CIBC Aventura VISA INFINITE Card Consumer Reviews

We spent hours trying to find a flight to Europe. Very limited choices and prices are much more expensive than other flight hubs. 0 customer service. Never book a hotel with Aventura. You book online at 30% lower with several options. We can't really use our points anywhere.
Totally useless product

First Representative was ok, just ok. She quoted e 50,000 points per flight to Europe and 731 taxes, but each representative provided an inconsistent experience resulting in a higher cost for our trip. My first two calls resulted in over 45min wait, with the representative hanging up the phone mid-conversation. The second was a 1/2 hour call wait time, then disconnection upon connection. The third call resulted in the same trip costing me almost 100,000 more in points in less than 9 hours time period. I could reach anyone to book and/or complete the original agent's quote.
Once I reached the new representative, she quoted me 6,7000 per same flight segment. I was told by the other representative that it was 70,000 for premier seats, and would have just got those if that was the case. I now only had enough points to cover 5 flights, resulting in the not only loss of over 100,000 points and a landslide of other problems that come with not having my family on one booking with WestJet. None of my GOLD status was able to be used for all my family because my family was on 3 different WestJet booking numbers – this again was more cost for me after the representative told me she could link, the WestJet representative said all that does is tell us you travelling together as a family but if not on same booking number NO shared GOLD family benefits. This makes me so angry. Then I questioned why the point value was high than the previous representative, even though the fare was still the same, I was advised it was due to the number of seats I was booking 6 and the use of all low fairs. I bought this explanation, only to find out right after I booked all my other parties at a $1,080.00 per ticket to $1,400 VS the 1,600+ per ticket CIBC charged. It was super crazy and end of the day the tickets still cost me 3700 for 5 tickets after using almost 400,000 points. If I had known this, I would have not used them and booked 7 separate tickets. I just felt the representative was not thinking or helping in any way, wasn’t appreciating the value of my points or in any way trying to help me optimize my hard-earned points. The hours are extremely limited for this travel service, especially when you have to wait over 1 hour on the phone only to be hung up on. I’m very disappointed with my CIBC Aventura experience and as a high-value Executive CIBC/Travel client/Multi-Mortgages, I’m going to look at other credit card/Loyalty options for sure.
This is the first time I've used my point in over 2 years, due to COVID, but experience and working hours are limited to poor. CIBC you need to do better – the market is competitive and you’re lagging. I can compare as I had to interact with multiple other 3rd party loyalty/credit card travel agents and this was the worst. Expected better and feel that as a 30-years loyal CIBC multi-product customer CIBC should reimburse the incremental the 100,000 points I lost at a min constellation, not to say the loss of seat vouchers and the additional cost assumed 1,000 by now having to pay for my family members individuals bags. I’m travelling with two physically challenged individuals who need wheelchair access.
To top it off, now that CIBC Aventura rewards are involved, there is a limitation to what the WestJet agents can do – unbelievable and at this point, I would have paid myself and not used the point and the net would have almost been the same outcome or cost.

We book a ticket for CIBC Aventura rewards from Edmonton-Toronto-Montreal and a return flight to Edmonton, after a month we decided to change our flight 2 days earlier to see our son who is recently transferred to Kingston Ontario. CIBC rewards said no cancellation, no changes. Westjet won’t allow it, if we will just buy another ticket for an earlier flight to Toronto our ticket from Toronto to Montreal and Montreal to Toronto back to Edmonton will also be null and void. We save our points to be used for travel but It’s useless. Aventura's infinite rewards are not worth it. Also, take note of their wait times, they will pass you from 1 agent to another and pretend not to hear the person from the other line. Your 3 hours is not enough. So disappointed. My husband, children and I are in CIBC ever since. I think it is the right time for us to change the bank and explore their reward terms and options.

