I have been off and on for years, currently more on than off. Lots of good things learned along the way.

Thanks for these posts, a lot of them were great memories. I flew a lot in the early days of joining for very little. These lessons have lasted.

Changed: Mistake fares. I've come across some "mistake" fares but have kept them to my circle of friends and family. I've looked back here when I came across but not a mention.

I think I missed out on SPG Stay2Get1ResortNight, but I used 5x a similar SPG Stay3Get1ResortNight to get 5 nights at the Sheraton inside Iguazu Falls National Park, Argentina, and a "challenge" at the same time to earn accelerated status for that year with those same 15 stays.

Not only have these promos gone away, and SPG itself, but so has that particular Sheraton (it's rebranded and is currently a Hotel Gran Melia).

They didn't give me any hassle when I brought in bags of coins with mostly quarters. They didn't like the dollar coins.

I bought gift cards at a Simon Mall, bought MOs at WM and deposited them at my CU in April and May of this year in Wisconsin and Illinois, but now I only do it to make the spend on new CCs. Just before I retired in 1996, I was doing over 100K a month.

I honestly put more thought/effort into the coin thing than my actual job at the time. As I noted upthread, I bought a minivan for the sole purpose of hauling coins, but there were a few other logistical considerations:
1. I timed the deliveries to make sure I was available to meet the UPS man because I didn't fancy having $20,000 left on my doorstep
2. I already had a BofA account, but I opened accounts at two more banks, which gave me a choice of about ~30 bank branches that were semi-close to me
3. On Monday mornings, I did the bank runs, focusing on branches that were okay with coin deposits, but I tried to avoid going to the same branches on subsequent Mondays

The above might sound like overkill to those of you who didn't do coins. However, it was well worth the effort for me.

What is this?

There's a whole forum about it:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/manu...-spending-719/

Still sitting on a pile of AA miles from quick churning the Citi Executive AAdvantage World Elite Mastercard with 100k bonus. Even though my original dreams of cashing them in on an EY F vacation have given way to less luxurious travel over the past 5 years, that brief period before the anti-churn rule change stands as my high-water mark in terms of miles accrual.

Personal favorites:

- AirTran (RIP) "Wendy's cups for tickets" scheme in 2006. I was buying hundreds from dumpster-divers on Craigslist and giving everyone in my family 32 flight credits (worth 2 RT tickets). It also got me to "lifetime AIrTran elite status", a program they revoked the following year.

- Travelers Advantage (RIP) in 1997-2001 or so. A travel agent that would rebate 5-10% commissions back to you in the form of a monthly check. I was getting $1,000+ monthly rebates, as I was on the road 200+ days a year.

- ValueAmerica.com (RIP) sale of gift certificates at 70-80 cents on the dollar, depending on how many you would buy. I would book my travel with Travelers Advantage and then pay at checkout with heavily discounted Hyatt gift cards. Another $1,000+ per month in cash back.

Credit card churning.

Citi AA cards every couple of months, Barclays US Air card every few months, 2 different Citi Hilton cards every 67-90 days, 5 or 6 new Chase cards every year, repeat AmEx bonuses for the same card every year, 2 Bank of America Alaska at the same time, 20 new cards a year, a dozen applications at the same time.

Oh yeah, BankDirect/Bask Bank/Texas Capital Bank, fortunately not yet a distant memory.