MilesBuzz! - Where to buy 500,000 AA,BA,UA miles?

I would like to accumulate several hundred thousand to a million miles (not necessarily elite qualifying) on AA, BA or UA over the next 6 months.

The reason is that I want to use them for award travel trans-atlantic and trans-pacific in premium classes.

I am willing to pay up to $0.015 per mile, and have ample cashflow (i.e. if stuff invloves repeatedly depositing and withdrawing large amounts into a bank with a special offer, that's fine)

Are there places I get pay a penny or so per mile, for a large quantity? If not, how much should I be looking to pay?

Thank you!

Keep in mind that in all the programs that I know of you can't technically barter miles, so besides ebay or anyone that sells them privately, I can't think of anywhere that miles can be purchased in large rates.

You can buy from several individual's accounts.
DL and UA charges between $25-$75 per transfer and 1cent per mile. Right now, the cheapest way to do it is to purchase the DL coke rewards miles on Ebay. Which is going for 1.9 to 2.1 cents per mile. Everything is in electronic miles so, there isn't any transfer fees.

Or try the coupon connections in couple more posts. Maybe someone has 500k floating around somewhere..

Thanks for the replies so far. I'm not really looking to "buy" miles, more looking for programs like the cheese-buying ones, etc which may be useful.

Most airlines will sell some miles with a cap (usually around 20,000 miles) so you are out of luck there.

You could start up your own business, and give yourself unlimited miles via the AA business program (https://www.orderaamiles.com/orderAAmiles.jsp). BUT the cost is 2.5 cents+ per mile. - again won't meet your criteria.

Third, people have talked about getting merchant accounts and running money through there (downside is cheapest account will probably cost you around 2-3 cents per mile. - again not so good.

Fourth, you could be a professional buyer. Purchase things with a credit card, and sell them - you could even sell at a 1.5% loss, and come up with your miles. However, $500,000 is quite a bit of merchandise to sell.

With all the work and effort it would require, you might be better off just buying the tickets you want from a consolidator....

With a 1.5 cent per mile cap, I do not see how you can do that.

William

You have to wait for some company to put out an ill-advised promotion. It has happened before, and it's bound to happen again. In a very recent promotion, you could have gotten 500,000 miles for just over 1cpm by placing 2,700 orders for prints from Shutterfly (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=672309).

It'll take 4.5 years, but you can get 300 miles a day for $4.50 through www.obopay.com.

Thanks for the replies so far. I'm not really looking to "buy" miles, more looking for programs like the cheese-buying ones, etc which may be useful.

Ehm, then I suggest reconsidering the title of your thread :) It's pretty clear, at least to me.

Well straight out purchasing would be fine too, I just wasn't sure if there would be any opportunities to do that for such large amounts of miles.

Basically, many, many FTers would jump on such an oppurtunity if it arose - from a company into one's own account - not from an individual.

Whenever one comes along, it is much discussed and taken advantage of. Check all forums atleast once a week, and oppurtunities will arrise in various programs from time to time.

Your post also violates FT T&Cs.

Your post also violates FT T&Cs.

How so? (I'm relatively new to FT)

Go buy yourself a couple of Aston Martins on your credit card then immediately resell them. At least drive them a few miles... Some credit cards have caps unless you're elite.. and I don't know of many dealers who want to pay the credit card fee unless you up the sales price.

I really just want an Aston Martin.. :(

How so? (I'm relatively new to FT)

Assuming your post #10 refers to buying the miles from someone other than the airline, it is not allowed. It has already been made clear you cannot buy than many miles from UA.

Buying someone's miles (paying them to book awards for you) is not a topic allowed for discussion on FT and violates UA's terms and conditions.

Your post #1 mentions a promotion where you were not buying miles at all, but buying a product from a company and getting miles in the process. If such an opportunity is known right now at 1.5 cents/mile or less for large quantities of miles, and the FTer(s) who know are willing to post about it, they would have. Such opportunities are gold sought after by many FTers here, including myself. Posting such an oppurtunity would be quick way to make lots of FT freinds!!! It would also, however, severly shorten the longevity of the oppurtunity as people flock to take advantage.

Your question is not quite the same, but it is almost like asking, "Where can I pay $600 for a $750 money order?"

Most airlines will sell some miles with a cap (usually around 20,000 miles) so you are out of luck there.

You could start up your own business, and give yourself unlimited miles via the AA business program (https://www.orderaamiles.com/orderAAmiles.jsp). BUT the cost is 2.5 cents+ per mile. - again won't meet your criteria.

Third, people have talked about getting merchant accounts and running money through there (downside is cheapest account will probably cost you around 2-3 cents per mile. - again not so good.

Fourth, you could be a professional buyer. Purchase things with a credit card, and sell them - you could even sell at a 1.5% loss, and come up with your miles. However, $500,000 is quite a bit of merchandise to sell.
Actually, the AA program says:

In no event will Company provide more than (i) 35,000 AAdvantage® Miles to an individual Employee, Customer or Donor during any 12-month period if Company is a U.S. entity or (ii) 60,000 AAdvantage® Miles to an individual Employee, Customer or Donor during any 12-month period if Company is a non-U.S. entity, unless an alternative mileage cap is agreed to by American.

Just in case anyone was thinking about that.

You are on the right place to get the maximum amount of miles (within the rules of each program). However, you seem to have very unrealistic expectations. This was already indicated by several posters (perhaps in different terms).

