Shareholder

On Friday I received an email offer to encourage me to make use of the Cash portion of my AMs. Since I needed some ink cartridges from STAPLES I decided to redeem $40 worth of AM Cash (95x4=360AMs) as vouchers to take to the local outlet. The offer was 50 AMs, reducing the withdrawal to 310AMs. I received the email with a link to the vouchers to print out and the clerk credited these to my purchase.

However, earlier today I decided I would draw down some more AM Cash vouchers for STAPLES, only to find that STAPLES was no longer listed as a redemption partner, just one for earning AMs. Most curious!

Shareholder

Interesting analysis. I tend to use my AMs for such short haul flights, particularly on AA since these are issued as revenue tickets in a fare class that both earn AA miles and get all the benefits of my AA ExecPlat status, including upgrades to the front cabin (once I add my AAdvantage number onto the res on the AA site). Of course the one fly in your ointment is whether flights will be available that close to flight time.

One thing about your calculations, as I assume these do not include the 25% discount if one also has an AMGold Mastercard, the value proposition becomes even better when this discount is factored into your formula.

ALW

I can't find an AM forum anywhere (I thought maybe Miles&Points > Other Loyalty Programs/Partners), and I didn't want to start a new thread, so I hope this is okay. I'm going to use AM for Air Miles, DM for Dream Miles, CM for Cash Miles.

AM still has their 5-year rule (even though AC dropped their 7-year rule) and it's coming up in a couple of months. I have about 850DM and was happy to see I have no miles expiring in the next 12 months (though I'm doubtful, don't think I only collected in the last 5 years).

I thought they had lots of $100/950DM gift card redemptions, corresponding to the $10/95CM instant redemption that they push now, and which represents about 10.5c/AM. Since I don't have 950DM yet, I had figured to keep earning to get exactly 950DM, redeem for $100 at Metro or Rona or somewhere, then switch to CM for the quick redemption (and I can understand the AM program would prefer that for the lack of handling a physical product).

But apparently almost all of the GCs have been dropped (and two of the few that remain - though pretty useless - are about to be dropped).

It looks like there a complete lack of useful options. A typical merchandise redemption is $400 worth of DM (at the $10/95CM rate) for a 32" TV (which if you're not going to pay retail for Panasonic or Sony, is worth at most $200). Or a set of pots for about $1000 worth of DM.

I can't quite afford a $100 Travel Voucher (which I don't really want and which goes away Oct 15) or a $100 BMO Investment Voucher (which I don't understand but which goes away Oct 1). I can't find anything else in the $100/950DM category.

Apparently they used to have more of the GC redemptions, and you used to be able to transfer from DM (merchandise and flights) to CM ($10 store credit on the spot) but that's all been quietly dropped. "Quietly" just means I didn't know about it so I'm not assuming it was totally secret but it certainly wasn't very loud.

A friend with just over 4000DM (don't know how many expire) could redeem 3800DM for a flight to FL, that's $400 worth of DM (at 10.5c/DM) but I don't know much cash they want on top of that, nor how hard it is to get your flight. And then what does she do with the other 300DM!?

Am I missing something? Are there other options I'm not seeing? Are they likely to introduce new options when people driven to redeem by the 5-year rule start finding they can't do anything with their DM?

Thanks!
=aw

echino

I had about ~10,000 air miles which I redeemed for $1,000 BMO voucher. Theoretically a short haul flight might be a better value, but I did not need any short haul expensive travel. I still have ~900 air miles remaining which are absolutely useless.

jerryhung

Same, redeemed $1000 vouchers, deposited into BMO Money market refund, then cashed out into chequing

Has remaining 920, trying to get 30 AM before Oct 1 to redeem for $100 voucher (discontinues on Oct 1)

AIR MILES - Reward Product Details
https://www.airmiles.ca/arrow/Reward...uestid=1463727

