What’s happening with AIR MILES offers?

For several months now, the AIR MILES program has been going through a series of ups and downs.

With the bankruptcy of its owner, Loyalty One, and its takeover by BMO, uncertainty has surrounded the AIR MILES program since last April.

But AIR MILES has not said its last word and is starting to grow wings again:

• Last August, the AIR MILES program began its partnership with Dollarama.
• Never-before-seen welcome offers of up to 15,000 miles with BMO AIR MILES Cards for Business launched
• More and more easy offers to collect even more miles
• Possibility for a limited number of members to accumulate 40X more miles with the purchase of a MAX PASS

All this, plus the fact that you’ll soon be able to transfer miles between Cash and Dream rewards!

The offers are regular and require simple conditions for a maximum of miles. For example, here are some offers in August and September:

• 100 bonus miles with $10 spent at Dollarama
• 100 bonus miles with $20 spent at Dollarama
• 30X miles when at least 1 mile is accumulated at partners, on airmilesshops.ca or with card links offers
• 100 bonus miles when at least 1 mile is accumulated at partners, on airmilesshops.ca or with card links offers
• 3X miles on Shell purchases
• 100 bonus miles when you accumulate at least 1 mile on airmilesshops.ca
• 100 bonus miles on accumulation of at least 1 mile with a card link offer
• 300 bonus miles when you accumulate at least 1 mile with a partner and when you make a purchase on airmilesshops.ca
• Up to 250 bonus miles when you accumulate at least one mile at 3, 4 or 5 partners
• Earn 200 AIR MILES miles with a Dream miles redemption on merchandise

To take advantage of this offer, registration was mandatory, by activating the offer in the mobile application.

The opportunity was that they overlapped and offers could accumulate. In this way, a single purchase can trigger several offers at the same time.

A $30 purchase at Dollarama earns 10 AIR MILES miles, when the Mastercard used to pay for the purchase is linked to the AIR MILES account. By signing up for these offers, you could obtain :

• 10 base miles
• + 100 miles for the accumulation of at least 1 mile with a card link offer
• + 100 bonus miles when at least 1 mile is accumulated at partners, on airmilesshops.ca or with card link offers
• + 30X miles on accumulation of at least 1 mile at partners, airmilesshops.ca or with card link offers (10 base miles multiplied by 29X miles = 290 miles)

So a $30 purchase at Dollarama gives a total of 400 AIR MILES (400 X $0.105 per mile = $42 value), as in the example above.

What’s more, BMO has launched some very generous welcome bonuses on its business credit cards. Milesopedia readers can take advantage of these exclusive offers. :

• Up to 15,000 Miles and the $149 annual fee refunded in the first year for the BMO AIR MILES^® World Elite^®* Business Mastercard^®*.
• Up to 5,000 Miles for BMO^® AIR MILES^® No-Fee Business^® Mastercard^®* BMO AIR MILES^®† World Elite^®* Business Mastercard^®*.

(To benefit from these exclusive offers, you must use the affiliate links above).

Then, AIR MILES gave to a limited number of members the opportunity to purchase a MAX PASS for $10, in order to benefit from a 40X multiplier between October 3 and 9, 2023 at :

• Dollarama
• Shell
• Metro (Ontario only)
• Irving (Atlantic Canada only)

For example, the number of Dollarama MAX PASSes available for sale was limited to 1,800, and they quickly sold out. It was a great deal because the 40X offer applied to miles earned at Dollarama:

• 10 base miles
• + 390 miles with MAX PASS multiplier
• 5X miles per $12 if a BMO^® AIR MILES^® World Elite Mastercard^®* was used as payment + 10 miles

So, for a purchase of $30 (including groceries, items of all kinds and gift cards), the member could accumulate up to 410 miles (or a value of $43).

A member who went to Dollarama to make a purchase of at least $30 every day between October 3 and 9 could earn up to 2,870 miles (or a value of $300).

It was a great deal and a good deal, considering the initial outlay was $220 ($10 for the purchase of the MAX PASS and buying $30 x 7 days).

Although the AIR MILES program and the BMO Rewards points program are distinct and both linked to BMO, there is no short or medium-term scenario for merging them.

BMO is trying to reinvigorate the program and find new ways to collect miles.

Keep a close watch over the coming days and weeks. The AIR MILES program has other rapid accumulation opportunities, including the much-anticipated AIR MILES Receipts component. Members will take a photo of their grocery receipt with selected products, to earn more miles.

However, partners are restricted in Quebec to redeem AIR MILES Cash miles. But don’t forget to :

• Pay for gas, milk and snacks from Shell
• Buy e-gift cards from Starbucks, H&M, Spotify, Décathlon, Indigo and many others for the Holiday Season.

Dream Miles can be used to purchase merchandise for yourself or as gifts, such as theme park tickets or travel. And don’t forget that members will soon be able to transfer miles between Cash and Dream rewards, giving them greater flexibility.

There are plenty of ways to collect AIR MILES miles without too much effort. However, opportunities to exchange them at many “everyday” shops are absent. Let’s hope this will be corrected soon.

Before you set out to earn an avalanche of AIR MILES miles with ease, first ask yourself how you’re going to spend them.