Thanks for the replies so far. I'm not really looking to "buy" miles, more looking for programs like the cheese-buying ones, etc which may be useful.

Let's try to keep the conversation going for now, based upon nigel's statement in this posting.

I would like to accumulate ...miles.. over the next 6 months....to use them for award travel trans-atlantic and trans-pacific in premium classes.

I ...have ample cashflow...!
To get 500K miles from any airline in 6 months without flying, that's really an ambitious goal.

You mentioned you would use the miles to get award tickets for international trips and money seems not an issue. If you have the money, why not just buy the tickets? :confused:

You will also earn miles from your paid tickets!!:p

In reality this type of transaction goes on all the time.

People are much more cost conscious these days and often have a great degree of autonomy to source business purchases, including flights, as cheaply as possible with their company's blessing.

Given the need for people to travel long distances, sleep onboard ( if possible ) and still be able to function with some degree of normalcy on arrival, this fuels the requirement for premium cabins.

I know any number of people, officiating at the highest levels of their companies, and this is their preferred operandus modii. These people do not spend their leisure time collecting labels from soda promotions.

For those who get upset about these things, my post is not intended to either approve or disapprove of the practice - it is a simple acknowledgment of what happens in the real world.

Hi Nigelloring....

I think most of us would love 500k miles.. but you seem to be aiming a little high in my opinion... and without trying to sound rude or start an argument with you, you also contradict yourself:


The reason is that I want to use them for award travel trans-atlantic and trans-pacific in premium classes.
I am willing to pay up to $0.015 per mile, and have ample cashflow

You have ample cashflow but cannot buy the premium classes you wish to travel? Sounds a bit weird to me...

However, why not buy some RTW tickets in business class then? You should be able to make some nice trips AND get airmiles ^ ... or buy well in advance for the business class tickets to get the cheapest deals on them and stick to one alliance so you can also earn bonus miles easier too.. and your miles will be kept all in one nice little basket :)

Certain programmes allow mile earnings on foreign exchange transactions - one avenue to look into if you can juggle buy and sell rates to your best advantage, others here shall have more experience of this and it's cost per mile although you probably run the risk of being investigated for money laundering.

right the OP did NOT say he wants to buy from someone, he suggested he wants to find something like idine or some promo where he can SPEND to EARN miles.

500k miles @ $0.015 =$7500
As I understand the OP wants (looks like) 4 TATL or TPAC F tix.
Whether you have lots of money or not, $7500 for 4 F tix beats the %&*# out of the cost of 4 in cash.

It'll take 4.5 years, but you can get 300 miles a day for $4.50 through www.obopay.com.How do you get 300 miles? In what program? I searched for obopay, but only saw the cash referral bonus.

500k miles @ $0.015 =$7500
As I understand the OP wants (looks like) 4 TATL or TPAC F tix.
Whether you have lots of money or not, $7500 for 4 F tix beats the %&*# out of the cost of 4 in cash.

Bingo! Plus I enjoy the idea of getting enormous edge on transactions I would normally have done anyway.

If such an opportunity is known right now at 1.5 cents/mile or less for large quantities of miles, and the FTer(s) who know are willing to post about it, they would have.

OK, many people have said 1.5 cents/mile is clearly unrealistic. So what if I am willing to pay 3 cents a mile?

Any promotions/creative solutions out there?

Lets see....

first you can get 120,000 AAdvantage miles in 6 months by churning their 2 credit cards (consumer and business). You can get the 20,000 miles bonus for each card if you sign up every 60 days and make a $1 purchase. This is assuming that you have good credit and you will be approved for the CC's

From there you can use your imagination

and then fill two bank accounts with 100k each and get 120,000 miles in
six months..cost of lost interest for someone in top tax bracket is
about 2.5 cents per mile

You can purchase 100000 Starpoints for 3,500 dollars - transfer them for 125000 miles in one calendar year.

At the moment, Vanguard's NY tax-free money market is yielding 3.6%. On $100,000, that $3,600/year after tax. $100,000 could also earn 120,000 miles. That's $0.03 per mile. $400,000 for a year almost gets you to 500,000 miles.

AA will sell you 40,000/year at $0.025, but that's not nearly enough.

You can pay taxes with a mile earning credit card for a 2.5% fee. Some cards give double miles, although those promotions may have ended.

How do you purchase starpoints?

How do you purchase starpoints?

Starwood Hotels preferred guest programme.

If you pay your taxes with a United credit card you can essentially buy miles for 1.25 cents per mile. The fee is 2.49%, but you are given double miles. I believe this promotion runs with some other programs as well.

Starwood Hotels preferred guest programme.

That much I figured out. Where's the link on spg.com?

Over your limit of 1.5 cents, but there appears to be no limit on buying AS miles at 2.5 cents per. AS miles will let you fly BA, AA, CX.

OTOH, if you are redeeming for BA CW, then buying BA WT+ and MFUing will likely get you TATL CW seats for about the same $ as "buying" miles for a CW award, if you take into account the taxes/fees on a straight award seat. That will also earn you miles to spend against the transpacs.

That much I figured out. Where's the link on spg.com?

https://starwood.mpmvp.com/buy.asp

3 cents per mile as OP's new price. would this scheme work:

set up a premiere paypal account;
apply some miles credit cards;
charge those credit cards to fund the paypal account, cost is about 2.9%;
fund your checking account from your paypal account and pay credit cards;

After first month, you should be qualified for business paypal, which give you a cost of 1.9%-%2.5.

continue with above steps as long your cashflow permits.

