Mar 6, 2022, 12:20 am
Last edit by: LovePrunes
CAUTION: Buyer Beware! DOES NOT WORK TO GET EXP This way
A caution to anyone who may try this suggestion to earn LPs buying FTD bonsai trees and hoping they get credit as a large multiplier of LP's from FTD. The Original Poster (and others) posted back that it posts as bonus miles and not base, so no LPs are earned.
some data points:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/34174381-post70.html
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/34048144-post308.html
Here's the thread on FTD:
A caution to anyone who may try this suggestion to earn LPs buying FTD bonsai trees and hoping they get credit as a large multiplier of LP's from FTD. The Original Poster (and others) posted back that it posts as bonus miles and not base, so no LPs are earned.
some data points:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/34174381-post70.html
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/34048144-post308.html
Here's the thread on FTD:
Missing miles/LPs from FTD purchase in mid-Feb
127 bonsai trees for EXP
Jan 3, 2022, 5:51 pm
#31
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: LAX oriented World Digital Nomad
Programs: AA Exec Plat, Hyatt Globalist, MLife/Cosmo Identity Gold, Other Vegas too...
Posts: 1,317
OMG so spend 8 grand on Bonsai trees, resell them for say, 4 grand, and then you've basically bought EXP for 4 grand. Nice!
find a local non FTD florist and find out what they'll give you for 120 Bonsai trees. RT
Jan 3, 2022, 6:18 pm
#33
Formerly doc4science
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: CMH/DSM
Programs: United Airlines Silver, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Gold
Posts: 562
So is the current consensus that we are probably getting 25LPs per dollar? If so this actually seems quite reasonable. Ex: For AA Gold you would need to buy 19. At $63/per that comes out to $1,197 for 30,000 LPs, but you also get 30,000 AA miles. I value that at ~$600-800 in purely miles. Thus the cost is only ~$400 for AA Gold and 19 bonsai trees which I could try to flip at $30 each and actually make a profit. Of course this should scale up to EXP.
Jan 3, 2022, 6:19 pm
#34
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: BOS
Programs: AA PP, DL PM
Posts: 2,086
I bought my iPhone 11 when the eShopping portal had 8x miles on Apple Store purchases. I'm probably going to buy a new computer at some point (because I need one), but since Apple products still in the box should hold their value pretty well, I might buy a few extras and sell them.
Jan 3, 2022, 6:53 pm
#37
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2021
Location: DFW
Programs: AA EXP, BAEC Gold, IHG Platinum
Posts: 320
As others have indicated in the thread, technically I won't know definitively whether I've earned the LPs, I guess until March. Only bought one, just in case. However were AA not to award the LP, it'd seem to contravene and/or renege upon their 1 aadvantage mile = 1LP metric. Inasmuch as ftd prominently appears throughout their website as a partner, at this point I'm not worried about LP earnings.
Jan 3, 2022, 6:55 pm
#38
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: LAX/TPE
Programs: United 1K, JAL Sapphire, SPG Lifetime Platinum, National Executive Elite, Hertz PC, Avis PC
Posts: 42,213
You can just re-sell the tree, perhaps at a profit or just offer to wholesale them to local florists to offset some of the cost.
Jan 3, 2022, 7:55 pm
#39
Original Member and FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Kansas City, MO, USA
Programs: DL PM/MM, AA ExPlat, Hyatt Glob, HH Dia, National ECE, Hertz PC
Posts: 16,579
Jan 3, 2022, 8:44 pm
#40
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Usually in SAN or Central Europe.
Programs: AA:EXP/1MM. Accor/Radisson:Silver; HH:Gold; ICH:Plt Amb.
