Bonus Boom Boost Air Miles Promo (Nov. 18 – Dec. 27, 2021)

Bonus Boom Boost is now underway. It’s the replacement for Shop The Block, an Air Miles promotion that usually appeared around this time. Whether you are an avid Air Miles collector or a passive member wishing to ramp up your earning, you should probably take a look. It differs from past major promos in a significant way and should be attainable for most, especially here in the Maritimes where we have no shortage of Air Miles partners.

Bonus Boom Boost 

Over the last while, Air Miles has held numerous “Bonus Boom” promotions whereby members could earn a rather modest amount of bonus miles for using a certain number of offers. While these smaller promos were more easily doable than the major promotions of the past (Mega Miles and Shop The Block), they were not nearly as exciting. This “boosted” version of the promotion has a longer duration with a wider array of offers, making it much more appealing.

Along with the bonus points is a contest where qualifying purchases earn entries to win one of four regional prizes of 250,000 miles or a grand prize of one million miles. (I would have preferred a larger number of smaller prizes but I don’t win contests anyway so it doesn’t really matter.)

The promotion is structured as follows:

Use 4 offers, earn 400 bonus miles

Use 6 offers, earn 600 bonus miles

Use 8 offers, earn 800 bonus miles

Note that you only need to use 4, 6, or 8 different offers, NOT different partners. This is a nice change from the big promotions in recent years which required shopping at multiple Air Miles partners to achieve the maximum bonus.

Depending on your grocery list, you can complete the whole thing just at Sobeys or Foodland. (Just be careful to note which offers are designated as “Bonus Boom Boost” qualifying when you click through to see all offers from a partner.)

Check out the Bonus Boom Boost website for full details.

Here are the terms and conditions of the promotion:

* Between November 18, 2021 and December 27, 2021, collectors must use 8 or more different AIR MILES Bonus Boom^™ Boost Event Bonus Offers (“Bonus Offers”), and meet the criteria required for each unique Bonus Offer to qualify for the 800 Bonus Miles; or (ii) 6 different Bonus Offers and meet the criteria required for each unique Bonus Offer to qualify for the 600 Bonus Miles; or (iii) 4 different Bonus Offers and meet the criteria required for each unique Bonus Offer to qualify for the 400 Bonus Miles. Eligible purchases at participating AIR MILES partners, opting in to receive email offers and information from the AIR MILES Reward Program for the first time, and/or linking a Canadian-issued Mastercard and completing card-linked Bonus Offer(s) qualifying purchases are all qualifying actions towards using Bonus Boom Boost Event Offers. Criteria, offer periods and spend frequency may vary for each Bonus Offer. Please see the terms and conditions of each unique Bonus Boom Boost Event Offer for specific details. If you opt in to receive AIR MILES emails, your email address will only be used by the AIR MILES Reward Program to send you offers and information from AIR MILES and its partners. You can unsubscribe at any time. To read more about our Privacy Policy, visit airmiles.ca. Bonus Offers are available at airmiles.ca/BonusBoomBoost. Limit of one (1) offer (maximum of 800, 600, or 400 Bonus Miles, respectively) per collector number. Please allow up to 120 days after the Bonus Boom Boost Event end date for Bonus Miles to be posted to your collector account. 

And here are a few things to keep in mind as you set out to complete the promotion:

Remember to opt in online where necessary

Many of the offers require members to opt in online in order to receive the bonus. (You might as well just go through the list of offers and opt in to all of the contenders.)

Read terms and conditions carefully

Not all offers run the full length of the promo (Nov. 18 – Dec. 27) so be sure to check the fine print for applicable dates along with any stipulations on qualifying purchases.

Stack offers where possible

In some instances, one can knock off multiple offers with a single transaction. For example, there are a few where redeeming 95 Cash miles toward a qualifying purchase would count as two offers completed.

