The Best Air Miles Redemption
Since Air Miles decided to implement an expiry policy, I have no longer been a fan of Air Miles. Below is a breakdown of how the expiry policy will work. Effective December 31, 2016, there will be an expiry policy where all points deposited 5 years prior will be terminated. Therefore, you will want to redeem the points you earned prior to December 31, 2011 by December 31, 2016, or else you will loose all those prior earned points. Going forward, this is a general breakdown of how the points will expire:
- Points earned between January – March 2012, will expire on March 31, 2017
- Points earned between April – June 2012, will expire on June 30, 2017
- Points earned between July – September 2012, will expire on Sept 30, 2017
- Points earned between October – December 2012, will expire on Dec 31, 2017
- Points earned between January – March 2013, will expire on March 31, 2018
Furthermore, every year or so, I see many existing items requiring more and more points to be redeem for the same reward. This would not be a problem, except that the earning ratios on existing Air Miles credit cards have not really improved over the same period of time. So I have been redeeming my points whenever possible. My most recent favourite was a Cineplex Night Out Movie Package, which has since been discontinued.
Generally I try to get at least 10.5 cents per point in value. The reason is because 95 points gets you $10 using the Air Miles cash option. Therefore, when redeeming for a reward, what I would do is Google that specific item to determine how much it actually costs in dollar value. Then determine how many points you will need to redeem for that reward. The math goes like this:
- $10 / 95 points = 10.5 cents per points
To get the best bang for your buck, you want each point to be worth more. So whenever some asks me what is a good reward redemption on Air Miles, I would do the same calculation to determine the value of each point to decide whether it is worthwhile.
If you are uncertain as to how the math works, feel free to share your example question below.
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