Pointsmaxxing
Type: Personal Status: In Progress Deadline: Ongoing (welcome bonus milestones tracked separately) Created: 2026-06-22
What is this?
Personal credit-card rewards optimization project. Tracks points earned across loyalty programs, welcome bonus milestone progress, and high-value redemption opportunities. Starting focus: RBC Avion Visa Infinite (incoming) and its transfer-partner ecosystem.
Motivation
Credit card welcome bonuses and transfer-partner sweet spots can produce outsized value (1.5–2¢+ per point on Avios short-haul redemptions vs 1¢ baseline). Worth treating as a tracked optimization problem rather than ad-hoc points-collecting.
What does success look like?
- Hit all welcome bonus milestones on every card pursued (no leaving points on the table)
- Maintain a current view of point balances across programs
- Make at least one redemption per year at ≥1.5¢/point value via transfer partners
- Understand which categories of spend should hit which card (no leaking earn rate)
Resources Needed
- ~$120 annual fee for RBC Avion VI (first card)
- $5,000 spend within 6 months of approval to unlock 20k bonus tier
- Time to research Avios sweet spots, set up loyalty accounts, link transfers
- Spreadsheet or note in
assets/to track points balances + spend toward milestones
Active cards & programs
- RBC Avion Visa Infinite — applying now. Welcome: up to 70k Avion pts. Earn: 1.25x travel, 1x other. Transfer partners: BA Avios, AA AAdvantage, WestJet Rewards, Cathay Asia Miles.
Notes
- Welcome bonus offer ends Jul 15, 2026 — must apply by then
- 100 Avion pts = $1 baseline; transfer-partner redemptions can exceed this
- See
decisions/001-rbc-avion-as-first-card.mdfor card selection reasoning