Is Air Miles in trouble?

However, we learned on March 9, 2023 that the company that owns AIR MILES, Loyalty Ventures, is preparing to declare bankruptcy ! The next day, March 10, 2023, BMO announced its intention to acquire the AIR MILES program. Then, later that day, Loyalty Ventures confirmed that it was filing for bankruptcy protection.



People Also Ask

BMO has completed its acquisition of Air Miles from the defunct Loyalty Ventures Incorporated. This is an enormous purchase of a famous loyalty brand for the Bank of Montreal, and came with a price tag of $160 million (USD).

MORE DETAILS

We found the average airline mile to be worth around $0.013, with Delta SkyMiles offering the highest value and Southwest offering the most user-friendly rewards. The average airline mile across major U.S. companies is worth $0.013.

MORE DETAILS

The decline and fall of the Air Miles empire was caused by the people who managed it. While there were a variety of factors which caused the program to go into insolvency and to need a bailout from the Bank of Montreal, the most basic reason for the collapse is that the program stopped providing much value to anyone.

MORE DETAILS

As of September 30, 2023, Amex will discontinue all of its Air Miles co-branded credit cards, and existing cardholders will be transitioned to a Membership Rewards card instead.

MORE DETAILS

Selling airline miles generally isn't explicitly illegal, but it does violate the rules of virtually every loyalty program. Nonetheless this is a huge industry, and there's no denying that a lot of people engage in this. Airlines have gotten smarter over time in identifying accounts with risky behavior.

MORE DETAILS

Redeeming AIR MILES Cash Miles online. You can redeem AIR MILES Cash Miles online for eVouchers. Use them anytime online with participating partners or use them in-store when you print them or show them on your phone. Retailers include Ardene, Spotify, Sephora, Roots, Uber Eats, DoorDash.

MORE DETAILS

Use 95 AIR MILES® Cash Miles to get $10 towards your purchases instantly in-store or get eVouchers online, good any time!

MORE DETAILS

100,000 United miles are worth about $1,200.

MORE DETAILS

And as travel demand soars and airlines cut flights and routes, it's much harder to redeem those miles. The airlines like to boast to Wall Street the real value of their reward programs. And they often celebrate the financial success of these programs by how low the redemption rate is for miles — in some cases 8%.

MORE DETAILS

We sampled flight awards available with U.S. carriers and found that consumers need between about 8,000 and 57,000 miles to get a free one-way coach flight. Free flights in business or first class start at around 25,000 miles and climb to well over 150,000 miles one-way.

MORE DETAILS