supergrandslam

I got another one at Costco Manhattan NY.
I didn't know that Costoco only accepts Amex, doesn't accept VISA/Master.

After Dec 1, it seems to be impossible to get AA miles for million miller by buying AA GCs at Costco....

FlyerChrisK

You'd still be able to use the AA giftcards towards flying...

RogerD408

You don't get AA miles for buying the card (unless using an AA credit card), but you do for flying miles bought with the card. Only one card, World Elite?, will continue to count towards MM until 12/1/2012.

supergrandslam

I have Citi AA Amex and Citi AA Exec MC. (and AA VISA and AA Business MC)
If I use AA Amex for purchasing GC at Costco, I get 270 AA miles per GC.

After Dec 1(strictly speaking, after Nov statement date of my Citi Exec/Amex ),I will have 2 options for buying $300 AA ticket.

Option1): Buy GC @$270 using AA Amex for $300-ticket on AA.com
Option2): Buy $300-ticket on AA.com using AA Exec MC.

Miles from flying are same but as a serious Life time PLT seeker, I am really disappointed that costco doesn't accept Master card.

If I take option1), I can save $30 but lose opportunity to get 600 AA million miler eligible miles(2mile/$ on AA.com for Citi exec MC).
So if I am happy to pay more than $0.05/million miler mile, I will go with Option2).

$0.05/mile looks to be very expensive even if it is eligible for million miler in general but it is going to be agonizing decision for me given that Citi AA exec MC will generate Million Miles up until Dec 2012.(So it is about 1 year left to get million miler from spending CC.)
Also if I take option2), it may help to ensure hitting $40K spending and get 10K EQM in 2012 from AA exec MC.
It will help me to save cost for Mileage Run to keep EXP for 2013.

Sagy

Maybe this should be moved somewhere else.

If this is for your first MM, I think that you are making a big mistake by paying 5cents per mile. You are ExP, even if you don't fly at all in 2012 and 2013 you will still be Gold for 2014 and if you had three years of no flying (or flying less than 25K) why do you need Gold? Any way with the Citi exec MC you have gold anyway.

If this is for LT-Plt, the story is different, but 5 CPM still seems high. Yes 4 eVIPs are valuable but not that much ($5,000 for 100,000 miles). The other benefit is 100% bonus miles compared with 25%; even if you fly every year 49,999 we are talking about 37,500 miles per year. This is a nice number of miles, at 2 CPM are worth about $750/year. If you got 100,000 extra miles by not buying the GC it would take 7 years of just missing Plt to make up the difference. Let's combine the two and say that you can recover the cost of 100,000 miles in 5 years, is this really a good deal?

If we are talking about less than 100,000 miles, why bother, you will make it up in a year or two of flying anyway and you are going to be Plt or above during this time anyway.

Mod,

Please move to a more appropriate location if needed.

Thanks

supergrandslam

Thanks for your inputs.BTW This is for Life Time Plat as I wrote "as a serious Life time PLT seeker" in my previous post.
I should have mentioned in my previous post that my flight activities might drop drastically in anytime near future thus I want to maximize to get Million miles as much as I can.

Given that my total estimate cost for AA ticket in 2012 would be $8,000 and CIti AA exec MC will only generate Million Miler miles until Dec 2012, my dilemma is to save $800 or To get 16,000 more Million Miles.
The answer will be very subjective.

phil_flyer

I bought a heck of a lot of these today at the Rego Park, NY Costco.

It's a good deal (getting preban AA miles for the cost now, and actual miles for the travel later) but one caveat to all who snapped these up: gift cards can get wiped out in a bankruptcy.

Given rumors on AAs current financial health, I highly recommend not warehousing these for too long lest they be rejected in an AA Chapter 11 proceeding.

yoyo

Can't you buy costco cashcard from costco.com with your MC and then you can use the cashcard to buy things from costco?

supergrandslam

Thanks.That looks great solution for me.
Can't believe Costco accepts VISA/MC on their web but doesn't accept at their shops.

Now I can get 1) $30 saving + 270 AA MM miles or 2) 600 AA MM miles per GC.
I may not want to pay 9.1 CPM for additional 330 AA MM miles per GC.

zman

Costco San Diego Morena Blvd had about 40 in inventory last week.

Does anyone know if Las vegas has them?

Jacobin777

While you might be correct, I would like to see more proof/evidence of this.

FWAAA

phil_flyer's statement is completely correct. Bankruptcy permits debtors to discharge their unsecured debts, and that's what a gift card represents. For evidence, see Sharper Image, where millions of gift cards became worthless upon filing.

That doesn't mean that AA would not honor gift cards and vouchers; management might very well decide that it wants to honor those obligations and would seek a first day order permitting it to do so. But gift cards could become worthless upon a bankruptcy filing.

Jacobin777

Sounds good to me! ^

That being said, Sharper Image's bk and a potential AA bk would be different to a certain extent.

Also, as you stated, AA might honor gift cards an vouchers.

I don't really "hoard cards". Only purchase a number of them for my flights when I need them. It does keep me mostly protected from "unknowns".

nrr

I used Sharper Image GC at Brookstone (after bankruptcy) at a favorable rate--I don't remember all the details now.
I don't seem to recollect that DL (when they filed for bankruptcy) stopped honoring their GC's.

brp

So, I think the answer is that they could, but they sure as hell won't. Just like they won't make FF miles worthless even though they could do that too.The risk here is minimal.

Cheers.