WestJet dollar a scam

Yeah, I got that email and gave up when they point me to the 3rd party site.

What advantage is there paying for than $1 CAD for $1 WJ?

It made sense when they had fixed pricing for Member Exclusive fares (ie. $125 WJD + tax for trans continental).

Since the revamped the the program and got rid of that benefit the WJD just became equivalent to cash.

Kenneth wrote: ↑ It made sense when they had fixed pricing for Member Exclusive fares (ie. $125 WJD + tax for trans continental).

Since the revamped the the program and got rid of that benefit the WJD just became equivalent to cash.

It's no longer 1 to 1.

From what I can tell it's 1 WestJet dollar to 2 Cad if you buy from that points site.

I literally chuckled aloud when I got that e-mail for the 35% off. It literally makes no logical sense to ever buy WestJet Dollars now. Why pay a surcharge of 30-100% PLUS tax to try to top up your WJ Dollars, just to save $10 on a ME fare? It ends up being way more than just partially covering a normal fare with WJ Dollars, and paying the balance in straight cash.

Whoever conceptualized this "promo" is surely hollow between the ears. Same with the person who thinks people will somehow buy WestJet Dollars at a valuation of 1 CAD to <0.5 WJ Dollars.

Kenneth wrote: ↑ It made sense when they had fixed pricing for Member Exclusive fares (ie. $125 WJD + tax for trans continental).

Since the revamped the the program and got rid of that benefit the WJD just became equivalent to cash.

You forgot quotation marks around "revamped". WestJet literally killed their entire program this past summer. Now that AC has introduced a checked bag fee waiver with reasonably mainstream credit cards, there is little to no reason to be loyal to WestJet now.

Buying rewards points is almost never good value vs earning them in some way. Honestly most frequent flyer programs aren't worth it unless there's some kind of promotion to accelerate status or some credit card sign up bonus

uber_shnitz wrote: ↑ Buying rewards points is almost never good value vs earning them in some way. Honestly most frequent flyer programs aren't worth it unless there's some kind of promotion to accelerate status or some credit card sign up bonus

WestJet dollars were an astronomical value prior to COVID. You could easily fly round-trip anywhere in Canada for ~$300-350 (even long-haul) by buying them and redeeming under the old ME fare program. I'm surprised so few people knew about it, since it wasn't exactly being hidden by anyone.

Even next day flights, or flights over busy holiday weekends were easy to find for that price. It was one of those "too good to be true" programs that you just knew was going to disappear one day. Many of us just never knew how bad they would de-value the program.

Phonophoresis wrote: ↑ WestJet dollars were an astronomical value prior to COVID. You could easily fly round-trip anywhere in Canada for ~$300-350 (even long-haul) by buying them and redeeming under the old ME fare program. I'm surprised so few people knew about it, since it wasn't exactly being hidden by anyone.

Even next day flights, or flights over busy holiday weekends were easy to find for that price. It was one of those "too good to be true" programs that you just knew was going to disappear one day. Many of us just never knew how bad they would de-value the program.

Interesting. I've been an AC frequent flyer for almost two decades and given my decline in business travel these past 18 months I booked one ways using my partners WS dollars YOW-YYT for later this month and YYT-YOW using my aeropesos (free checked bags for whatever mom decides to bake me!) to save some of my points. I'm not sure what constitutes good value for use of WS dollars since I don't know the program that well, but I was surprised that the cash component of the tickets were more than double the AC redemptions. I can't recall 100% without looking it up, but I think I paid $115/person plus ~300 WS dollars per person with WS and $48 and 12k AC points per person with AC. I could have have AC trips for even cheaper, but I think that was linked to my status and terrible departure times.

Will be my first WS flights in about 5-6 years after probably 300 on AC, 5T, 7F and PD.

Just do what I did:

Buy a WJ GC from someone who are trying to get rid of it. I got around 25% from the face value and booked my trip. There's quite a few ppl on FB marketplace or Kijiji

Forget these WJ dollars.