As the winter weather is approaching, one of my favourite times of the year is upon us: skiing season! While traditionally considered an expensive pastime, hitting the slopes to ski and snowboard doesn’t have to break the bank. With a little planning, you can use your points and miles to save on flights, hotels, rentals, and even lift tickets.
My partner and I recently got new skis, and obviously, this meant that we needed to plan a big ski trip to take the new equipment out and have some fun. Let’s walk through each step of planning a ski trip with points and miles, and I’ll talk you through my thought process and what I actually did to book the trip with near-zero cash cost!
Choosing a Destination
Is the West Coast the best coast for skiing? Or do you prefer the groomed mountains of the East Coast? These are the important questions to ask yourself when first planning your ski trip.
Popular destinations you can consider that are world-renowned for skiing in North America include Whistler in British Columbia, Banff in Alberta, Mont Tremblant in Quebec, Park City in Utah, Colorado, Vermont, upstate New York, etc. I primarily ski in North America, and it’ll be the easiest to plan as Canadians, so let’s take a look at some options.
Western Canada: Whistler & Banff
- Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia, Canada
- Fly into Vancouver (YVR) on Air Canada, WestJet, or Porter throughout all major airports in Canada.
- Banff, Alberta, Canada
- Ski resorts include Banff Sunshine, Lake Louise, and Norquay (Ski Big 3)
- Fly into Calgary (YYC) on Air Canada, WestJet, or Porter, followed by a 1.5-hour drive to Banff.
Eastern Canada: Quebec Mont Tremblant & Le Massif
- Mont Tremblant, Quebec, Canada
- Located about 1.5 hours north of Montreal, fly into Montreal (YUL); further from the West Coast or Atlantic Canada, or if you’re located in Ontario or Quebec, consider driving!
- All major airlines service YUL, so you will have plenty of options to pick from!
- Le Massif, Petite-Rivière-Saint-François, Quebec Canada
- Just over an hour drive from Quebec City, this boasts some of the greatest skiing on the East Coast, even if it has a lower elevation.
- Fly from Toronto to Quebec City on Porter, or consider driving if you’re based out of Eastern Ontario and Quebec!
United States: Park City, Colorado, & Vermont
- Park City, Utah
- Fly into Salt Lake City (SLC), which is a hub for Delta. To fly Delta, you can transfer your American Express Membership Rewards Canada points at a rate of 4:3 or look for WestJet partner flights.
- Colorado (Aspen, Vail, Breckenridge)
- Denver (DEN) is served by all major U.S. airlines. Look for award space on United MileagePlus or Air Canada Aeroplan, which both serve Denver.
- Stowe, Vermont
- Fly into Burlington (BTV) or Montreal (YUL).
Ski Destination Considerations
If you pick a big destination ski resort like Whistler Blackcomb or Park City, you’ll encounter a lot of people, depending on the time of year (which you may love or hate!). Less popular mountains are often smaller mountains as well, so the skiing might not be as great. Unfortunately, I can’t give you the answer on this one!
What we can give you the answer to is which resorts are the best to fly to using points! We previously wrote an article on the best US ski resorts to fly to, which you should check out if you’re considering heading south of the border. In Canada, Vancouver, Calgary, and Montreal are where you’ll be flying in to access our country’s best mountains like Whistler Blackcomb, Big White, and Mont Tremblant!
If you want to go overseas, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand have great skiing that would definitely be worth your while checking out. However, I have never done this before, so I don’t really have any recommendations. However, every step of this guide still applies to maximizing the value you get when booking your next ski trip!
Where I Will Be Skiing
With the ongoing fluctuation of the CAD to USD exchange rate, I decided that it would be more financially feasible to head to Whistler, BC. Whistler Blackcomb is world-renowned for its amazing skiing, and staying in Canada will allow our dollar to go further.
Additionally, Whistler Blackcomb offers the Edge Card, a multiday ski pass only available to Canadians or citizens of Washington State. You can get 2, 5, or 10-day ski passes at a significantly discounted rate compared to buying individual lift tickets.
To get to Whistler, I will be flying in on Porter from Hamilton to Vancouver, which is a relatively new route!
