AIR MILES Travel Transitions to Expedia

As of March 16, 2026, AIR MILES has officially transitioned its travel booking platform to Expedia. All new travel bookings – flights, hotels, car rentals, and vacation packages – are now processed through the Expedia platform, marking the most significant operational change to the program since BMO completed its acquisition back in 2023.

The move brings some welcome flexibility to how collectors can use their miles, but it also raises some important questions about redemption value and whether travel bookings are even the best use of your AIR MILES balance.

What’s Changed

The headline improvements are straightforward. Under the new Expedia-powered system, there is no minimum miles requirement – you can redeem as little as a single mile towards a booking. Miles can now be applied to the entire cost of a booking, including taxes and fees, which was a long-standing frustration with the old platform. And the now-discontinued Flex Pay feature has been permanently retired.

On the surface, this sounds like a meaningful upgrade. More flexibility, more options, fewer restrictions – what’s not to like?

The Value Question

Here’s where it gets interesting – and not entirely in a good way. All travel redemptions through the Expedia portal now offer a flat value of approximately 10 cents per mile, regardless of whether you’re booking a flight, a hotel, or a car rental.

That’s a fixed-value proposition, which fundamentally changes the redemption calculus. With programs like AIR MILES, you’d typically hope for outsized value on aspirational redemptions – a premium cabin flight or a high-end hotel where the points-to-dollar ratio works in your favour. But at a flat 10 cents per mile, there’s no sweet spot to chase. The value is the same whether you’re booking a budget hotel in Winnipeg or a beachfront resort in Cancún.

What makes this particularly noteworthy is that gift card redemptions currently offer 10.5 cents per mile – meaning you’d actually get better per-mile value by redeeming for gift cards and using those to pay for travel instead.

A Practical Approach to Travel Redemptions

That said, if you do want to use the Expedia portal for travel, the strategy is less about chasing aspirational bookings and more about finding the best bang for the buck – using your miles towards bookings you’d otherwise hesitate to pay cash for, but that feel worthwhile as a points redemption.

Think of it this way: a $200 domestic flight you wouldn’t bother purchasing becomes a lot more appealing when you can cover it with 2,000 AIR MILES that were sitting idle in your account. It’s not the business class redemption of your dreams, but it’s a practical way to extract value from a balance that might otherwise go unused.

Here’s a look at a YYZ–YVR search on the portal:

And a YVR–TYO search for international flights:

This is a fundamentally different mindset from how most of us approach programs like Aeroplan or Marriott Bonvoy, where the goal is to maximize cents-per-point on premium redemptions. With AIR MILES via Expedia, the ceiling is known – so the game shifts to finding bookings where spending cash would feel wasteful but spending miles feels painless.

Hotel Search

The hotel search experience is powered by Expedia’s full inventory, which does give you a broader selection than the old AIR MILES portal. Here’s a look at the interface:

Again, the same flat 10-cent-per-mile math applies here. A 5,000-mile hotel redemption gets you $500 in hotel value – the same $500 you’d get from a gift card redemption. So the convenience of booking directly is the main draw, rather than any outsized value.

Some Notable Gaps

The transition to Expedia’s inventory does expand the selection of available bookings, but it’s not without its blind spots.

One example: when searching for flights in Asia, AirAsia – consistently rated among the best low-cost carriers in the region – doesn’t appear in the search results. That’s a meaningful omission for anyone looking to stretch their miles on budget-friendly routes through Southeast Asia.

Here’s a BKK–DPS search on the AIR MILES Expedia portal – no AirAsia in sight:

And here’s the same route on Google Flights, where AirAsia shows up as one of the most affordable options:

AirAsia is especially useful for strategic routing, like flying into Bangkok’s Don Mueang Airport (DMK) instead of the perpetually congested Suvarnabhumi (BKK). It’s a savvy move that experienced Asia travellers know well, but one that’s currently invisible on the Expedia-powered portal.

Given the fixed 10-cent-per-mile value, low-cost carriers like AirAsia would actually be ideal redemption candidates – affordable base fares where the points-to-value ratio holds up well. It’s a missed opportunity for the platform not to surface these options.

The Case for Gift Cards

Personally, unless the redemption value changes when the Blue Rewards transition happens, I’ll probably continue redeeming via the gift card method. It’s simple, it’s easy, and it directly offsets everyday spending.

At 10.5 cents per mile, a $50amazon gift card costs just 476 AIR MILES. That’s a straightforward, no-frills redemption that puts real dollars back in your pocket – no need to plan around travel dates, compare Expedia prices, or worry about cancellation policies.

When travel redemptions offer less value than gift cards, the math speaks for itself. Why go through the effort of booking through an OTA portal when you can grab a gift card at a better rate and use it however you want?

Cruises Remain Separate

It’s worth noting that cruise bookings are excluded from the Expedia transition. These continue to be handled through Red Tag Vacations, and interestingly, they offer a slightly better redemption rate of 11 cents per mile. Existing minimum mile requirements still apply for cruise bookings.

The Blue Rewards Rebrand

This transition to Expedia is just one piece of a broader transformation. As we covered in detail, AIR MILES is becoming Blue Rewards in summer 2026. When that happens, your miles will be converted to Blue points at an equivalent value.

Whether the Blue Rewards rebrand will bring improved travel redemption rates remains to be seen. But for now, the Expedia transition is the most tangible change that collectors will experience in their day-to-day interactions with the program.

What About Existing Bookings?

If you made a travel booking before March 16, 2026, it will continue to be managed by AIR MILES customer service under the original terms and conditions. New bookings fall under Expedia’s policies and privacy statement.

Credit cardholders – primarily those with BMO credit cards – will continue to earn 3x miles on purchases made through the platform, which does help offset the modest per-mile redemption value.

Conclusion

The transition of AIR MILES Travel to Expedia is a mixed bag. The added flexibility is welcome – no minimums, full cost coverage, and a broader inventory are all genuine improvements over the old system. But the flat 10-cent-per-mile value, combined with the fact that gift cards offer a better rate, makes travel redemptions a tough sell for value-conscious collectors.

For now, gift cards remain the smarter play – simple, easy, and a better per-mile value that directly offsets your daily spending. Unless the Blue Rewards rebrand brings improved travel redemption rates, that’s where I’ll continue putting my miles.

As the program evolves into Blue Rewards later this year, we’ll be watching closely to see whether the economics shift. For now, the Expedia transition is a step in the right direction for convenience – even if it’s not quite the value play collectors were hoping for.