RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum rewards you with up to 2x Asia Miles for every dollar you spend on groceries, travel purchases, and even foreign currency conversions. Not only that, but you also get more points and free food deliveries by linking your card with Petro-Canada, Rexall, and DoorDash.
With an annual fee of $120, this credit card is the most worthy of its travel insurance coverage. Having this while travelling guarantees your newly-bought purchases, rented vehicles, expensive flights, and your and your family’s safety.
While the RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum is a great card for most, it lacks premium travel features that'll make you feel like a VIP when on the go. If these rewards aren't enough, you can get even more with American Express's Platinum Card, one of the best credit cards in Canada.
What Is The RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum?
The RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum is one of RBC's personal travel credit cards. The card is advertised by RBC as being the only credit card in Canada that lets you earn Asia Miles directly, and it's true (but there are other ways to earn Asia Miles indirectly, as I'll explain later in this post).
It has an annual fee of $120, and offers a generous welcome bonus of up to 15,000 Asia Miles in 2023. You can earn 1 Asia Mile on every $1 spent on local purchases and 1.25 Asia Miles on foreign currency conversion. Though if you want to double your rewards, you can go straight and buy Cathay Pacific travel purchases and earn 2x on Asia Miles.
For more rewards and promotions, the RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum has partnered with well-known companies such as Petro-Canada, Rexall, and DoorDash. Each allows you to earn Petro-Points and Avion Points or get free food deliveries for 12 months.
Using this credit card, you can also ensure your safety and protection since it has broad insurance coverage, including travel, emergency medical, car rentals, hotel burglaries, or your purchases.
Features Of RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum
#1 Earn A Welcome Bonus And Asia Miles Points
With a reasonable annual fee of $120, the RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum credit card gives you a welcome bonus of 15,000 Asia Miles upon card approval.
Valued at about 1.1¢ per mile, the welcome bonus is worth close to $165, which isn't impressive at all. For example, it pales in comparison to the Gold Card's 40,000 MR points welcome bonus, which is easily worth $600 to $1,200.
RBC used to offer an extra 25,000 Asia Miles bonus, amounting to a total bonus of 40,000 Asia Miles, but that offer ended on December 1, 2022.
#2 Asia Miles Rewards Flexibility
RBC has a lot to offer regarding travel rewards and flexibility. As an RBC Cathay Pacific Visa cardholder, you can benefit from its reward program if you prefer to book your flights on Asia Miles. There are three main ways to use this card effectively if you want to earn and redeem Asia Miles rewards:
- Earn 2x Asia Miles for every dollar spent on Cathay Pacific purchases online.
- Earn 1.25 Asia Miles for every dollar spent on foreign currency conversion.
- Earn 1 Asia Miles for every dollar spent on all other local purchases.
You can redeem these Asia Miles points for any of the following travel purchases on Cathay Pacific:
- Cathay Pacific or partner airline tickets.
- Holiday vacations.
- Exclusive offers and rewards on hotels, restaurants, and cafés.
- Discounts on health insurance and wellness plans.
- Worldwide lounge access.
- Extra baggage allowances and seats with extra legroom.
#3 Get A Complimentary Cathay Pacific Green Membership
Primary cardholders of the RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum receive a complimentary Green Membership in the Cathay Pacific Membership Program. The Cathay Pacific Green membership plan provides members with a range of exclusive benefits. Upon signing up, Green members gain access to perks such as priority online check-in, special flight offers, and unique lifestyle experiences.
The Cathay Pacific Green membership program helps you explore other exclusive offers, rewards, and discounts only a member can enjoy. These benefits vary from travel, dining, and living to entertainment. In addition, you can also convert your Asia miles into points or redeem them for social goods or charity donations.
#4 Petro-Canada Fuel Savings On Any Grade Of Gasoline And Diesel
RBC offers instant fuel savings of 3¢ per litre when you pump gas or diesel at your nearby Petro-Canada station. Not only does this save you money, but you also earn 20% more Petro-Points and Avion points. You can get these rewards by following the steps below.
- Log into RBC Online Banking or the RBC Mobile app.
- Get a Petro-Points card and enter its number into your account.
- Link your Petro-Points card to your RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum credit card.
If you haven't applied for any RBC credit card, you can benefit from this by linking your new RBC credit card to your Petro-Points card. You will receive 25,000 Petro-Points within 30 days of approval as long as you complete your application before May 31, 2023.
An alternative way to get even more discounts on gas in Canada is to apply for a Canadian Tire Triangle Mastercard, which is a no-fee credit card that'll save you 5¢ per litre of gas at Canadian Tire Gas+ gas stations.
