How Do Blue Rewards Card-Linked Offers Work?

Blue Rewards Card-Linked Offers are a feature of the Blue Rewards program (formerly AIR MILES) that let you earn bonus Blue Rewards points by linking and using a Canadian-issued Mastercard on purchases with participating brands.

With no cost to join, this feature makes your eligible purchases more rewarding, and it only takes a few steps to set up.

In this article, let’s look at what Blue Rewards Card-Linked Offers are all about, and how you can start earning extra Blue Rewards points by using your Mastercard.

What Are Blue Rewards Card-Linked Offers?

Blue Rewards Card-Linked Offers (also called Card Offers) let you earn additional Blue Rewards points when you pay with a linked Canadian-issued Mastercard at participating brands.

You earn these extra Blue Rewards points without needing to show or scan your Blue Rewards card, since your purchase is tracked automatically through the linked Mastercard.

The Blue Rewards network includes more than 400 participating brands, and you’ll need to link your Mastercard to access the offers, as we’ll detail below.

How to Use Blue Rewards Card-Linked Offers

To use Blue Rewards Card-Linked Offers, you’ll need a Blue Rewards account and a Canadian-issued Mastercard.

If you hold one of BMO’s Blue Rewards Mastercards, your card is linked automatically, so you can skip the linking step:

• BMO Blue Rewards World Elite®* Mastercard®*
• BMO Blue Rewards Mastercard®*

If you want to link a non-BMO Mastercard, you can do so on the Blue Rewards card-linked offers website or through the Blue Rewards app by entering your Canadian-issued Mastercard number and your Blue Rewards Member number. You can link multiple primary and supplementary cards, and you can also assign cards to other people’s Blue Rewards accounts, such as those of your household members.

Some card-linked offers are ready to use as soon as your card is linked, while others require you to opt in first. Either way, once an offer is active, you simply pay with your linked Mastercard, whether you’re shopping in store or online, and there’s no field to enter your Blue Rewards number.

Keep in mind that the Blue Rewards points earned through card-linked offers are calculated based on the total amount charged to the card, including taxes and fees. If you split a transaction across more than one payment method, only the portion paid with the linked Mastercard counts towards the offer.

How to Maximize Blue Rewards Card-Linked Offers

There are a few ways to get more out of Blue Rewards Card-Linked Offers.

Use a BMO Blue Rewards Mastercard

The most straightforward way to maximize your earning is to pay with a BMO Blue Rewards Mastercard, which earns Blue Rewards points on top of any card-linked offer. The BMO Blue Rewards World Elite®* Mastercard®* earns:

• 10 points per dollar spent (all figures in CAD) at participating Blue Rewards Partners
• 2 points per dollar spent on groceries, gas, EV charging, wholesale clubs, and alcohol
• 1 point per dollar spent on everything else

Because the card itself earns at participating Blue Rewards Partners, a card-linked offer at one of those brands stacks on top of your regular earn rate. At Instacart, for example, you earn 1 Blue Rewards point per dollar through the card-linked offer, in addition to the points your card earns on the purchase.

Blue Rewards points redeem at a rate of 1,500 points = $10, so stacking the card’s earn rate with card-linked offers adds up quickly.

Combine with Special Offers

You can also stack card-linked offers with the limited-time and seasonal promotions that Blue Rewards runs throughout the year. The program’s signature Shop the Block event, for instance, lets you earn bonus Blue Rewards points across a range of brands, and these promotions can usually be combined with the default card-linked offers to maximize your earning.

Most of these special offers can be found in the Blue Rewards app, and many require you to opt in, so it’s worth checking in regularly.

Assign Cards to Separate Accounts

Finally, you can get more out of card-linked offers by assigning your primary and supplementary Mastercards to different Blue Rewards accounts.

While you can register a primary card and all of its supplementary cards to a single Blue Rewards account, it’s often more beneficial to register each supplementary card to the supplementary cardholder’s own account. That way, you and your household members can each take advantage of one-time and opt-in offers separately.

Just remember that each Mastercard must be linked individually, and supplementary cards count as separate cards even though they belong to the same primary account.

Conclusion

Blue Rewards Card-Linked Offers let you earn extra Blue Rewards points by simply linking your Canadian-issued Mastercard to your Blue Rewards account. Joining is free and takes only a few one-time steps, after which you earn bonus points passively whenever you pay with your linked card.

Combined with a BMO Blue Rewards Mastercard and the program’s seasonal promotions, card-linked offers are an easy way to squeeze extra value out of your everyday spending, so it’s worth linking your Mastercard if you haven’t already.