RBC · Visa
$120 a year for 1 point a dollar and 1.25 on travel, with no grocery, gas or dining bonus at all. The insurance is good. The earning is not.
Rates and features verified 2026-08-18Full terms and conditions
What we like, and what we don’t
Worth having
- Unlimited emergency travel medical, which no other card here offers
- Trip cancellation, interruption, flight delay, baggage delay and $1,500 of mobile device cover
- Avion points transfer to WestJet, American Airlines, British Airways Avios and Cathay
- Fixed-price award chart with no blackout dates on 500+ airlines
- 35,000 points on approval with no spending requirement
Watch out for
- One point a dollar on everything except travel. There is no grocery, gas, dining or transit bonus
- Avion redeems at one cent for anything other than a good travel booking
- The advertised 70,000 points is really 55,000 in year one, with 15,000 held back to your anniversary
- No lounge access, despite an RBC page implying otherwise. That page describes the business version
- RBC's information box still shows a 19.99% purchase rate against 20.99% on the live page
- RBC noted in late 2025 that the 2.5% foreign exchange markup is no longer contractually fixed
What this card earns
- Travel
- 1.25x
- Everything else
- 1x
- What we value a point at
- 1¢
The earning fine print
Only two earn rates exist: 1.25 points a dollar on travel and 1 point on everything else. There are no grocery, gas or dining bonuses, and no earning cap is published. RBC does not publish a merchant category definition of what counts as travel. We value Avion at one cent because that is RBC's own guaranteed rate: 100 points redeems for $1. RBC markets 70,000 points as being worth "up to $1,500", which is about 2.1 cents, but that is a best-case travel redemption rather than a rate you are entitled to. Points do not expire.
The welcome offer
- Welcome bonus
- 35,000 points after you spend $0, within 1 month
- Second tier
- 20,000 points after you spend $5,000, within 6 months
- Offer ends
- 2026-11-25
What the offer actually requires
The advertised 70,000 points is three separate tranches: 35,000 on approval, 20,000 after $5,000 of spending in six months, and 15,000 as a one-time anniversary bonus you cannot reach until the card is a year old. Only 55,000 is achievable in year one, which is the $550 recorded here at our one cent valuation. RBC's legal footnotes load behind a collapsed panel and could not be read, so the exclusions for existing cardholders are unverified.
Fees and interest rates
- Annual fee
- $120
- Additional card
- $50
- Foreign transaction fee
- 2.5%
- Cash advance fee
- $5
- Dishonoured payment fee
- $45
- Purchase APR
- 20.99%
- Cash advance APR
- 22.99%
- Balance transfer fee
- 3%
Who can get this card
- Minimum personal income
- $60,000
- Minimum household income
- $100,000
Insurance and benefits
- Trip cancellation
- $1,500
- Trip interruption
- $5,000
- Flight delay
- $250
- Baggage delay
- $500
- Mobile device
- $1,500
- Rental car damage waiver
- Included
- Purchase protection
- Included
- Extended warranty
- Included
- Concierge
- Included
What the benefits really mean
Travel medical is UNLIMITED rather than a dollar figure, which is why that field is blank rather than showing a number. It covers the first 15 days, dropping to 3 days at 65 and over, and the unlimited maximum collapses to $25,000 if you do not call the insurer before treatment. Lounge access is FALSE: an RBC page advertising "1,200+ airport lounges" for Avion refers to the BUSINESS version of this card, and even that is a membership with no free visits. Purchase security and extended warranty share a $50,000 per year limit. CAUTION: RBC's own information box PDF still shows a 19.99% purchase rate against the 20.99% on its live pages, and every fee above comes from that same four-year-old document. RBC also noted in November 2025 that the foreign exchange markup is no longer contractually fixed at 2.5%. Quebec residents pay no over-limit fee.
Our verdict
This card ranks near the bottom on value and that is the correct result. Paying $120 for one point a dollar means you are buying the insurance package, not the rewards, and the insurance package is genuinely excellent: unlimited emergency medical is a real differentiator.
If you want RBC and you want rewards, the ION+ earns three times as fast for $72 less. The only reason to choose the Avion over it is the travel coverage, and if that is what you are buying then you should compare it against a standalone travel policy first.
Cards worth comparing this against
Compare this against every card we track
Where this came from. rbcroyalbank.com product page, information box PDF, Quebec product summary, certificate of insurance, benefits guide. We take every figure from the issuer’s own pages, never from another comparison site, and we leave a field blank rather than guess at it.