This is something we like to see! RBC has decided to bring their flagship card into the game of bigger and better bonuses. So many other issuers have been steadily increasing the offers on their cards – many with their best ever bonuses – and even RBC has done so on their British Airways, Cathay Pacific and WestJet cards. Now, it’s the RBC Avion Visa Infinite card’s turn. For the past month now this card has had a new welcome bonus of up to 55,000 RBC Rewards points which just happens to be the best ever bonus ever provided for this card.
The 55,000 RBC Rewards Point Bonus
Here is how the 55,000 point welcome bonus is awarded:
- 35,000 Welcome points on approval
- 20,000 bonus point when you spend $5000 in the first 6 months
- Must apply be September 16, 2022
As you can see the card retains the 35,000 points on approval that has been available on the card for over a year now. What is best about the initial part of this welcome bonuses is that it is awarded on approval – no minimum spend, no spend this much each month
over this many months. You simply have to be approved for the card and
the bonus is yours. It is awesome to see that RBC has kept this part but now they have sweetened the deal even more.
The second part of the bonus follows suit with most cards in the market and that is a spend a certain amount within a certain amount of time. For this offer that is $5,000 spend in the first 6 months and you will get an additional 20,000 points for 55,000 points in total. I actually don’t mind this spend requirement at all – $5,000 over 6 months is less than $1,000 per month. That’s less than many of this card’s competitors which range from $6,000 to $24,000 in spending over a 3 to 15 month time period to get their respective bonus offers.
What can you get with the points?
Once you complete your $5,000 in spending to get the entire 55,000 point welcome bonus you will actually be sitting on at least 60,000 points ($5,000 x 1 point per dollar) if not more – it comes down to how much you use your card for purchases. So what can those 60,000 points get you? Let’s take a look:
- Four economy class flights to a neighbouring province
or state when redeeming via the RBC Avion Air Travel Redemption
schedule. (Max. $350 per ticket / $1,400 total for four tickets) Taxes and fees are not included but you can redeem points
towards them at 100 points to $1 rate or just pay for them with your
credit card - One economy class flight anywhere in North America when redeeming via the RBC Avion Air Travel Redemption
schedule. 35,000 points for Canada/Lower 48, 45,000 to 55,000 points for Hawaii, Mexico, Caribbean, Central America or Alaska. (Max. $700 to $1,100 per ticket) Taxes and fees are not included but you can redeem points
towards them at 100 points to $1 rate or just pay for them with your
credit card - $600 credit towards any other travel booked via RBC Rewards (100 points = $1)
- $600 WestJet Dollars Convert the 60,000 points to WestJet Rewards at a 100 to 1 ratio.
This means the offer provides 600 WestJet dollars. There are also times during the year where RBC offers a bonus when you transfer to WestJet. That bonus
tends to be 10% so these 60,000 points could be converted to 660 WestJet
dollars or more if the bonus is higher - Two Economy Class Tickets between Toronto to Dublin (Round trip): You can convert the 60,000
points to British Airways Executive Club at a 1:1
ratio. 60,000 Avios are more than enough to get you two economy class flights between
Toronto and Dublin (as little as 26,000 Avios required)
- One Economy Class Ticket between Vancouver and Hong Kong (Round Trip) You can convert the 60,000
points to Cathay Pacific Asia Miles at a 1:1
ratio. 60,000 Asia Miles cover a round trip flight in economy class between Vancouver and Hong Kong (30,000 miles each way)
These are just a few examples and only economy class! There are a whole slew
of other flight options for converting your points to British Airways, Cathay Pacific or American Airlines including flying in Business lass where you can extract even more value. RBC also offers transfer bonuses once or twice per year and those
range from 30% to 50% meaning you could potentially have up to 90,000 Avios.
My guess is that the next one here in 2022 will be 30% based on the upcoming bonus for converting HSBC points to British Airways – but this is just a guess! The
transfer to British Airways is the much heralded option for the Avion
cards and is in fact one of the main reasons the card continues to rank
higher than many cards.
Benefits
On top of the all the
travel redemption options the RBC Avion Visa Infinite Card also has fairly extensive insurance coverage including out of province emergency medical coverage. There are also partnerships with Petro-Canada whereby you can save at the pump plus earn extra Petro-Points and with Rexall where you can earn extra Be Well Points. Finally the card also has a partnership
with DoorDash which sees all the Avion cards receive the following:
• Get $0 delivery fees for 12 months from DoorDash17 – Add your eligible RBC credit card to your DoorDash account to:
• Get a 12-month complimentary DashPass subscription18 – a value of almost $120
• Enjoy unlimited deliveries with $0 delivery fees on orders of $12 or more when you pay with your eligible RBC credit card
Wrapping it up
This is a pretty amazing welcome bonus offer – sure we’ve seen higher on some other cards but this best ever offer for this card is definitely worth a look. First off you have a lower annual fee than a lot of the competitors at $120 vs. $139 to $150 or more and quite an easily achievable spend requirement to get the entire bonus. I know I come down hard on this card for how much you have to spend to utilize the RBC Avion award chart but with a bonus like this, it is a hard offer to pass by.
Click here to learn more and to apply for the RBC Avion Visa Infinite Card
Remember you only have until September 16 to
apply for this card to get this 55,000 points bonus offer. Note the excerpt from the
terms that I have listed below – there are restrictions for those who
hold existing RBC products.
Learn more about other RBC Card offers here
T&C’s Excerpt:
Additional cardholder(s), as well as existing RBC Avion Visa Infinite
or RBC Avion Visa Platinum, Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum, British
Airways Visa Infinite, RBC Rewards Visa Preferred, RBC Rewards+ Visa,
RBC Avion Visa Infinite Privilege and RBC Avion Visa Infinite Privilege
for Private Banking credit cardholders, applying for or transferring to
an RBC Avion Visa Infinite credit card, RBC Avion Visa Infinite
Privilege credit card or RBC Avion Visa Platinum credit card as of the
start of the Offer Period, are not eligible for this offer.
Images via RBC and Asia Miles