12 Years of Air Miles

Points and rewards are part of shopping culture in West. There's barely any business without points, flyers, discounts, rewards, promotions and stuff like that. They wouldn't survive. 

Air Miles is one of the most popular, probably because you can collect points which turns to free plane tickets to everywhere you like! Very tempting. Ha? How much actually do you have to spend to collect enough for a flight. 

A few weeks ago I received an e-mail from Air Miles indicating that it was the 12th anniversary of collecting points with them. 12 years since Nov-11-2003 and how many points have I collected so far? 3795 only! It is a little more than 316 points a year and considering that I collected most of my points from grocery shopping at Safeway supermarket, the main source of point, and every $20 you spend, turns to 1 point, it means that have spent a little more than $15 a year there! 

The fact is nobody gives you free tickets for free. There are other companies and businesses that they give you points when you purchase their goods or retain their services but they are not really helpful. Rona is one of them but I'm not in construction or renovation business. Sport Chek used to participate but then they pulled out. It  was at least a store I would go every few months! There are a few others including Shell gas station but they give you points for every $20 gasoline you purchase, I guess and Shell is the most expensive gas station in the business according to CBC! 

We do not do most of our grocery and cleaning needs shopping at Safeway. For not a long time that I lived in Squamish, there was no Safeway in the town and then I moved to Coquitlam and Surrey under not such a good financial situation and we did most of our shopping at the local Superstore (Super asshole) with my roommate and by myself. Same thing we did when we were in White Rock. We were shopping mostly at PriceSmart or Save on Foods because they were the closest supermarkets to us. 

Then moving back to Calgary now we mostly shop at Superstore because that is were The Lady gets her points and can quickly turn them to grocery stuff! We go to Co-Op and Safeway at time but not as frequent as Superstore and we purchase not as much. 

I checked Air Miles website briefly and I guess what I have earned so far would be good for a one-way ticket to somewhere in the middle of the US or eastern Canada! Good Luck with that!
(Photo: Shell gas station, although the most expensive gasoline in the city according to the CBC, is part of Air Miles program which encourages me to purchase from them most of the time!)