Petro Points Rewards: Are They Worth It?

The Skinny

Petro Canada has a loyalty program called Petro Points. If filling up at Petro Canada, always swipe the Petro Points card.

Regular members filling up regular gas can earn a return of 0.50% – 0.75%  on all gas spending.

• CAA Members who link their Petro Points and CAA accounts earn 20% more
• Buying more gas gets monthly bonus points
• Buying higher grades of gas can earn a better return

All purchases at Petro Canada earn Petro Points

• Regular gas earns 5 Petro Points / L
• Plus gas earns 7 Petro Points / L
• Ultra gas earns 10 Petro Points / L
• Car washes and convenience store items earn 20 Petro Points / $

Petro Points can be used towards many items:

• Car washes – best redemption value
• Fuel Savings
  • Fuel savings Rewards Cards are better than gas gift cards

• Retail gift cards
• CAA Membership

These are the redemption values:

Overview

Petro Canada is one of Canada’s major national gas bars. Petro Canada has an associated loyalty program called Petro Points. CIBC Offers a credit card which discounts purchases at Petro Canada.  This article and infographic below focuses on the Petro Points program only.

Earning

Every purchase at Petro Canada will earn Petro Points. The higher margin items earn more points. Gas earning is dependent on the grade of gas purchased.

Something to note is that most programs use a point value in the range near 1 point =  ½¢ – 1¢ . Petro Points use point values in the 10 points =  ½¢ – 1¢ range.

Monthly Bonuses

Each month, Petro Canada will reward you for buying a certain number of Litres from them.

• 1000 Petro Points for buying 250 Litres in a month
• 750 Petro Points for buying 150 – 249 Litres in a month

Earning Extra Petro Points through CAA

In Ontario, Petro Canada and CAA have joined forces and now CAA members who link their membership number to their Petro Points card will earn an extra 20% Petro Points on every purchase at Petro Canada. This is a very easy way to increase the return you get from Petro Canada, if you are already a CAA member.

Valuing Petro Points

Petro points have a value of 10 points = 0.9¢ of value. This is based on redeeming for gas discounts. Most people who are filling up gas will obviously value gas discounts as a natural use of points. Gas discounts  make a reasonable proxy for valuation of gas loyalty points. Redemptions such as car washes are going to get better value, however.

Redeeming Points

There are many ways to redeem Petro Points, including gas or car washes, retail purchases and transferring to other loyalty programs.

Car Washes

The best use of Petro Points is going to be for car washes. Redeeming for car washes can give you a value of 10 Petro Points = 1.4¢ or more.

There are a few different kinds of car washes at Petro Canada. The type of car wash you buy will depend on what is available at your local station. There are 2 types of car washes: “Super Works / Super Wash” and “Glide”. You can read more about them here.

The higher level car washes (Super Works / Super Wash and Glide for Auto Lovers) can be bought in bulk through initial cards or online reloads. For analysis purposes, I have included those options in the valuation. For people who buy bulk car washes, the value of each car wash is less than for those who purchase car washes one at a time.

Here are the car wash redemption options and my observed retail price.

Paying for car washes would normally earn more Petro Points. When redeeming Petro Points for car washes, those points are no longer earned. The above analysis incorporates those “unearned” points as a cost of redemption.

Fuel Savings

If you already have a clean car, you can use Petro Points for discounts on gas. There are 2 redemption options here:

• Fuel Savings Rewards Cards – offer best discount
• Gas Rewards
• Gas Gift Cards

It is important to note that the amount that si discounted would normally earn more Petro Points, but due to the discount, those points are no longer earned. When doing an anlysis it is important to bear those “unearned” points as a cost of redemption. In the case of the gas discounts, the “unearned points” are relatively insignificant and have been excluded from the calculation for simplicity.

Fuel Savings Rewards Cards

Fuel Savings Rewards cards offer the best discount on gas by offering a fixed ¢/L discount on a maximum number of Litres filled. Petro Points can be used to buy base cards or to reload existing cards, with reloads offering a discount over initial cards. There are 2 denominations that can be bought using Petro Points. From the perspecitive of maximizing point value, both options are equally good, with reloads being favored over the purchase of new cards.

Here are the redemption values of the Fuel Savings Cards:

Note that the Fuel Savings Reward card works exactly the same as the Preferred Price gift card. The Fuel Savings Reward is simply priced significantly cheaper.

Gas Gift Cards & Gas Rewards

Gas gift cards can also be purchased with Petro Points. I think that these are going to be poor value when compared to Fuel Savings Rewards cards. While the Fuel Savings Cards spread the discount over many Litres, the gift cards and gas rewards allow the discount to be taken in a single transaction. That benefit to the customer comes with a cost though.

Gas Rewards work just like gift cards and can be used to offset a fixed amount off a gas purchase. Fuel Savings cards and Gas Gift cards must be ordered in advance, while Gas Rewards give the discount instantaneously.

Since Petro Canada gift cards and Gas Rewards can both be redeemed in store, the only real advantage to the Gas Rewards is the small denominations.

Convenience Store Rewards

Convenience Store Rewards offer a poor redemption value. When redeeming for convenience store items, the value works out to be the same as the Gas Rewards discussed above.

2000 Petro Points = $1 Convenience Store Discount

Retail

Petro Points can also be used for retail store gift cards. There is a wide selection of stores and all of them have the same value, regardless of store or denomination.

10,000 Petro Points = $5 gift card

The list of stores is long and denominations vary. Best Buy is the only store that gives a better discount than that.

Best Buy

Best Buy Canada has a special discount using Petro Points. Purchasing e-gift cards can be a significant savings over purchasing a regular gift card, if you are interested in buying things from Best Buy (Canada).

CAA Membership / CAA Dollars

CAA Membership and CAA Dollars can also be purchased with Petro Points. This is a great use of Petro Points if you can accrue that many. The problem is that it would take the average person several years to buy a membership.

An annual membership normally costs $70 (in Southern Ontario), and can be purchased for 60,000 Petro Points.

Petro Points can also be used to redeem for CAA Dollars, which can be used on anything that CAA sells, assuming you have a membership. My favorite redemption is Cineplex Movie Theater passes as I discuss here. Petro Points have a very valuable redemption rate at CAA.

1000 Petro Points = $1 CAA Dollars

Asia Miles Transfers

Petro Points can also be transferred to Cathay Pacific’s Asia Miles program. For people looking to build up a balance of Asia Miles, this can help. The rate of exchange is:

10,000 Petro Points = 1000 Asia Miles

Asia miles can be used for flights on OneWorld partner airlines. Most Canadians looking to redeem points for flights on OneWorld airlines would likely do much better earning British Airways Avios or American Airlines AAdvantage points instead.

Summary

Petro Points have their best value for car washes and fuel savings cards. Car washes return between 1c and 2c for 10 Petro Points.

Fuel savings are best done through Fuel Savings Rewards cards. Avoid gas gift cards if this is what you are after.

CAA Membership and CAA Dollars are good uses as well.

Retail gift cards and convenience store discounts tend to be poor redemptions.