Beginning of the End for the Miles Game?
Jun 30, 2015 | 9:36 am
#32
Join Date: Jul 2013
Programs: AA, B6, UA, HH, WoH
Posts: 455
Jun 30, 2015 | 2:04 pm
#33
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: home = LAX
Posts: 26,113
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/manuf...-spending-719/
But I wouldn't necessarily agree that Manufactured Spending (MS) in high monthly amounts is "very easy", especially for someone who doesn't live anywhere near a Wal-Mart. (Many of the techniques are based in part on visiting a Wal-Mart Money Center quite frequently.)
Plus some cards can shut you down if you do too much of it (or "the wrong way"). So the research into which cards tolerate what doesn't seem so "very easy" to me either.
Nor is it as "free" as signing up for cards with waived annual fees. There's typically fees involved (for example, $5.95 for a $500 gift card is about 1%). 100,000 miles in a month sounds nice but if that's $100,000 of MS with 1% of fees, that's still $1000 in fees. It may be less spend-per-mile (and thus less fees-per-mile) with the right cards (some of which may impossible for a churner to get anymore, if they don't have them already, because they're Chase UR cards), but then that requires being near the right office supply stores or whatever. So, again, it doesn't sound so "very easy" for everyone to do.
It may have been a little easier during the original "US Mint" scheme (especially in the early days when most any bank took the coins in), but as time goes on, many of the simpler MS schemes go "poof" and only more complicated schemes take their place.
So it depends on how much you're immersed in each "culture" as to whether it's easier to get large amounts of miles through churning or through MS (or through neither, if you're not up on either culture!).
Jun 30, 2015 | 4:53 pm
#34
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 1,283
There's a whole forum dedicated to doing it:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/manuf...-spending-719/
But I wouldn't necessarily agree that Manufactured Spending (MS) in high monthly amounts is "very easy", especially for someone who doesn't live anywhere near a Wal-Mart. (Many of the techniques are based in part on visiting a Wal-Mart Money Center quite frequently.)
Plus some cards can shut you down if you do too much of it (or "the wrong way"). So the research into which cards tolerate what doesn't seem so "very easy" to me either.
Nor is it as "free" as signing up for cards with waived annual fees. There's typically fees involved (for example, $5.95 for a $500 gift card is about 1%). 100,000 miles in a month sounds nice but if that's $100,000 of MS with 1% of fees, that's still $1000 in fees. It may be less spend-per-mile (and thus less fees-per-mile) with the right cards (some of which may impossible for a churner to get anymore, if they don't have them already, because they're Chase UR cards), but then that requires being near the right office supply stores or whatever. So, again, it doesn't sound so "very easy" for everyone to do.
It may have been a little easier during the original "US Mint" scheme (especially in the early days when most any bank took the coins in), but as time goes on, many of the simpler MS schemes go "poof" and only more complicated schemes take their place.
So it depends on how much you're immersed in each "culture" as to whether it's easier to get large amounts of miles through churning or through MS (or through neither, if you're not up on either culture!).
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/manuf...-spending-719/
But I wouldn't necessarily agree that Manufactured Spending (MS) in high monthly amounts is "very easy", especially for someone who doesn't live anywhere near a Wal-Mart. (Many of the techniques are based in part on visiting a Wal-Mart Money Center quite frequently.)
Plus some cards can shut you down if you do too much of it (or "the wrong way"). So the research into which cards tolerate what doesn't seem so "very easy" to me either.
Nor is it as "free" as signing up for cards with waived annual fees. There's typically fees involved (for example, $5.95 for a $500 gift card is about 1%). 100,000 miles in a month sounds nice but if that's $100,000 of MS with 1% of fees, that's still $1000 in fees. It may be less spend-per-mile (and thus less fees-per-mile) with the right cards (some of which may impossible for a churner to get anymore, if they don't have them already, because they're Chase UR cards), but then that requires being near the right office supply stores or whatever. So, again, it doesn't sound so "very easy" for everyone to do.
It may have been a little easier during the original "US Mint" scheme (especially in the early days when most any bank took the coins in), but as time goes on, many of the simpler MS schemes go "poof" and only more complicated schemes take their place.
So it depends on how much you're immersed in each "culture" as to whether it's easier to get large amounts of miles through churning or through MS (or through neither, if you're not up on either culture!).
I've always instinctively known that getting bonuses is, by far, the easiest, cheapest and most efficient way to rack up miles. And the fact that the cc companies are making it much harder to get these bonuses confirms this, otherwise, they wouldn't even care.
Last edited by joer1212; Jul 1, 2015 at 2:08 am