Is Scene+ a Stronger Travel Loyalty Program than WestJet Rewards?

Earlier this year, WestJet Rewards went through its biggest transformation in the history of the program. WestJet points became WestJet points, you can now earn and redeem them on a wider range of WestJet products, and many of the program’s previous pain points were eliminated.

Meanwhile, Scene+ has established itself as a key player in the Canadian loyalty landscape since its inception in 2021 as a merger of what was formerly Scotia Rewards and SCENE.

Since then, redeeming Scene+ points for travel purchases has arguably become Canada’s best fixed-value points currency, given the ease of acquisition through Scotiabank’s suite of credit cards and the flexibility with redemptions.

In this article, I’d like to compare Scene+ and WestJet Rewards specifically as it pertains to saving money on WestJet flights, as the most savvy way to save may not be as obvious as you think.

Basics of Scene+ and WestJet Rewards Redemptions

One common feature of both Scene+ and WestJet Rewards is that they’re very easy to understand, and aren’t as nuanced as other loyalty programs such as, say, Aeroplan.

Points Valuations

Central to this discussion is how much Scene+ points and WestJet points are worth.

When you redeem Scene+ points against travel purchases, they’re worth a value of 1 cent per point. No more, no less – a straightforward 1 cent per point.

Meanwhile, WestJet points have variable value depending on how you redeem them. When redeemed against the base fare, Other Air Transportation Charges (WestJet’s term for carrier-imposed surcharges), seat selection fees, or baggage fees during the booking process, you’ll get 1 cent per point. 

When you redeem WestJet points against the government-imposed taxes and fees during the booking process, or for redemptions made after booking, the value drops to 0.87–0.95 cents per point. With Member Exclusive Fares, you might get marginally higher values, though those come with a few nuances too (which we’ll discuss below).

For all intents and purposes, let’s suppose that WestJet points are also worth 1 cent per point (in some cases a bit more (see below), in some cases a bit less), which puts them on an equal playing field with Scene+.

Ease of Acquisition

The primary method of accruing Scene+ points comes through Scotiabank’s suite of credit cards, with annual fees ranging from $0 (Scotiabank American Express Card) to $399 (Scotiabank Platinum American Express Card). 

Of these, the most powerful earning rates are offered on the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card, which has the following category earning rates:

• 6 Scene+ points per dollar spent on Sobeys, IGA, Safeway, FreshCo, and more
• 5 Scene+ points per dollar spent on groceries, dining, and entertainment
• 3 Scene+ points per dollar spent on gas, transit, and streaming services
• 1 Scene+ point per dollar spent on all other purchases

With a valuation of 1 cent per point, you’re looking at an effective return of 1–6% on your daily spending, in addition to the points you can earn through the card’s welcome bonus.

You can also earn Scene+ points with the program’s many partners, including Cineplex, Home Hardware, Scene+ Travel Powered by Expedia, Scene+ Rakuten, and more.

Meanwhile, you can earn WestJet points in a variety of ways, including:

• Flying with WestJet and partner airlines
• WestJet Vacations
• Spending on WestJet co-branded credit cards
• WestJet Rewards eStore

When it comes to earning WestJet points on co-branded credit cards, the best-possible earning rates are 2 WestJet points per dollar spent on WestJet and WestJet Vacations, and 1.5 WestJet points per dollar spent on all other eligible purchases.

With a valuation of 1 cent per point, you’re looking at a 1.5–2% return on spending.

For the purposes of this discussion, I’m going to focus on best-case scenarios with credit card spending, ignoring welcome offers and other ways to earn points in both programs.

Ease of Redemption for Travel

When you redeem Scene+ points against travel purchases, you get the best-possible value of 1 cent per point. 

Indeed, one of the strengths that Scene+ has is that you can book travel directly with any vendor and still get the best value for your points.

Most other fixed-value points programs in Canada require you to go through a dedicated travel portal (which limits your options to what’s available and the usual cautions of booking with OTAs), or give a deflated redemption rate for travel booked outside of the portal.

In sum, when used for travel, Scene+ points are worth 1 cent per point, and you can book directly with any vendor to get this value. 

Meanwhile, there’s a bit more nuance to redeeming WestJet points. Again, we’ll focus on redeeming them for travel with WestJet rather than merchandise or gift cards.

If you redeem WestJet points at the time of booking, you’ll get a value of 1 cent per point against the base fare, Other ATC, baggage, and seat fees (100 WestJet points = $1).

If you have enough points remaining in your account, you’re also able to redeem them against the government-imposed taxes and fees on a booking, at a rate of 105–115 WestJet points = $1 (0.87–0.95 cents per point). Once you’ve made a booking, you’re also able to redeem WestJet points for flight extras at an rate of 105–115 WestJet points = $1 (0.87–0.95 cents per point). 

In sum, the value of WestJet points varies from 0.87–1 cent per point for WestJet flights, depending on how and when you choose to redeem them. 

Limited Opportunities for Outsized Value

Both Scene+ and WestJet Rewards are fixed-value points programs, which means that by and large, there’s a cap on the value you can get from your points.

In contrast, other loyalty programs (like Aeroplan or VIPorter) offer ways to get more value per point, which is sometimes capped and sometimes comes without a limit. 

For example, CIBC Aventura Points can be redeemed for flights with the CIBC Aventura Airline Rewards Chart, which boosts the value from 1 cent per point to up to 2.2 cents per point (though it’s often a bit less than that). 

