RBC VISA Infinite Avion Consumer Reviews

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.

BEWARE. Multiple frustrating issues. No customer service. This Avion card is not worth it. I have reset my pin twice at RBC after my last trip to Mexico and I still have issues. I called RBC twice, to sort out my pin and also spoke to the staff at the local branch. Every time I’m abroad, it blocks my card. I notified them that I am going to Mexico. I am in Mexico now, and I cannot reach customer service. Called both numbers on the back of the card. I googled alternative numbers and to all of them I get a message in Spanish saying the number is not supported. You can’t rely on this card when traveling. But that was the point of getting it. Because of the points.

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.

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.