Earn rates
Porter purchases booked through flyporter.com earn 3x. Gas and transportation, groceries and dining, and hotel accommodation each earn 2x. Everything else earns 1x. Every elevated category carries its own annual cap, and spending past a cap drops to 1x for the rest of the year. The caps total $40,000 of spending a year, so a household running most of its budget through this card will hit at least one of them.
| Spending category | Earn rate | Annual cap | Points per $100 spent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Porter Airlines purchases via flyporter.com | 3x VIPorter | $20,000 | 300 pts |
| Groceries and dining | 2x VIPorter | $10,000 combined | 200 pts |
| Gas and transportation | 2x VIPorter | $5,000 combined | 200 pts |
| Hotel accommodation | 2x VIPorter | $5,000 | 200 pts |
| Everything else, and anything past a cap | 1x VIPorter | — | 100 pts |
Key benefits
Avid Traveller Venture status
Venture sits above Passport, the tier the base VIPorter Mastercard grants. Earning it through flights alone requires consistent Porter flying, and Porter’s network is concentrated in Eastern Canada and select transborder and leisure routes. The card bypasses that entirely.
The part that is easy to miss: the bag, seat, and priority benefits are not limited to the cardholder. They apply to up to 8 companions travelling on the same booking. One cardholder can move a family or a group through the airport on Venture terms.
Porter charges separately for checked bags and seat selection on its lower fare types, so on a group booking these waivers can be worth more per trip than a year of points earn. The per-flight bonus compounds on top of the card earn, so the flight and the card spend both earn at elevated rates.
Welcome bonus
The 70,000 points arrive across three milestones, not all at once:
- 20,000 points after $5,000 of eligible purchases in the first 110 days.
- 20,000 points after $9,000 in the first 180 days, plus one round-trip companion pass and $1,000 of Qualifying Spend credited toward the next membership tier.
- 30,000 points after $18,000 in the first 365 days.
Reaching the full 70,000 takes $18,000 of spending inside the first year. The first two milestones, worth 40,000 points and the companion pass, need $9,000 over six months. Check the current offer before applying.
Companion pass
The pass gives one additional traveller a 100% discount on the base fare when you book and pay full price for your own ticket. There are no blackout dates and it covers all Porter routes. The companion still pays taxes, fees, charges, and surcharges. It covers one person, so a booking of two.
There are two separate ways to get it, and they are easy to confuse. The welcome bonus includes one pass at $9,000 of spending in the first 180 days. The recurring annual pass is a different threshold: $50,000 within 365 days of the account opening, recalculated from zero on each card anniversary. That works out to about $4,200 a month on the card.
For most cardholders the honest reading is that the companion pass is a year-one benefit. Qualifying again every year takes a level of spending that few households reach. If the pass is the reason you want the card, check the $50,000 figure against what you actually charge in a year before counting on it beyond the first.
Party size matters here too. This pass covers one companion, while the base VIPorter Mastercard’s voucher gives a smaller discount across a larger group. For three or four people travelling together the comparison is not obvious.
The VIPorter program
VIPorter points can be redeemed on Porter’s own network, on Air Transat through the joint venture partnership (locked through 2032), and on Alaska Airlines transborder itineraries that include a Porter segment. Domestic redemptions and the Air Transat transatlantic routes typically land around 1.5¢ per point.
Earn partners include JetBlue, Qatar Airways, Icelandair, and Azores Airlines, but these are earn-only. You can credit flights to your VIPorter account from those carriers, but cannot redeem points on them. The redemption universe is deliberately narrow, which is worth weighing against more transferable programs before committing.
Within that narrow universe the rules are unusually relaxed. Any seat is redeemable, including last-seat availability, and there are no blackout dates. Air Transat redemptions start at 25,000 points to Europe and 21,500 to the Caribbean; Alaska Airlines transborder routes start at 9,500. When you are short, Cash and Points starts at 2,500 points plus $35 on short-haul fares. Points cannot be transferred between accounts and cannot be applied to taxes or third-party fees.
Travel insurance on the BMO VIPorter World Elite Mastercard
The BMO VIPorter World Elite Mastercard scores 79 of 100 on the figures its certificate publishes, joint 20th of the 59 Canadian cards compared. Emergency medical is capped at $5,000,000 for trips up to 21 days. Coverage stops entirely at 65: not a smaller limit, nothing.
| Emergency medical | $5,000,000 · age 0–64: 21 days; age 65+: not covered · 180-day stability window |
|---|---|
| Trip cancellation | $1,500 per person · $5,000 per account |
| Trip interruption | $2,000 per person · $10,000 per account |
| Flight or trip delay | after 4 hours · $500 per trip |
| Baggage delay | $500 per person · after 6 hours |
| Rental car collision or damage | Pays after your own insurance · rentals to 48 days · vehicles to $65,000 |
A booking made with points still qualifies. You have 30 days from the incident to report a claim. Dependent children are covered to age 20.
