MilesBuzz! - Fly BA F to Europe for less then 600$

I guess this is good enough to be posted once again.

Goldpoints deals are back. On goldpoints you can earn 2000 GP for every purchase on LLBean.com. On LLBean.com you can find things for 1.25$+shipping.

If you do have an LLBean VISA Card there is FREE shipping.

What to do with those points? For 6250 GP points you could get 1000DC points. For a limit time you can transfer those 1000DC points til 1000 BA points.

What else to do? 150.000 BA Points is enough for a FIRST CLASS ticket from anywhere in the US to Europe. Check those prices on www.ba.com (http://www.ba.com)

How many GP points do you need? 150x6250=937500 points which means 469 purchases on LLBean.

If you do have that LL Bean VISA Card those 150.000 miles will be yours for just 586.25$

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum1/HTML/009134.html

So you need to make 469 separate purchases from LL Bean via Goldpoints.

And you have to be sure that all of them post in time to be able to get a transfer to Diners to show up by 8/31 so that you can then get Diners to do the BA transfer while the double transfer bonus is still in effect.

As I've intimated elsewhere, I think there's a good chance that this will fail.

* Just not enough time. A merchant may take 30 days to post to Goldpoints (assuming they do post). I'm waiting to hear folks experiences with LL Bean points posting.

[Edited:] the Goldpoints website says <font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Your Gold Points will be credited to your account as soon as we receive purchase confirmation from the merchant. This typically occurs 4 to 6 weeks after your items have shipped.</font>
* Not only do you need to make 469 separate transactions, but you have to track 469 separate transactions to see that they all post. And if any don't post, I'm guessing that throws the already tight schedule off completely. So you better make a bunch more than 469 transactions, assuming that at least some won't post.

* The free shipping with their credit card is useful, but only for folks who already have that card. There isn't enough time to get the card and then do the deal before the DC--&gt;BA offer expires for this year (though it may be back again next year).

LLBean purchases are a good way to top off a Goldpoints account. Seeing this as a strategy for mass mileage accumulation strikes me as a bit too cute by half. But then, I might have said the same thing about buying Healthy Choice pudding and enlisting a foodbank to remove UPC codes... So what do I know? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/confused.gif

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View from the Wing (http://www.webflyer.com/blog): A blog about Free Miles and Free Markets

[This message has been edited by gleff (edited 08-16-2003).]

By the way, I searched and searched for a $1.25 item and finally found one... a fishing lure.. Item # TA20577.

But shipping is $4.50, bringing the cost to $5.75. So a $5 gift certificate that you'll never use (or give away) is cheaper.

I searched the web a bit for free shipping coupon codes but alas I found none. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

A cost of $5.75 rather than $1.25 will bring your cost to $2696.75 rather than $586.25. And then there's tax, depending on where you live. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

[This message has been edited by gleff (edited 08-16-2003).]

I did the Magazines for Miles thing with GoldPoints and frankly don't trust them after *that* fiasco. Getting the points for just a few dozen subscriptions was hassle enough; are you really going to follow through on hundreds of LL Bean orders?

I also did the magazines for miles thing with Goldpoints, and got all my hundreds of thousands of miles. Plus, all my long-lost relatives think I am a great guy for thoughtfully gifting them with magazine subscriptions.

I can't take advantage of this BA deal, but I do like Goldpoints.

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Middle_Seat

Gleff, you are the last person I'd expect to take part in a duplicate thread, maybe you should consolidate them.
As an incebtive, I'd put in the new thread a new idea.
Also, I think you should edit out $1.25 item# form your post, run on it might allow LL Bean to take a notice, as I mentioned in the main thread they have hundreds of fishing items below $2.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by neophyte:
Gleff, you are the last person I'd expect to take part in a duplicate thread, maybe you should consolidate them.
As an incebtive, I'd put in the new thread a new idea.
Also, I think you should edit out $1.25 item# form your post, run on it might allow LL Bean to take a notice, as I mentioned in the main thread they have hundreds of fishing items below $2.</font>

FWIW, I saw this as a somewhat different discussion.

That is, "Can one use the Goldpoints/LL Bean Promo to Fly BA F from North America to Europe for Under $600?"

And if one could, that would sure warrant a thread! And I confined my comments to whether I thought this would work, and then to what I saw as the actual costs.

It sure would be great if this thread were confined to the above subject/question... and the other thread be used for general discussion of that promo. Maybe I'm hoping against hope? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif But I don't at this time see a need to consolidate the questions. Others are free to differ. Thanks for your feedback, though.

[Moderator Hat Off]

The stuff below I discuss purely in my capacity as a member of the community and not at all as a moderator.

As far as the adviseability of pointing folks to a specific item, I see the concern -- it's a general concern about posting good deals on a public bulletin board where lots of folks can take advantage of it. It's why some people choose not to post their best deals publicly. I choose to share as much as I possibly can.

Removing the item number would either mean fewer people taking advantage of a deal that they think would benefit them (something I don't want to happen!) or folks having to just do more work to find the information I've already found (also something I don't want -- FT is about helping and sharing).

It's not like there are gobs of $1.25 items on LL Bean. If folks do the offer, and they already know to look for a $1.25 item, the one I posted is likely to be what alot of people order.

Instead, if there's a concern about this getting shut down because too many people order a specific item, then consider making a plea to the community to spread their orders.

Or, better yet, look up a whole bunch of item #s and post them to make it easier for people to spread their orders.

There are lots of debates that sprout up from time to time about these issues. For my own part, and here and in the above I speak only for myself as a FT member and not at all as a moderator, I choose to post as much legal information as possible. If I learn of a scheme that some people use to defraud a program, I am unlikely to post it (let alone do it myself!). But if I learn specifics of a technique to gain maximum benefit within a program's rules, I'm going to share what I've learned.

But here we each have to follow our own conscience.

Regards,
Gary

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View from the Wing (http://www.webflyer.com/blog): A blog about Free Miles and Free Markets