Customer loyality cards

[Greg44]

I am sitting down for lunch at work with the Lean Cuisine and see that they have a "delicious rewards" program...I am thinking - another rewards program to keep up with? hmmm am I that committed.

Here are the ones I now have/and what I have earned.

Amex - Costco $ back - new last few months of year $ 45.00 back
Amex - rewards points - numerous gift cards for Olive Garden/Border's books
Coke - reward points from caps - have not redeemed points
Fred Meyers - reward $ from purchases - Quarterly $$ off purchases
Local Pizza Parlor - free pizza with from purchases - ahh "several" free pizzas!
Red Robin - Royal customer card program - new program probably $ 20.00 savings
United Airlines - miles card - redeemed for one RT to St. Louis

Safeway/Alberstons - I use their cards for instore discounts only - no local gas station to redeem $ off. I don't shop those two stores enough to make it worth my while - to expensive and Albertsons Fish market stinks up the whole store - gags me to shop there.

What customer rewards programs do you use and have earned from??

[catherine]

The only ones I pay attention to are my airfare and hotel points with my business travel (about 60,000 miles a year). Especially Continental Airlines!! I'm a VERY loyal customer--and have taken my entire family, plus MIL to Scotland for free. I gave my son a first class ticket to India, another son rt ticket to San Francisco, also used FF points for two trips to Florida and multiple trips for my son to visit for holidays because he lives in Vermont. I even gave a woman I met on jury duty a rt ticket to Virginia because the court case we were involved in got extended and she was going to miss a horse show she was planning on driving to. And I still have lots of points left.

I also really like my hotel points--I'm a Marriott, Starwood, Priority Club, Hilton Honors member. Marriott's the best one, BTW.

As far as the food establishments, I find it too hard to remember them, so I don't bother.

[IshbelRobertson]

We seem to have less of them than in the USA.

I have a Boots card (most generous of our rewards card, or so the adverts tell us!), a Nectar card which covers supermarkets likeSainsbury's, DIY stores like Homembase, petrol stations like BP and other outlets.

[Greg44]

Catherine - wow you really rack up the airline miles! I have a friend that his work takes him all over the USA on projects - he said that when his vacation time comes up the last thing he wants to do is fly someplace!

[freein05]

I have stopped using or getting more rewards cards. My wallet is full. The I used the most was an airline rewards card and I gave it up. It was just to hard to get a flight you wanted. I fond shopping on line I could get flights when I wanted them and not have to book 6 months in advance.

[RCWRTR]

I regularly use discount cards for the rewards programs at local discount stores, discount grocery stores and grocery stores. These really make a difference with my monthly grocery budget. I am not a fan of discount cards, customer loyalty programs, etc., but I go along with them, as I am not willing to pay a higher price for the same products because I would prefer not to participate.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I don't want to pay extra to avoid using the loyalty cards either, therefore for the most part I avoid shopping at places that have loyalty cards :D

[RCWRTR]

I wish I could do the same, ApatheticNoMore, but I have very few, if any, alternatives that are affordable where I currently live.

[jp1]

The thing that annoys me about safeway is that they don't have a keychain sized card. So I cut mine down to just the barcode and drilled a hole in it. I never filled out the paperwork for the card, so they only know what Person X has bought, not what I specifically have bought, and when I checkout the clerk isn't able to address me by name.

When we lived in NYC we always flew jetblue. Over the years I had several free flights from them. Now we don't fly as much and haven't flown jetblue in over a year.

[Jemima]

I like the Rite Aid Wellness+ program and Amazon VISA. Right now I have five dollars worth of Rite Aid coupons that I plan to use for basics like TP. They accept the coupons for sale items, and as a loyal customer, I now get 20% off of everything except prescriptions, tobacco products, stamps, and items that are already 20% or more off. The incentives certainly work for me. I only go to CVS for a calcium supplement Rite Aid doesn't make in generic version, and I throw out Walgreen's ads without looking at them.

Amazon issues twenty-five dollar gift certificates for 2500 points, usually one for each dollar spent, but there are sometimes promotions with two or three points per dollar on items purchased on the Amazon web site. I've gotten lots of free books and kitchen items this way.

With the exceptions of Aldi and Trader Joe, every grocery store within a reasonable driving distance has a customer loyalty card, and there's no point in passing up their bargains anyway, IMO. The grocery store cards seem to be more geared to figuring out what customers will buy than doing any snooping on an individual basis. I must say though that Safeway's practice of having cashiers use my name gave me the creeps. They are now closed, and good riddance.