#5 Get 50 Be Well Points At Rexall
Like other RBC travel credit cards, RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum offers 50 Be Well points for purchasing items at your local Rexall store. You can receive this by linking this card with your Be Well card and spending at least $1 to get 50 Be Well points. Likewise, you can follow the steps above to link your eligible RBC credit card to your Be Well card or visit their website here.
Remember that you can only redeem 25,000 Be Well points at any time worth $10. Likewise, there is a maximum limit of 500,000 Be Well points or $200 for redemption in a single transaction within 24 hours.
#6 Twelve Months Of Free Deliveries From DoorDash
You can get a free DashPass subscription from DoorDash for 12 months, letting you enjoy food deliveries without spending a single dollar. The only thing you need to remember is that your orders should be at least $15 or more to get free food deliveries and pay with your RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum credit card.
Other benefits you can get from DoorDash include:
- Save at least $4 to $5 per order considering you don't need to pay a delivery fee.
- Access to exclusive offers and promotions every month.
- Earn 5% cash on DashPass credit when you pick up orders.
Below are the steps to follow to receive the DashPass offer for 12 months:
- Download and open the DoorDash app, which you can download on App Store or Google Play Store.
- Link your eligible RBC credit card to your DoorDash account.
- Activate your DashPass subscription with no charges.
If you were charged $0.50 on your credit card from DashPass, don't worry. It's only because RBC needs to verify that you signed up for the promotion. This will be refunded within 3 to 5 days.
#7 Wide Insurance Coverage Plus Optional Add-On Services
Similar to other RBC personal credit cards, the RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum offers a wide range of insurance policies, giving you security and safety in your travels and purchases.
With this credit card, RBC covers you for everything from emergencies to car rentals and to travel insurance, among others.
The full list of all available insurance coverage provided with this card is:
- Travel Insurance.
- Car rental loss or collision damage insurance.
- Emergency purchase insurance.
- Flight delay insurance.
- Hotel or motel burglary insurance.
- Out-of-province or country emergency medical insurance.
- Purchase security insurance.
- Extended warranty.
RBC also offers optional add-on services that protect you, your family, and your online or in-store purchases.
These services include:
- BalanceProtector insurance.
- Identity theft and credit protection.
- RBC Road Assist.
- Additional travel insurance.
#8 Credit Card Security Feature
RBC's Credit Security Feature is basically a locking mechanism in case your card is stolen, lost or misplaced. If any of that happens, locking your credit card account is one tap of the screen away. This credit lock feature is available in the RBC Mobile app. Once you have downloaded the app from the App Store or Google Play Store, you can lock or unlock your card from anywhere and at any time.
This feature helps you block all cash advances, withdrawals, and purchases online or in person.
Although you have locked its access, you can still pay for your purchases, make pre-authorized payments, and use your RBC Rewards points.
Other transactions you can still use, include:
- INTERAC online payments
- Mobile deposits
- Online refunds
- Apple Pay, and Android wallet transactions
If you have yet to find your credit card, you can call RBC's 24-hour toll-free number at 1-800-769-2512 to report it and get a new credit card.
Pros & Cons Of RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum
Pros
- Earn 1 Asia Mile for every $1 in local spent in Canadian dollars.
- Earn 1.25 Asia Miles for every $1 equivalent to purchases made in a foreign currency.
- Earn 2x Asia Miles for every $1 spent on Cathay Pacific purchases
- Receive a $15,000 Asia Miles welcome bonus upon card approval.
- Get complimentary Cathay Pacific Green membership in the Cathay Pacific membership program.
- Redeem points for flights, merchandise, hotel, and holiday packages, car rental, international destinations, and more.
- Earn more rewards, bonus points, and free deliveries at Petro-Canada, Rexall, and DoorDash.
- Save 10% Asia Miles when you redeem for travel rewards.
- Insurance coverage includes travel, purchases, emergency medical, extended warranty, etc.
- Protects your account with its credit card lock feature found in the RBC Mobile app.
Cons
- A $120 annual fee and an additional $50 for each additional card.
- A purchase rate of 20.50% and a cash advance rate of 22.99%.
- It's only good for people who usually book their flights on Cathay Pacific, and even then there are better options.
Pricing
What makes the RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum different from the other travel credit cards is that it is the only one that lets you earn Asia Miles in Canada. It also has reasonable annual and service fees compared to other Visa Platinum cards. You can check the table below and see if this credit card is right for you.
| Interest and Fees | |
| Annual Fee | $120 |
| Additional credit cards | $50 |
| Purchase Rate | 20.50% |
| Cash Advance Rate | 22.99%* |
| Minimum Payment | $10 (plus interest and fees) |
| Cash Advance Fee | $5 |
| Balance Transfer Promotional Rate Fee | Up to 3% |
| Dishonoured Payment Fee | $45 |
| Installment Plan F | Up to 3% of total purchase – one-time fee Up to 1.15% of total purchase – monthly fee (no fee in Quebec) |
| Overlimit Fee | $29** |
| Foreign Currency Conversion Rate | 2.5% |
** The over-limit fee does not apply if you reside in Quebec.
This credit card also offers extended warranty insurance on your purchases. It doubles the original manufacturer's warranty of up to one year, providing more coverage on your items.
