First trip booked with airmiles!

...and we are headed to downtown Boston, MA for a long weekend in October. The trip for two return cost us 1912 airmiles...just under what it costs for one return trip to Florida. I had to book the flight by phone and was on the phone about an hour in total...the girl that booked the reservation was very nice and I was even convinced to buy insurance...and I NEVER buy insurance. Anyway...so we have to pay about $400 for taxes/insurance. Still a good deal seeing as though the cheapest return flight we could see for two to Boston was about $1400.

Sad to see the airmiles toolbar go down...but I guess that's what we are collecting them for. Our toolbar is now showing 6589 airmiles. We need 1435 airmiles to have 4 return trips to Florida! I'm hoping we will have that by the end of December 2010.

Just 6 more airmiles!

...and we have 4 return trips to Florida on airmiles!! We made a trip to Sobeys today and actually picked up 80 airmiles (and it only cost us 67 dollars!) They have a deal this week that we took advantage of...buy 10 participating Kraft products and receive 60 airmiles... we bought 10 thinsations for $2.50 each. So our snack cupboard is stocked up again...but that's okay because we are sure to eat them in the next month or so.

August looks like its going to be a great month for collecting airmiles. We've already received our 1000 bonus airmiles from our BMO gold Mastercard and our toolbar is now showing 8022!

Not much exciting with airmiles offers this week...

not in the flyer's anyway. Hopefully there will be more offers in store. We did receive an email from Sobeys this week with several coupons that we can use to get bonus airmiles. The coupons are good until September 9th...hope we don't forget them.

This month according to our AMEX platinum card statement, we accumulated 186 'regular' airmiles and 156 airmiles from 'sponsor spend' alone! I thought that was interesting...with this AMEX card we get one airmiles with each 10 dollar purchase at sponsors. Unfortunately we don't have that advantage with the BMO gold Mastercard which only gives 1 airmile for each 15 dollars spent. BUT...the Mastercard is accepted more than the AMEX card so hopefully it will balance out.

The toolbar just updated and we now have 6581 airmiles! That's three return trips to Florida with our BMO gold mastercard...working on the fourth. :O)

Pretty good week for collecting airmiles

We managed to collect 66 airmiles at Lawtons today and 121 at Sobeys. Of course we did not receive all the airmiles that we were suppose to receive. We did happen to notice one 'incident' at Sobeys while being checked out. So it was just a matter of going directly to customer service and getting it corrected. Lawtons also fell short this week and 'robbed' us of 5 bonus airmiles. Very frustrating. We hate to bug the cashiers/supervisors/etc about it but...they are advertising the bonus airmiles and that is the reason we are buying the products...so get with the program people!!! We still haven't heard back from Lawtons regarding our missed airmiles in the previous post. NOT impressed. When we emailed Sobeys about our missing airmiles they were pretty prompt in responding.

Anyway...this has been a pretty negative post. The positive side of it is that we did manage to get 187 airmiles today. In July, according to the airmiles transaction website, we collected 774 airmiles and our tool bar is now showing 6185. :O)

Lawton's 2x the point event!

This week Lawton's has a pretty good offer with 2x the base points. We went and took advantage of one of the bonus offers. Bought $75 of Proctor and Gamble products...should have accumulated 150 airmiles but only received 100. I have emailed Lawtons about it...haven't received any word back yet.

Since we've started collecting these airmiles there have been some pretty frustrating times because we don't get the airmiles that we should. It's happened so far with Sobey's (several times), Lawtons, and Dell.ca. It's a pain in the @ss that you have to hassle with the sponsors at times to receive what they are advertising.

This week our tool bar is showing 6120 airmiles!

Sobeys Saturday and Sunday (July 16 and 17)

Pretty good offer with Sobeys this weekend. Buy $150 of groceries and recieve 5x the airmiles. We went out today because it was only offered Friday and Saturday and managed to pick up another 68 airmiles.

We are becoming wiser (I hope) with picking up on these bonus airmiles. First when we decided to seriously collect airmiles we were basically picking up lots of airmiles...even lots of the meager 1-3 point offers...and yes all the points add up...but we were spending more money on things that we really did not need. That was not what we planned to do first when we started to collect. So now we try to be aware of all the offers that are available...but we think twice before the purchase.

