Porter Airlines VIPorter

Porter Airlines is quickly becoming a major airline in Canada after spending most of its existence since 2006 as a niche carrier based at Toronto City Airport. 

With no middle seats on any of their aircraft, Porter flights are debatably a more enjoyable experience to fly compared to other Canadian carriers. Porter Airlines also provides complimentary refreshment offerings, including beer and wine for all passengers, which has become a staple of their service and has pushed other carriers towards doing the same.

In 2023, Porter completely revamped its loyalty program to what is now known as VIPorter, putting it even more on the map. This guide will dissect every term and condition to help you maximize it as a VIPorter member.

Acquiring VIPorter Points

Fly on Porter Airlines or Partner Airlines

Currently, the only way to earn VIPorter points is to fly on a Porter Airlines flight or a flight itinerary sold on Porter’s website The amount of points earned will depend on the member’s VIPorter elite status level, but is a minimum of 5 VIPorter points per dollar spent. 

Unlike Air Canada Aeroplan, which awards points based on distance flown, Porter rewards members based on dollars spent. As many Porter flights are short hops along the East Coast, this is more rewarding for members. If you want to see what it is like to fly on Porter, read our Porter Airlines review.

VIPorter members will earn points on the following purchases with Porter Airlines:

• Base ticket fares (after discounts if applicable)
• Seat selection fees
• Change fees
• Checked baggage fees
• Pet fees
• Unaccompanied minor fees

Members will not earn points on taxes and fees or if you’ve redeemed any VIPorter Points on your itinerary. Most importantly, you earn points based on your ticket price in USD or CAD, so it’s always better to pay in CAD if you can select that at checkout.

Interestingly, Porter Airlines has quite a few codeshare partners that can be booked to earn VIPorter points including:

• Air Transat
• Alaska Airlines
• Delta Airlines
• JetBlue
• AeroMexico
• Azores Airlines
• El Al Israel Airlines
• Fiji Airways
• Iceland Air
• Qatar Airways

A few airlines on this list, such as Air Transat, AeroMexico, El Al Isreal, Iceland Air, and Azores Airlines, have no loyalty or an irrelevant loyalty program to most Canadians. If the price doesn’t increase when booking with Porter Airlines, it’s worth booking a flight with these carriers to gain at least 5 VIPorter Points per dollar on your whole itinerary.

Earning VIPorter Points via Welcome Bonuses

BMO offers two Porter Airlines co-branded credit cards available to Canadian consumers: the BMO VIPorter World Elite Mastercard and the BMO VIPorter Mastercard.

The BMO VIPorter World Elite Mastercard offers a higher welcome bonus of up to 70,000 VIPorter points. This is the best card to use if you are interested in accruing a lot of VIPorter points quickly through a welcome bonus and high earning rates.

The second card is the BMO VIPorter Mastercard, which has a welcome bonus of up to 40,000 VIPorter points but with a much lower annual fee and no income requirements.

Either way, if you are invested in the Porter Airlines VIPorter loyalty program or live near a hub that is heavily serviced by Porter Airlines, you definitely want to add one of these cards to your wallet.

Earning VIPorter Points via Daily Spending

VIPorter points are also earned for all eligible organic spend on any VIPorter credit card. You can maximize your earnings by using the BMO VIPorter World Elite Mastercard, as it has the best earning rates in all categories across both cards.

We’ve summarized the VIPorter points earning rate for all eligible credit cards below:

• BMO VIPorter World Elite Mastercard
  • Earn 3 VIPorter points for every dollar spent on Porter purchases (on up to $20,000 spent per calendar year)
  • Earn 2 VIPorter points for every dollar spent on gas and transportation purchases (on up to $5,000 spent per calendar year)
  • Earn 2 VIPorter points for every dollar spent on groceries and dining purchases (on up to $10,000 spent per calendar year)
  • Earn 2 VIPorter points for every dollar spent on hotel accommodation purchases (on up to $5,000 spent per calendar year)
  • Earn 1 VIPorter point for every dollar spent everywhere else

• BMO VIPorter Mastercard
  • Earn 2 VIPorter points for every dollar spent on Porter purchases (on up to $10,000 spent per calendar year)
  • Earn 1 VIPorter point for every dollar spent on gas and transportation purchases (on up to $3,000 spent per calendar year)
  • Earn 1 VIPorter point for every dollar spent on groceries and dining purchases (on up to $5,000 spent per calendar year)
  • Earn 1 VIPorter point for every dollar spent on hotel accommodation purchases (on up to $3,000 spent per calendar year)
  • Earn 0.5 VIPorter points for every dollar spent everywhere else

Redeeming VIPorter Points

Redeeming VIPorter Points for Reward Flights

The VIPorter program doesn’t have an official award chart like Air Canada Aeroplan, but it does implement dynamic pricing for award redemptions with VIPorter points. Most domestic flights in Canada include $50-$80 CAD in taxes and fees, including airport fees, that cannot be covered by VIPorter points, so you’ll always want to check the cash price for the same flight.

