RBC Avion Visa Travel?

[minnie56]

Anyone redeemed for travel? I have points and have not used ever...is it pretty easy? I am looking at Aeroplan for Los Angeles and they want toooo many miles and the flight options are awful...

 

[canadakath]

I just redeemed for three of my four tickets to Vancouver for the Olympics (no seat sales!) and have redeemed several times before. Easy to do, although I had to wait about 20 minutes on phone to get through to book. Note that the point redemption does not include your taxes and other fees. But we maximize our $750 value per redemption, making the annual fee well worth it for us.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[minnie56]

I understand the taxes and fee's are additional-they are w/Aeroplan too...but what is the $750 value?

 

[canadakath]

http://www.rbcroyalbank.com/cards/rbcrewards/avion_booking.html

Hopefully this link works. It is for the Avion redemption schedule. If you redeem 35,000 points for a long haul flight anywhere in Canada or U.S, they pay for a maximum $750 of base fare. We can usually do Toronto to Vancouver for less, so have been saving them for the Olympics when I'm assuming there won't be any seat sales. Anything above the limit you pay for along with the taxes and fees.

I have used them to redeem flights on both Air Canada and WestJet with no issues - love that it's not considered a special seat and so more is available than with Aeroplan. You can also book additional seats that you are paying for at the same time to ensure that everyone is travelling together. I remember having an issue with that with Aeroplan many years ago. Not sure if you can book with an American carrier unless they have code share with a Canadian carrier, but I've never asked.

HTH!

 

[minnie56]

Ahhh Yes, gotcha now!!!!
It's AC I am looking at...DH has flts booked but I really am tired of paying when I have these miles as well as Aeroplan. I keep forgetting about Avion though so the info is most helpful, thanks!!

 

[MikeyNS]

Ahhh Yes, gotcha now!!!!
It's AC I am looking at...DH has flts booked but I really am tired of paying when I have these miles as well as Aeroplan. I keep forgetting about Avion though so the info is most helpful, thanks!!

AND you get aeroplan points if you fly AC with Avion.. kind of a nice little bonus. We stagger our flying enough that when we run out of Avion points we have enough Aeroplan.. although Aeroplan does take a little bit of pre-planning, we've never been left in the lurch.

 

[damo]

The only things that bugs me about Avion is the extra number of points needed to fly. I can fly to Orlando for 25,000 points with Aeroplan but it is 35,000 points with Avion.

 

[minnie56]

How many would Los Angeles require? Aeroplan wants 80,000 for 2 seats for the flts I am looking at

 

[Calgary DISHeads]

The only things that bugs me about Avion is the extra number of points needed to fly. I can fly to Orlando for 25,000 points with Aeroplan but it is 35,000 points with Avion.

That is exactly what I said to my sister who is an avion lover. Her question was .. have you even been able to fly to Orlando on 25K ? - not me. (granted we fly prime season but I am elite and so close to super I can smell it) .. last trip it was 40K economy and don't even get me started on the complications on that trip... this trip I couldn't find anything less than 50K - I finally called in, super frustrated (not the first time time with AC) and managed to find first class united, not showing on the website for 40K each. However, if I could have booked economy for 35K direct with westjet? In heartbeat...

 

[MikeyNS]

How many would Los Angeles require? Aeroplan wants 80,000 for 2 seats for the flts I am looking at

It's now 35,000pts for a flight in North America, so 70,000pts. You can't purchase Exec First, only "economy" (Tango+, etc).

 

[MikeyNS]

That is exactly what I said to my sister who is an avion lover. Her question was .. have you even been able to fly to Orlando on 25K ? - not me. (granted we fly prime season but I am elite and so close to super I can smell it) .. last trip it was 40K economy and don't even get me started on the complications on that trip... this trip I couldn't find anything less than 50K - I finally called in, super frustrated (not the first time time with AC) and managed to find first class united, not showing on the website for 40K each. However, if I could have booked economy for 35K direct with westjet? In heartbeat...

With Aeroplan it's all in how far you can plan ahead. I've never had a problem getting 25k aeroplan flights from Halifax to Orlando, but I'm planning at like almost a year out. I've just looked and they do have 25k flights DIRECT available for March which is very surprising!

Now with Continental joining Star Alliance I would hope availability would increase. Time will tell.

Again that's why I like to have a balance of both.. if one doesn't work chances are the other will.

 

[damo]

How many would Los Angeles require? Aeroplan wants 80,000 for 2 seats for the flts I am looking at

35,000 each as long as the flight price is under $750.00

You also have to book at least 14 days out.

Here is the info link. http://www.rbcroyalbank.com/cards/rbcrewards/avion_booking.html

 

[damo]

That is exactly what I said to my sister who is an avion lover. Her question was .. have you even been able to fly to Orlando on 25K ? - not me. (granted we fly prime season but I am elite and so close to super I can smell it) .. last trip it was 40K economy and don't even get me started on the complications on that trip... this trip I couldn't find anything less than 50K - I finally called in, super frustrated (not the first time time with AC) and managed to find first class united, not showing on the website for 40K each. However, if I could have booked economy for 35K direct with westjet? In heartbeat...

We've been able to book to Orlando and LA for 25,000 points. It really is a timing factor like you've said.

We've also had the same experience with calling and there being flights available on partner airlines.

I wonder what the availability is like with Air Miles? Between Avion, Aeroplan and Air Miles, I should have it pretty much covered!!

 

[MikeyNS]

Totally forgot about Airmiles! hah! They've ramped up their "prices" that it's almost not worth it anymore. I remember when it was like 1600pts Halifax to Orlando and now it's what, 2800/3600? Eeek.

 

[sachs1999]

just as an fyi you can book first or executive class tickets with avion even though they dont advertise it. So lets say your first class ticket is 900 you could pay the extra 150 plus the taxes and fly first class.