Converting RBC Infinite Avion Points: Hello folks, hoping to hear feedback from anyone that may have converted their Avion points.Currently Avion will allow you to convert to westjet dollars, british airways Avios, or Asia Miles with Cathay. I have no immediate travel plans but would like to head on over to East Africa OR South East Asia at some point. Looking for tips from anyone that has converted and had great results. Currently british airways is offering 1.5 x points to convert to "Avios" for a limited time but wondering what advantages/disadvantages are in terms of availability and restrictions. Any advice would be greatly appreciated thx!

I've converted Avion to Avios during the 1.5x promo and used the Avios points to fly Cathay or JAL to Singapore. That worked great but it was several years ago so I'm not sure how easy it would be nowadays. I do remember looking for the awards seats several months in advance as there are limited seats available on each flight. At least there are at least 2 airlines in the OneWorld alliance that fly from YVR to SE Asia so that increases your chances.

You need to book a year in advance with Avios points and limited seating. Keep your Avion points and go where you want when you want.

Just booked Avion to Avios to go from YVR to LHR on the 1.5 promo for May 2016. It appears all the premium and 1st class seats go as soon as the day to book is available. It also seems like there's only ever 4 seats available for economy on points (or maybe that's a coincidence, but we kept lookng each day it opened up and it was always offered as 4 available). the Economy seats went quickly, within a few days of it being available. Instead of booking a round trip and risk losing out on a chance of booking on points we booked 2 one ways, the outbound from YVR as one, and then as soon as the date for the return was available we booked that.

We also did a comparison of the same flight using aeroplan vs. Avion vs. Avios vs.American Express. To fly to Europe, Avios was the best use of points b/c it used the least amount..

I have a bunch of Avion points too and was considering converting to Avios but once I looked into it and found you have to book flights a year in advance etc. it seemed too restrictive so I decided to just keep my Avion points. Avion points can be used for pretty much any economy flight, any time... no restrictions and easy to use.

Thank you all for the feedback. I had a sneaking suspicion that there'd be more difficulty and restrictions converting points. I'm very sporadic and would likely want to book flights a month or so in advance. Looks like keeping avion points is where it's at

I always try and convert some points to BA when the 1.5 deal is offered. BA points can also be used on Cathay etc. We like business class, so for us it works well.

I find Avion the most flexible too unless you really can plan a year in advance

Be careful you can't convert back to Avions if you are not happy after the conversion. I lost the unused Avios points after a few years not sure why.

do avion points ever expire?

Not mine....but maybe I use them before they ever get close

I just checked... good news is avion points do not expire

For international, convert to American Aadvantage. Then you can book on any one world airline with lowest taxes and fees. American, us airways, Alaska air, cathay pacific, japan airlines, etihad air. Lots of choices. Best availability. You can go to aa.com and checkout availability. Just go to find flights and check off redeem points. Most of the info is available online. Some partners require calling in.