AIR MILES, once an iconic brand that was synonymous with “airline points” in Canada, is no more. In June 2026, BMO relaunched Canada’s OG loyalty program as Blue Rewards, complete with a new name, a new app, a single points currency, and a refreshed roster of partners, with even more, such as Porter Airlines, on the way.
If you had an AIR MILES account, congratulations: you’re already a Blue Rewards member – whether you are happy about it or not. Your old plastic membership card still works, though there are no more Onyx Personal Shopper benefits that we know of (yet) with which to buy anything that you can imagine. It was a very famously open-minded program.
Blue Points can be mainly earned through everyday spending on two BMO co-branded credit cards:
| Credit Card | ||
|---|---|---|
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100,000 Blue Points and $125 FlyerFunds Estimated value: $795 Ends Oct 31, 2026 |
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20,000 Blue Points and $50 FlyerFunds Estimated value: $184 Ends Oct 31, 2026 |
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They can also be earned at in-store and online partners, and through a handful of app-based features like receipt scanning.
On the redemption side, Blue points are worth several differing flat rates depending on where you redeem them, all orbiting the benchmark of 1,500 points = $10 (0.67 cents apiece) for gift cards and in-store purchases. Don’t forget that number, as it’s the meter stick for every redemption value presented in this guide.
Earning Blue Points
Earning Blue Points via Credit Card Bonuses
The fastest way to collect Blue points is via BMO co-branded Blue Rewards credit cards and their promotional welcome bonuses.
The flagship BMO Blue Rewards World Elite Mastercard offers a welcome bonus of up to 100,000 Blue Points earned in the following structure:
- Earn 45,000 Bonus Points when you spend $5,000 on net card purchases within the first 110 days of account opening.*
- Earn an additional 20,000 Bonus Points when you spend $10,000 on net card purchases within the first 180 days of account opening.*
- Earn a further 35,000 Bonus Points when you spend $20,000 on net card purchases within the first 365 days of account opening.*
- Plus, get a 0% introductory interest rate on Balance transfers for 12 months with a 2% transfer fee.*
- Plus, the annual fees waived in the first year.*
The BMO Blue Rewards World Elite®* Mastercard®* earns 10x Blue Points per $1 spent on participating Blue Rewards Partners and offers four airport lounge passes annually, plus up to a $200 NEXUS membership credit.*
Earn when you apply through Frugal Flyer.
100,000 Blue Points
$20,000
$795+
$150 (FYF)
Yes
Oct 31, 2026
While the BMO Blue Rewards World Elite Mastercard does have an annual fee of $150, the welcome offer does often include a first year annual fee waiver (and can be waived with select bank accounts thereafter).
This card includes four annual airport lounge visits via Mastercard Travel Pass plus up to a $200 NEXUS Membership credit, which can be used towards a new membership or NEXUS membership renewal.
If you don’t meet the $80,000 personal or $150,000 household annual income requirements for the World Elite version, or don’t want a card with an annual fee, the BMO Blue Rewards Mastercard is a great choice as it offers a welcome bonus of up to 20,000 Blue Points earned in the following structure:
- Get 20,000 Bonus Points when you spend $1,500 on net card purchases within the first 110 days of account opening.*
- Plus, get a 0.99% introductory interest rate on balance transfers for 9 months with a 2% transfer fee.*
- Plus, earn rewards from over 400 brands.*
The BMO Blue Rewards Mastercard®* earns 5x Blue Points per $1 spent at participating Blue Rewards Partners*.
Earn when you apply through Frugal Flyer.
20,000 Blue Points
$1,500
$184+
$0
Yes
Oct 31, 2026
Should you be a small business owner who wants to participate in the Blue Rewards program, BMO also offers two business cards: the BMO Blue Rewards World Elite Business Mastercard and the BMO Blue Rewards Business Mastercard.
Earning Blue Points via Daily Spending
If you want to earn Blue points for every purchase, spending on any of the Blue Rewards co-branded credit cards is the best play. But what does day-to-day spending on these credit cards actually get you?
BMO’s Blue Rewards credit card portfolio shakes out like this for the two personal credit cards:
| Spending Category | BMO Blue Rewards World Elite Mastercard | BMO Blue Rewards Mastercard (No Annual Fee) |
|---|---|---|
| Blue Rewards partners (incl. Blue Rewards Travel) | 10 Blue points per dollar spent | 5 Blue points per dollar spent |
| Groceries, gas, EV charging, wholesale, liquor stores | 2 Blue points per dollar spent | 1 Blue point per dollar spent |
| Everything else | 1 Blue point per dollar spent | 0.5 Blue points per dollar spent |
In plain terms: outside the partner network, the World Elite is a decent-not-thrilling earner on essentials but rather forgettable on uncategorized spend.
