Air Miles Shop the Block 2019: Nov 14-Dec 27

[walkonby]

It would be quite a surprise if opting in is enough to count BMO as a partner. Far more likely IMO, you have you opt in plus spend 350 or 700, which amounts only include participating partners, not all charges to your card.

oh no! wha? You mean they will not count ALL the charges I place on the BMO card during the STB time frame?
Purchases I make from stores that are AM Sponsors won't even reach the 350 amount. This will never do.
Hmmmm........" recalculating " .
Ty @Arjon

[Silk]

oh no! wha? You mean they will not count ALL the charges I place on the BMO card during the STB time frame?
Purchases I make from stores that are AM Sponsors won't even reach the 350 amount. This will never do.
Hmmmm........" recalculating " .
Ty @Arjon

It would be quite a surprise if opting in is enough to count BMO as a partner. Far more likely IMO, you have you opt in plus spend 350 or 700, which amounts only include participating partners, not all charges to your card.

Yes, this is how I understand the terms for the BMO MC offer - has to be with participating partners. The opt-in part is probably so they know which accounts to track.

Someone correct me if I'm mistaken but didn't they also do this for the Mega Miles promo in the spring? I bought a bunch of GCs from some of the partners to qualify - still have a a small balance on a couple of the cards left! If it helps anyone, I believe GCs still qualify for the BMO MC spend offer.

[Miss Molly]

I am so disappointed in STB. I did the last 2 quite easily but there is literally not one offer I'm interested in. My goal this year was to remain Onyx through next year so I could use air miles for 2 trips at hopefully a reduced price, at which point I will no longer care as I have been putting 100% in air miles cash.

[Giseledta]

just did a 5th stb. ordered via airmiles shop. hope it credits fast.

[supershopper#39]

Does anyone know if Sobey's and Sobey's Urban Fresh offers will each count towards STB? They are separate on the offer page so that is why I'm wondering.

[Silk]

My take on the 2019 STB Air Miles promo (part of this was written at the start of the promo. I debated about posting this, but decided to, hoping that personnel from AM/AM partners might see it.)

There are only 8 partners that I would possibly shop at - no kids, no car, no pet here, don’t do dry cleaning, not moving. I ranked them in order of ease and/or likelihood *for me* to do a STB shop there. Partner #8 requires a $100 spend at Staples. Don’t need anything from them even close to that amount. No thanks. That leaves 7.

The difference between doing 5 partners and 7 partners is 400 AMs, which is roughly $40 (where 95 AMs = $10). The amount I would have to spend at partners #6 + #7 plus the cost of getting to them = minimum $45. So no sense in going for 7 partners.

Of the 5 remaining partners, #5 is the $350/$700 spend on my BMO AM MC. The only way I could do this is to buy a boatload of GCs for the partner stores. Did that for the last promo (although I think it was a min $250 spend for that one). Except for one store, I don’t regularly shop at AM partner stores, which is why I still have some of those GCs left over. So unlikely to do the BMO AM MC offer.

I have done 2 partners to date (spend AMs offers and earn x AMs) and thought I would try to do a third. But the 2 remaining partner offers I would have done were also spend 95/190 AM offers - and they had a short window - expiring today. Schedule-wise I couldn’t get to the stores before they expire - they’re way outside of my usual shopping areas – and also I did not see anything in their flyers for the past 2 weeks that I could or would spend $20 of AMs on (one is a health food store, the other a more expensive grocery store than the ones - plural - that I usually shop at.).

Tbh, I’ve accepted that I probably won’t do this round of the AMs promo and I’m glad others are skipping it also or downsizing on the # of partners (if they are following through with that). I’m hoping it will send a message to the AM partners (and yes it is the partners who make the bottom-line decisions re: the offers, not Air Miles).

I had a chance to speak to the person in charge of AMs for one of the major partners and got the sense the partner stores were pushing the envelope because they want to see how little a payout they can get away with. They believe we will jump through hoops to do the promotion no matter what. I understand how they come to that conclusion, having witnessed people doing extra shops just in case, re-doing an offer multiple times because they didn’t calculate or read the directions for an offer properly, and buying things they wouldn’t have purchased otherwise - although sometimes this makes sense if the payout is worth it.

This will be the first year since the STB events started that I won’t do the maximum promo - or probably not even the minimum. For me, this STB event isn’t worth it – the math just isn’t adding up. I’m glad to see others are coming to the same conclusion and hope the AM partners get the message.

But if this STB promo is successful, we can expect that future similar promos will just get chintzier and chintzier.

Thanks for reading.

[tjthemanto]

Does anyone know if Sobey's and Sobey's Urban Fresh offers will each count towards STB? They are separate on the offer page so that is why I'm wondering.