Every figure from the certificate, with its own wording
| Emergency medical | limit: $5,000,000 (per insured person per trip) age 0–64: 21 days; age 65+: not covered pre existing stability days: 180 days (issuer product summary states the same period as 6 months; the 365-day period stated for insured persons 65 or older applies to trip cancellation and interruption, the only travel coverage open to that age) |
|---|---|
| Trip cancellation | per person: $1,500 per account: $5,000 (per trip for all insured persons combined) covered reasons: Trip Cancellation benefits are payable when you cancel your trip prior to your scheduled departure date as a result of a covered reason listed below. (covered reason categories in section 2.3.4 are Health, Pregnancy, Work, Travel Documents, Legal, Transportation, Environmental and Other; the full enumeration runs past 40 words) |
| Trip interruption | per person: $2,000 per account: $10,000 (per trip for all insured persons combined) |
| Flight or trip delay | trigger hours: 4 hours (arrival or departure of a regularly scheduled flight on a commercial airline) per trip cap: $500 (for all insured persons combined) |
| Baggage delay | per person: $500 (maximum $1,000 per trip for all insured persons combined; outbound travel only, and purchases must be made within thirty-six hours of arrival) trigger hours: 6 hours (checked baggage delayed by the common carrier) |
| Lost, stolen or damaged baggage | per person: $500 (maximum $1,000 per trip for all insured persons combined; paid at actual cash value) per item sublimit: $500 |
| Travel accident | limit: $500,000 (single largest applicable benefit amount; total payable for all insured persons in one accident is capped at $1,500,000) common carrier only: Yes covers 24h: No (coverage period is confined to the enumerated common carrier travel and terminal periods) |
| Hotel or motel burglary | $1,000 (per burglary occurrence for all insured persons combined) |
| Emergency travel assistance | offered: Yes (operated by Allianz Global Assistance through the Operations Centre) |
| Rental car collision or damage | is primary: No limit basis: the lesser of, the cost of the repair (including loss-of-use) or the replacement cost of your rental car which has been damaged or stolen (clause truncated at the compound object; the certificate continues with a deduction for any amount assumed, waived or paid by the car rental agency, its insurer or a third-party insurer) vehicle value cap: $65,000 (Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price in the vehicle’s model year) max rental days: 48 days (consecutive days; a full calendar day must separate rental periods) excluded classes: vans (except as defined below), trucks (including pick-ups) or any vehicle that can be spontaneously reconfigured into a pick-up truck, campers or trailers, vehicles towing or propelling trailers or any other object (enumeration truncated at 40 words; the list continues with off-road vehicles, motorcycles, mopeds, motorbikes, exotic vehicles over $65,000 MSRP, antique vehicles, recreational vehicles, leased vehicles with buyback guarantee and limousines) |
| Purchase protection | days: 90 days (from the date of purchase; no registration required) |
| Extended warranty | years added: 1 year (doubles the original manufacturer’s warranty up to this maximum extension) cap: $60,000 (lifetime maximum per account, combined with Purchase Security) |
Figures above are from the BMO VIPorter World Elite Mastercard Certificate of Insurance, Group Policy FC310000-G, effective 2025-02-10, underwritten by CUMIS General Insurance Company, a member of The Co-operators group of companies. Checked against the certificate for 13 coverage types. Terms change without notice; verify with the issuer before relying on any figure.
Income requirement
The World Elite Mastercard requires a personal income of $80,000 or a household income of $150,000. This is the standard World Elite threshold, the same as most premium co-branded cards in Canada.
What the earn math looks like
A cardholder spending $2,500 a month, $30,000 a year, split across typical categories. Shown annually because the caps only make sense over a full year:
| Category | Annual spend | Rate | Annual points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Groceries and dining | $10,800 | 2x to the $10,000 cap, then 1x | 20,800 pts |
| Gas and transportation | $2,400 | 2x, under the $5,000 cap | 4,800 pts |
| All other spending | $16,800 | 1x | 16,800 pts |
| Total | $30,000 | 42,400 pts / yr |
42,400 VIPorter points a year at this mix, before any Porter flight earn. At ~1.5¢ per point that is approximately $636 in flight value. Year one costs nothing. From year two the $199 fee leaves roughly $437 net, and the grocery and dining cap is already binding at this level of spending.
Points are only part of it. If you fly Porter even once a year with family, the bag and seat waivers across the booking are worth more than the fee on their own.
Good fit if
- You fly Porter with family or a group. The free bag, free carry-on, seat selection, and priority service cover up to 8 people on the same booking, which is where most of this card’s value sits.
- You want Venture status from day one, without earning it through flight activity.
- You want to try the card at no cost first. The fee is waived for year one, and the first two bonus milestones land well before the $199 fee applies.
If that describes you, apply for the BMO VIPorter World Elite Mastercard. Not sure yet? Book a free conversation and we will walk through it together.
Less useful if
- You fly mostly Air Canada or WestJet. VIPorter points only book Porter, Air Transat, and Alaska transborder flights.
- You are 65 or older and expect the card to cover you medically. Emergency medical is not available at that age, though trip cancellation and interruption still are.
- You are counting on the companion pass every year. Requalifying takes $50,000 of spending in a 365-day period, roughly $4,200 a month.
See it in action
Short hops, Mexico beaches, or Europe via Air Transat. What the World Elite's earn rate books in practice.
See the math →