Airmiles Armchair Chatter

[momof2gr8kids]

Well we decided we are going back to Disney next August. So it looks like I am saving airmiles for Disney tickets again. I will need four this year. That seems ambitious even for me. But maybe I can do 3 by next summer. I have 2000 airmiles right now, and I have almost a year. I went and bought three more boxes of popsicle treats. Hey.. don't judge.. it's all for the tickets.

Af
It sure helps with the trip budget, getting the tickets for free. Especially now with the exchange rate! After this we will be saving for a late 2018 or Spring 2019 for 7 or 8 of us, most likely Universal, so will be saving like crazy for that.

 

[ottawamom]

They've had it the last couple of weekends. I missed out on the first couple as I didn't notice it on the last page of the flyer - it's usually at the beginning. I went this weekend, spent $159 and got 512 am. There were lots of things on sale with bonus AM as well so I focused on stocking up on that stuff. I find it hard to stock up that much at Safeway due to their higher prices, but sometimes, like this weekend, the sales are good, the bonus AM are good, and works out great.

Western Sobey's/Safeway: I just had a look at the flyer to see what the deal was all about. It is a coupon. One coupon per transaction. Spend $150 get 190AM. Does this mean you could purchase a $150 Gift Card or was it only for grocery purchases? I'm concerned this could be coming to Ontario. I have accumulated major AM with the gift cards and would hate to see it become more of a chore to get them.

 

[momof2gr8kids]

Western Sobey's/Safeway: I just had a look at the flyer to see what the deal was all about. It is a coupon. One coupon per transaction. Spend $150 get 190AM. Does this mean you could purchase a $150 Gift Card or was it only for grocery purchases? I'm concerned this could be coming to Ontario. I have accumulated major AM with the gift cards and would hate to see it become more of a chore to get them.

Not sure. I didn't even check if it included gift cards because previous ones stated gift cards in exclusions. Will take a closer look at the flyer if I still have it.

 

[bababear_50]

I usually don't shop Rexall on Monday. I just needed a few of the things I picked up today. It's just as well that I only purchased what I absolutely needed.

Is it too late to return the chair and purchase it again? I've been known to do that upon occasion.

Hi Hon
Normally I would have taken it back, but it was a chair and way too big once put together to fit into my car.
Hugs Mel

 

[cview]

For those who have used airmiles for flights - is it possible to book flying round-trip outside Canada? Our closest departure airport is in a US city, not Canadian, for booking our flights to Orlando. It would be really out of the way to book a Canadian departure just to use airmiles. Was wondering if this might be an Onyx perk? Thanks!

 

[ottawamom]

Just checked the AM Website. It says that flights must include a Canadian origin or destination. I think that means that flying from a US city to Orlando would not be possible.

 

[Donald - my hero]

Doorbell just rang and i found my second pass just sitting on the front step ... they didn't mail it, sent it via UPS but seems the driver didn't notice the signature required box ... OOPS. Oh well, already linked it to MDE account and we're good to go on that front.

Next up?? Rental car ... heading to Rexall tomorrow to see how many 50.00 transactions i can manage

 

[ottawamom]

Doorbell just rang and i found my second pass just sitting on the front step ... they didn't mail it, sent it via UPS but seems the driver didn't notice the signature required box ... OOPS. Oh well, already linked it to MDE account and we're good to go on that front.

Next up?? Rental car ... heading to Rexall tomorrow to see how many 50.00 transactions i can manage

How long ago did you order that pass. I ordered 3 on July 17th and I haven't heard or seen anything yet. I'm a little further away but still!

 

[Aladora]

How long ago did you order that pass. I ordered 3 on July 17th and I haven't heard or seen anything yet. I'm a little further away but still!

I ordered one DL pass two days ago and the shipping notification I got today has an ETA of two days from now!

 

[Donald - my hero]

How long ago did you order that pass. I ordered 3 on July 17th and I haven't heard or seen anything yet. I'm a little further away but still!

I ordered in on Thursday July 21st. Got an e-mail on Monday telling me it had been shipped and provided a tracking link to click on to the UPS site. This was the closing line of that e-mail

As always, if you have a question about your order or haven't received your Reward within 10
days, contact us here "link" that goes to the Airmiles website.

I'd say if you didn't get the e-mail telling you it has been shipped you should chase it up the flag pole! The one i ordered on June 6th? I got a shipping confirmation e-mail on June 10th and it came via Canada post a few days later. Looks to me like you need to follow up?

 

[ottawamom]

Follow up on the tickets I ordered. I ordered 3 7-day tickets. Apparently, they are waiting for a new shipment from Florida. The tickets are in queue and will be sent out once they are received. I mentioned that others had ordered later and received their tickets but in hindsight they may not have been 7-day tickets.

My warning to all is I don't know if a new shipment means anything? (don't want to put it out there in the universe). All I know is they are waiting for a new shipment of 7-day tickets.

