<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by quinella66:
I heard about that one. My question is this, ethics aside, was it really worth it? You buy a gift cert for $100, that gives you 100 (or 200 if doubled with DL Amex), that are worth somewhere between $1 and $4 depending on the number of miles and who you ask. Then you have to stand in line again to buy something small to get most of your money back. So even at the double miles, you would have to buy 125 gift certificates, and then stand in line 125 times to buy 125 small items (I hope you can use the items) just to get a 25k domestic award. I would rather buy the miles from the airline for $625 than stand in line like that - I have better things to do with my time.</font>
Well I never did it nearly 125 times, but you could buy an unlimited number of gift cards in a single purchase. I think people liked this as much for the free credit card cash advance feature as for the mileage bonus, not necessarily looking for a free ticket.
Since it is no longer available, I was just comparing the ethical questions which I don't recall being brought up regarding the old offer. The 'buy/return' idea seems quite unethical and yet costs the merchant less and yields less value with the credit vs. debit cards.