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Air Transat adds a flight between Montreal and San Diego!

To the point Air Transat has chosen to add San Diego to its list of destinations! Find out how to save on your next flight with points !

San Diego, new direct flight from Montreal

San Diego is a destination attracting more and more tourists, especially families!

Until now, to get there from Montreal, it was necessary to have a connecting flight in Toronto or an American city.

From now on, it will be possible to go there on a direct flight with Air Transat!

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Montreal - San Diego

3 weekly flights as of June 15, 2020

The direct flight will connect San Diego from Montreal from June 15th until October 28th, 3 times a week next summer.

Flight Departure Arrival Days
TS196 Montreal 18:45 21:40 San Diego Monday, Wednesday
TS195 San Diego 11:10 19:15 Montreal Monday, Wednesday
TS196 Montreal 19:00 21:55 San Diego sunday
TS195 San Diego 22:55 07:00(+1) Montreal sunday

With children, we will avoid the return flight on Sunday which is a red-eye flight, arriving on Monday morning in Montreal!

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San Diego area

How to redeem points for Air Transat flights?

Air Transat is not part of a loyalty program like Aeroplan (at least, until its takeover by Air Canada is finalized).

So, to save on Air Transat flights, you will have to use travel points, as explained in this strategy!

You’ll find below some examples of points redemption to save money for Air Transat flights with 3 loyalty programs and their credit cards.

BMO Rewards

To redeem your BMO Rewards points, you must book your flight on the BMO Rewards booking platform. The fare is the same as you would find from other online agencies.

Here is a simulation for a round-trip ticket from June 17th to 23rd, 2020:

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Montreal - San Diego - BMO Rewards

The flight from Montreal to San Diego costs $446.91.

You can redeem 41,000 BMO points earned with the BMO® World Elite®* Mastercard®*:

  • 35,000 welcome bonus points
  • 6,000 points earned through minimal spending requirement in the first 3 months

… you can save $292.74 and pay only $154.17 for this round trip from Montreal to San Diego! In addition, by charging your flight on your BMO® World Elite®* Mastercard®*, you can benefit from all its travel insurances!

Not bad for a card that:

For information, the value of BMO points is fixed: $0.0071/point. To learn more about the BMO Rewards program, visit this page.

To earn BMO Rewards points, here are the two cards available (one that does not require a minimum income and has a 20,000 points welcome bonus):

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San Diego

Membership Rewards from American Express

If you want to have the freedom to book your flight with your preferred online agency, American Express membership rewards points are for you.

All you have to do is make a flight booking on the website of your choice. Personally, I always prefer to book directly on the airline’s website: in case of a problem, we avoid an intermediary.

For example, here is a flight booking made directly on Air Transat and charged on my American Express Cobalt™ Card:

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Using Membership Rewards points on an airline ticket

In the case of the $447 flight to San Diego, up to 44,700 membership rewards points would have been required to completely offset the cost of the flight.

Or you could just redeem 10,000 points to save $100.

American Express Cobalt™ Card is probably the travel hacker’s favourite credit card Its points earning is exceptional for many everyday purchases such as groceries or restaurants: 5 points / dollar (i.e. a 5% return when you redeem your points for travel purchases as for this flight with Air Transat !).

Scotia Rewards

Finally, Scotia Rewards program is also very interesting: you can apply your points directly to offset the cost of your Air Transat flight charged on your card.

The exchange rate is simple: 10,000 bonus points = $100.

You’ll find below 5 Scotia Rewards cards

With a card like Scotiabank Gold American Express® Card, you currently can get:

  • up to 30,000 bonus points ($300)
  • Excellent insurance package
  • No foreign currency conversion fees

This is great news for passengers in the Montreal area! And as you may have seen, even if Air Transat is not part of a loyalty program like Aeroplan, it doesn’t avoid you from saving money with points!

And did you know that you could also save a lot of money on your stay in San Diego, whether in a hotel… or an airbnb!

For more information, check out our two strategies to save money:

Come to discuss that topic in our Facebook Group!
Jean-Maximilien Voisine
Jean-Maximilien is an expert in Canada and France about Loyalty programs, Credit cards and Travel. He is the Founding President of Milesopedia.

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