Where's my pudding!!!
 

I have been a voracious reader of flyer talk and several well know travel/points blogs. I remember reading about a guy that bought a ton of pudding to reap millions of airlines points or another who spent the day driving rental cars down the street between rental agencies effectively hacking the system for a large number of points.

Does opportunity like this still exist? I just feel like I missed that boat.

You are nearly a decade or two too late. Pudding Guy did his thing in 1999.

Yes, most programs are much more sophisticated these days. I haven't heard of a big bonanza opportunity like that in quite awhile.

This summer (for another month and a half) United is giving members up to 5500 miles for a mid-size Hertz rental booked through the United website, 1 day or longer. Theoretically, if you had nothing else to do, you could do 1 day rentals over and over and over again, if you were living near an airport where rentals are very cheap, and run up a bunch of miles that way. But you'd still have to pay for all those rentals, and you'd still have to go to the airport Hertz location to pick and return each one. And it would only work at certain airports (some are way too expensive for that), and only if it was easy for you to keep getting to the rental facility every day or whenever.

Now that Manufactured Spending exists, fewer people do things the above to earn miles. But MS (Manufactured Spending) itself is somewhat harder for many people than it was in its heyday a few years ago.

Nothing easy / simple lasts very long. If it's too easy, the airline or credit card company or whoever figures that out and stops it.

"How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?"

Does that mean vegetarians can't eat vegetarian pudding? :confused: :p

Yes, you behind the bike sheds, stand still laddy!

You! Yes, you behind the bikesheds, stand still laddy!

Two posts above yours...

And just in case you do earn them (though the consensus so far on that thread is that it's close to impossible to earn that bonus), keep in mind that you've got to use them relatively fast if you aren't a QMiles Platinum member. From the wiki of:
Qatar (QR) Privilege Club: Hard expiration 3 to 3.5 years after earning (on June 30 & Dec. 31); may be extended or resurrected for a fee (link). No expiration for Platinum members

They can only have yorkshire pudding. :D

I was the stupid American who ordered a yorkshire pudding for dessert... :mad:

oooops!

There was (briefly) the SAS Eurobonus rental deal this summer. That could have been a gold mine if the terms had not been revised to add limits to US rentals.

Keeping aware of smaller deals is the way to go. Delta offered a partner promotion earlier this year that netted me 14k for under $100 in additional spend. American countered with a streamlined version and Alaska currently has a bonus for surveys, dining, and shopping.

The above deal is invitation only. I've been using it - I gave up having a full time car after my baby was vandalized last year to the point of being totaled by the insurance company.

To put the Hertz rental promo in perspective: 5500 miles is approximately what I earn with Mileage Plus on a round trip transcontinental flight these days as a Gold member. And while my home airport is a 1+ hour bus ride away and rentals are expensive to boot, the combination of lack of car and regular meetings 50+ miles away = a significant number of 1 day car rentals.
I've also only booked when I get $30ish rates = $50ish net cost - Hertz at this airport can be base $100/day or completely unavailable.