Did you know that if you collect airline loyalty rewards, that you can also donate them?
As of 2017, Canadians are sitting on $16 billion worth of unused loyalty reward points, including travel reward points, according to a report by Bond Brand Loyalty.
If you’re the one-in-four consumer guilty of collecting reward points and not using them (I certainly am), consider donating your travel reward points instead. Your donation can help reunite families over the holidays.
This year, Flight Centre and Give a Mile partnered to do exactly that.
Give a Mile is a not-for-profit charity that enables people to visit terminally ill friends and family with the help of crowdfunded travel loyalty reward points. Give a Mile accepts Aeroplan Miles, American Express points, Air Miles cash rewards, plus 12 other reward programs, and of course, cash donations.
The Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG) is Give a Mile’s 2017 Christmas campaign sponsor. The goal is to raise enough points for 50 flights to help 50 families. So far, FCTG has raised 14 flights. One flight is the equivalent of 25,000 points.
FCM Travel Solutions (FCTG’s corporate travel business) recently raised enough points to reunite a father and his son with family in England. Mark was diagnosed with stage four terminal cancer in October 2016. 60 years old at the time, he was given six-to-24 months to live. At the end of 2016, he was laid off from his job. Mark’s wife had passed away three years prior leaving him with his only family – his son who lives in Calgary. The flight, organized and crowdfunded by FCM Travel Solutions, gave Mark a last chance to visit home, see his family, show his son where his father spent his childhood, and travel together one last time.
Corporate Traveller Calgary (FCTG’s business travel group) has committed to doing the same for another family. CT Calgary’s goal is to raise 25,000 points to donate one flight to a family impacted by terminal illness. They’re currently at 7,000. (To help CT reach their goal, reach out on the CT Calgary Give a Mile page, or e-mail info@giveamile.org!)
Give a Mile donates 100% of the points directly to the funding of flights. FCTG has committed to pay the equivalent of all taxes and administration fees on all flights that Give a Mile provides over the duration of the Christmas campaign.
Be a flight hero to someone in their greatest time of need and fly someone home for the holidays. To help CT Calgary raise points reach out on the CT Calgary Give a Mile page, or e-mail info@giveamile.org.