• Don't limit the airport you fly into. Many major destinations have multiple airports that you can fly too. This can affect the number of airmiles. For example: flying into San Francisco you can also fly into Oakland and San Jose. This isn't always the best option depending on your schedule, desired to travel once arrived and other details. But this CAN save you some valuable Air Miles!
• Try to limit your flying to the 'low season'. Again, this isn't always possible but flying in the low-season WILL save you a TON of airmiles!
• Keep up to date on the different airmiles flight specials. These flight specials are listed on the airmiles website and can save you a bunch of airmiles. Unfortunately, you have to check back often as they change weekly and aren't always applicable to your location.
• Don't be afraid to PAY for your flight rather than use your airmiles. This is a strange tip but VERY useful. Airmiles doesn't descriminate the number of miles based on the cost of the flight rather it uses a 'flight map'. So sometimes it's in your best interest to pay for a flight rather than use your airmiles.

  For example: Flying from Calgary to Castlegar is (typically) an expensive flight (approx $221) but only costs 1025 airmiles. But flying from Calgary to Vancouver also costs 1025 airmiles but the flight itself is approx $109. So it's in your best interest, airmiles wise, to fly to Castlegar with your airmiles and Vancouver with your dollars.

This tool is great because you can determine the EXACT number of airmiles to fly from your destinations. No more wondering how much it costs to fly from Edmonton to Montreal or elsewhere! AND even better is you can BOOK your flights online too!

The tool is easy to use too. You simply enter your locations and dates and the tool will tell you how many airmiles it is to fly. You can then proceed to book your tickets ONLINE. This is a HUGE step for airmiles as you no longer have to wait 1.5 hours on the phone to book a flight or find out that you can't book a flight. Then if you want to book it you can do that online too!

Great work Airmiles! This is just another reason to follow the weeks best airmiles deals and to own an airmiles credit card to collect your Air Miles faster and fly sooner!

I find something that I'd like to buy (or fly) and determine the cost to purchase this said object (or trip), let's call this price X. I then determine the number of airmiles it'll cost me to get a similar (or the same) item. Let's call the number of airmile, Y.

I then take X and divide by Y. This will give me a price per airmiles. If this price-per-airmiles is $7 or less then I'll consider buying the object through airmiles. Again, the $7 comes from the price-per-airmiles for a gift certificate with your airmiles.

Just to be clear when dealing with a trip you must calculate the price per airmiles of the trip BEFORE taxes. This is because you'll have to pay the taxes on the flight regardless. Therefore, if you're adding more costs to the flight and you're paying for these anyway your calculations will be skewed.

In the next post I'll discuss the places I personally use to find prices of stuff for my comparison shopping.

The first step is to go onto the airmiles.ca website and do some research. This has two main steps

1. Determine the item (or trip) that you want and determine the number of airmiles
2. Determine the price if you were to purchase it elsewhere ( Expedia.ca, Westjet, Air Canada, Travelocity.ca, etc...)

Now determine if using your airmiles is worth it. How do you do this? Good question. It's different for every person, however, I usually calculate based on a dollar value. If the airmiles that I'm spending are around $7.00 I'll purchase. Why $7? Because this is the lower value of airmiles gift cards.

That's the hard part. To actually book your airmiles trip or item you need to call airmiles at 1800airmiles. Warning, that it often takes a long time to get through so be ready to wait for a while.

Don't forget that you can collect airmiles WAY FASTER by simply following this website and having an airmiles credit card. Those two tips will have you not only redeeming faster but also flying further!

LG 15" LCD TV - Regular 3000 airmiles. This week only 2250 airmiles!

Chatelaine Magazine - 1 year subscription. Regular 100 airmiles. This week only 80 airmiles!

LCD / Plasma Mount - Regular 1,400 airmiles. This week only 900 airmiles!

Items are not exactly as shown. I'm using these pictures as examples of what you would actually get.

Watch this site for more deals next week!

For 625 airmiles you can add $100 to your child's New Registered Education Saving Plan (RESP). Redeem your reward miles today and help fund your child's post-secondary education.

Redeem for a $100 deposit - a minimum of $300 is required to initiate a plan. Multiple redemptions for a $100 deposit or a combination of cash and certificates can be used.

If you want more information then call Airmiles and ask one of their customer service agents.

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.