Airmiles Armchair Chatter

[ilovetotravel1977]

Has anyone else been finding a lack of discounted flights for air miles? I have checked every month from now to March for flights to Miami from Hfx to no avail. The random weeks I checked had zero flights for 2,325 miles. I've never had issue with this before. If I did find a random discounted flight, it was Westjet and made you overnight for a 19-hour ordeal! The flights are the main reason I collect.

 

[kerreyn]

Has anyone else been finding a lack of discounted flights for air miles? I have checked every month from now to March for flights to Miami from Hfx to no avail. The random weeks I checked had zero flights for 2,325 miles. I've never had issue with this before. If I did find a random discounted flight, it was Westjet and made you overnight for a 19-hour ordeal! The flights are the main reason I collect.

This has been happening with flights out of YYC for 3-4 years, and the main reason why I stopped actively collecting AM's, until I found out we could purchase WDW and Universal passes with them. Fo flijts, we get better deals with our WestJet MC and Infinite Avion Visa.

 

[1926Moon]

Hi all - I am so excited to have found this thread!

We are on Vancouver Island so basically the only places I can collect regularly are Recall and Thrifty's. Thrifty's does not seem to have near the deals that Safeway used to :/
We manage to collect a ton of miles through our BMO MC, and I have managed to work the mastercard deals that they come out with to my full advantage. They had a great one last November that if you had a $3k transaction, you would get 800 miles**, this just happened to coincide with when my tuition of $11k was due, so I split it into three payments to get 2400 miles Please the 1100 miles for the 1 mile every $10.

**though this does not seem to be near the deal you guys managed to score due to pickles? Good grief! Thrifty's and Rexall do NOT have deals like that!!

Airmiles is advertising 2,000 bonus miles if you sign up for the Amex and spend $1500 over three months - has anyone here done that just to get the miles? We already put everything through our BMO MC to get the miles, but I was wondering applying for the Amex, getting the miles, and then cancelling down the road.....almost seems too simple!

Also - just in case anyone else did not know about this - in the last few months we have managed to get GREAT deals on budget rental cars via the airmiles site - crazy discounts, and then additional discounts if you prepay, plus they quote the prices in CDN. We are going to Florida over the US thanksgiving weekend and we just secured a full-size for 8 days at $155 CDN (Alamo and everywhere else weren't even close in price).

 

[Donald - my hero]

I'm glad you found us @1926Moon to the hunt! You live in a beautiful part of the country, but i hear you over the time & cost of getting off the island (think you mentioned that in the redemption thread??) It's frustrating that the offers thru AM are not consistent across the entire country.

There are several people who I'm sure will chime in with comments over the AMEX sign-up bonus, not something I've done personally since we already have the card, but others have done it successfully. Sign up, refer their spouse and apply for another card to get double the bonus miles and then cancel once the conditions are met.

I think our best scores thru AM have without a doubt, been car rentals. Not sure if you're talking about using AM to pay for the rental or just booking thru budget directly but either way that's a great price!

 

[mort1331]

Yup done the Amex card deal, super easy. Was about to do it again, but the pickles beat it out. No issues with doing the card swap, we kept all our reg cards, added this one. Completed and got the AM then cancelled, no issues.
Good luck on the collecting.

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

Ditto. I applied, did the promo, then referred Hubby, did the promo. Cancelled both cards one month prior to the 1-year mark.

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

This has been happening with flights out of YYC for 3-4 years, and the main reason why I stopped actively collecting AM's, until I found out we could purchase WDW and Universal passes with them. Fo flijts, we get better deals with our WestJet MC and Infinite Avion Visa.

It sucks because I can earn enough for 3-4 flights to Florida (6975-9300 miles) in one year with my BMO World Elite card and air miles collecting, but based on the $1=1 point for the above cards, it would take much longer for me to earn enough for one flight in a year! 35,000 points for a long haul flight = that's $35,000 (?)

 

[1926Moon]

I think our best scores thru AM have without a doubt, been car rentals. Not sure if you're talking about using AM to pay for the rental or just booking thru budget directly but either way that's a great price!

For us it has been booking with budget through the airmiles portal. I haven't used my actual miles for booking a car yet

 

[1926Moon]

Thanks all for the Amex feedback - I will look into it this week
And today I am off to Rexall!!

 

[kerreyn]

It sucks because I can earn enough for 3-4 flights to Florida (6975-9300 miles) in one year with my BMO World Elite card and air miles collecting, but based on the $1=1 point for the above cards, it would take much longer for me to earn enough for one flight in a year! 35,000 points for a long haul flight = that's $35,000 (?)

