Any serious points collector who shops at Sobeys or Foodland hopefully monitors their weekly loadable Air Miles offers. If so, you may have noticed some positive changes recently. At least in the accounts to which I have access, the offers appear to be a bit more generous and are valid for a longer period.
Weekly Digital Coupons
For a few years now, Air Miles members have received weekly targeted offers for Sobeys or Foodland.
You sign up at MyOffers to see your personalized online coupons based on your recent shopping history. Opt in to receive Air Miles communication and the offers will be emailed to you for loading.
Generally speaking, the offers have not been that exciting. Sometimes it works out that a couple of them are items you typically buy. Mixed in would be products that would definitely never make it onto your grocery list. And the odd percentage discount on a certain product would occasionally be thrown in without any bonus miles.
Some offers were 10 or 15 miles, but most were single digit bonuses. The highlight would usually be a minimum spend offer such as 25 bonus miles when you spend $75 or more in a single transaction.
Recent Changes?
The first sign that Sobeys was changing things up a little was when I noticed that we received a couple of offers to earn bonus miles for ANY purchase. No minimum spend and a bonus as high as 95 miles.
I’m not sure if it’s new or not, but several offers now have the “Featured” label attached. These also have a validity period longer than usual and may be used more than once. The usual offers with shorter validity and lower bonuses remain available as well.
Although the spending requirement naturally appears a bit higher for the elevated bonuses, the offers include broad categories such as beef, seafood or produce, for example.
Of course, there is a tendency to encourage the purchase of store brand items, which for Sobeys and Foodland are the Compliments line of products.
The bonuses have apparently been enhanced and I’d say even approaching what you might find in a Blue Friday or Max-A-Miles flyer promo. A complaint often expressed about Blue Fridays is the prevalence of processed or unhealthy items among the bonus offers. These loadable offers include an assortment of products.
When Bonus Miles Don’t Post Correctly
On the MyOffers website there is a phone number to call if your bonus Air Miles did not post as expected. If you don’t see them on your receipt when still at the store, you can go to Customer Service to get it fixed. Otherwise, try your luck calling this number.
Unfortunately, bonus miles not showing up is not an uncommon occurrence and it’s luck of the draw whether your store handles glitches in a reasonable and friendly manner. I believe some Sobeys employees have a strong dislike for Air Miles while others are quite up to speed with the program and happy to make things right.
Conclusion
Even if you don’t tend to put much effort into coordinating your grocery purchases with any targeted loyalty offers, you should at least make it a habit to load them onto your account so you’ll get the occasional unexpected bonus. Whether it’s PC Optimum or Air Miles, try not to leave any points on the table. And if you’re keen to boost your balance, take a close look at the offers to see how you can best capitalize on them. It does seem that the Sobeys/Foodland MyOffers bonuses are improving as of late and are worth checking out.
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