can qualify for this card?

You generally need to be a Canadian resident who has reached the age of majority in your province or territory and earns at least $150,000 personally or $200,000 as a household.¹

Is the insurance package actually strong?

Yes, by Canadian premium-card standards it is strong. TD publishes travel medical coverage up to $5 million, trip cancellation and interruption coverage, flight and baggage delay coverage, rental-car coverage, mobile device coverage, hotel or motel burglary coverage, and purchase protection, but the wording and eligibility rules matter more than the benefit list alone.^{1, 3}How we verified this: We cross-checked key terms and consumer guidance against primary sources as of September 5, 2026.

In our view, this card makes the most sense when you stop thinking of it as a rewards card and start thinking of it as an airport-friction card. The Toronto-Dominion Bank built it around the Aeroplan ecosystem and the Visa Infinite Privilege layer, so the best use case is simple: someone who flies Air Canada often enough to value smoother airport days, not just more points on paper.^{1, 5} That distinction matters because the card’s headline benefits live in the space between booking and boarding. If your trips are mostly road trips, low-cost carriers, or occasional vacations with little Air Canada loyalty, a large part of the value proposition never gets activated even if you like the brand name.¹

Who is this card really built for once the welcome offer fades?

We think this card is for three types of Canadians. First, the frequent Air Canada flyer who checks bags, wants lounge access, and hates wasting time in airport lines. Second, the higher-income traveller who already uses Aeroplan seriously and wants the status accelerators, eUpgrade-related advantages, and companion travel features to sit on top of everyday spending.¹ Third, it works for a household that travels together and can spread the benefits across a primary cardholder, additional cardholders, and travel companions on the same reservation. That matters because TD ties several Air Canada benefits to the reservation itself, not just the person physically holding the card at the gate.¹ What we would not do is recommend this card to someone whose main goal is just “earn more points on groceries.” The earn rates are good, but the economics do not really sing until the Air Canada side of the card gets regular use.²

What do you actually notice at the airport, not just on the brochure?

We noticed that the most persuasive part of this card is not one giant feature. It is the stacking effect. A free first checked bag for you and up to 8 companions on the same reservation, priority check-in, Zone 2 boarding, priority baggage handling, Maple Leaf Lounge and Air Canada Cafe access, and the extra DragonPass-style lounge membership through Visa Airport Companion all work together to make travel feel less chaotic.^{1, 5} That is why the card feels better in real life for a Pearson or Trudeau regular than it does in a simple points calculator. We reviewed the terms closely, and TD’s wording makes clear that many of the benefits are tied to flights that originate on Air Canada and to travellers on the same reservation, which is great when your pattern matches it and irrelevant when it does not.¹

There are still important limits. Maple Leaf Lounge and Air Canada Cafe access is tied to a same-day ticket when departing on an eligible Air Canada or Star Alliance itinerary, and TD says the lounge benefit excludes Air Canada Signature Suites and third-party lounges. Guest access is also a time-sensitive detail right now, because TD states that each primary and additional cardholder can bring one guest through December 31, 2026.¹ Visa’s own Infinite Privilege terms add another layer: once you enroll in Visa Airport Companion, you get 6 complimentary lounge visits per membership year, after which additional visits cost $32 USD each. That is not the main reason to hold the card, but it is a useful secondary travel perk when your trip is not centred on Air Canada lounges.⁵

Is the annual fee worth it once you compare it with the cheaper TD Aeroplan card?

This is the question we keep coming back to, because the honest answer is more interesting than “it depends.” At published pricing, the Privilege card costs $599 per year while the cheaper TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite costs $139, so the year-two gap is $460.^{1, 6} We ran a simple, realistic spending model to test the difference. Assume a cardholder spends 6,000 a year directly with Air Canada, 10,000 a year in the Privilege card’s 1.5x everyday categories, and 8,000 everywhere else. On that mix, the Privilege card earns 37,000 Aeroplan points, while the cheaper TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite earns 32,000 points.^{2, 6} That means the premium card generates only 5,000 extra points in this scenario. So if we strip away lounge access, priority treatment, checked-bag savings, NEXUS value, stronger insurance, and status perks, the spending math alone does not make the upgrade obviously compelling. In our view, the premium fee is mostly a comfort-and-utility purchase, not a pure earn-rate optimization purchase.^{1, 2, 6} This is exactly why casual flyers often feel disappointed after year one. The card can still be very good, but it only stays great when the airport side of the package gets used often enough to matter.

