How can one rigorously determine the cardinality of an infinite dimensional vector space?

Suppose that $V$ is a vector space over $F$ and $V$ has a basis $B$.

From the definition of a basis every $v\in V$ can be written as a unique sum of basis elements and scalars. That is, there is a finite subset of $B\times (F\setminus\{0\})$ whose sum is $v$, and if we require that this set is a function on its domain, then this set is unique.

This gives a well-defined injection from $V$ into finite subsets of $B\times(F\setminus\{0\})$. Assuming the axiom of choice we have that, $$|V|\leq\left|[B\times(F\setminus\{0\})]^{<\omega}\right|=|B\times F|=\max\{|B|,|F|\}\leq|V|\implies|V|=\max\{|B|,|F|\}.$$