The quick answer
If you want the most value from your spending, the Amex Cobalt earns dramatically more. If you fly Air Canada several times a year with checked bags, the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite pays for itself through benefits rather than points, and the earn rate is close to irrelevant.
The complication is that the Cobalt can transfer Membership Rewards into Aeroplan. That undercuts the usual case for holding an Aeroplan credit card, because you can earn at 5x on food and drink and still end up with Aeroplan points. What transferring cannot give you is the free checked bag, which is attached to the card rather than the balance.
Verdict
Choose the Amex Cobalt if your goal is accumulating points efficiently, and transfer to Aeroplan when you have a redemption in mind. Choose the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite if you fly Air Canada regularly enough that the checked bag benefit and the card-linked perks outweigh a much lower earn rate, or if you need broad Visa acceptance. Holding both is a defensible arrangement for frequent Air Canada flyers.
Side by side
| Amex Cobalt | TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite | |
|---|---|---|
| Annual fee | CA$155.88 (CA$12.99 monthly) | CA$139 |
| Points currency | Membership Rewards, transferable to Aeroplan and other partners | Aeroplan, earned directly |
| Groceries | 5x, up to CA$2,500 a month | 1.5x |
| Dining and bars | 5x, same shared cap | 1x |
| Gas | 1x | 1.5x |
| Air Canada purchases | 2x as travel | 1.5x |
| Streaming | 3x | 1x |
| Transit | 2x | 1x |
| Everything else | 1x | 1x |
| Category cap | CA$2,500 a month shared across eats and drinks | CA$80,000 a year shared by groceries and gas |
| Airline benefits | None | Air Canada benefits including first checked bag |
| Minimum income | Not published | CA$60,000 personal |
| Network | American Express | Visa |
What the earn gap actually is
All dollar figures on this page use CardGenie's standard point valuations: cash back at face value, Aeroplan at 1.5 cents per point, Membership Rewards and Scene+ at 1.0 cent per point. These are deliberately conservative. Points transferred to airline partners at the right time can be worth considerably more, and points redeemed for merchandise are usually worth less. The CardGenie calculator uses the same valuations, so it will not contradict the numbers here.
Take a household spending CA$1,000 a month on groceries, CA$400 on restaurants, CA$200 on gas and CA$1,000 on everything else. The Cobalt earns 5x on the CA$1,400 of food and drink and 1x on the rest, producing 8,200 Membership Rewards a month, or 98,400 a year. At 1 cent that is CA$984, and CA$828 after the annual fee.
The TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite earns 1.5x on groceries and gas and 1x on dining and other spending, producing 3,200 Aeroplan points a month, or 38,400 a year. At 1.5 cents that is CA$576, and CA$437 after the annual fee. The Cobalt is ahead by roughly CA$391 a year on this profile.
That gap is the price of the TD card's benefits. If you check a bag on four Air Canada round trips a year for two people, the checked bag benefit alone recovers a large share of it. If you fly Air Canada once a year without checked bags, it does not come close.
Choose the Amex Cobalt if
- Groceries and restaurants are a large part of your monthly spending
- You want points you can direct to several programs rather than one airline
- You fly Air Canada occasionally but not enough to use card-linked benefits
- You do not meet the CA$60,000 income requirement for a Visa Infinite card
- Amex is accepted at the merchants where you spend most
Choose the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite if
- You fly Air Canada several times a year and check bags
- You want an Aeroplan balance without managing point transfers
- You need a card accepted everywhere, including merchants that refuse Amex
- You want the travel insurance package that comes with a Visa Infinite travel card
Points currency is the real decision
Aeroplan points valued at 1.5 cents are worth more each than Membership Rewards valued at 1 cent, which is why the TD card's much lower earn rate does not look as bad as the multipliers suggest. But the Cobalt earns more than three times as many points on food and drink, and that volume advantage overwhelms the per-point difference on any normal household budget.
The narrower question is whether you will use Aeroplan at all. Points in a program you never redeem are worth nothing regardless of valuation. Someone who lives near an Air Canada hub and flies domestically several times a year gets real value from Aeroplan. Someone who takes one vacation a year on whichever airline is cheapest is better served by flexible points or straightforward cash back.
If Aeroplan is definitely your program, the more useful comparison is between the two Aeroplan cards themselves. See TD Aeroplan vs CIBC Aeroplan Visa Infinite, or the full Aeroplan credit card rankings.
The Short Version
The Cobalt earns roughly CA$400 a year more on a typical household budget and its points can be transferred into Aeroplan anyway, which removes most of the reason to hold an Aeroplan card for the points. What remains is the benefits: free checked bags, card-linked Air Canada perks and universal Visa acceptance. If you use those, the TD card justifies itself. If you do not, the Cobalt is the better card and it is not close.
Common questions
Which card earns more points?
The Amex Cobalt, by a wide margin on everyday spending. It pays 5x on eligible food and drink up to CA$2,500 a month, while the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite pays 1.5x on groceries and gas and 1x on most other categories. On a typical household budget the Cobalt earns roughly two and a half times as many points.
Can Membership Rewards points be transferred to Aeroplan?
Yes. American Express Membership Rewards points earned on the Cobalt can be transferred to Aeroplan, which means the Cobalt can feed the same program the TD card earns in directly. This is the main reason the Cobalt competes at all in an Aeroplan comparison: you can earn at 5x and end up with Aeroplan points anyway.
What does the TD Aeroplan card give that the Cobalt cannot?
Air Canada benefits tied to the card rather than the points balance. These typically include a first checked bag free on Air Canada flights for the cardholder and companions on the same booking, plus preferred pricing on certain redemptions. Benefits like these are not purchasable with points and are the strongest argument for the card.
Is Visa acceptance worth giving up the higher earn rate?
For some people, yes. The TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite is accepted essentially everywhere in Canada, while American Express is refused by many independent merchants. If a large share of your grocery and restaurant spending goes to businesses that do not take Amex, the Cobalt earns 5x on a smaller base than you projected.
Do these cards have the same income requirement?
No. The TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite publishes a CA$60,000 personal or CA$100,000 household minimum income, as Visa Infinite products generally do. The Amex Cobalt does not publish an income floor, which makes it accessible to applicants who would not qualify for the TD card at all.
Run your own numbers
Every figure above depends on a spending profile that is probably not yours. The CardGenie calculator applies all 40 cards in the database to your actual monthly budget, respects each card's category caps and subtracts the annual fee, so you get a ranking rather than a verdict. You can also browse other card comparisons or the best cards by category.
CardGenie is not affiliated with any card issuer and earns no commission on the cards listed. Earn rates, fees, caps and welcome offers are recorded from issuer sources and can change without notice. Verify current terms with the issuer before applying. This page is general information, not financial advice.