How the points engine actually works when your spending is normal, not aspirational

The ongoing earn structure is genuinely solid. TD publishes 2 Aeroplan points per $1 spent directly through Air Canada, 1.⁵ points per $1 on gas, electric vehicle charging, grocery, travel & transit, and dining, and 1.²⁵ points per $1 on everything else.² We like that TD broadened the everyday categories beyond the usual gas-and-grocery formula. Travel & transit and dining make this easier to use as a primary card, especially for urban households. But the issuer also states that the 2x Air Canada rate and the 1.5x bonus-rate categories apply only on a combined maximum annual amount of $100,000 in those purchases, after which spending falls back to the standard 1.25-point rate.² That cap will not bother many households, but it is still important for high spenders. We also paid attention to the merchant-coding language, because that is where cardholders often get annoyed. TD ties bonus categories to merchant category codes, so not every purchase that feels like grocery, travel, or dining will necessarily post that way.²

The other reason we like this card more for Aeroplan-focused households than for casual hobbyists is that the ecosystem around the points is mature. Aeroplan Family Sharing, direct Air Canada redemption, and status qualification mechanics make the card more useful when the rest of your travel behaviour already lives inside Aeroplan, rather than floating between unrelated bank rewards programs.¹

What insurance is truly helpful, and where claims usually get denied?

We generally separate credit-card insurance into two buckets: coverages that actually save a trip, and coverages that mostly look impressive in a marketing list. On this card, the first bucket is meaningful. TD’s benefits guide says travel medical coverage can reach up to $5 million, with coverage for the first 31 consecutive days of a covered trip if you are 64 or under, and the first 4 consecutive days if you are 65 or older.^{2, 3} That is strong, but the guide also spells out where trouble starts. The insurer warns that pre-existing medical conditions that are not stable may not be covered, your medical history may be reviewed in a claim, and you are expected to contact the administrator before seeking treatment or your benefits may be limited or denied.³ We always pay close attention to trip cancellation and interruption language because people misunderstand it constantly. TD’s terms say at least 75% of the trip cost must be paid with the card and or associated Aeroplan points for certain coverages, while some other trip-related protections require the trip to be paid in full with the card and or points. That means partial payment habits can quietly break the protection you thought you had.¹ The same pattern shows up with rental-car insurance. TD says the rental must be charged in full to the card and or points, the rental cannot exceed 48 consecutive days, and the rental agency’s collision damage waiver has to be declined for the card coverage to work. Those details matter much more than the headline that “rental insurance is included.”¹ Outside travel, we also like the mobile device insurance up to $1,500 and the purchase security plus extended warranty package. TD says purchase security covers eligible new items for theft or damage within 120 days, and extended warranty can add up to 24 extra months where the manufacturer warranty is valid in Canada.¹

What changed recently, and why does it matter right now?

There are two timely details worth knowing. First, TD says the current featured offer was effective March 2, 2026, which is important because premium Aeroplan offers can change quickly and should never be treated as permanent. Second, TD says a 10% Aeroplan Status Qualifying Credit head start begins January 1, 2027 for eligible primary cardholders with Aeroplan 25K status or higher, which makes the card more interesting for status-minded travellers than it was in earlier versions of the product.¹ There is also a temporary-feeling lounge detail that we would not ignore: TD says each primary and additional cardholder can bring one guest into eligible Maple Leaf Lounges and Air Canada Cafes through December 31, 2026. If you travel with a partner or colleague regularly, that line alone can materially affect how the card feels in practice over the next stretch of travel.¹

Which other cards are real alternatives, not imaginary alternatives?

