The next evolution of RBC’s Avion Rewards program is called Avion Select and is open to all Canadians – not just those who are RBC customers. Avion Select is currently in an “Early Access” stage as they call it which I believe better describes the program being in its infancy rather than having limited access. I, for one never received an invite to join but was made aware of the program by one of our readers. I checked the Avion Select coming soon page they sent me, downloaded the app and joined! Now I am an Avion Select member:
Joining Avion Rewards as a non-RBC Avion client
Joining is a relatively easy process. You simply download the Avion Rewards app, join as a new member (non-RBC banking client), go through several one time code and two-factor authentications and voila – you are an Avion Select member. Then when you log in, you’ll be met with this home page:
Right away you’ll notice balances for points and cash back, some partner offers and buttons on the bottom for travel, shopping and more. You’ll also see “Coming Soon” for points and when you click on the ? it states points earning will come this fall:
And then you have the travel button at the bottom which also says coming soon:
As you can see from these coming soon pages on the app and then this screen shot from their coming soon landing page, Avion Select looks to be bringing much of Avion Rewards to the masses.
Avion Rewards for Avion Select members
As I stated above, the Avion Select portion of Avion Rewards appears to be in its infancy. Currently it operates as an app only online shopping portal. Think of it like Rakuten, Aeroplan eStore, AIR MILES Shops and so on but only on your phone or tablet. I could not login to the Avion Rewards website on my laptop as you have to use RBC banking credentials and as mine are only connected to my WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard I was denied access.
Currently you can only earn cash back for shopping online as an Avion Select member but that will change this fall when the points function goes live. I’m assuming that you will be able to choose how you want to be rewarded with either cash back or points once the latter is available.
The retailer list for the online shopping is very extensive but a lot of those retailers are online businesses that offer affiliate programs. Literally, it seems like rather than pick and choose which retailers to offer in their portal the team at RBC hit the “Apply to all” button in their affiliate partner portals.
The good thing is they do seem to list the more popular retailers first so you aren’t spending a lot of time searching for them:
Will the points be rewarding?
Yes, they will be. You’ll earn points and you’ll redeem them for rewards. That’s rewarding. You’ll be able to redeem for travel, gift cards, merchandise and more. Just like you can with Avion Rewards as an RBC client and most other loyalty programs in the market. But the better question is what will the value of those Avion Reward points be for Avion Select members? Will they be more or less rewarding than other programs? That remains to be seen but I have to lean towards less rewarding….
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This is pure speculation on my part, but given the already lower value of RBC’s earn to burn ratio for their credit card products when compared to competing programs I don’t foresee the earn to burn ratio to be particularly lucrative for Avion Select members. I mean why reward non-clients more than those who are you own customers right?
For example, if you have the RBC ION Visa or RBC ION+ Visa card you are an Avion Premium member which makes your travel redemption rate is 172 points to $1. In the world of travel rewards credit cards that’s nothing spectacular. Compare this to the Avion cards 100 to $1 or being able to use the Avion Air Redemption Schedule.
Recommended reading: Loyalty Lesson: How to extract more value from Avion Rewards
So, my guess is Avion Select members (which I am assuming at this point will be considered the bottom tier of Avion Rewards) will require something in the range of 200 or 250 points to receive $1 in reward value. It would also be safe to assume Avion Select will not receive access to the RBC Avion Air Redemption Schedule or the ability to convert points to airline partners* as that is reserved for the Avion cards such as the RBC Avion Visa Infinite Card. * ION cards can convert to WestJet but not the other airline partners
I do want to stress I am purely speculating and I am hope I am wrong. It would be great to have a program that could really compete with the other major loyalty programs. However, for the business side of things that would not be a good move. Why? Avion Select is an ideal way to have people learn about RBC products and since those products could move them to a more rewarding Avion Rewards level, some members will apply for them. Honestly, it is a perfect tool for the bank to sell/up-sell their products.
Wrapping it up
In 2022 RBC revamped their proprietary rewards program RBC Rewards and renamed it Avion Rewards. Avion Rewards was only available to RBC customers with select banking products however the next evolution in the program, Avion Select, opens up the program to all Canadians – even those who are not RBC customers. It sets the stage for Avion Rewards to step into world of becoming a full blown loyalty program – not just a proprietary credit card/banking program. As the person who alerted me to this news stated – it could pave the way for a four way battle between Aeroplan, AIR MILES, Scene+ and Avion Rewards.
Click here to learn more about Avion Select
Recommended reading: RBC Rewards has now officially become Avion Rewards
Images via RBC