Jean Coutu - Spend 160 airmiles and get a $20 giftcard. This is a pretty good deal and inline with most gift certificate offers.

DVD's - Most DVD's at the airmiles stores cost around 280 airmiles. This works out to a fairly bad deal. The better way to go is to simply order a chapters.indigo.ca gift card. These gift cards cost 185 airmiles and you get $25 towards Chapter, Indigo or Coles.

Cinneplex Movie Night Out - 175 airmiles and you get 2 free admissions, 2 regular sodas and 1 regular popcorn. This is actually quite a good deal considering that most movies are $12. This works out to an approximate value of $30 for 175 airmiles!

Magazine or Paper Subscription - Calgary Sun, Edmonton Sun, LouLou, Chatelaine, etc... From 65 airmiles up to 265 airmiles.

Charity Donations - Donate $20 to either Special Olympics or Kids Help Phone charity for 170 airmiles.

Last night I called to book a car rental for Christmas time. I called and the automated machine said my wait time would be 2 minutes. I think it was suppose to say 1 hour and 2 minutes because that's how long I was on hold for.

When I finally did get a person on the phone they were taking down the requested information and were going to call me back. The phone lines apparently had approximately another hour wait.

So, when booking with your Air Miles Reward Miles be sure to follow these steps

• Book Early
  • If you're looking for Christmas flights NOW is the time to book (or almost too late)
• Be Flexible
  • Set a couple of days that you'd like to travel. If you are bent on getting a specific date then you might have problems
• Compare to the cost of purchasing the flight
  • Check Westjet
  • Check Expedia.ca
• Determine if using your airmiles is worth the points (as discussed here) to summarize:
  • Determine the cost from the above companies
  • Determine the number of airmiles needed.
  • Calculate ratio of dollars-to-airmiles
  • If it's lower then 6.25 it's a good deal.
    • Much higher and your miles are better off elsewhere
• Remember you can always use your airmiles for Gift Certificates.

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I received an email a while ago discussing how the calculations I use for my 'airmiles-to-dollar' ratio isn't quite right. Basically it comes down to the fact that the reader suggested I should be using the cost difference rather then just the cost of the item. I'll take the four examples from the email and comment on them individually....

Ex 1 - I'm in Safeway, and I need two cans of tomatoes, it turns out that my favourite brand of tomatoes (Aylmer's) costs $1.50 per can, plus it has a deal where if you buy two cans, you get 10 bonus Airmiles. If I understand your calculations correctly you'd consider this $3 for 10 miles, thus 30 cents/mile. I would say that these miles are completely free: Without the deal, I would have spent the same $3 on the same two cans of tomatoes, thus the EXTRA cost for the miles is nil.

This is a good point. These airmiles could be considered Free as you were buying your favorite brand anyway but you got airmiles as an added bonus.

Ex 2 - Same as example 1 -- I plan to buy two cans of tomatoes -- except that I usually buy the generic brand since it's cheaper and I don't taste the difference. The generic tomatoes are a buck a can, so my choice is between $2 for the generic tomatoes, or $3 for Aylmer's. As far as I'm concerned, I get equivalent tomatoes, but the extra dollar I could spend on the Aylmer's nets me 10 Airmiles -- thus, those bonus miles would end up costing me 10 cents/mile.

True I guess it does cost you $0.10 per airmile if you choose the airmiles brand in this case. As a side note I think these examples apply mainly to Safeway where the products are mostly equivalent but not a company like Westjet where they have more to offer then other companies.

Ex 3 - Same as example 1, except that I HATE tomatoes. If I decide to buy the tomatoes anyway, my cost for the miles would be 30 cents/mile: As far as I'm concerned, I'm only spending the money on the miles, the tomatoes have no value to me.

Right. Except for the fact that you have really no point to buying this tomatoes anyway. And like I've said it only makes sense to purchase items with airmiles if you want the item anyway (or will use it eventually). Like the reader stated at the bottom of the email...

Obviously, this is a much more complicated way of doing the computation, and the simpler calculation (total price/total airmiles) is quite useful in general. However, if you want to completely accurate, you really need to compare the differences.

I personally think the total calculation is accurate enough. I've stated numerous times you'll be spending a bit more on each item to collect the airmiles. Be it that you're shopping at Safeway or buying a different brand then the cheapest brand. So be warned that i'm NOT changing the airmiles calculations but thanks for the reader comments. What do you think? Are my calculations way off?

Well, it's true. For the low cost of 170 airmiles you'll donate $20 to Charity. Currently there are two charities to choose from

• Special Olympics of Canada
• Kids Help Phone

A Tax Receipt for your donation will be mailed to you in the next 90 days after the purchase.

This is a great way to spend your airmiles if you think you'll never get anything useful. However, I'd really like to see the airmiles program step up and lower the number of airmiles needed. 170 for $20 makes a airmiles-to-dollar ratio of 8.5 airmiles/dollar which is lower then some gift-certificates which can be as low as 6.25.

Special Olympics Canada is a national not-for-profit grassroots organization that is dedicated to enriching the lives of Canadians with an intellectual disability through Sport. By redeeming your AIR MILES^® reward miles for a donation to Special Olympics Canada, you're helping to provide sport training and competition opportunities for over 31,000 athletes of all ages and abilities.

Redeem your reward miles today and help make dreams come true for athletes across the country!

Kids Help Phone

Kids Help Phone is Canada's only toll-free, national, bilingual, phone and web counseling, referral and information service for children and youth.

By redeeming your AIR MILES^® reward miles for a donation to Kids Help Phone, your making it possible for children and youth to call and speak with a professional counselor for immediate help, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

As we know the airmiles-to-dollar ratio is fairly simple and we try to collect airmiles at a rate of less then $0.40 if at all possible!

The actual value of an airmile is dependant on what you purchase. The way you calculate what an airmile is worth is by simply finding the item. Find the real value of the item and divide the airmiles by the real value. Then you'll get the number of airmiles for one dollar.

I made a post about buying gift certificates with airmiles. In this case the gift certificates produced an airmile worth anywhere between 6.25 to 9.25. Meaning 6.25 airmiles is equivalent to one dollar!

Like I've stated before the best value for your airmiles is buying flights to continental north america using your Gold Mosiak Credit Card.

The cost to purchase additional reward miles (airmiles) is $0.30 plus GST per Airmile.   I believe you may need at least half the flight covered with your airmiles and the rest you can purchase.

This is a great option for some people.  However, you must realize a couple of things.   First, you will be paying GST twice.  You will be paying the GST on the Airmiles and the GST on the flight.    Not really a 'huge' deal but still 6% is 6%.     Second, you will be buying airmiles for more money then you can collect threw specials AND without getting a product.   Finally, you must realize that if you keep on collecting you will get that free flight, eventually.    Especially if you follow this site.

 So if you're flying from Vancouver to Calgary at 900 Airmiles.  Let's assume you have only half the Airmiles needed (450).  Then you'll need to purchase 450 Airmiles at $0.30 per airmile, plus GST.   This will cost you $143.10.   You'll then need to redeem the airmiles and pay the associated airmiles fees for flights.    So basically you're spending approximately $70 bucks for each flight.  So if you can find a cheaper flight or a flight close to the same amount book that flight.   Remember you still have to spend your hard earned 450 airmiles.....

Also, these are 'stackable' as they're just gift cards. So if you spent 720 airmiles you could get $200 sunglasses.

Deal is only good till April 25/07.