The partner rate is where things get interesting, because the card’s 10x stacks on top of the base points partners already hand out for scanning your Blue Rewards card. Pay for $100 of eligible Pharmasave purchases with the World Elite and the scan plus the card nets you around 1,160 points, north of 7% back, though you’d have to prioritize shopping at Pharmasave or another partner.
The caps run per statement cycle, not per calendar month: the World Elite’s 10x covers your first $1,000 in partner spending per cycle, its 2x covers $500 per cycle in each “essentials” category. That means 2x for the first $500 each statement period on groceries, gas, EV, wholesale, and liquor stores, as sorted by merchant category code.
The no-fee BMO Blue Rewards Mastercard reduces the cap on both Blue Rewards partners and daily essentials to $500 per month. On both cards, once capped, you drop to the base earning rate.
BMO also has a Blue Rewards Chequing account that can earn a modest amount of points for every month you hold more than $4,000 in deposits, but it carries a $17.95 monthly fee with no balance-based waiver.
Earning Blue Points via Partners
Partners come in two flavours in the Blue Rewards program. The first is the traditional show your Blue Rewards member card method, where scanning your Blue Rewards card at participating Blue Rewards partners will earn you the published rate and where the credit cards’ 10x and 5x accelerators apply.
By category: Pharmasave for pharmacy (16 points per $10), IHG Hotels & Resorts for hotels (16 per $5, the richest published rate in the program), National, Alamo, Avis, and Budget for car rentals, and Blue Rewards Travel itself, which conveniently counts as a partner for card purposes.
Exclusive to Atlantic Canada are its home-turf specials of Irving Oil and Kent Building Supplies, as well as TIMBER MART and Global Pet Foods to cover the reno and pet aisles, and a few regional names like NSLC round things out.
The full, searchable roster lives on the Blue Rewards partner directory. One IHG quirk worth knowing: set your IHG One Rewards earning preference to partner points before you stay, or you’ll earn nothing here.
The second flavour is Blue Rewards Card-Linked Offers. This is similar to most retail shopping platforms such as the Flying Blue store.
The list of merchants includes Instacart, the MTY Group’s restaurant brands (Thai Express, Mr. Sub, Mucho Burrito, and friends), Accor’s hotels (Fairmont, Sofitel, Novotel), Dollarama, and Giant Tiger.
Each of these vendors awards 1 point per $1 through linked Canadian-issued Mastercards. Link your card either in the app or on the desktop site. You do not need to register co-branded BMO Blue Rewards cards on their own. Porter Airlines has been announced as a partner but isn’t live yet, with no earn rates published, though we expect them to reflect the same earn rate as other card-linked merchants.
Other Ways to Earn Blue Points
The Blue Rewards App available on Android or iOS is your friend for earning more points.
Blue Receipts lets you scan grocery receipts from the likes of Costco, Loblaws, Metro, Sobeys, and Save-On-Foods and earn on featured items, with new offers every Thursday. This is probably designed for the coupon-clipping crowd; Blue points earned from this method take approximately 14 days to post.
On the e-commerce front, the desktop Blue Rewards Shops is a click-through portal of 400-plus online merchants, including Amazon, that earns on top of whatever your card already earns (points can take 45 to 90 days to post, so screenshot your confirmations).
Flash Offers and promotions rotate constantly amongst participating Blue Rewards partners, so opt in before any big shop. See our guide to Blue Rewards Shops for all the details you need to know about this program.
Redeeming Blue Points
Blue Rewards redemptions are typically around the basic rate of 1,500 Blue Points = $10. There are no dynamic or surge pricing gimmicks, just fixed redemption.
Redeeming Blue Points for Travel
The headline option is Blue Rewards Travel, the Expedia-powered portal covering flights, hotels, car rentals, packages, and activities. Points can cover part or all of a booking, including taxes and fees (something AIR MILES never allowed), and there’s no minimum redemption. Value runs at approximately 0.633 cents per point; just a hair lower than redemptions on gift cards.
To book a flight or hotel, log in to your Blue Rewards account. You can then make an easy search and see both the cash and points redemption values listed:
In both cases, we can see the approximate redemption value of ~0.633 cents per Blue point.
The advantage of this over redeeming for gift cards is that the credit is instantaneous versus taking up to 48+ hours to get your gift card.
Redeeming Blue Points for Cruises
Cruises get their own portal via Red Tag Vacations, where 14,352 points take $100 off an eligible cruise booking, roughly 0.7 cents per point and the best headline rate in the program.
