The power to fly any airline, any time.

nationalpost.com
NATIONAL POST, SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 2013
WP9
ESCAPES
A JOINT VENTURE WITH RBC AVION
With 15,000 RBC Rewards points imagine where you could fly .
†
®
Welcome winter getaway
W
ith all the demands
on our money these
days, the idea of simply
jumping on a plane to
take that last-minute vacation or pay
for a flight to attend a friend’s wedding can be a financial challenge.
The rising expense of travelling
has made vacation planning difficult
for many — and for some, cost prohibitive. Savvy Canadians, however,
are leveraging their everyday spending to earn travel rewards to make
travelling possible and much more
affordable.
That’s precisely what Michelle
Misener did this past February,
when the Toronto-based chartered
accountant used the RBC Rewards
points earned from her RBC Avion
credit card to fly free to the British
Columbia resort towns of Revelstoke
and Kicking Horse on a skiing trip
with a group of her friends.
The 26-year-old was surprised
and delighted with just how easy and
hassle-free it was to use her points
to book the flight. “My friends were
booking without using points so I
was worried that I wouldn’t be able
to get on the same flight as them, but
I logged on the RBC Rewards website
at the same time and booked the exact same flights while they were doing it through the airline’s website.”
Through that booking process, Ms.
Misener learned first-hand one of the
key benefits of the RBC Avion card:
If there’s a seat available on the flight
you want, you can get it. That’s not the
case for some other airline rewards
programs, which have only a limited
number of seats reserved for reward
travel. The RBC Rewards program
doesn’t limit seat availability. Ever.
She may have been able to take the
trip without using reward points, but
it would have been a financial hardship for her, she says. “I went on a lot
of trips last year. So I probably would
not have been able to afford it without points,” explains Ms. Misener. “I
had a friend get married last year in
St. Lucia — that was really expensive
— and I also went to Europe last year,
so it was an expensive year.”
Having only held the card for just
over a year, Ms. Misener was able to
rack up the 35,000 points required
for her winter jaunt by putting the
majority of her personal and work-
Michelle Misener parlayed her RBC Avion rewards points into a winter trip to British Columbia with friends.
related spending on her card. Plenty
of business travel over the prior year
was a major reason she was able to
pile up points so quickly, she says.
Before, she would have paid with
debit for for travel expenses such as
rooms, meals and entertainment,
“but because you get more points
for travel-related purchases I pay for
any of those purchases on my credit
card.”
The organized accountant also
has a number of automatic payments
coming from her credit card, which
makes tracking her spending easy
while adding to her rewards accumulation. She has also changed her dayto-day spending habits. “I find that
I’m putting a lot more on my card to
rack up points, instead of using my
debit card, and just paying off the
monthly balance.”
The travel points added up quickly and provided her with a much
more tangible reward, and lasting
memories, than the previous loyalty
points program she utilized.
“Previously I had a cash-back
card,” she says. “It is not as nice to
spend your money all year and just
get a reduction on your credit card
bill. It doesn’t feel like as much of a
reward at the end of the year when
you just get cash applied to your
credit card balance.”
Providing Canadians with the ability to join friends for an impromptu
winter vacation — or adding to the
travel budget at other times of the
year — is a major factor behind the
rapid growth of RBC Avion.
“Points have become an extension
of consumers’ purchasing power in
terms of helping offset costs, particularly for travel, and that can certainly
be a large expense,” says Donna LueAtkinson, vice-president of Global
Loyalty Programs and Rewards at
RBC. “We are seeing growth in the
collection of points among Canadians, who are more and more becoming aware that points are quite valuable,” she adds.
The proliferation of points programs has prompted RBC to continually add value and features to its rewards offering. “Our aim is to deliver
the best value to our members and to
ensure that when they use their points
they have the best possible experience
” she says. With all that competition
for Canadians’ loyalty, reward programs have had to move away from
a one-size-fits-all approach. RBC Rewards was one of the first to make customer choice a priority and now offers
an expansive array of rewards.
“Each consumer is unique in
terms of how they want to construct
the perfect vacation,” says Ms. LueAtkinson. “Loyalty programs must be
as flexible as possible to allow members, our clients, to construct their
perfect travel plans.”
The RBC executive has overseen
the financial services company’s expansion of its RBC Rewards program
to make it arguably the most flexible
and customizable such program in the
country. “Through our strategic partnership with Travelocity it has become
a destination where our members can
research, plan and redeem their points
for travel,” she says.
“They can redeem for flights on
any airline, have tens of thousands
of hotel choices as well as a variety
of options for car rentals, vacation
packages and cruises. That opens up
a world of opportunity in terms of
how a member might want to construct their travel plans and ultimately use their points to create their
own unique escape.”
Postmedia
Avioners can do that.
®
The power to fly
The power to
flyairline, any time.
any
any airline, any time.
With points that don’t expire , the RBC Visa Infinite Avion
card gives you the power to fly with any airline on any flight,
whenever you want . That means no blackout periods or
seat restrictions – even during holidays and peak seasons .
Plus, you’ll earn 1 RBC Rewards point for every dollar in
purchases . That’s the power of being an Avioner .
^
‡
®
®
~
~
®
*
®
Receive 15,000 welcome points upon enrolment .
†
Plus receive the chance to WIN 1 of 10 trips
worth $10,000 in the Avion Power to Fly Contest.
**
Apply
A
Ap
ply
l today
tod
day att rbc.com/avion
rb
bc com//avion
i
or call 1-800-769-2511.
TM
® / Trademark(s) of Royal Bank of Canada. RBC and Royal Bank are registered trademarks of Royal Bank of Canada. ‡ All other trademarks are the property of their respective owner(s). ^RBC Rewards points will be cancelled if they remain unredeemed within ninety (90) days after the termination of the
RBC Rewards program or after you voluntarily close your RBC Royal Bank credit card account. ~ Subject to availability. *RBC Rewards points are earned on net purchases only; they are not earned on cash advances (including RBC Royal Bank credit card cheques, balance transfers, cash-like transactions
and bill payments that are not pre-authorized charges that you set up with a merchant), interest charges or fees, and credits for returns and adjustments will reduce or cancel the points earned by the amounts originally charged. †To receive the 15,000 bonus RBC Rewards points which will appear on your
first statement, your application form must be received by June 30, 2013 and approved by us. Additional cardholders, as well as cardholder(s) with existing RBC Royal Bank travel rewards credit cards, applying for or transferring to an RBC Visa Infinite Avion card as of the offer eligibility period, are not
eligible for this offer. This offer may not be combined or used in conjunction with another offer. For complete terms, conditions and restrictions that apply to the RBC Rewards program, visit: www.rbcrewards.com or call 1-800-769-2512. ** No purchase necessary. Contest starts April 8, 2013 and ends
May 31, 2013. Skill-testing question required. For complete contest rules, visit www.rbc.com/avion
TM