Our airmiles toolbar is now showing 5983!

BMO gold mastercard

We have applied for the BMO gold mastercard. Still haven't received anything on that yet. We did receive another offer for a BMO gold mastercard today in which you receive 150 bonus airmiles and earn 1 airmile for every 10 dollars spent for the first six months. Kind of weird that we would receive that today when we applied for the card on another offer two weeks ago.

The toolbar updated a few times today. One of the updates was the airmiles collected from our premium amex card. It seems they are pretty quick to credit the airmiles account after the ending date of your statement. (two days in this case)

Our balance is now 5831!

Toolbar just updated...

...and now we have 5253 airmiles in our account. Just 97 more airmiles and we have enough for two return trips to Florida. BUT...if we apply for a BMO Mastercard two return trips would only cost for 4014 (instead of 5350).

It seems that we could very easily collect 400 airmiles a month which means we would be able to accumulate enough airmiles for two return trips to Florida annually with 800 airmiles to spare.

They are offering 1000 airmiles right now if we apply for the BMO card...it costs $99 for the card...but considering the benefits you get the offer is too good to pass up on. Have to go and apply for that now........

It's been a long time...

since I last posted. I am still continuing to watch the airmiles collection closely just not blogging about it as much now. This month at Sobeys we actually were able to get a bonus 100 airmiles for spending $200. We don't normally spend that much in one trip but with that offer we thought it was worth participating. Oddly enough the offer was only posted in the store and not anywhere on the net which makes us wonder what other deals we are missing out on, and if different Sobeys stores offer different airmiles offers. Think we will have to do more investigating there.

Our airmiles toolbar is now showing 4850. Just 500 more miles to another return trip! (considering each return trip is 2675 each)

Rainy trip to Sobeys...

Just got back from Sobeys and earned 90 airmiles. It should have been 101. They gypped us 1 airmile on our puchase of compliments spaghetti. AND...The millionaire promotion is going on now until June 20. If you spend $75 you get 10 airmiles...if you spend $100 you get 25 airmiles. I forgot to look at those coupons before I left.:-(

Anyway...I'm trying to let that go. 5 more weeks with this promotion. If we spend $100 each week thats an extra 125 airmiles! Plus we get entered for a chance to win 10,000 airmiles or 1 million airmiles.

Our airmiles toolbar is now showing as 4285 airmiles.

Does Apple have to do everything well?

I just noticed a jump in my airmiles so I had to take a look at my account to see what it was. I had ordered a macbook from Apple just this past week and the airmiles are already credited to my account! I don't quite understand why if Apple can do this, that the other sponsors cannot.

I'm still waiting to be credited for my February and March airmiles toolbar searches. And don't even get me started about the frustrations that I have had with Sobeys and the mistakes they've made during my 'maximizing my miles journey'.

Anyway our account is now showing 4083 miles...just 1267 more miles and we have another return trip to the sunny south!

YESTERDAY was 10x the airmiles at Sobeys!

We managed to collect 139 airmiles yesterday. The shopping trip was soooooooo much easier too because you didn't have to read any 'fine print' to determine if you had the right combination of goods to get the advertised airmiles.

I noticed today the BMO Gold Mastercard is now offering 1000 airmiles if you apply. That's a lot of miles but the annual fee of $99 kills the offer.

My airmiles balance has gone up by 3 airmiles since last post! WOOHOO! :O)

Another balance update...

Today the toolbar is showing 3989 airmiles! In the past 31 days we have collected 1014 airmiles! Not exactly our average monthly collection of airmiles. Our March airmiles toolbar searches has not been added yet, neither has the 5x the points for the BBQ which we purchased through Sears online AND Sobeys still owes us about 10 airmiles. So we are really half way there to our goal of 3 tickets by next April.

AND...Sobeys has a 10x the points event on April 20th! Can't wait! Should be able to get a decent amount of airmiles next week without too much trouble.

