Help maximize miles earnings at The Home Depot
 

Basic questions here...


We spend $20,000 per month at Home Depot and Lowes.

Looking for thoughts on how we might get miles on these expenditures.



Thanks!


PS is there a better place to pose this question?

Use a miles earning credit card on an airline (or hotel) shopping portal to buy Home Depot gift cards. Sometimes it works out to be a quite lucrative double dip.

You can sign up for AAdvantage eShopping Mall and place the order through it to get 3 miles per dollar spent on HomeDepot.com purchases. You can buy online and pick up in store. Lowes does not participate in the eShopping Mall program.

Link to AAdvantage eShopping Mall

United MP Shopping pulled Home Depot gift cards as being eligible for points. Not sure if American has followed their lead. The HUGE word of warning I have for you is that United/AA shopping malls are run by Cartera and they are horrible about posting miles for these purchases from Home Depot. I have ordered gift cards and also merchandise and it takes me months to get these miles most of the time.

I like Chase's Ultimate Rewards mall. Check them out. They even pay more miles and if the miles don't show up in 30 days all you need to do is CALL them and they do the research and track them down and will do a manual credit to your account.

I stopped using United/AA shop mile due to all the issues I have had with Cartera. I like working through Chase. I did place some orders recently through MP for the months of miles challenge and already I have orders for merchandise frome Home Depot (gift cards and such) that have not shown up and I have to email them...

I have also been using Hawaiian and US Airways shop malls and they have been posting QUICK. They might also have Home Depot as a merchant..

Order gift cards through Chase Ultimate Rewards mall for 5 miles/dollar. Then use the gift cards in the AA shopping mall for 3 miles/dollar. I had to buy about $500 worth of stuff from Home Depot and that's the route I went.

So once you got the gift cards you placed an order for merchandise through AA shop mall? Or did you order ADDITIONAL gift cards through AA?? Then take them to the store?

I'm generally *not* a fan of the "home grown points" cards, but...

...there are some out there that count home improvement stores in their "bonus" category.

You may be able to use one of these cards to rack a 2 to 4 percent discount in the form of credit card points - even if you're doing that spending through some sort of online rebate or mileage portal. (I might be a bit hesitant on gift cards unless they're actually posted as a purchase from Home Depot.)

The catch on all of the home grown points programs is that I'm pretty sure every one I've ever belonged to has either changed its rules over time to make it less rewarding or ceased operation entirely. So I'd only participate if you have quick but high-value uses on the redemption side.

For example, these programs that basically turn your points into credit towards airline tickets: make sure you're periodically using the credit to get airline tickets. I'm still a member of Thankyou Points for another year or so (talk about a program that massively devalued)...the instant I hit about $100 worth of TYP, I get it out in the form of my next needed MCI-ORD or MCI-DEN one-way flight. That way if Citi ever refuses to waive the annual fee for participating in this lame-duck program, I can just walk away with nothing left on the table.

Just a heads up for those of you looking to but a lot of Lowes or Home Depot gift cards through Chase, Citi, Amex, etc...

Had a large order from Lowes recently (~$3k) and wanted to get an extra 15k in Chase UR points. I didn't want to be stuck with that much in Lowes gift cards so I called just to make sure they could take them for a special order and found that for special orders they cannot take gift cards, only cash or credit. If you're just buying normal merchandise you should be fine, but if you have a special order (in my case it was for roofing material) you probably should call ahead to the store just to check. We called Lowes corporate headquarters and we were told that this policy is up to the individual store.

When?
 

I too did HD giftcards for the UA miles challange...when did they change the terms on gift cards qualifying?....I ordered 75 $10 gift cards to get my 25K UA mile bonus between Sept. 2-18th I know they capped the program at 25k on the 9th but I have screenshot then showing gift cards as not excluded...I'm gonna be pissed if they try and worm out of this. They are slow in reporting my purchases as well with only a dozen or so posted so far.

good idea
 

I now have a bunch of HD giftcards, great idea to run them through AA portal as payment when I decide to buy something. Thanks for mentioning that.

Plastic Jungle
 

You can go to Plastic Jungle and buy gift cards for 7% off. Then, order your items online through AA Shopping for 3 miles per dollar spent (Home Depot only on AA shopping). This allows you to get full miles while getting a pretty good discount. Saves you $1400 a month and nets you 60,000 miles. Plastic Jungle has over 2200 gift cards...problem being, most are only $500 or less.

I do like Skydog's idea of double dipping with Delta and AA.

I'd be careful -- I've had Cartera rescind some points earned when I tried the double dip approach of using gift cards for purchases made through their online portal (for AA). (Some, if not all, T&C state that miles are not earned on gift card purchases.)

Good point...it probably hinges on various state laws regarding gift cards to some extent. Some states are more diligent than others in requiring that the myriad of gift cards and certificates that have proliferated in recent years be accepted just as cash would at the retailer. (e.g., Not invalidated by "sales" or "specials", thus effectively reducing the face value of the gift card in a deceptively back-handed manner.)

I personally think that just using a miles/points earning credit card would be best.

It’s obvious you are running a business, I don't think you should get your business expenditures involved in the shopping portal racket – the most likely risk is that could happen is you don't get your points - but still just play it simple and use the card to get x points per purchase. On the extreme end you could be sitting on say $20,000 in gift cards that you cannot use for some reason. (For example let’s pretend that instead of construction you did computer installs – would you have wanted to have $20k in CircitCity gift cards?)

So I'd look for this community to help you find the best card for large spend - there have been a few threads on the subject, so a search or look through Miles Buzz archive.

I am not sure on the "exact" date. It was posted on the "months of miles" thread that the T&C said "not eligible on purchase of gift cards" now on the United shopping mall....but I believe this happened sometime right after Sept 9th or along those lines.

Hold onto that screen shot. I think you will need it. I have no doubt that once people start emailing about "missing orders" that they will try the "gift cards do not count" crap. Right now on Ultimate Rewards mall through Chase it specifically states you can earn them for gift cards...