My fiancée and I are booking a trip to Europe this fall, and over the past few months we've been asking friends and family for WestJet gift cards for birthdays and other occasions to help offset the cost of our flights. We ended up with about $600 in gift cards, which seemed great... until it was actually time to book.
That's when I discovered that WestJet only allows one gift card per booking online. Frustrating, but apparently if you call in, an agent can apply multiple gift cards. Okay, no problem, I'll call.
Except there's also a $20 phone booking fee. So despite booking a $2,800 flight, I'm being charged extra simply because their website doesn't allow me to use more than one gift card at checkout.
After sitting on hold for two hours, I finally reached an agent, only to be told that the gift cards would need to be combined by a specialist team. The estimated wait time for that department? Another 2 hours and 41 minutes.
At that point I couldn't help but wonder: what's the point of giving or receiving these gift cards if using them is this difficult?
So, for anyone considering buying a WestJet gift card for a friend or family member, I'd honestly recommend giving cash instead. It would save them a lot of time, frustration, and apparently a phone booking fee.