Anyone else trying to redeem expiring Air Miles?

[Strider]

I'm sure I've posted various thoughts on how crappy Air Miles is on here, but the jist of it is that they've diluted it so much that the only way to get any meaningful return is to religiously follow / hoard whatever overpriced crap Safeway (or other promo partner) is peddling that week.

The last example I used - to earn 60 Air Miles, you either spend $1,200 on groceries at Safeway (1 mile per $20 spent), fill up at Shell 60 times (1 mile per 25L minimum fill), or buy(hoard) 5 Smuckers products (promo of the week).

Of course to compensate for all the bonus miles they're giving away, they jack up the point cost for everything and set an expiry.

The only reason I still have a card is because I fill up at Shell for V-power gas, and that's their loyalty program of choice . Even then, they force you to game the system to make anything of it - 1 mile per minimum 25L fill (and usually 10x miles for filling V-power). So each time I fill up at Shell, I put in 25L and not a drop more.

With respect to redemption - yea, there's really not much there that's worth getting. I remember there used to be a lot more selection and it really bugs me that there isn't a way to show all items and sort/filter by points.

[sabad66]

Originally posted by Strider
I'm sure I've posted various thoughts on how crappy Air Miles is on here, but the jist of it is that they've diluted it so much that the only way to get any meaningful return is to religiously follow / hoard whatever overpriced crap Safeway (or other promo partner) is peddling that week.

The last example I used - to earn 60 Air Miles, you either spend $1,200 on groceries at Safeway (1 mile per $20 spent), fill up at Shell 60 times (1 mile per 25L minimum fill), or buy(hoard) 5 Smuckers products (promo of the week).

Of course to compensate for all the bonus miles they're giving away, they jack up the point cost for everything and set an expiry.

The only reason I still have a card is because I fill up at Shell for V-power gas, and that's their loyalty program of choice . Even then, they force you to game the system to make anything of it - 1 mile per minimum 25L fill (and usually 10x miles for filling V-power). So each time I fill up at Shell, I put in 25L and not a drop more.

With respect to redemption - yea, there's really not much there that's worth getting. I remember there used to be a lot more selection and it really bugs me that there isn't a way to show all items and sort/filter by points.

Actually the base mile is a minimum 15L purchase not 25. But the multipliers (2x for bronze/silver and 10x vpower) are 25L.

[jwslam]

So... in case anyone else is in my shoes.

I have 1,008 air miles exactly.
The only things I see that are worth 1,000 miles and are of any value are:
-Coca Cola soccer ball cooler (bad reviews)
-Panini Press
-Hand Blender
-Tower Fan
-Knife Set w/ Block
-Popcorn maker
-Slow Cooker
-A travel pillow

Anyone see anything else? All seems fairly useless to me and wouldn't even be of much value to resell...

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by Strider
I'm sure I've posted various thoughts on how crappy Air Miles is on here, but the jist of it is that they've diluted it so much that the only way to get any meaningful return is to religiously follow / hoard whatever overpriced crap Safeway (or other promo partner) is peddling that week.

The last example I used - to earn 60 Air Miles, you either spend $1,200 on groceries at Safeway (1 mile per $20 spent), fill up at Shell 60 times (1 mile per 25L minimum fill), or buy(hoard) 5 Smuckers products (promo of the week).

Of course to compensate for all the bonus miles they're giving away, they jack up the point cost for everything and set an expiry.

The only reason I still have a card is because I fill up at Shell for V-power gas, and that's their loyalty program of choice . Even then, they force you to game the system to make anything of it - 1 mile per minimum 25L fill (and usually 10x miles for filling V-power). So each time I fill up at Shell, I put in 25L and not a drop more.

With respect to redemption - yea, there's really not much there that's worth getting. I remember there used to be a lot more selection and it really bugs me that there isn't a way to show all items and sort/filter by points.

1 mile has a value of 0.18
10x has a value of $1.80
Shell charges 7 cents more for V-Power vs Co-Op premium (same gas, lacks V-Power additives).

25L of that is $1.75. You didn't collect any extra miles, you bought them.

On top of that Co-Op usually have about ~$0.50 grocery rebate on ~25L

BTW the math go even worse if you use Airmile cash for Shell gas, then each mile is only worth 0.10.

