About Airmiles.

Next up, in our breakdown of loyalty programs is Airmiles. This is one of the most confusing loyalty programs I’ve ever experienced. I remember the first time I got an Airmiles card, I was very excited because I was under the impression that the points you collected equated to actual miles on the air. I collected for months, until one day I went online to check how many miles I had gathered up to that point, when it prompted me to choose how I wanted to use the Airmiles. It asked how I wanted my airmiles to be divided, between Cash and Dream Miles. As I understood it, the Dream Miles was for air travel, and that was what I wanted. I understood I would need many miles to get a free trip eventually and I was okay that, until I found out that Airmiles were not one to one equivalent. The number of miles needed to achieve a trip, or even a discount on a flight was massive, and the rate of obtaining miles was very low.

At that point, I realized that using the miles for money off of purchased goods would probably pay out better, than to hope to use them for flights.

It turns out that to get $10 off at one of the stores that subscribe to Airmiles, you need 95 Cash Miles and you can use up to $750 which would be 7,125 Cash Miles daily. If you consider the low rate that miles are earned, that is very unlikely to be achieved if you are a casual Airmiles user.

The business is setup for you to obtain other means to earn the Airmiles, such as credit cards that have sign on airmiles bonuses, or a faster rate of obtaining miles by regular use of said credit cards. Also, if you are diligent on which store have promotions on Airmiles it might be faster. There is a variety of stores that use Airmiles, and although they are very popular among big retailers to obtain the higher amount of rewards it either takes a long time earning or subscribing mainly to the products that help you collect.

Another downside to the Cash and Dream Miles split is that it is not transferable. Once you’ve accumulated Miles they are staying in that side of the rewards. You are allowed to change how much percentage you wish to put into either one, as many times as you want, but the earned miles stay as what they have been earned. If you are like me, and work towards the Dream Miles, only to find out that the amount of miles needed is not a one to one ratio, and in fact there is no set amount as it varies from what places you are travelling to, to the type of seat preference. You realize that you’ve been collecting something that you probably will not get to redeem unless you join their other product lines and promotions. Then, realize that you cannot use the earned Miles for the other type of reward, and ultimately, they are useless to you. It is for this reason that I find Airmiles to be confusing, and intentionally ambiguous to mislead their users.