Costco Porter Gift Cards: Save Money On Your Next Porter Airlines Flight

If you’re already a Costco member and you fly Porter Airlines with any regularity, there’s a straightforward way to save 10% on every cash fare: buy discounted Porter Airlines gift cards from Costco. It’s not glamorous, but it works – and unlike some other airline gift card deals, Porter actually makes these easy to use. Here is how you can take advantage of this excellent deal.

Costco Sells Porter Airlines Gift Cards at a 10% Discount

Costco sells Porter Airlines $500 e-gift cards for $449.99, or fifty bucks off per gift card. You can pick them up on Costco.ca, though you’ll need a $65-a-year Costco membership to access the price.

The gift cards are delivered via email, typically within 24 hours of purchase. You’re limited to five per transaction, and the purchase is non-refundable – so make sure you’ve got travel plans before loading up.

If you’re booking a cash fare anyway, this is essentially free money. A 10% discount won’t change your life, but it adds up, especially for families or frequent flyers. On a $1,000 round-trip booking, that’s effectively $100 back in your pocket just for purchasing flights before you’ve even factored in credit card rewards.

How to Redeem a Porter Airlines Gift Card

Redeeming a Porter Airlines gift card is refreshingly painless. Here’s how it works when booking a flight online on flyporter.com:

1. Search for and select your flights as usual.
2. Proceed through the passenger details and the endless array of add-ons to the payment page.
3. Under the “Redeem” section, check the “Gift card” box.
4. Enter your gift card number and PIN, then click “Retrieve Amount.”
5. Pay any remaining balance with a credit card.

It looks like this, and I’ve listed it next to a travel credit I got for an unfortunately cancelled flight I wasn’t able to take:

One thing that makes Porter stand out from its competitors here is that you can use multiple gift cards alongside other payment methods in a single online booking. The only restriction is that you’re limited to one credit card per transaction. If you have travel credits or account credits from a cancelled flight, you can stack those too – all in the same booking.

Anecdotal evidence suggests you can add up to five gift cards – it’s most probable that this means five non-credit card payment methods. $2,500 in gift cards should hopefully be enough for any Porter flights you’d need.

This is an enormous advantage over Air Canada and WestJet, which both cap you at two payment methods per online transaction. With Porter, you could realistically apply a travel credit, a couple of gift cards, and a credit card in one go without needing to call in or jump through hoops.

Not everyone wants to do things online, so Porter Airlines also offers call center support to redeem gift cards at 1-888-619-8622.

Porter Airlines Gift Card Restrictions To Be Aware Of

The great thing about Porter gift cards is that they can be applied toward the full cost of a booking – base fare, taxes, fees, and ancillary services like baggage and seat selection – and they never expire, retain any unused balance, and are fully transferable until redeemed. You can even use them toward a Porter Pass purchase if you’re going that route.

However, there are a few caveats worth knowing about. Gift cards can’t be used for group bookings of 10 or more passengers, and they can’t be redeemed onboard – so no, you can’t use them to buy drinks mid-flight. You’ll have to get lit on your own dime. If you’re redeeming at the airport counter, the gift card also needs to cover the entire cost of the purchase, as it can’t be combined with other payment methods there.

The bigger consideration is insurance. If you pay for a flight primarily with gift cards, you’ll likely lose your credit card’s travel insurance coverage, as most cards require the full fare to be charged to qualify for trip cancellation, trip interruption, and related protections. 

The two notable exceptions are the BMO VIPorter World Elite Mastercard and the National Bank World Elite Mastercard, both of which only require a partial payment for coverage to kick in. If you hold either of those, you can comfortably split your booking between gift cards and a credit card without sacrificing anything. For everyone else, check your insurance certificate carefully – this is the trade-off for the 10% savings.

Best Credit Cards to Pair With Your Porter Airlines Flight Booking

If you’re going to fly with Porter Airlines, the card to have is the BMO VIPorter World Elite Mastercard. It’s not even close.

The card earns 3 VIPorter points per dollar on Porter purchases (up to $20,000 in spend per calendar year), grants Avid Traveller Venture status – which comes with a free checked bag, free carry-on on Basic fares, and complimentary seat selection – and offers the ability to earn a round-trip companion pass annually. I wrote about why I think the BMO VIPorter World Elite Mastercard is the best new credit card in Canada in detail.

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.

See our BMO VIPorter World Elite Mastercard Review for an in-depth review of this card.

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

The smart play is to pay the bulk of your fare with discounted gift cards and charge the remaining balance to your BMO VIPorter World Elite Mastercard. You’ll still earn 3x VIPorter points on whatever portion hits the card, and since the card’s travel insurance only requires a partial charge, you won’t sacrifice your coverage either. It’s one of the rare cases where you can have your cake and eat it too, so long as you charge one single penny to the card.

Conclusion

Buying gift cards for Porter Airlines at Costco is one of the best deals on the market. Unlike other Canadian airlines that play games with gift cards, Porter allows you to pay for your flights the way you want, with great potential savings for families.

Don’t hesitate to take advantage of this excellent offer to save $50 per $500 spent on your next Porter Airlines flight booking!