:O)

And the new balance is....

THREE THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED AND NINTY FOUR airmiles!!! Yeah! It was just updated! Was wondering when it would be so I guess it's around the end of the second week of the month. The airmiles that I earned last week still aren't there though...and I did manage to get quite a few airmiles last week. Just 4331 airmiles before we reach our goal! Almost halfway there and we have 10 months to go!!!

Doing fine!

One Month Accumulation as of April 11!

On March 11 my toolbar was showing 2660 and today its showing 3231. So we have earned 571 airmiles in one month...which of course is GREAT! I find it amazing that by watching the deals that are available how much you can actually accumulate! In November last year we earned a whopping 36 airmiles! We've earned ALMOST 16 TIMES that amount just last month!

Of course we now have a slew of things piling up in our 'overflow' in the basement...but it is stuff that we will definitely use in the next 3-6 months...so we haven't gone really wild. We did go WAY over again on our AMEX this month though. But there were a couple of big bills and big purchases.

April Airmiles Deals at Sobeys!

We did well at Sobeys today. They have some great deals...I think I may have to visit them once more to take advantage of the bonus offers.

Tide liquid laundry detergent 64 loads for $12.99 each-->bought two--> 30 airmiles!

Bought 1 each of HP, A1 and Heinz 57 steak sauce $3.99 each--> 10 airmiles!

2kg Robin hood flour $5.69, Crisco Canola Oil $3.69 (I bought 2), and 2 sweetened condensed milk $3.79--> by purchasing these five items together--> 25 air miles!

Quaker Cereals ($3.49 each)-->Harvest Crunch, Oat Squares, Corn Bran; Honey Bran Muffin mix, Life Original Cereal, Captain Crunch, Crispy Delights--> buy $25 --> 50 air miles!

Always infinity pads $4.77 buy 1 --> 10 airmiles!

Sterling Silver Roast buy $10 --> 5 airmiles!

So on this trip I spent $170.39 and received 137 airmiles. So each airmile cost $1.24. My total airmiles collected so far is 3183. Really looking forward to my next AMEX statement to see how the airmiles break down.

Sobeys March 19 to March 25

I am really get slack with keeping on top of this airmiles stuff.

I have to take advantage of some deals at Sobeys this week...

Prime stuffed chicken breasts...$9.99 buy 2 get 7 air miles. (don't know what these are like but they look interesting)

Kraft Handi-Snacks $1.49 buy 3 get 5 air miles.

Pringles Select bold crunch $2.49 buy 2 get 5 air miles.

Coke products case of 12 $4.99 buy $25 get 25 air miles.

Allens apple juice $2.69 buy 2 get 5 air miles.

And...our air miles balance is now 3081! 25 air miles are already showing for my February searches through the airmiles search bar.

I did rack up some miles at Lawtons this week...I bought the Lays Potato Chips buy 4 get 5 miles and Multigrain Tostitos buy 2 get 5 miles...and I got 2 base miles so 17 airmiles in total at Lawton's this week.

March 12-19th at Sobeys and Foodland!

I am getting slacker as the weeks go by. This week I added to our air miles balance with purchases at Foodland and Sobeys. At Foodland we earned 38 air miles and at Sobeys...the bill shows 71 but it is actually supposed to be 76. (I'm learning that you really need to watch those sponsors!) I did go to customer service and she said that 5 miles will be credited to my account...so I guess I have to be on the look out for that as well. Each air mile this week cost about $1.48 each.

Balance update...my air miles toolbar (and according to the call I placed with them tonight) We currently have 2942 air miles! Yeah! Feb 15 we had 2366! That's 576 air miles in a month! It would be nice to keep that rate up for the next 12 months! We need 5083 to reach our goal!

New Platinum AMEX air miles card

...applied earlier this week and find out today with my regular statement that apparently I've been approved. They did try and rip me off with a few miles though which makes my blood boil. We had our car in for repairs earlier this month and the company made the mistake of charging us twice...(paying once is bad enough!!!)...anyway...we informed the car company and the credit is now showing on the AMEX statement...BUT the AMEX people tried to take away more air miles than they should. They took off 20 but it should only be 15.5 to be exact. I just got off the phone with them and they said the adjustments will show on my next statement. I WILL be watching.

