I guess I have the answer in a year when the dividend comes. This is exactly what I did. Will also see if my shopping with gift cards at rei.com produced any miles within 90 days. I am aware of the 3% less dividend with using a different credit card, but didn't know about the gift card loophole.

I was just thinking also that miles are worth more than Marritot Rewards points, so buying a GC yields more return than the MR Premier Visa available.
Certainly if you can get a 10% off deal like happens every now and then.
Anyone tried the 1-800 flowers e-gift cards?

I noticed a $3.95 fee when purchasing through Amex. I'll need to check again at the grocery store, but they seemed to be at face value. Interestingly, Amex no longer ships gift cards to a number of states (including CT), yet they sold locally.

Another thing to be aware of is that some stores (like Sears or Circuit City) allow you to buy online and pick up in-store. You can buy through the miles portal and pick up the item locally.

Can non-AARP members get these? Or should I bug me mother for 'em ?

Anyway, what you could do to go even further, is to use the HD gift card you got from AARP at a discount to actually use it to buy MORE HD gift cards via the NW or UA malls at HomeDepot.com!

Currently, one can get miles from those two malls when buying HD gift cards. Hardly any other gift card purchases made via the mall will count. AA's no longer allows this but NW and UA still does give mall miles for HD gift card purchases. The reason why this is valuable to guys like me is because I do shop there a lot so having a gift card is fine by me.

As well, many here may know of promos that require big spending in a short period of time to meet the requirements of said promo. So often times I am in need of a certain $ threshold for such a promo at NW, for example, and so I just go buy like $500 worth of HD gift cards at the site via the NW mall. That $500 spending may have triggered the promo (there was one last year--I think the valentine's day one, which awarded like 10,000 miles or something).

Well, now I am left with this massive HD gift card but that can be used any time, thereby not forcing you to go out and make a big purchase in some sort period of time usually dictated by some promo just to make their threshold/promo requirement timeframe. Now, with the $ HD gift card, I can use it any time I want in the store!

Obtaining these via the HD website incurs no shipping charges either.

I have not yet tried to use one to buy on their site but now you know I will!
MM

ps: as with anything involving miles--especially mall purchases, always DO keep detailed printouts and records on your transactions. More times than not I have had to fight with the airline to get my miles.

What kind of details do you make?
Copy the URLs with session ID's etc and take screenshots?

yes that works.
I enter my NW number in the page where you log into the mall, and print that page--which shows how many miles you are supposed to get.

I save any emails about any promos and print those in case email crashes, etc.

I save the page that confirms my order with whatever store I used. I print that too.

I print the email that confirms it is placed and the one that says it shipped.

I print the statement showing whatever transaction took place on whatever credit card I used related to this purchase.

I keep it all together in a folder marked with what I planned to receive in terms of miles.

If it comes, I toss the pages or maybe hold onto them in case a like-deal or promo is still going on.

The theory, which works, is that if you have to present this sort of evidence to the airline, it may be a pain and it may take a while to resolve but the guy with the paperwork wins.

I just went thru one that took 3 months but resulted in both the miles that were missing and some mileage-compensation for having to go thru all of that.

I would rather their mall portals just worked without hassle, but this has not always been the case. Nevertheless, I do find the malls to be among the better ways to earn miles on airlines.

They ought to have a line in there which says (and I am actually quoting from someone AT NWA who eventually credited me missing miles) "Most of the time this works without error and the majority of our customers will receive mall purchase miles without issue..."

If you need to see more on that, visit some threads on missing miles in the NWA forum.
MM

PS Screen shots and printouts do not lie. But if you just save a link, that site or page could be taken down so you lose your 'evidence.'

I've seen that a couple people said that Delta does not offer it on Home Depot gift cards - but I haven't been able to find any verbage on the skymilesshopping.com site that says that anywhere.

I checked the Home Depot's blurb, as well as the full T&C on the site. Nothing noting Home Depot Gift Cards are excluded...

Can anyone point me to where it excludes them? Maybe they're not anymore...

I'm unable to locate any verbiage on the skymilesshopping.com website about gift cards being excluded.

Can someone point me in the right direction where you found this information? I've checked both the Home Depot blurbs and the sms T&C page and found nothing about gift cards...

most airline web sites have a section of T&Cs on their mall purchases per store. Most of them exclude the purchase of store gift cards as a way to earn miles thru the mall shopping portal but I know for a fact that NWA's does allow Home Depot gift cards and gift certificates.com ones to be obtained thru the mall and still earn miles for the purchases of them. UA does allow the HD ones too. These rules can change and so can promos so always be ready to read and fully understand the rules when doing promos. And with NWA, when doing promos, note that miles that normally take 6-8 weeks to post can now take up to 12 weeks to post due to the promo itself. SkyMall may not show these rules or pieces of info, but it has been mentioned in most NWA/WP ones I have seen.

