Air Miles

[Bill Bumface]

I think the scam of credit card companies tacking a bunch of fees on to transactions that they then give you back a portion of with some sort of liability program is a scam that needs to stop.

I use my credit card for everything because they aren't going to lower the prices if I stop, but if cash or debit was 4% cheaper everywhere, I'd just happily do that instead of paying a whole company to manage my vacation savings.

[Drummer]

I wonder if Safeway had a chat with Air Miles and threatened to dump them unless they got their act together.

[MoneyGuy]

Procrastinators FTW.

[speede5]

Originally Posted by jaydorn

Click & collect. $3-$5 is well worth the price of not setting foot in the store.

3-5$ difference? what do you buy bread and milk and then leave? My grocery bill would be at least 25% higher if i did comparable at Safeway. I go there on sundays for fresh bagels and a few other things but thats about it.

[speede5]

Originally Posted by photon

After everyone madly spent their supposedly expiring points

Yup, mine are gone. I wouldn't doubt they played us a bit on that.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by speede5

3-5$ difference? what do you buy bread and milk and then leave? My grocery bill would be at least 25% higher if i did comparable at Safeway. I go there on sundays for fresh bagels and a few other things but thats about it.

No, he's saying you can order your groceries online from superstore and pick them up at the front for a fee of $3-$5 (depending on when). You still get superstore prices plus the convenience fee.

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

No, he's saying you can order your groceries online from superstore and pick them up at the front for a fee of $3-$5 (depending on when). You still get superstore prices plus the convenience fee.

Basically: Superstore without all of the Superstore.

[pylon]

Originally Posted by woob

Oh man.. Didn't pylon cash in like 15,000 miles because of the expiry? That's enough for some decent flights. I suspect he's going to be livid.

Nah. Don't care. It's so difficult to get a decent flight anyway I'm happy to be done with them.

I have always stacked Airmiles purchases by using my Avion card to pay for the purchase, and have about 200,000 Avion points. That's 4-5 flights to Hawaii. And there is zero restrictions with Avion.

If you don't have an Avion Visa. Get one. Best rewards card out there IMO.

[Fleury’sOTGoalCelebration]

Well SOB... glad I came across this as I thought they were still expiring at the 5 year mark... Too bad I had already dumped 4500 on a laptop that I didn't really need.

[doctajones428]

...My parents dropped over 90,000 in the past couple months. They are still sitting on 30,000 but this not the point. They got some really cool stuff out of it but it's really nothing they needed. Such a waste

[4X4]

It feels like this was all a ruse to get people to dump their points. It pisses me off because I happened to joke about having enough points for a trip to Vegas, but I went and spent the points on a couple of things I didn't need, so they wouldn't be wasted. A couple weeks later, my buddy called to tell me he's engaged, and the bachelor party is going to be in Vegas in May.
Thanks, Air Miles. Pretty shady, IMO.

[Resolute 14]

I don't think it was a ruse. When you look at people like doctajones' parents blowing 90,000 points, that rather explains why AirMiles wanted to introduce the expiry: All of those points represent a growing financial liability. They clearly wanted to reduce and limit this, thus expiring points.

They had to reverse course because Ontario was about to pass a law banning the points from expiring. If Ontario did it, other provinces would follow quickly. From AirMiles' perspective, better to just back off and avoid facing any other potential impacts from a law targeting them.

That said, I wouldn't doubt it if a lawsuit or two gets filed out of this.

[Northendzone]

CBC's marketplace ran a show targeting air miles the other day, I did not see the entire show; however, I did catch one part where a guy was trying to book a flight to London, England (I think) and the air miles fees associated with their he trip were around $600. The ticket from air canada's website were a little over $500.

The owner of the air miles asked the air miles operator why the fee's and the owner was told to call air Canada - who I am sure has terrific insights on fees charged by air miles.

Another guy could not find a flight months in advance to New Zealand, while another woman had trouble with the web site timing out multiple times while she was trying to book a hotel room.

[Amethyst]

Was this during the recent rush to use expiring Air Miles? I've book airline tickets and rented cars with no issues (and I always have to travel at busy times, due to my work). The only fees I've ever had to pay where taxes and airport facility fees or car rental fees that were the same as when I tried to book those things on my own.

[taco.vidal]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

CBC's marketplace ran a show targeting air miles the other day, I did not see the entire show; however, I did catch one part where a guy was trying to book a flight to London, England (I think) and the air miles fees associated with their he trip were around $600. The ticket from air canada's website were a little over $500.

The owner of the air miles asked the air miles operator why the fee's and the owner was told to call air Canada - who I am sure has terrific insights on fees charged by air miles.

Another guy could not find a flight months in advance to New Zealand, while another woman had trouble with the web site timing out multiple times while she was trying to book a hotel room.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/mark...alue-1.3875034

[Amethyst]

Ah, not really and Air Miles thing but an airline thing. I haven't used Air Miles for a flight to Europe. Got a great deal for spring break in Barbados though. :-)

[Scrambler]

I like Airmiles Cash... forget about travel, you can get much better deals for travel paying for it.

[Amethyst]

Originally Posted by Scrambler

I like Airmiles Cash... forget about travel, you can get much better deals for travel paying for it.

Sometimes. Hard to get those good deals though when you can only travel during high season.

[FlamesAddiction]

I have been collecting Aeroplan miles for a while now and have about 150,000 (enough for 2 return economy class flights to Europe).

I haven't heard nearly the amount of negative things about Aeroplan as I have about Air Miles, but they are harder to accumulate as fewer places offer them. Has anyone had any negative experiences with that loyalty program?

Aeroplan also used to have an expiration where if you didn't use your card in a year, they would expire. But they got rid of that policy years ago. They also haven't changed the valuation of their points in several years, but I am expecting it soon.

Edit: I meant 2 economy tickets.

[InglewoodFan]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

I have been collecting Aeroplan miles for a while now and have about 150,000 (enough for 2 return business class flights to Europe).

I haven't heard nearly the amount of negative things about Aeroplan as I have about Air Miles, but they are harder to accumulate as fewer places offer them. Has anyone had any negative experiences with that loyalty program?

Aeroplan also used to have an expiration where if you didn't use your card in a year, they would expire. But they got rid of that policy years ago. They also haven't changed the valuation of their points in several years, but I am expecting it soon.

With Aeroplan, the biggest downside are the taxes and surcharges. I was a business flyer for years in a previous life and earned probably close to 500000 aeroplan miles. It used to be a sweet deal, total taxes and fees on a biz class ticket to Auckland 10 years ago - $80. Contrast that with wanting to take my family of four to Italy last year - taxes and fees were $3200. Hardly worth it. One secret is to fly on AC metal as little as possible, United flights booked as an Aeroplan reward for example have much lower taxes and fees. We are looking at United to Cancun via Houston for example, a quick stopover saves us hundreds.