Anyway...we went WAY over budget on our AMEX this month and earned a whopping 101 air miles! (Too bad the platinum card didn't kick in until the last transaction!) So my air miles tool bar is now showing a balance of 2660.

I didn't get to Lawton's at all this week. It's been a crappy week. I would like to pick up a few things there tommorrow but don't know for sure about that.

PS. While I was on the air miles site tonight I noticed an advertisement to earn 10 air miles by completing a survey. So naturally I clicked on the site. I ended up doing two surveys and could have done more. If I earned ANY airmiles they are supposed to show up in 30 days. I'm not convinced that I earned any miles though.

March 5-11th at Sobeys

Sobeys has better deals this week as opposed to last week for air miles offers. There are a few things that are of interest to me.

These include:

1. Kraft Cracker Barrel Cheese 300g or 252g $3.99 each buy 2 for 10 air miles

2. Kraft Delissio Flatbread Melt 167-170g $2.46 each buy 2 for 5 air miles

3. Kraft Pourable Salad Dressing 414-475ml $2.99 buy 2 for 5 air miles

4. Christie Cookies $3.89 550g each buy 2 for 10 air miles

5. Kraft Bagel-fuls 283g $2.49 each buy 2 for 10 air miles

6. Christie Thinsations 115-225g $2.49 each buy 2 for 5 air miles

7. Compliments chicken wings 800-908g 11.99 each buy 2 get 8 air miles

8. Kraft singles 500g 2.99 each buy 2 get 10 air miles

9. Cashmere Bathroom Tissue double or ultra double 12/24 rolls $5.99 buy 2 get 10 air miles

As mentioned in the previous post I have already made one trip to Sobeys and did accumulate 47 air miles. I spent $87.39 so each air mile this trip cost ~1.86. I didn't get the cheddar cheese, bagel-fuls, pourable salad dressing, flatbread melts and the Christie Cookies...so I may be able to get 40 more air miles this week from Sobeys...not sure though.

ps.....did manage to get 13 more air miles this week at Sobeys for a total of 60 air miles...don't have the exact breakdown though...I'm getting slack!

Interesting comparison...

I finally managed to log into my air miles account to view my transactions. I found it very interesting, but unfortunately I could only view October to February. Anyway...here's what it looked like:

January 110
December 81
November 36
October 99

So in the past month while I have been scouting out the air miles deals I have earned more in just one month than what I earned from October- January!!! In February alone I earned 332 miles as opposed to 326 air miles in 4 months!

We did go to Sobeys today for a quick trip and I did get 47 miles...I will post about it later. We didn't get a chance to pick up everything that I wanted so there will be another trip to Sobeys and a trip to Lawton's yet this week.

Base and Bonus Air Miles

So...just to give myself some idea of what I need to be doing in order to reach my goal of 3 'free' tickets for a trip to the sunny south next year I have calculated what I am hoping to accumulate in both base and bonus air miles.

I am hoping that I can purchase around $1000 a month on my AMEX card. I think that that is an attainable goal because I usually budget around $1600 a month on my Visa aerogold. Given that AMEX is not accepted as much as Visa is, I think $600 a month less is realistic.

So, if I do manage to average around $1000 a month on my air miles AMEX card, that translates into 600 base air miles a year. I also hope to collect 30 airmiles a month from the air miles toolbar alone which translates into 360 a year. So in base miles I will have 960 air miles

That means the remainder of my air miles for our trips in 2011 will have to come from these bonus offers. Each free trip costs 2675 air miles, therefore we need 8025 air miles to reach the goal of 3 free trips. We currently have 2647 miles, so we actually need 5378 air miles within the next year to reach the ultimate goal. Now...dividing that number by 52 weeks means that we have to earn on average 103 bonus air miles each week.