[speedog]

Personally, I don't go out of my way anymore to collect Airmiles - I buy as much of my gas as possible at Superstore using my PC Financial card to double my points and that doesn't seem to take very long to add up to in-store savings for me.

[spikerS]

Originally posted by speedog
Personally, I don't go out of my way anymore to collect Airmiles - I buy as much of my gas as possible at Superstore using my PC Financial card to double my points and that doesn't seem to take very long to add up to in-store savings for me.

x2

[drtoohotty1]

Originally posted by speedog
Personally, I don't go out of my way anymore to collect Airmiles - I buy as much of my gas as possible at Superstore using my PC Financial card to double my points and that doesn't seem to take very long to add up to in-store savings for me.

X3

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by speedog
Personally, I don't go out of my way anymore to collect Airmiles - I buy as much of my gas as possible at Superstore using my PC Financial card to double my points and that doesn't seem to take very long to add up to in-store savings for me.

I don't think many people do anymore - this is for the decade+ old miles that are about to expire that we'd rather get something than nothing for. I've been using a different CC for many years.

AirMiles are garbage, we all know that haha. Just want to use up the balance before they disappear.

[Strider]

Originally posted by Xtrema
1 mile has a value of 0.18
10x has a value of $1.80
Shell charges 7 cents more for V-Power vs Co-Op premium (same gas, lacks V-Power additives).

25L of that is $1.75. You didn't collect any extra miles, you bought them.

On top of that Co-Op usually have about ~$0.50 grocery rebate on ~25L

BTW the math go even worse if you use Airmile cash for Shell gas, then each mile is only worth 0.10.

I'd still fill up at Shell if they scrapped Air Miles altogether. Call me a fool for buying into the V-Power marketing, but that's an entirely different debate.

Originally posted by sabad66

Actually the base mile is a minimum 15L purchase not 25. But the multipliers (2x for bronze/silver and 10x vpower) are 25L.

Thx for the correction. I only ever note the 25L minimum because I go for the 10x.

[asifka]

I have over 16000 air miles even then I can't find a good use for them. Tried booking flight for 4 people to Orlando but all decent dates for travelling are not avaliable.
Worst reward card ever. I will just order shell gift cards and call it a day.

[Robnaldo]

Originally posted by asifka
I have over 16000 air miles even then I can't find a good use for them. Tried booking flight for 4 people to Orlando but all decent dates for travelling are not avaliable.
Worst reward card ever. I will just order shell gift cards and call it a day.

You can't redeem air miles for gift cards anymore, and it's been that way for years.

If you want to redeem for Shell gas you need to switch your air miles settings to 100% cash miles (not dream). And no, you can't convert your existing dream miles to cash miles.

I wonder how many people are like you, who think they'll be able to redeem their miles at the last minute for gift cards or something similiar? There are going to be some disappointed people in December.

[Kijho]

You can use Dream Miles to book flights (really shitty availability dates) OR, what I'm now doing, is you can use to redeem hotel booking in Radium hot springs and BC, US, etc. Planning another road-trip to use. Only have like 3,000 but it's enough for a 1 bed king suite for 2 nights

[asifka]

Originally posted by Robnaldo


You can't redeem air miles for gift cards anymore, and it's been that way for years.

If you want to redeem for Shell gas you need to switch your air miles settings to 100% cash miles (not dream). And no, you can't convert your existing dream miles to cash miles.

I wonder how many people are like you, who think they'll be able to redeem their miles at the last minute for gift cards or something similiar? There are going to be some disappointed people in December.

Just wanted to thank you for update. I wasn't aware of that change. . I am trying to get a hold of air miles for last 3 days to switch my account to cash miles. even left my phone number for call back. No luck so far.

[sabad66]

Originally posted by asifka

Just wanted to thank you for update. I wasn't aware of that change. . I am trying to get a hold of air miles for last 3 days to switch my account to cash miles. even left my phone number for call back. No luck so far.

you can't switch existing miles. So if all your current miles are Dream miles then you have to use them for "dream" rewards.

you can login to the website and change your allocation (% cash miles, % dream miles) for future earned miles though. No need to call them... just go to airmiles.ca

[Sugarphreak]

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