Metro Grocery Stores To Ditch Air Miles

When Sobeys and Safeway left Air Miles, there was only one grocer left that offered the rewards: Metro. And since Metro has their own program in Moi Rewards at Quebec stores, it was only a matter of time before it came to this.

Metro has announced that they're ending their Air Miles partnership at Ontario stores (and for those of you in Thunder Bay, Thunder Bucks) sometime this year. When that happens, Moi Rewards will become the loyalty program across all Metro stores.

Here's what you need to know about the change.

Read more: Metro’s press release

No more direct Air Miles grocery earnings (but a new way to earn)

With Metro leaving Air Miles rewards, Air Miles has lost yet another partner. And with Metro gone, you're no longer able to directly earn Air Miles when getting groceries.

But there is one way to earn some miles on your weekly shop: BMO’s Air Miles Receipts.

When you buy eligible grocery items, you can earn Air Miles. Simply sign in to the Air Miles app and head to the Air Miles Receipts section on the home page. From there, you can see your offers. Here is a sampling.

If you recently bought something from a grocery store in Canada, upload your receipt and you'll earn Air Miles on it.

Read more: How Air Miles Receipts works

So all is not lost – and you may even be able to earn more. Take that bottle of mayo as an example. It will cost around $5 and you'll earn 4 miles. At a standard rate of 1 mile per $20 spent, you would have normally had to spend $80 to get those 4 miles.

And since you can get these offers from any grocery store, it will be much easier to earn Air Miles on groceries.

What Moi Rewards offers

Moi Rewards is a simple program. For every $1 you spent at Metro stores (including Jean Coutu pharmacies), you'll earn 1 point. You can also earn bonus points on personalized offers.

The minimum redemption is 500 points, which will save you $4 on your bill and you can redeem right at the register.

Moi vs. Air Miles

Wondering if this is a better deal than Air Miles? Let's find out. We'll ignore personal offers and just look at the base earn rates.

For Air Miles, we'll use an average value of 10.5 cents per mile (the value of Air Miles Cash), which can vary based on your redemption choice.

At this level, you'll be able to save a little bit more when shopping at Metro stores.

In fact, to match that, you would have to get a value of 16 cents per mile, which won't be easy to do. Our average value for Air Miles currently tops out at a maximum of 12.7 cents.

Your thoughts on Air Miles and Metro

It isn't surprising that Metro has decided to leave since they've been cultivating their own rewards program in Quebec. What are your thoughts on the news or Air Miles?

Let us know in the comments below.