Hi everyone! I’m Richelle and I live in Vancouver, Canada.

So, I got married this year and decided to put all our purchases on my visa Avion card so we can have a trip to Europe for our honeymoon. I currently have 160,000 Avion points. After our wedding there was a huge Starwood promotion so we got those as well and have about 60,000 Starwood points.

When I went to book the flights on my Avion, EVERY SINGLE FLIGHT now has taxes and fees of 600+ per person. I booked using these points years ago and this wasn’t a problem at all. I looked online and a few people were complaining this was a problem with Avion. [LEFT]
I know they can be switched to avios and WestJet dollars but the promotions to switch with bonuses just ended.

So I’ve been wondering if I can book a business class flight with my Avion and at least that way my 1300$ will go to the flight and I can use the extra points towards the rest of the trip. Otherwise i have to wait a few months for the next bonus to switch over and that is stressful! I like to plan ahead!

i thought about using my Starwood points for a first class flight but I saw a gorgeous category 7 hotel in Santorini called mystique! However, apparently it is a special category 7 and instead of 30,000 points per night it is 60,000. I don’t know if that’s the best use of my Starwood points!

is there anyway to combine these two points to get a first class flight?

does anyone know if there is a way to circumvent these crazy taxes out of Vancouver, BC?

does anyone have any suggestions on how to better use these points hopefully for a Europe trip to Rome, Santorini and milos?

Do I have to tell my lovely husband I made him collect all these points and pay these credit card fees for nothing?

thank you so much everybody for ANY help at all! In the future I’m just going to work extra hours and pay cash