That's a little steep, and may not be attainable. May have to look into the platinum AMEX card that they are currently offering until March 14. It costs $50 a year...which is the bad side of it...but there are a few positive things about it. You get 250 air miles on approval and 150 more when you spend $1000 on your card in the first 3 months. PLUS it would mean we would get 1 air mile for every $10 at Lawton's AND Sobey's, and 1 air mile for every $15 everywhere else. So...that would mean over 200 more base miles in a year (it's hard to count the actual number because I don't know how much of the $1000/month will be spent at Lawton's and Sobey's)...plus the bonus 400. So for $50 we get over 600 more air miles. I think I will probably apply for this card.

First 'month' with the Air Miles toolbar...

...well actually it was only two days...and it was only one day that I had seen the number of searches and the reward miles. So...I managed 254 February searches which gives me 25 air miles. Apparently the reward miles will appear in my account within 60 days of the end of each month. So I guess they should be there by end of April. :) EASY air miles

Air Miles Trip #3

Today we went to Lawtons and Sobeys to collect the air miles deals. The Sobeys trip was very disappointing...ended up only getting 12 air miles. Spent $28.89...so each air mile cost ~$2.41. Didn't get much of anything that I had planned to get.

At Lawtons we did get $25 worth of both Proctor and Gamble products and Johnson and Johnson products. But it wasn't as easy to do as I thought it was going to be. First of all they didn't have any of the Tide so that really put a wrench in my plans. Anyway...we picked our way through the isles trying to find out which items belonged to which company. We did eventually manage to find $25 of each but again it was not an easy process. We spent $72.82 and received 106 air miles...so each air mile actually cost about 69 cents. :o)

Sobeys Air Miles flyer February 26 to March 4

This week at Sobeys there are a few things that are of interest to me. These include:

-Compliments hulled sunflower seeds 350g $2.99 buy 2 get 2 air miles
-Store made small size side salad starting at $1.99 buy 2 get 2 air miles
-Prime rib premium oven roast $9.99lb purchase $10 get 5 air miles
-Club House slow cookers seasoning mix $1.29 buy 2 get 3 air miles
-Pillsbury cookies 351-468g $2.49 buy 3 get 4 air miles
-Compliments Balance Pasta Sauce 700mg $2.19 buy 2 get 2 air miles
-Compliments Balance Whole Kernel Corn .99 buy 3 get 1 air mile
-Compliments Sensations Fusilloni Pasta (lumaconi or pennoni) 500g $2.49 buy 2 get 2 air miles
-Degree ultra clear antiperspirant $2.99 buy 2 get 4 air miles

Not any great deal of air miles here but that's okay because Lawtons has super deals this week.

With regards to the Air Miles toolbar I did install that yesterday. The toolbar did appear yesterday but it is only today that I can see the number of seaches being counted to go toward airmiles. I find it very interesting. I just have to remember now that I need to do at least 10 searches a day to get the 30 air miles a month. Given the amount of time I spend on the computer and the variety of topics that you can search, this goal should be very easily attainable.

Air Miles Toolbar???

I didn't know this before until today but apparently you can earn air miles by installing an Air Miles Yahoo Toolbar! I don't know the specifics on it but in a nutshell it says you can earn up to 30 air miles a month on 'valid' searches. Don't know what qualifies as a valid search but according to the air miles website it is "free from spyware, adware and malware" and it is FREE air miles so I'm in.

I am however a google person so I'm not sure that I will be completely impressed...but hey...it is for a good cause. :0)

Increase in Air Miles needed for a 'free' trip

Well I found out tonight that they have actually increased the air miles needed for those free trips which is kind of sad...but I can't change that so I have to build a bridge and get over it. :0)

For a trip from Deer Lake to Tampa in low season you now need 2675 air miles. Low season this year is stated as:

Jan 8- Feb 28
Apr 1- May 31
Sept 16- Dec 15

To take the same trip during high season it will cost 3500 air miles.

So...we are going to take our trip during low season and will need 8025 air miles for three trips. We currently have 2537 air miles so just 5488 more miles and we are flying!

Lawtons Flyer February 27 - March 5

The Lawton's flyer has some SUPER air miles deals starting on Saturday...with a big note on the top of the flyer that indicates you can collect 1500 bonus air miles THIS WEEK! It would be nice to do that but I think you would have to be stocking a small army with supplies in order to collect that amount.

