Airmiles Armchair Chatter

[Disney Addicted]

I don't know the PC Optimum system as well as I feel I know Air Miles either. There's a RDF thread dedicated to PC Optimum that I check in on from time-to-time when there's a big promo happening.

Shoppers had me confused for a long time and I still get confused. I ended up phoning Shoppers last night to make sure I could stack bonus points with threshold spendings.

So, what I do know is:

Shoppers
- gives you points based on the dollar amount you spend
- they do not round up. If you spend $8.99, you get points on $8, NOT $9
- cannot stack TWO threshold spends
- if there's bonus points on a particular item you are purchasing, you get the bonus points as well as the basic 15 points per dollar
- bonus points do not earn the multipliers
- there is something else I had trouble wrapping my head around and now I forget what it was! Ugh **
** so the thing I forgot is apparently you can NOT earn BOTH the multipliers (ie, 20X, 50X) AND the bonus points. Today (Sat 26th) I was told it's one or the other.

Grocery stores
- you can earn points at Loblaws, No Frills and the Royal Canadian Superstore (also Joe Fresh, is this a grocery store? I've never been)
- you do not earn points based on the dollar amount you spend
- you earn the bonus points that are attached to various grocery items
- you earn both threshold spends and the bonus points attached to grocery items
- you can earn multiple bonus points (ie, chunky soup has 1,000 points attached this week. If you buy 5 cans you get 5,000 points)
- you can stack the flyer bonus points and your personal APP offers

PC Optimum APP personal offers
- you can stack TWO personal APP offers! I once had both "1,600 points on every $8 spent at hot foods" and "I forget how many points for $20 spent on pizza, chicken, etc at hot foods". I purchased two rotessorie chickens and they stacked
- flash offers arrive fairly regularly
- most of the time the grocery store offers can be used at either Loblaws, No Frills, RCS or Shoppers Drug Mart but sometimes they are store specific. Watch for that! I was excited yesterday to see my personal offers include a Spend $75 get 7,500 points and the No Frills flyer says Spend $75 get 5,000 points. Normally these would stack but my personal offer specifically says "Loblaws exclusive" on it. I'm glad I realized before I went shopping today!
- also sometimes the APP shows the very same offer in the flyer. Those won't stack as it's not really a personal offer. I wish PC Optimum would stop doing that!

Now that I see this written out it really does not look like a lot of information. I hope it helps people though.

 

[osully]

I spent $35+ @ Independent on random stuff we didnt want to drive to Sobeys or FreshCo for during the bad weather this week. The very next day I had a new offer for 3000 bonus PC Optimum points on a $30+ purchase AND a targeted offer for just about every category we bought. So annoyed.

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

Well, I am back on the chat getting those Lawton's miles. My date calculations were correct, which I knew they were wrong. Got those 30 miles. Now she is working on another missed miles offer of 25 miles from Lawton's.

Not sure how I overlooked these ones! They were both late November, so likely had STB, Black Friday and Christmas on my mind.

These reps are clueless. She said "oh you should fill out a missing miles form next time" I was like, "No, those don't always work because this had a posting time of 4-6 weeks, and those are 120 days." She said "Oh, you are correct"

ugh, my brain hurts already today!

*end of rant*

 

[dancin Disney style]

Grocery stores
- you can earn points at Loblaws, No Frills and the Royal Canadian Superstore (also Joe Fresh, is this a grocery store? I've never been)
.

Joe Fresh is a clothing line. They sell some of it in Loblaws and RCSS. Also, available online and PC points will apply that way too.

 

[mort1331]

You should. 15 points per dollar x 350 = 5250 x 20 = 105,000.

So here's an interesting question. I applied for the PC MC today and wasn't sure which one to order so I ordered the middle one. It states that you get 35 pc points per $1 at shoppers so with the 20X's it would look like this? 50 X 35 X 20 = 35000. Is that correct? Can't be.

If this is right this is great...gettingba switcg at 2/3s the price....will check it out

 

[isabellea]

Joe Fresh is a clothing line. They sell some of it in Loblaws and RCSS. Also, available online and PC points will apply that way too.