Assuming you have 50K credit card credits and you can churn twice a month, in 5 month you can reach goal, 50Kx2x5=500K miles.

I dont know if it will work but believe it should. Yout average cost per mile is about 2-3 cents.

and then fill two bank accounts with 100k each and get 120,000 miles in
six months..cost of lost interest for someone in top tax bracket is
about 2.5 cents per mile

Which bank accounts? Do you have a link, please?

3 cents per mile as OP's new price. would this scheme work:

set up a premiere paypal account;
apply some miles credit cards;
charge those credit cards to fund the paypal account, cost is about 2.9%;
fund your checking account from your paypal account and pay credit cards;

After first month, you should be qualified for business paypal, which give you a cost of 1.9%-%2.5.

continue with above steps as long your cashflow permits.

Assuming you have 50K credit card credits and you can churn twice a month, in 5 month you can reach goal, 50Kx2x5=500K miles.

I dont know if it will work but believe it should. Yout average cost per mile is about 2-3 cents.

I guess this is against the rules of paypal. They do not let you use paypal account to get advance cash from credit cards. It may work once but for this many transactions? i don't know!

https://starwood.mpmvp.com/buy.asp

Thank you

Which bank accounts? Do you have a link, please?

www.bankdirect.com

I wanted to start a small events and biking travel business once. Would need to bring like 8 people overseas to a certain bike tour event... I had a friend who traveled extensively for business and had ammassed something to the tune of 600k miles on one of the major carriers. She had no real use for them because she was sick of travel. I offered to do this: She books the people's tickets with miles, then I can give them a discounted rate of the whole tour package. I give her a significant amount of coin for this, but still come out making something on it and saving everyone money while undercutting the competition from other similar tour orgs.

Well I had like 3 people signed up and wanted to get a few more in before I asked her to start giving our awards but they through a war in our face and it scared off all my potentially international customers. Oh well, perhaps the airlines were involved in order to prevent me from doing one of their taboos, which we totally would have gotten away with. :D

Could be a good idea still, though, eh?

As for deals and gigs that involve huge amounts of miles at a low rate, you need to look into reloadable gift cards and funding things that take a CC whereas you can get the cash back later. For example, if you, say, paid everyone's condo fees in your condo complex with your US Bank Visa, for example, each resident can give you a check later and you'd get the miles by paying the condo association by credit card if they take them! Stuff like that.

Stand out front of Home Depot. Offer to buy all those cash-paying contractors bills if they write YOU the checks instead. Give them a few bucks off as inccentive :D

http://www.bank.guarantygroup.com/personal/checking/airmiles.asp

http://www.bank.guarantygroup.com/personal/checking/airmiles.asp

these accounts dont earn interest, but you get miles. Ah the age old question... miles or money.

Anyway, I was reading the terms. If I placed 100grand in there for 3+ months... Well, That's a heck of a lot of "free" miles! Do ya think it's worth it?

people are treating this as if it's a serious inquiry. I have great difficulty believing --given the difficulty of flying free flights and upgrades--that this question is real or the thought realistic.

I doubt the cost of acquiring the 500,000 miles in a short time would be worth it. I suspect the premium you pay would be high and then--especially without status--you'd have trouble doing upgrades which even WITH high status are often hard to find.

these accounts dont earn interest, but you get miles. Ah the age old question... miles or money.

Anyway, I was reading the terms. If I placed 100grand in there for 3+ months... Well, That's a heck of a lot of "free" miles! Do ya think it's worth it?

This 1 mile per 10$ average balance thing, is it every month or every 3 months or what? i didn;t see in details how often you get these miles?

people are treating this as if it's a serious inquiry. I have great difficulty believing --given the difficulty of flying free flights and upgrades--that this question is real or the thought realistic.

I doubt the cost of acquiring the 500,000 miles in a short time would be worth it. I suspect the premium you pay would be high and then--especially without status--you'd have trouble doing upgrades which even WITH high status are often hard to find.

It is a serious inquiry. I travel ORD-LHR-ORD J or F very frequently, and may be doing frequent ORD-PER trips too.

I recently booked a half-F half-J class AA partner award from ORD-LAX-MEL-PER-(stopover)-SYD-LAX-ORD for only 145,000 miles, and it dawned on me that at 2 cents per mile, this was great value at $2900.

And yes, if I hadn't been able to get a premium class award or upgrade, I would've paid for J with cash.

it is of value, if you can get it.

My problem is believing that you will be able to get the upgrades or free flights on a regular enough basis to make it worth incurring the cost as opposed to consolidators or other alternatives.

it is of value, if you can get it.

My problem is believing that you will be able to get the upgrades or free flights on a regular enough basis to make it worth incurring the cost as opposed to consolidators or other alternatives.
Good point! I was thinking about the same thing.

Even if OP did accumulate the 500K miles he needed in the next 6 months, would the F (or C) award tickets be available for booking then? I know that award tickets in premium cabin for trans-atlantic and trans-pacific routes are harder to get than getting economy seats.

Since you have to spend money anyway, buying the tickets will give OP much more flexibilities.

http://www.bank.guarantygroup.com/personal/checking/airmiles.asp
these accounts dont earn interest, but you get miles....
Not true. Guaranty Bank gives you 0.2% interest for their (AA) Airmiles Checking accounts.

