Evaluation: CIBC Aventura® Visa Infinite* Card

The CIBC Aventura® Visa Infinite* Card comes with a consistent welcome bonus, airport lounge access, and strong insurance benefits.

If you’d like to collect Aventura Points to put towards travel expenses, the CIBC Aventura® Visa Infinite* Card is a great product to add to your wallet.

However, be aware that Aventura Points have a few limitations compared to other kinds of points, which we’ll explore in detail in this review.

What we love: complimentary airport lounge access, consistent welcome bonus, NEXUS fee rebate. What we’d change: add transfer partners for Aventura Points, increase category earning rates, remove foreign transaction fees.

Consistent Welcome Bonus

The welcome bonus on the CIBC Aventura® Visa Infinite* Card has consistently fluctuated between 40,000 and 45,000 Aventura Points over the past few years.

A good portion of this welcome bonus is usually awarded upon making your first purchase, while you earn the rest by spending a set amount of money within a certain timeframe.

Depending on the offer, you typically earn 15,000 Aventura Points upon making your first purchase, and a second bonus is usually awarded upon meeting a reasonable minimum spending requirement in the first four months.

The CIBC Aventura® Visa Infinite* Card also often comes with an annual fee rebate for the first year.

We value CIBC Aventura Points at 1.25 cents per point (all figures in CAD). Using this valuation, we value a welcome bonus of 40,000 Aventura Points at $500, and a welcome bonus of 45,000 Aventura Points at $562.50. Depending on how you choose to redeem points, the value could end up being worth more or less.

The best time to apply for this card is when it offers a welcome bonus of 45,000 Aventura Points (or more), and especially when it comes paired with a first-year annual fee rebate.

Standard Earning Rates

The earning rates on the CIBC Aventura® Visa Infinite* Card change based on the purchase category, and are structured as follows:

• Earn 2 Aventura Points per dollar spent on eligible travel booked through the CIBC Rewards Centre†
• Earn 1.5 Aventura Points per dollar spent on eligible gas, groceries, electric vehicle charging, and drugstore purchases†
• Earn 1 Aventura Point per dollar spent on all other eligible purchases†

It’s worth noting that the earning rates on the CIBC Aventura® Visa Infinite* Card are‌n’t the best in the business.

It’s great to see that cardholders have the chance to earn more points when they use their card for select purchases. However, you’ll only 50% more points on popular day-to-day categories (like gas and groceries) compared to the baseline earning rate, and there are similar credit cards that offer a better return in these categories.

What’s more, there’s no elevated earning rate for restaurants or food delivery, or for travel booked outside the CIBC Rewards Centre† with the CIBC Aventura® Visa Infinite* Card.

Redeeming CIBC Aventura Points

While there are many different ways to redeem CIBC Aventura Points, you’ll get the best value when you redeem them for travel.

The best example of a valuable travel redemption option is using CIBC’s Aventura Airline Rewards Chart when booking flights in economy.

Using the Aventura Airline Rewards Chart, you can redeem Aventura Points at a fixed rate against the base fare of a flight.

The number of Aventura Points required will depend on your route, but it’s possible to get a redemption value of up to 2.29 cents per Aventura Point, which is great.

You can also redeem Aventura Points at a fixed rate of 1.25 cents per point against any eligible travel expenses you charge to your card.

Importantly, you must make this type of redemption while the travel expense is still “pending” on your card.

When redeemed this way, CIBC Aventura Points are the most valuable fixed-value points currency in Canada. Other fixed-value programs only offer a redemption value of 1 cent per point or less against travel expenses.

By combining the Aventura Airline Rewards Chart and the fixed-rate redemption options, Aventura Points can be very useful. This is especially so for travel expenses that are otherwise difficult to book on points, such as short-term rentals, car rentals, independent hotels, and cruises, to name a few.

Now, while Aventura Points are valuable within the Aventura program, they aren’t transferable to any external airline or hotel loyalty programs.

Credit cards that earn transferable points are generally considered to be more powerful, since they can do everything that Aventura Points can and more.

For example, American Express Membership Rewards can be transferred to Aeroplan, British Airways Executive Club, Air France KLM Flying Blue, and others. From there, you can redeem points for flights in premium cabins, which likely gets significantly more value than Aventura’s highest redemption rate of 2.29 cents per point.

Plus, you can redeem Membership Rewards points for a statement credit against any expense, and you can book flights with the Amex Fixed Points Travel Program, which is similar to the CIBC Aventura Airline Rewards Chart.

In the past, CIBC used to allow members to transfer Aventura Points to Aeroplan at a 1:1 ratio. In fact, if you have an eligible CIBC card opened before 2013, you can still convert Aventura Points this way.

However, for most CIBC clients, transferring Aventura Points to another loyalty program isn’t an option, and unfortunately, the points just aren’t as powerful as they once were.

Strong Insurance Coverage

As a travel credit card at the Visa Infinite* level, the CIBC Aventura® Visa Infinite* Card offers an overall strong insurance package that’s comparable to many of its competitors.

