halothane

Back in the day it was much more lucrative. Like the days of ordering 10K every few days and having it delivered to your bank. One could easily and quickly rack up several international F tickets in a matter of months.

This is a hobby for many people and it's the thrill of the chase for some. For others, we just sit over here on the side lines and quietly and quickly build up our mileage balances to astronomical values.

Halothane

jschner

Makes sense.

I still have about 300K Amex MR points but switched to the Schwab Visa a few months ago after Amex po'd me about four times in a row over a six month period. So I won't be accumulating points anywhere anymore except when I fly. It's also clear that a lot of the strategies in the 9K posts in this thread just don't work anymore. So that's why I was wondering if there was still a way to accumulate significant miles or points with $1 coin direct ship purchases.

Thanks for your reply - it's much appreciated.

josephstern

I know the idea was floated a lot, and I was one of the ones who pushed it around, but it was only in jest. I don't think anyone actually had the coins delivered to their bank or credit card company. Maybe someone did that I wasn't aware of, but I think that was just a joke of how to get the maximum benefit for the least work.

SkinsFan0521

Well, I've been doing this on a much smaller scale than many people (mrpickels for example) and since August 2008, I've gotten all of these things almost 100% from $1 coins (between my gf & I). Granted, many of these things were from sign-up bonuses and if you're not interested in doing these things, then the $1 coin thing probably isn't for you.:

250k BA miles
Free BA companion ticket
130k SPG points (will also be SPG Gold by the end of the year)
180k AMEX MR points
80k AA miles
70k HHonors points (Will possibly by HHonors Gold by the end of the year)
$800 cashback

As for your comment about many of those techniques not working anymore... it is true, that you can no longer buy $5k++ at a time, but there are definitely ways to get creative and earn plenty of points/miles. For example, on Wed, I got a total of $4k delivered to me (between multiple addresses).

Also, you seem to be looking at this purely as a money thing, not the value of the points/miles. As it has been documented a million times before in other threads on FT, if you use the miles correctly (international business class for example), the value of these miles can skyrocket.

Your comment about college degrees and trailers are just absolutely ridiculous. My gf & I both have degrees and make well into the 6 digits. I'm well aware that we're not making as much as many people on here, but we're certainly far from the trailer park. The thing to me is that we can afford to go on nice vacations, but with points/miles, we're able to go on great vacations for the same price (or even cheaper!).

Happy

If you dont "get it" after monitoring threads for over a year, then you probably never would.

But that does not mean you should use derogatory language to the rest of us who "got it".

Right!

The derogatory language is uncalled for other than the fact that it truly shows the ignorance of the poster.

Happy

You have already offended a lot of people with your derogatory comments.

If after over a year's monitoring of threads and you still need others to tell you what this is all about - then this is not for you and you should just move on instead of posting your disparaging remarks.

ejs621

There are ways to do more than $3k a month, but with your condescending statements I am sure most here are not willing to "enlighten you."

Playing the coin game paid for 2 weeks in Tahiti (Moorea and Bora Bora), 2 trips to Europe all with first class flights. The funny thing is I don't live in a trailer park, nor did I see any on these fabulous trips. Don't smoke either!

Your statements show your ignorance on many fronts, 10k in coins charged to the right credit card can net you one night in an over the water bungalow in Tahiti worth approximately $1,000. My rate of return is much higher than your quoted $20.

Cheers!

PedroNY

You really should think before you type up messages and say "I didn't mean to offend anyone". You are not asking a question in this thread, instead, you are passing a judgment on a whole group of people who decided to make purchases of coins through U.S. Mint. Your assumption is also based that this hobby ammounts to a full time job and that somehow that translates to people here spending all of their time for this activity and not getting something else (presumably more useful activity) done. Well, it may take you that amount of time to accomplish this activity, but for most of us here it is an activity that takes a couple of hours a week. For example, I do not spend a lot of time watching television. Therefore, if someone in your position may spend their leisure time in front of a tele instead of doing an activity such as racking-up miles and points to travel for free (or close to it) to exotic places, then actually I accomplished more in that time than you. Again, I have not clue what you do with your leisure time, but you should consider that these activities are actually enjoyable and fun for a lot of people and we substitute other activities that people like yourself may find appealing but they are not as appealing to us. References to "unknown colleges" and "trailer parks", only make you look bad and ignorant. Just simple demographics of the people on this website would blow you away, but again you didn't do your homework an just decided to post somehow conveying your judgement on a large group of people. If you at least would read some threads you would understand that majority of the people have HUGE credit lines. Simple understanding of how credit lines are allocated by financial institutions would lead you to undestand that there is a strong correlation to someone's incomes/assets/education and these factors should at least turn some sort of light bulb in your head and you should recognize that people involved in these activities are not doing it for the 2% cashback on a single dollar coin purchased and deposited. Please do not claim that you monitored this thread for a year, if you would actually read back to how this deal was leveraged by people here (present company included) a year ago, then you would understand why this was such an amazing opportunity.

I put in in my speech, sorry for being long winded but something had to be said. If you are looking for examples, I had several multi-week international vacations ($350-900/night rooms) in the last 2 years for myself and Mrs. PedroNY, and I have another two booked for next year -- all because of miles/points.

