One of the regulars at our Boston DOs tells of driving across town several times with his tires brushing the wheel wells. He ended up in a conversation with the officer who pulled him over - because, well, he must be doing something wrong - about the ins and outs of miles & points.

ETA: Make that "many times".

I'm surprised no one has mentioned BankDirect. I have had an account with them for many years. Bonus AA miles for signup and 100 miles for every $1,000 average monthly amount in a checking account. There are several other bonuses, including 1,000 for referrals so if anyone wants to sign up, please PM me. What I really like is that you get 4 ATM withdrawals a month from any bank and they reimburse $2.50 in fees for each one. Lots of other perks. Downside is $12 a month fee but, depending on how much is in the account, it's worth it.

For me, maybe it's via gambling...sort of. My online gambling portal allows payments from Visa. So I deposit money from my visa, shows up as an online purchase. Not it's a small pittance of miles cuz I deposit like $50 a month to play with, but potentially you could deposit $500, collect the miles, place like 1-2 small bets then just withdraw the rest of the money via either direct bank transfer or wait for a cheque.

All the while listening to "One Night in Bangkok".

That's a pretty sick promo, any thought it might be something they'd do again?

Now THAT'S manufactured spending !

Forgive my ignorance, I haven't heard of this one, were they just giving out codes to redeem for 100 miles or something?

That's why I always show up like this...

Buying (worthless) Trackitback lost item recovery stickers was pretty lucrative for a while. The equivalent of buying USDM at .7 cpm.

Is it defunct or something? Why'd you stop this?

EDIT: NVM, I see they're out of business.

The edge was in US Air giving a large promo multiplier on the sales price. It was a one-time deal. You got something like 142 miles per dollar. Alas, they (Trackitback) went broke well after the credit card chargeback window closed, or the miles would have been free.

Really, we should set the bar for being impressed on this kind of stuff at well over 1 MM miles nowadays. The pudding guy's million was unheard-of at the time because credit card bonuses were small, maybe 10-25k at a time. Nowadays a husband and wife team can do that without working up a sweat. Let's call it 5 MM cumulatively, or anything over 1 MM in less than a dozen transactions to be a .......

Wendy's and AirTran had a promotion. Each Wendy's cup was printed with a "Flight Coupon". 64 Flight Coupons (aka cups) equaled one free roundtrip ticket on AirTran.

We were limited to two free round trip tickets per account. That's when my kids signed up for their AirTran Rewards Account along with much of my extended family.

Same, plus paying for my own.

I took advantage of the American Airlines double miles offer to Asia Feb 2014. In fact, I was American Airlines Platinum so I managed to get triple miles.(They refused giving me double the double). They are now offering the double miles after registration for the offer on American Airlines to their Asian stops. My Narita Japan trip from Dallas netted me 7,000+ miles x 3 (triple) in each direction or 42,000 miles! Plus, My connecting flight Miami to Dallas double miles.

I was the owner of a golf course operating company. Every year we refreshed 25% of the fleet. With 75 cars in the fleet , plus turf supplies and pro shop inventory, I acquired lifetime Platinum status with American.
Unfortunately those credit card miles no longer can be used for that.
At a different course I used a hotel credit card so I could be in balance. Free trips air and hotel all over the world.
Life was very good.

I'm far too cheap to get the Delta card, which is where most of my miles reside, but my Capital 1 card gets weekly charges from my kid's preschool. I have to pay the bill anyway; might as well cover our holiday airfare.

Back in 1995, my parents considered using a United Mileage Plus Visa to purchase my horse. Not sure if they ever went through with it, but it was a serious topic of points discussion for quite awhile!

For some time in the past, DL had a partnership with FedEx where you will get miles for items shipped through them. I signed up the company I worked at the time and I was getting quite a few miles. Changed jobs and did the same with the new employer. Up to 2013 I got miles with DL from 2 employers, even though they are not my regular airline.

Let's not forget about the GREATEST point grab ever for the Chinese businessman who netted almost half a BILLION AMEX membership reward points for buying a teacup...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...36-million-cup

This guy gets my vote - not exactly unusual had it been just one rental, but his approach was pretty determined!

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...000-miles.html