The RBC Avion Visa Business Card is RBC’s mid-range travel credit card geared towards small business owners.
This card is well-suited to business owners who are looking to steadily earn RBC Avion points and redeem for travel on WestJet and international Oneworld partners, while only paying a moderate annual fee.
Bonuses & Fees
The signup bonus on the RBC Avion Visa Business Card is 35,000 RBC Avion points upon approval.†
It’s worth noting that this bonus is elevated from the general offer on the card for 20,000 Avion points.†
The card has an annual fee of $120 for the primary cardholder, with supplementary cards priced at $50 apiece.†
Earning Rewards
The RBC Avion Visa Business Card offers a flat earning rate of 1 RBC Avion point per dollar spent on all eligible purchases.†
This is a fairly standard earning rate compared to similar products in the market. You might consider the RBC Avion Visa Business Card as a Visa alternative or backup to the American Express Business Gold Card, which offers a comparable 1x Membership Rewards points (with a 2x earning rate on select merchants).†
Redeeming Rewards
There are a variety of ways to redeem RBC Avion points for a high value.
As a transferrable currency, Avion points can be converted into British Airways Avios and Cathay Pacific Asia Miles at a 1:1 ratio,WestJet Rewards at a 100:1 ratio, as well as American Airlines AAdvantage at a 1:0.7 ratio.
Avios, Asia Miles, and AAdvantage will all provide a means to book business class and First Class flights on Oneworld airlines, which will be by far the best value for your Avion points if you’re interested in travelling internationally in style.
Look out for 10–50% transfer bonuses to these partners too, which can boost the value of your points even further.
These can be some of highest value uses of RBC Avion points. If you signed up via the current 35,000 RBC Avion points offer, for example, and transferred the points over to Avios during a 50% promotion, you’d get 52,500 Avios – good for a whopping number of short-haul flights, or enough to make significant progress towards a multi-carrier ticket or a long-haul business class fight.
You can also redeem via the Air Travel Redemption Schedule, which lets you use RBC Avion points to book round-trip economy class tickets departing from Canada, up to a certain maximum ticket price. As a baseline, you can also apply Avion points to any travel purchase at a rate of 1 cent per point.
Your RBC Avion points never expire for as long as you’re a cardholder. If you cancel or switch to a different RBC product, you have 90 days to redeem your Avion points before they go away.
Perks & Benefits
All RBC cardholders can save 3¢/L on fuel at Petro-Canada, and will earn 20% more Petro-Points and RBC Rewards points upon linking their card to their Petro-Points account.
Insurance Coverage
The RBC Avion Visa Business Card offers a fairly standard set of insurance provisions.
Notably, the card doesn’t offer any emergency medical travel insurance, but it does offer car rental loss or damage protection.
Moreover, there’s trip cancellation and trip interruption insurance of up to $1,500 and $5,000 per person, respectively, along with $500,000 of common carrier accident insurance.
While flying, cardholders are covered for up to $500 in flight delay insurance, up to $2,500 for delayed, lost or stolen baggage.
(The travel insurance items will take effect as long as the full amount of the trip is charged to your card, booked directly using your RBC Avion points, or some combination of the two.)
And when making purchases, the card offers extended warranty of up to one additional year, as well as purchase protection that insures you against damage or theft of an item for up to 90 days after your purchase.