Amex Cobalt Review 2026: Still the Best Travel Card in Canada?
I will save you some time right at the top. Yes, I hold the Amex Cobalt. Yes, I use it almost every single day. And yes, I genuinely believe it is the best travel credit card available to most Canadians in 2026.
That said, this is a real review, not a promotional piece. The Cobalt has a higher annual fee than it used to, the current welcome bonus is not at a historic high and will most likely never return to it because the earning potential on the card is so good! Also, there are specific but rare situations where a different card makes more sense. We will cover all of it honestly.
But if you are a person who likes to travel and eats food, goes to restaurants, and wants to accumulate Aeroplan-equivalent points faster than almost any other card on the market, keep reading.
What Is the Amex Cobalt?
The American Express Cobalt Card is a Canadian credit card that earns Membership Rewards points, with an earn structure built almost entirely around food and travel spending. It is not a premium card with lounge access and hotel credits. It is an earning machine designed to accumulate points as fast as possible on the spending categories most Canadians hit every single day.
The card has no income requirement, making it accessible to a wide range of applicants regardless of where they are in their financial journey.
The Numbers: What You Need to Know
Annual fee: $191.88 per year, charged as $15.99 per month
Welcome bonus: Up to 15,000 Membership Rewards points, earned as 1,250 points per month when you spend $750 in that billing cycle for the first 12 months. This is very attainable. A very modest bonus but you will be earning so much from the 5x category on food that it doesn’t really matter.
Earn rates:
5x points on groceries, restaurants, food delivery, and drinks
2x points on travel and transit including gas and taxis, ubers, lyfts.
1x point on everything else
Transfer partners: Aeroplan at 1:1, Delta SkyMiles at 1:1, Marriott Bonvoy at 1:1, and others
The Honest Take on the Welcome Bonus
Let us be upfront about something most reviews gloss over. The current Amex Cobalt welcome bonus of 15,000 points sits at the low end of its typical 15,000 to 30,000 point range and well below the historical high of 50,000 points. If you are primarily motivated by the sign-up bonus, you shouldn’t be!!! The money to be made, or in this case points, is in the 5x category on food and drinks.
The Cobalt is one of those rare cards where the ongoing earn rates matter more than the welcome bonus. Unlike many premium cards where the welcome bonus is the primary value proposition and the ongoing earning is mediocre, the Cobalt earns extraordinarily fast on everyday spending that you will do regardless. The welcome bonus is almost secondary to what this card does month after month.
If a higher bonus offer returns, which it most likely won’t because of how good the card is on its own, which historically it has multiple times per year, I will alert subscribers immediately. Subscribe below and I will notify you the moment a better Cobalt offer goes live (But don’t hold your breath on it).
The Real Story: How Travellers Actually Earn With This Card
Here is the calculation that changes how most people think about the Cobalt.
The 5x earn rate applies to groceries, restaurants, food delivery, coffee shops, and alcohol purchased at eligible stores. In Vancouver, this covers your weekly Whole Foods run, your Thursday night dinner at a Gastown restaurant, your Saturday morning coffee at Revolver, your Sunday brunch at Cafe Medina, and your Uber Eats order after a long week.
For most Vancouver households the combined grocery and dining spend easily reaches $1,000 per month. Some households spend significantly more.
Here is what $1,000 per month on food looks like in points:
$1,000 per month at 5x = 5,000 Membership Rewards points per month
5,000 points per month x 12 months = 60,000 points per year from eating alone
Add the welcome bonus of 15,000 points and in your first year you are looking at 75,000 Membership Rewards points without changing a single spending habit.
If your household spends $1,500 per month on food, that number climbs to 90,000 points in year one including the welcome bonus.
At $2,000 per month combined grocery and dining, which is entirely realistic for a couple in Vancouver, you are generating 120,000 points in year one.
At 1 to 1 transfer to Aeroplan, 75,000 to 120,000 points is:
More than a one-way business class seat from Vancouver to Frankfurt on Lufthansa (75,000 points)
More than a return business trip from Vancouver to Tokyo (60,000 points)
More than enough for a stopover itinerary visiting two cities in Europe
All from spending you were going to do anyway on food!!!!
What Are Membership Rewards Points Worth?
Amex Membership Rewards points are one of the most flexible points currencies available to Canadians. Here is how to think about their value:
Transferred to Aeroplan at 1:1
This is the primary use case for YVRPoints readers. Every Amex MR point becomes one Aeroplan point the moment you transfer. At the sweet spot values we cover regularly on this site, Aeroplan points redeemed for business class partner flights deliver 2 to 4 cents per point in value. At 2 cents per point, 75,000 Cobalt points are worth $1,500 in travel.
Redeemed through Amex Fixed Points Travel
Amex has its own fixed-value travel portal where points are worth 1 cent each. Simple and predictable but less exciting than partner transfers. But it is still usually best to transfer to Aeroplan.