American Express Membership Rewards: A Better Way To Earn Asia Miles
Funny as it may sound, although the RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum is the only credit card in Canada to earn Asia Miles directly, it's not the best way to do so. It makes much more sense to earn Membership Rewards points with an American Express credit card than to earn Asia Miles with an RBC card because Membership Rewards points are more flexible and more valuable.
Membership Rewards points can be transferred to a variety of airline and hotel loyalty programs, including Asia Miles, giving you more options for redeeming your points. You can transfer the points at a 1:1 rate and American Express often offers transfer bonuses when transferring points to airline partners, allowing you to get even more value out of your points. For example, at the moment Amex offers a 20% bonus, so if you transfer 1,000 MR points, you'll receive 1,200 Asia Miles.
Credit cards like the Amex Platinum or the Cobalt have impressive signup bonuses that make the RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum's 15,000 points bonus pale in comparison. For example, the Amex Platinum offers a massive 80,000 MR points welcome bonus, and the Cobalt offers 30,000 MR points.
Additionally, both these cards have a much better earn rates on all categories, with the Cobalt offering an already impressive 5x MR points for every dollar spent on food and drink, and 2x on travel.
On the other hand, the Platinum Card offers even more! Up to 10x MR points per dollar spent on food and drink.
Even though transferring to Asia Miles is actually not a good deal, since MR points are worth at least twice what Asia Miles are, you're still earning way more for every dollar than with the RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum.
In Summary
The RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum is a go-to travel credit card if you prefer to book your flights on Cathay Pacific and want to earn Asia Miles directly with your card. With a reasonable annual fee of $120, you can earn up to 2x Asia Miles, whether on local qualifying purchases, foreign currency conversions, or on its own Cathay Pacific travel purchases. You can also benefit from its partnerships with Petro-Canada, Rexall, and DoorDash, giving you more rewards, points, and free limited food deliveries.
Though it's a good card, it's far from the best way to earn points for travel. You can get more than two to five times as many points on many of the same purchases by paying with an Amex credit card like that Cobalt or the Platinum card, and then transferring those points to Cathay Pacific at a 1:1 rate, plus available bonuses like the current 20% bonus on transfers. The Platinum is a premium travel rewards credit card that costs $699 per year, but if you travel frequently, the rewards far outweigh the annual fee several times over.
If you don't travel that often, you can choose the Cobalt instead which is the best general-purpose credit card in Canada this 2023.
RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum FAQs
How much does RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum cost?
RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum costs an annual fee of $120 and $50 for each additional card.
Is RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum worth it?
The RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum is a good credit card and has some nice features at a reasonable cost, so it may be worth it for some. But if you're thinking about enrolling to earn Asia Miles, then other options like the American Express cards will be much more worth your money.
In other words, the RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum may not be worth it even if frequently fly Cathay Pacific.
Is the RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum safe?
Yes, the RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum is safe because it has a built-in card lock feature to temporarily block its access through the RBC app, in case your card is lost, stolen or if you misplace your card. You can do this by logging in to your RBC Mobile app and choosing which credit card you want to lock. In addition, you can ensure your safety and protection since RBC offers broad insurance coverage, including travel, emergency medical, car rental, hotel, and even flight insurance.
Who qualifies for the RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum card?
You can qualify for the RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum if you're a Canadian citizen with the age of majority in your province. It would be best if you also had an excellent credit score of 760 and above. For minimum income requirements, RBC has yet to provide any specific details.
What is the credit limit of the RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum?
The credit limit of the RBC Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum isn't stated by RBC and varies by the cardholder as a function of their income and credit score. You can find it on the account statement or under account details in RBC Online Banking or the RBC Mobile app once you get your card.
Does Visa Platinum have airport lounge access?
Yes, Visa Platinum credit cards have airport lounge access and other exclusive lifestyle privileges and offers. You can also get other benefits, including:
- Six free member visits per calendar year at 25 airport lounges globally.
- Access to DragonPass's “Dine & Fly” airport dining program.
- Receive a 12% discount on hotels and vacation rentals worldwide with Agoda, 50% off on tickets with Vox Cinemas, and 8% off on hotel bookings with hotel.com.
