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  1. #31
    Canadian Guru aussie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by walkonby View Post
    I was in absolute shock over the raising of the Metro GC cost to 175 AM! That is ALL I ever redeem for, no travel, no restaurants. Free food was the best for our clan of 5.
    I did have a fair amount of AM banked but was waiting to redeem after the Postal dispute is done.
    I got so annoyed looking through for " other" options for my redemption and just felt nothing was really of value. I don't much care for Zellers anymore, so GC useless to me there.
    Then a " lightbulb" moment came as I saw this item in small kitchen appliances.

    ( Oh God, shoot me I am a sucker for shiny new kitchen gadgets) lol


    It is the Cuisinart Griddler/Grill combo!! (cost me 1250 AM, ouch )

    This is what it looks like and it was delivered by UPS today and I just ordered it on line on June 14th!




    I am going to make the shrimp Quesadillas that was in the recipe book that came with it.
    I love kitchen gadgets too!!!! your grill looks awesome!!!

    I ended up spending 700 AM and ordered 5x$20 sobeys GCs. now Im down to 1962 AM, going to hang onto those ones....
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  2. #32
    Canadian Guru aussie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by sampler View Post
    i think i got 125 points. ..anyone know the best way to spend?
    magazine subscription?
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  3. #33
    Junior Canuck
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jellybean View Post
    Just wondering if anyone has actually saved up for anything other than GC's. I was thinking of flights or vacation package's not sure if anyone has had experience with that.
    I have - a few years ago I redeemed to fly from London Ontario to London England. I loved it - Normally I have to fly from Toronto for cost reasns, but because they are in the same point zone, I could fly from London at no extra cost/redemption. There was a huge snowstorm that day and we were late leaving London and because the flights were booked connecting through the airline had to bump me to the next available flight - if I had paid for the trip myself I would have driven to Toronto - me getting there later would not have been their responibility and I would have been screwed!! Paid off for me big time that way.

    My boyfriend and I have been saving for a trip to New York this winter, and again we'll be able to fly from London without having to go from Detroit or Toronto, and as we are actually doing quite well with racking miles up over various sponsors and attaining gold this year, if we go to Florida or Vegas in the spring we will only have to pay for one fare at most, and maybe not even that.

    My Mom has redeemed for Via in the past, not a great value I think but it was a nice extra treat for her and my Dad to not have to pay Via's non sale prices to Toronto and they didn't have to worry about paying for parking or anything when they got there.


    Quote Originally Posted by spiggsy View Post
    I don't think it's easy to compare SDM and Airmiles together. Airmiles can be earned at a whole multitude of places, and redeemed for use with many different companies too. Shoppers really limits you to shoppers. We airmiles users pay for that flexibility.

    I know that for the last twelve months I have enough for over $600 in Shell gas ... and as I redeem that $600 I will also earn more airmiles. This year though I'm thinking of redeeming $800 against the purchase of a vacation in the winter. On the other hand I'm eying up either a nice Dyson or possibly a TV for the basement. I can earn 250+ miles a month with only slight changes to the way I shop, which works for me. I would hate to have that ability to choose taken away from me, and if we see more vendors added, and more bonus miles around as I have seen ... I will be happy enough.

    I think the key point here is not that AM is wrong to raise it's costs ... but that the likes of SDM Optimum is of a way better benefit in a strict cash for cash scenario. Save the vitriol, and praise the competition instead.



    This this this - the ability to collect at mutiple sponsors is great for me! Especially when I use my coupons at those other sponsors!! I recently had the AM coupon for zellers - was able to get bonus AM right at the till, and still get my HBC points which also converted to AM - and I had used copupons to bring the price of my shopping down to the minimum to earn the bonus!!

    There are no rewards for shopping at Home Depot or Rona which we often have to do for renovation stuff - if the price is right and the buy makes sense Rona will often get the business as I can get AM there.
    Last edited by snow00774; Sat, Jun 18th, 2011 at 08:22 AM.

  4. #34
    Canadian Genius operabob's Avatar
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    snow,

    If you'd read back you'd have seen this earlier:

    I've pointed out often over the years that converting HBC/Z to AMs costs you 50% of your purchasing power.

    It takes 80,000 HBC/Z points to buy a $10 HBC/Z card

    It used to take 160,000 converted HBC/Z points to buy that same $10 HBC/Z card at AirMiles.

    A terrible offer that just got 27% worse!
    OB

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  5. #35
    Smart Canuck ame555's Avatar
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    The only one we ever redeem for is RONA - I hope it's still the same! Built our deck and half our basement with them!

  6. #36
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    Last year, we redeemed 800 AMs for a $100 GC for Rona+ 15% off one day sale that Rona was having and, we were able to purchase our air conditioner. We were able to buy a more expensive model with all the money we saved. Last year, when money was really tight I'm glad I had my AMs and HBC points to help pay for groceries and gifts. I always figure if its not coming out of my pocket then its all good.

  7. #37
    Smart Canuck
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    Quote Originally Posted by operabob View Post
    Actually, AirMiles did warn people early that redemption rates on physical items were going to change. However, I don't recall any specific mention of gift cards.
    I don't remember seeing anything from them about that...and they spam my inbox on an incredibly regular basis. Do you remember when it was that they told people?

