The new Shop The Block Air Miles promotion is underway. If you’re an avid Air Miles collector you’ve likely been waiting to see this year’s offers. Shop The Block and Mega Miles are two major promotions that happen once a year. Now it’s time to figure out how many miles you can easily earn.
What Is It?
This promotion awards a bonus amount according to how many offers at different Air Miles partners you’re able to complete. See the Shop The Block website for all the details.
3 Offers = 300 Air Miles
5 Offers = 800 Air Miles
7 Offers = 1200 Air Miles
The largest bonus possible in 2018 was 2000 miles, so this is quite a drop. However, it’s still worth checking out, especially if you have specific plans for your miles. The focus of the promotion is achieving the big bonus. The individual offers themselves aren’t too exciting.
It’s worth noting that many (but not all) of the offers run the entire length of the promotion (Nov. 14 – Dec. 27). In previous versions, several of the offers were valid only in a very limited time period. In my opinion, it’s absurd for an Air Miles partner to have coupon booklets on display when the store’s own offer expired weeks ago.
Tips and Reminders
Check both the paper booklets found in stores and the Shop The Block website. The paper version doesn’t include all offers.
Read the terms of each offer very closely.
Save your receipts – these promotions are notorious for glitches. It’s a crapshoot whether your big bonus will post correctly despite carefully fulfilling the conditions. Fortunately, the Air Miles agents are usually pretty good to deal with as long as you have your purchase details to provide.
In years past, some partners haven’t been ready and the coupons didn’t work correctly in the first few days of the promotion, so keep an eye on your account if you used some offers right at the beginning.
Remember that although you can do more than one coupon at a single Air Miles partner, only one will count toward the promotion bonus.
If you don’t currently have any miles in the Cash category, you can change your account setting now to earn some to redeem for offers before the promo ends. Then you can change it back later if you want the large bonus to be in Dream miles.
Don’t go nuts buying stuff you don’t need.
Ignoring the previous tip for a second, I’ve read of people zeroing in on the tube of construction adhesive at Rona (and Lowes) as something relatively cheap to get one last offer in for the big bonus.
If you’re going to buy something through Airmilesshops.ca, keep a lookout for a multiplier bonus – there will likely be a Black Friday or Cyber Monday promo.
How is it for Nova Scotians?
The offers vary from province to province so it depends where you live whether you’ll find the promo doable. I think the NS offers are pretty good for doing 5 but 7 will be more of a challenge. Look at the website to evaluate all the offers. In my opinion, the following options are fairly easy because most people buy groceries, gas and drugstore items:
Sobeys – Spend $50
Foodland – Spend $50
Pharmasave – Buy 3 Pharmasave brand products; Spend $30; Redeem 95 Cash miles
Lawtons – Spend $40 (maybe stack with a Compliments promo?)
Shell – Fill up at least 25L
Irving – Redeem 95 Cash miles; Buy $100 Gift Card (Dec. 1-27)
What about New Brunswick?
In addition to those mentioned above, NB has very good grocery and drugstore offers.
IGA – Redeem 95 Cash miles; Spend $100
Jean Coutu – Redeem 95 Cash miles; Spend $20
If you know someone in another province who can help you out with an offer that’s not available in NS, that’s perfectly fine. They just need your Air Miles number when they make the purchase.
The Maybes
These ones are good if they fit into your spending plans.
Sobeys Express or Needs – Spend $25
Kent – Spend $40
Staples – Spend $100; Spend $40 on custom holiday photo gifts
Airmilesshops.ca – Spend $100 in one transaction (I believe gift cards are eligible only at Rona and Chapters/Indigo)
The Crazies
I don’t know why these are even included. I guess there’s a remote chance some individuals could use these during the promotion.
HearingLife – Buy a hearing aid
Redtag.ca – Book a vacation
Mayflower/United – Move away
Lennar – Buy a house
The Free Offers
If you’ve been on top of Air Miles promotions in the past, these low hanging fruit are probably off limits because you’ve already done them. If you haven’t, they’re pretty easy:
Hudson’s Bay Rewards – Set your account to convert to Air Miles (you don’t need any HBC points)
Rewarding Your Opinions – Sign-up and complete 3 surveys
Samsung Pay – Link your account to your Air Miles number (you don’t need a Samsung phone)
Resources
There are discussions on the Red Flag Deals shopping subforum and Disboards Canadian subforum where you can find out what code is supposed to show up on your receipt along with other pertinent promo info from keen collectors.
Final Thoughts
It’s an okay promotion. I think all members of this household will be able to complete 7 offers. The bonus will post next year so it’s a nice start toward Gold or Onyx. We’ve made good use of Air Miles in the past and these promotions really help to boost our stash. Hopefully anyone reading this finds the promotion within reach, even if it’s just 3 or 5 offers. Every little bit helps.
Eileen English says
We completed all 7 ! I was also disappointed that the big reward was only 1200 but it is still worth doing.
At Needs, Scratch and lottery tickets count toward the $25 . Good as stocking stuffers this time of year.