An Open Letter To Air Miles
Dear Air Miles, we need to talk about your loyalty program and how you’re treating collectors. It was nearly five years ago when you announced major changes to your rewards program.
The introduction of Air Miles Cash, which gave collectors the ability to redeem rewards miles instantly at various retailers, was a welcome addition for collectors like me who preferred to redeem Air Miles for gift certificates but didn’t enjoy waiting 4-6 weeks for their reward to arrive in the mail.
Sure, there weren’t many sponsors participating in Air Miles Cash; just certain Shell locations, Rona hardware stores, and eventually Safeway grocery stores in western Canada, along with Sobeys, Rexall, Metro, and Jean Coutu out east.
But that was acceptable because you continued adding other features, such as the e-Voucher option, with dozens of new sponsors like Starbucks, Cineplex, and Gap, to name a few, accepting rewards.
You devalued your reward miles by almost 12 percent when you introduced Air Miles Cash. That’s right, a $20 Shell gift certificate used to cost 170 reward miles. Now it takes 190 miles to get the same reward. Still, I forgave you because I liked the instant redemption feature and the promise of more sponsors in the future.
Here’s the bigger issue I have with your loyalty program. Buried beneath your 2011 announcement about the Air Miles Cash program was another critically important notice for collectors:
Air Miles is also announcing that effective December 31, 2011 all Air Miles reward miles will have a date-stamp of five years. This means that all reward miles that were posted on or before December 31, 2011 will need to be redeemed by December 31, 2016, and all reward miles posted after December 31, 2011 will have a five-year timeline in which they will need to be redeemed.
Air Miles will expire if unused after five years. That’s kind of a big deal and yet you chose to announce this in a footnote under a press release about Air Miles Cash. This affects millions of Air Miles collectors!
You also said:
No action is required by collectors at this time, and more information will become available in 2014 to help collectors manage reward miles well in advance of expiration.
Really? What exactly happened in 2014 to help collectors manage their reward miles before they expired? Because if it weren’t for articles like this one on CBC, most Air Miles collectors would be completely in the dark about their reward miles expiring.
Here’s the great Air Miles deception. When you introduced Cash and Dream Rewards in March 2012, collectors had to declare which rewards bucket they wanted to earn future reward miles (i.e. 100 percent Cash or 100 percent Dream, or something in-between).
Not only were collectors automatically defaulted into earning 100 percent Dream Rewards, any reward miles earned prior to this change also sat in their Dream Balance.
Meanwhile, as you built-out the Air Miles Cash program, you slowly stripped away many of the rewards that used to be available under Dream Rewards, leaving over-priced merchandise and “member pricing” rewards such as this steal of a gift card:
(A reward mile is worth 10.5 cents, so 50 reward miles is worth $5.26. Add $95 cash and you’re paying $100.26 for a $100 gift card. Seriously!)
The biggest pain point for Air Miles collectors is that all of their reward miles are probably still sitting in their Dream Balance. For millions of collectors who just found out about their points expiring and either don’t have enough to redeem for a flight, or simply won’t be able to book an itinerary before year-end, there’s little else of value available under the Dream Rewards category.
A Call to Action for Air Miles
Air Miles – the right thing to do would be to allow collectors to make a one-time transfer of reward miles from their Dream Balance to their Air Miles Cash balance before the end of the year.
Doing this would show a commitment to your collectors, to your loyalty program, and to your sponsors. If you believe in Air Miles Cash then wouldn’t you want your collectors to be more active in collecting and redeeming reward miles? Or is it your real goal to wipe millions of reward miles off the books at the end of the year?
By allowing reward miles to expire, you’re potentially alienating millions of Air Miles collectors and doing a disservice to your sponsors by not offering those members a chance to experience Air Miles Cash before they leave your program for good.
Please step-up and do the right thing for Air Miles collectors.
So am I reading correctly that I can’t transfer my Dream Miles to Cash by end of year and I’ll just lose them? That’s horrible as I have about 2000 Air Miles and am not planning to travel until some point in 2017. I’ve never been a fan of Air Miles because it’s not as lucrative as other programs but some of my fans just love the Air Miles program and cash out some good money every year.
Hey CBB, that’s right – you can’t transfer reward miles between Dream and Cash (https://twitter.com/AIRMILES/status/752242593354883073)
I would to like to sign a petition against actions by Air Miles
I, too, would like to sign a petition.
I would also like to sign a petition.
Thank you from all airmiles collectors.
Another option for Dream travel rewards—what about allowing us to buy vouchers or gift certificates with our Dream miles from one of the sponsored airlines? The problem with travel is perhaps your points aren’t enough for a return flight, or you just don’t have the holiday time left in your 2016 work schedule.
Then sign up:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/491/597/716/air-miles-ripoff-boycott-air-miles-sponsoring-companies/
Use change.org
When Air Miles first announced re expiry of miles, I initiatd a petition protesting via change.org, mailed hard copy to Air Miles. They couldn’t have cared less!
Because they don’t give a flying f*** about anybody but themselves…
Just signed the petition…Until our crooked political hacks get off their paid-for rear ends, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING will happen.
Wow!Just found out about this. I have been collecting air miles since 1996 and have 56,000..went to use them at Metro and was denied. Found out that I can only use them towards Dream Miles. Should have been notified of this before they switched the miles over..disappointing. Now in a mad rush to use them..crazy!!
Don’t just cut up your cards and go away mad – that means AirMiles wins! The ONLY way to “reward” AirMiles for its behavior is for everyone to contact the retail partners such as Rona, Shell, etc., and tell them that they will no longer shop there until AirMiles allows collectors to (at least) convert Dream Miles to Cash Miles.
Charlene…Hurry and call (so you can be on hold for hours)…The only thing I know is that as long as you pay this year, before Dec 31st, you can travel next year, or as far ahead as you can book. Good luck with the insolent staff at the call centre!
So you want to be compensated because you didn’t read the fine print to a contract and didn’t take any action when asked to do so? Well, I wasn’t aware of the interest rate differential on my fixed rate mortgage and was shocked when I had to pay $XX,000 so the bank should do something about it? Give me a break people. I read it and acted accordingly. Maybe a little more attention should be paid to notices such as these and less on Pokemon Go.
I don’t think a customer rewards program for everyday purchases is exactly the same as a mortgage with your bank. Different ballgame altogether.
Its worse I just got off the phone with Air miles. They expired all my miles in July because I was out the country and didn’t use the card for two years. There was no warning, boom they were just gone.
I have written to Airmiles and spoke to a rep on the ‘phone. They will not make the Dream to Cash an option “because they are two separate programmes”. Well, duh, they’re their programmes. So what’s the problem. I’m opting out of Airmiles and will no longer support either of their programmes.
Threats to Air Miles will achieve little but…..changing to another card with different options may make a bigger impact.
I learned of the Air Miles “deletion” in mid July 2016. I was to loose 30,000+ points on Dec 31st. So I spent one afternoon with the Dream catalogue ordering all my Christmas gifts. The points were gone in an afternoon. Delivery was good except for 1 missing item.
My loyalty to Mastercard goes back to it’s beginning. Yes, Air Miles and MC are 2 separate programs working as a joint venture. Air Miles is probably relieved to have much fewer points outstanding but Mastercard would not appreciate if everyone cut up their card and found a more customer friendly credit card.
It is the consumer’s choice…………..
Same here. I have reward miles sitting in my Dream Miles that I cannot use as everything is too expensive to buy with Dream Miles. So, currently there’s nothing I can buy with my “dead” Dream Miles. I’m just waiting for the expiry date to pass so this annoying and painful image will disappear from my Air Miles account forever.
It’s really unfair that what’s sitting in Dream Miles cannot be transferred to Cash Miles and they must go to waste when expired. It will cost me a Fee plus Tax to transfer Air Miles Reward Miles out to another Air Miles account. Just not worth the cost to transfer it out.
Air Miles has become such a nighmare that I am done with them as soon as I book this vacation, which is in itself becoming a nightmare..I have spent 4 hours on hold over two telephone calls, only to be told that I have to book an appointment to speak with a “travel specialist” IN THREE WEEKS!!!! I can book a vacation online with many different companies in about an hour, but not with Air Miles, because according to them, we are all too f***ing stupid to do so……OR, could it be that if they dick you around for long enough, they pray that you finally say screw it, then the miles expire and presto, the Board of Directors get a nice bonus. To really twist the knife, while you are on hold for hours (for no reason, because the person at the other end can’t book you, because you need the aforementioned “travel specialist”) they keep playing the “At Air Miles, we care about our customers”!!! Bulls**t…From now on, I’ll stick with the 4%/2%/1% I get from my AMEX and VISA, which takes me about 5 minutes to redeem ONLINE (are you reading this Air (scam) Miles)
I just tried to book a vacation as well, and they gave me an appointment for January 4th! I asked them what if the package price went up or, worse yet was sold out? The guy didn’t really seem to care at all! I will use up my air miles and be done with them!
