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.

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

You can receive $250 welcome Westjet dollars on your first purchase, and an additional $200 Westjet dollars if you spend $5000 in the first 3 months.

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

This would be $199 CAD for continental US or $399 CAD to anywhere Westjet flies (unfortunately Hawaii isn’t included in this)

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 $250 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. This could be worth $65 for one bag on a US/Canada flight if you were to check it at the Airport. This is worth the card alone especially if you travel on Ultra Basic like we do and forgo the carry on luggage for the checked bag.

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

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.

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.

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?