AIR MILES introduces expiring miles too
 

AC is a redemption partner in AIR MILES, and AIR MILES is a competitor to AE so I am justifying posting this here. And because AM is following in AE's footsteps by introducing expiring miles...

Although not formally announced I stumbled upon a new AM web site for a major redemption option being started some time next year.

www.airmilescash.com

However, the key news found in the lower corner of this site is that AMs will now have a 5-year lifespan with new earnings "time stamped". Existing miles must be redeemed by the end of 2016.

The site itself is for a new redemption option whereby members can instantly redeem (in multiples of 95 AMs) miles for cash credit at various AM partner outlets. The rate is 95 AMs for a $10 credit. This is consistent with the current gift card rates.

Guess I need to start thinking of ways to blow my 6,000 airmiles we have in our acct.

Hoping to use them for hotel stays during our RTW in a few years...

Yup - gift cards are good too. Enjoy the Otawa Westin! :)

Great news for the average clueless Air Miles collector who takes 5 years to even earn enough miles for something "worthwhile"! Personally I collect around 1000 and redeem for short-haul asap.

Yup, no taxes, fees or surcharges

After a disappointing redemption for 2 YOW-YVR return tickets, I blew the rest of my air miles on $500 dollars worth of grocery coupons.

Now I cash them in whenever I get enough for $100 or $200 grocery coupons

Don't be too down on Air Miles. They got my wife and daughter to Disneyland this year, and I took six flights using Air Miles this year, to California and Alberta as well as in B.C. Depending on the route and the sales on at the time, one Air Mile is worth 20 to 40 cents. True, you don't get Aeroplan points, and true, you're stuck in the back. But for short quick hauls, they work.

We get the points through banking (which we would do anyway) and (grocery shopping (ditto). One trip to Safeway last summer gave me enough points for a trip YYJ-YYC -- and the dollars spent was in roughly in line with the basic fare for the flight.

And for the record, a few years ago I did Air Miles to Europe, and ended up with Aeroplan points from the trip. I think that was a glitch in the system, but I decided I'd better tell anyone. Until now.

Airmiles "buys" reward tickets, in the case of AC it is in the lowest of the Tango class which does not offer any points even if you bought the tickets with $$$.
However when flying to Europe on KL, AF or Asia when not on AC I have received full status qualifying miles as well as status bonus miles with Skyteam carriers as well as op-ups during vacation period overbooking.
That has been my experience with Airmiles redeemed tickets, YMMV.

This kind of sucks. I haven't lived in Canada for several years, but I kept the Air Miles card because the miles don't expire, and I pick up a few more every time I'm in the country (usually about 2-3x/year). I had hoped to slowly build an empire over decades, but I guess it's not to be.

Anyway, I'll be in YYZ in a few weeks for an international connection and want to buy a men's skin care product that I can't get in the States (don't ask.) Anyone know if there's a Pharmaplus or whatever the chain is that gives out AM somewhere in the terminal?

IIRC this is not correct. I believe that AM tickets book into S class, which is a low-mid Tango Plus fare bucket, although the file gets noted with a comment that the ticket is not upgradeable and cannot earn status miles, etc. There have been cases discussed on this form where things happen and the AC flight earns status miles, although this is the exception, not the rule.

Saw this in the email sent today, guess time to burn my 4000 AM's amassed over ten years!

I value Airmiles at $.14 each, for example a Via Rail gift card is 700 air miles for $100 or $.14/mile.

This would be $.105/mile or about 25% worse than some gift card redemptions. I guess it depends how much you need the $$. Personally once I earn enough Airmiles for a $25 or $100 gift cert I redeem them.

crap, will have to see what 1000 air miles gets me.

That's one of the higher value gift cards. Almost all the others (HBC, Pharmaplus, Metro) are much less. They were devalued again a few months ago when redemption increased to 220 miles (from 175 miles) for a $25 gift card, so I value them at 11.4 cents/mile. So 10.5 cents/mile isn't that far out of line.

BTW, recently found out that 80K HBC pts can be converted into $10 HBC gift cards. This is worth considerably more than when converting them into Air Miles, which would only be 40 Air Miles.

I have no clue how many Airmiles I have. Guess I'd better pay attention next time they send me a statement!

It's quite poor of them to introduce this enhancement and not let people know. :td:

Shareholder:

"The site itself is for a new redemption option whereby members can instantly redeem (in multiples of 95 AMs) miles for cash credit at various AM partner outlets. The rate is 95 AMs for a $10 credit. This is consistent with the current gift card rates."

Actually the rate is higher then present for some $20 gift cards. A $20 Metro coupon costs 175 AM, at least as recently as two weeks ago. So 95 AM for $10 cash to use(if you wanted) at Metro is a higher rate to redeem for the same $20 value.

We've just about cleaned out Mrs. bj-21's AM account getting gift cards as we're expecting another devaluation after year end. Shareholder's post seems to indicate it's coming.

bj-21.