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Air Miles just got devalued

49K views 92 replies 51 participants last post by  bgc_fan 
#1 · (Edited)
It now takes 190 Air Miles instead of 150 to get a 20$ gift card.
One Air Mile is now worth roughly 10 cents and with each dollar spent, you earn half a cent worth of rewards assuming you need to spend 20$ to get one Air Mile at IGA.
It is the equivalent of a 0.5% cash back with very limited options for redemption.

I never guide my purchases according to Air Miles earned, and everyone in our family has a card for the same account. If not, it would take forever to accumulate enough to redeem if you are a regular guy. Maybe it is different for those with golden accounts and a BMO Air Miles credit card, but I am too lazy to crunch the numbers.

Dave
 
#3 ·
What a waste of time Air Miles is.
I have had an Air Miles card for years and even have an AmEx card linked to Air Miles.
All I have been able to redeem over the years are toys, puzzles, etc. for the kids.
Most of the other stuff is useless overpriced junk.
It will take excessive spending for several years to be able to buy anything worthwhile.

When are they going bankrupt?
 
#4 ·
Airmiles is pretty useless for the average person, IMHO. You need to spend so much in order to get any kind of reward- and then there are restrictions on the flights, like blackouts at Christmas, not valid on seat sales, etc etc. It's better to get either an MBNA Cashback card and putting the refunds in a travel account (just got my first $50 check today, in five months of having the card) or getting a better travel rewards card that allows you to use it towards any flight, any time. Here's a link to some Canadian cards:

http://canada.creditcards.com/

http://www.milliondollarjourney.com/top-no-fee-rewards-credit-cards-in-canada.htm

I still have my Airmiles account- but I switched it over to cash rewards instead of travel points.
 
#9 ·
Huh... my wife and I have been collecting airmiles with our mastercards... we buy *everything* on credit, and then pay it off immediately so that we've never owed any interest. After about 5 years of this We've currently got enough for about 4 return flights to anywhere in north america
 
#16 ·
Is that the BMO Gold Mastercard?
If so, you have about 11,400 miles (at least).
On the BMO Mastercard, you would have spent $171,000 over the 5 years i.e. $34,200 a yr.
That is a lot to spend for Air Miles.

And if you don't have the BMO Gold Card, then you probably have at least 15,200 miles.
That equates to having spent $304,000 over 5 years.

And I am using off-peak reward rates.
If we instead use an avergae of off-peak and peak reward miles, the amount of money you would have spent to get those 4 return flights becomes mind boggling.

Even with a 1.5% cash back card, the $304,000 would have netted you $4,560 of cold, hard cash.
 
#10 ·
I collected about 400 airmiles last year, then spent it all once I heard about the rules change and the reason. They said that they have a huge inventory of airmiles that are just sitting around doing nothing and is hindering their ability to plan their finances. The change to 5 year expiration and two tiered airmiles is only the beginning. Dilution is an obvious follow up. I adviced everyone I know to spend their airmiles and switch to mbna.
 
#14 ·
This devaluation brings the gift card/cert rate in line with its new cash program. The value of 1 AM is now approx 10.5 cents.

As with any rewards program, one should redeem as soon as there are sufficient points in the account for the reward of their choice. The value of points will always be devalued.
 
#15 ·
That's just evil. Can they legally do that? I guess somewhere in my cardholder agreement it must state that they can change the value at their discretion... but never mind that inflation has eaten up a large percentage of my reward value in the ten years I've had my account- but for them to suddenly drop the value like that is terrible. I spent all this time building up a balance, never using any of my miles- and now I've lost what, 27% or so? Screw this, I'm cashing it all in for free gas!
 
#20 ·
A lot of it is general spending, but a lot of is was also buying groceries from Metro and taking advantage of the promotions. There are lots of items (cans of corn or soup etc) where you can get 5 miles for buying two items or something... and then you get the points on top for how much you spend, and if you go on one of those weekends where you get the extra miles for spending over $100... it accumulates reasonably fast. Our combined salaries wouldn't allow us to spend that much in a 5 year period, and especially since one of those 5 years we lived in Australia and weren't accumulating air miles at all.
 
#22 ·
To be honest, I just looked at the costs for tickets. I was confused about how many flights I can take.

We've got enough for 2 round trips with airmiles, and 2 round trips with aeroplan, not my previously stated 4 round trips with airmiles.