Other transfer partners
Delta SkyMiles and Marriott Bonvoy both accept 1:1 transfers. These are useful in specific situations but Aeroplan is the primary destination for most Canadian travellers given the strong Star Alliance partner network and fixed pricing on routes from YVR.
The key rule: Only transfer Amex MR points to Aeroplan when you have confirmed award space and are ready to book immediately. Transfers are instant but permanent and cannot be reversed.
The Annual Fee: Is $191.88 Worth It?
The annual fee increased recently to $191.88 per year, making it more expensive than competing cards that charge around $120 per year. This is worth addressing directly because it comes up constantly.
Here is how to think about it for a Vancouver traveller spending $1,000 per month on food:
Points earned in year one at 5x on food plus welcome bonus: 75,000 points
Value of those points transferred to Aeroplan at 2 cents per point: $1,500
Annual fee: $191.88
Net value in year one: approximately $1,308
Even in year two with no welcome bonus, 60,000 points from grocery and dining alone are worth $1,200 at 2 cents per point against a $191.88 fee. The card pays for itself many times over for anyone spending $1,000 or more per month on food.
The fee becomes harder to justify only if your grocery and dining spend is significantly below $500 per month combined, in which case the earn rate does not generate enough points to overcome the fee comfortably.
What the Cobalt Does Not Give You
Transparency matters. Here is what the Cobalt does not include that some competitors do:
No lounge access. The Cobalt is not a premium card and comes with no airport lounge access at YVR or anywhere else. If lounge access is important to you the Amex Gold Rewards Card at $250 per year or the premium Aeroplan Reserve at $599 per year are the relevant upgrades. But honestly, lounges have become so packed in recent years that the value isn’t really there anymore.
No travel credits. Unlike the Amex Gold which includes a $100 annual travel credit, the Cobalt has no statement credit offset.
Foreign transaction fees. A 2.5% foreign transaction fee applies to purchases made outside Canada. If you travel internationally frequently and make purchases abroad, this is a meaningful cost. Pairing the Cobalt with the no-foreign-transaction-fee Scotia Passport Visa Infinite for international spending is a common strategy among savvy Canadian cardholders. You could go ahead and use the Scotiabank Passport Visa infinite when overseas.
No supplementary card earning. Supplementary cards on the Cobalt do not earn at the 5x rate on food. Only the primary cardholder earns at the elevated rate.
No checked bag benefit. Unlike TD and CIBC Aeroplan cards, the Cobalt has no Air Canada checked baggage benefit.
Who Should Get the Amex Cobalt
The Cobalt is ideal for you if:
You spend at least $500 per month on groceries and dining combined, which covers most Vancouver households. You want to earn Aeroplan-equivalent points as fast as possible without overthinking a complex card strategy. You are starting your points journey and want one card that does the heavy lifting on everyday spending. You live in Vancouver where the food scene is extraordinary and dining spending comes naturally.
Consider an alternative if:
You spend very little on groceries and dining and most of your spending is on categories that earn 1x. You travel internationally frequently and want a card with no foreign transaction fees as your primary card. You want lounge access and travel credits and are comfortable paying a higher annual fee for those benefits.
How the Cobalt Fits Into a Broader Card Strategy
Most serious Aeroplan collectors do not use the Cobalt in isolation. Here is how it fits into the most common two-card setup for travellers:
Card 1: Amex Cobalt
Use for all groceries, restaurants, food delivery, and drinks at 5x
Card 2: TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite
Use for Air Canada purchases at 1.5x, gas at 1.5x, and anything else where the Cobalt earns only 1x. Plus it gives you checked bag privelleges with Air Canada.
Together these two cards cover the major spending categories at elevated earn rates while building toward the same Aeroplan balance from two different directions. The Cobalt feeds Amex MR points that transfer to Aeroplan. The TD card earns Aeroplan points directly. Both meet in your Aeroplan account ready to redeem.
The Bottom LinE
The Amex Cobalt is not perfect. The annual fee went up, the current welcome bonus is not at a low , and it does not come with lounge access or travel credits.
But for what it does, it is still unmatched in Canada. No other non-premium credit card earns 5x points on groceries and dining. No other card comes close to that. No other card in that fee range generates points as fast on the spending most Vancouver households do every single week. And no other card makes it as easy to build toward a meaningful Aeroplan balance without changing a single spending habit.
I carry this card in my wallet every day. Every coffee, every restaurant meal, every grocery run, every Uber Eats order is earning 5x points toward the next trip. That is the Cobalt.
If you are ready to apply, do it today through the this link. And if you want to be notified when the welcome bonus increases above the current 15,000 points, subscribe to YVRPoints. We will tell you when the right moment arrives.
This post contains affiliate links. If you apply for a credit card through our links we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. I only recommend cards we genuinely believe are worth it for travellers.
