Every Friday CTV Consumer Reporter Lynda Steele dips into the mailbag and answers a handful of viewer questions.
A viewer named June contacted us after she tried to redeem 30,000 Aeroplan points on a flight, only to find out that her points were no longer valid. She was told her card had been inactive for too long. She wants to know if this is common among reward point cards.
In fact, many airline reward points do have expiry dates. For example, American Airlines reward miles expire after 18 months of inactivity on the account and Asia miles, which includes airlines like Cathay and Air China, also expire after a period of inactivity.
With Aeroplan, your card needs to be used every 12 months to ensure your points remain active. But you don't need to fly to make sure your card remains in good status, you just have to use it at a business that gives Aeroplan points. For example, you could buy gas at Esso or make a purchase at Rexall or Thriftys. For a full list of Aeroplan members you can log onto their website.
We've also received three emails from viewers asking questions about Canadian Tire's return policy. The customers had trouble getting their money back after returning items that were either defective or unsuitable after the box was opened. So we asked Canadian Tire for clarification on its return policy.
The company told us that an item can be returned if it's in "its original state", which means it is unopened. You can't open a product, use it and then decide you don't want it. But if the item is defective, Canadian Tire says you can get a full refund. That wasn't the case for one of our viewers, who insists he was not able to get a refund for a defective product.
Johnny claims he bought a defective bread maker. He says he was told he could only get an exchange, not a refund, because the item had been used. That would appear to be in contravention of the company's own refund policy.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Lynda Steele