Be advised that while this is the highest cent per point redemption on Blue Rewards, said points apply to the base fare only; in addition, taxes and port charges are paid in USD. The full payment is due at booking in addition to Red Tag’s processing fee.
This makes this redemption opportunity ideally used for large balances only, though they do routinely run promotions:
To book, you will be redirected to https://vacations.bluerewards.ca/ where you will need to make your booking and get the flat redemption rate of 14,532:$100 (CAD).
Redeeming Blue Points In-Store with Partners
Redeeming in-store is the spiritual successor to AIR MILES Cash Miles. 1,500 Blue Points take $10 off at the till, in $10 increments, at Pharmasave, Irving Oil, Kent Building Supplies, and Live Events tickets.
Depending on your province, that’s two to four options. Pharmasave carries the usual exclusions (no prescriptions in most provinces, no alcohol, tobacco, or gift cards). It’s the least glamorous redemption in the program, albeit one of the highest in raw value.
To do this, scan your Blue Rewards card or eligible BMO credit card in store and ask the clerk to redeem the eligible amount.
Redeeming Blue Points for eGift Cards
Blue points convert to eGift cards at the same rate of 1,500 points=$10, in denominations from $10 to $100 with instant delivery, across 80-plus brands: Amazon, Walmart, Cineplex, Sephora, Uber Eats, and the rest of the usual suspects. There is no redemption discount for the gift card route, but no penalty either, which makes it the solid default when nothing on the travel side appeals.
To redeem for an e-gift card, log in to your account, select gift cards, and then choose which gift card you would like. There are occasionally some specials available:
Because e-gift cards are worth 0.67 cents per point, they are an excellent value when redeemed on travel rewards such as airline or Airbnb gift cards.
The one caveat of redeeming for e-gift cards with the Blue Rewards program is that they usually take approximately 48 hours to be emailed to you by BMO, so don’t order an e-gift card unless you can afford to wait.
Redeeming Blue Points for Merchandise
The legacy of Dream Miles also marches on via redemption on merchandise such as electronics, kitchen gear, and sporting goods. These can be made on the app or desktop site.
Make sure to do your own calculations to ensure this is a good value, as redeeming on merchandise is traditionally not good value in any loyalty program.
Redeeming Blue Points for Events & Attractions
Through Live Events for Blue Rewards, 1,500 Blue points can be redeemed for $10 off concert, sports, and festival tickets. Redemptions are final, though points come back if the show itself gets cancelled. Cineplex shows up both as an eGift card and in the catalogue, so movie nights are covered either way.
Be advised that these tickets are through TFL, a reseller. The price is sometimes higher than the official ticket partner of most venues, Ticketmaster. Do your own research.
Frequently Asked Questions
The benchmark value is 0.67 cents per Blue point, based on the 1,500 points = $10 rate for eGift cards and in-store redemptions. Travel through the Blue Rewards Travel portal runs about 0.63 cents, cruises via Red Tag about 0.7 cents against the base fare, and merchandise typically falls below all of these.
Travel e-gift cards offer slightly better value than booking via the travel portal in many cases.
Blue points can be redeemed for travel through the Expedia-powered Blue Rewards Travel portal, cruises through Red Tag Vacations, eGift cards, in-store purchases at partners like Pharmasave and Irving Oil, event and movie tickets powered by TFL, and merchandise.
Since nearly all redemption options result in Blue points being nearly worth the same flat rate, the best use is whichever option you’d have spent cash on anyway. eGift cards and in-store redemptions hit the full benchmark with no strings attached; avoid merchandise unless the math surprises you.
It can be a better idea to buy travel e-gift cards than to book on the travel portal, especially for vendors unavailable on Expedia such as Airbnb.
Blue Rewards accounts go dormant after 24 months of no activity, at which point all Blue points are removed. Earning, redeeming, or transferring even a single point resets the clock, and the program emails you before dormancy hits. See our miles & points expiry guide for keeping balances alive across programs.
Yes, Blue Rewards lets you send points to another member through a self-service tool in the Support Centre, at a fee of $0.15 per 16 points plus tax. Transfers are final, and a transfer counts as account activity for the dormancy clock.
If you don’t wish to pay this fee, then you can merge duplicate accounts under the same profile, or merge accounts with someone in your household (such as a spouse or parent), both through customer care.
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Blue Rewards Shops: Earn Points for Online Purchases Blue Rewards Shops is a points-back portal where you can earn Blue Points on purchases at your favorite retailers, such as Amazon and Apple.
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Blue Rewards Is Now Live With Two New Credit Cards BMO’s Blue Rewards loyalty program has officially launched with two new credit cards now available. Check out the details.
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