Big news for Porter Airlines VIPorter members as the next step in the program’s evolution is here. As of today, VIPorter members can redeem points for flights on Air Transat and Alaska Airlines. And as much as Alaska Airlines is loved by the points & miles community, the big winner in today’s news are a big portion of the population in Eastern Canada who can now redeem on Air Transat flights.
With this news VIPorter members can use their points, or dollars and points combined for booking Air Transat or Porter+Alaska flights through flyporter.com or the Porter Airlines call centre.
Redeeming VIPorter Points on Air Transat
Porter Airlines VIPorter members can now redeem points for flights on Air Transat with flights to Europe starting at 25,000 VIPorter points and 21,500 points to the Caribbean.
Points can be used for itineraries that consist of Air Transat flights only or a combination of Porter Airlines & Air Transat flights.
Examples of VIPorter redemption options on Air Transat
Montreal-Paris
Quite possibly the most popular route for Air Transat can be had for 25,000 VIPorter points
Edmonton-Paris
And here’s an example of a Porter+Air Transat combination (and the fees are reasonable!):
Redeeming VIPorter Points on Alaska Airlines
This may look very exciting at first, and truly, it is exciting but don’t get your hopes up to use points for Alaska flights only! The first step of the redemption side of the Porter Airlines-Alaska Airlines partnership allows you to use your VIPorter points to book reward flights on Porter x Alaska connecting flights through flyporter.com.
So to be able to redeem on Alaska flights you have to have a Porter flight included on the itinerary. Definitely a step forward in the partnership but for members in cities like Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon etc. that’s not ideal as the only Porter flights head east – away from Alaska Airlines territory! If Porter adds flights from these western cities to Vancouver then that’s a different story.
VIPorter redemptions on Alaska Airlines start as low as 9,500 VIPorter points, of which we do have a good example below!
Examples of VIPorter redemption options on Alaska Airlines
Toronto-Seattle
Even though Alaska flies direct between Toronto and Seattle, with the requirement to have a connecting flight it means flying Porter to Vancouver, Los Angeles, San Francisco etc. and then connecting to Alaska Airlines to Seattle:
Montreal to Seattle
but.. if you are flying from anywhere else, say Montreal to Seattle, technically speaking you should be able connect to the Alaska flight that is direct from Toronto to Seattle after flying Porter to Toronto. However, I had difficulty getting that flight to come up in my random searches, but they did have other good options like YUL-YVR-SEA for only 9,500 points:
Wrapping it up
Great news from Porter Airlines today as we see a major step forward for the VIPorter program with expanded redemption options on Air Transat and Alaska Airlines. Especially with the VIPorter Mastercards on the horizon it’s awesome to have more options to use VIPorter points.
The Air Transat option is definitely the highlight in this news as historically the only points you could use on Air Transat flights was (and still is an option) are from proprietary credit card programs so this adds one more option. And with Air Transat being a very popular leisure carrier out east with lots of flights to popular destinations it’s a perfect match up for where most VIPorter members reside.
The addition of a redemption option for travel on Alaska Airlines is great for VIPorter members, even if it is limiting with the requirement of Porter connecting flight. Hopefully, the redemption option will be expanded in the future where you can redeem VIPorter points solely on Alaska Airlines without that connecting requirement. That will bring VIPorter up to the big leagues of competing with the likes of Air Canada Aeroplan.
And now we await the reciprocal redemption option from Alaska Airlines to be able to redeem Mileage Plan miles on Porter flights. (I sure hope they don’t have the connecting flight requirement….)
All available flight options are currently on sale through flyporter.com. Redemptions can be made exclusively on flyporter.com and through Porter’s contact centre.
Images via Porter Airlines