Posts: 22,307
And people shouldn't be surprised that there are going to be less expensive ways (via partners) to earn status than the traditional way of buying AA tickets. Because that's how it was prior to January 1st. And in my case, it was because of Alaska F and BA W tickets. Even with this new program, I can cross the 200K LPs threshold with 7 RTs between the west coast and Europe in PremEcon on BA alone. And prior to Covid, I could regularly find these tickets for around $1000-1100 RT. Granted, these were generally ex-EU originating. But the ex-US ones were usually a couple of hundred dollars more for the same city pairs. That's a lot less than the roughly $18,000 in AA tickets (actually more since that is only the base fare component) needed to achieve the same goal.
So, would I rather have 7 trips to Europe, or 127 Bonsai trees? Hmmmm.... let me think...
Jan 3, 2022, 9:12 pm
#41
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2021
Location: DFW
Programs: AA EXP, BAEC Gold, IHG Platinum
Posts: 320
There was a time last week (around Christmas) when FTD was advertising that they were giving 25 AAdvantage miles per dolllar spent, not the usual 20. Which I'm wondering if those extra 5 miles are considered a bonus, and thus, won't earn LPs.
And people shouldn't be surprised that there are going to be less expensive ways (via partners) to earn status than the traditional way of buying AA tickets. Because that's how it was prior to January 1st. And in my case, it was because of Alaska F and BA W tickets. Even with this new program, I can cross the 200K LPs threshold with 7 RTs between the west coast and Europe in PremEcon on BA alone. And prior to Covid, I could regularly find these tickets for around $1000-1100 RT. Granted, these were generally ex-EU originating. But the ex-US ones were usually a couple of hundred dollars more for the same city pairs. That's a lot less than the roughly $18,000 in AA tickets (actually more since that is only the base fare component) needed to achieve the same goal.
So, would I rather have 7 trips to Europe, or 127 Bonsai trees? Hmmmm.... let me think...
And people shouldn't be surprised that there are going to be less expensive ways (via partners) to earn status than the traditional way of buying AA tickets. Because that's how it was prior to January 1st. And in my case, it was because of Alaska F and BA W tickets. Even with this new program, I can cross the 200K LPs threshold with 7 RTs between the west coast and Europe in PremEcon on BA alone. And prior to Covid, I could regularly find these tickets for around $1000-1100 RT. Granted, these were generally ex-EU originating. But the ex-US ones were usually a couple of hundred dollars more for the same city pairs. That's a lot less than the roughly $18,000 in AA tickets (actually more since that is only the base fare component) needed to achieve the same goal.
So, would I rather have 7 trips to Europe, or 127 Bonsai trees? Hmmmm.... let me think...
Jan 3, 2022, 11:27 pm
#42
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Everywhere
Programs: AA EXP - 3.7MM, Bonv LIFETIME Titan, HH Dmd, Hyatt Glob., Priority Clb Dmd, Ntnl Exec El., Sixt PLT
Posts: 1,680
Totally with you on the partners; a good reason why I made EXP this past year was because of inexpensive (relatively speaking) I fares (first class) on Alaska. The long round trips with 30% of the mileage as EQDs definitely added up and in many ways doubled or tripled your EQDs from the actual dollars spent. I will continue to fly as my main metric for LP and will rely on partners. Nevertheless, I couldn't help but post this because of the humorous abject absurdity of it all.
Jan 4, 2022, 5:39 am
#43
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: LAX oriented World Digital Nomad
Programs: AA Exec Plat, Hyatt Globalist, MLife/Cosmo Identity Gold, Other Vegas too...
Posts: 1,317
Assuming the Bonsai Tree LP value ends up checking out - is there anything else we should be considering? Flowers for a wedding? Other hardy plants?
Jan 4, 2022, 6:54 am
#45
Join Date: Jan 2021
Posts: 264
PayPal emailed me a reminder that I have $10 off a $50 purchase at FTD which expires on Saturday so I was also going to buy a bonsai tree for good luck until I realized the cheapest shipping was $20. Oh well. Actually kind of disappointed because I just finished the new season of Cobra Kai and actually want a bonsai tree right now.