Of course magazines are a common use for orphan miles.

When I first had a bunch of sign-up bonus UR points,
I bought both a Blu-Ray player and a 31-in Vizio LCD TV.

There were some very reduced point requirements,
like 20% of the "regular" points level.

Maybe they were mistakes, I don't know. This was
a few years ago, and I haven't seen similar promo level since.

edit: Yes, I believe it was exactly the promo mentioned in Post #11.

Many people (not me) get miles and points just to get giftcards to buy things. 1 cent per mile.

Magazines are often free or nearly so on several sites- (the big catch is beware the automatic recurring fee). Orphan miles is a good way to avoid recurring billing.

There really needs to be a simple way to donate orphan miles to charity.

Even with these "promos" the redemptions are so terrible. These "rewards" programs are really getting away with murder. AmEx lets you get an iPad, I think the redemption value was .55cpm LOL

I just googled around a bit and found this: http://www.redcross.org/support/dona.../airline-miles

Delta isn't the easiest process, but the other ones seem pretty simple. It does however say: Lame.

Before I knew about the miles game I bought the g/f an iPad Mini using MR points because I didn't want to spend cash.

Afterwards I crunched out what they were worth had I used them properly :mad:

Won't make that mistake again!

Well... in the case of the BluRay player I mentioned,
it cost something like $10-15 worth of miles, IIRC using 2cpm.
I have never seen such an offer again.

I've used airline miles for magazines before coming here :)

I think I purchased a magazine subscription or two with low balance/expiring points on an airline I almost never fly.

I have had co-workers who trumpet the great TV/Driver/etc that they purchased for a bazillion points. I smile and congratulate them as I quietly cringe inside.

About 10-12 years ago, when I was first getting serious about the miles/points game, I was staying every week at a Fairfield Inn. One of the regulars I met there had been doing it for years. His company put him up there every week, and he got all the points. I opined that he must have several million points racked up, and he said he didn't really know - he didn't pay much attention to that stuff.

Curious, I questioned him further. He told me:

1. He had once got an award room for a couple of nights in Miami to visit his sister, and

2. He had gotten a nice color TV with the points.

Other than that, he had never used them. He also had pretty much never gone anywhere. It just didn't interest him.

So I smiled and walked away.

Does anyone EVER redeem reward points for merchandise?
 

I've used points for gift cards for the wife. They keep her happy and offset me constantly asking her to use a different credit card.

Once you have enough points in a program you might look at the cost to generate the points rather than the alternative uses. If I am earning points for a small fraction of a cent each it might make sense to redeem for gift cards at 1 point per cent.

Citi Thank You, bought me a Canon 60 camera at Best Buys, $1300.00.

Went bad 90 days later at Hilton Head, and Best Buys gave me a new one...

Thank you Citi, and Best Buys..

There's a camera that I really want that is just not in the cards financially right now. The best I can find is about .9 cents per point in the various malls in which I have points, which is, obviously, a no go. But it's frustrating.

There's part of me that wishes I could find someone at one of the airlines to have a conversation something like this, "Look, I'd do this right now for 1.5 cents per mile. Let me explain to you how badly I'm going to rake you over the coals if, instead of burning the miles, I use them for seats in premium cabins that are going to cost you much much more."

Last year after playing the churning game for a couple of years, a friend from work redeemed about 500K miles/points from United, Delta, AMEX, and Chase UR to setup his family room with a home entertainer center that included a 60" TV, a blu ray player, a home theater sound system and a Nintendo WII. His family loves the setup and he has had no regrets over it. Still brags about it on occassions.

Exactly, you have to keep the better half appeased.

With the recent devaluation of Hilton points....I maybe using the time buy a few things.