RBC VISA Infinite Avion Consumer Reviews

The fees associated with booking a flight through my Avion points were HIGHER than the fare to book directly through the airline.
I'm not exaggerating. The fees AFTER using my points were more than the cost of booking the entire flight(s) through the airline.
I have no idea how this program exists. It's total garbage.
And truthfully, it's even worse when trying to use the points to purchase merchandise.
I'm done.

This complaint regarding Avion comes after several attempts to use points and book flights over the past 18 months. In each instance, I chose to purchase my tickets directly from the airline instead of using Avion points. The reasons. Many flights that are available from the airlines are not made available through Avion. As a result, Avion booked flights have less connectivity, longer layover times and inconvenient scheduling. The next biggest issue has been the Surcharges on top of points usage for every flight option. Ironically, the surcharges themselves are often more expensive than booking tickets directly from the airline. That doesn't take into consideration the additional Avion points charged on top of those surcharges. Finally, my recent experience booking through Avions Expedia link has resulted in booking me into a hotel that on arrival had no rooms available. The error itself was frustrating but resolvable. Problem was, connecting with Expedia is impossible and their chatbot has very limited ability to resolve anything. Despite many efforts and long hours attempting to communicate with Expedia, it was necessary to charge back the credit card. Don't get me started on the customer service avoidance process that RBC uses to frustrate complaints. After multiple hours online and at least two hangup by RBC staff after being on hold, I was finally able to implement the charge back to Expedia. They never responded. In my sincere and experienced opinion, I suggest not signing on to RBC AVION. In fact, I suggest ditching them.

I purchased travel through RBC Avion which included features. Once flight sale processed they advised included features (that are listed as being included to the public) are not. Offered no compensation and advised I could not cancel trip, even though they misrepresented and mis-advertised what the package was.

It's farud. If you book directly from airline or get all-inclusive package directly from provider, you will save a lot more money. Also any change or cancellation will be a nightmare with Avion rewards even though you have paid extra for flexibility

I am unable to book any travel with Avion points. This has been happening for a year. I even called customer service and they cannot book a flight with my points. All those points are wasted. DO NOT get this credit card. The scam is, they first hang up on you and pretend its a dropped call. The next scam is pretending they cannot book with your points. They offer a credit which is no where near the value of the points when used for travel. Total scam, I am surprised this has been allowed to continue for so long.

Avion has turned to scam its clients even though they hold to the letter of the law they are still sly about their tactics. I scratched and saved enough points over 12 years to book two tickets for a once in a lifetime trip to Italy. Total points 130,000 PLUS a $1300 fee??? WTH I exclaimed! Well here is how their scam works. They tell you right off the bat, that taxes and SURCHARGES are not covered, but they keep saying that the 65000 points cover a ticket price up to $1300. They don't say base fair, they say ticket price. So client services, who are well versed in the tactic, explain that if you go to the detailed breakdown of the airlines ticket price you see base fare is only $392 (per ticket) and there is an AIRLINE CARRIER SURCHARGE of $530. So even though they've promised to cover up to $1300 they get away with only having to pay out $392 based solely on how they interpret ticket price and of coarse how the airline now breaks down there prices. In good conscience, they could've equated the surcharge as part of the ticket price but they've opted to be devious and stick it to us all. So after spending $130,000 to get 130000 points all, I end up with is being covered for a rather messily $784. Does that sound fair, no I don't believe it does? I'm considering weighing other possible actions or at least trying my best to bringing this out into the open.

They will only cover the base fare amount. I booked a flight that's worth $1,350 (pre-tax) by redeeming 65,000 points thinking that they will cover the face value of ticket of up to $1,300. I had taxes and stuff so ticket ended up being $1,450. Anyway, even after using 65,000 points, RBC rewards only refunded me $650 (not even half of my ticket) because more than half of it was tax and surcharge. This is a rip-off. It's cheaper for me to collect points with another credit card company and get cash back and pay for this then collect points and I only got half my ticket paid for? This is after I pay $120/year in member dues. I am going to cancel this card because it's not saving me anything but instead just costs me more.

Frustrations are mounting! Not only am I paying $150/year to have this card that a growing number of merchants/businesses will NOT accept due to high user fees PLUS when redeeming points (only reason I have this card) for travel and finding that after the published amount of points are used for your destination, that the extra fees often exceed the regular airfare to the same destination, I was stunned to learn that....if you have automatic debits at the time your card expires that VISA will "automatically renew" your info with those merchants!!! When I called to inquire re debits that I expected would end with my card expiration they said that I "was enrolled in automatic renewal". UH NO!!! "Enrolled" suggests to me that I was advised of this "program" and chose to participate. None of that happened. BEWARE

My husband and I have been Avion card holders for many years. We are presently looking into another alternative. Years ago we switched over because we like to travel frequently and put the points to good use. However, in recent years we are getting fed up with the limited benefits it's offering us. We do not see the point in paying for this high-interest credit card. We still pay just as much money when using points for travel redemption as we would have if we purchased tickets off the airline's website. I know this because I have done it. The last two vacations to be exact. Not to mention, with Avion I am given more stopovers and ridiculous travel hours. Booking through the airline is the same price and less hassle. We are starting to ask ourselves, why are we bothering with this card just to collect useless points?

The first experience for points redemption was terrible. First hard time trying to find the proper site to log in. My wife had to re-submit user name and password a time consuming process.
Wife tried to book on line and it came up with a ridiculous amount of fees and taxes. She opted out of the transaction at that point to discuss. When we tried to log in a few days later it took forever to get in... even using my card number and postal code, (kept telling me something was not accurate to log in. Somehow i finally broke into the redemption screen to try and book a flight and took so long to download available flights to point i kept thinking my computer was locked up. No contact available on Sunday. Waited to call on Monday and speak to an rewards agent. The whole process still took the better part of an hour and the screen was taking forever to download for her as well. To book a flight for two in Canada still took over an hour and all i have is a reference number
but no flight confirmation.
Also not insured under the card for flight cancellation by my understanding which is surprising as i thought this card came with trip interruption insurance built in.
Probably going to cancel my card and save the 120 annual fee.