Avion is the travel card most Canadians can name even if they have never held one, and the Visa Infinite is the version that matters: the cheapest personal card that unlocks the full Avion Rewards program. It is the card I point people to when they bank with RBC and want travel points without taking up award charts as a hobby.
The pitch is flexibility rather than raw earning. Avion points can book flights through a fixed chart that often beats 1 cent per point, transfer 1:1 to British Airways Avios and Cathay Pacific Asia Miles for the ambitious, or fall back to a flat 100 points = $1 against any travel. The trade-offs are real, and I get into them below: a thin 1x base earn, a 2.5% foreign transaction fee, and no lounge access.
Welcome offer
The RBC Avion Visa Infinite is currently offering up to 55,000 Avion points, which RBC values at up to $1,100 in travel.
You'll earn 35,000 points on approval, with no spending required. A further 20,000 points come after you spend $5,000 in the first six months. Applications must be in by August 12, 2026.
Worth knowing before you apply: RBC ran a 70,000-point version of this offer earlier in the summer, and it ended July 15, 2026. Avion offers rotate every few months, usually between 35,000 and 55,000 points, so the current offer is solid but not a once-a-year event.
The 35,000 points on approval land with no spend requirement, which is rare among Canadian travel cards. The remaining 20,000 points for $5,000 in six months works out to about $835 a month, roughly a household grocery-and-gas budget routed through one card.
Fees & eligibility
The Avion Visa Infinite runs $120 a year, with no first-year waiver, and each additional card is $50. As a Visa Infinite product it requires a personal income of $60,000 or household income of $100,000.
RBC banking customers have a clean way around the fee: an RBC VIP Banking chequing account rebates the full $120 annual fee on this card every year. The account itself costs $30 a month, so the rebate is a nice extra for people already in RBC’s premium banking tier rather than a reason to open one. And the standing reminder: at 20.99% on purchases and 22.99% on cash advances, the points only count if you clear the balance every month.
Earning rewards
Earning is the plainest part of the card: 1.25 Avion points per dollar on travel and 1 point per dollar on everything else. Travel is defined generously, covering flights, hotels, vacation packages, car rentals and cruises, but there is no bonus for groceries, gas or dining.
That 1x base rate is thin by 2026 standards, and the usual fix lives inside the RBC ecosystem: pair this card with the RBC ION+ Visa ($48 a year), which earns 3 points per dollar on groceries, dining, gas, transit and streaming with no category caps. Holding the Avion Visa Infinite lifts all of your points into the Avion Elite tier, which is what makes the ION+ points transferable to airlines in the first place.
One honest note for travellers: the Avion charges the standard 2.5% foreign transaction fee on purchases in other currencies, so it is not the card to lead with abroad. A no-FX card like the Scotiabank Passport makes a better companion outside Canada.
Redeeming rewards
Redeeming is where Avion earns its reputation. The signature option is the Air Travel Redemption Schedule, RBC’s fixed flight chart. A round-trip short-haul flight (to an adjacent province or state) costs 15,000 points and covers up to $350 of base fare, as much as 2.33 cents per point. Flights anywhere else in Canada and the continental U.S. run 35,000 points (up to $700 of base fare) and Europe is 65,000 points (up to $1,300), both capping out at 2 cents per point. One-way bookings cost exactly half. The catch: points cover the base fare only, so taxes, fees and carrier surcharges are paid in cash, and on surcharge-heavy airlines that cash portion can gut the value. Check the fees before you book.
Avion is also one of the few Canadian bank programs with real airline transfer partners. Points move at 1:1 to British Airways Avios, the headline partner, and RBC runs a 30% transfer bonus roughly twice a year (the most recent ran May 11 to June 19, 2026). Cathay Pacific Asia Miles is also 1:1, the best Cathay ratio of any Canadian program. American Airlines AAdvantage exists at a weaker 10:7 ratio with transfers processed in weekly batches, and WestJet Rewards converts 1:1 but returns only about 1 cent per point, no better than the flat rate. The important gap: Avion does not transfer to Aeroplan or any Star Alliance program.
If none of that appeals, the fallback is friction-free: redeem at a flat 100 points = $1 against any travel booked through Avion Rewards, with taxes and fees covered by points too.
Perks & benefits
This is the section where the Avion shows its age. There is no lounge access, no foreign-fee waiver and no annual travel credit; what you get is the standard Visa Infinite bundle plus RBC partner offers. The Visa Infinite Concierge, the Luxury Hotel Collection and the Dining and Wine Country event series are all included, and they are pleasant, but none of them carry the card the way lounge passes carry its competitors.
The partner offers do more day to day. Link the card to a Petro-Points account and you save 3 cents per litre at Petro-Canada while earning 20% more Petro-Points on fuel. The quiet structural perk is tier access: holding any Avion card places your points in the Avion Elite tier, the level that unlocks airline transfers, which is exactly why this card gets paired with cheaper RBC earners like the ION+.
Insurance
Insurance is one of the Avion’s stronger suits for a $120 card, with one important limit: the emergency medical window is short. Coverage runs for the first 15 days of a trip if you are under 65, but only the first 3 days at 65 or older, so longer trips and older travellers need a top-up policy. Trip cancellation is modest at $1,500 per person; trip interruption is more generous at $5,000, and the rental-car coverage is primary, so a claim never touches your personal auto policy.
My take
If a friend banks with RBC and asks me for one travel card, this is the one I name first.
You do not get the Avion Visa Infinite for the perks, and you do not get it for the earn rate. You get it for what the points can do: a flight chart that quietly beats 1 cent per point on short-haul, 1:1 transfers to Avios and Asia Miles when you want to aim higher, and a flat 100 points = $1 floor when you cannot be bothered. Get it if you bank with RBC and want flexible points without studying award charts, or if you need the Elite tier to make an ION+ worth carrying. Skip it if you want lounge access and no foreign fees (the Scotiabank Passport does both for $30 more a year) or if your loyalty already lives with Aeroplan, because Avion points will never get you there.
The good
- 35,000 points on approval, no spend required
- Flight chart worth up to 2.33 cents per point
- 1:1 transfers to Avios and Asia Miles
The catch
- 2.5% foreign transaction fee
- 1x base earn outside travel
- No lounge access or travel credits