Quebecers win free trips

<p> Thousands of Quebecers can thank an extra 2.1 centimetres of snow for a free trip, part of a vacation giveaway based on the amount of snow that fell on Jan. 1. </p> - <p> Canadian online travel retailer itravel2000.com confirmed Wednesday night that 14.8 centimetres of snow fell at Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport in Montreal on New Year's Day. </p> - <p> That amount surpassed the minimum of 12.7 centimetres or five inches required for a free trip under their "Let it Snow" promotion. </p> - <p> Quebec customers whose departures were scheduled between Nov. 1, 2007, and Apr. 30, 2008, and who booked their trips between June 12 and Dec. 7, 2007, earned free vacations. </p> - <p> The offer was based on snowfall in Calgary, Toronto, Montreal or Halifax. Toronto measured in at 9.4 centimetres, while Halifax recorded 0.8 centimetres and Calgary had 0 centimetres. </p> - <p> The number of winners could be in the "tens of thousands," itravel2000 vice-president Brad Miron told the CBC on Tuesday. </p> - <p> "It's a weather guarantee policy promotion, where we as a commercial entity take a bet on the weather, but what we do is we seek out a company who will underwrite it," said Miron. </p> - <p> That company was WeatherBill Inc., a weather risk management service that helps businesses guard against the effects of bad weather. Its $100-million insurance coverage is contingent upon weather calculations made by Environment Canada, which must be verified by a second party because of the amount of money involved. </p> - <p> Snowfall patterns over the past 50 years were used to determine the price of the insurance policy. </p> <p>Offer will be repeated in 2008: VP</p> - <p> All vacation packages that meet the date criteria are eligible to win a refund, from $799 discount trips to Cuba, to $5,000 getaways in Jamaica that come with one's own personal butler. The biggest payouts will go to those who booked entire wedding party vacations of 30 to 40 passengers. </p> - <p> "We as a company at itravel want it to snow, and we want all these people who booked with us to get their free trips," said Miron. </p> - <p> He couldn't share the number of promotional vacation packages sold for proprietary reasons, but said that the offer, which took three years to set up, will be repeated in 2008. </p> - <p> Packages eligible for the promotion included those from Sunquest Vacations, Signature Vacations, Sunwing Vacations, Air Canada Vacations, NCL cruises and WestJet flights. </p>

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