Best,

PedroNY

HoKo

Hey guys, I've been monitoring this thread for a while and I've read the sticky FAQ (I'll be careful not to claim I've been doing so for a year though haha) I'm relatively new to the whole FF community, I only discovered this about 3 months ago, but I think I've been making up for lost time pretty effectively (United MP 50K offer, personal and biz SPG for 60K, and personal and biz chase checking for 50K) and I've tried to do my homework so I wouldn't drive anyone crazy posting basic questions like "what is churning?"

But with all that being said I have been doing the US Mint coins for about 1 month now and I haven't been able to figure out how to get around the current $1000 every 10 days limit. Many people in the most recent posts have pointed out how they were able to circumvent the current limit, is this done by using different billing addresses, different credit cards, different shipping addresses, different names, or some combination of the above?

I know that a lot of times people don't necessarily want to share their exact tactics but any guidance would be much appreciated.

jjwjjw

Public discussion of beating order limits is probably not a great idea since this program has already been restricted due to publicity.

jschner

I really hate to get off topic but:

I'm amazed at the thin skinned responses that have resulted from what I mistakenly thought were obviously outrageous, over-the-top, absurd statements and were intended only to lighten up an otherwise way-too-serious question about the benefits of the strategies employed by posters in this thread.

Read the statements again in the original post (in context) – the statements DO NOT state that folks executing this strategy have a degree from an unknown college; they DO NOT state that they work at a very bad job; they DO NOT state that they live in a trailer park; they DO NOT state that they are hustling the system for cigarette change. Really – they DO NOT – read them again (carefully?) in context and see if you don’t agree.

The first statement was such an over-the-top, absurd way of saying that FT member time is worth more than $20 an hour that I considered but consciously decided not to include a smiley emoticon after it – BTW my wife has a degree from a university that most folks never heard of and she makes less than $20 an hour. Her time is worth considerably more but she finds it extremely gratifying and that’s how she chooses to spend her time.

The second statement was so totally and stereotypically absurd and ridiculous that it’s hard to imagine how anyone could take it seriously. It’s like dialogue straight out of a Saturday Night Live or Monty Python skit. I mean, if I thought the FT community fit this mold would I ever have bothered to ask for advice in the first place?

Personally, I assume that just about every FT poster has 16 or more years of education or equivalent life/career experiences. I mean the strategies employed here are often very sophisticated and sometimes extremely complex. Furthermore, those executing these strategies must be able to command a decent credit line and possess a lifestyle/career/income-level that allows them to travel around a bunch.

So isn’t it reasonable to assume a certain level of sophistication and intelligence here?

Did anyone see the film Up in the Air? The film made a point of the fact that one can really over do it and lose sight of real life values devoting oneself to stuff like this (or anything for that matter) but no one would ever say that the Clooney character was portrayed as being stupid or dumb. He may have been characterized as being misguided but he was clearly portrayed as being a highly educated, extremely smart guy.

That all being said – I apologize to any of you who took offense at my statements. No offense was intended.

I value the advice of the FT community, hold members in nothing but the highest regard, and genuinely and sincerely appreciate the support and attention so graciously and generously extended to me and others.

QL_714

You had me going till that line!

Pup

You might want to quit while you're ahead.

So you don't think people doing this are actually stupid or dumb, they may have just lost sight of real life values?

lovetotravel

JSchner

You say you have monitored the thread for a year but it seems you have not read it...this is obvious from your posts even after other posters have told you what they gained by the "coin thing".

You have to ask mrpickels how he did it, if you had read the thread even sporadically, you would know his legendary deeds.

Your following statement shows your knowledge or the lack thereof after not reading the entire thread. You need to know more about the workings of credit cards.

I never carry a balance but put about $6K to $8.K a month in expenses through a Schwab 2% cash back Visa. So I could easily get a 30K bonus mile CC and meet the the issuer's spending requirement. But doing that over-and-over again would adversely affect my credit score unless I began playing the complex credit games (detailed elsewhere in FT) which involve some very careful scheduling and almost amount to another full time job

jschner

HoKo – As I had questions similar to yours and no answer seemed to be forthcoming, I Googled beyond FT and found a few links that shed some light on the current situation and perhaps the reticence of some FTers.

Like you, I couldn’t figure out how this strategy could currently achieve benefits as substantial as some of those still being claimed by posters to this thread. The answer seems to be that the game has changed dramatically during the past few months and many of the $1 Coin Direct Ship purchase strategies employed before then are either no longer relevant or may have even morphed into different, yet-to-be-documented forms.

Check these out – I hope they help.

December 2009 WSJ article:Miles for Nothing: How the Government Helped Frequent Fliers Make a Mint

December 2009 WalletPop article:
Shrewd frequent fliers make miles on U.S. Mint's mistake

December 2009 eTN article: Mint spokesman says that the Mint barred 20 people who couldn’t explain the need for so many coins from purchasing more and that the Mint is changing the ordering process to record credit card purchases as cash advances rather than credit card purchases.
U.S. Mint blocks "Free Airline Miles" scheme

January 2009 classic blog that explains how one guy did the multi-card thing and met CC purchase requirements with $1 Coin Direct Ship purchases:
THE 5 MILLION FREQUENT FLYER MILE CHALLENGE