I think it is awful not beeing able to transfer dream miles to cash balance, give us a break.
If somebody came into your bank account and stole you money, they would go to jail. This dream miles idea is highway robbery. I had points for many years and now all of a sudden and without warning, they became “dream miles ” that I can not transfer back to cash miles. Also, I have been on hold for 56 minutes and counting now and opened two chat sites to speak to a human being but there is no use. Yes, the president of Airmiles should go to jail for this policy.
Good timing. I just booked some flights on my mothers account because they will expire.
For others who have miles expiring – why not redeem for shell fuel or cineplex movie tickets? Even if you don’t frequent those retailers they would be welcome gifts.
Nicole: they took away all the good gift certificate redemption options with no notice several years ago when the cash option became available. There’s nothing remotely decent like that left to redeem for — the miles have effectively expired already unless you happen to have exactly the number you need to book a trip that you’re able to take in the near future.
Transferring the stranded “dream” balances to “cash” really is the least they should do, and even then represents a significant devaluation from what those points were worth 5 years ago.
Actually they didn’t remove any gift card or vouchers without warning. They announced this would be happening over the next 2 years back in 2011 when they introduced the Cash miles program AND all these changes. Last date to stock up on them were on their website a few months prior and on their social media sites, and i even got some reminders in emails. Cineplex vouchers were advertised a good 3 months prior to removal & haven’t been around for at least 2-3 years, and were even still available once they became a Cash miles sponsor for a couple months to give people time to redeem their miles. Shell was one of the first sponsors back in 2011 to switch to Cash sponsor. They were even giving away Air Miles to people to get them to activate their Cash account as a promotion to start using it back then. People just ignore programs and don’t keep email up to date to get updates. I’ve never used miles for a flight, but have lots of good items in my home from dvd bluray to flatware to Nutribullet to Dyson, all FREE with Air Miles. And even though i don’t book a flight with them, i got travelling items from Heys,backpacks, binoculars for sightseeing etc. They are always updating their catalog of items, i always seem to find something i need or can give as a gift. People complained when Cash miles started up and didn’t want it or wouldn’t activate the account now they’re complaining they want it and can’t have it, lol Some people’s kids…
Louis, Please be reasonable here. Many people get tons of emails. To read all the fine print on every single Airmiles notice is just unrealistic. Shaming people for not keeping up with their ‘homework’ is simply not necessary.
Wanda;
We are talking about financial items here. Sorry but you do need to pay attention to the fine print regardless how busy or how much you get.
Louis sure sounds like a shill for the company. Either that or he has way too much of his life invested in Air Miles.
Regardless of how many times Air Miles might have informed us, miles earned under old rules CANNOT be legally expired without written consent, just by Air Miles introducing new rules. If they can expire miles by new rules and notification, they can do it again in a few years.
Those miles BELONG to you and I. They’re not there courtesy of Air Miles. Retail prices were marked up slightly to pay for those miles. WE paid for them. They’re not free.
What Air Miles is doing is illegal. It is consumer abuse. In short, it is an attempt at theft, in broad daylight.
Somebody, please file a class action law suit.
Amen Andree – we all PAID for those miles
Well good for you Louis, just because you might not have anything better to do in your life other than to read emails or go onto Airmiles website doesn’t mean that the thousands or tens of thousands of other people had the time. Not to mention everyone one forgets that many people had a hard time loggin in to the website and when they thought that they had changed to the cash program it didn’t. So don’t get on your high horse and think well you dumb asses guess your not deserving. Maybe you should think twice.
Hi Nicole, Air Miles took away those options on the “Dream” side as they built-out their Air Miles Cash sponsors and rewards. That’s the problem – the reward miles are *stuck* on that side with a vanishingly small number of rewards to choose from.
I guess I haven’t looked in a while – I haven’t been terribly happy with my lousy collection of miles. I have been a collector since 1993 and will probably just cancel it.
I can’t believe what a marketing scam we have fell for. I agree, the least they can do is let us transfer the dream miles to the cash option. We have 3,000 points that are going to expire, have no travel plans and there is nothing in the catalog worth getting!
Hi Susan, it certainly does feel like collectors got duped by the program which forced them into Dream rewards, time-stamped those rewards and set them to expire, and then took away all of the quality rewards. I remember my last Dream transaction was redeeming miles for a MoneySense subscription. You can’t even do that any more!
Yes I used to get the MoneySense and Canadian Business with my dream miles. Now I haven’t been able to find these in the Dream Rewards catalogue – I figured they took that away. So thanks for letting me know. I can stop looking for it. I am not very happy with AirMiles either as I converted to cash balance a while ago but still have at least 2500 to use.
Can a collector use their Dream Miles to book travel before Dec. 31, 2016 for travel in 2017? If someone is short on DM for a certain trip itinery can they use up their DM and pay cash for any balance remaining?
This is terrible considering that many long time collectors will likely lose their DM. Almost worth starting a Class Action against AM re: expiry of miles to force them to change their cancellation policy which was not well communicated and therefore not well known to collectors.
Hi Jerry, I believe you can use your miles now to book travel in 2017 and there is an option to top-up your purchase with cash if you don’t have enough miles. I’m not sure you get the best value that way, but I suppose it’s better than your miles expiring.
Yes you can. Must be a lot of people doing that because when we finally got through on the phone, they said they are busy and will call us back in 2 weeks. I hope my holiday is not sold out by then.
Great letter. I hope they pay attention. I was a loyal collector of Air Miles for many years but I gave up when they changed their offerings. For almost a decade I followed the same pattern. I would shop at air Miles stores all year and then in November I would cash in all my points for gift cards from The Bay, The Gap, Toys R US, etc and buy Christmas presents. I was usually able to get about $500 worth of gift cards so it was great.
Then a few years ago, unaware that anything had changed, I logged in to do that and suddenly it was no longer possible to exchange air miles for gift cards and all my points had been moved to a dream account. I spent a couple of hours trying to figure out what I was doing wrong and then called Customer service and was informed that things had changed. I used my points to buy a set of suitcases (the only product in the Dream bucket I was remotely interested in) and cancelled my card the next day.
I’m not sure if I was a valued customer but there must have been others like me who were loyally using the card in a way that fit their needs only to have it become not worth it any more.
Hi Louise, thanks! I suspect there will be a lot more customers like you who will just be fed up with the program, cash out what they can, and disappear for good.
To clarify, if you are an ONYX Air Miles Collector, your miles do not expire.
Hi Judy, that’s correct – as long as you remain in the ONYX program then your miles will not expire. To clarify, you need to collect 6,000 Air Miles in one year to become an ONYX member. No small task.
I enrolled in AIR MILES Cash almost as soon as it was announced. It’s a fantastic program. With the various promotions that the Sponsors have, Airmiles Cash has a much higher value than the basic “95 reward miles for $10 off” value statement implies. For example, right now PharmaPlus has a “Redeem 285 miles for $30 off and receive 100 bonus miles” offer. A couple of months ago Metro did “Redeem 95 miles for $10 off and get 50 bonus miles.” That’s a 50% discount on the cost — how often does that happen at a grocery store!?!
Given the 5 years notice that we received, I hardly blame AIR MILES if I haven’t gotten around to redeeming my Dream miles over all this time. I totally agree that the list of merchandise rewards has gotten pretty pitiful. But I prefer to redeem for flights and rental cars. I just redeemed for flights to visit my niece in North Carolina. I find there is WAY better flight availability for redemption on the airmiles.ca site than what’s available with Aeroplan. Seriously, have you tried to redeem a flight with Aeroplan recently? AIR MILES is so much better, and the site is very easy to use.
Just my opinion! I love AIR MILES. I have one of the credit cards, and I go to Metro and PharmaPlus for everything I need.
Hi Philip, the program is obviously still meeting your needs. I switched to Air Miles Cash myself at the onset and agree that it is a good program. I just wish that, for the collectors who weren’t paying as close attention like we were, that the company would allow them to make a one-time transfer and let them experience Air Miles Cash.