Yes, they will be considered as 2 separate partners and 2 separate offers even though the company is same.

Sobeys Urban Fresh is run like a separate entity just like Freshco store is, from the parent Sobeys store.

[tjthemanto]

oh no! wha? You mean they will not count ALL the charges I place on the BMO card during the STB time frame?
Purchases I make from stores that are AM Sponsors won't even reach the 350 amount. This will never do.
Hmmmm........" recalculating " .
Ty @Arjon

Yes you have to opt-in and spend $350 at the Participating STB partners, money spent at non STB AM sponsor stores won't count.

You can always buy GC too, if it is hard to spend $350 at STB stores.

BMO MC won't care what was bought.

See in RED below.

----
Term & Conditions

1. Eligible credit cards include: BMO®† AIR MILES® Mastercard®*, BMO®† AIR MILES® World Mastercard®*, BMO®† AIR MILES® World Elite®* Mastercard®*, BMO®† AIR MILES® Mastercard®* for Business, BMO®† Gold AIR MILES® Mastercard®* for Business, BMO®† AIR MILES® Business Mastercard®*, BMO®† AIR MILES® No-Fee Business Mastercard®*, Shell®** AIR MILES® World Mastercard®* from BMO®†, Shell®** AIR MILES® Mastercard®* from BMO®†, BMO®† Sobeys AIR MILES® Mastercard®*, BMO®† IGA AIR MILES® Mastercard®*. Offer can only be used once per AIR MILES® Collector Number. The same AIR MILES credit card must be used for purchases during the promotional period in order to qualify for this offer.
2. Opt-in requirements: To qualify for this offer, you must (a) opt in for the offer by entering your AIR MILES Collector Number and clicking the “Opt in” button on shoptheblock.ca/en/optin-bmo on or before December 27, 2019, and (b)
   
   • Spend $350 using your eligible BMO AIR MILES Mastercard between November 14 and December 27, 2019, inclusive, at participating Partners to get 50 Bonus Miles, OR
   • Spend $700 using your eligible BMO AIR MILES Mastercard between November 14 and December 27, 2019, inclusive, at participating Partners to get 100 Bonus Miles.
   • These purchases must be made at participating Partners listed in the “Participating AIR MILES Partners” section of the web page: https://bmoairmilesmastercard.airmil.../home?vr=promo. Participating AIR MILES Partners may be added or removed at any time without notice. Visit https://bmoairmilesmastercard.airmil.../home?vr=promo for current participating Partner details. The purchases do not have to be made at the same retailer and can be made at multiple retailers. There is no minimum spend amount required per transaction, as long as the cumulative transactions over the promotion period total a minimum of $350 or $700, respectively. Purchase transactions do not include cash advances, balance transfers, interest charges, fee payments, credit or debit adjustments, or any other amounts that may be charged to the account. See the AIR MILES® SHOP THE BLOCK® Terms and Conditions for promotional details. This offer is valid only for the AIR MILES Collector Number associated with your BMO AIR MILES Mastercard account. A limit of one (1) offer applies per AIR MILES Collector Number. To qualify for this offer, your BMO AIR MILES Mastercard account must be in good standing at the time the Bonus Miles are awarded. Offer is subject to change without notice. Miles will be deposited by January 31, 2020.

®™ Trademarks of AM Royalties Limited Partnership used under license by LoyaltyOne, Co. and Bank of Montreal.
®†/™† Trademarks of Bank of Montreal
®*/™* Mastercard is a registered trademark, and Masterpass and the circles design is a trademark of Mastercard International Incorporated. Used under license.

[lilo0003]

@Silk very well articulated and absolutely how I feel. It’s not likely I will get more than one of the STB offers. The only reason I bought my gas at Shell was because I had a November offer that I need to achieve. My willingness to chase a deal is not there when the reward does not match the amount of work or time I need to invest.

[walkonby]

@Silk I absolutely agree with your STB promo post! Especially when one has no kids, pets, vehicle.
When I read spend $100.00 at Staples I laughed. Unless I was buying 4 new printer cartridges maybe, but otherwise Staples is not a store I frequent.

As a family logically we would buy more than a single person, so the 3 best qualifying offers for us were the Shell gas, and the two Constructive adhesive offers from Lowes and Rona.
Minimal $ spent for products used/needed.

Sobeys 5x the AM on $50.00 spend worked out well, combined with digital BAM offers on the same shop and a stock up on litter.

Upcoming offer at Rexall spend $40.00, get 20 BAM will pair up with refilling my supplements and Metro Fresh2Go spend $25.00, get 50BAM comes in handy for our extended family get together ( we're bringing the pizza! )

Gift cards may be in the wheelhouse for the BOM opt-in offer but I'm still pondering whether that is worth my while.

