AIR MILES Is Becoming Blue Rewards

After 34 years in the Canadian market, AIR MILES is about to go through its biggest makeover yet. Starting in summer 2026, the program will rebrand as Blue Rewards.

In a landscape where some loyalty programs lean into premium travel and others focus on everyday value, Blue Rewards is aiming for a middle ground.

It wants to be relevant for both daily spending and occasional travel, and that intent shows up in how it is changing the points currency, the travel platform, and the banking integration around it.

How Is AIR MILES Changing into Blue Rewards?

For existing AIR MILES collectors, the transition is designed to be almost invisible. Your AIR MILES account will simply become a Blue Rewards account in summer 2026.

Your balance will carry over, and your BMO AIR MILES credit card will continue to work as usual, with the same card number and physical plastic. You will not be asked to reapply or manually migrate anything.

The program underneath, however, will not be the same. AIR MILES historically split earnings into Cash Miles and Dream Miles, which required collectors to decide up front how to allocate their miles.

Blue Rewards replaces that with one unified points balance and a published benchmark for certain redemptions:

1,500 Blue Rewards = $10 for in-store and e-gift card redemptions.

Other categories such as flights, hotels, and experiences will have their own pricing, but the single balance and clear cash style benchmark are meant to make the program easier to understand, especially for casual users who never loved the Cash versus Dream decision.

What Happens to Your Existing AIR MILES Balance?

Blue Rewards has been very explicit on one key point: you will not lose value when your AIR MILES balance converts to Blue Rewards. All existing Miles are expected to convert automatically to the new points currency.

While BMO has not published the exact conversion formula, we can get a reasonable estimate from the two known benchmarks:

• Under AIR MILES Cash, 95 Miles = $10.
• Under Blue Rewards, 1,500 points = $10 for in-store and e-gift card redemptions.

If both of those $10 amounts are meant to represent the same underlying value, then the implied conversion is:

• 95 Miles converts to 1,500 Blue Rewards
• 1 Mile converts to 1,500 ÷ 95 = 15.79 Blue Rewards
• 1,000 Miles converts to about 15,789 Blue Rewards

This is still an estimate until BMO discloses the official math and rounding rules, but it illustrates the logic behind the “no loss in value” claim. For in store and e gift card style redemptions, the $10 anchor appears to be preserved, just expressed in a larger points number.

How Will Travel Work Under Blue Rewards?

One of the most significant structural changes is on the travel side. Blue Rewards will use Expedia Group to power its travel booking platform. That means we should be able to see a much wider range of flights, hotels, and car rentals than under a more limited in-house catalogue.

Instead of chasing fixed charts or thresholds, we will be able to apply Blue Rewards to cover some or all of a travel purchase. Blue Rewards also says that the minimum points threshold to redeem toward travel will be removed, which makes smaller balances more usable. Even a modest amount of points can offset part of a flight or hotel, rather than sitting idle.

There is one important open question for status focused travellers. Many hotel programs do not award elite night credits or full elite benefits on third party bookings, and Expedia style reservations often count as third party.

The details that matter are whether Blue Rewards will introduce a way to book directly with hotel chains while still using points, or whether everything will flow through a standard online travel agency setup.

If you care about keeping your hotel status benefits, that is a detail worth watching closely as more information becomes available.

Which Partners Are Joining Blue Rewards, and What About Shell?

Partnerships are where Blue Rewards shows the most obvious shift in strategy. The program will keep earning with more than 400 existing brands, but BMO has highlighted a number of new strategic partners that lean into both everyday and travel spend.

On the travel side, Porter Airlines and Accor Group appear on the partner list, with hotel brands such as Fairmont, Novotel, and SLS called out specifically.

On the everyday value side, Blue Rewards is adding Instacart, as well as a broad slate of MTY Group restaurants such as Thai Express, Bâton Rouge, Pizza Delight, Allô mon Coco, Sushi Shop, Mr. Sub, Manchu Wok, Mucho Burrito, and Jugo Juice.

