AIR MILES’ first significant update since being taken over by BMO is here! Tomorrow, the program will officially announce and launch a revamped AIR MILES Travel platform. The all-in-one platform will feature new earn rates and more travel partners to book with but by far the best part of the news is the introduction of a cash+miles redemption option!
Ever since AIR MILES launched in 1992 you have always had to have the full amount of miles to redeem for flights, such was the case even when they revamped the AIR MILES Flights platform in 2021. Now, the program has finally come of age and is implementing this collector friendly redemption option!
The new AIR MILES Travel platform
First off, the new AIR MILES Travel platform will be a one stop shop for booking travel. Flights, hotels, car rentals, vacation packages and extras can now be booked in one place. The program has brought vacation packages and extras like U.S. park passes in-house which were previously provided via their partnership with Red Tag Vacations. The latter still provides AIR MILES collectors with a platform to book cruises with cash or miles or a combo of the two.
New AIR MILES Travel Earn Rates
All AIR MILES collectors will now be able to earn miles on bookings made via the new AIR MILES Travel portal including flights.
For standalone bookings such as a flight, hotel or car rental members will earn the following:
- Onyx Collectors – 1 Reward Mile for every $5 spent
- Gold Collectors – 1 Reward Mile for every $10 spent
- Blue Collectors – 1 Reward Mile for every $15 spent
Collectors can then earn even more miles if they bundle multiple trip items into one single booking such as flight+hotel or flight+car rental. The mileage earn rates listed above for standalone bookings will be multiplied as follows for bookings that combine multiple trip elements:
- Onyx Collectors – 5x the Miles on bundled bookings
- Gold Collectors – 4x the Miles on bundled bookings
- Blue Collectors – 3x the Miles on bundled bookings
The earning doesn’t stop there as those members paying with a BMO AIR MILES®† MasterCard®* or a BMO AIR MILES®† World Elite®* MasterCard®* will earn 3x miles on AIR MILES Travel Purchases. That translates to 3 Miles per $12 spent on the World Elite card and 3 Miles per $25 spend on the no fee AIR MILES card.
This new combination of earn rates means that AIR MILES collectors will be able to enjoy up to an unprecedented 12.5% return on their travel bookings.
Recommended reading: BMO AIR MILES Mastercards offering up to 15,000 bonus miles (Biggest ever bonuses!)
Flexible Payment Options including Cash + Miles
When booking travel via AIR MILES Travel collectors will have the option to pay with any major credit card, redeem their Dream Miles or by using a combination of the two. Now, there is one stipulation for the combined cash plus Dream Miles payment option and that is collectors must have at least 50% of the miles required to use the option.
Here is an example of booking a one way flight between Toronto and Montreal on November 7:
This flight can be paid by credit card for the full $153.09 or you can redeem 945 miles to cover the full base fare and pay $59 taxes & fees (approx.). The value when redeeming 945 miles works out to 9.95 cents per mile.
Then you have the option to mix the two, here you see that the minimum redemption requirement is 473 miles (50% of the full Dream Miles total). In this example I set the Dream Miles redemption at 500 miles:
In this case the redemption would require the 500 miles set plus $103.12 to be paid by credit card. This sees the 500 miles covering $49.97 for a value of ~10 cents per mile.
I also moved the slider over to use up my entire balance of Dream Miles which now saw 542 miles covering $54.17 of the flight which once again provides a value of ~10 cents per mile.
I would have loved to see the cash+miles option to allow for any combination of Dream Miles+Cash instead of a minimum 50% requirement (we do see it for bundled travel for Onyx collectors) but no matter what this move is a big step in the right direction for AIR MILES. Many more collectors will now be able to use miles to pay for travel rather than holding on to them in the hopes of earning enough to eventually redeem for a flight or to simply end up using the miles for merchandise as so many have done in the past.
Also, somewhat worth noting is the valuation of the miles at around 10 cents per mile for the cash+miles option (I also checked some other flights and hotel stays and received the same valuation when using the cash+miles slider). Ten cents per mile is slightly lower than the Cash Miles option of 10.5 cents per mile value to which I don’t think many will bat an eye at that small of difference. Still, I would have thought AIR MILES would have matched the value but perhaps this an indication of the future value of the single currency that will come in 2024.
Dream Miles + Cash for bundled travel
If you are booking bundled travel via AIR MILES Travel these are the requirements to use the Dream Miles + Cash redemption option:
- Blue collectors can use Miles for a minimum of 50% of the total cost of trip excluding taxes and fees
- Gold collectors can use Miles for a minimum of 25% of the total cost of trip excluding taxes and fees
- Onyx collectors are free to use Miles as they choose excluding taxes and fees
New Travel Partners
AIR MILES has also let us know they are adding more travel suppliers to their travel platform:
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AIR MILES is expanding its roster of trusted travel suppliers by adding partners with global offerings never before available (Everything from key airline partners and notable hotels to key excursions and attraction tickets)
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With the addition of new airlines, AIR MILES is expanding its roster of destinations, moving beyond the typical sun-and-sand hotspots and allowing Collectors to travel and explore the world with various new international locations to choose from
I am awaiting details on who some of the new partners are (and will update this section accordingly) but I did notice on the AIR MILES site they do list Singapore Airlines as a partner. SQ was not listed as partner back in the 2021 revamp and to be honest I haven’t perused the list frequently since that time so perhaps they are one of the new partners.
Update: here are some of the new partners that weren’t listed in the 2021 update to AIR MILES Flights
- Singapore Airlines
- Condor
- Air India
- AMStar (destination management partners across Mexico and the Caribbean and WorldStar in Hawaii – they provide transfers, tours, excursions and emergency in-destination support)
Wrapping it up
The launch of the new AIR MILES Travel platform is the first of many new initiatives coming from the re-invigorated AIR MILES program. In my discussions with them over the past few months the program is striving to return to its roots from which it bore its name. They want to focus on travel and have more members redeeming for travel as was seen in the 90’s and 00’s and the new AIR MILES Travel platform should help them achieve that goal – especially with the new Dream Miles+Cash option as it opens the door for many collectors to use their miles towards travel bookings.
Next up, we should see the program adding the option to transfer miles between Dream and Cash (as mentioned in our October 11 daily update) with the ultimate goal to do away with the multiple currencies in 2024.
Click here to check out the new AIR MILES Travel platform
Images via AIR MILES