Here’s another AIR MILES promotion that can be interesting if you have travel to book and want to pay in cash instead of points. You can earn up to 2,500 bonus Miles, which would give you the equivalent of 30%+ back if you maximize it (on top of your credit card rewards, of course).
If you’ve read our Flytrippers infographic with all the basics of travel rewards (as you should have to learn the most important concepts), you know that the various promotions offered by reward programs can be a good way to earn even more rewards. Even if it’s far from being the fastest way, these are bonus rewards to take advantage of too!
The fastest way to earn is always with credit cards, especially with welcome bonuses. By the way, AIR MILES credit cards have increased welcome bonuses since yesterday, but they’re not that great compared to the amazing ones available now, such as the deal for $825 free in simple points.
Here are the details of the AIR MILES travel booking promotion.
AIR MILES travel booking promotion (August 2024)
This promo gives you a great return on travel bookings, especially if you have bigger expenses to make.
Here are the offer thresholds:
- Spend $100 (before taxes/fees), get 100 Bonus Miles (≈ $10.50)
- ≈ 9.5% back if you spend $100 precisely, assuming 10% tax
- Spend $500 (before taxes/fees), get 1,000 Bonus Miles (≈ $105)
- ≈ 19% back if you spend $500 precisely, assuming 10% tax
- Spend $750 (before taxes/fees), get 2,500 Bonus Miles (≈ $263)
- ≈ 32% back if you spend $750 precisely, assuming 10% tax
I share a concrete example below.
Here are the travel bookings eligible:
- Those made during the offer dates
- Booking must take place from August 2-4, 2024
- Travel must take place before January 31, 2025
- Those made through AIR MILES Travel
- Cumulatively during the offer period
- Those paid in cash
- Not in Miles
- Flights, accommodations, car rentals, packages, extras
- Cruises are excluded
Getting 30%+ back is a pretty solid deal for travel bookings made in cash, so be sure to book this weekend if you’re planning any trip by January 31, 2025 (that you wanted to pay in cash).
It’s especially good for everything other than flights, as flights are unique (it’s better to always book them directly with the airlines). Theme park tickets (like Disney) and car rentals are often a goof deal with AIR MILES Travel, but hotels can be sometimes too.
Here are the logistical details:
- Registration is required (as it’s almost always the case with promos)
- Go to the offers page and click on “Opt-in”
- Read our step-by-step guide to registering for AIR MILES offers
- The minimum amount to reach is before taxes and fees
- Unlike many promotions
- Limit of 1 offer per account
- So 2 times in total with your player #2 if you have one
- Or 10 if you have 10 people in your multiplayer strategy
- Make sure AIR MILES Travel has the best price (after factoring in the bonus)
- Not always the case at all, as with all travel agencies
- Bonus Miles are in addition to the regular AIR MILES earn rate
- Many travel agencies offer rewards
- It’s 1 point per $15 (or 1 point per $10 or per $5 with elite status)
- Bonus Miles are in addition to your credit card rewards
- These are always on top of what you earn with the program directly
- You can pay with any credit card (not just AIR MILES credit cards)
- Make sure to use the right card for travel expenses
AIR MILES Travel is (very) far from being the most user-friendly online travel agency, but this promotion can make it very worthwhile to bear with its quirks.
Example of the promotion
Let’s use the Philippines for this example to give you a bit of variety in terms of destinations, as it’s not one of the Southeast Asian countries in our new feature on accommodation prices or a country we talk about often.
I’ll assume you want a decent hotel — not the cheapest at all, but not too expensive either. To hit $750 before taxes to maximize this promo, you would need to book 17 nights in this random hotel on the island of Palawan.
It’s the Citystate Asturias Hotel Palawan rated 7.9 on Trivago (AIR MILES Travel weirdly does not show ratings for hotels).
It costs $885 for the 17 nights.
As you should always do for all things about travel, you should compare on an aggregator tool. For hotels, we recommend Trivago (for flights it’s Skyscanner).
The cheapest price for the same dates is actually $752.
It’s a great example to remind you that, of course, you can almost always find a lower price! Whether it’s AIR MILES Travel or any other agency, they often charge more!
If you didn’t know that, it’s very very important to know it. Prices vary on all websites, just take 2 minutes to compare. Always.
In this case, it’s also a great example of the importance of knowing how to do the math (and taking the time to do so). You can’t just look at the price alone, you need to look at both sides of the equation, like for any financial decision.
This means you need to look at the rewards earned, too. We’ve explained this in more detail in our 6 ways to save money on accommodations.
The regular earn rate by booking with AIR MILES Travel (if you don’t have elite status offered by AIR MILES credit cards) is 49 Miles, worth ≈ $5 (≈ 0.6% back). The cheapest price seen above from Trivago is on Hotels.com, which always gives you 10% back ($75).
So the net price is $880 for AIR MILES Travel and it’s $677 for Hotels.com! But now, you get 2,500 Bonus Miles (≈ $263) with this promo, so AIR MILES Travel comes out cheaper.
Always do the math; it’s one of the most basic and important things in the wonderful world of travel rewards.
AIR MILES basics
We’ll soon publish our post on how to redeem AIR MILES Miles (like we just did for how to use Scene+ points; the ones you get with the crazy $825 deal).
But if you want to learn more about this program while you await our ultimate guide, we recently listed all the redemption options for the main rewards programs.
And if you have any questions, we’re doing our monthly live video about travel rewards (with the best deals of the month and a Q&A session) this Monday, August 5 at 9 PM Eastern.
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Summary
AIR MILES has just launched a new travel booking promotion, and you can earn up to 2,500 bonus Miles, giving you the equivalent of 30%+ back if you maximize it! If you are planning to book trips for the coming months, especially if they aren’t flights, take advantage of this promotion from August 2-4.
What would you like to know about the AIR MILES travel booking promotion? Tell us in the comments below.
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Featured image: Coron, Philippines (photo credit: John Hernandez)
Valuation ≈ $475