This isn’t new news, but something many of us may have forgotten about since it was announced by AIR MILES in 2011. Take a peek at your AIR MILES account online, and consider booking your next vacation before the end of the year if you are in danger of LOSING accumulated AIR MILES due to a new policy that starts December 31, 2016.
From AIRMILES.CA:
Beginning December 31, 2016, Reward Miles older than 5 years will begin to expire on a quarterly basis. Miles posted to your Accounts are date stamped and, if not used, are removed from your Account 5 years later, on the last day of that quarter.
AIR MILES quarters end on
- March 31
- June 30
- September 30
- December 31
This means that, for example, a Mile you got in January 2014 would expire, if unused, on March 30, 2019.
If you, like me, immediately got concerned having absolutely no idea when you earned your AIR MILES (and therefore no clue when they expire), you can log on to your AIR MILES account here and submit a request to get an Expiry Statement. You will receive it via email (check your profile to ensure the email is current) within 12 to 24 hours.
You can not get expired AIR MILES back, so pay attention readers!
Here is what my Expiry Statement looks like. I have over 4000 AIR MILES, but 1615 will expire at the end of this year so it looks like I’m booking a trip!
I switched to cash miles when they introduced them…I’ve used them for gas, and for Starbucks e-cards. No worries here… I just wish I had more miles!
Crappy 🙁 It took me more than five years to collect to get a dyson vacumn. I wish they had asked me about this plan cause I would have said not a good idea 🙂
Thanks for the warning Tenille
Very good to know! It’s confusing to figure out when your miles expire!
I had no idea! 🙁 I’ve probably had a bunch expire, boooo! Thanks for letting us know!!
they only start expiring Dec, 2016 so nothing ha expired yet… login to your account and request an expiration statement
Yes, that’s exactly what I pointed out and explained in this post. 🙂
Thanks for all the info!
We can only earn Air Miles at 1 grocery store & 1 gas station here so they don’t add up very quickly and are usually spent right away. If we had more opportunities/places to earn them, I would totally have been saving for a flight out to SK to see the fam 🙂
I had not heard about this Thank You so much Tenille, 🙂
Thank you for this! I’ll have to let my mom know, she has a bunch of miles that she never uses.
I don’t even bother taking my airmiles card out at the LCBO anymore, I use to use my miles at xmas to get gift cards or movie certificates to use as gifts or help with my shopping budget but since they started taking those away I switched my BMO & AMEX airmiles cards to ones with better programs. I would never have enough miles to book a trip so for me, gift cards were the only rewards worth collecting for.