RBC Avion

RBC Avion points are a valuable and versatile rewards currency within the Canadian market.

With a strong lineup of airline transfer partners, flexible redemption options, and a wide range of eligible credit cards, the program is well-positioned for travellers looking to maximize the value of their spending.

Avion points can be earned through a variety of RBC products, but not all Avion points are equal. The program is divided into three distinct tiers, and the redemption options available vary significantly depending on which tier a member belongs to.

Understanding the Avion Rewards Tiers

RBC Avion Rewards is divided into three tiers: Select, Premium, and Elite, with each tier offering different ways to earn and redeem points.

• Avion Select: Assigned to Canadian residents of the age of majority who register for Avion Rewards without holding an eligible RBC product that qualifies for a higher tier. Points are earned exclusively through the Avion Rewards shopping portal and can be redeemed for merchandise, gift cards, or travel at a fixed rate. This tier does not include access to airline transfer partners or the RBC Air Travel Redemption Schedule.
• Avion Premium: Assigned to holders of eligible RBC products such as personal deposit accounts, investment accounts, or loans. The only products that earn Avion points through spending are the RBC ION Visa and RBC ION+ Visa credit cards. A full list of qualifying products is available on RBC’s eligibility page.These points can be redeemed for travel at a fixed rate of 0.58 cents per point (CAD) or transferred to WestJet Rewards at a 1:1 ratio (100 Avion points = 100 WestJet points). The points can be transferred at a ratio of 1:1 to Avion Elite Tier (if you hold a card that qualifies you for the Avion Elite tier), unlocking significantly better redemption options.
• Avion Elite: Assigned to holders of eligible RBC Avion-branded credit cards, such as the RBC® Avion Visa Infinite†.
  They offer the most extensive range of redemption options within the program. Points can be transferred to airline loyalty programs including The British Airways Club, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, and American Airlines AAdvantage. They can also be redeemed through the RBC Air Travel Redemption Schedule for up to 2.3 cents per point. Additional options include fixed-value travel credits at 1 cent per point and gift card redemptions.

In this guide, we’ll be focusing on the Avion Elite tier, while also outlining how to maximize value by transferring earnings from Avion Premium tier.

Earning RBC Avion Points

The main way to earn RBC Avion points is through RBC credit cards. The type of card held determines which Avion Rewards tier the account is associated with: Avion Premium or Avion Elite.

The credit cards that earn Avion points under the Avion Elite tier include all cards in the RBC Avion lineup.

RBC Avion Credit Cards

Credit Card	Best Offer	Value
RBC® Avion Visa Platinum† RBC® Avion Visa Platinum† 55,000 RBC Avion points† $120 annual fee	55,000 RBC Avion points†	$1,080	Apply Now
RBC® Avion Visa Infinite Privilege† RBC® Avion Visa Infinite Privilege† Up to 70,000 RBC Avion points† $399 annual fee	Up to 70,000 RBC Avion points†	$826	Apply Now
RBC Avion Visa Infinite Business RBC Avion Visa Infinite Business 35,000 RBC Avion points $175 annual fee	35,000 RBC Avion points	$700	Apply Now
RBC® Avion Visa Infinite† RBC® Avion Visa Infinite† 35,000 RBC Avion points† $120 annual fee	35,000 RBC Avion points†	$580	Apply Now
RBC Avion Visa Business RBC Avion Visa Business 35,000 RBC Avion points $120 annual fee	35,000 RBC Avion points	$580	Apply Now

Meanwhile, credit cards that fall under the Avion Premium tier include the RBC ION lineup.

RBC ION Credit Cards

Credit Card	Best Offer	Value
RBC® ION+ Visa RBC® ION+ Visa 14,000 Avion points† (worth up to $100 in gift cards†) $48 annual fee	14,000 Avion points† (worth up to $100 in gift cards†)	$125	Apply Now
RBC® ION Visa RBC® ION Visa 7,000 Avion points†(worth up to $50 in gift cards†) $0 annual fee	7,000 Avion points†(worth up to $50 in gift cards†)	$75	Apply Now

As long as an account holder has at least one of the RBC Avion cards from the first list, Avion points earned from RBC ION cards can be freely transferred to an Avion Rewards account associated with the Elite tier.

Transferring points from an account associated with the Premium tier to one associated with the Elite tier unlocks significantly more redemption options.

Credit Card Welcome Bonuses

The best way to earn RBC Avion points is through welcome bonuses.

Welcome bonuses fluctuate depending on the current promotion. However, you can usually expect an RBC Avion card to come with a welcome bonus of 15,000–35,000 Avion points, with the bonus sometimes getting as high as 55,000 Avion points if you’re able to meet the associated spending requirements.

Despite having similar welcome bonuses, the Avion cards do all have slight differences in the benefits they offer, their earning rates, and their annual fees.

The RBC® Avion Visa Platinum†, RBC® Avion Visa Infinite†, and RBC® Avion Visa Business all have an annual fee of $120 (all figures in CAD).

Meanwhile, the RBC® Avion Visa Infinite† Business has an annual fee of $175, and lastly, the RBC® Avion Visa Infinite Privilege† card has the highest annual fee at $399.

