How Does AIR MILES Shops Work?

AIR MILES Shops is a sub-feature of the AIR MILES program that lets you earn bonus AIR MILES by routing your purchases through its online portal.

With no cost to use, this program makes your online purchases more rewarding since the AIR MILES you earn are on top of the rewards that your credit card already provides.

In this article, let’s check out what AIR MILES Shops is all about, and how you can start earning extra AIR MILES by shopping through its portal.

What Is AIR MILES Shops?

AIR MILES Shops is a Canadian online shopping portal that lets you earn AIR MILES when you route your online purchases through its website.

The online shopping portal currently has over 250 partner merchants, so you’ll find that many of your favourite online purchases are eligible for bonus AIR MILES through this program.

Like the rest of the AIR MILES program, AIR MILES Shops is a free service, and you can use any credit card or payment method to pay for your purchases – though, of course, you can maximize your AIR MILES earnings by using one of BMO’s co-branded AIR MILES credit cards, such as the BMO AIR MILES®^† World Elite®* Mastercard®*.

How to Use AIR MILES Shops

As a sub-feature of the AIR MILES program, you must be signed up for AIR MILES and have a membership number to use AIR MILES Shops. Joining AIR MILES is free and can be quickly done online if you’re not already a member.

To start shopping and to make sure you’re organized, open a new browser window for your online shopping session and log in with your AIR MILES credentials. This way, you’ll get to make sure that your purchases are correctly routed through the AIR MILES Shops portal.

On the AIR MILES Shops website, you can either browse through the list of shops available, or if you already have a merchant in mind, you can simply search for their name in the search bar at the top of the website.

AIR MILES Shops will then initiate the session, and your chosen merchant’s website will load.

It’s important for you to do your shopping and payment within the same browser tab that AIR MILES Shops loaded for you in order for your purchases to be properly tracked for your reward. As AIR MILES Shop warns:

To qualify for Miles you must complete your purchase within the same session you start the purchase without exiting your browser. Opening a new tab or returning later will result in Miles not tracking.

If, for some reason, you lose the designated browser tab, you must go through to the AIR MILES Shops portal to load the merchant’s website again.

This requirement is, in part, because as with other online shopping portals, AIR MILES Shops utilizes “cookies” to track your shopping sessions and purchases. While a website tracking your purchases sounds concerning, cookie data and other tracking technologies are a reality of the internet, and AIR MILES Shops’s competitors like the Aeroplan eStore and Rakuten also use similar technologies to deliver benefits to their users.

Take note that once you’ve finalized your transaction with the merchant, you won’t see any indication that you’ve earned AIR MILES. Rather, you’ll see your AIR MILES deposited automatically to your account within 60–75 days – though in practice, it typically takes way fewer days than that.

Also, be sure to keep the order confirmation from your purchases and note any AIR MILES special offers that you should be receiving. This way if your AIR MILES don’t post to your account within the 60 to 75-day timeframe, you can follow up with an inquiry to make sure you get them.

How to Maximize AIR MILES Shops

There are a few ways to maximize your earning through AIR MILES Shops, and here are two of the best.

BMO AIR MILES Credit Cards

First off, you can use an BMO AIR MILES credit card to further your AIR MILES earning. For instance, the BMO AIR MILES®^† World Elite®*Mastercard®* earns:

• 3 AIR MILES®^† per $12 (all figures in CAD) spent at participating AIR MILES Reward Partners^†
• 2 AIR MILES®^† per $12 spent on eligible purchases at grocery stores, wholesale clubs, and alcohol retailers^†
• 1 AIR MILE®^† per $12 spent on all other eligible purchases^†

To illustrate the potential here, let’s look at an example. Say you’re in the market for a base-model Apple Macbook Air. With the combination of AIR MILES Shops and the BMO AIR MILES®^† World Elite®*Mastercard®*, you’ll earn:

• 17 AIR MILES per $20 spent at Apple.com through AIR MILES Shops (during a special promotion)
• 1 AIR MILE per $12 spent with the BMO AIR MILES®^† World Elite®*Mastercard®*

Based on these earning rates, if you buy a base-model Macbook Air retailing at $1,299, you’ll net approximately 1,213 AIR MILES. When redeemed at the usual valuation of 95 AIR MILES = $10, this nets you about $128 in value.

AIR MILES Special Offers

The next way you can maximize AIR MILES Shops is by looking out for special offers on their website.

These special offers happen periodically, though you can usually count on some particularly interesting ones around holidays and special times of year like Black Friday, back-to-school, and Christmas.

These special offers can be for specific merchants or they can be site-wide, and they typically entail elevated earning opportunities.

For example, we’ve seen earning rates of up to 17x AIR MILES for the likes of Apple, Walmart, Lululemon, and Dyson.

Another spot to regularly look for special offers is the main AIR MILES website or app. Often, the program offers special and “flash” offers for bonus AIR MILES involving AIR MILES Shops, such as the opportunity to earn 25 bonus AIR MILES when you earn at least 1 AIR MILE through AIR MILES Shops.

AIR MILES also offers its signature Shop the Block promotion, which lets AIR MILES collectors earn a tiered bonus when they earn AIR MILES through various means.

Through this promotion, each AIR MILES Shops merchant is counted as one means of earning AIR MILES, so you’ll easily earn the highest bonus tier by simply shopping online.

Note that these limited-time special offers can also usually be combined with the default AIR MILES Shops offers, allowing you to maximize your earnings on your purchases.

Conclusion

AIR MILES Shops lets you earn extra AIR MILES by routing your purchases through its online portal.

Using AIR MILES Shops comes at no cost (like the rest of the AIR MILES program), and the bonus AIR MILES you receive are on top of any rewards your credit card already provides.

AIR MILES Shops is surely worth exploring, especially when combined with other juicy AIR MILES offers, so be sure to check out the portal and keep your eyes open for when your favourite online merchants are being featured.