I know you can buy AA certificates on giftcertificates.com
Can these be used on aa.com for BA flights?

So if it doesn't mention it (as I've found) then it should be fine, or will a lengthy fight with the wonderful Delta staff ensue?

this I do not know, but I would probably not wish to pay for certs to pay an airline. Why not just use your CC to buy whatever at BA? Maybe I am missing something here though...

Wellllll, to give you the round about answer to this one...
I had this wicked longgggggggggg drawn out ordeal with Northwest/WorldPerks regarding some missing miles for 3 family member accounts and some related promo miles, as well as some other issues related to all of that. There are some threads on this subject in the NWA forum and I still maintain that one of the biggest things people tend to overlook in FT is the problem of missing miles--even in the smallest amounts. They DO add up!

Anyway, to get everything sorted out and fixed with my NWA problems, it took us about 3-4 months to resolve, and I had to do battle on many frustrating days filled with a ton of calls and emails woven in between real life. I also faxed and even ended up mailing a 2.5 inch packet full of copies of things to prove my situation, which cost me about $30 to copy and mail! (I was asked to mail in proof of my transactions, so I did just that!)

I then pressed for compensation for that money spent and eventually after a long long long fight with Northwest regarding everything, I got all the miles plus about 12k worth spread out over all 3 of the accounts to cover those costs! It did not come easy and I still plan to write the airline exec's on how their systems need a total overhaul, because mall shopping for miles is like russian roulette! You MAY or MAY NOT get the miles you set out to get, so everyone here should be forewarned of this before getting too excited! I did and I also got back losses, and it's kinda worth it to me that they fix these things because it's not fair to customers like me who rely on these shopping mall portals to get mileage at the airlines we fly!

Sadly, even as the airline touts that the malls are a great way to earn miles that are worth just as much as the ones you get from flying!, they are not. That's because the rules and promos and issues surrounding these miles vary all the time and things go missing a lot with a lot of people. I merely pushed it and got mine back.
I continue to need to use the mall, however, because currently I am not flying (newborns, no business travel, etc) and have no other real way other than my CC use to get miles on my current airline of choice.

The reason I bring this up is to prepare you for the battles that could come in your own world... Circling back to earth here:

In my case, SkyMall personnel did attempt to help sort out the mix ups for me and my family and they at least helped with the missing miles themselves for each of the many purchases we had done. The email correspondences started with some arbitrary CS personnel who only give first names, and ended up with one person named AARON, who handled it from then on, until he eventually got this manager named Mr. Inclan to communicate with me directly. This manager and I even exchanged voicemails and so I thanked him and went back to NWA. He could not help with everything but did try. To get answers like the ones you are asking about, I think you need to contact Delta and then try the skymall itself. You see, it seems to me that the issue is this:

WorldPerks mall, and I would assume the mall shopping portals of Continental and other Sky team partners, all go thru the SkyMall now. For example, if your issues happen to be with NWA, this would be where you'd find a CSR named Aaron: "NWAMiles-CS" <[email protected]>.

People like him are located, I think, where Delta does such transactions too, and yet I only use the WP one so I am not as sure as you would be. While the Skymall handles the transactions for NW mileage shopping, they do not handle their promos or any further compensation issues like the ones I ran into. I would assume SkyMall MIGHT handle the ones that Delta does, but I have no idea. Again, you should ask them--and ask a few people a few times in case answers vary. This does happen.

In the end, as convoluted as it was with the skymall part of the issue, I can at least give them some credit for attempting to help where they could, and by staying with me on it and giving me a chance to speak with Mr. Inclan at SkyMall:

Ray Inclan
Customer Care Supervisor
SkyMall, Inc.
1-800-986-3278 Ext. 3281
(602) 528-3281
[email protected]


I hope this helped you in some way. I am sorry it was long but I think it's necessary for people to know what could happen if luck should go the other way. I mean, heck, just think of the 2007/08 New England Patriots with only 2:30 left to go in what could have been a perfect 19-0 season!

Anything could happen.
MM

YMMV would suffice for that, but thanks for the explanation of your perils

Correct. For example I've purchased Home Depot gift cards through skymilesshopping, airmilesmart, and aadvantageeshopping. The first didn't mention gift cards, and I got the miles. The second says you get half normal miles, and that's what I got. The last sometimes offers miles in Q4 and sometimes doesn't. The rule is always stated next to their Home Depot link. The exclusions are always mentioned next to the link to the merchant, as far as I can tell.