When readers cross-shop this card seriously, we almost always see the same names come up. Inside Aeroplan, the closest alternatives are the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite, the CIBC Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege, and the American Express Aeroplan Reserve. Outside Aeroplan, the Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite comes up constantly because it attacks the foreign-transaction problem directly instead of trying to win with airline-specific benefits.^{6, 7, 8, 10} We think the cheaper TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite is the most important comparison because it exposes the real tradeoff inside the same issuer family. The CIBC Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege is the most useful outside-bank Aeroplan comparison because it is structurally very similar. The American Express Aeroplan Reserve is the card we would compare if your spending pattern strongly favours direct Air Canada purchases and dining and you are comfortable with Amex acceptance. And the Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite is the one we would compare if your biggest annoyance is paying extra on foreign-currency transactions rather than missing out on Air Canada perks.^{7, 9, 11}

We would also keep the American Express Aeroplan Reserve in the conversation even if it is not in the table above. American Express publishes the $599 annual fee for that card, and its official rewards wording says it earns 3 points per $1 directly with Air Canada, 2 points per $1 on eligible dining in Canada, and 1.²⁵ points per $1 elsewhere, which can make it very compelling for the right spender if Amex acceptance is not a problem.^{8, 9}

Our if/then decision guide after working through the details

If you fly Air Canada often, check bags, use lounges, care about smoother airport treatment, and are already committed to Aeroplan, we think this card is one of the strongest premium Visa choices in Canada. If you love Aeroplan but mostly want a sensible keeper card, the cheaper TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite is probably the better fit. If you want premium Air Canada benefits but spend heavily on Air Canada and dining, the Amex Reserve deserves a close look. And if your travel profile includes a lot of foreign-currency purchases, the Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite is the obvious control card to compare against.^{6, 8, 9, 10, 11} Our bottom line is that the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege Card is very good, but very specific. We would absolutely recommend it to the right Air Canada-heavy traveller. We would not recommend it as a default premium travel card for people who just like the idea of premium travel cards.

The biggest mistakes with this card are not technical. They are behavioural. People apply for it because the benefits sound premium, but then they use it like a generic rewards card and never build a routine around the features that justify the premium fee.

Treating a premium rewards card like a carry-a-balance card

We see this all the time: a cardholder gets excited about points and forgets the cost of borrowing. TD publishes a 21.99% purchase rate and a 22.99% cash-advance rate for this card, and the FCAC is very clear that paying your balance in full by the due date is what keeps interest from inflating the cost of your purchases.^{1, 13} If you regularly revolve a balance, this is not a high-value card anymore. It becomes an expensive way to borrow while pretending the rewards are offsetting the damage. In our experience, once a premium points card becomes a financing tool, the math usually breaks against the cardholder.

Confusing purchases, cash advances, and balance-transfer-style borrowing

Another common mistake is assuming all borrowing on a credit card behaves the same way. FCAC guidance reminds Canadians that different transaction types can carry different costs, and TD’s cardholder agreement framework treats a balance transfer as a cash-advance transaction. That is why we tell readers not to view this card as an elegant borrowing instrument just because it has a premium label.^{12, 15} If you use convenience-style borrowing, treat it like expensive money from day one. Premium travel benefits do not soften that reality.

Missing the due date and assuming the statement date is the same thing

We also see cardholders who say they “paid this month” but still paid interest. Usually the issue is that they focused on the statement date instead of the due date, or they paid only the minimum and assumed that kept the grace period intact. FCAC’s consumer guidance is blunt here: if you do not pay the balance in full by the due date, interest can apply from the purchase date.^{13, 14} With a card like this, that mistake is especially frustrating because you are already paying a premium annual fee. It is one of the fastest ways to turn a premium card into a poor-value card.

Thinking every travel purchase earns the top Air Canada rate

We found this mistake hiding in the fine print more than once. TD’s 2-point Air Canada earn rate applies to eligible purchases made directly with Air Canada, including Air Canada Vacations, not to every travel booking that happens to involve Air Canada somewhere in the chain. If you book through another site or intermediary, you should not assume you will get the same earn treatment.² The same general caution applies to the 1.5-point categories. Grocery, dining, travel, and transit sound intuitive, but merchant category coding does not always match how consumers describe a purchase. We always tell readers to test real merchants before building a whole rewards strategy around a category assumption.²

Failing to set up the Aeroplan side properly

This card’s travel perks are not completely automatic. TD says your own personal Aeroplan number must be linked, the Aeroplan number must be included on the qualifying reservation, the name on the airline reservation must match the name on the Aeroplan account, and additional cardholders need their own linked Aeroplan number to access benefits. TD also says activation can take up to 72 hours in some cases.¹ That means an otherwise eligible traveller can still have a bad airport experience if the Aeroplan setup is sloppy. We have seen this exact issue with airline cards before: the benefit exists, but the reservation data does not line up cleanly enough to trigger it.