Because the flight pricing is dynamic, it’s hard to know when sweet spots to redeem VIPorter points will pop up. But redeeming with Dollars and Points is often much more valuable than redeeming with points alone. These Dollars and Points fares start at 2,500 points and can result in redemptions where points are worth as much as 6 cents per VIPorter Point.

Not all seats on Porter Airlines can be redeemed with points. Once Porter gets close to selling out a flight, Porter will only sell cash tickets and restrict the ability to book with VIPorter Points even at inflated values. 

Porter has a comprehensive route network that continues to increase in size, and flying on the Embraer aircraft is quite comfortable.

The Dash 8 propeller planes are much less comfy as they’ve been fitted with a “Porter Exclusive” lightweight seat with virtually no padding.

Avoiding those planes is sometimes impossible for certain Porter flights, but they’re not unbearable for short hops. Their longest flight with a Dash 8 is from Toronto City to Halifax. If the cost is not significantly more to leave from Toronto Pearson to Halifax on an Embraer, we would certainly opt for that.

VIPorter Status

Earning status with Porter is solely based on qualifying spend within a calendar year, making it easy to understand, as there is no earning boost based on the Porter Airlines fare class you book.

You’ll earn more points per dollar spent as you progress through the ranks. The spending requirements for each level of status and the earning rates for each tier are below:

• VIPorter Member: Default status
  • Earn 5 points per dollar spent on eligible purchases
• VIPorter Passport: Spend $2,000 in a calendar year
  • Earn 6 points per dollar spent on eligible purchases
• VIPorter Venture: Spend $3,000 in a calendar year
  • Earn 6 points per dollar spent on eligible purchases
• VIPorter Ascent: Spend $6,000 in a calendar year
  • Earn 7 points per dollar spent on eligible purchases
• VIPorter First: Spend $10,000+ in a calendar year
  • Earn 7 points per dollar spent on eligible purchases

New members will be rewarded with 500 points in their VIPorter account upon completing their first flight. Maximizing that small bonus with a 6-cent per-point redemption, as we saw above, is a nice $30 rebate on a flight on top of your regular earnings. 

As an aside, VIPorter members who hold a BMO Porter Airlines co-branded credit card can shortcut themselves to status. BMO VIPorter World Elite Mastercard holders will receive automatic VIPorter Venture status, while BMO VIPorter Mastercard holders will receive automatic VIPorter Passport status.

A huge benefit of the VIPorter program is shared elite benefits for up to 8 companions on the same booking. Other programs with elite status, such as the Air Canada Elite benefits, only apply the checked extra baggage allowance to status members on an itinerary.

Read More: The Complete Guide to VIPorter Elite Status

With Porter, every traveler on the same booking gets the same baggage allowance as the highest-tier VIP passenger. Contributor Daniel used this to check four bags on a Basic fare with two passengers after a successful status match to VIPorter First from Aeroplan 50K status.

These shared benefits also apply to extra-legroom seats, which Porter calls “Stretch” seating. At the highest level, VIPorter First, you can use the Guaranteed Reservation perk to purchase a seat on a sold-out flight, a benefit that Air Canada no longer offers.

The only perk limited by purchasing a Basic fare is free same-day changes. Overall, it’s quite a generous elite program, and we recommend status matching to VIPorter whenever possible. Acquiring status by spending may not be as rewarding as Air Canada, but that’s up to each traveler to decide their travel habits and if Porter is a fit.

Porter Reserve Certificates

Porter Reserve certificates are similar to Air Canada Aeroplan eUpgrades in that you can apply them to any Standard fare booking. VIPorter members earn them once they reach $3,000 in qualifying spending and every $2,000 after that. 

Porter Airlines doesn’t offer a true business class experience, so these certificates aren’t as powerful as eUpgrades, but you’ll still enjoy a host of perks including:

• Changing your flights without a fee
• Front-of-cabin seating with more legroom
• Complimentary premium liquor
• Fresh meal or enhanced snack service (depending on the time of day and flight duration)
• Dedicated check-in, security (where available) & boarding
• Two complimentary checked bags

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