Marriott RBC Provide: Earn 8x Avion Factors at Luxurious Marriott Properties

Similar to Amex Offers, RBC rolls out its own RBC Offers for holders of their suite of Avion co-branded credit cards. RBC Offers tend to get less attention than Amex due to the deals historically being less lucrative.

However, RBC is making a splash to start out 2023 with a great Marriott RBC Offer, in which cardholders can earn 8x the Avion points on the first $500 (CAD) spent across two transactions at participating Marriott Bonvoy luxury hotels. This offer expires May 31, 2023, and is very much worth your time to register and take advantage of.

Earn 8x Avion Points at Marriott Properties

Between February 1 and May 31, 2023, you can earn 8x the Avion points at Marriott’s luxury properties for the first two transactions throughout the eligibility period. The maximum cumulative amount spent to be eligible for 8x Avion earnings is $500 (CAD).

If your second eligible Marriott stay will bring your total spend under $500 (CAD) and you have a more expensive eligible stay coming up, consider using a different card for the second stay in order to hit the cap of $500 (CAD), therefore maximizing the 8x Avion points.

Note that this offer is targeted, so you’ll want to check your email to see if you’re eligible. If you are, click the link inside the email in order to register, which you must do before March 1, 2023. 

You can also login to your RBC Avion Rewards account and see if the offer shows up on your dashboard.

The 8x Avion offer only applies towards Marriott luxury brands in Canada, and you’ll only earn 8x points on the base rate of the room. The eligible brands for this offer include the following:

• W Hotels
• JW Marriott
• St. Regis
• The Ritz-Carlton

This Avion offer should be targeted towards all personal Avion co-branded credit cards, including the RBC Avion Visa Platinum, the RBC Avion Visa Infinite, and the RBC Avion Visa Infinite Privilege. Since the 8x elevated earnings don’t stack on top of the regular earning rate, you’ll actually be earning more bonus points using the lower-tier Avion Platinum card, since you’ll be effectively earning a bonus of 7x Avion points per dollar spent.

The full terms and conditions are as follows:

*This offer is not transferable. To take advantage of this offer, you must activate it by clicking the “Load Offer” button between February 1st and March 1st, 2023 and before booking a hotel room at www. marriott.com}. Once this offer has been activated, you will earn 8 times (8X) the Avion points you normally earn (“Bonus Points”) on the first $500 spent (across a maximum of two transactions during the Travel Period) when booking a hotel stay through www.marriott.com at select luxury hotels participating in Marriott Bonvoy in Canada (The Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, W Hotels or JW Marriott) (“for stays between February 1, 2023 and May 31, 2023, inclusively (“Travel Period”) using any personal RBC Avion Visa credit card [RBC Avion Visa Infinite Privilege, RBC Visa Infinite Avion, RBC Visa Platinum Avion, RBC Infinite Avion Privilege for Private Banking] (“Eligible RBC Credit Card”). Offer excludes Premium, Select and Longer Stay Brands and all other brands. Offer may not be combined or used in conjunction with any other offers, and cannot be applied retroactively to previous hotel stays. Cancellation policies and charges vary by Participating Hotels and will be confirmed at time of reservation. Offer excludes hotel stays booked through third party online retailers, wholesalers or Marriott’s worldwide telephone reservations. Some hotels may not be available on select dates. Advance hotel room booking of at least 24 hours prior to stay required. Other restrictions, terms and conditions may apply. Qualifying Purchase applies to the paid room amount only and exclude(s) all other charges, inclusive of charges paid separately during your stay with an Eligible RBC Credit Card. Charges not reflected on your reservation at the time of hotel room booking are excluded from Qualifying Purchases and Minimum Spend. Cancellations or price adjustments that reduce the price of your Qualifying Purchase may cancel your Avion Bonus Points. Avion Points may appear on the account statement tied to your Eligible RBC Credit Card up to 30 days from the time of Qualifying Purchase, provided your credit card account was in good standing at that time. Avion Points will not be applied as a payment towards the balance of your credit card account. Marriott International, Inc., not Royal Bank of Canada (“RBC”), is responsible for the terms and conditions applicable to your hotel room booking and stay, as well as your Qualifying Purchase. RBC reserves the right to cancel, modify or withdraw this offer at any time, even after you have activated it. Please visit rbc.com/offers. Opt-in is required to receive this offer.

