Reward Miles

[Marlene]

Recently, I used some airmiles to "purchase" a Cusinart cast metal 4 slice toaster. Today, I used some aeroplan miles to "purchase" a Le Cruset set consisting of a 10 inch non stick skillet, a small roaster, a 5 1/2 quart round oven and a 2 1/2 quart pot with an omlette pan cover.

Aeroplan recently introduced the concept of redeeming points for things since they recogized that not everyone will ever redeem their points for flights. They had all kinds of interesting things on there. Dinner for 4 with a personal chef, gift certificates to William Sonoma and lots of other food related stuff.

Does your miles reward program offer such things? If so, do you use them to get kitchen and food stuff?

[daniellewiley]

Recently, I used some airmiles to "purchase" a Cusinart cast metal 4 slice toaster.  Today, I used some aeroplan miles to "purchase" a Le Cruset set consisting of a 10 inch non stick skillet, a small roaster, a 5 1/2 quart round oven and a 2 1/2 quart pot with an omlette pan cover.

Aeroplan recently introduced the concept of redeeming points for things since they recogized that not everyone will ever redeem their points for flights.  They had all kinds of interesting things on there.  Dinner for 4 with a personal chef, gift certificates to William Sonoma and lots of other food related stuff.

Does your miles reward program offer such things?  If so, do you use them to get kitchen and food stuff?

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I think Northwest does, but I usually use those miles to visit my folks in NY or go on a great trip. However, I did use my Amex miles to purchase a digital camera (which is food-related, since I use it only for food and kids).

[wattacetti]

Got Air Miles and Aeroplan, though Aeroplan Status miles are more important overall.

JAL MileageBank does routinely offer foodstuffs, but the items that interested me can't be shipped to Canada. I can however, get cup ramen or "Iron Chef" bouillon cubes, or use the miles to purchase gifts for people who live in Japan.

EVA Air's Evergreen Club has something similar, but again, no joy when it comes to shipping to Canada.

[jvictor930]

TripRewards, which is the loyalty program for Cendant Hotels (Howard Johnson, Days Inn, Super 8, Ramada, Travelodge, Knights Inn, Wingate Inns, and Amerihost Inns) offers the same kinds of rewards as well. In kitchen appliances, they range from 17,500 points for a knife set to 70,000 points for a 5qt KitchenAid mixer. I've never redeemed for merchandise however.

[Marlene]

The toaster cost me 800 airmiles, and the Le Crueset cost me 48,000 aeroplan points. My points have been sitting around gathering dust, since we always use my husband's points to fly. We both have Aerogold Visas, so it doesn't take all that long to rack up a bunch of points. I think I'll save up for the personal chef for dinner. Or maybe the $1,000 William Sonoma gift certificate

[fifi]

I have a bunch of points with Amex and have just been looking into other ways to use them. They seem to have a lot of options. Oh dear . . . Williams-Sonoma, Crate & Barrel, Le Creuset.

I think I can use my Continental miles for stuff in the booklet that they put in the seatback but I have never tried it.

[highchef]

gomiles has lots of options as well, and while I was tempted on the Coach overnight bag, I haven't redeemed for anything except travel, and upgrades. They're going to save us a bundle this next vacation. They're good at a lot of the stores listed upthread and you can

even donate to your favorite charity. Cool.

[Randi]

Not sure if this counts as traditional reward points, but the company I work for gives "Spirit Points" as rewards. In addition to hundreds of household items, electronics, etc., one of the items you can "purchase" with your points is:

Spend a Day with the French Laundry’s Chef Thomas Keller

The itinerary includes the following: Luxury roundtrip transportation from the Bay Area; Champagne en route to Napa Valley; One morning of cooking demonstration and hands-on prep with Chef Keller; Gourmet luncheon with wine pairing at Bouchon; In-depth wine seminar with the French Laundry sommelier; Eight-course ‘Chef’s Tasting Menu’ dinner with ultra-premium wines personally chosen by the sommelier at the French Laundry; One overnight stay at a luxury boutique inn in Napa Valley; Professionally framed memento to include: Thomas Keller autographed Tasting Menu from the evening of the event; a photograph with Thomas Keller; French Laundry clothespin and laundry ticket; Two chef coats from the French Laundry; Autographed copy of The French Laundry Cookbook; Professional culinary event host.

I doubt I have enough points saved for this....but it gives me something to strive for! Or maybe I'll just get a food processor/blender combo.

[M.X.Hassett]

.............. and a 2 1/2 quart pot with an omlette pan cover.

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Great pan/pot combo. I use my miles for magazine subscriptions F&W, Gourmet, Cigar A, etc.....

[Pam R]

In the last couple of months I've cashed in Credit Union M/C points and received a rice cooker. I also cashed in Airmiles for flight (for 2) to New York to go to a food show and visit restaurants and food stores in Manhattan and NJ, with a 3 day stopover in Toronto to visit some suppliers and more restaurants/stores. Same trip I used CU/MC for a hotel room with a freezer/fridge to store samples to bring home and my Visa Travel points to rent a car to run from food place to food place.

