Earn Avion Rewards points
Formerly known as RBC Rewards, the RBC loyalty program has been renamed Avion Rewards since August 2022.
You can earn Avion Rewards points on a number of RBC credit cards linked to this loyalty program.
Note that there are 2 types of RBC Avion Rewards credit cards:
- Avion Premium: Points earned on these cards cannot be used for travel or for transferring points to other programs
- Avion Elite
The most popular Avion Elite card is the RBC Avion Visa Infinite Card :
RBC Avion Elite cards are:
- RBC Avion Visa Infinite Card
- RBC Avion Visa Platinum
- RBC® Avion® Visa Infinite Privilege* Card
- RBC Avion Visa Infinite Business Card
- RBC Avion Visa Business Card
Other RBC Avion Premium cards are
Use Avion Rewards points
There are three main uses for Avion Rewards points:
- For the purchase of trips
- For the transfer of points to other programs
- For the purchase of gift cards
Other uses are not optimal.
Purchasing travel with Avion Rewards points
There are two ways to use Avion Rewards points for travel purchases:
- Through the fixed reward chart
- Through the flexible reward chart
The Avion Rewards fixed reward chart
This is where you’ll get the most out of your Avion Rewards points.
RBC offers a fixed reward chart divided into 6 levels depending on the type of flight :
| Type of flight | RBC Points required | Maximum ticket price excluding taxes |
| Short getaways Any flight within a province, territory or U.S. state, or to a contiguous province, territory or U.S. state |
15 000 | $350 |
| Discover North America Any flight anywhere in Canada or the United States, except Hawaii or Alaska. |
35 000 | $750 |
| Holiday Destinations Western Canada or U.S. to Mexico, Hawaii or Alaska, Eastern Canada to Bermuda, Central America or the Caribbean |
45 000 | $900 |
| Go on holiday Eastern Canada or United States to Mexico, Hawaii or Alaska, Western Canada to Bermuda, Central America or the Caribbean |
55 000 | $1,100 |
| Visit Europe Any flight from a major point of departure in Canada or the United States to destinations in Europe |
65 000 | $1,300 |
| The World Any flight from a major point of departure in Canada or the United States to destinations in Asia, Australia, New Zealand, the South Pacific, the Middle East, Africa or South America. |
100 000 | $2,000 |
What is most interesting, is when the fare of the flight you want to book is close to the maximum amount (excluding taxes and surcharge ).
For example, here’s an airline ticket I booked to redeem 70,000 RBC points that I had earned.
This is a flight from Montreal to Las Vegas for a weekend. The fare is 35,000 Avion Rewards points (“Discover North America” level in the chart above) and $164.85 in taxes.
Flights are direct, operated by Air Canada Rouge (but sold by United).
When looking at the details of the fare on ITA Matrix (to get the ticket price + taxes applied), we see that the ticket price is $370 + $345 = $715 (below the maximum allowed by RBC of $750 for 35,000 point tickets):
The taxes are within a few cents of those charged by RBC (approximately $165).
Here, 35,000 RBC points saved me $715.40. This values my use at 2 cents / RBC point (you can hardly get more!).
Flexible pricing with Avion Rewards
RBC points can also be used through the flexible reward chart. This is the famous “100 points = $1”.
Here, the 35,000 Avion Rewards points earned as a welcome bonus can be used for $350 off your trip.
Just use this when you:
- Redeem points for travel rewards without using the Air Travel Rewards Redemption Schedule;
- Redeem points for a hotel stay, car rental, cruise or vacation package;
- Redeem points for one-way, business or first class airfare;
- Book your trip less than 14 days in avance;
- Pay more than the maximum dollar value set for a category;
- Pay all taxes, fees and surcharges.
Converting Avion Rewards points to other programs
One of the highlights of the Avion Rewards Travel program is the ability to convert Avion Rewards points to other partner programs such as American Express or Marriott Bonvoy.
Here are the transfer partners and the normal exchange rate.
| Frequent Flyer program | Conversion rate |
 |
1,000 points = $10 Westjet dollars |
 |
10,000 points = 10,000 Avios miles |
 |
10,000 points = 10,000 Asia miles |
 |
5,000 points = 3,500 AAdvantage miles |
 |
5,000 points = 10,000 points Hudson Bay Rewards |
From time to time, Avion Rewards runs point conversion promotions such as +30% to British Airways Executive Club. So keep an eye out for these promotions to convert your points at the best possible rate!
Purchase of gift cards with Avion Rewards points
If purchasing travel with points is not for you… there is another way to use your Avion Rewards points: by purchasing gift cards.
We generally don’t recommend this method for points as valuable as American Express Membership Rewards points, but Avion Rewards has regular promotions for gift cards!
The most interesting one lately was found in the milesopedia facebook group by Maxime about hotels.com gift cards.
And indeed, it was a good plan: with 18,750 points you could get a $250 hotels.com gift card.
Credit cards
With this offer for the RBC Avion Visa Infinite Card, you can earn up to 35,000 Avion Rewards points upon approval. So there’s no minimum spend.
You can use your Avion Rewards points for travel or redeem them with other loyalty programs such as :
- American Airlines AAdvantage
- British Airways Executive Club (and Qatar Airways Privilege Club)
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- WestJet Rewards
For example, with the current welcome offer, you can get the equivalent of 35,000 British Airways Avios Points or 350 WestJet Dollars.
With the RBC Avion Visa Infinite Card, you earn 1 point per dollar and 1.25 points for travel purchases.
And you’ll benefit from a wide range of insurance coverage: Trip Cancellation and Interruption Insurance, Out-of-Province/Country Emergency Medical Insurance, Rental Vehicle Collision/Loss Damage Insurance, Mobile Device Insurance.