RBC Avion and "return" trips
 

Just had a weird experience booking a trip with Avion points. Apparently, trips that don't end at the same city they started as are now redeemed at 1:1 instead of the regular redemption schedule. So I just added a final leg of my trip to connect the city I wanted to end up in to the city I started in (not planning to use this segment) and my redemption value dropped by some 16k points.

Seems wasteful and silly but it works fine. I just have to call the airline and let them know I won't need that last flight segment.

Hope this helps someone!

If u tell the airline that you won't be using that last segment, bad things could happen. Lots of threads discuss this; I'm out of my element discussing it any further.

any chance you can do the return trip with no checked bags?

Good point, I should call soon - the last flight segment is a few days after the last flight I needed so there shouldn't be anything weird about them thinking my bag was checked without me but you never know!

DON'T call.

Hah thanks! It seems I've opened a Pandora's box for 16k points..

Well, the're two aspects to this:

- from RBC's perspective, they've offered you a "better" redemption rate for a round-trip ticket with a stopover, as opposed to open-jaw.
- from the airline's perspective, they've offered RBC a different (perhaps better) fare for the round-trip ticket, as opposed to open-jaw. This is called hidden-city ticketing and is against most airline's policies. Since the throwaway segment is at the end of your ticket and is after a stopover at your intended destination, there's no risk to you with respect to this ticket. But, you don't want to mention this to the airline, naturally.

Exactly. If you have your bags with you, and it sounds like you will, then you're fine. If you instead have your luggage checked, explaining why you need your bags back will cost you.

Thanks guys - I'll have my carry on with me so it sounds like I'm in the clear! Still feel like I should call the airline the day before maybe to free up my seat, but I imagine this could cause all sorts of problems.

Freeing up your seat = altruistic & nice = Effectively rebooking your ticket for a higher fare and paying a change fee.

Thanks Jerry for pointing that out :)