There’s also a few standalone Joe Fresh stores. I know there are two in the Montreal region.

 

[Disney Addicted]

I went to Loblaws this afternoon. I ended up spending $94.05 and received 28,200 points.

- 7,500 for spending $75
- 1,500 on goldfish desert crackers (2 packs)
- 5,000 on aylmer canned tomatoes (8 cans)
- 5,000 on chunky soup (5 cans)
- 1,600 on country harvest bagels (2 packs)
- 800 on PC appletreat sauce (2 packs)
- 6,800 on boneless skinless chicken breasts (2 packs)

What's confusing is my APP specifically said 200 points for every $1 spent on Country Harvest Bagels. It was 2 for $5.50 in the store. Instead of 1,000 or maybe even 1,200 (if they rounded up to $6), I received 1,600 points as if I spent $8 in bagels. That's ok. I'll take the points. Arghh... no! I'm going over my receipt again and she charged me for THREE bagels ($8.25) when I only purchased TWO!

My personal APP offer was 200 points for every $1 spent on poultry. The chicken came to $33.01 so I was expecting 6,600 points. The only explanation is Loblaws rounded the $33.01 to $34! I have personal offers of 200 points for every $1 on beef and pork that I'm saving for next week. I'm going to deliberately make my totals just over the dollar mark (ie, .01 to .10 cents) and see if that happens again.

EDITED: I spoke to CS at my local Loblaws to say I was coming back there around 3 pm (I have to drive a girl to McDonald's anyways for her shift) and did I need to bring the bagels in. The CSR says MAYBE it was a mistake. Yeah, bring the receipt back and we'll refund one package of bagels. MAYBE? Seriously?! Why the heck would I lie about $2.75? I'm not letting them keep $2.75 in exchange for 600 points (.60 cents worth) when I didn't purchase a product. She can take the 600 points back as well. Sheesh!

 

[Donald - my hero]

I just spent close to an hour studying all the flyers and now my head hurts! (doesn't take much on my Toronto days for that to happen, if you're ever curious as to I have done to my head, send me a PM and i'll share )

I had papers everywhere, the list we've made throughout the week sitting on my lap, calculator on my phone open, pencil in one hand and tongue stuck out (why do we do that when concentrating??) Eventually I just packed them all up and decided NOPE, i can't make this work, too many variables. Most of the big earners thru this Point Day thing are items we never use so i wouldn't buy them anyway, I do need some things from a drug store but i HATE that the Shoppers flyer doesn't really list prices for most items so i can't compare to Rexall or Metro. There are so many things we still need to buy at Metro and we have a threshold offer there this week. We really don't care for Zehrs because it seems that they stock TONS of their own products and not much else and their produce is hit & miss.

Again, to those of you who are able to sort this all out and work BOTH reward programmes, KUDOS, I'm impressed

 

[ottawamom]

I've got to say the volume of points they award are enticing. I find myself saying 5,000 points that's $5. I don't need (that item) enough. I'm trying to work through all the food I have in this house so that I will be able to take advantage of the next Blue Friday. Airmiles are my main interest. The PC points systems is tempting but that's just making my shopping too complicated for me. As it is I shop at Sobeys, Metro and Foodland.

This week I will be going to Metro only. Picking up only the things I will use within the next two weeks. If I use all 3 household cards to their advantage I should get 125AM for this weeks shop. Not great but every little bit helps.

Cashier at Rexall told me there is a $50 get 100AM for late next week. Maybe I'll do that.

 

[dancin Disney style]

There’s also a few standalone Joe Fresh stores. I know there are two in the Montreal region.

Yes there are but the stand alones are different. They carry the full line. There are also couture stores that carry even more.

