Originally Posted by
joer1212
In light of what you're telling me I may be able to do the gift card hustle in this case, even though this will mean that I will spend months trying to get rid of thousands of dollars on gift cards-- and American Express gift cards at that (which are not as accepted as others).
Of course, this will mean that I won't be able to do frequent app-o-ramas, but I will have enough miles (in AAdvantage) to redeem for my r/t international Business class flight.
Yes, I have been a member since 2011, but I only very recently discovered the miles game. I'm ashamed of this, and I want to kick myself for not starting many years earlier, when offers and terms and conditions were much more favorable, and when there were much fewer people participating.
I suggested Amex gift cards because I can easily find the $500 denomination at my local grocery store while the MC/Visa gift cards they have available are $200 or lower. If you don't mind paying some extra fee with smaller denomination gift cards or can find large denomination MC/visa gift cards, then by all means go with that. I don't buy thousands of dollars worth of gift cards at once, instead I spread them out over time and only purchase one gift card at a time as needed (in my case its when I pay for grocery shopping).