WestJet is now running regular bonus promotion for buying points with the latest launching today and once again they are offering 50% extra. As with all previous iterations of WestJet buy points (nee dollars) offers, it really doesn’t make sense to buy them. There are very few options where you might eke out a little more value than what you pay for them but I’m not really sure it’s worth the hassle.
The 50% bonus points offer
Receive a 50% bonus when you buy 2,500 or more WestJet Points by Oct 3, 2025. Click here for more details & to buy points
With a 50% bonus you end up paying 1.33 cents per point (+GST/HST) and this is where we run into issues. Your paying 1.33 cents for something that typically maxes out at 1 cent in value. There are very rare occasions where using points for Member Exclusive Fares may get you more value than what you pay for buying them but in most cases it does not.
The last few buy points bonuses coincided with a 40% off Member Exclusive fares sale but I don’t see such a sale this time. If one launches before October 3 there are rare opportunities where you can “eke” out a little bit of value out buying points.
Examples of paying cash vs. buying points for flights:
I quickly looked at one flight between Calgary and Toronto and in this case you would lose out by buying points even with the 50% bonus. Make sure you do the math to see if it works to buy points
For the above example, you could buy 25,000 points to end up with 37,500 points with the bonus. The cost for the points ends up being $525 if you live in Alberta:
If we take the cash cost of the fare of $627.63 and subtract the fees required on the example of Member Exclusive Fare of $116.97 you end up with $510.66 of the airfare being covered by the points. That means with buying points you are spending $525 to get $510.66 in value (and even worse if you are in other provinces!) Technically you would have 420 points left over from the purchase, which is valued at $4.20. So that brings the $15 difference down to just under $11 (so you are still spending more) and….. with the buy points+member exclusive combo, you lose out on earning any WestJet points, so really it just not a good option! In this case it’s just better to buy a fare like this outright as you’ll be spending less and earning WestJet points to use in the future.
Wrapping it up
When the new WestJet Rewards program launched we had high hopes they would revamp the buy points offers to be more inline with what other loyalty programs provide but unfortunately that didn’t happen. When you have a program that has flat rate redemptions (100 points = $1 max.) and no true outsized value why try to sell the currency for more than it’s worth?
Images via WestJet
Originally posted on June 5, 2025 @ 1:29 pm