Choosing a Hotel
After choosing which ski resort you’re going to, the next thing to do is to find out where to stay while you’re on your trip. This is likely going to be the most cost-heavy part of your ski trip. The closer you stay to the ski resort (i.e., in the village), the more expensive this is going to be. You can opt to stay outside of the village, but this is often less convenient, and you’ll need to find a way to get your skis to the slopes.
You will be able to find major hotel brands in the villages of most ski resorts. Hilton and Marriott will provide you with the most options, and there, you can use your Hilton Honors or Marriott Bonvoy points and status to make a redemption.
Some hotels in the village are going to be independent hotels, which means you will likely be paying cash. You will want to book through a travel portal for extra perks or increased earning rates. Check out our guide on hotel booking portals for tips and tricks on how to get the best deal when booking your stay for the ski trip!
If you don’t want to stay in a hotel in the village, your options are going to be more affordable. You can search for AirBnBs, service apartment rentals, or other hotels at a reasonable distance around the ski resort. Again, remember that you will need to find a way to transport yourself there. This often means renting a vehicle (more on that later), which will add to your costs.
Where I Will Be Staying
You probably know that one of my favourite credit cards continues to be the American Express Hilton Honors Aspire Card (US). One of its strongest perks is the annual Free Night Certificate that can be used at any Hilton property with no limit, provided there is standard award availability. This makes it very handy for staying at expensive properties, which tend to be the case around ski resorts.
The American Express Hilton Honors Aspire Card offers benefits that include a $200 semi-annual Hilton Resort credit, a quarterly $50 airline credit, instant Hilton Honors Diamond Elite status, an annual free night certificate, and more.
Check out our American Express Hilton Honors Aspire card review for more details.
175,000 Hilton Honors points
$6,000
$1,050+
$550
No
Jan 14, 2026
We’ll be staying at the Hilton Whistler Resort and Spa, located within the village at Whistler Blackcomb. While these rooms are going for almost $900 per night, a redemption with Hilton points would only be 85,000, giving us a 1 cent per point redemption value, which is quite good for the Hilton Honors program!
Plus, we’ll be getting 1 night free with our Aspire Free Night Certificate, essentially returning us $900 for a credit card that only costs us a $550 USD annual fee.
Hilton also classifies its ski properties as resorts. This means I can also take advantage of the $200 Hilton Resort credit that comes twice a year with the Hilton Aspire card. We may decide to use that to book a spa treatment while we’re there! The card just keeps on giving great value for this trip!
Car Rentals or Transportation
The problem with ski resorts is that, more often than not, they’re not exactly near airports. I guess this isn’t a unique problem just to skiing, as you’re likely not going to be hanging around the airport area if you’re going on a trip. Nevertheless, we need to find a way to get to our ski resort and accommodations.
There are 2 options for us here: renting a car or taking an airport transfer. If you decide to rent a car, make sure you check if your credit card comes with rental car loyalty status as a benefit, which can get you preferred rates or vehicle upgrades.
For example, the American Express Platinum Card comes with Avis Platinum and Hertz Gold memberships, which will help you secure a great car rental. It also comes with decent rental car insurance, which you will want to have if you’re driving during the winter.
The American Express Platinum Card is a premium card that offers benefits including a $200 travel credit, a $200 dining credit, airport lounge access, instant elite status with Marriott Bonvoy and Hilton Honors, and more.
Check out our American Express Platinum card review for more details.
100,000 Membership Rewards points
$10,000
$2,000+
$799
Yes
–
If you decide not to stay in the ski resort village, this likely means that you will need to rent a car to transport you and your ski equipment to the slopes. Again, this is an extra cost that you need to factor in when choosing a place to stay for your ski trip.
How I Will Be Getting Around
As we’re staying in a hotel in the village, it doesn’t make sense for us to rent a car this time around. If we decided that we would also do some sightseeing around Whistler and down back to Vancouver, renting a car would definitely be on our radar. We booked a bus transfer from YVR that will take us on our 1.5-hour drive to Whistler Blackcomb.
Equipment: Bringing Our Own or Renting
Perhaps the most important part of going skiing or snowboarding is the equipment. If you own your own equipment, you may be surprised to hear that it does not cost a fortune to fly with it! In fact, you can often get your equipment to your skiing destination for free! If you own your own ski equipment, check out our complete guide on flying with sports equipment!
