Air Miles has announced its latest partnership, and it’s set to join forces with Canadian ultra-low-cost carrier Canada Jetlines.

This development comes less than a week after the loyalty program appeared to be headed for trouble, only to be revived with BMO announcing its intention to acquire the loyalty program from Loyalty Ventures.

This is indeed a unique and perhaps unexpected partnership, which comes as Air Miles seeks to become relevant again in the Canadian loyalty landscape.

Air Miles Adds Partnership with Canada Jetlines

The newest partnership for the beleaguered Air Miles program is with Canada Jetlines. The ultra-low-cost carrier, which launched in 2022 and is based in Toronto, currently operates a handful of flights to destinations in Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

Currently, Canada Jetlines has two Airbus A320 aircraft in its fleet, with plans to expand it to 15 by 2025. 

Through the partnership, passengers will now be able to earn and redeem Air Miles on flights with Canada Jetlines. 

Details of the new partnership can be found on the Air Miles website, which states that passengers can earn up to 200 Air Miles when booking a flight with Canada Jetlines through Air Miles Flights.

On the earning front, the number of Air Miles you’ll earn on Canada Jetlines depends on your destination and your Air Miles collector status.

Air Miles Blue collectors will earn the following on Canada Jetlines flights:

• 25 Air Miles for a one-way booking within Canada
• 50 Air Miles for round-trip booking within Canada
• 50 Air Miles for a one-way booking to a destination outside of Canada
• 100 Air Miles for a round-trip booking to a destination outside of Canada

Air Miles Gold collectors will earn the following on Canada Jetlines flights:

• 38 Air Miles for a one-way booking within Canada
• 75 Air Miles for round-trip booking within Canada
• 75 Air Miles for a one-way booking to a destination outside of Canada
• 150 Air Miles for a round-trip booking to a destination outside of Canada

Air Miles Onyx collectors will earn the following on Canada Jetlines flights:

• 50 Air Miles for a one-way booking within Canada
• 100 Air Miles for round-trip booking within Canada
• 100 Air Miles for a one-way booking to a destination outside of Canada
• 200 Air Miles for a round-trip booking to a destination outside of Canada

With our current valuation of Air Miles at 11 cents per mile, you can earn $2.75–22 (CAD) worth of Air Miles on a booking with Canada Jetlines, depending on your status and route. Note that you must book your flights through Air Miles Flights and pay with a credit card to be eligible to earn Air Miles on flights with Canada Jetlines.

You can also redeem Air Miles for flights with Canada Jetlines. 

While Air Miles hasn’t quite yet loaded Jetlines’s logo into its search engine, flights appear in search results.

For example, you can fly from Toronto to Cancun on Canada Jetlines for 895 Dream miles plus around $176.40 (CAD) in taxes and fees.

The same flight booked directly with Canada Jetlines would cost $235 (CAD). 

If you subtract the taxes and fees that you’d pay with Air Miles from the cost of booking directly with Canada Jetlines, in this example, you’d be getting around 6.5 cents per mile, which is well below the target value of 11 cents per mile.

Is This a Step in the Right Direction?

In the recent past, Air Miles has been losing partners left, right, and centre. For example, Staples and Empire grocery stores, which includes major brands such as Sobeys, Thrifty Foods, and Safeway, cut ties with Air Miles in favour of Scene+, which is establishing itself as a useful fixed-value currency in Canada.

At the same time, we saw some rather bizarre announcements from Air Miles in 2022 with its plans to enter the metaverse, and adding partnerships with niche retailers offering various forms of food delivery services.

Surely, adding an airline as a partner is a step in the right direction, but it’s not entirely clear if this will begin to ameliorate its tarnished image. 

In fact, even the landing page for the new partnership on the Air Miles website doesn’t necessarily inspire a lot of confidence.

From Toronto, Jetlines certainly does fly to Vancouver, but terminated its service to Calgary in January 2023 and has only announced plans to fly to Orlando.

While I’ve certainly appreciated the many safe flights I’ve had on Airbus A320s in the past, I’m not sure if I’d refer to it as a spacious environment, especially in an all-economy cabin.

If anything, this partnership is full of optimism for the future on both ends.

Prior to this, Jetlines had announced its intention to partner with BOOM Group for a rewards program, although it’s currently unclear what the status of the partnership is.

Conclusion

Air Miles has announced a partnership with Canada Jetlines, a Toronto-based ultra-low-cost carrier. When booking a flight with Jetlines through Air Miles Flights, passengers can earn between 20 and 200 Air Miles, depending on the route and their status with Air Miles.

This is the first new partner announcement since BMO announced a deal to buy Air Miles from Loyalty Ventures, which is facing financial difficulty. 

The partnership is now live, and you can earn and redeem Air Miles on flights with Canada Jetlines.