Airmiles Armchair Chatter

[kimbert]

OOoooohhhh, I also just received (dated Jan. 22) my 50 AM from Airmilesshops.ca!

Edit: NM, I see I'm late to the party and should have checked the Shop The Block thread

 

[hdrolfe]

Yes, home again today. The notice I received for the Kawartha Pine Ridge district is cancelled for freezing rain. WHAT freezing rain??? I checked the forecast last night and again this morning and every hour from 5AM through evening there is no freezing rain scheduled for Bowmanville. Ugh... Exams start this week. He has now missed two review days before his first exam. My friend's daughter was suppose to have her first exam today and it's been rescheduled for Tuesday. Thank goodness I made my son bring home all his school books yesterday. He has a lot to do today between shovelling snow, studying and delivering papers. (As I write this my son is out there shovelling now. He just made me JUMP by throwing a snowball at the window beside me).

By the way, how old is your son? This Week newspapers accepts kids 10 and up for newspaper delivery. Both of mine deliver papers. My daughter started at 11 and I made her save. She paid for her Vimy Ridge high school trip last year and this year's California trip from her newspaper money. My son was only able to start when he turned 13 (I put him on a wait list when he was 9!) and he's saving for his high school trip now. Maybe delivering papers would be a good job start for your son. Once he sees the money he earns, he may jump on board with that real quick!

My son is 9 (his birthday is in December). I'll have to look into that, although I think only flyers get delivered around here. Not sure! He is all about earning money for sure. He is looking forward to getting a job at McDonalds (I think they will hire kids at 14? not positive!).

 

[Disney Addicted]

My son is 9 (his birthday is in December). I'll have to look into that, although I think only flyers get delivered around here. Not sure! He is all about earning money for sure. He is looking forward to getting a job at McDonalds (I think they will hire kids at 14? not positive!).

McDonald's is 15. My son turns 15 in April and he's chomping at the bit to apply! My friend's daughter started at McDonald's last year and loves it so he's heard a lot about her job.

The papers is something to check into though, even if it's just the flyers. There might be a waiting list that his name has to go on. My daughter got a route real quick but it took 4 years before my son's name came up.

 

[Pumpkin1172]

Not only is Starbucks expensive, I find it complicated to order. LOL I make my daughter order something for me.

Bahahaha...that's me!!!!! I get my daughter to order for me...she was a barista for a year ( and met her fiance where they worked together while he was in university ) She always orders for her momma. Otherwise I don't go there. I usually do the McDick's tea...If i buy 7 I get one free!!! I like that deal. Timmy's has just gotten too expensive for coffee/tea.

 

[marchingstar]

gosh, the flyers really are a bust this week! no air miles anywhere!

I've been dipping my toes into PC points. Earlier this week I stopped in Shoppers to get a couple small things and found these delicious 'ice cream' bars. They're PC Blue Menu brand, and key lime and kefir flavoured. They're tart and creamy and smooth. They're so good, I think I'm going to do my main grocery shop at Superstore. Hopefully I can get some decent points and maybe I'll even find another yummy flavour of 'ice cream'!

 

[Pumpkin1172]

Since the switch to PC Optimum, I've received ONE threshold spend offer. I used to get them once every other month at least. I need 5,000 point to hit $50

Like @pigletto I get the bulk of my optimum points at shoppers as well. I can watch the flyer for the bonus weekends, and usually do a 50.00 shop to meet the threshold. I don't have one conveniently close to me, but I can usually drive to one that is close. I try to make the most of both AM and optimum as best as I can, when I can. Some weeks it works...others it doesn't. But it makes for a little fun during the dull boring winter. We gotta find ways to keep us occupied right

 

[pigletto]

Do they allow points on dairy products at Shoppers?

Yes they do AND once you start buying them there you will likely get the 20x the points on milk targeted offer for SDM.

 

[pigletto]

gosh, the flyers really are a bust this week! no air miles anywhere!

I've been dipping my toes into PC points. Earlier this week I stopped in Shoppers to get a couple small things and found these delicious 'ice cream' bars. They're PC Blue Menu brand, and key lime and kefir flavoured. They're tart and creamy and smooth. They're so good, I think I'm going to do my main grocery shop at Superstore. Hopefully I can get some decent points and maybe I'll even find another yummy flavour of 'ice cream'!

I can’t recommend using both programs enough. I bounce back and forth between the two programs and go with which family of stores is offering the best deals. We are considering the airmiles Amex or BMO Card, and the PC financial just to maximize the bonuses at each family of stores. During an airmiles lull I stick with PC for awhile. Airmiles has bigger sporadic bonuses, PC are more often and smaller. I’ll go to NoFrills this weekend and net at least 10% -15% back on my $100 in groceries, and then spend another $50 at Shoppers for the 20x points event .This will cover everything but dog food for me and I’ll end up with about $30 in points on $150 in tax overall between the two stores.

 

[Spotthecat]

Yes. My friend says she purchases her milk specifically at Shoppers because it's cheaper there and she usually gets a lot of extra bonus points on milk somehow. I get targeted offers for Loblaws where I get 200 points for every $1 spent on poultry, beef and pork so I guess she gets targeted offers for milk at Shoppers.

I get a coupon every week for 20x the points if I buy milk at Shoppers. So I always buy milk at shoppers. And then I always get a new coupon the next week. I like this circle!

