How To Turn Your Canadian Bank Points Into Loyalty Program Points

We often tell our readers, friends, and family that “not all points are created equal.” Many people fall into the trap of redeeming their hard-earned points directly through their bank’s travel portal for a fixed value assigned by the rewards program. I’ll be the first to admit that I was doing this at the beginning of my points and miles journey. While this approach is straightforward, it completely misses out on the massive upside potential of credit card rewards.

The real magic happens when you earn and leverage transferable points. By converting (certain) bank points into frequent flyer miles or hotel loyalty points, you open the door to outsized value, allowing you to book luxury business and first-class flights or high-end hotel stays that would otherwise cost thousands of dollars out of pocket. 

In this guide, we will break down how the Canadian credit card ecosystem operates regarding transferable points and walk you through exactly how to execute these transfers.

The Impressive Value That Transferrable Bank Points Offer

The single biggest advantage of holding transferable bank points is flexibility. 

When you earn points tied to a specific airline or hotel chain, you are locked into their specific ecosystem. If that airline devalues its award chart, introduces dynamic pricing, or lacks award availability for your desired route, your points lose significant utility. 

Likewise, if you earn a non-transferrable bank points currency, such as Scene+ points, you are locked into a fixed value when you redeem them through their travel portal or credit them against a travel purchase. While this can still offer excellent value, it does reduce utility slightly when compared against transferrable bank points.

Transferable points act as a hedge against devaluations. You can keep your points safely parked in your bank loyalty account until you find the exact award space you need, and only then initiate the transfer. 

Transferable points also allow you to “shop around” between different frequent flyer programs to find the best deal and redemption value for your points. A flight that costs 100,000 miles with one program might cost 60,000 miles with another, or one program may charge significantly lower taxes and fees on an award flight booking. Bank programs also occasionally offer transfer bonuses to different loyalty programs, allowing you to multiply the number of points you transfer out of your account. 

Here’s the kicker: in Canada, we only have 2 bank loyalty programs that offer transferable points: American Express Membership Rewards and RBC Avion Rewards.

Transferring RBC Avion Points to Frequent Flyer Programs

Avion points are one of the oldest bank rewards currencies in Canada. What is more impressive is that it continues to be one of the strongest programs available to Canadians, despite the increase in competition as of late. This is definitely a result of how accessible the program is, particularly via popular credit cards, including the RBC Avion Visa Infinite Card.

Avion points can be transferred to four main frequent flyer programs:

The two standout programs among this list would be British Airways Avios, as holding Avios points can open up even more possibilities when you transfer Avios points between the different Avios program partner programs and oneworld alliance partner airlines, and Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, as they are still one of the only frequent flyer programs that still utilize a fixed award chart for flight redemptions.

Transferring Avion points to American Airlines AAdvantage can open up some unique redemption opportunities, such as booking Etihad Airways First Class Apartments, even with the lower transfer ratio. Even better, the taxes and fees on partner award bookings made via American Airlines AAdvantage are dirt cheap, going as low as $5 USD per ticket.

In terms of less-than-ideal programs, we wouldn’t recommend transferring to WestJet Rewards, as you are capped at a fixed 1 cent per point redemption value due to the program’s structure. If you are keen on WestJet Rewards, you are better off with getting the WestJet RBC World Elite Mastercard instead. 

Check out our guide on which Avion transfer partner offers the best bang-for-your-buck to learn more about maximizing your Avion points! 

And yes, you aren’t mistaken, you can also transfer Avion points to Canadian Tire Triangle Rewards… to each their own (I guess?), but we do not recommend it as your value is much better transferring to a travel partner or even redeeming your Avion points via the Air Travel Redemption Schedule. 

How to Transfer Avion Points to Partner Frequent Flyer Programs

Start by logging into your RBC account as you would for normal day-to-day banking. Scroll down to your credit cards, and under your listed Avion credit card, you will want to click the “Avion Rewards” button.

This takes you to the Avion Rewards portal. Here, you’ll see what special offers and redemption bonuses are available at the moment. You’ll also see any transfer bonuses that are available with certain transfer partners. To access RBC’s transfer partners, you will click “Redeem” in the top menu bar.

Once on the Redeem page, scroll down until you see the “Transfer Points” heading. You will have the option to click transfer between linked Avion Rewards accounts or convert Avion points to another program.

After clicking “convert to another program,” you will see the list of transfer partners available to you. Because of how strong the Avios program is, I want to convert my RBC Avion Rewards points to British Airways Avios.

Once you click on your desired transfer partner, a window will open to ask you how many points you want to transfer. Different programs will have a different minimum amount to transfer. 

In the case of British Airways Avios, there is a minimum transfer amount of 10,000 points and a maximum of 999,999 points. It will calculate how many points you will get on the other end of the transfer.

RBC Avion transfers 1:1 to British Airways Avios as of the time of writing this article, but there are often transfer bonuses of up to 30% extra points. Check out our Miles & Points Transfer Partner Tool for up-to-date transfer ratios for all major programs in Canada and the US! 

