I just did this for the first time, and used WestJet dollars to pay for both the non-tax portion of my flight and the companion ticket. It was fine, but there were a couple of caveats that I don't think have been mentioned here:
- Any additional tickets (beyond the cardholder/companion pair) have to be booked as a separate reservation. In my case, I am travelling alone with my two kids. My oldest is 9. They were able to book my younger child as my companion, and my 9yo on her own reservation, with a note cross-linking her reservation to mine so that they would know she was travelling under my responsibility. I got the sense that if I had two younger children (ie. too young to travel as an unaccompanied minor), this might have been a problem. Of course at check-in I will have to manage two separate reservations and make sure our seats are together, which is a minor inconvenience, but not a huge deal.
- Due to using WJ dollars, each ticket had to be processed as a separate payment (even the two tickets booked on the same reservation).
- The whole process was pretty slow. Apparently processing the WestJet dollars slows things down, plus then you have to give your credit card information multiple times, and they have to do the two reservations, etc. Again, it was fine - just don't do it when you're in a hurry. On the upside, since we all had WestJet Rewards numbers I only had to give the numbers and we didn't have to go through the whole name/address/phone number routine.
Aside from the slightly painful phone call, I am really pleased. I've only had the card since October, and paid just over $500 out-of-pocket (mostly taxes and fees) for what would have otherwise been a $1300 reservation. Not bad.