 

[Spotthecat]

I also recommend both programs, airmiles and PC points. Since they removed the opportunity to pay cruises with airmiles, and add to the final payment with as many airmiles as you want, I've started the PC points thingy. Got the PC financial card int he fall when they had the offer to get 10x extra points when you shop at Shoppers until Christmas. Well...it worked on gift cards! So I bought lots of giftcards to pay for my disney cruise. I think I must have racked up 3000$ in points in one season. Got a nintendo switch for Christmas with multiple controllers and games, have been paying less than 10$ for groceries for about a month now and still accumulating points. I don't have a Loblaws or Superstore close to me, but at least I have two Fortinos and a No Frills, and a gazillion Shoppers. I have zero Metro, Foodland or Sobeys around me, so I'm liking the shorter drives. I have airmiles set on 100% Dream, and with the PC points I claim the $$ amount on groceries and then get a gift card for the amount to somewhere else. Win-win!

 

[tinkerone]

Can someone explain the Shoppers Optimum to me please. I know at Loblaws you only get points on targeted products but is it the same at shoppers? And I often see the 20X's notice but what does that actually mean? 20X on specific items? I just don't understand the program enough to utilize it.

 

[marchingstar]

I can’t recommend using both programs enough. I bounce back and forth between the two programs and go with which family of stores is offering the best deals. We are considering the airmiles Amex or BMO Card, and the PC financial just to maximize the bonuses at each family of stores. During an airmiles lull I stick with PC for awhile. Airmiles has bigger sporadic bonuses, PC are more often and smaller. I’ll go to NoFrills this weekend and net at least 10% -15% back on my $100 in groceries, and then spend another $50 at Shoppers for the 20x points event .This will cover everything but dog food for me and I’ll end up with about $30 in points on $150 in tax overall between the two stores.

thank you for the advice! i’m going to give it a try and see how the miles compare for me. do you tie your rewards to vacation in any way (like how lots of us use air miles for flights, tickets, etc)? is there a way to redeem pc points towards vacation expenses?

 

[Pumpkin1172]

So the optimum points are at both Shoppers and Loblaws. At Loblaws you only get points for the targeted promos that they send to you on the app, plus any other ones that they may have instore. The nice think I like about the optimum app, is they send you offers on things you purchased based off your past buying history. So we are usually able to get around 6000 + points a week there alone.

But at shoppers, you get points based on your TOTAL sale. So on a 20x promo...you would get 20X the points of your whole transaction. It adds up fast that way. I had collected over 500.00 in extra points last year by taking advantage of the 20x the shops at shoppers. And any of the targeted bonus items are good at both loblaws and shoppers.

I hope I explained this clear enough...if not...I'm sure someone else will be able to explain as well.

 

[marcyleecorgan]

Yeah seriously nothing in the AM flyer for Safeway... we need coffee soon but that's really about it... I can wait to see what they give us for February LOL

 

[marchingstar]

okay, I'm looking at the superstore flyer for next week and I have a question. It says spend 10$ on gerber baby food items and earn 4000 points. I have 2 targeted offers that I can save and use next week, one for 200 bonus points on every 1$ of gerber food, the other for 400 points on every 2$ of gerber cereal. If I save the two offers, can I stack them all when the flyer starts tomorrow?

 

[marchingstar]

Yeah seriously nothing in the AM flyer for Safeway... we need coffee soon but that's really about it... I can wait to see what they give us for February LOL

How many more weeks until our next Blue Friday?

 

[kerreyn]

How many more weeks until our next Blue Friday?

Looking at last year's Blue Fridays out west which were every 5-6 weeks, I'd say the next Blue Friday *should* be either February 15 or 22. Which is good, because our deep freeze is full - we need to work through some of it!

 

[mort1331]

FYI for those who managed to find someone who would write them a rain cheque back on Blue Friday for the Barilla Ready Pasta (I was lucky at one of the 4 stores we checked - someone wrote me one for the original $2 price!).
So I finally redeemed it yesterday, and the person who credited me my Air Miles noticed something she had not before when "Making it right". I was maxed at 200 miles in one transaction.

So, I was owed 250 AM for my 10 bags of pasta, and after I paid through the regular checkout, the supervisor took me over to a separate checkout to provide the AM, so we wouldn't keep holding up the line. She swiped the single AM "make it right" thingy (as a former Sobeys cashier I can tell you that is its technical name! ha ha ha) and then multiplied it by 250. Then she rang it off and was about to send me on my way.

However, she glanced at the receipt, and even though she knew she put in x250, it only provided 200 AM!

Thankfully she then just rang up a new transaction and provided the additional 50. But everyone check your receipts when redeeming your rain cheques, if you were expecting more than 200 AM, and only did it in one transaction.
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strange because we I did mine last week they were able to do them in batches of 500am at a time. Could not do the whole2700 at once. but were able to do 500

 

[pigletto]

okay, I'm looking at the superstore flyer for next week and I have a question. It says spend 10$ on gerber baby food items and earn 4000 points. I have 2 targeted offers that I can save and use next week, one for 200 bonus points on every 1$ of gerber food, the other for 400 points on every 2$ of gerber cereal. If I save the two offers, can I stack them all when the flyer starts tomorrow?

Yes I believe so since one is an in store offer and one is a personal offer.

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

I get a coupon every week for 20x the points if I buy milk at Shoppers. So I always buy milk at shoppers. And then I always get a new coupon the next week. I like this circle!

I always used to get this one too! I likely accrued hundreds of dollars just in milk! Buying four 4L jugs each week was a good haul of points! Then they just stopped when the programs merged.