A tip of the hat to Anshul at Points, Miles & Bling for alerting us on Twitter to this latest development for the AIR MILES program. One of their longest standing partnerships is coming to an end on March 31 as LCBO will be leaving the program. For 23 years members in Ontario have been able to rack up miles and sometimes tons of miles for the liquor purchases at LCBO locations.
The government owned liquor retailer announced today the end of the relationship and mentioned in the new release a plan for a future loyalty program. If I was to wager a guess it will be their own program since the back end systems to run such programs have become very affordable and cost a lot less than to take part in the AIR MILES program. A similar situation transpired here in Alberta a few years ago where liquor stores that were part of AIR MILES, namely Crowfoot Wines & Spirits left AIR MILES to launch their own program called Market Rewards.
This news is hot on the heels of the AIR MILES program losing Lowe's/Rona/Reno Depot last month and Rexall last year. It sure seems like there aren't a lot of physical locations left to earn AIR MILES Reward Miles. It is becoming more of a credit card and eBates (well Rakuten) type program as they push for shopping online via AIR MILES Shops:
Images via AIR MILES & Twitter
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