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

Guessing your post is in review by a Moderator but waiting to read it.

I'm not sure what's going on with the original post, but I'm working to solve the issue.

chgoeditor
co-moderator, Info Desk

Welcome to FT,

Now that the post is remedied people can help. Congrats on the nuptials.

Firstly, when are you planning your honeymoon for?

I am not well versed in the Avion reward program, and others will be along to provide more informed comments, but from what I have read the rewards do not include taxes & fees. Those fees especially have grown over the past several years to become larger and more prolific in the industry. Some airlines have higher fees and some include what the fees cover into the ticket price. When dealing with BA you'll find those fees to be on the higher end. With premium class flights departing from England you'll find an additional fee.

When it comes to searching you should also look out of SEA.

Welcome to FT! RBC spells out quite clearly in the program terms that taxes, fees, and surcharges are the responsibility of the traveler. RBC does not set these exorbitant amounts you’re seeing, nor do governments... it’s mostly the airlines. More and more, airlines are choosing to break out a fuel surcharge separately from the base fare. So instead of an $800 base fare, they might have a $250 base fare and a $550 fuel surcharge. Both ultimately total $800 but the distinction matters with the Avion program - they’d effectively cover the entire thing if airlines priced the ticket the first way, but they’ll only cover the $250 when the airlines price the ticket the second way.

If you want to book with Avion points, all you can do is look for airlines that don’t break out the fuel surcharge separately, so that RBC will cover more of the cost. I don’t know which airlines do and which don’t, or if there are even any left that don’t. The upshot of booking this way is that you can book any flight you want... you don’t need to worry about award availability which is often capacity controlled, especially to popular destinations at popular times. You should be able to book business class and simply pay the amount beyond the $ limit for the award.

If you opt to transfer the points to Avios, be aware that you may not be escaping fuel surcharges. Before you transfer, register an account at ba.com to search for award travel and see 1) if availability even exists, 2) how many Avios are required, and 3) how bad the taxes and fees are.

I’m not familiar with WestJet’s program so cannot offer advice there.

Additionally, have you flown International Business or First class before? While F is quite an experience a J (Business class) experience isn't anything to laugh at, even if it's BA's lackluster J Seat. Many airlines only operate up to a J cabin as their premium service these days where you get a lot of the premium experience. Premium check-in, sometimes express security/immigration, lounge access and generally attentive service aboard with upgraded food & drink.

With SPG you can transfer the points to number airlines for reward travel. Upside to this is you could get one reward ticket, if available, via the airline program and then use your Avion points to purchase a revenue ticket on the same flight. https://upgradedpoints.com/spg-starp...rline-Partners

I'd try looking for flights departing Seattle instead of Vancouver, and on a US airline, and see how those price out. US carriers don't generally charge separate fuel surcharges.

Correct.

I've booked a lot of tickets (10+) with RBC Avion points on US carriers.

You are not going to escape paying for the taxes, surcharges, and fees because those are hard costs that the airline has to pass on to someone else. They already have the empty seat........so that can be redeemed for points. You want to go to Greece. So, all those European airports are very fee intensive, for example, before the advertising rules changed, tickets to LHR (London UK) used to be $400 round trip, but the small print for fees, taxes, surcharges, etc, added ***another*** $400 to the ticket price. Ouch !!

Now, having said that, the last Avion flight I booked thru RBC Avion (which used Carlsson Wagonlit Travel at the time) allowed me to pay these charges with points as well. If that has changed I can't say as it was 3 years ago when I last ran up my points account on Avion and redeemed the ticket I am walking about. Today all my spending is on AMEX, but, the same rules apply with them also.

I know the booklet they send you is wordy, in very small print, and contains lots of pages, but you really should have read it, as this is a very clearly stated condition of the program. That may not help you, but it is not Avion's fault, sorry to say, although their customer facing marketing campaign could have been a little clearer too.

You have still saved a lot on airfare with the points, and that is a good thing.

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Taxes, sure. Fuel surcharges? Never had that happen to me with a US carrier.

On an AA award (using AA ff miles) AA charges the BA surcharge if on BA flights

Then you either haven't flown in years or have simply not noticed. Go to ITA Matrix and search for any TATL itinerary, on any of the US legacy carriers. I bet you won't find a single one without YR/YQ.

OP is looking for cash fares that don't have a fuel surcharge, since that's what Avion will book.

While OP should certainly have read the fine print a bit better, this rather unfriendly award scheme is purely RBC's choice. RBC is booking a paid ticket with the airline. The airline is getting paid for the fare, not just for the fuel surcharges. Perhaps at a bulk/discounted rate, perhaps not, depending on what sort of access they have to book bulk/consolidator or other negotiated fares. RBC already caps the total dollar value of the award. They could easily cover the fuel surcharges if they wanted to. Their completely arbitrary decision not to only serves to make redemptions that don't max out the dollar limit incredibly poor value.

One wonders if they removed the ability to pay for the taxes, surcharges, and fees with points, which is what I did on the tickets I bought when I emptied out my RBC Avion account 3 years ago. This could be one of the other reasons why the OP feels mislead.

The agent at Carlsson Wagonlit offered me this option when I made my reservation, as I had some 300K points in my account I was trying to burn. Perhaps her points total was too close to the bar to do so, therefore the subject never came up.

I do hope the OP is acquiring these tickets on a carrier in which she has a frequent flier membership so she can collect FF miles as YVR - ATH is a pretty good accumulation round trip, assuming ATH is the final destination.

$600 per person?! That's crazy! Last time I used my Avion points was about 7yrs ago to go to Germany and the charges was minimal, I couldn't quite remember it but maybe around $200 or so? Flew AC YYZ-MUC-TXL (didn't take TXL) and TXL-MUC-YYZ. Best thing was I got 100% Aeroplan Points.

I've been trying to rack up my Avion points to be used in about 2 yrs, got screwed late last year from my Esso Points to RBC Rewards, didn't know they severed ties! Now that my Aeroplan points will need to be used before it ends in 2020.

OP let us know if you're able to get a J or F ticket with the points, I'm curious...

Edit: It seems that you wont get any points anymore when you book with Avion points!
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cred...l#post29305011

Here's the fee breakdown for a Delta metal award round trip to CDG originating in the USA.

No YQ or YR on that award ticket. So what do I win?