Get miles for a purchase, redeem miles, return purchase.. is this possible?
 

Has anyone done this or something similar?

1. Spend $10k buying expensive electronics at Walmart or Costco (over 3-month return policy).
2. Get miles posted to your account and redeem them for a ticket
3. Return your unopened 80-inch HDTV to Walmart

I'm pretty sure they'll try to remove the miles, but can it happen if you're already ticketed? Will they not let you fly? What if you actually perform the travel before you return the items? Will your account be left with a negative balance in miles?

Just wondering; I'm not actually planning on doing this. It just came up as an idea as my friend and I brainstormed for quick ways to earn the few miles he needs for his upcoming travel.

Thanks!

Mileage is usually posted on net purchases. I can't speak from experience, yet if you are using the card for other purchases, you'd net out <0, and until you charged an equivalent amount of purchases, you wouldn't see any new miles. If it's a credit card opened, used, posted, then returned, I suspect when you asked for your refund check, they'd take the miles back.

If you had use the Search function with the keyword "return" you would have found these two discussions of precisely the same subject...

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...uff-miles.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...-here-how.html

And here's one more:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...es-thread.html

This is probably one of the reasons that Costco doesn't accept credit card (other than their own). Without a Costco supported credit card, purchases can only be made with debit, cash or check.

COSTCO takes any Amex type of CC not just their own

besides all the links above to other threads

Ive had CCs in the past that did in fact send a negative bal to my Carrier thusly resulting in miles being deducted straight from my acct.

Id say if you use the CC only for that purchase and have no other miles remaining after cashing them in and have no reason to fly or credit that Airlines program , you can get away with it. If you plan to continue to fly that carrier and/or credit miles to that acct = not such a good idea

Then if the free tkt hasnt been used as yet ,Id say you have to hope that the Carrier doesnt realize that. Youd be in better shape if you already used the whole tkt before Returning the goods.

Shame on you. Do you have any ethics or morals? Why not post..Is it possible to steal someones wallet buy a ticket and get millage?

I had a rather large refund back to an SPG Amex card and after it posted I called & had Amex send me a check for a refund so I wouldn't lose the points.

Which it sounds like the OP is planning to do.

Well, I wouldn't post that because I know the answer is YES, it is possible to steal someone's wallet etc etc.

If you read my post, you'd see I'm not actually planning on doing this. You can believe whatever you want to believe, but the only shame on me is not being able to find the threads linked above by searching (which I did try, so I apologize for not trying hard enough).

There's a more straightforward, sure, and ethical way to quickly earn miles:

Do microlending with the very reputable Kiva organization.

- You can provide some outstanding help to hardworking people around the world.
- You can lend money using your credit card (via PayPal) and PayPal generously waives fees for Kiva (at least they did when I previously loaned money). And, of course, you'll get the points/miles associated with that lending.
- AND... you can get the money back! Once the loan term is over, barring the rare circumstances in which the money is not paid back, you can request 100% of your original investment back... to put back into your bank account or invest in more worthy entrepreneurs.

Is that not awesome or what? :-)

[QUOTE=ThatAdamGuy;12707565]There's a more straightforward, sure, and ethical way to quickly earn miles:

- You can lend money using your credit card (via PayPal) and PayPal generously waives fees for Kiva (at least they did when I previously loaned money). And, of course, you'll get the points/miles associated with that lending.

When you fund your Paypal with your credit card, dont they charge you a fee for it?

You're not funding your PayPal account, you're paying a merchant; typically, merchants pay a set commission on each credit card transaction (something like 30 cents plus 2.9%), but in this case -- again, at least last time I checked -- PayPal was waiving that commission fee for Kiva, so if you decided to microlend $1000, all $1000 would go towards the entrepreneurs and related organizations you're trying to help :)

And don't forget on Kiva to join team Flyertalk! Just click on community and do a search for Flyertalk and join the team! We are doing good for the working people of the world and getting points and miles at the same time!

JudyJFLA