Example Redemptions From Transferring Avion Points

I think transferring to British Airways Avios is likely the strongest use of RBC Avion Rewards points, and this is the loyalty program where I typically end up transferring my Avion points to.

However, I would not recommend using it for British Airways flights as redemptions are notorious for high fees and surcharges. Instead, you should look to book with their oneworld partner airlines, such as Japan Airlines, or other Avios programs such as Qatar Airways and Aer Lingus. 

A few top redemptions that our Frugal Flyer Team has made in the past by transferring RBC Avion points to Avios include: 

Transferring Membership Rewards Points to Frequent Flyer & Hotel Loyalty Programs

American Express Membership Rewards is the strongest bank rewards program that we have available in Canada due to the strong earning rates on their cards, such as the American Express Cobalt Card, and strong loyalty program transfer partners.

Not only can you transfer American Express Membership Rewards (MR) points to airline loyalty programs, but you can also transfer to hotel loyalty programs, including the following programs:

The strongest transfer partners available to American Express Membership Rewards Canada are Air Canada Aeroplan, Air France KLM Flying Blue, and, once again, British Airways Avios. We’ve talked about the strength of Avios when we went over RBC Avion, so we won’t dive into that again. However, let’s talk about Aeroplan and Flying Blue. 

Air Canada Aeroplan is the strongest frequent flyer program for Canadians as it serves the most airports and offers the most routes. It also offers access to its Star Alliance partners, expanding the network of possibilities even more. Unlike programs that pass on massive carrier surcharges, Aeroplan completely eliminates fuel surcharges on partner bookings, charging only a flat $39 CAD partner booking fee. 

This allows you to book ultra-premium cabins, like EVA Air Business Class to Asia or Lufthansa Business Class to Europe, for a predictable number of points and minimal out-of-pocket cash. 

Additionally, Aeroplan permits you to add a stopover to a one-way international itinerary for just an extra 5,000 points, allowing you to easily build multi-city vacations into a single award ticket. Unfortunately, Amex has never offered a transfer bonus to Aeroplan, probably because of the significant number of people who choose to use it as their main transfer partner. 

Flying Blue has moved itself into a leader in the Canadian points and miles space now that Membership Rewards transfers 1:1 (from the previous 1:0.75 rate). The program offers great redemptions between North America and Europe, starting at just 25,000 miles one-way in economy and 60,000 miles one-way in business class. 

This pricing becomes unbeatable when paired with Flying Blue’s Monthly Promo Rewards, which offer a 25% discount on different routes each month. Additionally, the Flying Blue program allows free unlimited stopovers, allowing you to see multiple places on one redemption. 

You’ll notice that you can also transfer to two hotel programs: Marriott Bonvoy and Hilton Honors. We typically advise against transferring to these programs because the value you can get is much lower compared to airline partners. However, if you are a few thousand points short of an amazing redemption, there is a case to be made to transfer a small chunk out to make it happen! 

How to Transfer American Express Membership Rewards Points to Partner Loyalty Programs

Start by logging into your American Express account like you usually would to pay your balance or look at your statements. From there, click on the “View and Redeem Points” button right under your Membership Rewards balance.

From there, you want to click the “Use Points” dropdown menu to look at your redemption options. Click “Transfer Points” to get access to the full list of transfer partners.

Once here, you will see the available transfer partners. You will also see the minimum amount of points needed to redeem and the redemption rate. If there are any transfer bonuses going on, you will see them reflected on this page. The minimum amount of points to transfer is 1,000 for all programs.

Click on your desired program. My most transferred program is Air Canada Aeroplan, so let’s click that. You’ll notice at the bottom that my Aeroplan account is already linked to my Membership Rewards account. If this is your first time redeeming with a program, you will have to follow the instructions to link your accounts in order to facilitate the transfer.

It’s that simple! Check out our full guide on American Express Canada Transfer Partners to learn more about each specific transfer partner available.

Example Redemptions From Transferring Membership Rewards Points

My personal favourite redemption was transferring my Membership Rewards to Air Canada Aeroplan for a Signature Class flight to Greece for 77,000 points. This has a special place in my heart because it’s the first time my partner ever flew business class.

Holding Aeroplan points opens up all of the carriers that are part of the Star Alliance, meaning there are endless great partner airline redemptions to be had.

Another great redemption is through Flying Blue. One of our team members just redeemed for a KLM Business Class flight in their 787-10 Dreamliner and had an amazing time for only 60,000 Flying Blue miles.

Taken together, you can see that you can get outsized value from transferring American Express Membership Rewards points to frequent flyer programs! 

Conclusion

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to bank rewards points, and ultimately, earning transferable bank points is the best way to make the most of our daily spend. 

This is why we recommend that everyone in the points and miles space prioritize earning transferable points currencies, like RBC Avion and American Express Membership Rewards. It beats being locked into one program or one fixed value, granting yourself unlimited flexibility and possibilities. 

If you really want to open up the possibilities that transferable bank points can offer, check out our guide on how to get US credit cards, as our Southern neighbours have us beat by miles (I hope you laughed at this pun).