You need to do a lot of shopping at the stores that have them. I buy groceries at Safeway and I will often buy things like toilet paper when they have a "buy 2, get a bunch of air miles" deals. Also, if you get miles at more places, you can move up to gold so you get better deals. If you only use the card at one or two places that accepts it, it's a lot harder to accumulate points.
I used to redeem them for CDs back in the day. Most recently, I used them for a trip to Barbados and this past spring break to pay for my rental car in Hawaii.
If you want to use them for travel, there is a big difference in how many miles are needed for low season and high season, although I am strictly a high season traveller and I've been able to get trips.
|