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.

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.

That amount surpassed the minimum of 12.7 centimetres or five inches required for a free trip under their "Let it Snow" promotion.

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.

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.

The number of winners could be in the "tens of thousands," itravel2000 vice-president Brad Miron told the CBC on Tuesday.

"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.

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.

Snowfall patterns over the past 50 years were used to determine the price of the insurance policy.

Offer will be repeated in 2008: VP

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.

"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.

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.

Packages eligible for the promotion included those from Sunquest Vacations, Signature Vacations, Sunwing Vacations, Air Canada Vacations, NCL cruises and WestJet flights.