As the end of the month approaches we reached out to WestJet Rewards to see if they have plans to further extend their policy for elite status members as it only covered March, April and May. The current policy was put in place on March 24th and provided elite status extensions and upgrades to those who were on track to achieve or re-qualify status in March, April and May. WestJet has confirmed to Rewards Canada this policy will be continued for the month of June meaning members whose status expires next month and were on track to achieving status once again will have it extended.
The key wording in the policy is “who were on track” – that means if you have or had spending with WestJet up until the widespread travel shutdown that can be extrapolated to reaching an elite status level. So if you were someone who took advantage of one of WestJet’s predominant status match offers but never flew WestJet or only did so in early to mid 2019 to keep your status, chances are you will not be offered an extension. In fact I’m pretty sure you won’t have it extended based on personal experience. I saw that the status of all my family members has not been extended as it expired on April 30 despite having had a good amount of spend coupled with recent trips in late December and February and had another WestJet trip booked in April. Mine is due to expire at the end of the month so I’m not holding up any hopes that it will be extended. Not that we need the status over the next few months but it would be nice to have it for when we do get ready to jump on a plane. In fact it wouldn’t be a bad idea if WestJet followed Air Canada’s lead and provide ways to earn or retain status from home for those who weren’t or aren’t being considered for elite status extensions.
You can learn more about WestJet and WestJet Rewards Coronavirus policies here.
(At the time of posting this article the extension to WestJet Rewards elite status policy had not been published on their website yet)