More Rewards partnership with Petro-Canada ending on July 31

Not so good news for those who collect More Rewards points - one of the programs best partners will be leaving the program on July 31. On that date the partnership between More Rewards and Petro-Canada will come to an end. I received the email yesterday from Petro-Canada stating this development and when you go to the More Rewards website it confirms the change:

This is a really unfortunate change to the program that affects all members but more so for those who don't live in Western Canada. The More Rewards program started to make in roads nationally a few years back when they launched a nationwide credit card with Scotia (it was the best no free travel rewards credit card) and made this partnership with Petro-Canada. However the credit card went the way of the dodo bird last August and now with Petro-Canada leaving the program it will next to impossible for anyone not from Alberta, B.C., Manitoba and Saskatchewan to earn More Rewards points. With the departure of Petro-Canada the only partners that are available Canada wide are More Rewards Insurance and More Rewards Travel, the rest of them are only out west.

For me this will cut my More Rewards points earning by a significant amount as most of the points I have earned in the program came from Petro-Canada. I don't shop often as Save-On Foods as I don't have a location close to me and as much as I've wanted to shop online for delivery from them I only did so once as the wait times were long to get a delivery compared the Instacart and Real Canadian Superstore. Here's a screenshot of my transaction history for the first three months of 2020:

As you can see it is very Petro-Canada heavy and once they are out of the program I basically won't earn points at all. My balance isn't big by any means, just over 22,000 points or just over $90 in value towards travel. With little to no points earning I may just cash out my points as a donation to one of the children's charities that More Rewards partners with.

This news also adds fuel to my thoughts that the coalition rewards program as we knew it from years gone by is not working anymore. More Rewards had aspirations of becoming a larger coalition program and that just isn't happening and if the big players like AIR MILES and Aeroplan aren't making it happen anymore, there's no way More Rewards can either.