On the flight changes front. Airmiles assures me they sent out an email notifying me and my travel companion (separate email accounts) of the changes to our flights as soon as they received the info from Air Canada. Neither of us received it and it was worded such that if you have a problem contact them otherwise you're booked on the new flight. After seeing the wording in the reference line we would never have accidentally deleted it and it didn't go to spam because we check it before deleting.

CHECK ALL FLIGHTS REGARDLESS OF WHO YOU BOOK WITH REGULARLY. NO ONE WANTS SURPRISES LIKE THESE.

 

[Donald - my hero]

Just got back from a Rexall shopping extravaganza --- spent 103.87 and earned 225 Am -- not too shabby.

While i was wandering around with the calculator and shopping list (yes I will take over 30 minutes to make sure i make the best use of those coupons -- one sale 51.94 and the other 51.93) the sales clerks kept telling me to be sure and check this week's flyer because it's (as my favourite teller said) "a real zinger" Something about spend $50 get 100 and lots of promotional items as well so heads up to watch for the flyer! SIDE note .. the coupon i get on Friday is often a better deal so I'll be sure to mention it as soon as i can.

 

[DilEmma]

For those who have used airmiles for flights - is it possible to book flying round-trip outside Canada? Our closest departure airport is in a US city, not Canadian, for booking our flights to Orlando. It would be really out of the way to book a Canadian departure just to use airmiles. Was wondering if this might be an Onyx perk? Thanks!

A while back I phoned and asked this specific question. It has to be Canadian origin. I guess it makes sense from their perspective since it is a distance based program. Too bad.

 

[DilEmma]

Doorbell just rang and i found my second pass just sitting on the front step ... they didn't mail it, sent it via UPS but seems the driver didn't notice the signature required box ... OOPS. Oh well, already linked it to MDE account and we're good to go on that front.

Next up?? Rental car ... heading to Rexall tomorrow to see how many 50.00 transactions i can manage

My best ever AirMiles redemption was an Orlando car rental - we were upgraded to a minivan for the ten days.
2,275 AirMiles, $11.30 CDN booking fee and $72.54 USD in taxes at destination...

The cheapest car rental I could find over Christmas was $575 CDN but the minivan would have been over $900 USD. At the cheap car end that was 25 cents per AirMile.

Now, I wouldn't have reserved a minivan on my own for the five of us but it sure was nice to have. Really really nice. At the $900 USD (or $1,300 CDN at the time) that was a whopping 57 cents value I got per AirMile. Of course that's all just mental accounting because it would have been more than 2,275 AirMiles if I actually booked the minivan instead of an intermediate. But wow, I loved the value I got out of that deal!

That was National car rental. I'd certainly use them again for an AirMiles booking. They have an Emerald lane where you just pick the vehicle you want regardless of what was booked and paid for. Sweet.

 

[DilEmma]

Valuing an AirMile REDEMPTION

I've been meaning to post this for awhile but typing on my iPad is onerous. But here goes, not as lengthy if I was on a PC... But then you should all be relieved .

I think it's important to have a gauge of how to value an AirMile... At least for all us serious collectors here. We earn them strategically and we should certainly redeem them strategically. I still feel a slight sting when I redeemed AirMiles for an expensive hotel award without first calculating the value I was getting per AirMile.

I think the easiest way to calculate the value of an AirMile redemption is by comparing the Dream Miles to the Cash Miles value.

HoHum - 10.52 cents per AirMile
The most basic (and HoHum) calculation for valuing an AirMiles redemption is by comparing it to the most basic cash value:

95 cash AirMiles gets you a $10 instant discount off whatever you are purchasing at a number of locations.
That's 10.52 cents in value per AirMile when you redeem for a standard cash award ($10/95*100=10.52).

Certainly a redemption that gets 10.52 cents per AirMile can be viewed as pretty good. It gets the equivalent of a cash AirMile.

But I know that is HoHum and that we can up our game.

AirMiles with sriachi sauce - 14.28 cents per AirMile
A common promotion for redeeming AirMiles cash is - get 25 bonus AirMiles when you redeem 95 for $10.
When I say common though, it's not a weekly offer but I've seen it often enough where I feel I can reasonably rely upon several redemptions a year.

So you end up with $10 for 70 AirMiles. That's a much better redemption at 14.28 cents per AirMile value ($10/(95-25)*100=14.28). And I'd much rather wait for this promo and redeem my Cash AirMiles for a more favourable rate.

But I'm crazy so I'd much rather up my game to ...

An AirMiles Badass - minimum 18.18 cents per AirMile
Certainly not as frequent as the AirMiles with Sriachi Sauce promo, this is my minimum standard for my redemptions. Earn 40 bonus AirMiles when you redeem 95 Cash AirMiles for $10.

I recently used this at Rexall (to earn other bonus AirMiles of course).

So that puts an AirMile at 18.18 cents for the infrequent bonus cash redemption of redeem 95 AirMiles for $10 savings and get 40 bonus AirMiles.

I strategically earn and burn. And I'm happy to wait for these promos to maximize my value per point. I just recently adjusted my Cash Miles to 10% so that I could take advantage of the higher end bonus. I put the Cash Miles slider back to zero once I hit a measly three redemptions because I know I can do better with Dream Miles.

