Air Miles Expiring? What?
As many of you may or may not be aware of, Air Miles announced 5 years ago their plan to start expiring points after 5 years of earning. What this means for us collectors of 10+ years is that as of December 31, 2016, anything we accrued before 2011 will be expiring. They also announced the segregation of cash miles vs dream miles,instead of one amalgamated pot. If you were like me, and didn’t really do anything about it when they first announced things, we just continued to collect points. Because we didn’t do anything, all of our points were put into “Dream Points”. This meant that they can not be used at the till to save $10 off purchases, nor to purchase gift cards. They are meant for travel and merchandise… which means a quite low rate of return per Air Mile.
Ok, so, the first round of points expire December 31. After doing a check into how many points i was going to lose, I found out that 730 were going to expire. Because I had 2349 total, so I tried to look into booking a flight, which showed cost only 2500. But after a huge headache, I was told that I can book 5 days in advance (which is NOT going to go well for a planner like me, trying to book a trip for November). I decided that the flight was going to be a no go for me.
Neat Options
I continued to shop, and found a Weight Watchers Digital Body Analysis Bathroom Scale for 700 miles, valued at approx $70 CDN. This works out to $0.10 per Air Mile, which is better than the table. But I really didn’t NEED a new scale. So I kept shopping.
There is also a Vtech Kidizoom Action Cam for 800 Air Miles. We didn’t really need another camera, as Peyton has one built into her tablet that she plays pretty seriously, but its value is $70 CDN, which works out to $0.0875 per Air Mile.
For those looking prepping for a baby on the way and still need some gear, they have a few options. For example, the Fisher Price 4-in-1 Total Clean High Chair, which is going for 1750 Air Miles, is worth about $170 CDN. This works out to $0.097 per Air Mile. There is also a VTech Safe&Sound® Video Baby Monitor, valued at $160 CDN, going for 1800 Air Miles. This is $0.0888 per Air Mile.
Need some more organization in the play room? Check out the KidKraft Sort It and Store It Bin Unit, going for 1400 Air Miles, and is worth about $110 CDN. This is $0.078 per Air Mile.
If you are needing a birthday gift for a Frozen lover, or a baby shower gift, they have a few good options for that too. They offer an eKids Frozen Theme Bundle, which I was unable to find elsewhere to get a good value of it. It includes a prerecorded microphone with Frozen songs, and also comes with Frozen themed head phones. This would make a cute gift for a little girl. Sophie the Giraffe is back too with an awesome baby bundle bath time gift set.
My Decision
I finally found and settled on this: Melissa & Doug Deluxe Wooden Railway Set! This will make a perfect Christmas gift for the girls, and only ring up to 1650 miles, plus 25 bonus miles due to a promotion that they are running. The set includes 100 wooden tracks, 30 accessories, plus a 6-piece freight train, 4 piece passenger train, and a 3 piece cargo truck! This is valued at approx $150 CDN, which works out to $0.988 per Air Mile, which is pretty close to the bathroom scale. I can blow more points at the same time, and will actually use this 🙂I ended up purchasing both the railway set and the bathroom scale, as I had 2350 points exactly to spend.
Please leave a comment if you find an awesome deal, or have a suggestion to maximize blowing your Dream Air Miles before the expire!
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