I know, I know, it's like nothing. But they DO pay you interest.:p

You could buy 4 Starwood Timeshares and receive 500,000 Starpoints as an incentive and then every year convert your timeshares to 350,000 Starpoints. The 350,000 Starpoints would convert to 440,000 airline points. In addition, you would be a SPG Platinum for life.

Miles at the two banks post every month, no problems.
when interest rates were low, I used them to get lifetime
plat on AA. Hopefully, they will raise the interest rate on these accounts

I know that award tickets in premium cabin for trans-atlantic and trans-pacific routes are harder to get than getting economy seats.

In fact, in many programs, and if the OP is reasonably flexible, getting tickets would not be too difficult. In addition, even in situations where no saver seats are available, a flexible award biz ticket paid for with miles "bought" at $.01/mi would still be a lot cheaper than a regular J ticket.

You could buy 4 Starwood Timeshares and receive 500,000 Starpoints as an incentive and then every year convert your timeshares to 350,000 Starpoints. The 350,000 Starpoints would convert to 440,000 airline points. In addition, you would be a SPG Platinum for life.

Do you have a link for the Starwood Timeshares, please? I couldn't find it on www.spg.com

OK, many people have said 1.5 cents/mile is clearly unrealistic. So what if I am willing to pay 3 cents a mile?

Any promotions/creative solutions out there?


Now you are talking. You can buy unlimited American Express Membership Rewards points for 2.5 cents each, and transfer them to DL, CO and several other airlines.

... In addition, even in situations where no saver seats are available, a flexible award biz ticket paid for with miles "bought" at $.01/mi would still be a lot cheaper than a regular J ticket.
Flexible, that's the key word. I don't think OP is that flexible, requirements given:
(1) a short timeframe, just 6 months;
(2) the amount of miles, 500K miles;
(3) the cost (from $0.1/mi to $0.03/mi)

I totally agree with you a J award tickets with miles obtained at $.01/mi is very nice and much cheaper. The question is whether that's possible to "buy" up to 500K miles in the $0.01/mi ratio.

If you do know how to buy 500K miles using USD$5000 in 6 months, please do share. I am sure a whole bunch of our fellow FTers will jump in right away! :D ;)

While it's not efficient as a direct way to acquire miles for nothing else, one of the OPs comments has referred to getting miles as a bonus for things he was doing anyway. Through that, the online malls would provide you with an opportunity to earn miles on purchases that you were going to make anyway. For those users that send flowers, the floral programs can be 10-20 miles per $, which can be a nice bonus on top of a purchase they were making anyway.

While it's not efficient as a direct way to acquire miles for nothing else, one of the OPs comments has referred to getting miles as a bonus for things he was doing anyway. Through that, the online malls would provide you with an opportunity to earn miles on purchases that you were going to make anyway. For those users that send flowers, the floral programs can be 10-20 miles per $, which can be a nice bonus on top of a purchase they were making anyway.

That's a helluva lot of flowers...maybe if buy an area of the amazon forest you can get close enough...:D :D at least you save it from "development"/destruction!

Do you have a link for the Starwood Timeshares, please? I couldn't find it on www.spg.com

You can read posts at www.tug2.net (the timeshare users group). Go to Hotel Based Timeshares thread.

Also, www.starwoodvacationownership.com

If you do know how to buy 500K miles using USD$5000 in 6 months, please do share. I am sure a whole bunch of our fellow FTers will jump in right away! :D ;)

As I pointed out in post #7 (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showpost.php?p=7602643&postcount=7) above, it was possible as recently as a week ago. (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=672309), and many FTers did, indeed, jump in. In this case, getting 500k miles would have taken considerably less than 6 months; specifically about 2 days for ordering, and another 3 for points to post.

churning is free. if you use credit cards, you will spend the same amount to get the bonus as you normally would. thus, 0cents per mile. cha-ching!

You have ample cashflow but cannot buy the premium classes you wish to travel? Sounds a bit weird to me...

Cash flow is not income.

For starters, for use of your cash flow to get American Airlines miles:


The three American Airlines credit cards should get you a free 55,000 miles, plus the miles for what you spend on them.
Both Fidelity and TD Ameritrade will give you 25,000 miles each for a new account.
BankDirect offers should get you an easy 10,000 miles. More if you can refer people to it.
Union Federal Bank should get you an easy 6,000 miles, plus another 5,000 in a year.
Guaranty Bank should get you an easy 3,000 miles.
The Citibank basic debit card will get you 2,000 miles within your price limit.
The Starwood credit card offer yields 10,000 Starpoints worth 10,000 American Airlines miles immediately, or 12,500 if you wait until you have 20,000 Starpoints
The Hilton offers for its two credit cards should get you a total of 30,000 free points, enough for 4,500 miles.
The Priority Club offers for its two credit cards should get you 30,000 points, enough for 6,000 miles.
The Marriott personal and business credit card offers should get you 40,000 points, worth 12,000 miles
The Choice Privileges credit card will get you 8,000 points, worth 1,000 miles with 3,000 points left over.
The Best Western credit card will get you 10,000 free points, worth 2,000 miles


So that's a start of 161,500 miles. The naysayers will no doubt now tell you why you shouldn't do all of these. I disagree in advance.