In total, I have spent 4 - 5 hours over two days trying to get a hold of someone to take advantage of their promotion on travel redemption points. I have transferred between two numbers, each representative offloading to the other - repeatedly!
After a number of phone calls, and requests to escalate to managers who never get back to you that day (2-4 business days which tells me they have a lot of customer complaints), one person tells me I am not eligible because somewhere in the fine print, it only for Canadian travel! Regardless of the fact, that I had redeemed points previously for US travel on the promotion or so I thought I did. They then went on to tell me that the promotion wasn't applied in that instance, and it was the regular redemption program - even though they left me believing I qualified and they had rectified it. This of course is all news to me... after repeated conversations and discussions with various representatives.
You cannot escalate, you cannot be provided with an explanation, you cannot reason with them.... it is truly a nightmare. I will not be using any of their products again! I would switch credit cards immediately if I didn't have all my banking with CIBC.

My family and I purchased flights to Italy from Ottawa in 2020, just before Covid hit, using points earned on our visa card plus the difference in cash.
When our flights were cancelled, CIBC offered us a 2 year Credit or our money back. When they said "money back" they meant cash money. We were told that if we took the money back it would only apply to the cash we paid and our points would be lost. We opted for the 2-year travel credit.
When Air Canada announced that they were offering to turn travel credits into Vouchers with no expiry date, we called CIBC. We were told it did not apply and the two-year credit still applied. ( This is probably incorrect as people that had booked through 3rd parties such as Expedia were able to convert easily)
Now we are trying to book a flight somewhere as the 2 years are up. CIBC is telling us that depending on our desired destination, our credit will likely not apply due to base fares and tax rates for the destination. My wife and I have spent a combined wait time of 9 hours on the phone this week trying to book something and each time we finally connect to someone, they tell us the same thing which is that our original file needed to be purged new one created. They say they have just done it but it will take several days to reach ticketing. They also say that they will call us back the moment it reaches ticketing and they don't call back!. I've also tried their automated "Call back" email program and guess what! No one calls back
CIBC is essentially trying to steal our money! I do not recommend this card or its rewards!

I will definitely go to a different bank after my recent experience with CIBC for the following reasons:
1. Horrible wait times for the reward center. You spend 2 hours waiting for someone to pick up the phone. After that, they start transferring you and at some point, the office closes. So, they just hung up.
2. If you want to complain, they transfer you to customer service, but you can just leave a message. They will never call you back.
3. If you get very angry, and insist, you might get to the manager who will refuse to discuss any issues with you. Got a response "I am not going to talk about it" when I told him that his staff was hanging up on me at 7 pm.
4. They will never call you back to finalize the booking and your ticket ends up being 2 times more expensive by the time you finally get someone to book it for you.
Go with another bank, your lifetime is more valuable than this...

This credit card is a total rip-off. Booking travel takes hours of sitting on hold and to get a deal you have to take incredibly convoluted routes. I had a $500 credit after cancelling a flight due to Covid and was never able to claim it because the travel rewards centre did not call back as promised. When I spoke to customer service they said there was nothing they could do. Godawful

Picture this, you buy a round trip through Aventura, you make it to your destination when it’s time to go home, you try to check-in at the airport, lo and behold, CIBC rewards has made the booking but not acquired an actual ticket, you are told that the airline can do nothing because the ticket was purchased under CIBC rewards, you attempt to call the line and are put on hold for 2 hours and then dropped, you try again and are told your calling after hours and to call the next day.
The next flight is after your covid test requirements so you purchase a rapid PCR test which is what is now the only thing available required for an additional $900 dollars at the foreign airport. You purchase your own ticket for 3x the original price. + a new 7-hour layover because CIBC rewards cannot be reached, and you need to get home...
You arrive home and continue calling CIBC rewards and are continuously being put on machine hold for over the next 3 days with nobody picking up the phone. You are very very angry
Welcome to my life.

The visa card is not worth the money. You can accumulate points, but good luck using them or even getting them back if you wish to cancel. Wait times are insanely high, I doubt they have anyone working on a help desk.
In hindsight, I would never wish to use an Aventura points card. You basically cannot get a hold of anyone to do anything, and their user interface is pathetic! Feels like you have gone back to the late '90s in terms of UI and speed.

I was invited by the bank to apply for the card and was invited to transfer the Balance over from other cards with 0 interest for 10 months. When missed payment by two days only they start charging me interest and cash advanced fees from day one of the transfers that’s a steal, also their trip cancellation insurance policy is a scam you have to deal with some insurance in Montreal if your flight is cancelled and it took over a year to get my money back.
CIBC Visa cards are not good any other cards on the market offer the same for free!