Have Our New Travel Credit Cards Been Worth it?

A year ago, we opened two new travel credit cards and received the offered sign-up bonuses. We planned to earn and redeem points for travel purchases. This post discusses whether it was worth it.

In the past, we used one credit card for all our spending. I decided to track the value earned by adding these two travel cards to our wallets in 2025.

I compared the value of our credit card perks in 2024 with those in 2025. I converted any unused points earned into a dollar value (based on their buying power).

We do not have a large monthly spend, and so our ability to earn a lot of points is limited. We actively avoid spending when we are home, so most of our charges are monthly expenses, i.e., utilities, insurance, health co-pays, and entertainment.

We chose to add two cards this year to earn points and access the travel perks. We have these cards in our wallets:

• President’s Choice World Elite MasterCard
• CIBC VISA Infinite Aventura
• Marriott Bonvoy American Express

President’s Choice Mastercard World Elite card

In 2024, we earned and redeemed $625 worth of groceries from our spending with the PC Mastercard World Elite card. We have been PC banking customers for many years.

Since we can earn 3x the points on grocery purchases, we continue to use this card for gas and grocery purchases.

Travel Perks with MC World Elite

• no annual fee
• basic travel insurance, and car rental coverage within Canada
• 3x points earned on groceries and gas where we actually shop

We earned $200 worth of groceries in 2025.

We used to think that using this card when we travelled would earn us more groceries, but we earned more by combining it with the following two cards, which helped to stretch our travel budget.
We opened a VISA Infinite Card and an American Express card in 2025.

CIBC VISA Infinite Aventura Card

Why did we choose this card?

As a CIBC Imperial customer, the annual fee for this card is waived, and the loyalty points earned can be used for a variety of travel-related expenditures. The sign-up bonus of 45 000 points was easy to attain over three months with our regular monthly spend on our household expenses.

We used this card for our everyday expenses to earn travel points. We also used it to pay for trips because of its good trip cancellation policy.

Travel Perks we used with our CIBC Aventura VISA Infinite

• The trip insurance and cancellation policies were more favourable with this card than with our PC Mastercard.
• We used the $100 Nexus rebate (now it is $200)
• 4 Dragon Pass airport lounge passes
• a free 3G eSIM with GigSky
• a free 1G eSIM per year with GIgSky

We booked some of our hotel nights for our latest trip with our earned points through the Aventura portal.

We earned a total of 79 827 points this year. Our total value earned was $1203.00

Bonvoy Marriott American Express Card

Why did we choose this card?

Since we enjoy Marriott hotels, we decided to pay the $120 annual fee for this card. We feel the first perk -a free hotel night certificate per year- justifies this cost.

We use this card for travel, entertainment and dining out expenses.

Travel Perks with Bonvoy Marriott American Express

• annual free night award (valued up to 35,000 Bonvoy points)
• automatic Silver Elite status with easy access to Gold Status (includes upgrades, late check-outs, etc.)
• travel and shopping insurance
• earn 2x points on dining out and travel expenses, and 5x with Marriott bookings
• points can be transferred to dozens of airline partners

We earned a total of 149 715 points this year. Our total value earned was $1321.00 after paying the annual fee.

We also booked 10 hotel nights in 2025, which upgraded our status to Gold Elite until 2027. This means we will earn points faster and receive upgrades with each stay.

What did we learn about travel credit cards?

Many content creators talk about the benefits of travel credit cards, and they are right. I mentioned them in our previous post: How we plan for trips

Selecting the right card for you will take some research, but if you are a 50+ Canadian couple with a mid-range budget, hopefully, we have done some of the work for you.

We earned $2 700 in value by using 3 cards and by taking advantage of the travel card perks and sign-up bonuses. This included VISA Infinite perks such as airport lounge passes and eSIMs.

We earned more than we would have if we had used only the PC Mastercard. The most we ever earned with this card was $1000 in a year.

We believe in “earning and burning.” This means we use our points as soon as we have them, because loyalty points generally degrade over time as prices and policies change.

Having multiple cards in my wallet required a mindset change, and we developed a spending strategy to earn the most for every dollar we spend. We are the kind of travellers who are willing to fly economy to ensure our budget includes a comfortable hotel. We now have Gold Elite Status until 2027. This will allow for a few more hotel upgrades and a faster way to earn points.

We are happy with our benefits and earnings this year with the Bonvoy Marriott and the VISA Infinite Card

For us, as a middle-aged couple with a mid-range budget, these two cards worked well.

What’s our next travel card?

If we were to open a new travel card, it may be the American Express Cobalt Card, as it would help us earn some points toward flights. It will depend on where our plans take us in 2026 and if there is a great sign-up bonus!

Feel free to comment below if you have questions or suggestions!

Rebate offers on the Great Canadian Rebates site

If you want to receive a cashback rebate when you sign up for a new credit card, create an account with Great Canadian Rebates first: join Great Canadian Rebates. (You don’t have to be a Canadian to have a free account.)

You will then receive a rebate of $35.00 (for Bonvoy) or $100 (for Cobalt)! The Marriott Card has a greater signup bonus right now (February 2026- 80 000 points!)

Have you tried Booking.com before? They have a sale on called Early 2026 Deals