Phil how much did Airmiles give you for the rah rah post? or do you work for them ?
I’m totally with Robb on Airmiles doing the right thing for the users who are small collectors – a one time transfer of Dream miles to Cash.
Will that happen? Probably not and then I along with many others will ditch the crappy Airmiles card. One less piece of plastic crammed into my wallet – looking forward to ditching it.
fbgcai
It is the crappiest card I have and I agree that Phil seems to be a employee or a paid promoter like Blackberry did to promote themselves last year or so.
I have had it for IGA and have bought a pair of sun glasses and toaster over the past 15 years, not worth the effort.
That is your opinion.
Many small business owners as well as individuals scrimped and saved over many years to have a “nestegg” something that we could use at retirement or for a rainy day.
My rainy day came with a cancer diagnosis and After years of suffering treatment I tried to book my dream vacation only to find that air “miles” are not that at all. In fact I could book a trip to EU direct at LOWER COST.
After that I tried to redeem for goods and all I saw was over-priced goods that I have no need of.
I am totally disillusioned and pissed at how this could happen.
But I also see why our world is so messed up…No-one keeps their word, and executives as politicians continually find a slimy way to screw hard working people.
Tell me…do you work for them? Are you part of their “marketing team”? You are one of the precious few who seems to be happy…and I don’t believe you at all.
I’m looking for a class action lawyer who can help us get what we agreed to.
Re: Metro’s offer to “Redeem 95 miles for $10 off and get 50 bonus miles”.
I’m still waiting for the 50 Bonus Air Miles. I checked online and learned that I have to wait 120 days (4 months) before possibly seeing the bonus miles deposited into my account. I’m holding my breath until then. Wonder if Air Miles is counting on people’s short memory. 4 months is a long time to process the bonus miles.
This is a case of the inevitable masquerading as the unexpected. All miles/points are a form of currency controlled by a profit-driven entity. Their goal from the start is to get people to trade cash for miles/points and give back as little as possible in return. The main strategy is to have generous rules initially, and change them once they’ve issued many miles and points. I hope Robb’s attempt to embarrass Air Miles into better terms has some effect, but the better long-term plan is to anticipate serious devaluation prior to making purchasing decisions.
Hi Michael, in today’s world it does seem foolish to try and build up points in a rewards program with the hope of using them sometime in the far-off future, rather than redeeming them more frequently. It’s a sad commentary, but that seems to be the case with Air Miles and Aeroplan.
My issue isn’t that they expire. Five years is plenty of notice, if you call a footnote in a completely separate release notice, and no company wants to keep millions of unspent dollars on their books indefinitely.
Collectors got duped when their miles were locked-in to Dream while Air Miles proceeded to remove the quality rewards from that side and replace them on the Cash side.
I have just looked into transferring airmiles from the account of a recently deceased relative. The miles can be transferred – at a fee of fifteen cents per mile!!!
You can also ‘gift’ them – at the same rate… 15 cents each….
My mother and I are trying to use her airmiles up before the December expiry – and initially we thought it would be easier to just transfer them…. but not at that cost!
Deceased or divorce is different. Check with them again. I have read that Air Miles allows you to merge your account free of charge with the account of the deceased by providing a death certificate and a letter signed by the person’s legal representative or executor. Like any asset, if you have a lot, put it in your Will too. Click on this link to Air Miles page and scroll down to Transfer Miles On Behalf Of Someone Else https://www.airmiles.ca/arrow/TMLanding Sorry for your loss.
We cashed out almost all of our Airmiles a few years ago in exchange for BMO Investorline certificates. Essentially we got cash for them and didn’t have to trade for merchandise or air fares. We found it was actually much cheaper to book seat sales than use Airmiles. The program has really gone downhill.
Thank you for your letter. I’ve sort of left my accumulated Air Miles on the back burner since I switched to their Cash Programme about a year ago.
Actually part of the reason I switched was my experience trying to book a roundtrip flight between Vancouver and San Francisco. I was a few miles short and so I bought additional miles ….of course you had to buy a minimum amount which was more than I needed, but what the heck it’s going for a “free vacation getaway”. So then I go back to make the arrangements and of course space on the flight is no longer available for air miles. So I go ahead and make my own booking and feel like I got duped trying to use air miles.
Well your article reminded me that trip is now coming up and I still hadn’t made my car rental. So thanks to you I used a good chunk of those soon to be useless miles.
I still have a balance and I would agree that Air Miles should at least do the responsible thing and allow a one time transfer to their Air Miles Cash Programme
I wasn’t aware of the changes introduced in 2012 creating two different types of miles and rewards.
And it was only a fluke that I learned that the miles will expire on December 31, 2016. I recently redeemed miles for an airline ticket. What kind of a program charges a $20 “booking fee” for an online booking which requires no human interaction. A sleazy one.
I cannot believe this program is still around. It did not survive in the U.S. Why does the LCBO, (a monopoly) participate in this Air Miles program. There is no competition so, why are they wasting the money on Air Miles. Has anyone ever determined how much it costs the LCBO each year?
I am of the view that, to most people, this program is an afterthought. In other words, people collect the miles at merchants they were going to shop at anyway. The program does not create business which the merchant would not have received otherwise.
I think Aeroplan and Airmiles is nothing but a scam. I use to have about 60-70 thousand points which were not quite enough to get me where I wanted to fly and in order to maintain the points I had to add to them every year or they would expire. One year I forgot to do so and I lost them all. Upon inquiries I was told I could buy them back for several hundreds of $. Today we have over 7200 airmiles which may soon expire. In discussion with Airmiles personnel we found out that it could buy us one return ticket to Europe in off season. After discussing the specifics of a flight we were told that we would have to pay $700 in taxes for the flight which retails around $1100-1200. We declined on the offer. The Dream rewards are just that a dream. Anything worth while is overpriced or the offered merchandise is mostly useless. How is it possible that Airmiles can sell the points at $0.30/mile but those in my possession are nearly worthless. Most of our airmiles were accumulated before 2012 so there is not much to convert to airmiles cash. Does anyone have any suggestions how not to waste the entire airmiles collection?
You could do what I did and just enter a bunch of their travel contests. Your odds of winning are greater than the chance the company will convert the Dream to Cash but still negligible.
I personally feel that their contests are a total scam as well because they don’t even announce a winner. You have to write in to get the winner for each and every contest. Now that is marketing in action.
Al
We haveover 22000 air miles.
We cannot travel by air because of health.
Any ideas for 2 seniors of what is the best way for the mos t
bang for our miles as the majority will be losing in 2017.
THanks
I’m in the same boat with 20,000 points …and their website is unavailable …even though the items to be redeemed are shit!
We were SCAMMED and I want to find a class action suit
I contacted Air Miles about a year ago to cancel my account and remove all of my data, because of this very issue. Initially, when cash vs dream rewards were introduced, gift cards for some retailers were still listed on the dream rewards side (I am thinking of places like Gap, Banana Republic, Starbucks). The only listings initially on cash rewards were groceries and gas. Based on this information, I made the decision to select dream rewards for my points accumulation – only to have Air Miles change the categorization of all gift cards several months later. My miles were pointless, Air Miles refused to transfer them between categories. This program change has been the biggest scam – I actually choose retailers to shop with now based on those who use rewards programs other than Air Miles.
Isn’t changing contractual rules a “fraud”?
This is basically “theft” along with misrepresentation?
I agree with you…Isn’t this fraud? After all these points are of monetary value and are being taken from us. Are the companies being reimbursed for these since they paid for them in the first place?
I have used my card for more than 20 years and yet I am in the same dilemma, almost all product selections require more points than I have, and I am shut out of the cash section. I am certain my spending habits are within norms (I have a 5-person family). This leads me to believe that the hundreds of times I have bothered to produce my card at purchase over all of these years has been a complete waste of time. Thanks for nothing Air Miles.
Fantastic letter. I agree completely. I would like to have the option of converting my dream miles to cash miles. Failing that, at least let me donate the miles to charity!
I complained to BMO (I get Air Miles via their MasterCard). I received a polite response. Probably not very effective but I felt a little better.
Years ago, reading article in Toronto Star commenting Air Canada, Air Miles huge liability of unspent miles (funds in reserve for member future cashing in), I foolishly didn’t think Air Miles would fraud its loyal customers.