  8. #38
    Smart Canuck Miss Molly's Avatar
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    I've gone to Vancouver 3 times and have used airmiles twice for my flight and once using a Best Western gift card to pay for part of my hotel stay. I've never had any problems with them but I have noticed the number of miles you can get in Ontario are really skimpy. I don't seek them out at all, but what I do is use my Amex and M/C to pay for everything during the month and then I get air miles that way. The air miles at Metro are a joke, at PharmaPlus only a slightly smaller joke because even with a special like they have this weekend, spending $30 to get 30 is too much for me since I stockpile everything I need when its on sale.

    Right now I have enough for $450 in gift cards for Best Western but I don't want to get them yet due to the Canada Post strike.

    My Tangerine Key is:39626323S1

  9. #39
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    Maybe it is time to concentrate on other cards and remove this one from my wallet.

  10. #40
    Canadian Genius operabob's Avatar
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    Last I looked the BW Card was still exchangeable at a rate of $0.133/AM which was and still is one of the better ones.

    After the raise I converted for about $1,000 worth of cards.

    If you use BW regularly the value is even higher than that as:

    1. BW often has Free Night offers such as the Stay3GetaFRee Night that is on until Aug. 14. The free night will probably be good until around Dec. 31. As I will use this offer naturally it boosts my value by a third to $0.177/AM.

    NOTE: Staying 2 nights in a row counts as one stay I believe. To get around this I book 2 separate nights in a row one right after the other. The CSes I've talked to at BW also suggest checking out at the desk after the first night and checking back in to make sure it goes through. (CS people at BW are among the best out there in my experience).

    2. BW also kicks in 20 AMs per visit as well. However, currently they have an offer on where you get 60/visit. Regardless, this boosts the value to me above $0.18/AM. I'll be staying 3 nights during the period so I'll pick up an extra 180 AMs approx. value = $19.80 ($23.94 at BW though).

    3. As I often use BW for business purposes and use AMs from my personal accounts to purchase the GCs I get to write the value off against taxes as well.

    Finally,

    Right now BW has an offer on GCs: B$100G100AMs as many as you want. I'll probably buy at least another $400 worth for non business stays for 400AMs = $44 ($53.20 at BW).

    BW GCs can also be used in the restaurants and bars of the hotel.
    OB

    Who Says Men Can't Shop!


  11. #41
    Canadian Genius operabob's Avatar
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    screamz,

    I don't remember seeing anything from them about that
    Trust me, it was there. Gotta read the small print! ;-)

    We even talked about it a few weeks before it happened on the Safeway AirMiles thread although I didn't search our posts:

    http://forum.smartcanucks.ca/23424-s...-deals-canada/
    OB

    Who Says Men Can't Shop!


  12. #42
    Smart Canuck
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jellybean View Post
    Just wondering if anyone has actually saved up for anything other than GC's. I was thinking of flights or vacation package's not sure if anyone has had experience with that.
    I only use Airmiles for travel. With the Airmiles Mastercard (I forget which one but it should be on the site) you can get a discount on the number of points needed for trips and only pay the taxes. I heard of people redeem for travel gift cards, but I've never done it before.
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  13. #43
    Smart Canuck Miss Molly's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ahazaras View Post
    Maybe it is time to concentrate on other cards and remove this one from my wallet.
    There's no point in removing it from your wallet. If you have the chance to use it, the points will add up. I've keep track of potential points and at times there are good ones to be had so I use it, like with Global Pet Foods, which is where I buy most of my pet food. But for Metro, I find it's almost useless.

    My Tangerine Key is:39626323S1

  14. #44
    Smart Canuck Miss Molly's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by operabob View Post
    Last I looked the BW Card was still exchangeable at a rate of $0.133/AM which was and still is one of the better ones.

    After the raise I converted for about $1,000 worth of cards.

    If you use BW regularly the value is even higher than that as:

    1. BW often has Free Night offers such as the Stay3GetaFRee Night that is on until Aug. 14. The free night will probably be good until around Dec. 31. As I will use this offer naturally it boosts my value by a third to $0.177/AM.

    NOTE: Staying 2 nights in a row counts as one stay I believe. To get around this I book 2 separate nights in a row one right after the other. The CSes I've talked to at BW also suggest checking out at the desk after the first night and checking back in to make sure it goes through. (CS people at BW are among the best out there in my experience).

    2. BW also kicks in 20 AMs per visit as well. However, currently they have an offer on where you get 60/visit. Regardless, this boosts the value to me above $0.18/AM. I'll be staying 3 nights during the period so I'll pick up an extra 180 AMs approx. value = $19.80 ($23.94 at BW though).

    3. As I often use BW for business purposes and use AMs from my personal accounts to purchase the GCs I get to write the value off against taxes as well.

    Finally,

    Right now BW has an offer on GCs: B$100G100AMs as many as you want. I'll probably buy at least another $400 worth for non business stays for 400AMs = $44 ($53.20 at BW).

    BW GCs can also be used in the restaurants and bars of the hotel.
    Thanks so much for posting this. I break into a sweat and sob uncontrollably whenever math presents itself so this was great. I think I might redeem for one gift card now because if I go away, it won't be till October and they don't have any deals on flights to Vancouver between now and then, so it would come to 3,125 to fly out there from Toronto. I have enough for a flight plus $100 in BWGC, or I will after this week. I'll just have to keep my eyes open for either a special through airmiles or a cheap flight!

    My Tangerine Key is:39626323S1

  15. #45
    Canadian Genius operabob's Avatar
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    OB

    Who Says Men Can't Shop!


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