WestJet to launch flights between Edinburgh and Calgary

Canadian airline WestJet has announced a new route between Edinburgh and Calgary for next Summer.

There will be three flights per week from 18th May.

The outbound flights will be on Monday, Thursday and Saturday (leaving Edinburgh at 1pm) with the return on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday as an 8.20pm overnight flight.

WestJet uses a modern fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners for most of its long haul routes, including this one. As we showed in this article, it uses the same Business Class seat as Qatar Airways uses on its 787 fleet, so it certainly isn’t a budget product despite the low cost history of WestJet.

It is worth noting that the WestJet route between Edinburgh and Toronto will not return in 2023. This service used a single aisle Boeing 737 MAX.

You can redeem frequent flyer miles for WestJet even though they are not in a major alliance. I think your options are Delta SkyMiles, Qantas Frequent Flyer and Flying Blue. Flying Blue does not allow online booking for WestJet redemptions but the other two do. These are all 1:1 transfer partners with American Express Membership Rewards.

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How to maximise your miles when paying for flights (April 2025)

Some UK credit cards offer special bonuses when used for buying flights. If you spend a lot on airline tickets, using one of these cards could sharply increase the credit card points you earn.

Booking flights on any airline?

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold earns double points (2 Membership Rewards points per £1) when used to buy flights directly from an airline website.

The card comes with a sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points. These would convert to 20,000 Avios or various other airline or hotel programmes. The standard earning rate is 1 point per £1.

You can apply here.

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Buying flights on British Airways?

The British Airways Premium Plus American Express card earns double Avios (3 Avios per £1) when used at ba.com.

The card comes with a sign-up bonus of 30,000 Avios. The standard earning rate is 1.5 Avios per £1.

You do not earn bonus Avios if you pay for BA flights on the free British Airways American Express card or either of the Barclaycard Avios Mastercards.

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Buying flights on Virgin Atlantic?

Both the free Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard and the annual fee Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard earn double Virgin Points when used at fly.virgin.com.

This means 1.5 Virgin Points per £1 on the free card and 3 Virgin Points per £1 on the paid card.

There is a sign-up bonus of 3,000 Virgin Points on the free card and 18,000 Virgin Points on the paid card.

You can apply for either of the cards here.

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

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Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

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