As it stands, Scene+ doesn’t offer any opportunities for outsized value either through transfer partners (like RBC Avion and American Express Membership Rewards) or flight redemption charts (such as the RBC Air Travel Redemption Schedule, CIBC Aventura Airline Rewards Cart, or the Amex Fixed Points Travel Program). 

For what it’s worth, I’d love to see Scene+ become an even stronger program with the addition of opportunities for outsized value for travel in the future.

The only way to score outsized value from WestJet points is to look for Member Exclusive Fares, which offer a nominal discount of around 8–10% compared to Econo fares. WestJet advertises Member Exclusive Fares as offering up to 60% off; however, we’ve yet to come across any such examples.

Importantly, you must have enough WestJet points in your account to cover the base fare and Other ATC for Member Exclusive Fares, and you’ll then be on the hook for third-party taxes and fees (which you’d be able to redeem WestJet points against at a lower value). 

In these cases, the value you get from your WestJet points increases slightly, though it’s impossible to say by how much on average.

In sum, neither Scene+ nor WestJet Rewards offer meaningful opportunities to score outsized value.

Same Spend, Different Cards, Double the Value

With the above in mind, let’s suppose that your primary travel goal is to save money on WestJet flights, and you want to leverage credit card rewards as the primary driver to help get you there.

In this case, we’ll compare a sample annual budget for a family of four with purchases made on the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card and WestJet’s flagship co-branded credit card.

Expense	Amount	Scotiabank Gold American Express Card	WestJet RBC® World Elite Mastercardǂ
Groceries	$15,000	75,000–90,000 Scene+ points	22,500 WestJet points
Dining out	$2,000	10,000 Scene+ points	3,000 WestJet points
Gas	$3,600	10,800 Scene+ points	5,400 WestJet points
Entertainment	$3,000	15,000 Scene+ points	4,500 WestJet points
Travel (with WestJet)	$5,000	5,000 Scene+ points	10,000 WestJet points
Streaming services	$600	1,800 Scene+ points	900 WestJet points
Bills	$3,000	3,000 Scene+ points	4,500 WestJet points
Everything else	$10,000	10,000 Scene+ points	15,000 WestJet points
Total:	$42,000	130,600–145,600 Scene+ points ($1,306–1,456 in value)	65,800 WestJet points (~$658 in value)
Average return on spend:	Amount	3.1–3.5%	1.6%

With the above chart in mind, it’s important to note that everyone’s spending patterns are different. Some people spend way more, some people spend way less, and some people spend way more on certain categories than others (including ones that aren’t listed here). 

Furthermore, not all grocery stores accept American Express, and the above chart doesn’t take into consideration purchases made at Costco where only Mastercards are accepted. If you spend a lot at Costco, then the amount of spend for groceries would likely reduce the effective return for the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card (but would keep the effective return of the flagship WestJet co-branded card the same). 

In this example, putting the same amount of spend on two different cards would result in a difference of $648–798. In other words, you’d earn twice as much value in points to put towards flights on the Scotiabank Gold American Express Card as you would on the flagship WestJet co-branded credit card.

Is Scene+ a Better Travel Loyalty Program than WestJet Rewards?

In my opinion, if your primary goal is to save money on travel with WestJet, you’re better off putting your credit card spending efforts towards Scene+ rather than WestJet Rewards.

Flexibility in travel redemptions is one of the most powerful options to have, and with Scene+, you get everything that WestJet points give you, and more.

With Scene+, you’ll be guaranteed to get a value of 1 cent per point against the entirety of your WestJet flight expenses, rather than a value of 0.87–1 cent per point (and perhaps slightly more if you book a Member Exclusive Fare) that you would with WestJet points.

Furthermore, by leveraging the category-earning rates on Scotiabank’s suite of Scene+ cards, you can come out with a much higher value of travel rewards than you would with putting the same spend on a WestJet co-branded card.

Plus, if you book directly with WestJet, you’ll still earn WestJet points on your flight, including the extra points you’d earn if you have status. If you want, you can still redeem any WestJet points available in your account against the base fare and Other ATC, and charge the difference to your Scene+ card.

In this case, it’s my understanding that you wouldn’t be eligible for insurance coverage, since you didn’t charge the entire travel purchase to your card as part was paid for with WestJet points. 

Should you happen to have both a Scene+ credit card and the flagship WestJet credit card, you’d still enjoy the free first checked bag benefit for yourself and up to eight guests on the same booking, since you get the benefit by way of being a cardholder rather than by way of charging flights to your card.

Lastly, if you find a better fare or routing with another airline, you aren’t limited to what’s available through WestJet with Scene+ points. Rather, you can pick and choose as you wish, knowing that you’ll get the best-possible value of 1 cent per point with WestJet or any other airline.

Conclusion 

If you’re hoping to save money on travel with WestJet, you may very well be better off gathering Scene+ points instead of WestJet points. 

While both Scene+ and WestJet Rewards are fixed-value points programs, Scene+ offers a flat redemption rate of 1 cent per point, whereas the value of WestJet points varies depending on how and when you redeem them (though it’s typically 1 cent per point).

Plus, with Scotiabank’s strong suite of Scene+ credit cards, you can rack up points at a much faster rate than with WestJet’s co-branded credit cards, which can add up to hundreds or even thousands of dollars more over the course of a year.