Ha, not here. It's actually rare I don't get a purchase credited. Pretty sure I'll get the points (eventually) so not stressing. I can always return the item and re-buy. Definitely worth any hassle for 10% back in miles or points. Chase Rewards, ebates, fatwallet, bigcrumbs, etc. have been very good to me. Just got 10% back in Chase Rewards (17K points) on a recent refrigerator purchase at Sears.

In my experience, Avis is better than Budget, though they're in the same company. That doesn't mean Avis is great. Just better. As long as your profile matches the promo you want to exploit in the rental. My main issue with them is my Avis First preferences going into my rental or governing the outcome of which partner miles post. Even if I've manually entered a promo code and my number and my name is the same - expecting 3,000 miles - they show up in another airline account - 50 miles. Or 150 for three days. And there is "just nothing we can do about it". With Budget, they often never show up, and "there is just nothing we can do about it". Except in one case they - a large slug of them - showed up almost two years later, after several FlyerTalkers et al apparently got to them through the local BBB of their headquarters.

I guess I'd say, the above commenters to the contrary, I haven't had very good luck with most partner promos, whatever the partners.

Hiker,

Question about Chase Rewards - is this the Ultimate Reward Mall?

If so, where can I file claim for missing transaction? In August I have made a small test purchase with Lands End because it offers 8 bonus points. Points never posts and Chase could not track the transaction but it deposited the deserved UR pts to my account after I SMed them to research the transaction.

I could not figure out where on UR Mall site to report missing transactions.

Login to Chase Ultimate Rewards (or click thru from your CC account), click on "See Rewards Activity", then "Ultimate Rewards Mall & Travel earnings". You should see all your activity there. If not I'm guessing you'd need to click on the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of the page after 8 weeks. All my activity has shown up except stamps.com. I suspect they may have nixed that offer after it got blogged about - stamps.com no longer appears on the UR site.

I found the activity section - it is on the left side bar - and my Lands End purchase done in early August is not showing. There is no instruction on how to file claim for missing transaction such as those on AA or UA sites. I guess Contact Us is the only means to do that. Same seems to be the case with Priority Club's Mall. And sadly, both are also run by Cartera.

Though Chase has been really good to own up the problems with the UR Mall. I SMed them, and they posted adjustment right away. Another FTer called them a month later still no trace of a 4K+ transaction and Chase gave her an additional 1K for her trouble.

Wow.. I never heard of this happening..

Which company?

On a similar note, I once sold something on ebay for $25, and the personal check bounced, which cost me $10. So I waited until the first of the month (when payroll checks are often deposited) and cashed it in person at the local WaMu branch. I am hoping that his rent check went NSF No longer accept personal checks on ebay (but then again I no longer use ebay much).

The check came from Evaluative Criteria, Inc. I don't remember what the survey was about.

I wonder what would have happened if you tried cashing it at a Money Mart? They would have done a background check ahead of time..

edit to my post: Chase Rewards, ebates, fatwallet, bigcrumbs would work.

I meant the airline malls like UA or AA, etc... many do post for me but those that do not are very troublesome and I have had many.

AND as we know, all those are run by Cartera or FreeCause!


You know, when I first saw the name of this entity it looked like "Evaluative Cartera" and I was like "you're kidding me!" in a 'I'm angry about it with you' kind of way.

Anyway, I am sorry this happened to you. Terrible!

I am just about the fall into that trap now. The only (that I could find) credit card that earns Emirates miles available in my country of residence (not the UAE) is offered by Emirates National Bank of Dubai.

It requires one to maintain a fixed-deposit account at the bank first of all, with a minimum balance of AED 150,000 (about $40K) for the Platinum level and AED 250,000 for the Infinity card. The interest rate on this account is about 0.5%, maybe not horrible by U.S. standards these days, but two points less than I could otherwise get in this part of the world. These funds are locked for a year at a time -- one can withdraw the funds any time, but one forfeits the interest; no big deal I guess given the rate.

Then you have to maintain in a normal savings account at the bank with a balance equal to or greater than the card limit, to cover in case of default. That is on top of the fee for the card, which is AED 700 per year for Platinum and AED 1,500 for Infinity, and non-trivial bank charges to wire the money internationally to set up the fixed account and to transfer the funds into the savings account to pay the balance each month.

At least the earnings rate is pretty good -- 1.5 miles per $1 spent on the Platinum card or 2 miles per $1 spent for the Infinity card.

So I calculate that if I spend $7,000 per month on the Platinum card, it would cost me about 1c per mile (Infinity would cost more), given the cost of the card and the foregone interest. This does not take into account the opportunity cost, besides the foregone interest, of the illiquidity of this fixed-deposit account, nor the small risk of having money stuck in UAE for who-knows-what-reason. More importantly, it assumes no other charges, especially interest, which would quickly make this a bad deal. Obviously it would be a lot more attractive with a spend like $20,000 per month.

Let's hope I can put these Emirates miles to good use! First-class A380 or SFO-DXB here I come!

I don't know if a similair thread already exists, but I'm curious to hear some specific stories of how far people have gone to pick up a few extra points or miles.

My addiction to points is "under control" so I haven't done anything terribly outrageous, but I'm losing my grip...

My least efficient efforts so far relate to e-rewards. I think I've spent three hours taking dumb online surveys and I'm still a long way from getting any meaningful points out of it. I don't think I should even bother.

Two words: clubbing.com

Mike

My Independence Air miles. I earned 69 (it was 1 mile per $ spent I think) on December 28th. They were bankrupt by January 7th.

Misunderstood.