I will definately be racking up some miles this week at Lawtons. Here's what interests me:

1. Buy $25 of Procter and Gamble products and/or Johnson and Johnson products and receive 50 air miles!

The end.

That alone in the flyer is what I'm going to be concentrating on this week because that's fifty cents a mile!!! I seriously doubt that it will EVER get any better than that.

Procter and Gamble products include:
-Tide Liquid Laundry Detergent 1.47 L for $5.99 Think I`ll buy 3
-Always Maxi-Pads- assorted 14s-24s and Pantiliners assorted 24s-60s $4.29 - Think I`ll buy one of each
-Crest regular tootpaste 130ml buy one get one free...grrr no price advertised...dont know if I`ll buy at all!!

Johnson and Johnson products that I can see in the flyer that are of interest include:
-OB tampons assorted 40s $7.99

...guess I`ll have to have a look around Lawtons for other Johnson and Johnson products...

There is another offer that I`m interested in but not completey sure I will take advantage of:

Milani/O-P-I/Prevens/Kiss/Broadway/Ardell/Andrea Eye Q`s Makeup remover Cosmetic bags buy $25 receive 50 air miles.

I`d like to get 150 bonus air miles at Lawton`s alone this week. Let`s see what happens!

Sobey's air miles trip #2

Tonight at Sobey's we spent $111.05 and earned 43 air miles. So...each air mile cost about $2.58. That's not near as good as the first trip but still good considering that 'normally' 43 air miles would cost $860!!! I wish I had taken note of these bonus air miles a long time ago!!!

I hope to take another trip to Sobey's tommorrow because there seems to be items that earn bonus air miles that they don't advertise in their flyer.

Lawtons air miles collection

Just got back from Lawtons and ended up accumulating 67 air miles! This week it cost me $85.57 so that works out to be ~ $1.28 a mile. My snack cupboard is now full and I won't be needing to buy shampoo for a few months!

There was one offer that I was thinking about when I saw the flyer- the Reach toothbrush and floss buy 3 get 15 air miles. I didn't go for that after because they were $5.00 each! A bit too steep for my liking.

I also purchased my presciptions at Lawtons tonight...I thought I had read you get 3 air miles with each presciption...but apparently you don't. Don't know where I read that...have to investigate it a little more.

Anyway...next stop this week...Sobeys.

February 19-25 Sobeys Flyer

Not much for maximizing air miles in the Sobeys flyer this week, but it all adds up. These are the items that I'm interested in:

1. Milk Bone dog treats 2/$5.00 buy 3 get 6 air miles

2. Bounty basic paper towels (6 rolls) $4.99 buy 2 get 10 air miles

3. Sterling Silver T-bone Grilling steak 9.99 lb purchase $10 get 5 air miles

4. Sunkist Seedles Navel Oranges (4lb) and Cara Cara Oranges (3lb) $5.47 get 5 air miles

5. Compliments English Muffins (6's) $1.99 each buy 2 get 2 air miles

6. Kraft Handi-Snacks $0.99 each buy 5 get 5 air miles

7. V8 Fusion Juice 1.36 L $2.99 buy 2 get 5 air miles

8. Chun King Chow Mein Stir-Fry $4.29 buy 2 get 3 air miles

Lawtons flyer February 20-26

There are a few things in the Lawtons flyer this week that I am interested in picking up:

1. Quaker Granola Bars chewy/dips $2.49 each buy any 2 receive 5 air miles

2. Lay's Potato Chips 235g 2/$5.00 buy any 4 receive 6 air miles

3. Crispy delights 2/$5.00 buy any 2 receive 10 air miles

4. Hershey 100 calorie wafer bar $2.99 buy 1 receive 2 air miles

There are other items that I may be interested in but it all depends on the prices charged and unfortunately Lawton's is not advertising the price of these items in their flyer (BIG pet peeve of mine)