Currently, Marriott Bonvoy is also offering members an additional 1,000 points and one additional elite night on all stays between February 7 and April 23, 2023 for its global promotion. This 8x Avion offer will stack on top of that, since the credit card used during the stay doesn’t affect eligibility for Marriott promotions.

The terms and conditions state that you must book online on the Marriott website. So, it doesn’t appear that you’ll be able to stack this RBC Offer with other currently available hotel promotions, such as Stay Vancouver, Visit Richmond, and Edmonton’s Best Hotels.

However, it’s certainly worth a shot, since you’ll wind up paying for your stay directly at the hotel when you book through any of the above programs. While this would only apply to stays at the JW Marriott Parq Vancouver or the JW Marriott Edmonton ICE District, you might wind up triple-stacking deals, which would certainly be a win.

Enhance Your Stay with Marriott STARS and Luminous

If you don’t have Marriott Bonvoy elite status, or even if you do but you wish to further elevate your stay, booking your stay with Prince of Travel through Marriott STARS or Marriott Luminous entitles you to additional benefits at no additional cost.

Participating hotels, including the St. Regis Toronto, The Ritz-Carlton Toronto, and The Ritz-Carlton Montreal, can be booked via Marriott STARS. Meanwhile, a wider range of properties, including JW Marriott and W Hotels, such as the W Montreal, W Toronto, and the JW Marriott Parq Vancouver, can be booked via Marriott Luminous.

The Marriott STARS or Luminous rates are the same as the best available flexible rate, which can be higher than prepaid rates, member rates, or corporate rates that you may also have access to.

In this case, you’ll want to weigh up the savings on those rates and how much you value the benefits of booking through STARS or Luminous. The bookings are made directly on Marriott’s website by your travel advisor, so as long as you use your RBC Avion card, you’ll be able to benefit from the 8x bonus.

RBC Offers Are Getting Better

Marriott Bonvoy releases co-branded credit cards with American Express here in Canada, and up until now, all of their promotions have been run in conjunction with Amex. The promotions usually offer a statement credit after hitting a spending threshold at specific hotels.

This is Marriott’s first collaboration with one of Canada’s other credit card issuers, marking a historic moment in the Canadian Miles & Points scene. With this first promotion, perhaps we can look forward to more Marriott collaborations with RBC going forward.

For anyone who’s concerned about Marriott’s relationship with Amex, that’s not likely to be jeopardized anytime soon, as Amex is the sole issuer of Marriott Bonvoy co-branded credit cards in Canada.

Moreover, RBC Offers as a whole have been improving in quality over the years, and a few of them are gathering more interest. As an example, RBC Avion Rewards is offering a “Buy One, Get One” promotion towards lift tickets at various ski resorts across Canada, including Blue Mountain, Mont Tremblant, Lake Louise, and more.

This offer is only valid on Fridays, but if you happen to be hitting the hills, this offers an excellent 50% off lift tickets.

Similarly, RBC Avion is also offering a complimentary “East Coast Après” on Fridays for Avion cardholders at Blue Mountain Resort, which is curated by chef Michael Smith. Registration is on a first-come, first-served basis, and the experience includes PEI oysters and hand-crafted cocktails.

It’s great to see RBC stepping up their game as we head into 2023, and by the end of the year, we hope to see RBC Offers become more competitive when compared to Amex Offers. However, it looks like RBC is heading more in the direction of promotions and complimentary experiences rather than statement credits, which is something Amex offers regularly.

Conclusion

RBC has released a targeted promotion for Avion cardholders, in which members can earn a total of 8x Avion points at select Canadian Marriott properties between February 1 and May 31, 2023. The elevated earning rate is for up to two transactions that total up to $500 (CAD). 

Check your email or login to your Avion account to see if you’ve been targeted, and keep in mind that registration is required before your first eligible stay. You have until March 31, 2023 to register, so be sure to do so before then if you have an upcoming Marriott stay.

RBC Offers have certainly started 2023 on a high note, with bonus points on Marriott stays, discounted ski passes, and free après ski experiences. Let’s hope this isn’t the last time we see something interesting from RBC, and hopefully the offers become even better going forward.