All of the offers are listed on the appropriate pages of my website below. These are only the ones from my Finance and Credit card pages. I did not yet mention the zillions miles you may be able to get from taking out a loan on your house and paying it back very quickly. Nor did I mention the many American Airlines opportunities listed on my other pages. Click on each page (important) and do a work search on "American Airlines"

You have to wait for some company to put out an ill-advised promotion. It has happened before, and it's bound to happen again. In a very recent promotion, you could have gotten 500,000 miles for just over 1cpm by placing 2,700 orders for prints from Shutterfly (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=672309).


http://www.bountyzoo.com/about_921_Shutterfly.htm
Shutterfly is an online photo service designed to help you get film quality prints delivered right to your door.

15 FREE PRINTS on your first order
Conditions: Complete your first purchase - $9 Bounty

100, 000 points per card. Do it for yourself, your wife, your business
https://www201.americanexpress.com/sbsapply/EACQServlet?request_type=applyNow&ct=24&bos=b&eep=13335&iep=35&lpid=256


Here are 30,000 that you can add to each 100,000 without buying too much.

https://www201.americanexpress.com/sbsapply/FMACServlet?request_type=dualLandingPage&ct=22&eep=16181

I did not yet mention the zillions miles you may be able to get from taking out a loan on your house and paying it back very quickly.

Smart!^

so instead of earning interests, BankDirect and Guaranty Bank can get you up to total of 240,000 miles a year by keeping $200,000 balance in their chk accts. Would you have to pay tax on the 240k miles as income? or just paying tax on 0.25% APY ?

oops. the Search option got me an answer that the .25% interest is taxable dollars, but the Aadvantage miles are not taxed. Sorry. :D

This thread has me nervous. Promos are shared here all the time, but not organized into a strategy. Someone is likely to catch on! :( Should this thread exist? :)

I wanted to mention that iDine is pretty valuable (RewardsNetwork). steve32 earned something like 750,000 Aadvantage miles in the past year, mostly from promos I think. I think he said about 180,000 was just from iDine alone.

As I pointed out in post #7 (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showpost.php?p=7602643&postcount=7) above, it was possible as recently as a week ago. (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=672309), and many FTers did, indeed, jump in. In this case, getting 500k miles would have taken considerably less than 6 months; specifically about 2 days for ordering, and another 3 for points to post.
Yes, I am aware of that recent promo you mentioned.

It was a nice promo. If you were willing to place 2667 orders of $1.98 individually AND able to convert the points to miles in the 8/1 ratio, then it's possible to achieve OP's 500K goal. However, did you read OP's post that he intended to get the miles thru the regular way he would spend his money? I doubt any regular person who had the need of 2667 orders of photos (total cost: $5280.66+ 1 Radisson stay in the last 12 months), unless you are in the photo busines or something. I am not sure if any fellow FTer obtained 500K miles thru that promo. On top of that, I think that promo was an oversight of Goldpoints. Goldpoints figured it out and put a stop to it. From the date it was publicized here at FT (3/17/07) to the date they closed it (4/13/07), the deal was killed in less than a month! That's our FT effect!


Also thanks to pgary for the nice outline that puts together our scattered discussion of "FT Miles Brewing Business." :D ;) I agree for any mile-conscious FTer, a visit to Gary's site is a must!!^

This thread has me nervous. Promos are shared here all the time, but not organized into a strategy. Someone is likely to catch on! :( Should this thread exist? :) .
Yes, I feel the same way. Maybe our MOD should lock it before all of miles-earning fun is taken way? :p

This thread has me nervous. Promos are shared here all the time, but not organized into a strategy. Someone is likely to catch on! :( Should this thread exist? :)

I wanted to mention that iDine is pretty valuable (RewardsNetwork). steve32 earned something like 750,000 Aadvantage miles in the past year, mostly from promos I think. I think he said about 180,000 was just from iDine alone.

yes but now, is steve32 like wicked huge from eatin so much that he needs to buy TWO seats to fly and thusly, his miles are worth half? :D:D:D:D:D

anyway, in all seriousness, my opinion is that all deals, gigs, tricks, tips and promos have a life cycle and share or not, they will complete that cycle. I mean, in another sense, just look at airline phone systems. They change like every month now and we have to go figure out the best ways to keep up and little tricks to just get to a live agent! (elite members can brag here about how they "have never had a problem with this and always get right through":rolleyes:)

CHANGE is the only constant!

ROLL WITH IT

:)MM

However, did you read OP's post that he intended to get the miles thru the regular way he would spend his money?

I'm thinking that's excatly what the OP described in post #4 (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showpost.php?p=7602474&postcount=4) (he mentions cheese-buying).

I am not sure if any fellow FTer obtained 500K miles thru that promo.

There are several. One person was going for 10 million Goldpoints. (There is no need to transfer points through Radisson's own program, btw.)

On top of that, I think that promo was an oversight of Goldpoints.

Aren't all these promos oversights?

Goldpoints figured it out and put a stop to it. From the date it was publicized here at FT (3/17/07) to the date they closed it (4/13/07), the deal was killed in less than a month! That's our FT effect!

I'd say that this promo stayed alive for a ridiculously long amount of time. In the beginning, I was convinced they'd figure it out after a day or two.

I'm not trying to argue. My point is that the types of promo the OP described in post #4, be it cheese, pudding, prints, or magazines, come around every now and then, and that it's entirely possible to buy obscene amounts of miles at ridiculously low prices.

