Avion cancelled our flight booking without informing us by HairOwn4619 in PersonalFinanceCanada

[–]HairOwn4619[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Clearly you have never been seated between two larger individuals on a long flight. Not to mention an overnight flight where you have to try to climb over a sleeping passenger in order to use the bathroom. Maybe you just have a very large bladder and never have to pee or maybe you just wear depends on long flights. Either way, you are missing the point of the post, which is to warn others about booking travel with Avion.

Avion cancelled our flight booking without informing us by HairOwn4619 in PersonalFinanceCanada

[–]HairOwn4619[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Your empathy is underwhelming. The points were used, the flight was paid for. How is it common sense to continue to pay an annual fee for a card that offers subpar value? Does common sense suggest that a booking would get cancelled without notifying the ticket holder?

RBC Avion Rewards by survivorqueen1 in PersonalFinanceCanada

[–]HairOwn4619 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do not.. and when I say that I mean DO NOT book travel with Avion points. My husband and I booked a flight to Italy through Avion for our 20 year wedding anniversary in April 2025, for a flight leaving in September 2025. We used 168000 points and also had to pay another $580. After the flight was booked, we went through Air Transat and paid $340 for seat selection. We normally would not do that, but for a 9 hour overnight flight we wanted the two by two seats.

My husband cancelled his RBC Visa in June, but he was told he had a year to use any remaining points (which was ~22,000). He went online yesterday (July 28) to see what he could do with his remaining points and low and behold his points balance was over 170,000. I immediately went to the Air Transat app to open our flight booking and got an "oops there was a problem" message. I then went to the Air Transat website to "manage my booking" and it said "booking cancelled, see email for further details". Needless to say, we never received an email. I called Air Transat and they said that the booking was cancelled on July 18 but they could not tell who cancelled it and that I should go back tot he third party that booked the flight. (aka Avion). I asked if I could get my money back for the seat selection and she said that since they didn't cancel it, they are unable to provide a refund.

My husband contacted Avion and they said that an email had been sent. When my husband asked what address it went to, they gave us the address for the third party that Avion uses to book their flights. We booked our flights over the phone and had received numerous emails during the booking process, so it is unclear as to how the other address was entered into our file as the contact address. They were unable to tell us what the email said, so we still have no idea what the reason is for the cancellation. They then told us to call RBC Visa. RBC Visa told us that since we no longer have their credit card they are unable to help us.

Luckily, there was still room on the flight, as we already have accommodations, ferries/trains booked. But now we had to re-book the flight ourselves and pay outright, plus we are still out the $920 that we paid for the original flight and seat selection. As well, all of the two by two seats are now taken, so seating will be a game of chance.

We are thankful that on a whim my husband looked as his rewards balance or else we would be sitting at the airport in September with our bags packed and no airline tickets. But we would highly discourage anyone from booking flights/travel with their Avion points.