ALW

Hi Jerry, nice to see you here too. I know I asked this in The Other Place but is there a really quick way to understand the BMO things? You description above sounds great and I might even leave it in MM if I didn't have a better use for it, but the T&C on the Air Miles site says this, I see it excludes MM and then says you can do it through InvestorLine. Is that what you did or am I misunderstanding? My concern is having fees to close account or to transfer out, or requiring a minimum purchase of more than $400 (what my friend can afford with her AM right now).

jerryhung

It's YMMV

I opened BMO account under the $425 promo with new CC (bmo.com/425)
I had 2 x $500 and she put them into MM, to my surprise (I thought I would've got stuck in GIC, from the T&C), cashed out online (redeemed) in 2 weeks.
I think any investment needs $1000 minimum (so you need to top up yourself to meet $1K), but who knows, it's YMMV ...

My BMO account/CC are still open until the $425 promo is done (2015 yearend), but so far I'm pleased with how the whole thing works out and may have stayed as BMO client

Good luck

ALW

Thanks, it sounds like it's still possible. The 425 promo is over (deadline was Aug 31 to do Step 1) and it wasn't open to existing customers.

But even buying a GIC wouldn't be too terrible as a way to burn off Air Miles.

It's itneresting that not only is the BMO redemption ending in a week, it appears to be listed on the AM site only under "A-Z > other".

=aw

sokolov

I thought Air Miles won't expire before Dec 31, 2016?

ALW

It appears you're right, thanks! https://www.airmiles.ca/arrow/CashRewardsExpiration

A friend who's an active Air miles collector (vs randomly getting them when offered) had told me they had to be redeemed this year.

So there isn't the pressure to redeem that I thought, but they've still taken away most of the decent awards. Or does anyone think they'll reintroduce any $100/950DM awards? The last of them seen to be disappearing in the next couple of weeks.

=aw

Shareholder

While on the subject of AMs, PD is now an award partner. Seems to be pretty good availability though fees are still a sore point. Just redeemed 975 (+$155) for YYZ-MDW-YYZ return, relative value of about $260...though flight was available for purchase at $290 a/i. At the moment can't input my PD account number onto the booking, will try at OLCI or airport.

Anyone redeem AMs for WS flights and received $value credit in the WS program? What about DL or LH? I know AA flights do fall into a full revenue fare category and earn miles and other elite tier benefits in AAdvantage. We know with AC it's variable, though mostly no earnings.

ALW

Serious question, if the flight was worth $290 a/i, and there was a $155 cash payment on the award flight, didn't the 975AM actually redeem at a value of $135? Which is still comparable to the 10.5c/CM (95/$10). Or were there other benefits to the award flight over the $290 flight (e.g. the way AC awards used to be changeable)?

And now that I realize the expiry starts in a year, I understand the lack of outcry. But is AM really going to be able to tell people (like me) who have >800 DM that they're going to expire and too bad there's nothing to redeem for? Or will they institute a transfer-to-CM offer again, so that people can burn them in increments of 95?

I feel like I should actually pay attention to AM, and stay on DM, to try to get to 950DM in the next year, but what's the point if there's nothing to redeem for?

Thanks!
=aw

ALW

Is this rule new? It' let me put 4 BMO vouchers in the cart, but rejected at the last step. If there had been enough DM for a $500 voucher I guess that would have been accepted, but there was only enough for $400 .

[edit: very last step:

I'm guessing when they say "discontinued permanently on Oct 1" they mean 12:01am and not 11:59pm. ]

ALW

At 12:15am there were no "Other" rewards available, so they really did pull them. Oh well, one less redemption opportunity. And the $100 Travel Certificates are going away Oct 15.

=aw

ALW

Here's an interesting discussion on another forum. Of note, it's mostly about how useless Air Miles have become, and it's dated Dec 2013.

https://www.highinterestsavings.ca/f...ou-do-with-it/

Thanks everyone for the help. We're happy to have had $200 out of the AM.

=aw