Booking Alaska Airlines & Air Transat With VIPorter Points: Is It Worth It?

Porter Airlines may be one of the smaller airlines in Canada, but it seems to have no intention of staying that way. They’ve launched a superlative line of new BMO VIPorter credit cards that strongly incentivize customers to fly Porter.

As part of a general improvement to their VIPorter program, the airline has not only made it easier to earn VIPorter points, but also found ways to allow customers to redeem their VIPorter points on partner airlines.

Those partner carriers happen to be Air Transat and Alaska Airlines, so while this is hardly a pair of airlines with huge global footprints, this does offer a unique way to get to or around the United States, as well as to and from a variety of leisure destinations.

Today, we will determine if booking Air Transat and/or Alaska Airlines flights with VIPorter points is worth your time. Or should you be flying Porter Airlines flights only when redeeming points with their loyalty program?

How to Book Alaska Airlines & Air Transat Flights with VIPorter Points

First up, I want to get into the specific mechanics of booking flights with both Alaska Airlines and Air Transat with VIPorter points.

It’s actually super easy: all you need to do is log in to your VIPorter account. Then you can use the drop-down menu on the Porter homepage to select your departure and arrival locations and dates, and search with points:

Once that’s done, you’ll see the options populate and how many VIPorter points the first leg of your itinerary will cost, as well as how many taxes and fees you’ll need to pay.

As you can see, every leg, whether on Air Transat or on Porter, is already included. You can easily compare with the cash price by clicking the “dollars” button in the upper right.

In this case, we can see that the cost of 34,000 VIPorter points and $90 in taxes and fees is probably a worse value than just booking on cash, as you’d only be getting about 0.7 cents per point (cpp). Not the greatest value.

We can do the same process when looking at booking on Alaska Airlines. Do note that, whilst you can book pure Air Transat itineraries via VIPorter, any booking involving Alaska must have one leg on Porter. 

As we’ll see in a bit, though, there are considerations beyond pure cpp; sometimes, convenience and direct flights possess a value of their own.

We’d also strongly recommend booking any itinerary booked with VIPorter points with your very own BMO VIPorter World Elite Mastercard because of the chance to earn 3x the points on taxes and fees, and cover your entire trip with its potent travel insurance.

BMO VIPorter World Elite Mastercard

$125

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BMO VIPorter World Elite Mastercard

The BMO VIPorter World Elite Mastercard offers benefits including VIPorter Venture membership and the opportunity to earn an annual round-trip companion pass through spending.

Earn $125 in FlyerFunds when you apply through Frugal Flyer.

OFFER
70,000 VIPorter points

MINSPEND
$18,000

EST. VALUE
$1,175+

ANNUAL FEE
$199 (FYF)

FOREX FEES
Yes

EXPIRY
Oct 31, 2026

Everything You Need to Know About Booking Alaska Airlines with VIPorter Points

So the first thing to note is that you need to always have one leg on Porter Airlines when booking an Alaska Airlines flight. Keep that in mind, because it means you’re likely to be hit with Canadian airport taxes and fees; Canada has some of the highest in the developed world. You’re also going to need to pay the cross-border taxes necessary to enter the US. 

Additionally, Alaska Airlines flights start at 9,500 VIPorter points for flights within the United States.

That being said, I think that booking Alaska Airlines via VIPorter is one of the sweetest spots in North American aviation right now, assuming you’re ok with slumming it in economy. Who needs an overpriced front-cabin La-Z-Boy, anyways?

The network of Alaska is fantastic, and so you know I’m measuring my money where my mouth is. Let’s look at another case study to supplement the one we looked at in the first part of this article.

Let’s take a look at a flight leaving from Billy Bishop and going to Seattle:

We can once again compare the price in points against the price in cash pretty easily and see the following:

In this case, the flight is definitely an excellent value, netting a value of approximately 2.4 cents per point. Will you always be able to replicate this kind of value when flying Alaska? Perhaps not, but it’s indicative of what you can find.

Another good thing to note is that values such as the 20,000-point cost for flights going to Seattle seem to be somewhat consistent, this to me indicates that while VIPorter points cost can wax and wane, they often have set “benchmark” values, and the lower the benchmark vs the cash price, the better it is for you as the consumer. 

I think most of us would pay $121 in taxes and fees if it meant getting almost 2.4 cents per point when redeeming VIPorter points!

Everything You Need to Know About Booking Air Transat with VIPorter Points

As mentioned previously, you do not need to have a Porter Airlines leg on the itinerary when you are booking an Air Transat flight with VIPorter points. Air Transat redemption rates also start at 21,500 VIPorter points for flights to the Caribbean and 25,000 VIPorter points for flights to Europe.

The next question we can ask is: Is it worth flying on Air Transat?

Quick review: Air Transat is a leisure-focused airline based out of Montreal and primarily servicing Eastern Canada. This is because it needs to take advantage of economies of scale and save on fuel costs. It also means their economy product can be charitably called “cozy,” and their premium cabin, called “Club class,” is more of a premium economy.

There’s nothing wrong whatsoever with this business model; it just means that to get prices relatively low, you’re going to be sacrificing comfort. To even redeem points, you’re likely going to need to already be in Eastern Canada. 

The main reason I feel that Air Transat can be a good value, even if you don’t get the highest value on cents per point, is that it flies to some out-of-the-way places on direct itineraries, and redemptions on economy cabins aren’t extortionate. 

Let’s take a look at one example: going from Toronto directly to Zagreb in Croatia. This appeals both to vacationers and to the large Croat diaspora living in the Greater Toronto Area, a win-win:

As we can see, this costs 47,000 VIPorter points, no small sum. Then we can compare prices. On Porter’s site, this itinerary costs almost a grand:

This would, in theory, provide about 2.1 cents per point value. Not shabby at all.

However, when we compare this to the prices being charged by Air Transat itself, the value proposition isn’t quite as strong:

The lowest fare costs $707, but only includes one carry-on. If you needed to take the $793 fare class option, you’d get a few more choices, but still, if you’re just trying to save cash costs and were only taking a carry-on anyways, this would mean the redemption value of your 47,000 VIPorter points is closer to 1.3 cpp. This isn’t a terrible value, but it isn’t nearly as good as it could be.

That being said, maybe it does have a value? If you need to go to Zagreb and don’t want to go through the inconvenience of layovers or connections, this offers a unique value proposition. If you have the points to spare, and your goal is to be out of pocket the minimum amount of cash possible, don’t feel guilty: go to Zagreb and save if it’s what works for you!

To sum up this section on Air Transat, it should be noted that not all of the airline’s destinations are available on VIPorter. For example, Georgetown in Guyana, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, and Marrakesh are all seasonal offerings on Air Transat’s website, but I haven’t seen them as available destinations in Porter’s drop-down menu.

Conclusion

Overall, I think that I’d summarize my conclusions by saying that, of the two airlines, Alaska is the best value when redeeming VIPorter points as a result of the savings against the pure out-of-pocket cash costs. This is the place to look out for great value if you need to get around North America at a more affordable price.

On the other hand, redeeming VIPorter points for Air Transat flights can be great if you are planning to fly one of their routes anyway and want to avoid the inconvenience or discomfort of layovers. Its pure cents per point value can be hit or miss, but it does bring direct flights to a variety of leisure destinations that other carriers simply don’t fly to.

Lastly, I’d like to leave on an interesting note. Porter recently signed a deal with American Airlines. Is the day we can access their sprawling network via VIPorter potentially coming? It would make the program that much more enticing if it is! 

Until next time, enjoy the VIPorter network.