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Coming Summer 2026, AIR MILES is transitioning to a new reward currency called Blue Rewards – a simplified, streamlined experience where Cash Miles and Dream Miles are no more and a single currency remains.
There are lots of questions and there are some answers, but remember you do have until Summer 2026 to decide on the best ways to use and redeem your Air Miles before Blue Rewards come into play.
So What are Blue Rewards?
Blue Rewards is the new rewards program AIR MILES is transitioning to come summer 2026 (exact date to be determined). There are 400+ confirmed partners where you can earn Blue Rewards at and a new and simplified balance and redemption experience.
In contrast to the current Air Miles scheme where you have Cash Miles and Dream Miles and can redeem at 95 AIR MILES = $10 if using cash miles in-store or on e-gift cards but you are sometimes able to achieve higher value but only with Dream Miles on a lucky travel redemption and you have to decide in advance which type of miles you want to earn but also you can move your miles between Dream and Cash depending on your AIR MILES status…
Blue Rewards are much simpler. No more status, no more Dream Miles vs. Cash Miles and better yet, your existing AIR MILES will transfer to Blue Rewards Points with no loss in value.
Earning Blue Rewards will be similar to earning AIR MILES today, where you earn Blue Rewards when spending with Blue Rewards’ list of partners like Porter, Fairmont, Instacart, Manchu Wok. Like today, you’ll earn Blue Rewards when scanning your Blue Rewards card or Blue Rewards credit card (more on that later) at the check-out counter or in the check-out of your online purchase.
A new change will be that BMO Chequing Account holders will be able to opt-in to earn Blue Rewards on eligible purchases using their debit card.
Redeeming Blue Rewards will come in two forms:
- 1,500 points = $10 when redeeming in-store or on e-gift cards
- New travel portal powered by Expedia Group
So instead of allocating your miles between Cash and Dream and redeeming within each, all your miles will be Blue Rewards points and can be redeemed for anything across both sides.
At the rate of 0.67 cents per point and knowing that existing AIR MILES will transfer to Blue Rewards at equivalent value, 95 AIR MILES will turn into 1,500 Blue Rewards points aka 1 AIR MILE will transfer to ~15.79 Blue Rewards points.
While Blue Rewards is not launching until summer 2026, the new travel portal powered by Expedia is coming on March 16, 2026 and should give us an idea of what redemption values will look like.
Full details on the new Blue Rewards website.
The New BMO Blue Rewards Credit Card
… is coming soon. No new credit card details have been provided as part of these changes except that new credit cards are coming soon, presumably as a revamp of the existing AIR MILES credit cards.
And most importantly, a pre-launch waitlist is available for the new Blue Rewards card where waitlist members will receive an exclusive welcome offer and be entered in a contest for a chance to win 1 million Blue Points (winner to be announced Fall 2026).
Existing AIR MILES credit card holders can continue to the card as normal and the physical credit card and credit card number will not change. Notably, existing AIR MILES credit card holders are not eligible to join the waitlist/enter the contest (as the Blue Rewards credit card will replace existing AIR MILES cards).
Needless to say, if you are not an existing AIR MILES credit card holder today, do not apply for a new AIR MILES credit card as I believe it to be likely that the new Blue Rewards credit card will come with a juicier sign-up offer.
No Immediate Action Needed
In the past, my goal was always to redeem my AIR MILES for travel redemptions. As long as I was earning more than 10.5 cents per dollar, I’m coming ahead of the Cash Miles redemption value. So for many years, my primary use case for my AIR MILES was on DisneyWorld tickets and with that no longer representing good value, I’ve set all my AIR MILES to be Cash Miles and have not touched it since.
Very occasionally, I’ll find a hotel where the redemption value is over 10.5 cents (but usually something like 10.7 cents) and I’ll move miles from my Cash to my Dream account to redeem, so I’m glad I’ll no longer need to do that in the new program where it’s a single points balance.
In the short term, I’d say there is no immediate rush to use all your AIR MILES since BMO has announced that they will convert to Blue Rewards at equivalent value and you can expect the same base redemption rate of 95 AIR MILES = $10 (1,500 Blue Rewards points = $10) by doing nothing at all today.
It is interesting that the new travel portal powered by Expedia is coming in March while Blue Rewards is not launching until summer. To be honest, I expect redemption values to remain similar to what it is today on the existing AIR MILES travel portal, but Expedia will have access to a much wider range of experiences which is a net positive.
The only exception to “no immediate action needed” is if you primarily redeem your AIR MILES at Shell as that partnership will be dissolving after March 25, 2026 (and in Alberta on March 2, 2026). Right now on top of redeeming at the standard 95 AIR MILES = $10 rate, you can earn 10 miles back per transaction by being a Shell Go+ member (free) and having your AIR MILES account linked – effectively earning $1 cash back per transaction.
On the credit card front, there is no reason not to sign up for the waitlist as we await the full details of the new credit card. After all, you’ll want to be eligible for the highest signup bonus on offer even if you decide not to apply later on.
BMO did also announce new partners and more exciting program updates coming before Summer 2026, so we’ll see if anything changes.
Takeaway
AIR MILES will be transitioning to Blue Rewards come Summer 2026 – a single, unified points balance where you can earn points when spending at Blue Rewards partners and redeem points for e-gift cards, in-store, and for travel via the Expedia-powered travel portal.
Be sure to join the waitlist for the upcoming Blue Rewards credit card in order to be eligible for the waitlist-exclusive welcome bonus and in the meantime, continue to earn and redeem your AIR MILES the same you always have (except at Shell, where you’ll want to redeem ASAP) since your AIR MILES will convert with no loss in value.