Keep your receipts

Receipts from most partners will typically display the bonus points awarded or at least some code or indication that the offer applied correctly. Remember to keep them handy if your bonus does not post as expected as they can sometimes be required to sort things out with Air Miles in order to get your missing points.

Use offers in other provinces

There is no requirement that you complete all your offers where you live, so if you’re going to be out of province over the holidays or have a family member living elsewhere that can help you out by using your collector number, it’s perfectly fine to use offers not available around here.

Use family members’ Air Miles cards

If you max out on the eight, you can certainly continue to earn bonus miles from other individual offers, but it makes sense to move your efforts to another Air Miles card to get another 400/600/800 bonus miles. Although miles cannot be pooled, if you’re earning Cash miles for household savings, everyone in the home should have an Air Miles account and be on the lookout for targeted promos from Sobeys, Lawtons, Shell, Kent etc.

Consider whether you want Dream or Cash miles

There are major changes afoot at Air Miles, especially in the area of flight rewards. If you’re feeling optimistic about the revamp then you might want to go all in on Dream miles. But if you’d like to keep things simple, collecting 100% cash is probably the way to go. Or of course you could accumulate some of each. And remember, the completion bonus will post up to 120 days after the promo end date so you can always change your preference before it appears in your account.

Complete an extra offer (just in case)

These promotions are notorious for resulting in missing bonuses. With so many partners participating, it’s not unusual for a screw-up to happen somewhere. Aside from being prepared to chase down missing miles, it’s a good idea to complete an extra offer or two if possible, just to ensure you get the 800 mile bonus.

Offer Highlights

Here in Nova Scotia there is a good selection of Air Miles partners including, among others, the following:

Sobeys
Foodland
Needs
Lawtons Drugs
Pharmasave
Irving
Shell
Kent
Timber Mart
NSLC
Staples
Global Pet Foods

Sobeys and Foodland have many of the same product-specific offers so you could pick up the same item twice and it would count as two offers. I wish there was a bit more variety in the selection instead of multiple barbecue sauces and boxed macaroni but most people should be able to use at least a couple of the offers, or donate them to the local food bank.

A new partner this time around is Voila, Sobeys’ new curbside pickup service. New customers can earn 200 bonus miles on their first order and returning customers get 5x the miles (min. $100 purchase on both). These require separate promo codes so wouldn’t be stackable. (I assume any out-of-stock items that would bring your total under $100 would make the purchase ineligible for the bonus so you’d probably want to carefully select products to lessen the chance of that happening.)

Another recent addition to Air Miles is the ability to link any Canadian-issued MasterCard to your Air Miles number to access offers from participating brands such as Indigo, Subway, The Shoe Company etc. See the Card Linked Offers for details. If you use one of them between Nov. 18 and Dec. 13, if will qualify for the Bonus Boom Boost.

As usual, there are a few free offers such as signing up for Rewarding Your Opinions surveys or adding your Air Miles number to your Samsung Pay account. They’re easy ones if you haven’t done them previously.

Note that the Irving gift card offer is limited to two weekends in November and you must opt in online to be eligible. Unfortunately Irving has not always been on top of these promotions in the past so pay careful attention to your account to ensure you receive the bonus and be prepared to follow up with Air Miles if necessary.

For the airmilesshops.ca offer, check the category exclusions on the Store Info page before making any purchases. Gift cards are excluded at most partners but Chapters/Indigo remains an exception.

If you have concerns about any offers and want to know what others are experiencing with the promotion, you can check out ongoing threads at Red Flag Deals and the Disboards where folks are chatting about it – albeit with an Ontario focus.

Final Thoughts

I guess the Air Miles marketing team could not resist the terribly tantalizing temptation of a promotion with assumed alliterative appeal.

Although I’m a bit disappointed to see the bonus drop so far from the Shop The Block promotions of years past (remember when it was 2000 miles?), this Bonus Boom Boost is, on the other hand, much easier to complete. If you shop regularly at any of the participating Air Miles partners, you might as well take advantage of this promotion and earn some extra miles.