Find the best Air Miles credit cards without impacting your credit score

Air Miles can be redeemed in two ways:

1. As Cash Miles (for a cash refund from an Air Miles partner store or an e-gift card that can be redeemed at a myriad of in-store and online retailers)
2. As Dream Miles (for travel rewards such as flights and vacation packages).

The value of a Cash Mile is consistent and easy to calculate: 95 Cash Miles = $10, or 1 Cash Mile = 10.5 cents.

The value of a Dream Mile is harder to pin-point as it can fluctuate depending on where you’re travelling to and from, as well as whether you’re flying during high or low season.

At Ratehub, we've run our own calculations and found the average dollar value of 1 Dream Mile is approximately $0.121.

You can seamlessly earn Miles on your everyday purchases when you sign up for one of the Air Miles credit cards offered by either BMO or American Express. Depending on the credit card and the type of purchase, you can get between 0.04 and 0.125 miles for every $1 you spend.

Plus, you can earn Miles twice when you use your Air Miles credit card and show your Air Miles Collectors Loyalty Card at eligible partner stores including: Sobey's, Rona, Safeway, Shell, LCBO, Foodland, Staples, Best Western, Embassy Suites, Fountain Tire, Hampton Inn, Hilton, Holiday Inn, Lowe’s, Marlin Travel, and more.

While it’s true Air Miles once announced that any unused points would expire after five years, the loyalty program changed its policy in 2016 due to customer complaints.

Now, points never expire if you are an active Air Miles member and will only expire if an account is left inactive for 24 consecutive months.

Although Air Miles can be used to cover the cost of fuel surcharges, it does not allow you to use your points to pay for taxes or fees.

A: Air Miles can be redeemed for flights on Air Canada, American Airlines, British Airways Europe, Lufthansa, Southwest Airlines US, and West Jet Canada.

Yes – sort of. Several rewards programs (Esso Extra, HBC, RBC) allow you to convert points to Air Miles, but not vice versa. Air Miles cannot be converted between Dream Rewards and Air Miles Cash either.

In the Air Miles universe, there are two different types of Miles you can earn: Cash Miles and Dream Miles. When you sign up for the program, you can choose which you'd like to collect (or a mixture of both, if you prefer). While both types are quite similar in how they're collected, it's how they're redeemed that marks their difference.

Cash Miles are collected through spending at select online and physical retailers. Once you've earned enough, you can then redeem them online or in-store for for all sorts of different purchases including movie tickets, groceries, or gas (just to name a few). The value of Cash Miles is standardized at $10 per 95 Miles, so they're very easy to keep track of. The only catch? You can't redeem Cash Miles for travel expenses.

Dream Miles (as they are now known) are the more traditional Air Miles model and the most similar to the program's original concept. While you can collect Dream Miles the same way as Cash Miles (through online or in-store purchases as participating retailers), Dream Miles are mostly designed to be redeemed for travel purchases through the Air Miles portal. These can range from flights to hotel accommodations, plus more. Some companies also offer Dream Miles earners a discount on vacation packages as well. You can also use your Dream Miles for higher-tier merchandise as well as concerts and other live events.