...I'm not trying to argue. My point is that the types of promo the OP described in post #4, be it cheese, pudding, prints, or magazines, come around every now and then, and that it's entirely possible to buy obscene amounts of miles at ridiculously low prices.

Oh so very true!

Those of us over in the UK who got rather excited by the recent Marriott ---> Tesco ---> BA scam are sitting on a heap of miles at round about the OP's target.

$1,250 produced 84,000 BA miles...sad it's all ended...and in tears for some who didn't get them through the conversion process in time and now have a load of Marriott points they don't want.

"Limited time offer―earn 20% mileage bonus with the buyAAmiles®, giftAAmilesSM and shareAAmiles® programs!

When you buy, gift or share 10,000 AAdvantage® miles or more by May 31, 2007, you'll earn a 20% mileage bonus on us. For example, buy, gift or share 10,000 miles and you'll earn a total of 2,000 bonus miles for yourself! Now is the perfect time to top off your AAdvantage account or a friend's with the miles you need for a dream vacation. Hurry -- this offer ends soon. Buy, gift or share your miles today and save! "

1000 miles is $27.50

https://buyaamiles.points.com/home.jsp?c=esummaryip0407

"Limited time offer―earn 20% mileage bonus with the buyAAmiles®, giftAAmilesSM and shareAAmiles® programs!

When you buy, gift or share 10,000 AAdvantage® miles or more by May 31, 2007, you'll earn a 20% mileage bonus on us. For example, buy, gift or share 10,000 miles and you'll earn a total of 2,000 bonus miles for yourself! Now is the perfect time to top off your AAdvantage account or a friend's with the miles you need for a dream vacation. Hurry -- this offer ends soon. Buy, gift or share your miles today and save! "

1000 miles is $27.50

https://buyaamiles.points.com/home.jsp?c=esummaryip0407

YMMV, I do not see this offer through that link.

YMMV, I do not see this offer through that link.


I recieved it through e-mail, but I assume it is valid.

I did fail to recognize this:

"* Prices listed above are in U.S. dollars and do not include applicable taxes or $30 per transaction processing fee.

Please allow 72 hours for the miles to post to your account.

buyAAmiles and giftAAmiles transactions are limited to a combined maximum of 40,000 miles, per account, per calendar year."

YMMV, I do not see this offer through that link.

I've just logged on to my AA account through that link and cannot see any promotion?

Could it be targeted at specific individuals? The 20% bonus if my memory serves me correctly is usually offered around the end of the year. :confused:

That's a helluva lot of flowers...maybe if buy an area of the amazon forest you can get close enough...:D :D at least you save it from "development"/destruction!
I just meant this and the later iDine comments as something additional one could do to accumulate some miles if your cash flow already had you running money through flower purchases or going out to dinner. If you are already buying things anyway, then routing those purchases through an online mall or other bonus program will get you effectively "free" rewards since you were going to purchase the item anyway. (There are a ton of caveats, but I'll ignore them for simplicity.)

I recieved it through e-mail, but I assume it is valid.

I did fail to recognize this:

"* Prices listed above are in U.S. dollars and do not include applicable taxes or $30 per transaction processing fee.

Please allow 72 hours for the miles to post to your account.

buyAAmiles and giftAAmiles transactions are limited to a combined maximum of 40,000 miles, per account, per calendar year."


Getting miles from someone's dormant account is much cheeper then buying.

I've just logged on to my AA account through that link and cannot see any promotion?

Could it be targeted at specific individuals? The 20% bonus if my memory serves me correctly is usually offered around the end of the year. :confused:


I received it the morning of April 21.

I received it the morning of April 21.

No specific link mentioned in my email as well.

I've just logged on to my AA account through that link and cannot see any promotion?

Could it be targeted at specific individuals? The 20% bonus if my memory serves me correctly is usually offered around the end of the year. :confused:

It is the first offer at the top of this month's e-statements in regular text -not an ad- in the greeting message. I assume this is NOT targeted as I got it on mine, my wife got it and my kids (one gold, one nothing) both got it.

(admittedly I did not see it as I just usually scroll down and look at the ads- my wife pointed it out and I still did not see it :rolleyes: )

How is it you can earn 300 miles off $4.50 w/:confused: Obopay?

OK, many people have said 1.5 cents/mile is clearly unrealistic. So what if I am willing to pay 3 cents a mile?

Any promotions/creative solutions out there?

Not creative - but you can just buy them from AS at 2.5 cents/mile, and then spend them on AA/BA/CX flights. https://buy.points.com/alaska/init.do?method=buy
You'll need to do multiple transactions, but opinion on the AS board is that there is no limit to the number of transactions.

There's a number of threads on the effects of taking out multiple credit cards at once, but regardless of how you feel about that strategy, here's one thing that you need to know: Gary's website should be required reading for people on this board, since it's well-organized and often catches promos that get missed here. Please note: I received no promotional payments for making this post.

