From: brewnoserii@gmail.com   
      
   A new game from the Air Miles industry . . . . hiding redeemable merchandise   
   from the thousands who are now rushing to use their points before they start   
   getting cancelled at the end of this year.     
   __________________________________________   
   CBC News Posted: Sep 11, 2016   
      
   Customers say Air Miles explanation for hiding rewards 'doesn't add up'   
   Air Miles says more active members get more rewards, but some customers don't   
   buy that   
      
   Customer outcry continues after a CBC News story revealed that Air Miles   
   blocks members from accessing certain rewards.   
      
   The story included disgruntled collectors who said that when they logged into   
   the Air Miles website using an account with few miles, they saw premium   
   merchandise they didn't have enough miles to get. ​But when using a   
   different account with many miles â   
   €” enough to acquire those premium products — the same items vanished.   
      
   Air Miles explains it tailors the loyalty program so that more active   
   collectors get access to more rewards such as merchandise and travel.   
      
   But that explanation has only further angered some collectors who claim it   
   just doesn't add up.   
      
       Air Miles hiding merchandise from us, claim customers   
      
       Your Air Miles could expire soon: What you need to know   
      
   "[Air Miles] just seem[s] to be digging themselves into a deeper hole,"   
   concludes Patrick Sojka with the resource site Rewards Canada.   
      
   Sorry, you can't have it   
      
   Katherine McLaughlin recently contacted CBC News in a fury because she   
   couldn't redeem her miles for a Bose Wave music system.   
      
   When she logged in on the Air Miles website using her account, she saw the   
   item advertised for 6,900 miles. McLaughlin was thrilled she had finally found   
   something she wanted, considering that some of her miles would expire in the   
   new year.   
      
   The Oakville, Ont., resident had the required points, so she clicked on the   
   ad. That's when she discovered she was blocked from getting the product.   
   Bose music system Air Miles   
      
   When Katherine McLaughlin tried to redeem her Air Miles for this Bose sound   
   system, she was blocked from getting it. (CBC)   
      
   McLaughlin complained to an Air Miles online customer service rep who —   
   according to a transcript of the conversation — told her that collectors get   
   a "tailored experience," which, for her, didn't include the music system.   
      
   The explanation didn't sit well with McLaughlin. "I've earned those rewards   
   over the years," she says. "To me, it's unethical and simply bad faith."   
      
   Who's reaping the rewards?   
      
   CBC News asked Air Miles, which is owned by global company LoyaltyOne, for   
   more details about the tailored experience.   
      
   "The more active you are in the program, the more selections of rewards are   
   available to you," claimed spokeswoman, Kahina Haffad.   
      
   She explained that activity levels are based on how often members collect   
   miles and redeem them for rewards.   
      
   But when CBC News looked into the issue, it didn't appear to work out that way.   
      
       Air Miles rewards lacking for expiring points, customers complain   
      
       Frustrated Air Miles customers struggle to redeem points   
      
   On the day that McLaughlin was prevented from getting a music system, CBC News   
   logged in using an Air Miles account and found that we could access the item.   
   However, we didn't have enough points to buy it.   
      
   The account that CBC News used has only 1,098 miles with just 111 collected   
   over the past 12 months.   
      
   McLaughlin has 7,547 miles and collected a total of 270 over the same period   
   â€” close to 2.5 times our amount.   
      
   Neither account has been used to redeem miles for years.   
      
   So if more active members receive more rewards, one wonders why we had access   
   to the music system and McLaughlin — who is clearly the more active user —   
   didn't.   
      
   "I don't buy what they're saying," says McLaughlin, about the Air Miles   
   explanation for how rewards are tailored. Instead, she suspects that perhaps   
   members get to see premium rewards they can't have right now "to make the   
   program look enticing."   
      
   Complaining might help   
      
   CBC News also spoke with Air Miles collector Nicole Heisler in Calgary. She   
   says her husband, Derek, redeemed a chunk of his close to 10,000 miles in July   
   for a rowing machine and a camera.   
      
   The couple was hoping for a Dyson fan and two gaming devices that Heisler had   
   seen previously when she logged in using her account. But those items didn't   
   appear when Derek was looking to redeem his miles.   
      
   The next day, Heisler says she logged in using her membership which had a   
   meagre 168 miles. She says she found the products they had wanted but that her   
   husband — who could afford them — didn't have access to.   
   Air Miles Rewards expiry   
      
   Air Miles says collectors see different rewards depending on how active they   
   are in the program. (CBC)   
      
   Heisler says Derek then called Air Miles and threatened to tell his story to   
   the media unless he could exchange the rowing machine for a couple of the   
   products he wanted. She says he got his way and the rewards he was looking for   
   suddenly were available    
   for him to claim.   
      
   Heisler says she's not an active Air Miles user but her husband is. So she   
   doesn't buy the company's explanation that more active members get more   
   rewards.   
      
   "It just sounds like B.S. to me," she says. "Their explanation doesn't add up   
   at all."   
      
   Everybody does it?   
      
   Air Miles also told CBC News that tailoring rewards is typical industry   
   practice.   
      
   Loyalty program expert Sojka disagrees. He says, typically, while rewards   
   programs may offer extra perks to more active collectors, "this is the first   
   time I'm aware of awards being blocked to members."   
      
   CBC News checked with other popular rewards programs. The ones run by Shoppers   
   Drug Mart, Loblaws, Canadian Tire and Scene, the movie loyalty program, all   
   said that all of their members have access to every reward.   
      
   Aeroplan said that its top earners get exclusive offers but that all members   
   have access to the loyalty program's main catalogue which includes merchandise   
   and travel rewards.   
      
   Sojka says he's stumped why Air Miles would prevent customers from accessing   
   all items in its catalogue.   
      
   He wonders if it has anything to do with the fact that people are clamouring   
   to redeem miles before they disappear on Jan. 1. That's when miles older than   
   five years start expiring.   
      
   "Are they trying to keep people from redeeming their miles so that they do   
   actually expire at the end of this year? You never know."   
      
   Company spokeswoman Haffad contends that Air Miles is simply rewarding   
   collectors who are more engaged in the program.   
      
      
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