Plan a journey of a thousand miles — or not
Options to redeem Air Miles expand
Whitney Hilts gave up hoarding Air Miles for a big trip years ago. It was taking too long to bank enough miles for a paid-with-points dream vacation. So she and her husband cashed in thousands of points before Christmas.
“We redeemed a ton of miles for swag offered on the Air Miles website, including a new stereo, Kobo e-reader and gift certificates for gas,” says Hilts, a recreation manager at a retirement residence in Richmond Hill, Ont. Hilts has been collecting miles for 10 years.
On the heels of the largely unpopular decision to add expiry dates to Air Miles, the company announced the launch of new redemption programs. Through the Cash Rewards and Dream Rewards programs, collectors have “added flexibility and choice to select how their Air Miles reward miles are earned and redeemed,” says Neil Everett, chief marketing officer of the program.
Air Miles has been one of the country’s most popular loyalty programs since its inception in Canada 20 years ago. Air Miles has identified three types of collectors — dreamers; those who want instant rewards; and those who want both.
While there’s still a savings option for customers who want to hoard points, the program now offers instant gratification — points can be cashed in toward everyday purchases at participating retailers and collectors can redeem “however many points they want, for whatever they want,” Everett says.
Customers can go to airmiles.ca/ cash to activate their “balance preference,” to indicate how they want miles to be divvied up. Points that customers currently have can’t be transferred to a cash balance.
For collectors who plan to redeem points frequently at stores such as Rexall Pharma Plus, Metro and Shell (and more than 220 retailers online), Everett says a preference of 100 per cent Cash Rewards balance is the program to choose. Using this program, reward miles can be redeemed in $10 increments (with a $200/day limit); it takes 95 reward miles to cash in $10. Dreamers who want to bank points toward those bigger buys can choose to keep all or the majority of their points in Dream Rewards.
“Collectors who are on the fence can set up a balance preference of 50 per cent Cash and 50 per cent Dream Rewards,” says Everett.
“I really like the idea of cashing in miles right at the checkout,” Hilts says. “We’re going for the 50/50 balance. We’ll definitely spend miles in-store when we can, and we’ll save the rest for a rainy day.”