Today’s QotD stems from a previous post on touching your customers, and incentive programs. There are many different credit cards and services which you can subscribe to, catering to your shopping habits and needs. Today’s QotD is
How many incentive programs do you subscribe to – and how many do you actually use on a regular basis?
Please leave your comments and impressions as well.
I’m a HUGE fan of both Aeroplan & Airmiles — going out of my way to collect points… like walking the extra block to Safeway when they have those killer “buy $150 of groceries and receive 200 Bonus Airmiles” deals or charging all my purchases (even chocolate bars) to my Visa Aerogold card. I do favour, the Mastercard Westjet Gold Card though because you can fly to any of their destinations for only 1600 Airmiles and the annual fee is only $80! Downside of course is that they only fly within North America but I’m happily getting 1-2 free trips out of that loyalty program every year. The Shoppers Optimum program is also a good one — who doesn’t want to be incentivized for buying toothpaste?
I used to belong to so many loyalty programs I had to buy a separate wallet for the cards. I finally tossed all but the following:
RETAIL: Shopper’s Drug Mart and Indigo. (They have my email address. I’ve never heard from them.)
TRAVEL: Aeroplan and VIA Preference. Wish I used these more often. The Internet has pretty much eliminated my paid travel opportunities.
ESSENTIALS: a punch card from Second Cup – my 11th pound of Espresso Forte is FREE! (I don’t own a car – this is my version of a gas card.)
I don’t subscribe to Air Miles. I’d get to Hawaii faster if I swam.
I participate in three rewards programs:
AMEX Member Rewards Program
Indigo/Chapters
Air Canada
I’m one of those rare Canadians without an Airmiles or Shoppers card.
I find it interesting that the programs I use are (basically) offline programs for services I would use regularly anyway.
I don’t think I’ve ever used an online loyalty program and I don’t think a loyalty program has ever changed my shopping habits.
Does ANYONE change their habits because of a program? I’m sure they do but I can’t imagine it personally.
I use CIBC Aeroplan and Shoppers Optimum card.
I haven’t changed what I purchase but I have changed how I pay for things. Since signing up for the Aeroplan visa I put more mid-size purchases on the credit card than I used to. And because everything goes on the one card I don’t have any department store cards.
I am a longtime user of Aeroplan, however I did switch from the Aerogold CIBC program to the more flexible Aventura program. This accounts for most of my loyalty membership as I earn for nearly every purchase I make.
As far as standalone programs, I focus on Shopper’s Optimum and Air Miles. I have found the Optimum program to be quite valuable, especially when earning and then combining two accounts (with my wife). This seems to be the secret with all these programs, try to maximize your earnings across a family network.
I am a member of more loyalty programs than I care to admit to, however of those that I actually use on a regular basis:
– Airmiles (and I do let myself get suckered into those offers in the store – buy 2 and receive 10 airmiles)
– Aeroplan
– Esso Extra (great for free car washes)
– Indigo/Chapters (the only program I will pay a membership fee for)
– Shopper’s Optimum
– HBC Rewards
My mindset is, if I will be shopping the retailer anyways, I may as well be rewarded for my loyalty.
I used to use AMEX Aeroplan and still collect my Aeroplan miles when booking with AC, however the poor customer service and mutiltude of restrictions led to me to peform a search of credit cards with travel awards….and selected the TD Gold Visa. Although I’ve yet to book through the TD travel site, I believe there are no travel restrictions and all suppliers on Sabre particpate. and I put almost every purchasee I can on the card…so my loyalty is def. to the Visa.
I lost count of how many incentive programs I’ve joined and when I realized it would take me way too long to redeem AirMiles for a decent enough flight, I ditched that for a cash back credit card where I can see tangible rewards year over year. With trading sites like Points.com these things have become like a second currency anyways.
I am a member of multiple loyalty programs and I do, in fact, change my behaviour in some ways to earn points and optimize how many points I get.
Although I am a member of store- or retailer-based loyalty programs like Shoppers Optimum, Petro Points, Esso Extra and HBC Rewards, I find I most often use coalition loyalty programs like Air Miles amd Aeroplan (it’s not just Air Canada any more). In fact, I choose to use my Aeroplan card at Esso and not their own Esso Extra card. It is my wife that uses my store cards, esp. Shoppers Optimum and HBC Rewards.
I also use CIBC’s Aerogold Visa so I typically get 1 point for every dollar spent. in a year that might get me 75-100,000 points, good enough for 5 short-haul trips or 3 or 4 trips anywhere in North America.
My Air Miles Gold card, however, tends to be my main focus. I am one of those people that WILL buy 5 items for 50 or 100 bonus Air Miles (it’s the same as going to Costco but you get Air Miles). And it’s Air Miles that is one of the 2 main reasons I keep shopping at my local Dominion, even for much of my organic stuff…sorry Whole Foods and Organic Garage. The other reason is location.
At the end of the day my Air Miles rewards help with the holiday shopping while the Aeroplan rewards help with vacation travel for the family. However, with the changes to the costs to redeem Aeroplan travel rewards I am looking at using these points to get merchandise while using WestJet, some other low-cost carrier or a Buffalo, NY departure for my personal flights.