Are Air Miles Rewards good for travel?

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SB2k15
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Are Air Miles Rewards good for travel?

Post by SB2k15 »

I'm looking at getting a new travel credit card. Air Miles is never in the conversation as a good travel rewards program, is there any reason? I'm seeing some pretty good Air Miles rewards credit card welcome bonuses from BMO and Amex, i.e. free flights, fee waivers, etc... worth a try?
Spudd
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Re: Are Air Miles Rewards good for travel?

Post by Spudd »

I haven't found it to be very good. Taxes/fees are high and must be paid in cash on top of your miles that you pay for the flight. Also, "prices" are based on a zone system, which means that some flights may be wonderful deals while others may be horrible. I cashed out my remaining Air Miles a few years ago for BMO investment certificates (which I hear they're discontinuing as a reward) because I felt like the rewards were just getting worse.
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Zipper
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Re: Are Air Miles Rewards good for travel?

Post by Zipper »

An Air Mile is only worth about $0.10.

So a typical "large" bonus of 100 Air Miles is really only $10.00.
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Re: Are Air Miles Rewards good for travel?

Post by Insomniac »

Tried to book a flight from Victoria to Castlegar (Via YVR) using AirMiles. They told me that there was no seats available. Of course, I wanted to go anyway and paid for the ticket. The plane was less than half full. :roll:

Converted all my AirMiles to Rona vouchers some time ago before they increased the points need to buy a voucher. There is another thread that talks about changes for the worse at AirMiles.
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Re: Are Air Miles Rewards good for travel?

Post by Hogwild »

My experience has been:

-Website often very slow and tricky/difficult to use (this is coming from someone who makes his living as an IT technician)

-Return flights often redeyes. By that, I mean 4:00 AM, 5:00 AM or 6:00 AM departures. If you include security check and buffer time,
you could be forced to be at the airport at a ridiculous hour, and could be exhausted first day of your trip while you recover.
-Many times simply no flight is available. At other times, you have to take a connecting flight for some ridiculous distance and/or
with some ridiculous stopover time.

I suggest getting a cash back credit card instead. That way, there are never any blackouts/lack of availability due to the loyalty plan's nonsense,
and you can book whatever flights are available (usually more than with a travel card).
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Re: Are Air Miles Rewards good for travel?

Post by pmj »

Also can't check for flights that would need more points than you have at that time -and you can't top-up. Frustrating.
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CROCKD
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Re: Are Air Miles Rewards good for travel?

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Re: Are Air Miles Rewards good for travel?

Post by Thegipper »

CROCKD wrote:Expiring Air Miles

Loyalty doesn’t go the distance with Air Miles
My wife got shafted by Aeroplan a few years back. We had about 4000 AM back a few weeks ago. They wouldn't let me purchase merchandise and no flights were available for December. My granddaughter as coming to Calgary in February. Bingo we bought her a round trip with AM. Still think these outfits stink to high heaven. I don't use either anymore. I do use the Westjet/RBC card . What I like is you get real dollars not phoney miles. You also get one 99 dollar companion fair per year.
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Re: Are Air Miles Rewards good for travel?

Post by kcowan »

Thegipper wrote:You also get one 99 dollar companion fair per year.
Fare is 299 to Mexico. So about 450 with all fees and taxes.
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Re: Are Air Miles Rewards good for travel?

Post by amphitryon »

I changed to 100% ''cash miles'' back when you first had to make the election and use whatever I get for gas purchases. Their ''dream miles''were never attractive to me and way too slow to accumulate.
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Re: Are Air Miles Rewards good for travel?

Post by CROCKD »

Good move. Missed my opportunity. Now 100% cash miles. Gradually working off the'Reward' miles. This year gave all that would have expired to the Red Cross Fort McMurray Fire Relief and have a tax donation receipt for them. Will probably do the same for the remaining ones next year.
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Re: Are Air Miles Rewards good for travel?

Post by CROCKD »

Air Miles bends to pressure.
Air Miles backs off from plan to let points expire

I suspect that more people like some members of this forum will start to shun these so called Loyalty programs like AM and AP.
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Re: Are Air Miles Rewards good for travel?

Post by longinvest »

I really like getting my Tangerine credit card cash rewards directly deposited monthly into my Tangerine savings account. This way, even if they change the rules, I won't lose more than the rewards of a single month.
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Jo Anne
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Re: Are Air Miles Rewards good for travel?

Post by Jo Anne »

I have always used my airmiles cash rewards for groceries as soon as I managed to accumulate $10 worth. You have to use them right away because airmiles is in the habit of devaluing the things periodically.

Between my airmiles cash rewards and my PC mastercard points, I've netted about $100 since the beginning of October. I have started transferring my rewards savings to a separate bank account, to be used for travel. Do that for a year and you've got yourself a plane ride.

You can't trust those people to give you what you've been saving for - they will devalue the points, and according to today's news stories, they will be doing it again fairly soon.

To quote the Globe and Mail: "Going forward, LoyaltyOne will adjust the value proposition to collectors to offset the lost economics … and to maintain, as closely as possible, the economics of the AIR MILES reward program prior to cancellation of the expiry policy."

In other words, your miles will be devalued from $0.10 to about $0.07 sometime in the next few weeks.
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Re: Are Air Miles Rewards good for travel?

Post by 8Toretirement »

We use the RBC WestJet World Elite MasterCard to collect WestJet Dollars. We travel extensively.

We don't stick with WestJet exclusively, we go with the best deals and collect and save the WestJet dollars for best use.

Here is how we game the card.

1. We use the MasterCard on everything and pay it off each month.
2. I search for the best deals for our flights to the desired location.
3. WestJet dollars can be used just like cash, so you can double up on sales. We do this.
4. We use the companion flight with seat sales double up on savings and tie the WestJet flights into cheaper flights from European Airlines. Our base of European travel is through London (always something to do there) and I book connection flights from one of the London airports. We travel independently so we have flexibility. We save on hotels by booking close to the airport, using the tube to get downtown.
5. Use of the WestJet MasterCard saves on luggage fees on WestJet flights, and by calling the airline booking agents direct we get added features like reserved seating on emergency isles (for long flights only) which equates to the plus seating at a deep discount.
6. No limits on the rewards each year.

When we retire we are going to each hold cards so we can take advantage of two companion flights yearly. Not worth it currently.

Our savings using the WestJet MasterCard exceeds $1,000 yearly but it's predicated on high use of the card and lots of travel. We had a cash-back card prior to upping the travel as the calculations showed it was a better deal.
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Re: Are Air Miles Rewards good for travel?

Post by 8Toretirement »

kcowan wrote:
Thegipper wrote:You also get one 99 dollar companion fair per year.
Fare is 299 to Mexico. So about 450 with all fees and taxes.
And the WestJet dollars can be combined with seat sales for even more savings.

I am with you. I like the dollar for dollar use, just like cash. I don't like rewards plans that devalue the rewards mid program.
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