 

[Pumpkin1172]

I work both programs as best as I can. Again...I don't buy things we don't need or use at either store just to get the AM or points. We don't have many places to shop for AM...so I'm able to venture out of the box and use the PC program as well. The bulk of my AM come from Safeway ( no rexall close to me without a 40+ minute drive to the next town ) and I do have a shoppers and a no frills on my end of the city. So it's only a 5 minute drive for me. I was able to save close to 500.00 last year with the PC points. The bulk of them from shoppers. I bought some bedding plants with them, and then cashed them out at xmas for a nintendo switch for the boys. I'm trying to build them again...to maybe cash out and use that cash for excursions when we go to Mexico in 107 days lol. I do what I can...and let the rest go. I can only do so much. As much as I like to see those totals for both AM and pc points climb...I'm a busy momma and can only do so much.

 

[kerreyn]

Does anyone know, or has anyone had experience with Marlin Travel? Specifically, how long did it take for air miles to post to your account? We paid off our trip on Dec. 15/18 (before Marlin/Transat quit air miles), and still haven't received the air miles from our trip. Just thought I'd check here before dealing with the online chat.

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

Just back from Superstore. I didn't do any of the bonus offers. I'm trying to not eat that stuff!

I did cash out another 50,000 points ($50) so drove over to Walmart and bought another $50 Disney gift card Buy collecting them now, I feel like I am semi-planning another trip there sooner than later!

 

[Days In the Sun]

So here's an interesting question. I applied for the PC MC today and wasn't sure which one to order so I ordered the middle one. It states that you get 35 pc points per $1 at shoppers so with the 20X's it would look like this? 50 X 35 X 20 = 35000. Is that correct? Can't be.

Unfortunately not, the 35 points is actually 15 base points that you earn anyway and 20 bonus points per dollar so you get 1.5% back normally plus another 2% for the credit card.

Example, spend $1 = 15 base points (on your Shoppers receipt) plus 20 bonus points when the amount posts to your credit card = 35 points.
Example, spend $50 on a 20x day = 15x50 = 750 base points (on your Shoppers receipt) + 19x15x50 = 14,250 bonus points (on your receipt) = 15,000 for $50 or 30%, plus credit card $50x20 points per dollar =1,000 credit card points later.

So on a normal 20x when you spend $50 you get 16,000 points or 32% back, tomorrow there is a promo for a bonus 5000 points so you would get 21,000 or 42% back.

Edit:
just adding,
if you have a personal offer say 200 points per $1 on an item, you would get an additional 20% back on top of the above etc.

 

[dancin Disney style]

Does anyone know, or has anyone had experience with Marlin Travel? Specifically, how long did it take for air miles to post to your account? We paid off our trip on Dec. 15/18 (before Marlin/Transat quit air miles), and still haven't received the air miles from our trip. Just thought I'd check here before dealing with the online chat.

I’ve used Marlin (only to get the miles) 6 or 7 times now. They are supposed to post after the completion of travel. That said, only my last trip posted without me having to do a missing miles request. The last trip was my Christmas trip and the miles actually posted a couple of days after I booked. I booked around Dec 12th for departure on the 24th. I wondered if it had anything to do with me using travel vouchers as partial payment.

 

[kerreyn]

We used $3k in vouchers and paid $8k for the remainder of the trip. I though we would get the air miles once the trip was paid in full. I just don’t want to get screwed over because they’ve ended their partnership. Maybe Monday I’ll do an online chat.

 

[dancin Disney style]

Was just reading on ‘that’ Facebook group. Someone says that she spoke to a Sobeys manager and was told that next Friday is Blue Friday in Ontario. So now we wait and see

 

[kerreyn]

Was just reading on ‘that’ Facebook group. Someone says that she spoke to a Sobeys manager and was told that next Friday is Blue Friday in Ontario. So now we wait and see

That would be a quick turn around!

 

[dancin Disney style]

We used $3k in vouchers and paid $8k for the remainder of the trip. I though we would get the air miles once the trip was paid in full. I just don’t want to get screwed over because they’ve ended their partnership. Maybe Monday I’ll do an online chat.

You will only get miles on the pre tax amount minus the vouchers.

 

[dancin Disney style]

That would be a quick turn around!

I find it very unusual so I’ll believe it when I see it.