AIR MILES’ famous Shop The Block promotion has returned after a three year hiatus. The 2023 version of Shop The Block kicks off today and compared to previous iterations it is much easier to achieve!
Earn up to 1,000 bonus AIR MILES with Shop The Block
Starting on December 7, 2023, AIR MILES collectors who opt-in to the Shop The Block offer will be able to earn a bonus by earning as little as one mile at each of only two partners by December 18, 2023. The bonus increases when collectors earn miles from three or four partners:
- Opt-in, shop 2 Partners, earn a Mile and get 100 Bonus Miles
- Opt-in, shop 3 Partners, earn a Mile and get 200 Bonus Miles
- Opt-in, shop 4 Partners, earn a Mile and get 1000 Bonus Miles
Eligible Partners
Here is the breakdown of the eligible partners and how they count towards the two to four partners required to earn the Shop the Block bonus:
Major Partners
Traditional partners such as Shell, Metro, Timber Mart etc. will count as one partner each as long as you earn 1 mile per transaction. Alamo, IHG and National are excluded (makes sense as there is only an 11 day window for the offer)
AIR MILES Shops
Each individual AIR MILES Shops merchant counts as one partner as long as you earn 1 mile per transaction. For example, if you shop online at Amazon and lululemon that would count as two partners. Online travel agencies likes Expedia and Hotels.com are excluded.
Card Linked Offers
Each individual AIR MILES Card Linked Offer counts as one partner. For example, if you use a linked Mastercard at Dollarama and Boston Pizza and earn miles from each that will count as two partners.
AIR MILES Receipts
AIR MILES Receipts as a whole counts as one partner so if you buy multiple items from multiple participating stores only the first earning event counts as a partner.
Note: Collector must be shop and upload their receipt in App during the promo period (Dec 7-18) to be eligible (i.e., receipt date must be between Dec 7-18 and must be uploaded in that time frame
AIR MILES Travel
AIR MILES Travel counts as a partner for your first booking. Multiple bookings will not generate multiple partner qualification.
BMO Credit Cards
In what could come as a surprise to many, BMO AIR MILES credit cards are excluded from Shop the Block. In some ways it makes sense as you only need to earn miles from two to four partners instead of three to seven like the last version of Shop the Block. Including BMO card spend would make it way too easy to earn a bonus 😉
Earn more miles
AIR MILES has advised us that there will be partner offers running over and above Shop the Block which will allow collector to stack offers. For example, AIR MILES Receipts is currently offering 20 bonus miles for scanning 1 eligible receipt until December 13. That means you can earn that bonus plus the miles for the item(s) on the receipt and it will count as one partner towards your Shop the Block total.
Wrapping it up
AIR MILES Shop The Block has returned and is easier to achieve than ever before! If you recall, previous iterations required a certain amount of spend at each of the participating partners and that’s not the case with the 2023 version! You simply need to earn 1 mile from each participating partner for it to count towards your total partner count. Just remember that you have to opt-into the promotion before you complete any eligible transactions for them to count.
Click here to visit the AIR MILES sites and to opt-in for Shop the Block!
Below is the 2020 version:
The annual AIR MILES Shop the Block event launched today and presents a really nice bonus mile earning
opportunity for AIR MILES collectors. If you meet the requirement of
using Shop the Block coupons at 3
or more sponsors you’ll be awarded with up to 1,200 Rewards Miles over
and
above the base miles and coupon bonus miles awarded. The maximum 1,200
miles is the same as we saw last year so it looks like we won’t see the 2,000 miles like we saw in 2017 and 2018.
This year the bonuses are as follows:
Use 3 different offers
Get 300 Bonus Miles (Same as 2019)
Use 5 different offers
Get 800 Bonus Miles (Same as 2019)
Use 7 different offers
Get 1,200 Bonus Miles (Same as 2019)
Depending on where you live, what you have already linked your AIR MILES
account to (ie linking Samsung pay) and where you need to shop, the
bonuses can come to you at not much cost this year. It all depends on
what your shopping habits will be for the next month and a half or so!
Also if you can, you could
move some shopping you had planned from one retailer to another that is
an AIR MILES
Sponsor than you can earn those bonus miles for your everyday regular
spending.
Here are the basic rules around this promotion:
I took a quick look at the offers available for Alberta since that’s where we are based and this year will definitely require more spending to reach the bonus levels. The offers have overall higher spend requirements (the lowest being spend $20 at Shell on Lottery products) but with that being said if you plan your holiday shopping, online shopping, grocery shopping etc. correctly around these offers you should be able to reach at least the 3 partner level.