Hahahaha, I love this board. Some of you guys are wild!
This clearly is not worth the time to me. Hypothetically spend 5 hours of swiping a card (no way any store would allow it) for what... 400 miles?

lol indeed.

although I will NEVER forget the time many moons ago when I was 26 miles short of a UA award and they would NOT grant me the advance. I had a CC with them but I was like WOW!

AA did grant it when a similar thing happened to me, but it all reinforced the notion that one must grab every mile one can sometimes. And so, if a mile is out there and you know about it, you kinda hafta or the godz will getcha! hahaha

(addicted, yes)

A stay at home mom willing to work for the ~$3/hour worth of miles she could earn if she can find a card willing to accept hundreds of transactions per day should seriously consider why she isn't either spending that time with her kid, or at the very least, flipping burgers and earning three times as much.

well yes --by the numbers you may be right, but consider these realities:

1) if the kid is napping then this schema could be done (given that all laundry and other chores are done)

2) if the kids are at school then this schema could be done (given that all the household errands are done)

3) if 'rest time' for adults is in fact constituted by sitting in front of a computer--or in my case right now as I post, I could not sleep and am going to stay up for an hour or so total so I could do a bunch of them if I were doing them (and who knows, I might! lol)

4) working at a burger joint may NOT give a stay at home parent the flexibility to work during naps or when the kids are in school so this stay at home dialing for miles is more fitting

5) eating the burgers there (and yes, you would if you worked there too!) would be rather unhealthy over time and would end up costing a lot more in the long run (joining a gym to work it off, ending up with heart disease at an early age and being obese and thus needing further care in life which costs money even if one has decent health insurance)

6) the gas alone--just getting to work, even if it's close by. And once you leave the house when not working regularly, you tend to SPEND money and find all sorts of places to stop and whip out a card to buy something! When working full time, you have a regular routine whereas you only might grab that cup of coffee at the local spot on the way or something.

7) if your kids are old enough, you can employ them to help you--for free! That's, say, 1 parent, 2 kids who can do a little math and have a brain... FREE! lol

8) I forget what 8 was for



I tend to not always work by the numbers in my miles life. If I did, then coins would be WAY out. I mean, consider all the lugging and embarrassment and assumed-fraud-like hassle it is to get and cash those suckers out!

Instead, it's what we had for time (by the hour or not) and what we ended up with in miles that counts. At least for me.

So now we've determined that this scheme makes sense for only those people meeting all of the following qualifications:

> Has no job.
> Has a kid they watch who has considerable down and/or away time.
> Is able to find a credit card that will accept hundreds of daily transactions.
> Is willing to perform a repetitive and mindless activity to earn ~$3/hour worth of miles (if very focused), and this is more appealing than seeking a job, or doing any other leisure or productive activity while the kid is inaccessible.

I will admit that there have been days in a row (not always, but sometimes) that I happen to fit this exact profile. hehehehe

That said, I could stand to earn many a mile

See ya in Maui--when the kids wake up

Interesting. They used to do this, but then changed to a round to nearest point...looks like they may have changed back.

As a merchant provider my Amex credit card charges started out only costing me a flat $5 per month (no other transaction fees) as long as I did not go over $3000 in a month. I dont know if Amex still offers this on new accounts, but as soon as you go over $3000 in charges in a given month you pay the regular fee per transaction as well as the % (discount) fee. It was several years ago when I passed the $3000 threshold and have since been paying the regular amex fees for all my businesses credit card charges.

With that being said if you are serious about doing this I suggest talking to Amex merchant services and finding out if this promo is still offered for new merchant accounts and then try and set it up.

Then through your merchant account provider you can usually set up reoccurring billing monthly for credit cards. Set up your card to charge .01 as many times as it lets you per day. I dont know how long they would let this go on though before closing you down though.

I have not done this, I am just saying its possible to automate and also to talk to amex about this promo for new merchant accounts if its still available.

Actually if its still available I might just sign up with a second merchant account and hit my personal amex card for $2995 each month for the points. Not bad for $5/month on one swipe. I am sure if this was still around though it would be abused way to much and is probably long gone.

Reading this thread made me LOL-ed.

Since we are talking about squeezing every mile down to the last cent, I'll comment!

I had a lunch voucher for $7, my meal came to $7.19. I did have a quarter in my pocket and dollar bills, but you know what I did? I whipped out the CC, KACHING, KACHING!

People in line were probably thinking along the lines of what was wrong with me considering the cashier was like "do you have a dollar bill or a quarter for the remaining amount" I had to wrestle my back pocket open to get my wallet and choose which card I wanted to use, AMEX Gold PR or C1 Venture, haha.

I did too, at first, now I'm just shaking my head in disbelief.

I'll bet! For the 10 cents or so you netted, you had how many people wait in line an extra minute with you?

That's exactly right. It is not too difficult to trip the fraud filters. I recall round-up match BOA card promo where people were placing lots of small transactions to try to get the rounding difference match (pocket the change or something like that, I forget what it was called exactly). More than one story of getting a call from BOA or getting the card suspended.

I wish AAdvantage Dining had the same mindset. I recently spent $7.15 and am only getting 35 miles for it, which means my extra 15 cents got me nothing!

Surprised no threw down 19 cents to keep the line moving

Not sure if I would do that, but I definitely pay with a card for everything over $5. These days it can be faster (if no signature is required) than watching the cashier figure out the change.