Tag Archives: Westjet

Your Loyalty Is Costing You BIG Money

Below are the screen shots of a flight from Victoria to Edmonton. I picked it because I was booking it – and that’s what got me thinking how much WE have to pay for loyalty…

The Air Canada basic fare is $202. No seat, no checked bag, no frequent flyer miles. Pay $23 more and you get HALF of the frequent flyer miles. Or pay $44 more for 100% of the miles, a seat selection, and a checked bag.

Westjet’s basic fare is $160. So right there it’s $42 cheaper than Air Canada if you were a free agent and just shopped by price and not loyalty. But after that, Westjet is the same as Air Canada: Basic fare is zero reward dollars in their program for tier levels and perks. Pay $23 more and you get only the reward dollars. Pay $90 more for those rewards and a seat selection and checked bag.

One charges you $23 to get your points, the other charges $44. You’ll need $3,000 total (before taxes and fees) to be a somebody in their loyalty programs, and always need to pay way higher than basic fares to earn any! That’s about 12 flights which would cost you almost $300 to $500 in order to BUY your loyalty points. AND you could never fly the other airline.

As a free agent, I took the $42 cheaper flight, skipped the $23 to get my reward dollars, let the computer pick the seat instead of spending $20 or so, and my credit card waved the $30 checked bag fee. That saved me $115. THAT is a lot of money – but not something I would have done last year when I was tied to Air Canada! Even if you make the “silver” Westjet level – have a look what that gets you: 6 free lounge visits, priority boarding (the flight leaves when everyone is on – not just your zone 2, though, and two free checked bag that your Westjet credit card can get you anyway. Yes, you do get to use the reward dollars towards future travel. (Air Canada is pretty much the same rewards but with two lounge visits.) That ain’t much for about $4,500 of spending ($3,000 plus all the taxes and fees for each flight).

For 99% of us, take the cheapest flight at the cheapest price. Pay the rip-off luggage fee if you don’t have their credit card to get a free bag. And for flights under 2 or 3 hours – forget paying for a seat. I’ve done studies that show row 5 arrives at the same time as row 26. The seat pitch is awful and there’s no leg room. Step up to buying a seat only if it’s a long flight.

Hurray! I’m Now A Free Agent! (Saving $1,500)

On average, we’re in eight different loyalty programs and some of them are costing us way more than the tiny benefits we (may) get.

For years, I’ve been a medium sized somebody with Air Canada (50K Elite) where I had lounge access, two free checked bags, priority boarding and no lineups at check in. This year I’m a small somebody and lost priority boarding and lounge access. Yet, somehow I adjusted. Sure I miss the lounge, but most connections are less than two hours, and I’m just fine.

In the next month I have about 10 flights to book. I wrote down roughly what that would add up to: Around $2,200. But I can’t stay a “somebody” unless I reach $3,000 (with Air Canada and Westjet – they’re both the same) and that’s on base fares excluding all the fees and taxes. So I’d have to book more expensive tickets by over $1,500 just to stay a somebody AND would HAVE to fly only Air Canada or Westjet, or I’d dilute my earnings and not make it in either one. That applies to most loyalty programs: To get the bigger rewards you can’t be a free agent and shop elsewhere.

That seems and is stupid. (That’s why vast numbers of business travels purposely wait until the last minute to book when prices have gone way up. It maximizes their bonus levels and it’s their company that pays the ticket and the price for that.) But when we try to do that, we don’t shop around, we stay blindly loyal because we want that reward level!

Instead, I checked Westjet on a flight to Victoria this month. Their flight gets in at 9pm vs. the Air Canada at 11:30pm. That’s almost three hours of extra sleep. I also checked the last Victoria to Edmonton flight the next day: Same price on both airlines, but Westjet can get me home at 10 pm vs. 1 am for Air Canada. On the other hand, the only lunchtime flight to Grande Prairie in two weeks (August 29th) is $140 on Air Canada vs. $284 on Westjet. So of course, I booked Air Canada for that one. Ahhhh….the joy of being a free agent and looking out for my wallet instead of others!

The same applies when we see the “bonus Airmiles” offers. We’re chasing the points, but in my experience, for the 10 most common things I buy (heads up that I’m a bachelor, so it includes cookies, Bolthouse juice, Tasters Choice, etc.) Safeway/Sobey is at least 30% more expensive than Presidents Choice or Walmart. So we get three or four bucks in Airmiles while possibly spending $20 more on what we’re buying!

We, and that includes me, can be so brainwashed or blindly loyal we’re constantly tripping over a loonie to pick up a dime! Your point earnings with every program are between one and 1.5 percent. That’s it! So make sure you don’t overspend by more than 1.5% at the register or you’re losing money!

Stay loyal to friends and family – just don’t extend that same loyalty to companies who brainwash you, and aren’t ever going to be loyal back to you!

Keeping You Updated

Things change pretty quickly in the world of finance, credit, money and investing. Here are some updates to things we talked about in the last few  months. You can always find the stories at yourmoneybook.com and click on the radio stories button:

A few months ago we talked about the changes for airlines and your frequent flyer miles. Well, Air Canada just did another round of cutbacks to what you’ll earn and an increase to what you’ll need to redeem. Remember to think of your reward miles like bananas. Use them up as they don’t increase in value over time! Oh, and Westjet and Air Canada now charge baggage fees – surprise! Did you think they’d just ignore the $30 to $50 million in profits that you’re now going to hand over forever?

If it makes you feel any better, the deep discount carriers in Europe and the US now charge for carryon luggage. With Spirit Air, you can pre-buy it online at $35 for a carryon. If you want until you get to the airport, it goes up to $50 and if you do it at the gate, it’s $100 for a carryon!  Oh, and you’re paying $10 to print your boarding pass.

Yikes, it’s offical: Costco is dumping American Express in Canada. You’re Amex card is no longer welcome starting January 1st. They’re now partnering with Capital One. What’s in my wallet? Not Capital One! But, it’s a good guess that they changed over for a whole lot more money from Capital One…But why go from Amex whose clients spend four times more than Visa clients to a card that targets credit challenged people? Makes no sense, even if their kick-back is way higher.

I just read two reports that show independent book stores are growing in numbers and volume of sales. Great news as I love independents. I don’t deal with Chapters – you won’t find my books with them. I’m the author of 17 books. 14 are only on my web site and three are ONLY available at a few independents, including Mosaic on Bernard. When I talk about shopping local, I actually give up a ton of sales to do so. Actions speak louder than words.

For the last month, the stock markets have gone a little nuts. Down 300 points in a day, up 200 the next. We keep talking about the dangers of buying one or two stocks. If you’ve done that, if you gambled like that, you’re probably down a ton of money. If you’ve invested in good growth mutual funds, you’re already up again. I manage a seven figure account for a relative and all the bad news last month still had a 2% return for the month with Dundee Wealth.

And if you’re a gambler, gold and silver are below 2010 prices. Bitcoin, which is an online currency is down 75% for the year. If you bet only on energy stocks, you probably lost over 40% of your money. Those one-off buys are not investing. They’re gambling – and on these and many others, it’s a big loss right now. Investing is a five year or longer time period with a mix of good growth mutual funds with a long track record. Investing is also buying a fixed amount each month. Set it and forget it.