Banking has never been so rewarding for Josephine Chow.

Last week, the Vancouver resident won 8,888 air miles in a contest held by BMO Bank of Montreal.

"I’m extremely excited," she said. "The Year of the Rat must be my lucky year."

A select number of BMO branches in the Metro Vancouver and Greater Toronto areas that support Canada’s growing Asian community offered the chance to win the air miles — enough for a round trip flight to the 2008 Olymipics host, Beijing.

Chow would be thrilled to visit China, or anywhere in Asia for that matter, but says she’s used up all her vacation time at B.C. Cancer Hospital, where she has worked as a pharmacy technician for the past seven years.

"I’ve already used all of my vacation time at work," she said glumly. "I’m hoping to go somewhere in Asia though."

The contest, which ran for a month between Feb 2 and March 7, was held in celebration of the Chinese New Year and the Year of the Rat.

"BMO has a long history of supporting Canada’s Chinese community, which represents over one million people across the country," said Srini Iyengar, director of Asian Markets at BMO. "This contest was another way for us to reward our customers for their business and is an exciting way to celebrate the Year of the Rat — a time of hard work, activity and renewal."

Chow, who has been banking with BMO for 10 years, hopes she will have someone to go to Asia with once she’s able to take time off.

Unfortunately though, BMO only provides the air miles, and not a companion.

"I was hoping that if I won the air miles, some hot guys would start calling me after they heard my story in the paper," she laughed.