Westjet World Elite Mastercard Review

This Westjet World Elite Mastercard review will go over the welcome bonus, how much this credit card costs in terms of an annual fee, and whether the sign up is worth it.

Now, I normally only sign up for credit cards that are FYF (First Year Free) or have no annual fee. In fact, I don’t think I have ever signed up for a card that I would have pay an annual fee for.

But there is always an exception to the rule.

After doing the calculations (you can skip to my calculations at the bottom of this post if you want to), getting this card is worthwhile, even if it means paying a fee for the first year- we will likely cancel our Westjet World Elite Mastercards after our flights are booked.

At the expense of sounding like a broken record because I’ve been on a credit card application kick recently, here’s my Westjet World Elite Mastercard review.

Westjet World Elite Mastercard Welcome Offer

If you had applied for the card before June 30, 2021, you would be eligible to receive $350 welcome Westjet dollars if you make your first purchase within three months of approval.

Also, within the first three months, you can earn double the Westjet dollars on purchases of  grocery, restaurant, and food delivery.

The grocery store has to be on an eligible list, for example, some qualifying grocery stores are:

•  Real Canadian Super Store, No Frills, Sobeys, Safeway, Save-on-Foods, Metro, Loblaws, IGA, Food Basics Canada, Fortinos, Freshco, Maxi, Provigo, and T&T Supermarket

The best part of the welcome offer is the round-trip companion voucher.

Normally this would be $199 CAD for continental US or $399 CAD to anywhere Westjet flies.

But if you had gotten approved for this card between February 24 and June 30, 2021, and you made your first purchase by July 31, 2021, you can get a round-trip Economy flight within Canada or the United States (and this includes Hawaii), Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean for $0 base fare.

You would still pay the taxes and ATC fares that are included in the ticket price, but this is a very small amount compared to the actual base fare.

The companion voucher is awarded to your account about 4-6 weeks after your first purchase on the credit card.

Annual Fee

The annual fee of the Westjet World Elite Mastercard is $119 CAD.

There is no first year free offer, but the $350 cash back in Westjet dollars makes it a pretty great deal.

Westjet World Elite Annual Income Requirement

The minimum income requirement for the Westjet World Elite Mastercard is $80,000 for personal income or $150,000 for household income. If you don’t have $80,000 in personal income annually, you can input a minimum amount of investable assets (e.g. liquid net worth) and you could still qualify.

Features of the Westjet World Elite

Outside of the welcome bonus, you would earn 2% in Westjet dollars on Westjet purchases, and 1.5% on other purchases in the form of Westjet dollars.

Also, about 30 days after your credit card anniversary, you can get another annual companion voucher to anywhere that Westjet flies, for $119 in Continental United States and $399 to other places where Westjet flies. This is the normal Companion Voucher offer. You would pay the ATC fares and taxes on top of this.

Also, there are lounge passes associated with this credit card.

If you don’t have a companion you could use this on, it’s probably more feasible to convert your Companion Voucher into four lounge passes. For example, at YVR (Vancouver International Airport), the lounge pass will get you into the Plaza Premium lounge.

There are many other travel perks to the Westjet World Elite.

This includes a free checked bag for the primary cardholder and up to eight other people traveling on the same reservation.

There’s also free Boingo Wi-Fi internet while you’re inflight or on the go when you see Boingo Wi-Fi available.

Finally, you can save $0.03/L on Petro-Canada gas if you link your World Elite credit card to your Petro-Points number.

Finally, RBC and Rexall have a promotion where you can earn bonus Rexall Be Well Rewards when you link these accounts together.

Insurance Benefits

There are standard insurance benefits associated with this Westjet World Elite Mastercard, including trip interruption ($5000 per person per trip up to a maximum of $25,000), flight delay, travel accident, hotel/motel burglary insurance (up to $2500 per person), purchase security and extended warranty, or medical emergency.

In addition, there is rental car collision insurance with this credit card.

Redeeming Westjet Dollars

The great thing about collecting Westjet dollars (as opposed to the other Canadian airline with the points program that starts with “A”) is that it is clear how much your dollars can stretch. There is not confusing points conversion to use.

You can redeem your Westjet dollars towards your flight, and that’s that.

Genymoney.ca’s Verdict

There is pent up demand for travel and everyone is itching to go somewhere to escape the last year of pandemic lock down of varying degrees. Prices are going to go up and this is one way try and hedge against that increase in cost.

For example, let’s say a flight from YVR to HNL (Vancouver to Hawaii) is $500 including taxes. For a family of four, that will be around $2000 for a return flight.

If you pay $119 for an annual fee and you get $350 in Westjet dollars, effectively you will have $231 off. $500-$231 is $269 per return ticket. You can get a free companion ticket with this (and it will be worth more, the higher the price of the ticket) but you just have to pay taxes and fees which is approximately $131.

Therefore, for four tickets (if there are two primary card holders), the total cost comes down from $2000 to a total of $800 approximately.

As you can see, the math makes sense to pay for the annual fee.

Instead of signing up for the Westjet World Elite, you could also sign up for an Aeroplan credit card and use the Buddy Pass, such as the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite. The Buddy Pass will give you a free companion ticket if you purchase one ticket. However, if you are trying to save up Aeroplan points like me for another trip, then the Westjet World Elite Mastercard is a good alternative even if it means paying an annual fee.

However, before signing up for the Westjet World Elite Mastercard, you have to be cognizant of the current welcome bonus. Some of them are not worth it for the sign up and annual fee.

Related:

• 10% cash back credit cards in Canada

What is your Westjet World Elite Mastercard review?