With the higher annual fees, you can usually expect to also see additional benefits, such as higher earning rates and access to airport lounges.

By comparison, RBC ION cards typically offer smaller welcome bonuses ranging from 3,500 to 7,000 points, with occasional limited-time offers up to 14,000 points.

However, these cards come with minimal fees: the RBC® ION Visa has no annual fee, while the RBC® ION+ Visa charges $4 per month.

Credit Card Spending

In addition to earning the welcome bonus, you’re also able to earn Avion points on your day-to-day purchases.

The RBC Avion-branded credit cards come with the following earning rates on daily spending:

RBC® Avion Visa Infinite†

• 1.25 Avion points per dollar spent on all travel purchases (flights, hotels, car rentals, etc.)
• 1 Avion point per dollar spent on all other qualifying purchases

RBC® Avion Visa Platinum†

• 1 Avion point per dollar spent on all qualifying purchases

RBC® Avion Visa Infinite Privilege†

• 1.25 Avion points per dollar spent on all qualifying purchases

RBC® Avion Visa Business

• 1 Avion point per dollar spent on all qualifying purchases

RBC® Avion Visa Infinite† Business

• 1.25 Avion points per dollar spent on all qualifying purchases

Cards associated with the Avion Premium tier—namely the ION Visa and ION+ Visa—offer stronger multipliers in select spending categories:

RBC® ION Visa

• 1.5 Avion points per dollar spent on qualifying grocery, gas, rideshare, daily public transit, electric vehicle charging, streaming, digital gaming, and digital subscriptions
• 1 Avion point per dollar spent on all other qualifying purchases

RBC® ION+ Visa

• 3 Avion points per dollar spent on qualifying grocery, dining, food delivery, gas, rideshare, daily public transit, electric vehicle charging, streaming, digital gaming, and digital subscriptions
• 1 Avion point per dollar spent spent on all other qualifying purchases

While these cards earn points under the Premium tier, those points can be transferred 1:1 to an Avion Rewards account in the Elite tier as long as an eligible Avion card is also held.

This allows account holders to benefit from strong earning rates in daily spend categories, while still accessing the most valuable redemption options.

Avion Rewards Platform

A relatively recent addition to the RBC Avion program is Avion Rewards, which is open for RBC clients and non-clients alike.

Since all points transactions are made under its platform, those with an Avion or ION card product have automatically been registered to Avion Rewards, while those with other RBC products may use their existing RBC credentials to enroll.

Under Avion Rewards, you may benefit from two types of offers: “save & earn” offers, and “shop now” offers.

The former lets you earn Avion points, discounts, and cash back when you use your eligible RBC card at participating online and in-store establishments. Meanwhile, the latter lets you earn cash back on online purchases, akin to the Aeroplan eStore and Rakuten.

Examples of save & earn Avion points offers are as follows:

• Earn 1,000 Avion points when you spend $300 or more at participating Marriott Bonvoy hotels in Canada
• Earn 10x Avion points on Lyft rides
• Earn 2x Avion points on eligible Apple purchases

For save & earn offers, you must opt into each offer by logging into your Avion Rewards account.

Redeeming RBC Avion Points

The best feature of the RBC Avion program is the flexible nature of Avion points.

Avion points earned under an account in the Avion Elite tier can be transferred to airline loyalty programs, redeemed through RBC’s Air Travel Redemption Schedule, or used for gift cards and statement credits.

By comparison, Avion points earned under the Avion Premium tier have more limited options. These points can only be transferred to WestJet Rewards at a 1:1 ratio or redeemed for gift cards and statement credits.

They cannot be transferred to other airline loyalty programs or used with RBC’s Air Travel Redemption Schedule.

To unlock additional redemption options, Avion points from an account in the Premium tier can be transferred to an account in the Elite tier, as long as the account holder has an eligible RBC Avion credit card.

Even for those who don’t currently hold an Avion card, it’s worth holding onto Avion points earned under the Premium tier with the goal of unlocking Elite-tier access later.

For this reason, we’ll look exclusively at the redemption options available to Avion Elite-tier account holders.

Transferring to Partner Programs

You can transfer your RBC Avion points under the Elite tier at a 1:1 ratio to The British Airways Club (Avios) and Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, and to WestJet Rewards at a rate of 1 Avion point = 1 WestJet point.

You can also transfer points to American Airlines AAdvantage at a rate of 10 Avion points = 7 AAdvantage miles.

The British Airways Club is great for short-haul journeys, as well as long-haul trips in economy class.

One amazing sweet spot is transferring British Airways Avios to Qatar Airways Avios at a 1:1 ratio. From there, you can book Qatar Airways QSuites one-way from North America to Doha for only 70,000 Qatar Airways Avios.

It’s also worth noting that RBC regularly offers transfer bonus promotions from Avion to The British Airways Club. Historically, the most common promotional offer is a 30% bonus on point transfers.

