Westjet Airmiles tickets....Not very....

[spsneman]

So my friend called Airmiles today to get a rough price on taxes etc for 4 tickets obtained with air miles through Mosaic Mastercard with the Westjet option to fly from Saskatoon to Orlando next year. The lady at Airmiles told her that she would only be allowed to book 2 tickets with Airmiles per day per flight as that is their policy. However if she wanted to purchase 4 tickets to fly to Toronto, she could then obtain 4 tickets with Airmiles to fly to Orlando from there. Now does anybody else think this is totally unfair? A person pays the $70/year to upgrade to the Westjet Mosaic Mastercard only to be told that they are unable to buy more than 2 tickets per flight per day in Saskatchewan, but that it was OK in Ontario?????? I realize that Airmiles offers only so many airmile seats per flight, however 2 seems quite low and then being able to offer more out of Ontario for people who are paying the same $70/year benefit option as we are in Saskatchewan is totally not right.

 

[Valjean13]

That does seem strange, although it might have something to do with the number of flights offered from Saskatoon to Orlando. If there is only one or two per day perhaps they would fill up too quickly. Ontario would have a higher volume of people flying to Florida, therefore more flights to use the airmiles on.

Does your friend realise how much it will cost to get the flights? They are not free, you still have to pay the taxes and fuel surcharges, etc. When I flew from Toronto to New York it was over $100, aprox the same price as paying the sale price for a regular flight. And when my mom flew from Vancouver to Toronto it was around $200. Just keep that in mind when you use airmiles, sometimes it could still be cheaper to fly out of the USA using a cheap airline like Southwest.

 

[mejaie]

Boy I sure hope you had a trainee at airmiles.

 

[b-1]

the thing that bugs me is that you would probably have to fly from sask to toronto in order to get to orlando (or through calgary) so why couldn't you get 4 tickets from sask. to go along with your 4 tickets from toronto. no sense whatsoever.

 

[Palendat]

I have been thinking about getting this CC to fly to DL next summer. I have enough miles for our family of 4, but I sure wouldn't be comfortable only booking 2 tix at a time!!! If anyone has any other experience with this, (esp out of Winnipeg), I would appreciate it before I waste my $70. Thanx.

 

[yxe dad]

During peek season they limit the number of seats on each flight and during low season there are more seats. I'm not sure on the numbers but it is low. I booked my airmiles flights as soon as my flight days became available(330 days from return) and had no problems getting what I wanted. It works great if you can plan that far in advance. I saved 18000 airmiles using my westjet MC over the regular amounts. I'd call and ask airmiles how many seats are available for the flights during the time of year you want to go. You can also book more seats on the same flight just not with the huge discount on the miles.

 

[SplashMom]

I booked 4 tickets from Halifax to Orlando for April without any problems. I'm not sure why they would restrict the number there and not in Toronto. We did have to pay taxes/fees etc. of about $600 for 4 tickets. Much lower than the $2700+ to purchase the tickets. I'm happy! I would call back again and check. Maybe you had a new person.

 

[cab0899]

We are flying Winnipeg to Orlando in 2 weeks. We booked in the spring and we were told that there was 6 seats per flight for airmiles seats. Starting in January Westjet is going direct from Winnipeg to Orlando!

 

[daver]

Hi All;

I booked a few months ago form Halifax for Feb/06. I used airmiles for 5 tix with no problem. Must be the low season vs hi season thing perhaps?

 

[spsneman]

Nice to see all the feedback and advice. Keep it coming. I realize that we are looking at paying the taxes and surcharges on the tickets, etc and I don't have a problem with that. Unfortunately after sending an email to Westjet, they basically told me they are unable to tell me how many seats are allowed per flight with Air Miles when I mentioned how other cities offer more than 2 seats per flight and a person has to book as far in advance as possible. We are going in Nov 2006 and I planned on booking in Jan and was still told when I phoned to confirm approx taxes, etc, that there was only 2 seats to be allocated for Air Miles for a flight from S'toon to Orlando. Now I'm not sure what more I can do here. We are flying off season and will definitely be booking ahead of time, yet according to other people across the country, they have no problem in booking more than 1 ticket, plus its closer than a year in advance. (330 days) Something does not seem right here. I was thinking that perhaps the person spoken to at Westjet was new. However after sending emails to Westjet directly, both from myself and another party, we were both told the exact same thing..

 

[daver]

While I am not one to complain too much myself...... unless provoked, you could always try escalating to a spvsr to get clarification. I am sure that they will tell you how many seats they book and hwether or not they can "change" this because of the obvious problem with a family taking a trip.
Most likely fyou will get the same answer but someone who speaks up may be reason enough to look at changing the seat reservations going forward.
Ya never know.

 

[mejaie]

I just checked the Westjet site and yes direct flights from Winnipeg to Orlando for 398 return, just over 500 with all taxes, thats about 250 cheaper than last week, and it is direct.

Now if only Expedition Everest would open up early.