Any Pudding Type Promotions out there?
 

We all remember the Pudding Guy from many years ago...A million miles from collecting pudding UPC codes. Are there any other "collection" types of promotions out there? I haven't seen any in years - did airline shy away from them after this deal?

I think the airline involved was American and I've seen promos on cereal boxes, but that too was many years ago.

Try here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=717134

Perfect idea...but only for Canadians.
 

That's just the type of promo I'd like to see, but it's for Canadians only.

First you can lay claim to Ryan Reynolds and now this.

Wasn't their something last year where you could buy a bunch of fondue cheese at costco or sams club?

there are always things like the pudding thing but I'm not going to tell :D:D:D:D

Love the contrast between post and sig.

It was the Swiss Knight promotion that ran late last year. It was a really good deal too!

I was kidding.
I knowlingly posted that way. :D

The last one I saw like the pudding thing was when gift cards were hot and you could essentially earn free or near-free miles thru the use of purchasing cards that could be cashed out with a few short steps.

Now they are few and far between if they even exist. Those that do often have high fees and restrtictions not worth doing it for. While some people had great success (self included) some did not.

I know that the AMEX Traveler's Fund card is also going to die soon and I have been loading and unloading it vigorously, seeing as how it's last day to do so will be when the Red Sox clinch the AL EAST (:D end of this month). This gift card enabled one to earn many a Starpoint because an AMEX could load it, thereby creating a $2700+ purchase on your AMEX bill, and that many starpoints in your account by next statement. You could later cash out the TC card but it always was laced with risk and issue. Now that they have discontinued it and are no longer supporting it, I am finding its risk of fast load and unload is gone, but its days are numbered so you wont get much if you still have one. Anyway, I will be looking for something like it. I should be able to load it a few more times before the sad end.

Let's see...

The pudding guy was for Healthy Choice Pudding and it was AA miles. It helped make me a two million miler.

Then the ValueMags deal, then LatinPass, the 1-800 flowers thing, then savings bond flipping, then mortgage payments with money orders from USPS, then the United Chase bank multiple application thingy. Who can forget the USAIR software glitch (12 segments for CP) and the more recent and similar Priority Club glitch? Ah, what a wonderful source FT is for when the Next Big Deal happens. If the OP is thinking just from collecting something, like off food products, how about the 400 coke rewards points for a Sony camcorder or the early in the program DL awards? Current redemption awards are terrible though. Then there was the Wendy cups. Sometimes you blink (or after 4 hours on the Mileage Run forum) and the deal is gone. Sorry if I missed other deals. Usually the dinosaurs realize sooner or later someone is gnawing at their tail and the deals disappear. The objective is to catch (collect?) as many as you can and then keep your mouth shut to keep from ruining it for others.

-outoftown

These opportunities are a quite common in Germany for LH miles. Currently there is an offer that allows you to subscribe to a newspaper for €92 and receive 15,000 miles as a thank you. It's quite easy to get LH miles for less than a cent per mile. Sadly, such offers are pretty rare in the US; the most recent one, I think, was the Goldpoints/Shutterfly deal.

and yet, I've always wondered how YOU AND I find out if everyone is supposed to shut up. :D

I guess ya gotta be very ON and savvy and ready. I have been with several of these. One you mentioned that I loved (and milked muchly) was the Money Orders gig. When the bank in question found out, they made it not possible to earn miles off those purchases alone. One you forgot was the Iceland Air screw up for Sumer Solstice. I think it was like 66cents a flight or something cheap. I didnt go but wow.

Which brings up the long ago traveler checks purchased via credit card deals. I'm sure there are others that we can reminisce about. At the beginning of June, there were 88 cent flights to Peru and this special should run again should one know where to look on FT...but back to the OP's original question...current 'collection' type awards. The Coke points are the only one I can think of that is still current, but so many people cashed out the Delta awards that they increased the redemption amount each time they replenished the awards, so it now takes 4 times the points from when they started in March 2006. I have earned several thousand DL miles and Hilton points so far, but it is not worth it now, unless you can get thousands of coasters from Denny's. I don't know of any other collection method involving awards attached to food purchases except the idine (rewards network), but that requires dining out. I don't know of any that would exceed 20,000 miles or points either, unless you win some contest.

-outoftown

ok. anything current?

I hear crickets :D

(but am off to Denny's because the one near me has coasters and I had NO idea about that above gig! :D:D:D)

The Denny's coaster thing is limited to 100 points. Read the fine print before you snag too many.

...per account, but as cepheid pointed out, read the fine print. Some have already had Coke zero out their points for having multiple accounts. See the Coke thread in the S.P.A.M. forum for the lurid details.:(

-outoftown, with only one active coke account at a time to limit my losses...

