Well, I wasn't making anything up when I said:

And note, saying 'I have gotten CRV to qualify in the past' was to also imply I've tried the other things mentioned as well ;)

For that matter, I also get the store managers to honor booze all the time... You will never convince them to honor the coupon on another Visa GC though -- for obvious reasons.

And back in the old days when they listed the exclusions, on the very first post of the old thread, the exclusions are listed:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...groceries.html

And those exclusions of course included gift cards.

At any rate, you are of course welcome to try anyway.

A $200 coupon also generates $10 off coupon. Just like others, I too had to call the manager to get the $10 off manually even though I didn't have any dairy, eggs, lottery or any of the restricted stuff.

Tried today... Coupon worked for $25+ transaction w/o manager override. All items are counted including milk and egg.

My local Safeways are running this deal from 6/19 to 7/16.

And I had fun using the coupon this weekend. The Catalina coupon machine didn't spit out the coupon at the register I went to, so they took me to CS. CS doesn't have a Catalina machine so they just gave me gift cards.:D

CSR manager was busy so didn't make me do individual transactions, so I pushed thru $2K in $100s all swiped at once on one receipt. Then I mentioned to CSR that $100s are a PITA and "sure would be nice to use $500s". CSR said "oh, I meant to ask you if you wanted $500s as that is what you buy all the time anyway". So I grabbed a some $500s and rang up another $1K. Walked out with $3K in gcs and $300 in Safeway gcs good for buying anything in the store (including gasoline).

I went back today and bought another $4K of $500 gcs at CSR for $47.60 in fees (vs $238 in fees had they made my buy $100s). And walked out with $400 Safeway giftcard for my "troubles":D I was really tempted to buy $10K more, but CSR manager was starting to get irritated at how much cash they were giving me.

Ended up with $700 in Safeway gift cards for $7K in gc purchases - purchases I was going to make anyway. ^

I tried at a different Safeway and they made me do individual transactions for $100 gcs - a royal PITA. Then found out the coupons expired in ~2 weeks on July 7. Then found out they couldn't stack. Not worth the trouble.

Looks like you lucked out with Safeway #1 as the $500 variable cards aren't supposed to be eligible. The manager being "busy" was definitely your saving grace because if he/she wasn't busy and rang it up normally, I'm pretty sure the $500 wouldn't have worked (as you discovered in Safeway # 2....and most likely any subsequent Safeway stores). You might as well try getting more for Saefway # 1 while you can if you get find that same manager to ring you up again. Or find a place where the Catalina machines aren't working. Sooner or later, they'll catch onto it though. Two of mine didn't spit out so they sent me to customer service and gave me 1 "rain check" coupon good for "10 off" and 1, $10 bill which was strange (why not 2 rain check coupons or 2, $10 bills)

The normal Catalina coupons do expire two weeks from the date purchased, so you could stretch this out into the end of July if you bought the GC's the last couple days of the promotional period. The combination of two-week coupon expiration, not being stackable AND the coupons not working without an individual manual overrides that most have encountered could mean long, frustrating visits to Safeway. It's definitely a good deal if you've got the patience and time...and need lots of groceries in a two-week period.

You've found a gold mine.

And... again, I seem to be earning fuel points on these purchases... The gift that keeps on giving.

I tried last weekend and had trouble just like pretty much everyone else. Manager told me that the couple was coded for general product but the machine just won't allow it, even my purchase was around $35 ($25 without dairy products). He had to overwrote manually.

Surprisingly to me, I got the fuel reward for the card purchase. It was labled as Gift Card Bonus on my receipt.

Welcome to FlyerTalk willhernandez! Nice first post...very helpful, which is of course our middle name.

my $10 coupon didn't work either. Cashier did a manual override then handed the coupon back to me to use "next time" :)

Take it to the Customer Service Counter, and they will give you a nice $10 bill.

I am confused, isn't this a one-time only deal? Do you have multiple reward accounts?

Only need one rewards card/phone number. You can buy as many as you want... in separate transactions (increments) of at least $100. Last night, I bought 4 in a row (4 X 200) and got 4 separate $10 coupons which are good for 2 weeks.

The deal is good until July 16th.

I went to another Dominicks today and the catalina coupon did not print. It seems the promo is not programmed in the registers. Good news because they offered cash today instead. I will go again tomorrow.

Does anyone know if your TomThumb number will work at Safeway in California?

I live in Dallas but will be travelling to the Bay area later next week before the current deal is over.

Thanks.