All my points are used for food related things (some of them just happen to involve travel)

[Eden]

Does your miles reward program offer such things? 

I think Northwest does,

I just checked, an not only does NorthWorst not let you redeem for anythng but travel & magazines (nothing good), but they won't let you donate excess milage to charity except in 5000 point sums, so I can't zero out my account with them by giving the extra points away to a good cause...

I'm very jealous that other programs have such cool options.

[Angela Alaimo]

We recently got an 11 cup Cuisinart food processor with our American Express Reward points. That really didn't stink at all, come to think of it.

[Jensen]

I only collect miles from Alaska Air, which can (apparently) only be redeemed for travel. However, I can earn miles on that card by dining at certain restaurants, using my debit card, and (as I just discovered) shopping at Safeway.

On the dining plan, once you've hit a certain number of points accrued, you start getting bonus points. When we go out for pho, I generally will earn over 300 miles...all that from a $20 meal.

When our favourite sushi restaurant was participating in the programme, it took me about 5 months to earn enough points for a trip home. (And that was before the bonus programme was implemented! )

[Marlene]

The Le Crueset I ordered with Aeroplan miles arrived today: (yes, I should clean my counters off before taking pictures)

Included is a small roaster, 9x13, a 5 1/2 quart round oven, a black enameled skillet and a 2 1/2 quart sauce pan with a lid that doubles as a non stick omlette pan.

[Jake]

Awesome, Marlene! Aeroplan, was it? Hmmmm. But what I really, really need is a larger leC for braising than I currently have. I bet they don't do open stock, hmm?

[Marlene]

They did have an oval Le Creuset available, but I can't remember what size it was.

[Jake]

^Excellent. I think I'll check into this later! Thanks for the info.

[Abra]

Awesome LC! I've never heard of Aeroplan. Can I somehow switch my United miles to Aeroplan?

[Marlene]

That's a good question, since United and Air Canada are star alliance partners, you might be able to use them for aeroplan stuff, but you'd have to check.

[Octaveman]

The toaster cost me 800 airmiles, and the Le Crueset cost me 48,000 aeroplan points.  My points have been sitting around gathering dust, since we always use my husband's points to fly.  We both have Aerogold Visas, so it doesn't take all that long to rack up a bunch of points. I think I'll save up for the personal chef for dinner.  Or maybe the $1,000 William Sonoma gift certificate

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Funny thing about award mileage is that airlines WANT you to use them for things other than flights. Things like various products discussed here, upgrade to first class, hotel, car rentals etc. The problem is that the actual cost of those items or services when using miles are so astronomically high in terms of real cost. For example. I used to fly back home about 5 times per year and the cost divided by the miles I received averaged $0.18/mile. If was going to get that toaster, it would effectively be costing me $144. The LC would be $8,640!!! And the kicker is that the airlines probably get this stuff for super cheap if not for free.

Of course this is just my particular situation. Your actual cost would be affected by cost of your flights and miles received for them. So longer flights would obviously bring the cost/mile down a little but still. Right now it costs ~$0.11/mile to fly to JCK and back.

Just something to think about before you go redeeming your miles for various stuff.

[Marlene]

True, but we have more miles than we will ever be able to use, and you just try booking a fliight on Air Canada, using points. As long as you want to connect through 3 different cities and go three years from now, you'll be ok. Aeroplan is also adopting a use them or lose them policy so, I'd rather get something for the points just sitting there. I might have bought the toaster on my own, but I doubt if I would have bought the Le Creuset set, and now that I have it, I love it.

[Jake]

I agree with Marlene completely here. The points programs in Canada are dominated by Aeroplan (Air Canada and codesshares only) and AirMiles and are heavily restricted, rarely include non-stop direct flights and are often limited to some VERY unusual days and hours based on their "availability". As well, all our taxes have to be paid in cash saving a very few exceptions. The last 4 times I've flown anywhere it has proved to be cheaper to book direct on another airline. In fact flying to NYC last fall the flight, taxes etc. on an airline other than AC was cheaper than flying on points and paying the applicable taxes and fees! With the use it or lose it option, perhaps some kitchen appliances are in order here too!

[Pam R]

I have never been into Aeroplan. Since all the points I had from flying to Australia expired before I realized it, I don't think I have enough points to get a movie ticket (if you can...). But with Airmiles I've been able to book flights for 2 to Montreal, California, Las Vegas, Chicago, Florida (twice), New York (twice) and Toronto (twice) and flight for 1 to Vancouver & Florida. Funny, all but 3 flights were food related trips. All flights within Canada were direct - and those outside of Canada were to places that don't fly direct from Winnipeg anyway. A couple of times I had to change flight days by one day in either direction, but since you only have to pay tax - I worked around the restrictions.

[Jake]

hmmmm, maybe I should start flying out of Winnepeg it that's the case! Sorry, my comments were definitely Toronto-centric.