I have to use my aeroplan this year before they expire :-/
 
#28 ·
We've got enough for 2 round trips with airmiles, and 2 round trips with aeroplan, not my previously stated 4 round trips with airmiles.
With Aeroplan, you can use only status miles to redeem for flights; and I believe the only way to get status miles is to actually fly :-/
Back when West Jet used to provide Air Miles, it made more sense to sign up.
I just don't see the value any more, and lost interest over the years.
 
#23 ·
I looked at the Airmiles flight reward points map again, and there is one flaw in it that can hurt you if you are not careful (or, conversely, you can use it to your advantage).
It seems to be rating the zones by distance, however, that is not how flight pricing works in reality.
For example, a flight from Toronto (Zone 5) to Montreal (Zone 6) requires less points than a flight from Toronto to Miami (Zone 13).
However, Toronto - Montreal flights are notoriously expensive, regardless of peak season (esp. week day business travel flights).
Flights to Miami on the other hand, are often dirt cheap.

Stretch it out further, and it gets crazier.
A flight from Toronto to Vegas will require more than 3x points than the flight from Toronto to Montreal.
Yet, in reality, you can easily fly from the Toronto to Vegas for the same price, or less, than to Montreal.

A flight to London, England, will set you back by whopping 5,500 points yet you can easily book an off-peak season return flight for about $750 between Toronto and London.

In reality, flight pricing depends on several factors, and distance is the least important of all.
 
#25 ·
In reality, flight pricing depends on several factors, and distance is the least important of all.
short haul flights to non popular destinations has always been a good use of airmiles. Vancouver to Prince George is great value. Vancouver to Los Angeles -- not so much. The recent wrinkle has been all the extra charges with are not included in the covered fare -- fuel/bags/etc.
 
#26 ·
Back in December, after Air Miles announced changes to their expiration policy (reward miles will expire after 5 years), they announced a redemption change that would take effect in March, 2012. Now you have Air Miles Cash for instant redemptions at the cashier, and Air Miles Dream for travel and merchandise. They got rid of most of the gift cards to help push the Air Miles Cash feature. Unfortunately, they only have a handful of sponsors on board to take the Air Miles Cash redemption at the cashier. They also increased the number of reward miles needed for redemption. 95 miles = $10 off.

http://www.boomerandecho.com/air-miles-cash-vs-air-miles-dream/
 
#32 ·
Just redeemed my airmiles for a stack of $20 gas cards. Then it's MBNA cash back all the way. I just opened the account a few months ago, don't really spend that much, and already got a check for $50 last week.
 
#40 ·
Ah! But, I discovered this week when I filled up at Shell that you do get Airmiles on the gift vouchers. I switched my Airmiles to cash rewards, so now on the rare occasion I do use it, I'll at least build up something I can use quickly. Rewards on the rewards- compound returns!
 
#34 ·
One of the best values I was able to find on the Air Miles system was a 1 year subscription to Maclean's. In fact, most of the magazine subscriptions they offer are a pretty good value. The Cineplex movie tickets are usually good, and the entertainment rewards as well (such as basketball or hockey tickets). The new Air Miles Cash system has devalued Air Miles even further - I wrote a blog post to that effect last month if anyone is interested.
Air Miles Cash - Deal or No Deal - http://www.earthandmoney.ca/air-miles-cash-deal-or-no-deal/
 
#35 ·
I did really well with AirMiles for a long time, mostly just at the LCBO and Metro grocery stores, and Shell for a while, and I had a BMO Air Miles Mastercard. I paid for the first two months of groceries with Airmiles when I went back to school a few years ago. Now I don't drive so no Shell, the Metro near us closed so I am mostly shopping at Loblaws, and use a Capital One Cash Back MC. I am getting a lot fewer miles now, but if I am shopping at those places anyways its a free reward, on top of whatever reward I get on my credit card.
 
#36 ·
I started browsing through this thread then my eyes started glazing over.

Sheesh. Promotions, fly zones, blackout dates, bankruptcy, devaluations, fuel cards, expiries, no more movies, gas mulipliers, toys & puzzles, ...

I'm just shaking my head. Why do people bother with this crap?

I agree with the above comments, get a cashback card. I use MBNA. They reward me with money.
 
#39 ·
Somehow from this thread I found out that Aeroplan miles die after 7 years ... and this change started in 2007 .... so in 2013 -a busy time buying gas cards ...:)

http://blog.aeroplan.com/aeroplan/aeroplan’s-mileage-expiry-policies-explained/
see bottom part of above link... took me a while to see the link on the accounts page they mention ... still waiting for reply via e0mail only status on year of points ..but pretty sure I have some old ones ... as I just collect and never seem to do much - waiting ( not sure for what )

Greg
 
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