Please note this news post is out of date. You can find current offers here.
Have any upcoming travel plans? The coronavirus is making many people think twice about heading out on their current trips.
And if you’ve booked some of your travel plans with AIR MILES, some good news has just landed.
Related: Coronavirus And Travel Insurance: What You Need To Know
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AIR MILES waiving change fees and allowing cancellations
Yes, AIR MILES is not only waiving change fees on bookings, but allowing cancellations as well.
This has been in effect since March 12th, 2020, and applies to bookings made on this date or before. New bookings will not get this new policy.
This new policy is in effect until May 31, 2020.
AIR MILES is currently asking people to wait to contact them until their departure is 36 hours away so they can better assist those who have more immediate travel plans.
AIR MILES call centre phone number
To change any bookings, you can reach the call centre at 1-888-247-6453 or 1-844-399-6699 if you’re an Onyx collector. AIR MILES does have a call back option of you would prefer this route when calling instead of staying on hold.
For changes to flights only, AIR MILES has setup a new number 1-866-228-9955, however from personal experience I only got busy signals trying to call it.
For the most up to date information from AIR MILES, you can find it on this page.
A personal experience with cancelling a reservation
With all this said, I personally had to cancel both a car rental and flight reservation. Based on what I was told, they’re prioritizing calls for people with close departure dates. Right now, if you aren’t leaving within 48 hours, you probably won’t get through.
There were no fees to cancel my reservation. I was able to get a full refund on my car reservation (3,870 miles), but I didn’t get one for the flights.
Since I made my bookings with a
So, if you do fully cancel rather than change plans, you may not get a full refund on your reservations if you don’t have any insurance in place.
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$150 GeniusCash + Up to 9,000 bonus AIR MILES + 3x the AIR MILES at partners.*
Switching to AIR MILES cash
Want to keep things simple when redeeming AIR MILES? Consider switching your earnings preference to Cash miles instead.
While you’ll lose some value, they’re much easier to use. Anytime you’re at a participating AIR MILES retailer that accepts AIR MILES cash for payment, you’ll use 95 cash miles to take $10 off your bill. And for many of them, you can redeem right at the register.
You can learn how to make the switch here. And to view all AIR MILES partners where you can redeem cash miles, they can be viewed here.
Cash back alternatives to consider
Have an AIR MILES credit card and are looking for a replacement? Now is a good time to consider replacing it with a cash back card. You’ll earn straight forward, easy to understand cash back you can use towards anything.
Here are a few of our favourites. You can view more top cash back cards here.
| Credit Card | Welcome Bonus | Earn Rates | Annual Fee, Income Requirements | Apply Now |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scotiabank Momentum Visa Infinite | None | * 4% cash back on groceries and recurring bills * 2% cash back on gas and transit * 1% cash back on all other purchases |
* $120, first year free * 60K personal or 100K household |
Apply Now |
| American Express SimplyCash Preferred | 5% cash back for the first 6 months (terms) | * 2% cash back on all purchases | * $99 * No income requirements |
Apply Now |
| Brim Mastercard | $200 on the first purchase at participating retailers (terms) | * 1 point per $1 spent on all purchases | * $0 * 15K personal income requirements |
Apply Now |
GC: $20
Our top cash back credit card, the
You’ll earn plenty of cash back, especially if you shop at traditional grocery stores and have lots of bills to pay:
- 4% cash back on groceries and recurring bills,
- 2% cash back on gas and transit, and
- 1% cash back on all other purchases.
Those are some great earn rates on everyday purchases, all for an annual fee of $120 that’s currently waived for the first year.
For a high flat rate, at a reasonable $99 annual fee, the
You’ll earn 2% cash back on every purchase you make. And in the first 6 months, you’ll earn 5% back on your first $6,000 in spend.
To top it off, you get all the great Amex perks like Amex Offers and 9 types of insurance coverage.
If you want no annual fee, you can look at the
A top no fee card right now is the
You’ll earn a straightforward 1% cash back on every purchase. And on top of having no annual fee, it has no foreign exchange fees too.
There’s also plenty of great Brim perks as well, such as installment plans, Event Ticket Protection, and free Boingo Wi-Fi, there’s lots to love with Brim cards.
And if you want more rewards, Brim has 2 other cards you can look at:
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