I started collecting Air Miles over 20 years and frequent achieving Gold status. My goal was trading in for a cruise or Asia trip. After learning of miles expiry scheme, I started my silent protest, cancelled my Air Miles credit card collector; shopped at Home Depot instead of my prefer Rona; grocery not at my Safeway etc.. I am hoping with telling sponsored business, they will terminate relationship with Air Miles. I urge you to consider boycott Air Miles, take our business elsewhere. Please consider using credit card cash back reward options. Let us write off Air Miles and its no good management. Thank you.
Fraud by airmiles 24 years loyalty,.. rewarded by garbage merchandise… or lose miles as its airmiles decided to put miles in non cash option. very sad.
Unless Air Miles allows us to transfer our Dream miles to Cash miles before year end I am cutting up my card which I have had since 1992. I will deliberately no longer shop at retailers who participate in Air Miles programs. Goodbye Rona, Safeway, etc…..
I agree and have the same history. I would like to know if there is a class action already started that I can join or a petition?
I have had the AirMiles card since 96 but I am going to cancel it now. The “dream” product selection is indeed pretty lousy and usually requires an additional cash payment. There was one good product a couple years ago (BMO Investment Certificate, 950 miles for $100.0 certificate) but they got rid of that without any notice. Overall, there is no productive use of this card.
Thank you for writing this open letter.
This has been my “battle” for the last 2 years. I have around 23000 (not quite enough for a family holiday and couldn’t really afford the hundreds of dollars in administration fees if I could book a holiday) airmiles but fortunately am an onyx collector and have been able to redeem for passes and tickets.
Would frequently redeem for hotel cards and shell cards (cheaper holiday) and do road trips. With all the changes you can only book hotels directly but pay an admin fee for doing all the work:( and all of the hotels don’t even show up in the search and the ones that do have a vague description.
It is also a bunch of “you know what” (shovels anyone?) that they can’t allow a switch…simple algorithm or a few strokes of a keyboard.
All the frustration aside I would remain loyal to airmiles should they “make it right” and allow the one time switch. It would be even better if they just went to a 1 tier program after allowing the switch…earn “miles” and redeem online or in store-one catalogue not 2.
Air Miles! Are you listening?
I cannot believe it. I’ve just noticed that AirMiles automatically selected Dream Points vs Cash on my preferences and now do not allow a transfer.
I find this appalling and unacceptable.
I wonder what got aeroplan to reverse its expiry policy and if a similar approach could work here? I don’t believe the accounting liability issue means the change is necessary. Many other programs no longer have expiry.
This program is going to lose so many subscribers after this. They focus on everything except the customer and it is much harder to gain new customers than it is to keep current ones. They should extend the deadline.
I’m currently implementing my “AMexit” plan. It includes moving all my credit cards from BMO and AMEX to Tangerine ; no longer buying gas from Shell ; and avoiding IGA as often as I can.
I wonder why the sponsors don’t see this coming, or care about it?
Tangerine is an excellent choice no fee and cash back! no expiry that’s for sure and totally flexible – cash is king as they say.
Gilles, People are lazy to transfer or change their habits, that is why IMO. (especially Canadians, a loyal bunch.).
Can anyone point me to a class action group on Air Miles expiry? This is unacceptable.
If you find one …let me know please!
Richard, A man named David Helm apparently is instituting a class action suit..
Call a law firm and get them to set up the lawsuit that’s what happened in 2011 with Air Canada and their attempt to limit the time frame for Aeroplan Miles and that backfired on them big time.
Dream rewards are almost non existent now, it’s like they’re not willing to honor any original agreements that allowed collectors to save air miles to get merchandise. I was about 650 miles short to get a TV that was 43,500 air miles with a 200 air miles reward bonus if redeemed by August 31, 2016 and after then you would not get the bonus rewards but the TV was still available. Now they have removed the TV from the dream rewards leaving me with 29,000 air miles set to expire and nothing worth redeeming them for, so really it seems like a ploy orchestrated by a major company that for some reason doesn’t want to let people claim their long saved for rewards . Unless they put all the dream rewards back on the website there really should be some sort of legal recourse all collectors could utilize to force Air Miles to honor their program.
Dear AM Collector friends,
For every miles we collected, AM received certain amount of money from AM sponsors. Portion of that money pays for AM operations and executives costs. The other portion is to bank in an escrow account (liability) to pay when we use points to purchase merchandises or trips. Now, once AM go ahead with mile expire at end of this year, we know who will keep the excess money in the bank account. I am sure beneficial won’t be charity organizations or lowly AM employees. Any class action must be against AM executives before they are flying away with a golden parachute!
Bruce – Ask a friend who has fewer points than you (and fewer than needed to get the TV) to look for that TV on their Air Miles account. From what I have been told, they may well be able to see the TV they can’t quite buy, and it is no longer visible to you because you have sufficient points to buy it.
The program is dead…it’s dead Jim. The AM program used to be versatile but now it’s easier and cheaper to book flights directly with the airline. Merchandise is cheaper via amazon or other stores if you’re looking for expensive items that would take you years to accumulate if you do not collect constantly at AM sponsors IMHO. If people abandon AM, you will find that points will increase because AM isn’t making enough money from sponsors who haven’t seen the draw of crowds to their stores.
I live in an area where there are few opportunities to get Air Miles. Oversize womens clothing, an overpriced food outlet, and a lack lustre pizza joint just aren’t destination points for me plus I have a Honda Civic that uses fuel by the thimble full. It’s taken me years to get my, yes MY, 1568 points! They have conveniently gotten rid of any rewards that those points would have given me, save for a one way flight to somewhere I don’t want to go to, at midnight.
No doubt I will loose more than half of those points immediately on deadline day. I was going to write them and cancel my account but now I will keep my card and let them keep paying the cost of maintaining that account.
When you look at most reward programs most offer minimal rewards for often over priced goods.
I think our best bet is a credit card that offers a cash back program and gives you full choice of where you shop!
Time to walk away this sucker bet.
What I can’t figure out is why the sponsors don’t do anything about it. I mean BMO, Shell, IGA etc.. Can somebody explain this, unless they get something in return?
As far as I’m concerned, it’s AMexit.
Shame on you AIR MILES!!!
I learned today from a friend about being duped by air miles. Unfortunately, I had a problem with my email account a few years ago and I never thought to update my air miles profile with my new address. I don’t recall receiving snail mail from air miles about the change. Since I didn’t know about this I wasn’t aware of my option to switch from dream to cash. I feel sick as I have 3,669 air miles and I’ve been loyally collecting for years. I see absolutely nothing I want in their crappy, money grabbing offerings. I tried to online chat today a couple of times without success. I am so disappointed as I would have loved to redeem points for HBC gift cards. I agree with the post above. Shame on air miles! I truly hope air miles is shamed into doing something soon to allow the many customers like me the chance to switch dream miles to cash. If not, and it may not help, but I will be complaining to every store that I collect points with.
This air miles business is just a racket – nothing but a racket.
I have been a collector since “97. and a senior. I am told my choice of merchandise for my Dream Miles is limited because my card is a Blue Card. Not only are they taking away our so-called benefits, but they also have different merchandise for different cards. Dream miles are now ‘nightmare’ miles. I even tried to donate my points to a charity. I was told that I would get tax receipts – and that was totally wrong. The right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing at Air Miles.If they want to lose air miles customers – they certainly are going about it in the right way.
I too am a senior and have been collecting since 1997 without redemption. Another family member has my second card to collect for me as well. So yesterday I went online to see my points and apparently after 19 years of collecting I had the grand total of 3600 miles!!! That’s nonsense!! I don’t know where these miles have gone…certainly not redeemed by me or my family member. Now I have only dream miles and the choice of gifts is beyond pathetic! I finally chose a circular saw and a jigsaw to use up most of the miles. It processed the order but when I clicked to see when the items would arrive it says they are both out of stock!! Pathetic and unethical behaviour from AM I can’t even movie tickets with the remaining airmiles. I most certainly will be cancelling my card once I have got whatever I can get for 19 years of loyalty!
I have also been in touch with both Mex and Airmiles. In my eyes this amounts to corporate theft on a huge scale. I fulfilled my part of the transaction by purchasing the product on which both companies took their cut from the merchants and then they cut me the customer out while they retained the profits I generated for them. I would be willing to support a class action suit against this theft so maybe that can happen and this piracy will be stopped. This theft essentially allow air miles to wipe billions off the books in potential liabilities. Wrong wrong wrong.