Out-of-province emergency medical insurance covers up to $5,000,000 per insured person, per trip.† If you’re 64 or younger, you’ll enjoy 15 days of coverage, whereas cardholders 65 or older will receive three days of emergency medical insurance.†

The CIBC Aventura® Visa Infinite* Card also comes with very strong purchase security insurance. If you use this card to purchase an item that’s lost or incurs accidental damage up to 90 days after the original purchase, CIBC will cover you for up to $60,000 per lifetime.†

Lastly, if you use your CIBC Aventura® Visa Infinite* Card to pay for a mobile phone, you’ll be covered if your mobile device is lost, stolen, or accidentally damaged.† This coverage lasts for up to two years and is for a maximum of $1,000 per occurrence.†

In addition to the insurance coverage mentioned, the CIBC Aventura® Visa Infinite* Card also comes with the following:

• Trip cancellation insurance to a maximum of $1,500 per insured person, to a combined maximum of $5,000 for all insured persons†
• Trip interruption/trip delay insurance to a maximum of $2,000 per insured person†
• Car rental insurance for theft, loss, or damage to the rental car up to the actual cash value of the rental car†
• Common carrier insurance to a maximum of $500,000 per insured person†
• Baggage insurance to a maximum of $500 per insured person, up to $1,000 for all insured persons combined for delayed baggage of more than six hours†
• Flight delay insurance to a maximum of $500 for all insured persons combined†
• Hotel burglary insurance to a maximum of $2,500 per burglary occurrence†

Most insurance benefits require that applicable travel expenses be charged in full to your CIBC Aventura® Visa Infinite* Card for the insurance to be in effect.

For the most part, insurance coverage benefits with the CIBC Aventura® Visa Infinite* Card are what you’d expect when comparing it to similar credit cards.

That said, the trip delay insurance is slightly stronger than usual, while the baggage insurance is not as strong as what’s offered on similar cards.

What Else Does the Card Offer?

The CIBC Aventura® Visa Infinite* Card comes with additional card benefits, with the most notable of these being the included airport lounge access.

Cardholders can enjoy four complimentary lounge visits per membership year at 1,200+ airport lounges through the Visa Airport Companion Program†.

In fact, complimentary airport lounge access isn’t a benefit with most Visa Infinite* cards, so its inclusion with the CIBC Aventura® Visa Infinite* Card is ‌a significant perk.

While there may only be four complimentary visits each year, these four visits alone could easily make up for the cost of the annual fee on the card.

Another benefit worth mentioning is the $100 NEXUS credit. Every four years, CIBC Aventura® Visa Infinite* Card members can get a credit of up to $100 towards their NEXUS application or renewal.† 

Lastly, if you link your CIBC Aventura® Visa Infinite* Card to your Journie Rewards account, you can save up to 10 cents per litre at participating Pioneer, Fast Gas, Ultramar, and Chevron gas stations.†

Other Cards to Consider

The CIBC Aventura® Visa Infinite* Card is a great card if you’d like to earn Aventura Points; however, there are other cards out there to consider that are stronger in areas where the CIBC Aventura® Visa Infinite* Card falls behind.

If you’d like to stick with a CIBC product, the CIBC Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card is a great alternative. Instead of Aventura Points, you earn Air Canada Aeroplan points, which can be far more valuable when redeemed strategically.

While you miss out on some of the unique benefits offered on the CIBC Aventura® Visa Infinite* Card, including the complimentary lounge access and the NEXUS credit, you instead enjoy Air Canada-specific benefits, such as a free first checked bag on Air Canada flights, preferred pricing on Aeroplan redemptions, and more.

If you often use your credit card outside of the country, the Scotiabank Passport® Visa Infinite* Card is a great alternative as well.

For a slightly higher annual fee of $150 (compared to the CIBC Aventura® Visa Infinite* Card’s annual fee of $139), you receive six complimentary airport lounge visits each year and enjoy no foreign transaction fees to boot.†

Depending on how much you spend outside of Canada, having a card with no foreign transaction fees could wind up saving you a lot of money. Plus, you earn fixed-value Scene+ points that can be used to offset the cost of travel in a similar way to CIBC Aventura Points.

Conclusion

The CIBC Aventura® Visa Infinite* Card is a great card to use to help offset the cost of travel expenses. Plus, it comes with a consistent welcome bonus, and has strong credit card insurance benefits, and even airport lounge access.

However, CIBC Aventura Points aren’t as powerful as other travel rewards points, since you can’t transfer them to external partners.

If you’re looking for a credit card that allows you to travel in luxury at a fraction of the cost, the CIBC Aventura® Visa Infinite* Card may not be the best choice.

That said, if you’re able to take advantage of the card’s many benefits, and you want to redeem Aventura Points against flights or other travel expenses, then the CIBC Aventura® Visa Infinite* Card is a great option to consider.

† Terms and conditions apply. Please refer to the CIBC website for the most up-to-date product information.