But it's also nice to pay zero (or almost) cash for my typical Rexall spend $30 earn 50 AirMiles stacked with the spend $25 get $5 off coupon.

Of course, the Gold Standard redemption value is....
Your best one to date!
But I've reconciled that strategy will drive me nuts.

I've only been collecting AirMiles seriously since this time last year. I'm trying not to regret not jumping on this sooner. Oh, the past deals I've read about. Sigh.

Anyway, if you've read this far, please share anything I've missed or got wrong.

I've seen some awesome redemptions on this thread! You guys (gals mostly) are truly badass.

(Typed on iPad - please excuse typos and formatting inconsistency)

 

[Donald - my hero]

Wow! You hurt my head with that breakdown! In fact i tried a few times to have my sleep-deprived brain make sense out of it and i gave up! How do we value those little blue-nuggets of happiness? Hubby uses the very basic calculation of 1 Am per dollar when earning them. Anything better than that we'll consider chucking it in the basket, lower.. move along. That's really the only thing we do .. lazy perhaps? We never buy anything we don't need (ok, maybe over did the frozen treat a couple of weeks ago but so YUMMY) and I've never collected them in any fashion other than dream rewards.

When it comes to cashing them in? I honestly don't put a whole lot of thought into it --- since i figure everything is essentially FREE! Must admit I only use them for travel based rewards -- rarely flights because i can often do better searching for a sale (the taxes on the tickets are nuts sometimes)-- I love using them for hotels at one end or the other of a flight, but like you, I think my best ever redemption is always car rentals. Gotta love it when even the person at the counter wonders why you only need to pay 73.00 for a 2 week rental!

I'm gonna let my hubby look at your breakdown later, he LOVES those kinds of puzzlers.

 

[DilEmma]

Wow! You hurt my head with that breakdown! In fact i tried a few times to have my sleep-deprived brain make sense out of it and i gave up! How do we value those little blue-nuggets of happiness? Hubby uses the very basic calculation of 1 Am per dollar when earning them. Anything better than that we'll consider chucking it in the basket, lower.. move along. That's really the only thing we do .. lazy perhaps? We never buy anything we don't need (ok, maybe over did the frozen treat a couple of weeks ago but so YUMMY) and I've never collected them in any fashion other than dream rewards.

When it comes to cashing them in? I honestly don't put a whole lot of thought into it --- since i figure everything is essentially FREE! Must admit I only use them for travel based rewards -- rarely flights because i can often do better searching for a sale (the taxes on the tickets are nuts sometimes)-- I love using them for hotels at one end or the other of a flight, but like you, I think my best ever redemption is always car rentals. Gotta love it when even the person at the counter wonders why you only need to pay 73.00 for a 2 week rental!

I'm gonna let my hubby look at your breakdown later, he LOVES those kinds of puzzlers.

Sorry it was a long post. And that I hurt your head (gah, I tried to insert a smile here).
I edited the header in my previous post to clarify I was valuing them for redemptions. Thanks for that idea.

I love that you value earning AirMiles at one per dollar...!

Edit:
Bahahaha... I just saw all the smilies at the top. I'll leave them there because (I think) it's funny. See how hard I tried!?!

 

[DilEmma]

"Hubby uses the very basic calculation of 1 Am per dollar ..."
"I'm gonna let my hubby look at your breakdown later..."

Envy.
My DH could care quite a bit more about points AFAIC.

 

[bababear_50]

Metro flyer out
might pick up a few things here

KRAFT DINNER
$3.99 ea.
SAVE UP TO $2.50
4 x 225 gCRACKER BARREL CHEESE SLICES 220 - 240 g,PEANUT BUTTER 500 g or JAM 500 ml
SELECTED VARIETIES

25
bonus Reward miles when you buy 3

http://www.metro.ca/flyer/upcoming.en.html?id=352

Hugs Mel

 

[pigletto]

Rexall flyer always goes up on Saveland.ca on Wednesdays for the upcoming week. In Ontario it's a Spend $50 get $100 Airmiles.

Certain brands of sunscreen are a good price. I just bought two bottles of the Hawaiian Tropic that I like, but it's on again for $7.99 so I might as well get a few more. We go through it like crazy as two of us are very pale and burn easily. There are bonus miles on some things, but not good enough to buy anything I wouldn't buy regularly. I just did a Spend $50 get 100 on Monday with a coupon, but I will do another on Friday for cottage snacks, milk, bread, sunscreen, afterbite, Band Aids, Perrier and Ibuprofen.

I was able to stock up on ds's allergy meds on Monday for a good price. He takes one pill a day from about now until first frost, so it gets expensive. Might as well get the miles for it while it's on sale. The trick with Rexall is always only buying what it is onsale. It horribly overpriced unless it's a sale. Heads up for anyone buying Coppertone, it's on Checkout51 this upcoming week for $1 back making it $6.99. You can only redeem once, but dh and I both have a Checkout 51 account so that helps.