Meh, Airmiles will suck soon once expiry starts. They don’t actually give a damn because at the end of the day their company will live on. I am cashing in my airmiles and closing the account after – there are many different type of reward programs available so there is no longer any need for me to cling to airmiles like i have since 1994. Bye bye airmiles!
I’ve been an AM collector for many years. I used to redeem my miles mainly for gift certificates as fees and taxes added to flight redemptions usually made the overall cost too high. Now that I can’t get gift certificates any longer, I have a large number of AMs and almost no options for redemption.
I’ve had enough of this program, as far as I’m concerned it’s nothing more than a scam. Before I cut up my card for good, I’d be pleased to sign on to a class action suit. There must be a lawyer ready to take this on.
I have 15,000 Air Miles. I am a senior who was recently widowed. My husband was in long term care for 6 years. So now, finally, I can go and use my Miles. Not only are they expiring, but I only have a cell phone. I was on the phone so long trying to get through to Air Miles I used more than my usual allotted minutes. Got through, only to be told I would have to call back later as they were overwhelmed with calls and couldn’t talk about trips at that time. I aquiessed. Like an idiot. Now trying to book a trip only to find things are booked up, or website not that easy to use. Like many others, I was saving for that trip. I thought patience in saving points would be rewarded. It seems not. You just get screwed.
I agree with you that those of us who have been long-time collectors (since 2002) should be allowed a one-time transfer of dream miles to cash miles. I have collected more in the past 2 years since Foodland offered miles, than the previous12 years altogether. Had I realized it, I should have changed my preferences to cash miles immediately!! Now I’m stuck and stand to lose so many older miles once they expire and EVEN FEWER available for any sort of travel afterwards.
Thanks for listening, Kyle
Same problem as all the other AM collectors. Like the others, I had no idea there were two options to collect. After learning what the difference was I was looking to redeem all my points for one item in order to be rid of this borderline scam.
Under Dream Miles there is hardly any choice of ‘items’ that I would really have any use for. I opted to book a March Break 2017 vacation and use the roughly $600 in points I have for a break on the price. After seeing you can’t book directly on line I called the call centre, waited just under one hour for a rep, only to be told that they were going to book an appointment with me for a call back…..three weeks later. Seriously?! I wasn’t taking that chance. I can walk into any travel agent or book on line instantly without waiting three weeks.
The biggest advantage the AM program and its’ administrators have is there is no ceiling to the inflation rate on what you need in order to redeem for points. They can raise the ‘price’ without any repercussions and your points end up being useless.
They should really allow the straight trade from Dream to Cash..but it’s too late. Anyone that was compelled to use up their dream miles for some hack gift or merchandise would be seriously disappointed with the company.
Now I’m back to looking on line for Dream Miles merchandise and will probably opt for a vacuum cleaner or a set of knives so I can clean up and cut ties with this program. My ‘Collector since 1995’ card will go way to the back of my wallet and I won’t be going out of my way to use it ever again. What a way to operate.
I am a long-time member of AirMiles always shopping at stores who provided AirMiles points and travelling the world collecting points. This is the first-time I have heard that my miles are going to expire if they are 5 years old and not redeemed.
I am appalled that AirMiles is treating us in this manner. I have left about 3800 points, not much I know, but points I earned through spending money supporting AirMiles. I want to changed these points to cash rewards and have not been able to do so because of the shoddy excuses provided by AirMiles in the inability to contact them through the website. Never mind, the time it takes on hold and then you never get connected.
I can’t travel by air anymore therefore I cannot book a flight to take care of the miles. I have enough to travel from Toronto to Vancouver where my kids are, but I can’t travel. This is an outrageous situation. I want to change these AirMiles over to cash to buy food and other necessities as this would help my situation.
I support your effort to change Air Miles rewards from Dream to cash value.
I have about 150,000 miles practically all of which will vaporize on Dec 31.
When I first heard of the expiry of Air Miles a few months ago I looked at the merchandise available on the web site and was pleasantly surprised. High end cameras, high end laptops and tablets, etc. were available. I bought a couple of small items that I actually needed just to test the system and got them quickly. I still have a lot of points but lately I have noticed many of the best items have disappeared. As of today there are NO cameras available under Photography. There are NO desktop computers and NO tablets available. There are two laptops available for a combination of points and cash. The deadline is approaching and they seem to be letting their inventory dwindle to nothing.
Please add me to the list of individuals who would like a one time transfer but this needs to be addressed soon or else we will be forced to order unnecessary items or forfeit the miles…thanks for your help.
I stopped using Air Miles because all my points are locked in the crazy Dream Miles program. It is useless. I would also like to transfer them.
Let us all boycott Air Miles if they don’t offer us the one-time conversion to cash.
Can we get a petition together to force Air Miles to allow us to convert our Dream miles to cash miles? It would at least be a gesture to appease their many irate customers. Nothing left in the cupboards at AM to redeem the dream miles. This is pathetic!
Count me in, have just shy from 500 miles which is almost useless. Let ‘s sue the company together.
Thank you for your letter to Air Miles. What is going on there is unbelievable. I monitor the AM Facebook Page and the Visitor Posts are endless. Collectors can’t reach anyone, web sits is often down, rewards seem to be non existent and totally controlled by AM. There are lots of booking errors, flight changes and the list of problems goes on and on. Management is nowhere to be found. They are not commenting. Nor are they doing anything to fix any of the problems. I have heard from some insiders that their infrastructure is antiquated, they are losing staff and did not anticipate this kind of response.
the media has done a great job getting the expiration message out! AM did nothing to communicate the expiry. I am a big, original collector since day 1 and have never been advised. I am shocked at how this business is operating and wonder what the major sponsors think
I tweet to Bryan Peterson, the CEO regularly and get no acknowledgment back. i forward all media articles to him
Please, please keep up the pressure on Air Miles! they must at the very least extend the expiry date by one year and allow collector to transfer miles to cash miles as you said. The sponsors paid for these miles when they were awarded. there is no cost to Air miles to make the transfer, only the double dipping of collecting the revenue and paying nothing out. Criminal to say the least!
I view Air Miles expiration as a breach of contract. I did not sign up in 1992 to lose what I have earned.
Air Miles lack of accessible Customer Service, lack of communication and long phone wait times are unacceptable. In order to get printed information about one’s account, one must use a computer to log in and do so as printed statements have not been mailed out for so long, I forgot when they stopped.
Yes, I want a one-time free transfer from Dream Balance to Cash Balance.
That is the only action which will stop me from terminating my account on Dec. 31st.
Apart from everything else that people are complaining about, including me, is this: There are four months left to spend these Miles. There us very little to order, vacations look to be all booked up. Obviously Air Miles is facing a crisis. Is it even legal to ask businesses to give out Miles, which is why we shop or bank there, then not have product when we are all forced to choose or lose? Air Miles has made a horrible mistake. If they had kept a lot of things they let go i.e. B of M $100 certificates, I would get them. Why not, Air Miles? Bring back now something we can use!
I have bee a collector since day one. Yes day one ! I think what AM is doing is a complete scam. If they wish to keep any customers they should change plans and communicate the same fast. I will boycott any merchant in the future who is associated with AM. I encourage others to do the same.
Transfer!!! Where do I sign?
I am 82, in very bad health and on oxygen 24/7, unable to travel for the past two years. I didn’t know what Air Miles was doing and am very upset that I will probably lose the 3800 ‘dream miles’ and only 54 cash.
Yes, most certainly put me down for the transfer you have suggested. I only hope Air Miles will listen.
I hope you can bring pressure to bear on Air Miles to convert Dream Miles to Cash miles.
When we signed up we had no idea that we could convert to reward miles.
It is so one sided on Air Miles side.
Bill Wilcox
Please add my voice and full support to bring pressure to Air Miles to convert cash miles even if it is a one-time offer. I stand to lose 3,500 Dream miles at the end of this year.
Wilma De Souza
Letters and petitions aren’t going to do anything. These are unscrupulous execs who have devised a detailed plan to avoid redeeming millions of dollars worth of earned air miles, creating a windfall profit for their company, and undoubtedly a big fat bonus for themselves. They slipped the expiry clause in extremely quietly, and slowly reduced our ability to redeem …we are being systematically abused with fore thought, and they are not going to stop just because there’s a little bad press…..once they’ve created wealth for their shareholders – and themselves off our backs, they simply don’t care if AirMiles folds.