Lastly, keep in mind that there are a few restrictions on the ability to transfer points to these partners. In particular, for British Airways Avios, American AAdvantage, and Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, you need to transfer a minimum of 10,000 Avion points at a time. However, there is no such restriction for transfers to WestJet Rewards.

RBC Air Travel Redemption Schedule

If you’re not interested in transferring your Avion points to an airline loyalty program, you can still get great value by redeeming points through the RBC Air Travel Redemption Schedule.

While you won’t be able to get outsized value for your points, you’ll still get more value through this avenue than if you redeemed Avion points for a statement credit or for gift cards.

Through the Air Travel Redemption Schedule, you’ll be able to redeem Avion points in the Elite tier at a fixed rate for the base fare of any flight booked through the Avion Rewards portal, powered by Expedia.

Each redemption option allows you to use the specified number of points towards a listed maximum base fare.

It’s important to note that you’ll be responsible to pay for any base fare amount that’s over the maximum base fare listed in each category, as well as for the taxes and additional fees.

If you wish to redeem Avion points for the additional costs, you can choose to do so, albeit at the lower redemption rate of 1 cent per Avion point.

When using RBC’s Air Travel Redemption Schedule to book a flight, you’ll get a value of up to 2.3 cents per Avion point, depending on the origin and destination of your trip and the cost of the base fare.

The maximum value of 2.3 cents per Avion point can be found in the “Quick Getaway” category when you redeem 15,000 Avion points for the maximum return-trip base fare of $350.

In all the other categories, the maximum value you’ll be able to extract is 2 cents per Avion point, when booking a round-trip for the maximum base fare amount.

As an example, if you were to redeem 100,000 Avion points for a round-trip flight from Toronto to Lima with a base fare cost of $1,700, you would receive a value of 1.7 cents per point.

Notably, with the Air Travel Redemption Schedule, the number of Avion points required for a redemption in each category doesn’t fluctuate with the cost of the base fare.

Using the above example of the round-trip flight between Toronto and Lima, even if the base fare was only $900, you would still need to redeem 100,000 Avion points.

Based on this, to extract maximum value from your Avion points when using the Air Travel Redemption Schedule, you’ll want to aim to redeem for base fares that are as close to the category’s maximum base fare as possible.

For this reason, the fixed-rate redemption chart can be particularly valuable for bookings during busy times of year, such as holiday seasons, when travel costs are elevated.

This is because the fixed-rate nature of the Air Travel Redemption Chart allows you to book these more expensive dates of travel for the same number of points as a cheaper date of travel (assuming the base fare remains below the maximum threshold for the category).

Travel Credit

Another option for redeeming your Avion points under the Elite tier is for fixed-rate travel statement credits through the Avion Rewards platfo.

By booking through this avenue, most cardholders will receive a fixed rate of 1 cent per point, and if you hold the RBC® Avion Visa Infinite Privilege† or the RBC® Avion Visa Infinite† Business, you’ll have access to a fixed rate of 2 cents per point if you’re booking a business class or First Class flight.

When compared to the Air Travel Redemption Schedule, this may seem like a similar or even slightly worse valuation; however, it can actually prove to be better in certain scenarios.

As we mentioned above, when redeeming Avion points through the Air Travel Redemption Schedule, you are required to redeem the set number of points regardless of the cost of the base fare, as long as it’s under the maximum amount.

Looking at the “Explore North America” category from the Air Travel Redemption Schedule, this means that even if the base fare ends up being less than the $750 maximum listed, you’ll still have to pay the full 35,000 Avion points.

Taking a deeper dive, based on the redemption rate of 1 Avion point = 1 cent, the 35,000 Avion points required for this booking is equal to $350.

This means that if you’re looking at redemptions using the Air Travel Redemption Schedule and you find a base fare within this category for less than $350, you’ll be better off booking the flight on your own and then redeeming your Avion points for a travel credit.

Other ways to Redeem Avion Points

Beyond what’s already been mentioned, RBC provides a number of additional options for redeeming Avion points through the Avion Rewards platform. However, these options are not particularly valuable.

For example, you can use points to send e-transfers, pay bills, add to your existing investments, make a mortgage payment, or even pay off your credit card.

For most of these financial redemption options, you’ll get a value of 0.83 cents per point, and if you want to pay your credit card directly, the value is only 0.58 cents per point.

You can access better value than this by redeeming Avion points for gift cards, with some options offering value as high as 1 cent per point (and occasionally higher during promotions), but the best value can still found by transferring Avion points to partner airline loyalty programs.

One additional option is to redeem Avion points for merchandise, but similarly to the other non-travel redemption options, this doesn’t offer nearly as much value for your Avion points.

Conclusion

RBC Avion is an important rewards program that can help unlock some amazing sweet spots through transfers to partnered airline loyalty programs, such as The British Airways Club and Cathay Pacific Asia Miles.

Thanks to its unique set of transfer partners, the relative ease of accumulating points via RBC’s Avion- and ION-branded credit cards, and the frequency of transfer promotions, Avion points are extremely useful to collect as a way to supplement the other major Canadian points programs.

†Terms and conditions apply. Refer to the card issuer’s website for complete, up-to-date information.