Air Miles Canada may have thought abandoning its unpopular expiration policy would calm the cardholder backlash from those who rushed to spend miles, but were frustrated by full flights, sold out merchandise, and long customer service delays. In fact, many fans of the popular loyalty rewards program are still fuming mad.

The fast-approaching Jan. 1, 2017 deadline, when points older than five years would have disappeared, saw many Air Miles collectors rush to snap up items they didn’t really want or need. And, now that Air Miles has revoked the expiry policy, many are feeling buyer’s remorse.

Air Miles’ parent company, LoyaltyOne, announced it was backing away from its policy to eliminate unused miles older than five years on Thursday. The company said feedback from collectors and proposed legislation aimed at banning companies from expiring loyalty points led to the decision.

Frank Lecoeur of Etobicoke, Ont. waited four hours to speak with an Air Miles supervisor about a refund for the Bluetooth speaker he bought ahead of the Jan. 1, 2017 expiry deadline. The company representative made no promises, but suggested that Lecoeur may not be completely out of luck.

“Allow me to look into this further for you. I can see if we have any options available,” the representative said after Lecoeur mentioned that he was voicing his frustration to CTV News.

Air Miles Canada's Twitter account told customers on Thursday, that the company would not reimburse collectors who used their points to avoid having them expire; saying no returns, cancellations or exchanges would be accepted for rewards that have been booked.

Gregg Baxter has been a loyal Air Miles collector since the rewards program launched in 1992. He’s collected thousands of points and cashed them in for trips to Las Vegas and Florida, a laptop computer, and a TV/DVD combo set. He’s angry the company is unwilling to return the miles he spent with the assumption that they would otherwise be lost.

“Now (I’ve got) this bloody comforter,” he told CTV Winnipeg. “I just spent 2,700 hundred (reward miles) last week for a comforter that I don’t even need.”

David Helm of Red Deer, Alta. isn’t waiting to see if Air Miles will buckle under pressure to honour requests for refunds. He’s filed a class action lawsuit against the company.

“I am satisfied that they have changed their policy somewhat,” he said. “That doesn’t make up the damage that they’ve caused.”

While Air Miles’ decision to backtrack on its expiry policy appears to be a win for consumers, the victory may be short lived as the company looks to shore up lost revenue.

“Air Miles is going to increase the number of miles it takes to redeem a particular product or service,” said Corey Phelps, an associate professor of strategy and organization at McGill University.

Air Miles boasts 11 million active cardholders. The company says collectors have amassed more than $2 billion in points over the past four years.

With files from CTV Winnipeg and CTV News’ Vanessa Lee