We use our Visa and MC for any purchase over $10, and as small business owners it can add up quick. While it does take a while to accumulate the points, I like that there are no blackout dates, and the rate is the rate, it doesn't go up.

I hadn't used my Avion points for almost 2 years, and just booked two first class tickets to Kona, Hawaii in November for the hubby and I. With the upgrade and cashing in all my points, it cost $28 for the flight.

 

[Honeystar120608]

So when something is in the flyer...sobeys to be exact offering ...I dunno...25 AM., if I bought that item (s) once a few days ago, if I went back would I be able to collect once more? Or is it a one time shot that week?

 

[Donald - my hero]

So when something is in the flyer...sobeys to be exact offering ...I dunno...25 AM., if I bought that item (s) once a few days ago, if I went back would I be able to collect once more? Or is it a one time shot that week?

If an item is in the flyer you can buy it as many times as you want .. the same day, same sale, next day ...unless the flyer states a limit or your store has a sign up limiting quantities you're good to go! When Sobeys has the amazing ice cream treat offer last summer (not quite as good as Pickle 2017 but decent!) you had to buy 3 items ... we bought i think 15, got the bonus 5 times. Have at it, fill your cart!!

The once and done offers are the targeted offers you get and load to your card.

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

We use our Visa and MC for any purchase over $10, and as small business owners it can add up quick. While it does take a while to accumulate the points, I like that there are no blackout dates, and the rate is the rate, it doesn't go up.

I hadn't used my Avion points for almost 2 years, and just booked two first class tickets to Kona, Hawaii in November for the hubby and I. With the upgrade and cashing in all my points, it cost $28 for the flight.

Yes, I suppose that is the trade-off...no blackouts and you can pay your taxes with your points as well.

 

[kerreyn]

I think they have to be on separate transactions though. So if something is buy 3 and get 25 airmiles, you can't buy 6 to get 50. I've been burned doing that.

 

[Donald - my hero]

I think they have to be on separate transactions though. So if something is buy 3 and get 25 airmiles, you can't buy 6 to get 50. I've been burned doing that.

We've never had a problem at Metro, Sobeys or Foodland with doing multiple offers in one sale. Both our Metro and the Sobeys we go to have self-check tills that show the Airmiles as you go so that if something is missed, it's easy to get it fixed before even finishing the sale. The recent pickle offer also shows you can do multiple sales in one transaction, otherwise i think the cashier who had the experience of ringing up @mort1331 entire skid into however many sales of 2 jars each would have blown a gasket

 

[kerreyn]

We've never had a problem at Metro, Sobeys or Foodland with doing multiple offers in one sale. Both our Metro and the Sobeys we go to have self-check tills that show the Airmiles as you go so that if something is missed, it's easy to get it fixed before even finishing the sale. The recent pickle offer also shows you can do multiple sales in one transaction, otherwise i think the cashier who had the experience of ringing up @mort1331 entire skid into however many sales of 2 jars each would have blown a gasket

Nice - by the time I realize it, I'm usually in the car or at home.

 

[bababear_50]

Rexall coupon
Hugs Mel
http://images.rexall.ca/newsletter/2017/Apr24/Apr24-COUPON-5080-ONMB.pdf

 

[damo]

Rexall coupon
Hugs Mel
http://images.rexall.ca/newsletter/2017/Apr24/Apr24-COUPON-5080-ONMB.pdf

We'll see how that works with my 60/100 load 'n go this week.

 

[kerreyn]

We'll see how that works with my 60/100 load 'n go this week.

Your Load and Go is better than mine! I've got spend $10, get 20 AM. That's it - no item specific offers either. This is the second week in a row, not sure what's up with that.

On the plus side, we managed to scrape up 201 airmiles at Safeway yesterday, spent $130.

 

[samsteele]

A bit off topic, but has anyone else found that no regular flight rewards are available for the last week of Sept for roundtrip direct flight from Toronto to Orlando? I checked this morning & looks like I am out of luck using my air miles for my flights. Am I just too early & is it likely this will be possible over the next month or so? Didn't think snowbirds would have snapped up direct flights for late Sept. They are more of a late Oct (after Thanksgiving) crowd. I can book separate direct flights but not a roundtrip. With the separate flights, looks like I'd pay the fee & taxes x2 so not a great use of either my miles or cash upcharge. Thanks in advance for any info if you have found a work around for this.