If you're like many people you will carry a folder of cards with you that are used to collect points. Most grocery stores have a points system. They want you to build up points and stay with them. Many large box stores have points.. Like most of you I have an Air Miles point card.
So many places I go I present my Air Miles card and get these wonderful points. I can redeem my points for flights or buy merchandise. Recently I discovered that there are very few places to spend your Air Miles points. Recently some businesses have stopped taking Air Miles points for the purchase of merchandise.. They'll still give you points but you have to go some place else to spend them. Now as far as flying is concerned, I would not get to the end of the runway on Air Miles points. And that's a short runway. It takes a lot of points to go any place and I'd rather drive to our nearest town.
Now the Air Miles topic got going here yesterday when the Air Miles statement came. We bought a car in April and used the charge card for the maximum on the card. The micro manager said I don't think we got the Air Miles points for buying he car. I made a mathematical error when estimating the points. I calculated 2500 points. We phoned Air Miles and discovered it was 250 points instead of 2500. My mistake. However, the Air Miles statement doesn't tell you where the points came from.
There are now time limitations on your Air Miles points. You have to use them within five years or you lose them. How many people know that? How many people keep track of Air Miles.?
I also suspicion that points are worth less but I can't prove it. At one time you may have got a point for every dollar spent. I saw something the other day where you get a point for every $20.00 spent. To make matters worse points are different values. So you have many cards and each card has different values.
Now I was told to change my Sobies (grocery store) points to Air Miles. We found out the points were put into cloud instead of cash so we can't redeem them at the store.
So what's a poor boy to do? Well, I'm going to tell you that Air Miles points are crap. I'm going to tell you we're wasting our time with the whole points thing. It's a scam. I would like to see just a competitive price rather than the razzle dazzle of points which are completely rigged against the consumer.
I wonder if my mother getting cups, glasses or tea towels in products was a better system?
So am I the only crab who doesn't like collecting points? Am I doing something wrong?
