Business Platinum Card from American Express
130,000 MR points
RBC Changes Earning Rates on the RBC® British Airways Visa Infinite†
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RBC® British Airways Visa Infinite†
- Earn 15,000 Avios† when you get approved for the card
- Then, earn 35,000 Avios† when you spend $6,000 in the first three months
- Also, earn 10,000 Avios† after 12 months of account opening
- Plus, earn 3 Avios per $1 (CAD) spent† on British Airways purchases
- And, earn 2 Avios per $1 (CAD) spent† on dining and food delivery purchases
- Get a Companion Award eVoucher for an Avios redemption on British Airways flights upon spending $30,000 in a calendar year†
- Annual fee: $165†
18 Comments
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Can someone confirm the earning rate. The T&Cs specifically state 2 points per dollar on dining. No grocery or food delivery are mentioned. Yet the actual product webpage does say it includes groceries and dining. How is that a company which has $12 billion in profit per year is unable to maintain an accurate website? Allowing them to acquire HSBC was a huge fail on the part of the Canadian government. This “merger” should have never been allowed to happen.
On the RBC website, and materials the 2 Avios earn per $1 seems to refer only to dining.
Where would it show the 2 for 1 rate is also applicable to other food purchases?
Hi Larry, this is pasted directly from RBC’s website: “ Earn 2 Avios for every $1 CAD you spend on Grocery, Dining and Food Delivery Purchases.”
RBC is confused, once again, about their BA card. The top of the page says, “2 Avios for every $1…on Grocery, Dining and Food Delivery Purchases.” But the T&Cs say “2 Avios per $1 CAD spent on dining,” and lacks any mention of grocery or food delivery.
Plus, RBC needs to get the insurance on this card sorted. Their documentation mentions coverage for trips paid with cash or RBC reward points…yet the card earns Avios not RBC rewards. So does the card cover redemptions made with its native currency or not? RBC agents don’t know, they refer you to the insurance company. The insurance company agents don’t know either and have been trained to just read the policy as written without further comment or details. Thus, you just have to make the redemption and hope you’re covered if something happens? Yikes.
Hi John, sorry for the delay in getting back to you. We can confirm, the RBC British Airways Visa Infinite card insurance is NOT valid for British Airways Executive Club (Avios) bookings. Rather, as the insurance certificate mentions, the card insurance is valid on RBC Avion bookings, when the fees & taxes are paid with the British Airways Visa Infinite card. Very disappointing, indeed. You may want to consider using a card like the National Bank World Elite Mastercard for paying the taxes and fees on an award booking with British Airways Avios. https://princeoftravel.com/guides/which-credit-cards-offer-insurance-on-award-travel/
Steven,
Wow. That’s baffling. You cannot earn Avion points in any way with the BA VI because RBC won’t let you link it to Avion Select (even though they let you link Aeroplan cards…)
If you have both an Avion card and the BA card, but are making an Avion redemption, why would you choose to pay taxes and fees on the BA card? The BA card is missing trip interruption/cancellation insurance that the Avion card has. Sure the BA card has 31 days emergency medical but that kicks in regardless.
Anyway, thank you for looking into this!
We have reached out to RBC for clarification related to spending categories and insurance. We will report back once we have received an answer.
I think we can say the grocery question is solved. RBC’s website was updated to remove grocery as a 2x category and I see this page has also been updated to remove groceries.
The more important question, insurance on Avios redemptions, remains outstanding.
Tested a groceries purchase, and today posted as 1x…Somewhat disappointing, seems like 2x is only dor dining…
Indeed, would be great to get RBC’s clarification re what exactly earns 2x…
Nice to see earning rates going up. It’s still a big fail that this card doesn’t provide insurance coverage for flights booked using the Avios points earned by the card!
Hi George, sorry for the delay in getting back to you. We can confirm, the RBC British Airways Visa Infinite card insurance is NOT valid for British Airways Executive Club (Avios) bookings. Rather, as the insurance certificate mentions, the card insurance is valid on RBC Avion bookings, when the fees & taxes are paid with the British Airways Visa Infinite card. Very disappointing, indeed. You may want to consider using a card like the National Bank World Elite Mastercard for paying the taxes and fees on an award booking with British Airways Avios. https://princeoftravel.com/guides/which-credit-cards-offer-insurance-on-award-travel/
Thanks for checking that. Disappointing indeed and very misleading given the similarity of the points names!
We have reached out to RBC for clarification regarding insurance on British Airways Avios redemptions. We’ll report back once we get clarification.
George,
Has someone been able to confirm this definitively?
PoT team,
Could you confirm this and for all with RBC?
The insurance requires the full cost for a trip to be paid using “RBC British Airways Visa Infinite card and/or Avion points”, notwithstanding that the card doesn’t even earn Avion points. But it’s moot anyway as almost uniquely for a visa infinite card, the BA card doesn’t even include cancellation or interruption insurance. It’s decent for accessing Avios and the companion voucher but hopeless as a travel card. This doesn’t affect RBC Avion cards, just the BA card.
We all live in a world where multi-billion dollar corporations invent words to describe their loyalty programs (AVION & AVIOS) and somehow they end up with the same made up word except for the last letter??? No wonder no one at RBC knows what’s going on.
I hope that’s what it is – they entered “Avion” where they intended “Avios” – but that’s sloppy and potentially dangerous depending on how they handle claims. Imagine being denied coverage on the basis of using the “wrong” type of points!
Do you know if your BA Avios account has to have a Canadian address to get the points transferred? UK Amex requires a UK address so wondering if it’s possible to have both.