The only chance of us not getting stolen from is via a class action suit. The lawyers that managed that with Aeroplan (cause we’ve seen this tried before) is not responsive, which leads me to believe they were likely consulted in building AirMiles’s plan. We need to find a different American legal firm to take on AirMiles. I’m not American and out of the country – someone in the US needs to get the class action started – otherwise we’re all just flapping our gums.
Please add my voice to your open letter to Air Miles persuading them to convert Dream Miles to Cash before the end of the year.
I have been a Air Miles customer for a long time, and I didn’t know that all my miles have been deposited into the dream rewards category. I would not have known about the expiry till I read in today’s Star, no statements received from Air Miles for a long long time. I personally find nothing that I like under the dream rewards category. I strongly support the idea of Air Miles allowing a one-time transfer of rewards miles from dream balance to cash balance before the end of the year.
I completely agree with this avalanche of complaints. This is simply a scam. Yes, a scam ! Unless there is a class action, nothing will result from all this.
Some law firm should take the initiative, and all people duped compensated.
I urge all people scammed to complain, and not let this go on.
How could this occur in 2016, as if scoundrels could steal from the general public, without any consequences !
Incredible this can go on, as it were fine and dandy to litterally steal from all clients !
Hi everyone, I created a petition at change.org that you can sign to put pressure on Air Miles to allow a one-time transfer:
https://www.change.org/p/loyaltyone-air-miles-must-help-members-use-points-before-they-expire
Once again, it shows how ppl in position of power take advantage of us, the regular, ordinary guy on the street. Corporations take every opportunity to exploit and bully us, from telcos to banks, from large retailers to politicians and now, in this case, Air Miles.
Is it any wonder that today, the default sentiment is one of distrust towards all ppl in position of power.
I WILL TODAY CUT UP MY AIR MILES CARD, AND AS MUCH AS PRACTICAL, NOT SHOP AT ANY OF THEIR SPONSORS.
It is very important to let the AirMile sponsors know that you will not shop at their outlets until this issue is resolved!
I noticed this a while ago. They are shady. Is there a petition somewhere to transfer dream points to cash Points?
My points were earned under a certain set of terms and conditions, which include their “unexpire-abilty”. AirMiles has no legal right to make them “expire-able”, even if they give me ten years notice. Their unexpire-abilty is a fundamental T&C and cannot be arbitrarily changed without my SPECIFIC written consent.
The problem is, I don’t want to spend$1000s of dollars suing them for 800 points. That’s where they got all of us. But I’ll be happy to join any class action law suit. I believe we have a solid case.
I believe the Aeroplan experience a few years ago is indicative of the legal position on these matters.
I’m surprised that the ministry of consumer affairs or some such body hasn’t stepped in to stop this blatant day light robbery.
Ha! Ha! Ha!
Dream-On Miles.
Nightmare Miles.
Cash Grab Miles.
AirMiles to Nowhere Miles.
Enrich the Executives Miles.
Dream on, all we suckers. They’ve screwed us well and good.
Congratulations AirMiles. Job well done!!!
Perhaps contacting investigative reporting programs such as W5 and Marketplace would have a wide impact on consumers and businesses that deal with AirMiles. It is worth a shot.
We BOUGHT Air Miles. Often paying a premium for the items at stores with their logo. Has anyone shopped for groceries regularly at Metro? Usually more expensive than other stores. Plus to get extra miles you are enticed to buy 3 of whatever. I just spent three hours on their site, instead of ironing() to see what I can use for my Miles. Picked a trip I would have to take by myself to Caribbean. Fun. Finally got through to A M. Recording states because of high volume for travel, only taking travel for within next 5 days . Ignored that, and got pleasant guy who took details and I will get a call back October 3rd. He wanted dates, but as I told him by then the dates I wanted could be gone!
Meanwhile, over 100 people have responds to this site. Only 55 or so have joined Ellen’s petition, after her column in The Toronto Star. Come on people. Let’s try to get as much done as possible to correct this wrongful cancelling of our points. Can a car dealer cancel your car payments and demand full payment? Can your mortgage broker decide to charge you more before the end of your term? There were NO cancellation terms when I signed up for Air Miles. I have 15,000 slowly earned points. About $2,000 worth of travel. But I want those points available to me how and when and what I chose to do with them. Please take the time to sign the petition today. We can’t do a thing without numbers. Complaining means zilch. Thanks for reading…..now GO!
thanks Cassandra. Didn’t know there was a petition but now I do & I signed here https://www.change.org/p/loyaltyone-air-miles-must-help-members-use-points-before-they-expire
Where do I sign the petition?
. Like many other consumers, I am anxious to cash in my AirMiles as soon as possible. I have an old friend who is gravely ill in Brussels. I would like to visit her this November.
When checking in to redeem the value, I navigated the site. It has revealed that flights at that time of year on a Sunday (they do not offer flights on Mondays which are the cheapest day to travel) that I should spend approximately $600 and cash in 5400 miles. Though it is hard to interpret, it looks as though this sum includes a 30$ fee and taxes. See attached screen shot titled AirMiles.
Referring to Expedia on the same date, I obtain similar results including taxes without my precious AirMiles.
See attached screen shot titled Expedia. There seems to be no difference in price whether I book through Expedia or Air Miles.
You can see now why I am puzzled. To my mind it looks as though Air Miles is trying to hoodwink the unsuspecting consumer. Can you help sort this out for me? You might have a little more luck- the customer service at air miles is really very poor as well.
Christine I can help you with that. I wanted to go to England recently. Was told that on international flights Air Miles does not cover the taxes, I believe on N America they do. So yes, you are paying top price in Miles for flight then several hundred in cash on top for taxes. I was told by a travel agent who used to deal with Air Miles not to waste them on international travel. So I paid the shot and went to see my family. Hope this helps you.
What about a Facebook page to gather a collection of air miles collectors that refused to shop at any air miles sponsoring store until dream miles can be transferred to cash miles?? Not a big sacrifice for us, and that would really put the pressure on air miles to do the right thing if they are getting message from their sponsoring stores that aisles is actually a DIS-incentive for thousands to shop there. Complaints to airmiles are useless – sponsoring stores also have their reputation on the line in this.
Someone made a very good point about the LCBO being a monopoly and not needing air miles to attract business. As it is also a GOVERNMENT OWNED monopoly, we can assume that this situation represents a very friendly relationship between the Ontario government and the owners of Air Miles.
Thanks for this letter and the comments. I have recently heard other shocking information about the Air Miles program (when you log in, Air Miles only shows you the items you don’t have enough points for; your friend who has fewer points will see items that you could fully afford with your points – try it), and welcome the opportunity to cut up a useless card that clutters my wallet.
I suggest that everyone send an email to the CBC investigative show Marketplace (I did) to check out this scam – here is the link – marketplace@cbc.ca
CBC has already reported on it:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/air-miles-rewards-program-1.3756018
please, sign the petition posted in the comments by Ellen Roseman – and pass it on to all your friends and contacts – this might be a viable option if enough members sign
I agree completely with the contents of this letter.
If you do not take action on this letter, then you will compromise the future of this so called loyalty program and weaken its value significantly.
I have been a collector for over 20 years and am seriously disgusted with the lack of communication, and I mean real communication for busy customers.
George
I too have a few thousand airmiles which will expire in December. I have substantially reduced spending on my airmiles credit card and essentially stopped collecting airmiles…what’s the point? As you all know, Aeroplan tried to do the same thing a few years ago but because of backlash from its members they cancelled their plan to have miles expire. With so many Airmiles members out there surely there is something we can do…not sure if this would qualify for a class action. Any thoughts?
Yup, I too was annoyed sometime last year or maybe even the year before when I went to redeem my air miles for movie tickets, pretty much the only thing I ever used them for, to find out that all my miles were now dream miles and useless as I don’t fly anywhere and don’t amass enough points to do anything else in the dream bucket. It was too late for me–didn’t see all the apparent notifications telling me to choose between cash or dream. Called and talked to a rep–no grace. So I gave the card to my 6 year old to play house with and when I go to Rexall and they ask for my card, I say “Nope, and I wouldn’t give it to you if I did”.
The right thing for Air Miles to do would be to honour the contract they made with consumers for air miles that have been acquired more than 5 years ago. The contract was no expiry and they have now breached it.
So far I see more people commenting than applying pressure to do something about it in particular (more comments here than signatures under a petition). Complaining without taking any action won’t get us anywhere for sure: please, sign the petition started by Ellen Roseman of Toronto Star “On Your Side” section – she has helped a lot of consumers in the past.
