Air Miles has been in troubled waters for a long time now, and today, its future has become even more uncertain.
It appears that its parent company Loyalty Ventures Incorporated is preparing for bankruptcy filing, which sounds a lot like the final nail in the coffin for the beleaguered Air Miles.
Loyalty Ventures Prepares Bankruptcy Filing
As reported by Bloomberg, Air Miles’s parent company Loyalty Ventures has begun restructuring talks with creditors. While nothing has been made official yet, it’s expected that Loyalty Ventures may file for bankruptcy protection in the coming days.
Air Miles has been losing partnerships left and right over the recent past, including the recent losses of Sobeys and Staples, and has struggled to remain relevant to Canadian consumers.
Over the course of the past year, Loyalty Ventures’s stock price has plummeted by around 96%, and in the past day alone, it has dropped by over 60%. This is certainly not good news for Air Miles, which has been struggling to remain relevant for quite some time.
Burn Your Air Miles (While You Still Can)
With so much uncertainty about the future of Air Miles, it goes without saying that it’s better to burn your miles while it’s still possible.
The Air Miles website is still functional, but there could be a flood of traffic in the coming hours as news breaks out.
If you have Air Miles Cash Rewards, you’ll be able to redeem them for grocery purchases at your local gas station or grocery store, like Shell, Jean Coutu, or IGA at a ratio of 95 Air Miles = $100.
You could also redeem Cash Rewards for a gift card, which would be instantly available online. Indeed, this may be the fastest way to redeem your Cash Rewards for an immediate payout.
Meanwhile, if you have Air Miles Dream Rewards, in theory you’d be able to redeem these Dream Rewards for various types of rewards like travel, merchandise, and event tickets via the Air Miles website.
However, in practice, with Air Miles’s parent company filing for bankruptcy imminently, there may not be a guarantee that your desired Dream Rewards redemption will actually be fulfilled.
If you’re sitting on a large pile of Dream Rewards, a merchandise item may be the most straightforward way to secure some immediate value from your Air Miles, unless you have any immediate upcoming travel plans that you could redeem Air Miles for.
Either way, it’s anyone’s guess as to whether merchandise orders will actually be shipped out, or flights ticketed, given Air Miles’s precarious situation at the moment.
Unfortunately, once you’ve elected to earn Cash Rewards or Dream Rewards, there’s no way to change your Air Miles to the other type.
This speaks to one of the program’s long-standing weaknesses, which may indeed have played a role in frustrating customers to such an extent that the parent company is now verging on bankruptcy.
Conclusion
The parent company of the Air Miles loyalty program, Loyalty Ventures Incorporated, is preparing to file for bankruptcy. All signs point towards the program being in trouble very imminently, so it’s best to redeem any Air Miles you may have in your account as soon as possible.
The fallout would be felt far and wide if Air Miles were to go down, given the program’s ubiquitous presence across Canadian households and the unprecedented scale at which hard-earned rewards would be lost. Here’s hoping that the Air Miles story serves as a cautionary tale for other loyalty programs to avoid suffering the same fate.