Mike

For starters, for use of your cash flow to get American Airlines miles:


The three American Airlines credit cards should get you a free 55,000 miles, plus the miles for what you spend on them.
Both Fidelity and TD Ameritrade will give you 25,000 miles each for a new account.
BankDirect offers should get you an easy 10,000 miles. More if you can refer people to it.
Union Federal Bank should get you an easy 6,000 miles, plus another 5,000 in a year.
Guaranty Bank should get you an easy 3,000 miles.
The Citibank basic debit card will get you 2,000 miles within your price limit.
The Starwood credit card offer yields 10,000 Starpoints worth 10,000 American Airlines miles immediately, or 12,500 if you wait until you have 20,000 Starpoints
The Hilton offers for its two credit cards should get you a total of 30,000 free points, enough for 4,500 miles.
The Priority Club offers for its two credit cards should get you 30,000 points, enough for 6,000 miles.
The Marriott personal and business credit card offers should get you 40,000 points, worth 12,000 miles
The Choice Privileges credit card will get you 8,000 points, worth 1,000 miles with 3,000 points left over.
The Best Western credit card will get you 10,000 free points, worth 2,000 miles


So that's a start of 161,500 miles. The naysayers will no doubt now tell you why you shouldn't do all of these. I disagree in advance.

All of the offers are listed on the appropriate pages of my website below. These are only the ones from my Finance and Credit card pages. I did not yet mention the zillions miles you may be able to get from taking out a loan on your house and paying it back very quickly. Nor did I mention the many American Airlines opportunities listed on my other pages. Click on each page (important) and do a work search on "American Airlines"

There's a number of threads on the effects of taking out multiple credit cards at once, but regardless of how you feel about that strategy, here's one thing that you need to know: Gary's website should be required reading for people on this board, since it's well-organized and often catches promos that get missed here. Please note: I received no promotional payments for making this post.

Mike

^ He has a great site.

That's a helluva lot of flowers...maybe if buy an area of the amazon forest you can get close enough...:D :D at least you save it from "development"/destruction!

I'm not sure how you think you are "saving" the Amazon forest, since you are having it plucked and delivered to your SO/"main squeeze"/"Mommy" (or whatever). :rolleyes:

Steve

I'm not sure how you think you are "saving" the Amazon forest, since you are having it plucked and delivered to your SO/"main squeeze"/"Mommy" (or whatever). :rolleyes:

Steve

I did not want it to be delivered to anyone...just buy it and keep it there and safe, but get 10k miles/acre! :D

deleted duplicate

How is it you can earn 300 miles off $4.50 w/:confused: Obopay?I asked about this also. You can transfer $300 from your credit card to obopay per day. You pay a $4.50 fee for doing this. So you get 1 credit card point or mile depending on what card you have.

I asked about this also. You can transfer $300 from your credit card to obopay per day. You pay a $4.50 fee for doing this. So you get 1 credit card point or mile depending on what card you have.

Do you have a link for miles bonus?

I asked about this also. You can transfer $300 from your credit card to obopay per day. You pay a $4.50 fee for doing this. So you get 1 credit card point or mile depending on what card you have.

hmmm, I dont know if I consider this a good deal:

300 miles for $4.50...
that's 900 miles for $13.50...
or 1,000 miles for $15.

A normal domestic award is 25,000 miles.

$15 x 25 = $375 not including tax or fees for using a 25,000 mile award ticket at most airlines these days.

Um... no. I could buy one for less.
thanks.

MM

hmmm, I dont know if I consider this a good deal:

300 miles for $4.50...
that's 900 miles for $13.50...
or 1,000 miles for $15.

A normal domestic award is 25,000 miles.

$15 x 25 = $375 not including tax or fees for using a 25,000 mile award ticket at most airlines these days.

Um... no. I could buy one for less.
thanks.

MM

BUT,

for an international J or F award that averages around 100,000 miles, $1500 is a very good value.

I suppose, for some. I tend to fly economy and have been ok with that even on International flights. 50k is what they usually cost and once I think we had to pay more miles. As well, on NWA you can do one way econ and the other way biz for 65k I think. $700 for a ticket in econ is about what it costs to pay for one with cash to get same flight as that 50k award. Maybe if I felt like being in other classes, I would see it as a good deal, but to me it's not worth it. If my needs change it could be. I'll give ya that.
:)MM

Good luck to the OP. I like the idea of just being able to buy the miles outright, but it's difficult to do it at less than .03 (in huge size) unless the issuers screw up.

I would love to be able to just buy 2 MM miles on AA at .01 or so. That would be enough for a bunch of international flights in F plus get you lifetime Platinum status. You would want to use them as fast as you could though. They get devalued periodically, and you don't earn interest on frequent flier miles.

hmmm, I dont know if I consider this a good deal:

300 miles for $4.50...
that's 900 miles for $13.50...
or 1,000 miles for $15.

A normal domestic award is 25,000 miles.

$15 x 25 = $375 not including tax or fees for using a 25,000 mile award ticket at most airlines these days.

Um... no. I could buy one for less.
thanks.

MMBUT,

for an international J or F award that averages around 100,000 miles, $1500 is a very good value.

Actually it's more than just $1500 to achieve 100K miles thru Obopay. $1500 is just the 1.50% fee.

Assuming you would use a $1/per mile Creditcard,
Obopay caps at $300 CC load/per week with $4.5 fee (as of 4/11/07)
100K miles will take 333.33 weekly load (meaning about 6.4 years)

AND

You now have to unload (or spend) your $100K from your Obopay account that's not going to earn you any extra miles/points. Potentially you are losing the chance to EARN miles/points if you charge that $100K to your CC.

Have I mentioned you have to be VERY comfortable keeping $100K in your Obopay account? Also have I mentioned that Obopay has been changing their fees and terms without any advance notice? Yes, you probably can take the fund out thru ATM withdrawals. However, I recall Obopay will freeze your account if you do that often. (Please read this thread (flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=653793)for more details.)