The petition is here: https://www.change.org/p/loyaltyone-air-miles-must-help-members-use-points-before-they-expire
Let’s help ourselves:)
I was an avid Air Miles Gold collector for the last 25 years and got a trip to Florida every year from it for both my wife and I. The last time i used it I realized that if I wait for a seat sail, I will get a cheaper seat online. I tried to spend my 4800 mile balance to no avail. There are few options to use dream miles. I tried to convert to cash miles and found that because I wasn’t diligent in reading the fine print on the tons of Air Mile e-mails, I no longer have that option. I have since cancelled both my Amex and BMO air miles cards for which I was paying a fee for the privilege of enhanced collection. I now get cash rewards which they won’t be able to scam me out of miles I purposely attended member retailers to qualify for Gold status. They too have lost my business. I predict Air Miles will be out of business in a few years. I too agree that clients should be able to transfer from cash to dream miles at any time.
Thanks for this. As bad as the policy is, I just logged in to check on my expiry … and discovered that my expiry is not actually there!!! I have to request a “report” which can take 24 hrs to email to me.
Clearly they do not want you knowing easily when these expire.
AM – you suck. Did you hire someone from Aeroplan to run the program?
ILLEGAL, purely ILLEGAL. i have over 50,000 air miles and have been collecting for a hell of a long time. On Dec. 31st, i will loose 35,000 miles. i have been loyal to Air Miles, where is there loyalty to their members as well as retail merchants, financial institutions etc. etc. It is probably against the terms and conditions members we all agreed to when we first signed up. I wonder what the terms and conditions were way back when. I am surprised the the consumer protection bureau is not all over this. I have a BMO Air Miles World elite credit card. If AM’s go through with this, i will cancel my card. Too bad for the BMO.
I would sign a petition tomorrow.
I think most people get that there is an expiry on the points. The problem is not being able to accumulate enough points to use with the points you have before they expire. Where I live there are few viable retail outlets whose products I am in need of.
AM has conveniently played a shell game with us by making it very hard to get rewards based on your card or the amount of points you have. If you have a high amount, you get low valued rewards. With lower amounts you never have enough for the reward. Really, how many cork screws does one need.
At one time, before the change, when you looked at the catalogue of rewards, you saw everything. Affordable or not. Your points got you rewards for everything from cork screws to televisions to vacations to gift cards. Yes, gift cards. When the decision had to be made as to take reward points, cash points or somewhere in between, I took reward points thinking I could always take a gift card completely with reward points as I have always done in the past. Not an option any more.
A class action suit might be an option, but, like a lot of corporations faced with that situation they’ll just declare bankruptcy and call it a day. Big payouts to executives and nothing left for the rest. They’re already halfway there, morally any ways.
Great post.
To add to the statement “there’s little else of value available under the Dream Rewards category” and this article from CBC yesterday (http://www.cbc.ca/1.3756018) about hidden rewards, a user on RedFlagDeals (post #384 http://forums.redflagdeals.com/air-miles-dream-miles-soon-expire-after-5-years-1923685/26/) has been able to show LoyaltyOne is blocking some items to members before they have earned enough miles to redeem. His master list is much larger than rewards visible in my account and I am Onyx status.
If Air Miles do not allow transferring to cash miles, I will cut up my Air Miles card.
It’s funny – BILL’s comment about AM hiring someone from Aeroplan is actually kind of funny because despite the problems with Aeroplan (blackout dates, limited merchandise, lack of participating retailers, etc.), I’ve found it fairly easy to use and have redeemed plenty of miles over the years for free flights; just cashed in for flights to and from Japan. Air Miles on the other hand have been a nightmare to redeem; go on their website and try to look for a flight, and you get ‘Not Available’ nine times out of ten. I don’t have the time to wait on the phone for several hours, or to get a callback that never comes, so I’ve almost given up on redeeming them. The merchandise they have available is laughable – a computer that costs about 1,100 miles and nearly $800 in cash – or more! – is not a reward, it’s a joke. Rewards that are only available for people without enough miles in their account? Some ‘tailored experience’, I’d rather go to the dentist; at least that way the pain comes with an actual benefit.
I’ll think/hope AM will finally cave and actually, you know, provide good customer service, but I’ll likely finally bite the bullet and try and redeem my 10,000+ miles over the phone. And if I can’t do that then I’ll redeem for whatever useless gadgetry is left on the website on December 31st, and cancel my account. A rewards program that doesn’t reward you is worthless.
I too am frustrated and fed up. I spent 2900 of the 3283 that I have left flying my daughter to Ontario from BC. I called the Air Miles people and asked for a statement of when my airmiles expire going forward. They could not (or would not, or were incapable of) furnish me with one. The statement that I received said that I will have 183 expire at the end of March. If I am only earning, say, 100 a month and I have 180 miles expire every three months, I will not be making what I am actually making without losing my quarterly amount (I hope I made myself clear, LOL) My net take would be 120 Air Miles over the three months, as an example. It would take a much longet time to get a flight! By the way, I want ONLY the dream miles since I want to use them for air travel. There should be a class action law suite for what they have done to this program over the years! It borders on criminal in that parts of this program have been misleading.
To add insult to injury my on line statement said I have 145 cash miles. When I tried to redeem 95 of them for $10 at my local Foodland the cashier said and my sales receipt showed I had a 0 balance, so no cash off. Haven’t figured out how to correct that yet. Any suggestions?
I agree that a petition should be set up to express our alarm with the shady way I believe Air Miles has handled this whole affair. I urgently support that Dream miles be allowed to be transferred Cash rewards, rather than to try to scramble around trying to book a last minute flight that could even begin to use up my considerable number of points.
I had accumulated a significant number of Air Miles back in 2011 when all of a sudden they disappeared. I contacted Air Miles to be informed that they had expired and sorry about your luck. They said I was notified of the pending expiry but because I had not acted they were lost. I have not used Air Miles since and look upon it as a bit of a scam. Imagine if you had a bank account and all of a sudden your money expired.
I have no use for the company.
this is right on. all my points are in dream and i had know idea how this happened since i didn’t realize what was happening. if my points are deleted i will most likely stop using the card. looking forward to one less card in my wallet .
Moving your prescriptions (if any) will send a clear message to AirMiles and their sponcers.
It will have a larger impact if you tell them exactly why :
Here is the contact information for all the pharmacies that are also AirMiles sponcers.
Rexall –> https://www.rexall.ca/contact
Safeway Pharmacy –> https://www.safeway.ca/contact
Jean Coutu –> https://www.jeancoutu.com/en/contact-us/
Sobeys West Pharmacy –> https://sobeyspharmacy.com/ask-a-pharmacist/
Pharmasave –> by email : info@bc.pharmasave.ca
Lawtons Drugs –> http://lawtons.ca/about-us/contact-us/
And notify AirMiles that you are moving your prescriptions.
Here are 2 email addresses for AirMiles. I don’t know if they read them. But you should advise them anyway.
advisoryRetention@airmiles.ca
privacyoffice@airmiles.ca
Sponcers should know that their brand also being tarnished by their association with AirMiles.
I’d like to add my voice to this story. I’ve been a basic collector over the years but am very irritated to find out about the ‘expiry plan’ as well as Air Miles refusal to allow customers to use their miles in a manner of their own choosing (i.e. cash account versus the so-called Dream Account). How very convenient (for them) that they defaulted most people’s balance to this useless Dream Account! I’m also getting the point that they don’t really want to talk to customers in ANY format. So not only can I not get through the phone line to have a “Live Chat” – which ironically they happily declare they prefer – they aren’t (or won’t?) publish an address where customers can protest this debacle AND they got rid of an e-mail address. Way to go, Air Miles. Certainly thinking of dumping this ridiculous program unless I am convinced otherwise and soon!!
Thank you all for sharing your experience and frustration with the Air Miles program.
