Westjet and Airmiles.

[WishingMom]

So, I just went into my Airmiles account to see what flight options were available to MCO for next April..I was shocked to see that the amount of airmiles needed for travel on WestJet had doubled since the last time I booked a flight. The amount for low season, including the 25% discount for BMO MasterCard holders was 2006, and still is for travel on Air Canada, but with WestJet the amount of miles was 4475...that's more than double Air Canada

 

[tgropp]

Last month, I booked 5 flights to Orlando for an upcoming Feb 2015 cruise and used 1781 airmiles/person with the 25% discount. When I read your post I thought that you made a mistake and went in and entered some dates and could not believe my eyes. The points ranged from 1,781 all the way to nearly 3,000 for different flight times and carriers. Even Air Transat was listed (and most expensive). Usually when airmiles increases their amount of miles used, they notify you. This new procedure has me stumped as there was NEVER a two tiered system for flight/points usage

 

[MikeyNS]

Airmiles did what Aeroplan does with their "Marketfare" flights.
Sure, you can find regular flights, but they will now show lots more options at a much higher rate.
Plus, if you haven't heard, the number of miles will change July 17th, as they're including the fuel surcharge in the redemption amount. According to them the average "cost" will be around a 16% increase. Needless to say I'll be booking my December flights before they change in July.

 

[WishingMom]

I contacted them last night and surprisingly they contacted me back right away...they said that the increase in the reward miles could be due to the lower mile seats being unavailable, similar to what Aeroplan does, offer the seat but for more miles. Oh well, I can suck it up and book on AC for the 2006 miles per person, and whatever the new increase in miles will be for the fuel charges.

 

[WishingMom]

Airmiles did what Aeroplan does with their "Marketfare" flights.
Sure, you can find regular flights, but they will now show lots more options at a much higher rate.
Plus, if you haven't heard, the number of miles will change July 17th, as they're including the fuel surcharge in the redemption amount. According to them the average "cost" will be around a 16% increase. Needless to say I'll be booking my December flights before they change in July.

I saw this yesterday. We have almost enough points (if I purchase the miles from my account for DH's account at .15 per mile) I also said the DH that we should at least book 2 flights at the lower mile cost before the increases come about. We calculated that at 16% per ticket we would need almost 965 more miles for three tickets...its almost worth our while to just pay cash for the tickets instead of trying to accumulate all the extra miles.

 

[damo]

Do the taxes and fees vary between airlines?

 

[Sprocket1020]

that can't be right i booked our air miles trip last week from moncton to orlando 2 of us and it was 4012 air miles total for both and i do have the bmo master card. i fly with air miles every year and have never seen a flight for that much air miles