MollyNYC

This was my favorite.

The US goverment allowed up to $30,0000. worth of savings bonds to be purchased online and the credit card companies gave purchasers the miles. I'd wait for a double miles promotion and purchase the maximum. Since they only have to be held for a minimum of 6 months before they can be cashed in I was able to use the same money a few years in a row. I did this for 4 years and earned a total of 240,000 miles and made interest on the money. Sweet deal!

anchor79

So can we buy savings bonds via debit cards now and still earn some TY Points?

StSebastian

I think you can only participate via bank draft now, not credit or debit cards.

wanaflyforless

ALL of them. Really.

You have to decide if it is worth your time, but an AA earning deal belongs the the AA forum, UA the UA forum, Hilton the HI forum, etc.....so to catch everything that gets posted on FT requires a TON of time. Not worth it for most.

Please understand that unlimitted cheap miles is very rare...for every 100 days you check all forums, you might find something worthwhile.

phoenixitc

Back in the haydays of the tech bubble when brokerage firms and banks were handing out points, I signed up with all of them and got well over 200k points. I did a deal with Chase bank, deposited $50k into a biz account, got 60k CO points for a 6-month stay. One day after meeting time, I pulled money, closed account, got the miles. I bought the max $30k in savings bonds every year possible. Those were the days...

st7860

sometimes citibank(canada) gives cardholders charge-checks that allow up to $10,000 worth of balance transfers to accumulate "petro points"

steve32

I feel rather pedestrian, having not been able to score in a really good/cheap miles deal yet (despite being on these forums nearly every day). Unfortunately the AA/Enni Cheese deal didn't have any stores carrying the "products of particular interest" within a two state radius that we were able to find. This was the first place I've seen a couple people say how many miles they scored in that--I'm nearly brought to tears.

The best I've done was with the AA AAdvantage Program 25th anniversary deal with Dining Rewards, where elite dining + anniversary promo end of May and all of June scored one 25 miles/$, I bought $600 in gift certificates/cards at each of five restaurants (one near work, three near home end of subway, another near home) both months, scoring myself 151,000 miles in one fell swoop.

I'm still eating off those gift certificates/cards, even though I eat from at least one nearly every day. (I chose places with a meal I like that was also reletively inexpensive--in four of the five the meals are each less than $10; understandably the prime rib at the fifth place is more, but it's really good ).

Steve

Marathon Man

i have to sadly admit I never even heard about the AA cheese deal til now. oh well, am partial to dutch cheese we bring over and also that which we buy in VT. I could have been like the guy who said he bought and donated like $600 bucks worth. oh well. Serves me right babbling about crap while I could be ON the AA forum reading!

lin821

What about the AA promo that triggered "dumpster diving behavior" in 2004?
Earn miles from Fountain Beverages @ Cinemark Movie Theaters

I was also told by another fellow FTer the story of pocketing millions of Goldpoints by placing tons of orders of $1.89 photo prints from the following promo:
Shutterfly – 75,000 GoldPpoints for less than $100

I would think these qualify for being "extreme," wouldn't they?

anchor79

Oh Man,

I wish I was borned a few years earilier .. or know about this a bit earilier..now i have to work really, really hard to hit 1M mark! b/c I don't fly that much and I just got out of the school! sadly, I am only have 1/5 of the 1 million miles! I wish I have that "Lifetime" gold/plat/exP thing next to my name like all of you guys!

Grasshopper

Don't feel bad. All of us started out slow and worked our way up. A good place to start is pgary's website (click here), which will get you on your road to Lifetime!

I started seriously earning miles in late 2001-2002. In the 6 years since, I've gone from 80,000 lifetime AA miles to about 890,000 lifetime miles (with another 65,000 Starpoints ready to be converted when I need them). I did all that as a student, a military officer (where a lot of my travel was on military aircraft and DIDN'T earn miles), and a medical resident -- so it is DEFINITELY possible to do even if you don't fly that much.

Keep your ears (and eyes) open, watch out for good promotions, and you'll get to Lifetime status soon!

ejs621

My favorite was the AirTran/Wendys promo! I made quite a bit of money and I am still travelling on Free Vouchers!

st7860

a few times per year CITIBANK(canada) offers up to 100,000 petropoints(150,000 needed for short haul and 600,000 for international) with a $10,000 balance transfer check.

alemdohorizonte

back in 1991 i discovered that certain aaa offices would let you purchase travelers cheques on your credit card, commission free. the charges posted as purchases (not cash advances). i earned over 500,000 miles before aaa changed their rules.
this was a great mileage earner because it not only netted airline miles but also interest, earned by depositing your "purchase" into a savings account until the credit card bill came due.

kevinsac

I took advantage of the AAA purchase of traveler's checks, but I was still a noob and did not maximize it.

I used to churn 4-5 credit cards a year with Chase, so that was worth 100,000 miles a year.

I have bought my last 4 cars on credit card. Two years ago, UA was offering a Chrysler/Jeep 70,000 mile bonus.....so a Cherokee benefited me over 100,000 miles. ^