1. Reach toothbrushes and Reach dental floss buy 3 for 15 air miles

2. Vive hair products buy any 2 and receive 10 air miles

3. Goody Haircare products buy any 3 receive 10 air miles

4. Garnier Fructis Haircare Products assorted buy any 2 receive 8 air miles

5. L'Oreal Everstrong Everpure Haircare products assorted receive 15 air miles

6. Dove haircare products assorted buy any 2 receive 10 air miles

7. Sunsilk Haircare Products selected types and sizes buy any 2 receive 6 air miles

8. Down Under Fruit Kicks haircare products buy any 2 receive 5 air miles

9. Salon Selectives haircare products buy any 2 receive 5 air miles

10. Nexxus Haircare products assorted buy any 2 receive 15 air miles


Now obviously I'm NOT going to buy ALL the variety of shampoos that they are offering...but I wouldn't mind having a few different kinds. I guess I'll have to figure out which is the best deal when I actually go to the store. (NOTE TO SELF: bring calculator!)

Looks like this week instead of stocking my medication cupboard I'll be stocking my shampoo and conditioner cupboard!

Second trip this week for Air Miles!

Tonight we scored 50 miles at Lawtons which cost us $65.77. Which means each mile this trip cost $1.32...not quite as good as the first Sobey's trip but still a nice bonus. My medication cupboard is now well-stocked.

Here is a breakdown of the miles I received tonight:
$11.99 Advil Liquid Gels 72's x2 = 15 bonus air miles
$11.99 Tylenol = 15 bonus air miles
$1.66 2L Coke products x6 = 10 bonus air miles
$1.79 Hershey Bars x2 = 2 bonus air miles
+ 5 base air miles

I had a peek at Sobey's online flyer for next week. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be many interesting air miles offers.

First Shopping Trip for AirMiles!

I scanned through the Sobeys flyer the other night and jotted down items that gave bonus airmiles AND that were of interest me. So tonight I headed off to Sobeys with the flyer and my list in hand. I felt kind of lost when I walked in because it just wasn't my 'normal' grocery shopping experience. I ended up taking a longer time to pick up the things that I had on my list...and I only bought a couple of things that were not on my list.

So the grand total of air miles earned on this Sobeys trip was 107!!! With a total cost of $127.82 so each air mile tonight actually cost me $1.19. Not so bad when you consider that normally 1 air mile is earned with every $20.

Anyway...not bad for my first air miles shopping trip.

Starting Air Miles Balance...

Currently I have 2366 airmiles collected. So that is almost enough for a return trip to the sunny south. By the end of February 2011 I would like to have about 7500. Would that be possible I wonder? I've just noticed that according to my Airmiles card I've been a collector since 2003/07. So in almost 7 years I have not collected enough for ONE trip and now I want to collect enough for a little over TWO trips in one year. Seems a little out of reach but with the numbers that I calculated while looking through the Sobeys and Lawton's flyers...it seems somewhat attainable.

I Love Vacations!

...but unfortunately I don't get to enjoy as many vacations as I would like.

Today I decided that I would try to change that and hence the reason I started this blog. I have been an Aeroplan member since about 1999 and I have reaped many vacations thanks to this program. The problem I have with Aeroplan is the annual hefty fee of $120 that I pay for my Visa Aerogold. I HATE fees of any sort. So when I think that I have paid $1320 to Visa Aerogold for those 'free' vacations...well it doesn't make me happy. I've been thinking about canceling this card because of the fee for several years and now that I am no longer collecting Aeroplan points on my mortgage I think that August will be the end of my Aerogold card.

So...what is my plan? Well I'm going to see how much mileage I can get through my Air Miles card. My husband and I have had an Air Miles AMEX card (with NO fee) and the regular Air Miles card for quite some time but we have never quite compiled enough miles to take a trip anywhere. BUT...tonight when I decided to have a look at some Air Miles sponsors and the offers they have the numbers in my head started to multiply, pretty quickly I might add, so I thought it would be interesting to try and take advantage of some of these offers and see how long it takes for us to finally build up our Air Miles so we can enjoy a trip somewhere warm and cozy.

Stay tuned hopefully this will be a rewarding experience!