I’m sure many of you will be interested to know that a class action lawsuit has now been filed against LoyaltyOne, the company that administers the Air Miles rewards program: http://cbaapp.org/ClassAction/PDF.aspx?id=8027
The statement claims that Air Miles has engaged in unfair practices, including:
(a) implementing an expiry policy, when no expiry policy of the Miles had previously existed, without adequate notification to the Class Members and contrary to their reasonable expectations;
(b) date-stamping Miles, when no date-stamping of Miles had previously existed, resulting in an expiry of Miles, without adequate notification to the Class Members and contrary to their reasonable expectations;
(c) causing unreasonable and unacceptable difficulty for Class Members to redeem their Miles through Air Miles’ telephone system due to inadequate or improper management of the telephone system, resulting in unduly long wait times;
(d) failing to make all high value Rewards available to members with high Miles balances when they attempted to redeem their Miles;
(e) improperly reducing the types of Rewards available to members and improperly eliminating certain categories of Rewards altogether; and
(f) introducing a new Cash Rewards program, and removing Rewards from the historic Dream Rewards program and placing them into the Cash Rewards program, without adequate notification to the Class Members, and without enabling Class Members to change their earned Dream Reward Miles to Cash Reward Miles, thereby stripping the Dream Rewards program of significant value.
Great news!!!! Just initiating a class action law suit is itself a victory. It shows that consumers should not be exploited.
For those ppl who think that “fine print”and giving notice is enough, please note that “fine print and notification” cannot make an illegal act legal. What A/M did is illegal and no amt of fine print or notice can make it legal.
Thanks Rob Engen for all you’ve done.
Thank-you to Mr David Helms and his lawyers!
– do you need anything from the rest of us?
I asked a friend to sign the petition. When she called Air Miles for info for a trip, she has Onyx status, she was told they would call her in October. She told them since airlines have special holiday packages ending Sept 30, she would like to speak to someone before that. Somehow she got a date for next week. Just one bad move after another showing Air Miles total lack of judgement.
Except the good move of a Class Action lawsuit! This is good news. Are we to wait for info on joining in, or would anyone with miles about to expire be automatically in? I don’t want to “waste” my precious miles on something I don’t really need just to beat the deadline. Thanks to the man starting this lawsuit.
Instead of spending time and money on their loyal members I suspect Loyalty One will instead choose to support their lawyers efforts to defend their actions. Is this the type of organization that deserves our continued support? I think not. I will stop using my air miles card and do my best to stop frequenting any retailer who supports their program. This action on the part of Loyalty One will prove to be the beginning of a much deserved round of negative publicity and ultimately a decline in their popularity. Thanks to Robb for starting this lawsuit. I will be watching it’s progress with great interest.
Let’s sign this petition for a one time transfer from Dream Miles to Cash Miles
https://www.change.org/p/loyaltyone-air-miles-must-help-members-use-points-before-they-expire?recruiter=598095203&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink
I’ve given up thinking that my air miles will be converted to the cash rewards program. The first I heard of this was last week with a posting on Facebook. Moving forward I’m not going to bother with my card and collecting points which means I won’t be making an effort to go to the retailers than offer air miles. I doubt they care.
To all the upset and mad Air Miles collectors (including me) DON’T CUT UP YOUR CARD — it can be used as Excellent protection for one of your favorite cards – as in: place the Air Miles card with ‘strip up’ in front of your best card (also with strip up and hopefully also in a protective sleeve) – and when a Scanner Scammer walks by you with their electronic theft device – all they will get is your Air Miles number — maybe they can hack their way in and actually use up your almost useless miles – but I doubt it – as anyone that technology savvy wouldn’t want anything that AM offers!!! But hey – wouldn’t it be a pleasant surprise to AM to suddenly have to pay for the use of 300,000 air miles or more all of a sudden!!! In fact – if anyone knows a really good hacker – I will gladly donate my miles — that might be the most effective class action of all!!!
I signed the above petition last week after reading this article. As of today there are still 40 supporters to go before we reach 200. Everyone let’s sign the petition!
I think creating a Facebook group page to put pressure on Air Miles & its sponsors as suggested in some of the posts is ideal, but at the very least we should petition and post this on our own Facebook page to help spread the word. Thank you Robb for posting the details of the class action suit. We might have a chance yet to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
My beef with Air Miles is that flight rewards are so ridiculously inadequate. Their taxes & fees are often almost as much as the flights themselves. I’ve tried searching for fares to Europe, for example, and a flight that might cost $750 with the airline directly or with a consolidator will sometimes cost $600 in taxes & fees (!) in addition to the 1000’s of air miles you have to throw in. How does that even make any sense ? The only flight I found that was worth it is a round trip from Toronto – Washington, D.C. where the taxes are less than $200. No other flight makes any financial sense. ( I am doing waaay better with Aeroplan.) This is honestly the worst rewards program that I regret being part of.
Air Miles should have GRANDFATHERED all miles collected BEFORE Dec. 2011!!!! Instead they changed the terms and conditions of the contract and made it retroactive! NO FAIR! Shows how much they care about their loyal customers, i.e. Couldn’t care less!
So what is their corporate mission statement?!
Unbelievable…
I have wasted hours I will never get back, trying to figure out this new cash miles/dream miles system, and trying to figure out where all the rewards I used to redeem annually have gone to.
Thank God I stumbled onto this blog and realized that the whole world is in the same boat and that I am not losing my mind. What a complete waste of wallet space and waste of energy tossing the card to the cashiers these last few years – when there is NOTHING to be gained.
I too am disgusted and will not be bothering with this any longer.
Like someone said, want to see the dream miles balance wipe out at end of year, cut my losses, forget this card ever existed, and move on.
So frustrating…
Here’s the email for the office of the president at Air Miles. I suggest everyone email him/her.
mailto:Officeofthepresident@loyalty.com
I recently sent a letter via e mail to a senior VP at L.One explaining my displeasure. I got a call back from a lady who claimed to be from the office of the President. If u believe that she was from the O of the P, i will sell u the Brooklyn Bridge.
In any case, she said that there was nothing they could do. The tel number is
866 837 2905. Good luck.
Marc
If everyone sends an email to the officeofthepresident@loyalty.com I believe we would put more pressure on them and at the same time inundate the inbox.
My wife works as a cashier at one of the major retail stores that participates in the Air Miles Program. She literally hears dozens upon dozens of customers complaining every single day about getting screwed over by the expiry, crappy options to use up dream miles, etc. More and more customers are telling her that they cut up their card when she asks them if they have one. They must know this is going to cost them a lot of customers but apparently they have done the math and they stand to save more than they will lose by expiring millions of useless dream miles. Like so many others I too will use up my dream miles on some lousy ‘Reward’ , then cut up my card and shop at retail stores that offer anything other than Air Miles as a loyalty program. There are plenty of other options out there…Join the millions of people that are migrating away!!
Do you forward the comments to Air Miles? I surely hope so.
Air miles has made thousands of dollars off this rewards program from retailers over the years. I think Airmiles would love the program to now fail and have card holders discontinue using there card or walk away without redeeming / having retailers pull the program.
Due to lack of support from retailers and reward collectors will force the Airmiles Program to end. All the $$$$ made Airmiles keeps.
legal action is needed for sure.
I’m wondering of those apologists who blame us for not reading some fine print 5 years ago (if we even received any such communication ever) are either AM managers or business owners who have the same kind of business which is based on deception, manipulation and dishonesty, so this kind of business practices is just “normal” to them???
I can be blamed for not reading fine print when signing up for a mortgage, and could even be somewhat blamed for not reading it when signing up for a new loyalty program, but to blame me for not entirely reading every email or hard copy letter from Airmiles I received during last 20 years (provided that I ever actually received one announcing expiry), which is only vaguely hinting changes of terms I otherwise accepted years earlier, is pathetic.
This program is dead. But please don’t let them cash you money at the very end because you are just angry and frustrated. Yes, only overpriced and useless merchandise is left for redemption, but please buy anything, whether you need it or not. Otherwise, you will still be donating to those cheaters approx. 5-10c per each mile you collected over decades if the thieves manage to steal them from you on Dec 31.
I just used up my Air Miles on a couple of coupon books. It was the only thing I could get that was of any value to me. The coupon books looked appealing as I frequent some of the restaurants listed on the Air Miles web site. When I got the books I read the fine print. They are only good for one or two locations listed on the back of the coupon. You cannot use them at a location of your choosing. I was so disapointed it would cost me more in gas to get to some of the locations than I would save. What a waste of my time. There is no longer anything of value from this company. I’m scraping my Air Miles card.
Here is the email I received from Marketplace…….
Hello,
Thank you for contacting Marketplace about the Air Miles loyalty program.
We have prepared a report which will be broadcast on Friday, December 2 at 8:00 p.m. (8:30 p.m. in Newfoundland and Labrador).
You can also watch the program online at http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/episodes/2016-2017/air-miles
Regards,
Marketplace