What's in your reward miles redemption history?

buyerbrad said:

I was looking at my history and thought this may be cool idea. What is your reward miles redemption history showing for the past year? Here is mine:

1 - Sidney Crosby autographed jersey (got this framed through Frameworth and it looks amazing!)
3 - African Lion Safari General Admission Tickets
2 - SeaWorld Orlando Single Day Admissions
2 - Disneyland Adult 3-Day Park Hoppers
1 - Disneyland Child 3-Day Park Hopper
1 - Cineplex Entertainment Great Escape Certificate for Two (only cost 1 Airmile!)

I also currently have 3185 miles sitting in my account. I will likely grab a 5-Day Child DisneyWorld pass to save for later and use the remainder to grab my first of 3 African Lion Safari passes for this year.

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Donald - my hero said:

Not sure if this will help or not but this is how we treat our miles:
EARNING:

1. we never buy anything we don't need stritcly for the Airmiles (ok, perhaps that one bonus on the cheesecake snacks )
2. The return has to be at LEAST 1:1 on our money.
3. We have plenty of storage space for dry goods so have no problem with buying oh, a year's worth of toilet paper , medication with extended expiration dates ...
4. We use our AMEX card almost exclusively since it has a higher earning point -- MasterCard is only used when there is a promotion or in a store that doesn't take AMEX
5. Before i buy anything on-line I check the Airmiles shop 1st and sling shot thru there. **keep several shopping carts almost full waiting for bonus events
6. As much as it pains me to watch the AMAZING stories connected to foodbank deliveries (@mort1331 I'm looking at you ) we won't buy something strictly to donate, our charitable $$ are already spoken for.

REDEEMING:
Because we really don't earn Airmiles on anything we wouldn't normally be buying & we're not shopping in stores we wouldn't already be shopping in (Yes, Metro is usually more $$ but we would still shop there even if no AM) we look at our Airmiles as "FREE". So long as point 1 & 2 in our Earning criteria are met i rarely do any other math. Using this logic (and yes i realize this is not shared by most!!) if we can redeem our miles for something we would normally **want** to purchase but can't justify actually buying.. BONUS! Like you we don't like using them for flights, doesn't seem to be a good value, if i watch for sales thru Expedia (thru the Airmiles shop site!) i can get them for less than the tax. If i see "something" i want, that would truly be a luxury (current desire is a sound bar for the tv), then I'll redeem for that! Once it arrives i will giggle and show it off cause I'm a dork! I think the best *value* has been for car rentals

We won't be doing the Disney tickets because we like to hop AND we have no idea when/if we'll go back.

*** congrats on the baby

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ilovetotravel1977 said:

I will be using the Cash miles at Sobeys starting this weekend and putting those $50 increments into our travel fund for Disney.

I use our Dream miles solely for flights to Miami for our cruises. They can cost anywhere from $700-$900 return for April (the airlines know to charge more on Saturday and Sunday afternoons when all of the cruise ships get back to port!) I have a BMO World Elite mastercard for Air Miles so flights to anywhere in Florida are only 2,325 miles, versus 3,100 for everyone else. It adds up when you are buying more than 2 flights at a time. It's a great value when we use them for Miami. Orlando, not so much.

We also charge EVERYTHING to this credit card as we can earn hundreds of miles each month from that alone.

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4leobeans said:

I must be doing something wrong...I just got a BMO World Elite AM MC, and actually priced out trips today (for December), and i can barely get one. I have 6000 miles, and the flights between Manitoba and Orlando start at 3500, most are coming in between 4900-6500....

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mort1331 said:

So when I look at buying and donating, it is for good and also personal reasons. Food bank is the good reason. Personal because I know I need to buy my park passes, so if I shop AM deals and can get 10am or more per $1 then that for me is a good return. Since the Park passes are AM less than what the US$ amount would be to pay out of pocket, it works out better. With the relish deal, I was doubling my money. $4 for 75AM. Therefore my Park passes were less than half the cost, and they dont expire.
So a win win for both sides. Plus bonus this year is ( and I was not expecting this) the food bank wanted to see my receipt for the relish and handed me a tax donation receipt.
By the way the relish deal was a lot better than the Poweraid deal last year.
.

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4leobeans said:

I must be doing something wrong...I just got a BMO World Elite AM MC, and actually priced out trips today (for December), and i can barely get one. I have 6000 miles, and the flights between Manitoba and Orlando start at 3500, most are coming in between 4900-6500......

And...Expedia?Q I need to use the airmilesshops more. My husband and I just took a trip to Las Vegas...which was booked through Expedia ....like $4000 of missed miles . Anyone know if you can earn miles if you send in proof of purchase?

@Donald - my hero : I've never been able to leave a shopping session without purchase......otherwise I don't earn the AM

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