Air Miles Dream Rewards vs Air Miles Cash Rewards
Posted on January 9th, 2012
Share this Story
Get BankNerd.ca email Newsletter
The Air Miles rewards program was launched in Canada in 1992, and is one of the largest rewards program to date. Collecting Air Miles from the participating partners allow clients to redeem for 1,200 reward choices; this includes travel, entertainment, home electronics, and gift cards.
That being said, Air Miles is adding in an additional program to the Air Miles rewards program, which is otherwise known as Air Miles Cash. With the creation of Air Miles Cash, you will now find the normal Air Miles program as Air Miles “Dream Rewards”.
The Air Miles Cash is a new program feature that will allow you to redeem reward miles instantly at checkout, which can be used at participating sponsors.
Air Miles Cash works by you redeeming 95 Air Miles for every $10 spent at a participating sponsor.
The Air Miles Cash program is expected to be launched in March 2012.
The Air Miles Dream program is the current program being used worldwide. Through this program you are able to redeem your Air Miles towards travel, entertainment, home electronics and gift cards.
As you have probably guessed, you can choose between the two programs. You can either collect towards your Air Miles Cash rewards, collect towards only your Air Miles Dream rewards, or a combination of both.
What I do like about the additional program is the fact that you can select the ratio rewards easily; as you can see below, you can just move the slider towards the program you want to put the majority of your Air Miles to.
Now, personally, after reading about what the Air Miles Cash program had to offer, I can say without a doubt, I am not a fan of it; 95 Air Miles for $10 at participating sponsors? To me that is a waste of good Air Miles.
Mike at Rewards Cards Canada explained in a comment that the new Air Miles Cash program will replace many popular gift cards. Metro is definitely one sponsor that will remove their gift card option (seeing as they will be a participating sponsor for Air Miles Cash). The problem here is that to redeem $20 at Metro will cost you 190 Air Miles. The current cost to redeem a $20 gift card for Metro costs 175 Air Miles. The cost for the same product has gone up 15 Air Miles.
The concept of being able to redeem Air Miles at the checkout is great, but I do not think it is worth the extra Air Miles we will have to spend.
For anyone considering what to do, I would stop and consider what you want your Air Miles to do for you. Do you want to redeem on merchandise and travel, or are you more interested in saving money at various sponsors (ie. Shell, Metro, etc). I am sure that the majority of people will prefer to redeem their Air Miles reward miles on travel or merchandise, and if that is the case, do not waste time sending Air Miles to a program you would not use. Set it up so you are only collecting towards the Air Miles Dream program. If you are interested in collecting towards the Air Miles Cash program, then you may want to consider setting it up so you collect a bit of both (to get a feel for the new program). Test it out, and if you do like it, then you might as well set it up so you collect only for the Air Miles Cash program.
In my case, I am forgoing the Air Miles Cash program, and will continue to earn solely to the Air Miles Dream program.
Similar Posts:
- Chase Ultimate Rewards up to 20% Discount Gift Card Redemptions for Freedom Cards through September 30, 2011
- FlyBuys Aviation Fuel Rewards Program for Pilots and Flight Department Members
- $250 Bonus from American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card
- Credit Card Bonuses with No Minimum Purchase Requirements
- $250 Bonus from Chase Sapphire Preferred Card
Tags: Air Miles, Rewards
Filed under Bank Rates |