All in all, this promo has been the least attractive. I hope they come up with a better one next time or they will lose participants.

[Giseledta]

i wish every offer for shop the block stated .. bonus points for shop the block .

[tjthemanto]

@Silk I absolutely agree with your STB promo post! Especially when one has no kids, pets, vehicle.
When I read spend $100.00 at Staples I laughed. Unless I was buying 4 new printer cartridges maybe, but otherwise Staples is not a store I frequent.

As a family logically we would buy more than a single person, so the 3 best qualifying offers for us were the Shell gas, and the two Constructive adhesive offers from Lowes and Rona.
Minimal $ spent for products used/needed.

Sobeys 5x the AM on $50.00 spend worked out well, combined with digital BAM offers on the same shop and a stock up on litter.

Upcoming offer at Rexall spend $40.00, get 20 BAM will pair up with refilling my supplements and Metro Fresh2Go spend $25.00, get 50BAM comes in handy for our extended family get together ( we're bringing the pizza! )

Gift cards may be in the wheelhouse for the BOM opt-in offer but I'm still pondering whether that is worth my while.

All in all, this promo has been the least attractive. I hope they come up with a better one next time or they will lose participants.

Better to get a laser printer for less than hundred bucks, they last for ages.

Also easy to refill those toner cartridges for 20 bucks or so when they get over.

Those inkjet and deskjet cartridges like Epson, HP, Canon etc are way too expensive and hardly print much pages!

[KittyKatz]

My take on the 2019 STB Air Miles promo (part of this was written at the start of the promo. I debated about posting this, but decided to, hoping that personnel from AM/AM partners might see it.)

There are only 8 partners that I would possibly shop at - no kids, no car, no pet here, don’t do dry cleaning, not moving. I ranked them in order of ease and/or likelihood *for me* to do a STB shop there. Partner #8 requires a $100 spend at Staples. Don’t need anything from them even close to that amount. No thanks. That leaves 7.

The difference between doing 5 partners and 7 partners is 400 AMs, which is roughly $40 (where 95 AMs = $10). The amount I would have to spend at partners #6 + #7 plus the cost of getting to them = minimum $45. So no sense in going for 7 partners.

Of the 5 remaining partners, #5 is the $350/$700 spend on my BMO AM MC. The only way I could do this is to buy a boatload of GCs for the partner stores. Did that for the last promo (although I think it was a min $250 spend for that one). Except for one store, I don’t regularly shop at AM partner stores, which is why I still have some of those GCs left over. So unlikely to do the BMO AM MC offer.

I have done 2 partners to date (spend AMs offers and earn x AMs) and thought I would try to do a third. But the 2 remaining partner offers I would have done were also spend 95/190 AM offers - and they had a short window - expiring today. Schedule-wise I couldn’t get to the stores before they expire - they’re way outside of my usual shopping areas – and also I did not see anything in their flyers for the past 2 weeks that I could or would spend $20 of AMs on (one is a health food store, the other a more expensive grocery store than the ones - plural - that I usually shop at.).

Tbh, I’ve accepted that I probably won’t do this round of the AMs promo and I’m glad others are skipping it also or downsizing on the # of partners (if they are following through with that). I’m hoping it will send a message to the AM partners (and yes it is the partners who make the bottom-line decisions re: the offers, not Air Miles).

I had a chance to speak to the person in charge of AMs for one of the major partners and got the sense the partner stores were pushing the envelope because they want to see how little a payout they can get away with. They believe we will jump through hoops to do the promotion no matter what. I understand how they come to that conclusion, having witnessed people doing extra shops just in case, re-doing an offer multiple times because they didn’t calculate or read the directions for an offer properly, and buying things they wouldn’t have purchased otherwise - although sometimes this makes sense if the payout is worth it.

This will be the first year since the STB events started that I won’t do the maximum promo - or probably not even the minimum. For me, this STB event isn’t worth it – the math just isn’t adding up. I’m glad to see others are coming to the same conclusion and hope the AM partners get the message.

But if this STB promo is successful, we can expect that future similar promos will just get chintzier and chintzier.

Thanks for reading.

Why don't you post this on their face book page or twitter page....I have kids and a vehicle and still find it hard to use 5 or 7 partners without spending money out of my ordinary...

[tjthemanto]

Sobeys has 50% OFF on all Jamieson vitamins & supplements.

Pretty good prices. Not sure if it was just for Black Friday or the entire week.

In case someone wants to do STB at Sobeys.

[mkos_29]

I just started doing shop the block and can only really do the shell gas/Sobeys shop/Safeway shop portions.