Ignoring FX costs and falling for dynamic currency conversion

Because this is a premium travel card, some people assume it must be good for foreign purchases. That is not the case. TD indicates foreign-currency purchases are subject to a conversion charge, so a cardholder who spends heavily abroad or on foreign-currency websites can give back a meaningful amount of value without noticing it at first.⁴ The second mistake is accepting dynamic currency conversion at checkout, where a foreign merchant offers to bill you in Canadian dollars. We almost always recommend declining that and paying in local currency instead, because DCC often adds a poor conversion rate on top of the card’s existing foreign-currency cost structure. The card’s premium branding does not protect you from that trap.

Assuming the insurance works because the card is in your wallet

This is probably the most dangerous misunderstanding of all. We reviewed TD’s insurance wording carefully, and it repeatedly ties eligibility to how the trip or rental was paid, how long the trip lasts, whether a pre-existing medical condition is stable, and whether you contacted the administrator when required. That is not a criticism of TD specifically; it is how premium-card insurance works. But it does mean claim denials usually come from technical miss-steps, not from the absence of a headline benefit.^{1, 3}Verification note: We checked official guidance for this point as of April 6, 2026.

Our framework for premium travel cards is intentionally boring, because boring is how you avoid being misled. We do not start with the welcome offer. We start with the year-two economics, the airport-use pattern, and the downside cases that matter when things go wrong.

We check whether the card still works after the bonus disappears

FCAC’s comparison guidance tells Canadians to look at fees, rewards, benefits, restrictions, and how often they expect to use those benefits. That is exactly the right lens here. A premium card can look amazing in month one and mediocre in year two, so we always ask whether the ongoing package is still compelling when the welcome bonus is gone.¹² For this TD card, that means the real keeper test is not “How big is the opening offer?” It is “How often do you actually use Air Canada lounges, checked bags, priority treatment, NEXUS value, and status accelerators?”

We compare apples to apples by spending pattern, not by marketing labels

We do not compare an Aeroplan premium card to a cashback grocery card and pretend it is meaningful. We compare it to the cards a real shopper would actually choose instead: a cheaper Aeroplan Visa, another premium Aeroplan card, and a premium travel card with a different value proposition such as 2.5% foreign exchange fee.^{6, 7, 10, 11} That is why our breakeven thinking is so practical. We ask what the annual-fee difference buys you in extra points, in airport comfort, in insurance scope, and in avoided baggage or lounge costs. If the answer is vague, the premium card is probably not the right keeper card.

We treat insurance quality as wording quality, not checklist size

A long benefits list is not the same thing as strong insurance. We look for age limits, pre-existing condition language, claim-trigger requirements, payment requirements, rental duration limits, administrator-notification rules, and whether the coverage solves a real travel problem. That is why we rate the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege insurance package highly but still spend a lot of time on exclusions and claim mechanics.^{1, 3} In our experience, readers get the most value from knowing what could void a claim. The prettier the card, the more important that becomes.

We use the FCAC lens for consumer rules and the OSFI lens for bank oversight

Because this is a bank-issued credit card from a federally regulated institution, we also keep the regulatory picture straight. FCAC’s role is consumer-facing: disclosures, rights, responsibilities, information boxes, and consumer protection expectations. OSFI’s role is different: it regulates and supervises banks operating in Canada from a prudential standpoint. We do not mix those jobs together when we explain a card to readers.^{14, 16} That distinction matters because shoppers need two things at once: a financially sound issuer and transparent consumer-facing rules. For the average cardholder, the FCAC guidance is more useful day to day, but we still think it is worth remembering that the bank itself sits inside a broader supervisory framework.^{12, 16}

We never ignore the boring questions

Will you pay in full every month? Do you need foreign-currency efficiency? Do you actually fly the airline tied to the card? Are your trips long enough for travel-medical day limits to matter? Would a cheaper card plus occasional paid lounge access actually cost less over a full year? These are the questions that usually decide whether a premium travel card belongs in your wallet.^{12, 13} If a card survives those questions, then the premium fee may be justified. If it fails them, the welcome bonus should not rescue it.

