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RBC Finalizes Acquisition of HSBC Bank Canada
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RBC® Avion Visa Infinite†
- Earn 35,000 RBC Avion points† upon approval†
- Earn 1.25x RBC Avion points† on qualifying travel purchases
- Transfer RBC Avion points to British Airways Executive Club and other frequent flyer programs for premium flights†
- Redeem Avion points for flights with the RBC Air Travel Redemption Schedule†
- Minimum income: $60,000 personal or $100,000 household
- Annual fee: $120†
- Supplementary card fee: $50
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The problem with the conversion calculation that RBC did is that they compared arguably the worst use of HSBC points (flexible travel or statement credit at 0.5c) rather than looking at airline points, or the earn ratio.
Buying travel through Avion is — and tbh I’m guessing here — not going to be equivalent since — again guessing — they likely will not have the cheapest airline tickets, car rentals, etc. And I believe there is something about not using points for “fees/taxes”. So if the points only cover (say) 75% of the ticket, and the ticket price is 25% higher than open market, then the actual value is about 67% of nominal (.75 * 1/1.25).
Again, the fact that RBC did not disclose this ahead of time to let people choose is the big problem here, for me.
I have a written statement from an rbc rep that suggested hsbc customers would get the bonus points when being transitioned over to rbc. I’ll give it a few weeks and then are it (when I’m sure the bonus points aren’t added).
Would you be able to share that written statement? Thanks.
I’m not sure if this will work….
l’m currently with HSBC and
received notification that l’Il be
migrating to this credit card with
RBC as part of the takeover. Will L
receive this points bonus since ‘l
be a new RBC client? l’ve never
had an RBC avion card before.
3h
Like
Reply
1
RBC
Hi Dave
As mentioned,
your package will be arriving
shortly outlining your current
products with HSBC, and the
ones you will be migrated to
here at RBC. So it would be
similar to the Apple Watch
promotion, if you don’t
currently have a credit card
with RBC, then you would be
eligible.- Sara-Lynn
Hey David, who did you email at RBC to get this reply? I’m new to the RBC as well
Thank you David for sharing this.
I am in the same boat, never have any product with RBC. I will follow up with RBC credit card regarding the welcome bonus
All along I have been getting conflicting information. I had also a chat with RBC csr saying that there’s no welcome bonus points. The only thing I was assured was that the first year fee will be waived off. Don’t know what’s true and what’s not
So we don’t get welcome bonus points 35000k for new card holder’s transition from HSBC and another 20000k when spending 5k during the first three months?
That is correct. No new sign up bonus
I vaguely remember a politician using a wording along the lines of ‘customers would get the same deal or better – no negative impact.’
Yet my conversion is worse – and I no longer get six points per dollar spent on travel (or the equivalent).
I’ve talked to a few people with long relationships with HSBC that feel the same way. I guess it’s par for the course in this country that anything goes, but it’s still disappointing.
Well, HSBC’s points have always be valued at 0.5¢ per point (vs RBC Avion at 1¢ minimum), and to convert it out to another airlines, i.e. British Airways (BA) avios, the conversion ratio is 25,000 to 10,000. While RBC Avions can be transferred out to BA Avios at the ratio of 1:1 and sometimes 1:1.3. So this is not apple to orange comparison; earning 6 points with HSBC is not the same as 6 points with RBC. The conversion ratio isn’t too bad
RBC should let former HSBC card holder making their own decision if they would like to spend their HSBC Rewards or convert to Avion, if RBC disclosed the conversion rate two months ago, then we could make our own decision. The way they treated to HSBC Card holder is unfair.
Absolutely correct, the suspense screwed me over. I thought the conversion would be at 0.5 at least. The travel points alone is 6x with HSBC it’s worth more than RBC. The only reason I had to opt in for RBC bcuz I have travel arrangements booked via HSBC WE MC to cover the insurance coverage and the zero forex fee otherwise I would have redemption for cash or converted to asia miles instead.
With respect- $5000 travel spend got me 30,000 HSBC points, which converted to 12,000 Avios points….. That $5000 travel spend with my new RBC card (correct me if I’m wrong) gets me 1 point per dollar spend or 5000 Avion. Even with a boost on converting to Avios, I’m still way behind. That was not the deal they promised the gov’t or their customers. They’ve taken a terrific HSBC travel card, and made it a slightly above average travel card.
And as somebody who only used the HSBC card to get Avion points – a .36 conversion makes me worse off. Not much – fine – but again, that wasn’t the deal.
I understand that HSBC World elite mastercard gave 6 points per $1 spend in travel, but not all forms of spending though. It was only 2 points per $1 spend in non categories spending. Good multiplier is a great feature of this HSBC card. As different cards have different advantageous multipliers, it may not be a fair apple-to-apple comparison. Travel Earning rate, 100% it is better with HSBC World Elite Mastercard. But when comes to purely on points comparison after conversion, it is not too terrible.
And their communication has been garbage – I believe there was an article on here (again I could be wrong), as well as another prominent travel points website that talked about a minimum of .5 on the conversion of HSBC point. I’m presuming somebody at RBC had passed along that info, and/or certainly could have corrected that info if it was bad. But they didn’t. So to wake up this morning with a .36, was a bit of a shock.
I concur with you somebody did mentioned that per RBC avion ponies will be in 0.5 ratio or better
It is unclear to me why HSBC metal customers got a lower conversion ratio.
Because they (apparently) do not want those customers.
Personally I’m ticked off. It is a worse conversion rate than expected, and I certainly would have made different choices had I known what the rate would have been.
I knew there was some risk, and took the chance (transferred out half my points before but kept half). Still it is not a good start. I plan to transfer significant deposits away from RBC because of this, and the credit card will no longer be my “main” card.
Really shocked at the conversion rate difference considering that HSBC WE and Metal were functionally equivalent from an earning perspective so the points should be equivalent when converting.
I’ll note for reference that I was holding the HSBC Metal Mastercard with the annual fee waived. I’ve been transitioned to the RBC Avion VIP with the full annual fee waived (no end date specified) even though typically they only waive up to $120 of the annual fee. Earn rate is 1.25 points on every dollar, no FX fees, they carried over my unused $200 travel credit and added another $200 but this is only for the first year. Oddly, the card includes a dedicated Travel Concierge (separate from the VIP Concierge) but travel booked through the TC is not eligible for the travel credit – only travel made through Avion Reward Travel online portal.