Having Porter and Accor as named partners naturally raises a question for points enthusiasts: will Blue Rewards eventually allow transfers into VIPorter or ALL Accor?

So far, there is no confirmation of any kind of transfer feature or ratio. For now, the partnerships are best treated as places to earn or redeem within the Blue Rewards ecosystem, not as new transfer options.

On the flip side, one long standing relationship is ending. Shell Canada will wind down its AIR MILES partnership in 2026 and move over to Scene+.

Some of you may already have noticed that BMO and Shell quietly ended the 2 cents per litre discount at Shell stations recently. If Shell is moving into the Scene+ ecosystem, it is logical that the BMO tied fuel discount linked to AIR MILES would be phased out ahead of the transition.

How Is BMO Using Banking and Credit Cards to Support Blue Rewards?

Blue Rewards is also designed as a deeper extension of BMO’s banking and card ecosystem. BMO has previewed a new lineup of BMO Blue Rewards credit cards that will feature built-in accelerators on categories such as gas, groceries, and wholesale clubs.

The wholesale club angle could be particularly interesting if it captures merchants like Costco. If Blue Rewards cards are able to earn a bonus rate at wholesale clubs in addition to gas and grocery, that has the potential to create a very strong everyday earner for a lot of households.

Beyond credit cards, BMO chequing account holders will be able to earn Blue Rewards on everyday debit transactions in categories like fuel, grocery, warehouse spend, and even EV charging.

This effectively turns the loyalty program into an extension of the banking relationship. If you already keep your chequing account with BMO and use debit regularly, you will be able to earn Blue Rewards without changing much behaviour.

There is also a waitlist for the upcoming Blue Rewards credit cards, paired with a large prize promotion. The headline is the chance to win 1,000,000 Points, but the eligibility rules matter.

To be eligible for the draw, you must:

• Not be a current BMO AIR MILES credit cardholder
• Sign up for the Blue Rewards credit card waitlist
• Apply for the new BMO Blue Rewards credit card when you receive your invitation email in summer 2026

Only customers who meet all of these conditions will have a chance to win, and the winner is expected to be contacted in fall 2026. Existing BMO AIR MILES credit cardholders are excluded from the contest, which is worth noting if you were thinking of joining the waitlist purely for the prize.

Can Blue Rewards Compete in a Crowded Canadian Loyalty Market?

From a strategy point of view, Blue Rewards is entering a very crowded space. Aeroplan has doubled down on premium travel and airline partnerships. Scene+ has quietly built a strong everyday value stack through grocery, gas, pharmacy, and entertainment

Blue Rewards is not trying to specialise in a single niche. Instead, it is trying to be competitive in everyday spending, middle of the market travel, and banking integration at the same time.

That is ambitious, and it puts a lot of pressure on execution. The expanded partner set and Expedia integration are promising on paper, but the real test will be whether collectors see compelling earn rates, fair redemption values, and a simple experience when they actually try to use the program.

For existing AIR MILES collectors, the encouraging part is that the transition is designed to be seamless and value neutral.

For everyone else, Blue Rewards will need to earn its place against programs that already have very clear value propositions.

Conclusion

Blue Rewards marks a full scale modernization of one of Canada’s longest running loyalty programs. It replaces split buckets with a single points balance, publishes a clear cash style benchmark for some redemptions, and brings in Expedia to support more flexible travel bookings.

It also leans into BMO’s banking ecosystem through new credit cards and debit linked earning. The structure looks promising, but the real judgment will depend on details that are still to come, such as the exact conversion formula, travel redemption rates, how hotel bookings interact with elite status, and whether partner logos eventually translate into more advanced features like points transfers.

For now, existing AIR MILES members can expect a smooth transition, while keeping an eye on Blue Rewards to see if it becomes a program worth actively earning in, rather than simply inheriting by default.

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