From now until the end of May 2021, the RBC WestJet World Elite Mastercard has a promotion that will earn you 350 WestJet Dollars and a $0 companion fare voucher. The annual fee for this card is $119. 350 WestJet dollars is pretty much equivalent to $350 towards flights. So, after paying the $119 annual fee, you’re coming ahead by $231.
To be honest, I avoided earning WestJet Dollars in the past because there’s already tons of opportunity to earn points and miles. With the recent mass AMEX shutdowns, I began looking at other alternatives to earn points and miles in Canada. Sadly, I missed out when the WestJet dollars were actually worth a lot when you can redeem them for a fixed WestJet Dollar amount. But, is this credit card completely bad? I’ll do a review of its perks in this article.
I have no affiliation with WestJet or this credit card.
VIDEO – RBC WestJet World Elite Mastercard Review
Sign-up bonus and perks
- Earn $350 WestJet dollars after your first purchase
- Obtain a $0 round-trip companion fare voucher – must make your first purchase before the end of June 2021
- Free first checked bags for the primary cardholder and up to 8 people on the same itinerary
- Earn 2x the WestJet dollars on groceries and food deliveries within your first 3 months of being a cardholder
- 1.5% back in WestJet Dollars on everyday expenses
- 2% back in WestJet Dollars on WestJet flights and vacation packages using your credit card
Since the WestJet Dollars got nerfed, they’re not worth as much as before.
The $0 round-trip companion fare voucher looks to be an attempt to compete with Aeroplan’s buddy pass which offers the exact same identical benefits. However, in a way, it’s actually better because you can use it outside of domestic flights. For example, you can fly to the Caribbean and forgo the $399 fee you need to pay when redeeming the voucher.
The 2x WestJet Dollars on groceries and food deliveries is terrible compared to the 5x points you can earn from the AMEX Cobalt card.
Insurance
The WestJet World Elite Mastercard also comes with a whole list of great travel insurance benefits:
I would say that the insurance benefits are actually pretty solid. I’m personally not a big fan of travel insurance from credit cards but some people seem to have no problems with them.
Requirements
To be eligible to get this card, you must a minimum of $80,000 personal income or $150,000 household income.
Conclusion
I would say that this credit card is not as strong as it used to be given that they significantly devalued the WestJet Dollars. However, in the future, I predict that they will try to be competitive again. Otherwise, Aeroplan will take all the loyalty program market share within Canada.
One interesting to note is that the $0 companion fare is actually pretty good. I might look into finding sweet spot redemption for this voucher sometime in the near future.
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