# Air Miles - so annoying!



## RussT (Jul 11, 2016)

Has anyone else tried to complain to Air Miles? You can wait on line for an hour (no way) or you can Live Chat. I have no idea how long you have to wait for Live Chat because I have not been able to wait long enough to find out.

My complaint? I am forced to use thousands of "Dream" Miles before December 31 when they have decided 5-year-old points will expire. I have to spend my miles on things I don't really want. Then they tell me the items are on back order. No idea when I will get the things I don't want.

OK, rant over. Thanks. I needed to whine to somebody and Air Miles is not interested.


----------



## bds (Aug 13, 2013)

I threw the card out last year. I had collected air miles religiously for years and still not collected enough for anything worth while. What a waste of time.


----------



## Rusty O'Toole (Feb 1, 2012)

I've been collecting the God damn things for 15 years and couldn't get out of sight. The only reason I got the card is some stores won't leave you alone. I avoid stores that have air miles if I can.


----------



## Mukhang pera (Feb 26, 2016)

I collected for quite awhile. Then I got a notice about expiring miles and used some up just for the sake of using them up. Then I tossed the card. That was a few years ago.


----------



## peterk (May 16, 2010)

Holy Moly guys! They've been warning about it for 5+ years now...

I never collected much until I got the BMO world elite air Airmiles card. Good collecting 1 mile/$10, and 25% discount on flights. For in-Canada short-haul low-season flights the miles are worth about 2.5-3%, for long haul 2%, and high season 1.5%. Anything international or intercontinental is huge ripoff with Airmiles. The real deals come from short haul in-Canada flights.

Plus you can collect big from purchase promotions, but it's always from premium price grocery stores, so I don't usually collect much from purchases. Most airmiles bonus miles deals are worth about 10-30% off the purchase price of the item, but that just brings it back down to Superstore prices, so no big win there...


----------



## Lost in Space 2 (Jun 28, 2016)

You gotta get the right card, my brother in law was able to get 2 first class flights to Europe for $500 last year using air miles credit cards, didn't think it was possible in Canada but he did it. I don't live in Canada so I don't pay much attention to it but it does work.


----------



## MrMatt (Dec 21, 2011)

They've been warning about it, but the problem is their system is too confusing, and it's simply not worth it.

So I don't. My time has value.


----------



## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

peterk said:


> Anything international or intercontinental is huge ripoff with Airmiles. The real deals come from short haul in-Canada flights.


I use my entire balance for a return trip YVR-YYZ in September. Then retired the card.


----------



## jwsclark19 (Nov 24, 2014)

I find airmiles to be a pretty good deal. I have a BMO World Elite Airmiles MasterCard, and get 1 airmile for every $10. There is a Safeway near my house, and they have some really good promotions on every week, and I just buy stuff that's on sale. Everything else, I get from the superstore, where I use my PC Financial World Elite MasterCard. 

Recently, Safeway had a deal where frozen lasagnas were on sale. They were huge lasagnas. 2 KG I believe. You could buy two of them for $15, and earn 75 airmiles. Plus they have days where if you spend $100, you get 100 airmiles. So if you go shopping on one of those days, and you only buy sale items, that have decent airmiles promotions, you can easily get 200-300 airmiles, with only spending $100. 

With this BMO credit card, I save 25% off airmiles flights, so if I get 200-300 airmiles, that equates to about 30% of the required air miles to go round trip anywhere in Canada.


----------



## My Own Advisor (Sep 24, 2012)

Has anyone else tried to complain to Air Miles? 

Answer - no.

It's a poorly run program.

I prefer to use cash back credit cards for this reason. No drama to worry about.

I redeem my Air Miles as soon as I can for $50 gift cards and the like. Again, crappy program so I get what I can and don't worry about it.

I sympathize with your frustration though!


----------



## Mukhang pera (Feb 26, 2016)

My Own Advisor said:


> Has anyone else tried to complain to Air Miles?
> 
> Answer - no.
> 
> ...



Why complain? As you say, moving to cash back credit cards, as I have done as well, solves the problem. I cashed out, probably for gift cards, although I do not recall, then dumped the card. For me, there are better programs/cards out there. If Air Miles happened to be the only game in town, so you can't vote with your feet, then it might be worth the bother to complain.

There are some who see Air Miles as a cash cow. One guy in my office (I only get to the office about twice a year) swears by it. To hear him talk, he and his family live off Air Miles, paying for nothing.


----------



## simarbhalla (Oct 22, 2020)

My Own Advisor said:


> Has anyone else tried to complain to Air Miles?
> 
> Answer - no.
> 
> ...


Everyone has an opinion on it but I am sure that Air Miles is one of the best-known loyalty programs in Canada when it comes to rewards.


----------



## Zipper (Nov 18, 2015)

An airmile is only worth $0.10

They used to be worth a lot more 'til they started regularly devaluing them years ago.

Cash back is the way to go.


----------

