aeroplan td visa cards -- information now online

earlier today, td announced their 4 new card products:

1) td aeroplan visa infinite privilege card

 

• annual fee: $399
• welcome bonus 25,000 pts
• minimum requirements: $200,000 annual household income or $50,000 spend
• 1.5 miles/$ for gas, grocery, drug store purchases
• 1.25 miles/$ for everything else
• complimentary checked bag, priority check-in and boarding, 4 maple leaf lounge passes a year, all applicable to any air canada operated flight
• global airport lounge service -- not fully defined, but only a set number of uses allowed
• out of province medical ($5 million), trip delay/interruption/cancellation, common carrier travel accident, delayed/lost baggage, auto rental LDW insurance
• purchase protection and extended warranty

 2) td aeroplan infinite visa 

• annual fee: $120
• welcome bonus 15,000 pts
• minimum requirements: $60,000 annual personal income or $100,000 spend
• 1.5 miles/$ for gas, grocery, drug store purchases
• 1 miles/$ for everything else
• complimentary checked bag, priority check-in and boarding, 4 maple leaf lounge passes a year, all applicable to air canada operated reward flights only
• out of province medical, trip delay/interruption/cancellation, common carrier travel accident, delayed/lost baggage, auto rental LDW insurance
• purchase protection and extended warranty

 3) td aeroplan platinum visa

• annual fee: $89
• welcome bonus 10,000 points
• minimum requirements: $12,000 annual income
• 1 mile/$ for gas, grocery, drug store purchases
• 1 miles/$1.50 for everything else
• trip delay/interruption, common carrier travel accident, delayed/lost baggage, auto rental LDW insurance
• purchase protection and extended warranty

 4) td aeroplan visa business card

• similar to the infinite, except with an annual fee of $149

initial thoughts
at 1 point per $1 spend on what will most likely be their most popular card, i'm not completely certain about its value. i wrote about the capital one travel aspire mastercard in my previous post. for an equivalent of a $20 annual fee, you get all of the insurances and a guaranteed 2% return provided that you've redeemed your points for a travel cost greater than $600.

when i booked my almost-all-business class tickets to asia, i calculated a 4.13 cent per mile return. this assumes that you're willing to value the business class ticket at the prices they sell them at. i bet that most people wouldn't. this also assumes that you can find availability, which is never guaranteed. and compared to the capital one mastercard, redeeming for economy class tickets rarely ever makes sense

if comparing to another airline points-based credit card, i would suggest that the starwood preferred guest american express wins. with a 1 starpoint per dollar spent, and with each starpoint being worth 1.25 points in over 25 different airline programs, the starwood preferred guest amex wins. the only downside is its limited acceptance amongst merchants.

alternatively, if one were to try out the capital one delta skymiles world mastercard, you would get 2 skymiles per dollar spent, and 10,000 bonus points after $25,000 in annual spending. if skyteam had a stronger presence in canada, this would also be a much stronger card than these td aeroplan cards.

additional flight benefits
as a star gold member, i already get these benefits. it certainly adds benefits for the occasional flyer flying on rewards. when i first read through the information, i thought that it would give priority boarding and check in to all cardholders flying any air canada flight. thankfully, that is not the case (as it is with credit card holders in the states). it also creates only a very minor dilution in the actual benefits of elite status, which i think will be tolerable enough.

overall
i struggle to find enough value in these aeroplan cards to justify using one of them for my everyday spending. the sign up bonuses, however, may be worthwhile.