Check the BA board for the Tesco thread. They've had some amazing ways to get points by buying groceries.

yeah, thanks for bringing it back to the original question. I appreciate the "good ole times" as much as the next FTer, but I'm curious if there are CURRENT promotions, specifically "collection" of UPC codes, bottle caps and what not...

Well it's hard to submit any new gig right here on the front and center board seen by many all too new people to FT who may just take the idea, over do it, kill the deal and run without even posting back with a "thanks guys, and here's mine that will work equally nicely for you all for a year or so!"

As well, someone in another thread puts it perfectly and this fits my current family life, which is why I have to say "thanks but am not doing it anyway" to that Denny's thing:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...90#post8350290

see KAZ's post #17.

What i would suggest for "new" schemes and deals is to seek out more on gift cards. try to find companies and new banks that entice customers by buying them. One such was PNC bank. I have to say it looked good but the rate they charge for their gift card to be loaded and shipped to you was a bit too high for the value of the miles you could get by loading it. I bring this up because you still CAN get these gift cards and maybe you can look at its model, at least, to find ones like it.

the process was worth doing though, because they have a visa card that comes with your free checking account that earns points on purchases. Getting into the gift card thing helped me find out about that, and those points can be earned by just using the visa. One promo gave me 5000 points just for using the visa 5 times. I know this may be standard for some, but it's still good to have other ways to get things when you are trying to save up big chunks of miles elswhere. In otherwords, spending $5-10 5 times on this visa gave me a lot more right away than adding another 25-50 miles on my NWA or AMEX card would have.

PGary's site is always a great way to maximize such things. It may not have the next pudding scheme but it sure makes you think and know about how to best use your point earning worlds!

http://home.earthlink.net/~pgary/TravelFrame.html

Thanks for the observation that the risk is now gone! I've had only a couple of dollars lingering on my TC card, and now I know how I'll make sure I hit the $25,000 spending threshold this year on my business DL Amex.

enjoy this brief period! As said, since July, I have loaded and inloaded it with vigor. oh wait, time to reload #1 of 2!

The link below is much better for my website. For those using the old earthlink link, please update to the new one provided by SmarterTravel. The earthlink link will be gone some day. Thanks.

oops sorry gary, did it again.
well, it's the first listing in google if you type your name in :D

Thanks for the info on the FFF site. BTW, I'm addicted to collecting Coke points now:p

being addicted to coke was never so good, eh?

:D

anyway, for those using the soon to fade AMEX TC cards, you know if you have more than one card from different AMEX holding sponsors, they still only let you load any one of those every 14 days either way. (regular days, not biz days, fortunately) I have 2 cards. Will have one loaded in 2 days.

Seems that the short answer is NO.

I've always thought this thread was a good fishing excercise done by a long time FTer with a secondary screen name to seek out leaks and score a few new ideas from a different perspective, and yet... isnt THAT the point of FT even if you use the one name you have? :D:D:D:D:D:D

and yes, of course I bit! gotta see if my ideas work for others, right? Especially the ones that are limited in use and could die or are dying or are unused anyway

Must have missed the Priority Club glitch. Can someone PM with details or post in this thread?

MM, how do you unload AMEX traveler checque card? By ATM? The cost seems to be quite high.

it is but if you add all the costs to do this, it is a very good deal for 2700 spg points

I miss those UPC codes...:(

So much for the Travelers cheque cards gambit. Amex just shut me down after a single reload and withdrawal sequence.

now THAT is a bummer!
wow they sooo should shut me down too seeing as how I was running two of these cards and doing it so vigorously lately. Over the years I had been acting more slowly and not nec. reloading 14 days (min waiting time) after it was empty, and I was also being certain to do several small regular charges on this card to keep it real, but still... it was very clear I was trying to reap cash from this!

I do know that those who had a card linked to their OWN AMEX card had more troubles than guys like me who had, say, their wife's AMEX being used to load my own AMEX TC card.

Also, I did discover, to my dismay, that BofA charges $3 now to get money out of one of their ATMs with a non-BofA card!

$3! OMFG! I wrote to them telling them it was highway effin robbery! Another bank in my town still only charges $1.50. I knew that WAMU ATMs charge nothing but I have none of those in my area so I was ok with paying even $2 but $3 is sick. Good thing it's gonna end then!

Almost all Credit Union ATMs are surcharge free.

Not in Delaware
 

I wish our Credit Unions had fee free ATM's. However, we have Wawa here and they are fee free.

Well not quite...but...

The Pudding Guy was my hero.....

One day I hoped to have the good fortune to have the opportunity be able to emulate his efforts.....and now I have :)

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...rs-like-3.html

You're my (Austrailian) hero! I read your thread - just amazing! And, of course, The Pudding Guy is in the Hall of Fame, lol.