Are Airmiles worth collecting?
I often spend time searching the Internet for people discussing Airmiles. I often find some very positive comments, however, I usually find a couple of comments like.
"Airmiles are a scam" or "Airmiles aren't worth collecting"
I realize that some people believe these comments. However, these people must realize that airmiles aren't costing you anything. Airmiles are simply a bonus for shopping at certain stores. If you are shopping smartly as I talked about in my Shopping Smartly article then you might as well just collect them.
Many people feel that they shouldn't have to pay to use your airmiles for flights and it's tough to disagree. However, this is the way airmiles work. If you really that passionate about paying a bit extra then simply don't use your airmiles for flights. There is always the airmiles store.
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Comments
I just ran into the same problem……being charged the exact same fees that you are paying ($92.00) instead of the Westjet price of $36. I think this is total BS but I already booked the ticket at the quoted price. I plan on calling Westjet and Airmiles to try and sort this out.
Basil & Thrilhouse. Please let us all know if you do hear anything back from either WestJet or Airmiles.
Last Week, I redeemed air miles to purchase flights from Calgary to Victoria. At the time of booking with Air Miles I had the Westjet website open to be able to look at times etc.
The number of Air miles points required per ticket was 800. Fair enough. The Air miles booking fee per ticket was $20.00, also very fair.
The total fees quoted to me by airmiles including their booking fee, Nav Can and Insurance, airport improvement tax etc.GST was $151.00 per ticket.
I asked the Airmiles CS person for a breakdown of all of the individual fees and they all jived with the info displayed on the Westjet site, except for the NAV-Ins fee which Airmiles quoted at $92.00 per ticket round trip, while the Westjet site showed $36.00 for the same fee per return flight.
I spoke with a supervisor who said and I quote, “Westjet hide some of the fees in their base fare, and when the tickets are redeemed through Airmiles these “HIDEN FEES” have to be broken out and paid by the traveller.”
I did not book immediately and called Westjet and spoke to a customer care agent, who indicated that Wesjet does not hide fees in their base fare and furthermore Airmiles is compelled to pay and charge the same ad on fees as are posted on the Westjet website.
Called Airmiles back and spoke to the same supervisor, who told me all of the fees quoted were legal and required and that I had the choice of booking through Airmiles and paying the $151.00 total fee per ticket or booking directly with Westjet. I explained the Airmiles supervisor that the fees being charged amounted to more than 50% of the total cost of each ticket if booked through Westjet. Also we were surrendering 800 airmiles per ticket as well.
I have written to Airmiles, as well as Bank Of Montreal Mosaik Master card as well as to Westjet. Still waiting for a call or an explanation from anyone.
Next steps will require more escalation.
Stay tuned