For the longest time redeeming miles for flights within Canada has been
the domain of the Star Alliance since Air Canada was a founding member
but if you were a member of other airlines other than WestJet Rewards
there were no options for you to redeem for flights within our borders. Now that has changed, granted it is only one airline, but still it is better than none and that airline program is Delta SkyMiles and members of the program have a great redemption option for domestic flights within Canada on WestJet.
Perhaps you are a frequent Delta flyer and/or you still have lots of SkyMiles left from the days of the Canadian Delta SkyMiles MasterCard. Either way you can now use your miles to go visit Grandma in Manitoba, fly your kid to University in Vancouver, take that Hawaiian vacation or whatever.
You are not limited to WestJet flights in Canada however, you can also redeem for WestJet flights to the U.S., Mexico, Caribbean and Europe.
The redemption rates are as follows (one way amounts)
Within Canada: 12,500 SkyMiles
Canada to the U.S.: 12,500 SkyMiles
Canada to Mexico: 17,500 SkyMiles
Canada to the Caribbean: 17,500 SkyMiles
Canada to Hawaii: 22,500 SkyMiles
Canada to Europe: 30,000 SkyMiles
These are all for economy class, there is no option to book WestJet Plus with SkyMiles yet.
Taking a close look at these numbers you can see they pretty much match Aeroplan’s Fixed Flight awards for these routes except for Mexico/Caribbean where the Delta option comes in 2,500 miles less each way.
Here is an example of a SkyMiles booking for Calgary to London Gatwick (the taxes/fees are nice and low!)
Although SkyMiles does not have a co-brand credit card in Canada anymore there are other cards that allow you to convert points to Delta:
American Express Gold Rewards Card (C$1 = .75 – 1.5 SkyMiles)
The Platinum Card from American Express (C$1 = .93 SkyMiles)
Diners
Club Club Rewards MasterCard (C$1 = 0.80 SkyMiles)
MBNA
Best Western Rewards MasterCard (C$1=
0.30 SkyMiles)
Starwood
Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express (C$1
= 1 SkyMile)
You can of course also earn more SkyMiles for hotel stays, car rentals etc. just like you can with most frequent flyer programs. Find all SkyMiles partners here.
Overall this is great news for us Canadians as it provides more options for domestic flight redemptions! As you know earlier in the week we mentioned that you can now use WestJet Rewards dollars on Delta but only on select flights. It would be nice to see that expanded to all Delta flights so that WestJet Rewards members could access more of the U.S., South America and even Africa.