I want to open up an account with E-Trade for miles too,
but It feels a little unsafe to just send off $1000.00 to someone in Boston...
What do we know about this company? Have they been around long?

Also any suggestions on something real cheap to buy as the 2nd purchase
3 CD's for $30.00 perhaps, or one of those overpriced T-Shirts
or Mugs from Web Flyer I guess. I'd like to buy the Official Frequent Flyer Guidebook
WebFlyer is selling, but they advise it will not ship/be billed till January...so I guess the would not count.

Any suggestions or info?

E*Trade has been around for at least two years that I have been aware of them. They were one of the pioneers of the online-discount-trade firms that seem to have sprung out of the woodwork.

After filling out the E*Trade application, I received an email from their CEO telling me if I got the application and $$$ in to them by 12/20, I'd get a $50 bonus. Not a bad return for 30 days plus the miles!

In addition, E*trade is a member of the
SIPC, which I believe stands for the
Securities Investors Protection Corporation,
a quasi-governmental entity which basically
acts as an insurer against dishonest broker/dealers
who might otherwise run off with your money.
Sending them the money, I believe, is a fairly safe bet. Now, what you decide to
invest your money in, that's another question.

Here's what I hope is helpful information concerning the ClickRewards "Buy and Fly" promotion. When you sign up with E*Trade (indicating you're to be awarded the 2,500 ClickPoint bonus), E*Trade informs ClickRewards to add those points to your ClickRewards account (they match email addresses). Those 2,500 points count toward earning a "Buy and Fly" bonus, which is a promotion being run by ClickRewards; to receive any such bonus you need to have made a qualifying purchase from at least two merchants participating plus accrue enough overall points, all between October 15, 1998 and December 30, 1998. There are four tiers of bonus points awarded for the "Buy and Fly" promotion. With 500 "earned" ClickPoints you get a bonus of 500 additional points. With a total of 1,500 "earned" ClickPoints you get a second bonus of 1,500 points (i.e. 2,000 total bonus points). With a total of 2,500 "earned" ClickPoints you get a third bonus of 2,500 points (i.e. 4,500 total bonus points). With a total of 5,000 "earned" ClickPoints you get a fourth bonus of 5,500 points (i.e. 10,000 total bonus points).

The 2,500 points from E*Trade count as "earned" ClickPoints. This means that with just one other qualifying purchase (e.g. using barnesandnoble.com to buy $50 worth of items--exclusive of shipping, gift wrapping, and, if applicable, tax), you go past the third tier of bonus and therefore get a total of 4,500 bonus ClickPoints. This is where the 7,000 point total on the E*Trade icon on the ClickRewards website comes from (2,500 from the E*Trade offer plus, provided you make one other qualifying purchase within the specified time frame, 4,500 bonus points). Note that in order to get to the fourth bonus tier you would have to find a way to accrue 2,500 ClickPoints in addition to the 2,500 from E*Trade; if you did this, ClickRewards would then add an additional 5,500 points making your "Buy and Fly" bonus total 10,000.

Hope this helps those wondering about this bonus. At this late date, I don't know if you could safely get the E*Trade points in time to have them count toward the "Buy and Fly" bonus; maybe a call to E*Trade could get that question answered.

Not to get off the topic here. But as a avid FF (over 200K flown miles/year) and an E*Trade customer, I don't know if I value my FF miles or my Etrade account. They have been around for a while. Are very reputable and have helped myself and many other customers make a lot of money since they allow access to IPO's. Does anybody remember EBAY at $18 in late september. It is around $300 today. There have been many others as well. Sorry to get off the topic here but contact me if you need any more info on them or the returns I have had. And NO, I do not work for them. YES, you do get $50 if you send you application in before the end of the year. You can also get another $20. I need to stop now or I'll keep going.

You had to rub it in vgrove?

The only thing more painful than missing the last double mile bonanza
is the realizatio of all the millions that I could have made.