Rewards Catalog is Horrible!

[mi4090]

Hello Rewards Warriors

Have you noticed the catalog is horrible?  Everything is for sale with very small discounts, and many offers for only the East coast.

Sunglass Hut card for $20, and there cheapest shades start at $49.50 plus shipping😢

What would you like to see in the catalog?

Have a Blessed Day

Marylin

[karmc1]

How do we know how many of our points are about to expire? Looking at transaction history does no good unless we add up all the points over the 12 month previous, which would be ridiculously laborious.

Is there really no other way to find this out?

[shamit]

When you click on the transaction history you will see a red box that says Earned Points with an arrow.  Click on it and you will see the drop down options.  One of them is for points expiration.  Click on it and it will tell you how many points that will be expiring each month from January 1, 2021 to June 1, 2021.

[karmc1]

Oh, thanks very much! I should have looked more carefully, as I was sure it couldn't be the case that there was no way to tell. Normally I'm very observant, but I was distracted by bad news that came not long before I tried to check which points were expiring. Thanks again for clearing that up.

[RobRay60]

I received an email this week I have 32,000+ points expiring on Jan 01. Please direct me to the rewards I can redeem these points for! I see nothing but sweepstakes and “sold out” GCs on the Redeem page. Where are the products I can use this many points on? I read the catalog doesn’t refresh until the 1st and when it does it sells out immediately, is that true? What are these new brands you are referring to? 

[HokiePoq]

@RobRay60   Unfortunately the only easily accessible ways to spend are those you listed:  instant wins with very low chance of winning, sweepstakes, and purchasing gift cards (which I don't recommend except for the 50% off deals this week.)   Be sure to be on the site right before noon in case you want the one offered today.   Otherwise,  cards for points are posted, at most one per day and sometimes not that, at random times.   Last month when I missed the ones that came on in the middle of the night EST, I checked pretty much every hour I was home until I got my three redemptions.   Not an easy way to get value.  Be sure to check out the local deals in case there are some in your area you can use.  I did get $7 off at a local restaurant and used that last week.  I was waiting for the first person to come on with this issue.  I am sure you are not alone.   Getting value from this program is a time consuming venture.  It's possible but not easy.  We can hope that something will be posted in addition to this since points are expiring and many did not realize that until receiving the latest email about it.

[HokiePoq]

I live on the east coast.     There's nothing for me this month either.   It's not geographical bias on the part of AARP.   It's whoever gives the company that runs the program a deal. (Does anyone know where that company is headquartered?  Maybe some of the ones I haven't heard of are located there.)    I agree that some of them are pretty limited areas, in areas the majority of us do not go.    For several months there were very nice offers (I missed that Darden one, drat!).    This month the more generous offers are for digital services I don't want, the golf catalog....I don't golf...and the pet catalogs (no pets).    I keep checking just in case.  Best for me offer so far is $5 IHOP.  However we are not close to one and I would not get a takeout from there.  It would be cold by the time I got home.   It's probably gone now anyway.  And $15 is not worth the time I've spent on the program.   I like that we can donate to the AARP Foundation,   With points expiring it's not much incentive to spend the hour or more it takes to get 7500 points.  I do enjoy the new crosswords and new quizzes and will continue to do them.

[a170938b]

And continuing my previous post, if I am going to wish, let me wish for Petsmart cards ($5 or $10 would be great); Petsmart has the brands my cats will accept (finicky little things!).

[a170938b]

I agree with both of you that the Rewards Catalog is horrible. 
I would like to see more Walmart, Target, Amazon, CVS, Walgreens, for points only or with a useful discount (In Rewards for Good, we could sometimes obtain one of those cards ($10) at 50% discount);

The grocery cards that are showing up recently are not useable where I live. If AARP is so partial to a location without regards for members not living there, I would then suggest HEB (Texas). Kroger would also be great.

Though I do not eat out, I did enjoy the Panera cards while they lasted as I used them to buy their bakery products. It is a shame that they have disappeared.

[andrewtoo]

@mi4090 

The points only offerings are a drag.  I'm not interested in adding new accounts for steaming video channels that I already have through Prime Video.  Hulu offerings are not worth the trouble, if I can get something else of any value.  I suppose a $25 Netflix card would be nice, but, other than that, I have found a few points-only offers that I liked.

The $25 Panera Bread, later to become a $20 Panera card card was nice.  The $20 Longhorn cards were good as long as 3 cards were available for redemption.  I plan on using the Longhorn cards soon (the actual card was for Darden restaurants (Including Longhorn, Olive Garden, Cheddar's, etc.).  It is a useful card to me.  The $10 Target card I had gotten two months in a row, so, I have $60 to spend when I finally decide on something to buy there.  Target is not cheap, but, I'll find something because of the wide variety of items for sale.

I really would like to see points-only ($10+) Amazon cards, Walmart, Pharmacy and, Gas cards.

Just my two cents.  The Catalog looks terrible right now.  I'm hoping for better.

Thanks!

[al45009948]

what's up with that? What are we supposed to do with the Rewards Points we accumulate ? If I could afford to pay for a gift card, I would go to the website. Most of us are bearly surviving as it is. AARP Rewards Program is going down hill

 Everyday while I'm watching a video a feedback ad comes up. What's the sense if they're not fixing the problems they have. Have a blessed day everyone