My recent flight from Toronto (Pearson) to Montreal with Westjet was delayed by 2+ hours due to weather. It was a late flight and with the delay, I didn’t end up setting foot in my hotel room in Montreal until around 4am.

Now, WestJet has what it calls the On-time Service Promise. Simply put, on routes between Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, or New York (LaGuardia), WestJet promises your flight will not be late by more than 30 minutes (or cancelled), otherwise they will give you $50 WestJet Dollars. Note that in order to get this amount deposited into your WestJet Rewards account automatically, you would have to associate your WestJet Rewards ID with your reservation. Otherwise, you have to request the credit manually here.

I paid roughly $100 for my flight, so this essentially knocked the price down by 50%.

Here’s an email I got from WestJet 5 days after my trip with the $50 WestJet dollars automatically deposited into my account:

Unlike regular WestJet Dollars, which typically expire 5 years from the date they are issued, these expire in 1 year:

This is obviously not a common occurrence, as most flights do arrive on-time, and even if they are delayed, they are rarely delayed by over 30 minutes. So while you shouldn’t bank on getting the $50 WestJet Dollars when you fly, it’s a nice thing to keep in mind just in case your flight is delayed like mine was.

Last thing to note, I had a choice of carrier between WestJet and Air Canada (I ultimately chose WestJet because I had WestJet dollars to spend, despite Air Canada having a better schedule, AND departure option from Billy Bishop Airport), and I dare say, I chose wisely. Air Canada has no on-time promise. So you may want to factor in WestJet’s on-time promise next time you are choosing which carrier to go with when you’re flying between the 4 aforementioned airports.