Over the past couple of days I have completed several media interviews about the AIR MILES Expiry rule and how miles will begin expiring at the end of this year. This was all prompted by a CBC article that came out last week and follows up on the news we broke back in December of 2011 of the AIR MILES Expiry changes and more.
Fast forward to today where, even though we are only in March it may be time to start thinking about those miles you may lose. First off, you need to find out how many miles are set to expire on December 31st. Remember, AIR MILES technically has two expiry rules. The first is the inactivity rule which is that if you don’t earn or burn at least 1 mile in your account within a 24 month period you’ll lose your miles and the 5 year date stamp rule where miles expiry no matter what after 5 years.
UPDATE: Onyx Members are exempt from the 5 year date stamp rule. You receive Onyx status when you earn 6,000 or miles in a year or hold the American Express AIR MILES Reserve credit card
To find out how many miles are expiring you’ll need to log in to your account on AirMiles.ca and click on ‘View Transactions’ under the Your Profile menu option in the upper right hand corner. You’ll then have several tabs to click on:
Click on ‘Request Expiry Statement” and you’ll see your email address listed lower on the page and all you have to do is click ‘submit request’
For me I received an email less than 24 hours later detailing the number of miles I stand to lose at the end of this year if I don’t redeem them by then:
As you can see I will have 126 miles expiring. Not a huge amount but still something for me to think about. Now, I know there are some of you who have been collecting since 1992 like I have but have never redeemed, so you’ll have a lot of miles that you stand to lose! Please oh please find a redemption for them. If it is travel, don’t worry you don’t have to travel this year, as long as you book by December 31st you can travel well into 2017! If travel isn’t an option, go for gift cards, merchandise whatever, just don’t lose those miles for absolutely nothing. You are better off with something than nothing!
After December 31st, miles will expiry quarterly from the quarter they were earned in 5 years prior, so you will always have to stay on top of your account and really keep an eye on those miles. Request the Expiry Statement often so that you know what miles are about to expire.
Ultimately I wish AIR MILES would have chosen to follow in Aeroplan’s footsteps and gotten rid of the ‘date stamp’ feature on miles but they haven’t. The thing is they still have time so maybe, just maybe that will happen. Not keeping my fingers crossed however. As a comparison, WestJet Rewards dollars also have a five year date stamp and some of those will be coming up for expiry in the next few years.
Now onto a fun challenge
I would like all of our readers to go and get your mileage expiry statements, screenshot them and post it in the comments below. We can all then all work together to help with what redemptions you should think about if you don’t have any ideas yet. Let us know with your screenshot if you are at a loss as to what to do or on the other hand let us know what you are planning to do with them! Also as part of the challenge let’s try to see who has the most miles expiring! I know I won’t win that one!
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American Express Air Miles Platinum Credit Card
• New American Express AIR MILES Platinum Credit Card Cardmembers,
earn a bonus of 2,000 AIR MILES reward miles when you charge a total of
$500 in purchases to your Card within your first three months of
Cardmembership.
• Enjoy your first year free
• Earn 1 reward mile for every $10 in Card purchases at AIR MILES®* Sponsors
• Earn 1 reward mile for every $10 in Card purchases at other
eligible grocery stores, gas stations, and drugstores in Canada
• Plus, earn 1 reward mile for every $15 in Card purchases everywhere else
• Shop at participating AIR MILES Sponsors across Canada with
your Card and show your AIR MILES®* Collector Card, and you can earn
reward miles twice
• Enjoy a special 0% introductory interest rate on transferred
balances in the first 6 months if you choose to transfer your other
credit card balances to this American Express card at time of online
application. A 1% balance transfer fee will be charged on the
transaction amount and interest is payable on the amount of this fee at
the applicable rate for purchase.
• More than 1000 rewards to choose from! Redeem for a wide
range of rewards – everything from electronics to travel and more
• You can use Apple Pay on your eligible device to pay for
goods and services at participating American Express contactless
merchants
• American Express is not responsible for maintaining or
monitoring the accuracy of information on this website. For full details
and current product information click the Apply now link.
Conditions apply