If you don’t own your own ski or snowboard or prefer to travel lightly, renting your own equipment is the way to go. However, this doesn’t mean you are forced to pay cash for these rentals. By charging your ski rental through one of your travel credit cards, you will be able to apply your points for a statement credit, often at a more favourable rate than non-travel-related purchases.
For example, if you have the TD First Class Visa Infinite Card, you can use TD Book Any Way Travel to redeem your TD Rewards points at a rate of 0.44 cents per point (almost double the 0.25 cents per point baseline redemption rate).
The TD First Class Travel® Visa Infinite* Card earns 8x TD Rewards on purchases at Expedia for TD, plus a $100 Expedia for TD credit and TD Rewards birthday bonus.
Check out our TD First Class Travel® Visa Infinite* Card review for more information.
165,000 TD Rewards points
$7,500
$825+
$139 (FYF)
Yes
–
How I’ll Handle Getting Skis
Another “keeper” credit card in my wallet is the BMO VIPorter World Elite Mastercard. Porter continues to grow its routes and services and now flies from Hamilton (where I attend medical school) to Vancouver, which is super convenient! The BMO VIPorter World Elite Mastercard will also give my partner and me a free checked bag on our flight.
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 when you apply through Frugal Flyer.
70,000 VIPorter points
$18,000
$1,175+
$199 (FYF)
Yes
Jan 31, 2026
If you read my article on flying with sports equipment, you’ll know that Porter counts skis as a checked bag, so we will both be getting our skis to British Columbia for free!
Buying Ski Passes or Lift Tickets
The easiest way to get your ski passes is directly through the ski resort’s website. My biggest tip is to GET THEM EARLY! The way ski passes work is that they go on sale for the next season quickly after the current season ends, typically in March.
From there, around every 3 months, they will aggressively increase the prices as we approach the mountain opening in December. You will find the cheapest prices in March, so make sure you make a note of that when planning your next trip.
The other way to buy ski passes is through travel portals like Expedia or the bank-associated Expedia portals like Expedia for TD and Scotiabank Scene+ Travel. However, there really isn’t any benefit to buying them like this.
If you have a Costco near you, you can also check out their tickets section (typically by the toys or clothes) to see if they are selling any bundles to ski resorts. I have seen bundles for Blue Mountain, Banff Sunshine, Lake Louise, or Mont Tremblant in the past, so keep your eyes peeled!
How I Purchased My Passes
I mentioned the Whistler Blackcomb Edge Card earlier in the article when I talked about our thought process for which ski destination we were picking. The question now is: how are we going to pay for this ski pass with points?
We had 2 options: TD Rewards and Scene+ Points. Both programs allow us to redeem for travel purchases charged to our credit card for 1 cent per point. I happen to be sitting on a good amount of TD Rewards points, and I was considering switching the card too, so I decided to charge 2 Edge Cards to my TD First Class Visa Infinite and use the TD Any Way Travel program to redeem my points for the entirety of the purchase.
Conclusion
Thank you for coming along with me on my journey to book our ski trip to Whistler Blackcomb! With points and miles, gone are the times when ski trips are super expensive. Based on my preliminary calculations, we’ll be paying around $500 for two people for 5 days of skiing at Whistler, which is a great deal!
This guide can be applied to a variety of sports-related trips as well! I book my golf trips with the exact same thought process as this ski trip. If you’re looking to book a trip around a sporting activity, check out our guide on flying with sports equipment to learn how to get your gear there for free!
Quentin Tsang
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Great article! Two other tips for combing ski trips with miles/cards:
1. A bag containing skis/snowboard can be combined with a separate boot bag to count as 1 piece of luggage. This is listed in the Porter T&Cs for Porter and AC but a bit vague for WJ — but I’ve successfully done so with all three as part of my free luggage (sometimes requires some convincing/reminding at check in). I’ve also successfully packed a lot more in both bags than just skis, poles and boots.
2. RBC Avion offers 2 for 1 Fridays — called “Friday Friend Pass” — great way to save on tickets.