For the Rewards Canada family a lot of our vacations are spur of the
moment. So when we want to get away for only a few short days we don’t
want to spend much of that time getting to our destination so we usually
look for direct flights that aren’t much more than three hours in
length. And since it is winter we wanted to go somewhere warmer. That
means places like Los Angeles, San Diego, Palm Springs, or Phoenix. With
a trip to Phoenix already booked for later in 2020 we crossed that off
the list. Then with our attendance required at a New Years Eve party in
YYC we crossed San Diego off the list as the flight back into Calgary
wouldn’t leave us much time get home and get ready. So that left LA or
the Palm Desert. We chose the latter as it tends to be more relaxing
than LA. Of course this means booking at the last minute, which also
means not so cheap flights when looking for four seats. Add in the fact
it was during the Christmas high season and you know there aren’t going
to be any cheap seats. Four tickets at the last minute to any of these
cities run well over $1000 per person – in economy. That’s pretty pricey
for these flights but that’s where points and miles can come in to
help. WestJet is the only airline that flies direct to PSP from YYC
(unfortunately the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX meant AC dropped the
route) so that gave us two points options that we could utilize to make
the price more bearable. The first was booking through WestJet and using
our companion vouchers and WestJet dollars. Since my wife and I each
have our own WestJet cards we have two companion vouchers that we could
use. Perfect for a family of four. The second option was booking through
American Express travel and utilizing the Fixed Points Travel program.