Originally Posted by
NCommander
I get access denied trying to access that page unfortunately. Might be because I'm trying to do so from mainland China. Pity though Delta's miles are so worthless that while its a good deal, 25,000 SkyPesos really don't get you much :-/
You are right. Too bad the China address is blocking you.
I look at it like this. This is not a MR or renting an unneeded car or buying overpriced wine just to get miles. I'll actually get something for my $500 from SkyMall. Now SkyMall can be overpriced. After shipping and taxes lets say that I spend $600 for $500 of merchandise (that I really want and/or need) from SkyMall. I'll get 600 SMs from Amex for the spending and 2,500 normal miles from SkyMall ($500 x 5 miles/$1). I'll get a bonus of 25K SMs for the promotion. Total haul: 28,100 miles.
I take 25K and redeem it for $250 of gift cards at SkyMiles Marketplace with vendors I actually use - BB & Beyond for example. I'll use a 20% off coupon with BB&B which raises my buying power at BB&B to ~$310 [$310 - (20% x $310) = $248]. So I'm basically buying ~$810 of merchandise for $600. And I'll still have a gain on my SM account of 3,100 miles.
If I were to spend $900 at SkyMall + $100 in shipping my haul would be 30,500 SMs and the total merchandise value would be $1,275 for spending $1,000 out of pocket.