So, essentially for your goal of 100K miles:

100K miles=
$1500 fee w/ 333.33 weekly loads in 6.4 yrs
+ $100K hanging in Obopay account
+ your trust in Obopay

Like MM had said, thanks! but NO!

Your point is well taken.

I just wanted to point out that 1.5 cent per mile in general is a good value. Earning it through obopay definitely ain't worth time, money, risk!

I haven't actually looked through this thread, but AXP's MR pgrm allows you to purchase up to 500k points per year. You can use them (through transfers) for awards on any of the *A or SkyTeam carriers. 500k points will run you about $13k.

hmmm, I dont know if I consider this a good deal:
A normal domestic award is 25,000 miles.

$15 x 25 = $375 not including tax or fees for using a 25,000 mile award ticket at most airlines these days.

Um... no. I could buy one for less.
thanks.

MM

Most people here use miles for intr. upgrades, where 50k miles may be worth thousands of dollars. For domestic you can use Frontier ticket for 15k miles

Do you have a link for miles bonus?
There's no such link. You earn miles by charging to some credit card you already have. That credit card earns miles or points for you. There is no additional bonus on top of that.

The money charged goes into obopay. Then you (a) withdraw the cash from an ATM - no fee (b) request a check for the balance - 10 cent fee, (c) or use your obopay mastercard to buy something. Obopay says there's a 4th option -- (d) you can "unload" $200 of your balance per day to your bank account via ACH, but I cannot determine whether there's a fee for this.

If you choose (c) then you don't come out ahead, and you're better off making ordinary credit card purchases.

Strictly speaking, obopay says you cannot "provide Yourself with a cash advance from Your credit card (or help others to do so);" which is weird since the whole purpose of the phone-to-phone transfer seems to be cash advance. https://www.obopay.com/consumer/GetHelp.do?target=TermsPage

There's also a conga here. Get $5 for joining. Get $5 for each referral that signs up.

My best six months was 4/13/06-10/13/06, racking up 467,586 AA miles. Not the best, as I wasn't able to get in on the cheese deal, but not bad.

Steve

There's no such link. You earn miles by charging to some credit card you already have. That credit card earns miles or points for you. There is no additional bonus on top of that.

The money charged goes into obopay. Then you (a) withdraw the cash from an ATM - no fee (b) request a check for the balance - 10 cent fee, (c) or use your obopay mastercard to buy something. Obopay says there's a 4th option -- (d) you can "unload" $200 of your balance per day to your bank account via ACH, but I cannot determine whether there's a fee for this.

If you choose (c) then you don't come out ahead, and you're better off making ordinary credit card purchases.

Strictly speaking, obopay says you cannot "provide Yourself with a cash advance from Your credit card (or help others to do so);" which is weird since the whole purpose of the phone-to-phone transfer seems to be cash advance. https://www.obopay.com/consumer/GetHelp.do?target=TermsPage

There's also a conga here. Get $5 for joining. Get $5 for each referral that signs up.

I see. Then it's easier to use Google checkout. It's free till the end of the year. Just make sure, you can't charge yourself or another person with the same address.

My best six months was 4/13/06-10/13/06, racking up 467,586 AA miles. Not the best, as I wasn't able to get in on the cheese deal, but not bad.

Steve

Do you have a breakdown of how you made that? How much did you spend that you wouldn't otherwise have spent? Or were you passing a lot of charges through Citibank/*wood?

Do you have a breakdown of how you made that? How much did you spend that you wouldn't otherwise have spent? Or were you passing a lot of charges through Citibank/*wood?

Total by CC is about 15k. Nothing via Starwood yet, as I haven't quite reached 20,000 points yet.

I have to eat, and w/ my Dining Rewards choices, most meals are less than $10 (technically I am paying more for food, but my eating habits were going downhill so this also is healthier for me). The flights were all "frivolous" (meaning Milage Runs :p ) but in that span were only the double FLY3 and DOUBLE06 deals (along with a double challenge), so I was getting better than a penny a mile for those. I did buy some luggage, but that was overdue (as I was still using parent's cast offs which were starting to fall apart). Better CC returns w/ AA MC and *wood AE (and buying flights and spending a year's worth of food in the anniversary 25 miles/$ bonus added to those); plus various promos, including winning AA's Sept. 06 Milage Maniac grand prize. :p

I've kept it cheap, so I'm pretty happy. I'll be happier when I do the 33-day oneworld business class award DCA-NRT-HKG-MEL-SYD-ZQN-AKL-IAD in Sept/Oct for 150k miles. :cool:

Steve

You culd lend $500,000 on the microloan site kiva.org (http://www.kiva.org)
To date repayment rate is %100

You would be lending 500k at 0%. Your mileage cost would be the opportunity cost plus defaults.

You would be lending 500k at 0%. Your mileage cost would be the opportunity cost plus defaults.

If there are no defaults your return is %1.5 or whatever you value your miles.
Yeah, 500K is probably too steep but I was answering the op's question:)
Still for smaller amounts, and if its something you want to do anyways, it might be an added bonus.

Plan ahead and buy good cheap tickets which can be used to collect miles as well as fly?

Round the world tickets?

Signing up for credit cards?

All other kinds of business will you get in nice contact with those money laundring and tax receiving facilities ...