All ongoing card terms referenced here were checked against issuer-published materials and official benefit pages as of April 6, 2026. Where terms change quickly, especially welcome offers, guest-access windows, and promotional value framing, we treated them as time-sensitive and avoided building the core review around them.^{1, 7, 8, 10} The comparison table uses issuer-published ongoing fee and earn information where it was clearly available. For foreign exchange treatment, we used explicit issuer wording when available and qualitative phrasing where a card is not positioned as no-FX. For insurance, we scored breadth qualitatively based on coverage scope, conditions, and typical usefulness rather than just counting how many line items appear in marketing copy.^{3, 12} We also intentionally did not assign a fixed cash value to Aeroplan points in the main review. Point values vary by route, redemption style, fare class, and traveller flexibility, so using a single cents-per-point number can make premium cards look more precise than they really are. Instead, we showed where the fee difference is or is not supported by the card’s actual travel utility.

Is the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege Card better than the Amex Aeroplan Reserve?

Not automatically. We would lean TD if you want broad Visa acceptance, stronger fit for a TD banking relationship, and a premium Visa travel experience built around Air Canada plus Visa Infinite Privilege perks. We would lean Amex Reserve if your spending skews heavily to direct Air Canada purchases and dining and you are comfortable with Amex acceptance tradeoffs.^{8, 9}

Can additional cardholders use the airport benefits?

Yes, but setup matters. TD says additional cardholders can access benefits such as lounge access and NEXUS-related value, but they need their own personal Aeroplan number linked to the card account and TD says activation can take up to 72 hours in some cases.¹

Does the travel medical coverage work even if I did not charge the trip to the card?

For travel medical specifically, TD’s welcome guide says you have coverage without even having to charge the trip to the card, but that does not mean every travel insurance benefit works that way. Other protections, such as trip-related coverages, can depend on how much of the trip was charged to the card and or points, so you have to read the certificate carefully.^{2, 3}

Is this a good card for foreign online shopping or frequent trips abroad?

No, not as a primary strategy. TD indicates foreign-currency purchases are subject to a conversion charge, so if foreign spending is one of your biggest categories, a no-FX competitor will often be the more efficient wallet anchor even if this TD card remains stronger for Air Canada-specific travel days.^{4, 10}

What is the biggest reason people downgrade after year one?

In our view, the biggest reason is that the cardholder likes the idea of premium travel more than the reality of frequent Air Canada travel. Once the opening offer is gone, the card needs regular lounge use, baggage savings, priority-service use, and Aeroplan engagement to justify the premium fee against cheaper Aeroplan options.^{1, 6}

1. TD Canada Trust – TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege Card ↩
2. TD Canada Trust – TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege Card Welcome Guide ↩
3. TD Canada Trust – TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege Benefit Coverages Guide ↩
4. TD Canada Trust – Compare Credit Cards ↩
5. Visa Canada – Visa Infinite Privilege Terms and Conditions ↩
6. TD Canada Trust – TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card ↩
7. CIBC – Aeroplan Visa Infinite Privilege Card ↩
8. American Express Canada – Aeroplan Reserve Card ↩
9. American Express Canada – Recurring Bill Payments Terms ↩
10. Scotiabank – Passport Visa Infinite Card ↩
11. Scotiabank – Passport Visa Infinite Comparison Page ↩
12. Financial Consumer Agency of Canada – Choosing a credit card ↩
13. Financial Consumer Agency of Canada – Using your credit card responsibly ↩
14. Financial Consumer Agency of Canada – Getting a credit card: know your rights ↩
15. TD Canada Trust – Cardholder Agreement ↩
16. OSFI – Banks ↩

About the Author

ALAN ISIK

Author profile updated: April 6, 2026

ALAN ISIK is an Ontario real estate agent (License #: 5007859 • Verify license) and an Insurance, Mortgage & Personal Finance Research Writer who publishes practical, plain-English guides for Canadian drivers, homebuyers, and everyday consumers. With 15+ years of experience analyzing Ontario insurance pricing, policy wording, and household affordability tradeoffs, Alan specializes in translating complex documents such as insurance contracts, endorsements, lender and card-issuer policies, and product disclosures into clear, apples-to-apples comparisons that help readers make the next right decision. Alan is not a licensed insurance broker/agent or mortgage broker and does not provide legal, tax, or financial advice; his work is research-based and grounded in primary sources (provincial regulators such as FSRA, insurer/lender/issuer disclosures, and published product terms), cross-checked against competing offerings for accuracy and real-world comparability. His work has been cited by iSure and Carhub.