Maximizing mileage using gift cards
 

Some merchants that I currently shop at regularly have deals on airline shoppoing portals such as SkymilesShopping.com. Many of their offers far exceed anything that I could normally get with my loyalty credit card, such as 5 miles per dollar spent, etc.

I was wondering if it would be possible to purchase gift cards through the shopping portal to maximize mileage accrual? Does anyone know if these merchants typically award mileage for gift cards?

There's a discussion of this on Gary's frequent flyer site.
www.freefrequentflyermiles.com

oh boy do i love what you are talking about. for the past 3 years i go to all the retail shopping sites via aa, united and delta. you must go to all 3 so sign up at all (or more, but i only use those accounts). anyway, open up 3 windows and go to all 3 sites. you need to do this to compare side by side. example: magazines.com on united gave 16:1 (miles to dollar spent) aa gave something like 5:1 and delta gave 6:1 (or so)...now here is the kep to compare...both delta and aa did not give miles on gift-cards. united did. for christmas 06 and 07 i gave 5k (50x$100.00) in magazine.com gift cards to my staff...i made a total of 180k extra just by playing the game. because of this my understanding is magazines.com will add limits to united's program next year. i go thru aa's site for proflowers.com to spend all my flowers because they offer 10:1...and frankly, proflowers are great. look for the e-mail that offer 2x or 3x around the holiday...they add up too.

Thanks for that link rrgg! My GF doesn't like to MR with me, but she definitely loves earning miles! I think turning her on to sites like Gary's are what keeps her understanding my addiction w/ the MR. ;)

Gary, if you read this, great site. Thanks!

-SF

Different airlines are always running promos. NW did a 600 mile bonus for every $200 spent during the holidays. I did Home Depot GC and used them for Christmas gifts. If you had a big project around the house you could also do this to get the miles...use miles CC to by the GC and get the CC and mall miles and bonuses. The Home Depot GCs had no additional charges or fees.

I've just recently started doing this. Mostly looking at places that I shop regularly. The majority of my miles are with Delta and I use the Delta Platinum Amex. For example, we always buy our pet food and supplies at PetSmart. PetSmart is part of SkyMilesShopping and offers 2 miles per dollar spent. The Delta Amex tags on an additional 1 mile per dollar. If I spend $100/month at PetSmart and I use my Delta Amex I'm only earning 100 miles. If I buy the $100 gift card, PetSmart will ship it for free and purchasing it with my Amex earns me 300 miles.

Unfortunately, many of the SkyMilesShopping partners call out specifically that Gift Cards are not included. Which is too bad because I would definitely give my patronage to more partners if they allowed this.

One way around this was by utilizing the partner GiftCertificates.com. However, they recently tacked on a $6.95 fee for purchasing gift cards. Ouch. I won't be buying from them any longer.

Fortunately, my local grocery chain sells a wide variety of gift cards for many different retailers and restaurants. And the Delta Platinum Amex offers always double miles at supermarkets. So this is at least an option for getting double miles on more purchases.

How are the AA & United programs with their affinity credit cards and partners in getting double or triple miles?

Better still: AARP sells Home Depot gift cards to its members at a 4% discount. Buy them at this discount with your miles producing credit card, then perhaps use them at Home Depot via a shopping portal that gives miles. (Are there ones listing Home Depot? I haven't looked.)

Hmmmmm, this is very interesting. I am going to look into this further with UA and AA.

I thought this would work too, and am not sure if I made the right decision a couple months ago.
I have an REI membership (10% dividend) with the REI Visa (for extra 5% off).
I bought $1000 in GCs on Giftcertificates.com during a holiday promo for $900 so that offsets the 5% off for using the Visa I guess.
It gave me 2,000 AA miles. Somehow two promotions stacked on an additional 6,000 miles recently - no idea why, but I don't complain. I don't count on this in the future though.

I converted these $1000 to REI certs, went through ShopOnePass to earn another 4 miles per dollar for the snowboard equipment I bought. Haven't seen any of those miles - it may be excluded for some reason I wasn't aware of. I hope, however, that I still get my 10% dividend for buying at REI.
An extra clause I have seen is that e.g. MrRebates voids rebate if shipped to store - ShopOnePass didn't mention this.

If all the stars and moons align properly my scheme netted me
$100 in giftcertificates.com holiday savings
8000 miles (2k + 2k + 4k)
4000 miles CO (4:1)
$100 dollars (10% dividend)
1000 starpoints for CC spend
valuing miles at 1 cent, and starpoints at 2 cents I saved about $340 - If the giftcerts didn't disqualify me.

I'm confused again. Not sure what I wrote in my previous post anymore. But:
Can you buy giftcerts and earn miles on the merchant websites?
- I guess the answer is some places.
Can you use the giftcerts you bought on the merchant websites to earn miles again?
Or will they detect that these giftcerts already earned miles.
But can you use the giftcerts you got via giftcertificates.com to earn miles again?
Give me an example on Home Depot, it seems most people know the ins and outs of that store here.

I love this thread by the way.
Just found out you might as well go nuts with these things on everyday purchases.
Get your Wal-Mart giftcertificates online to earn extra miles through portals :D
Same with Starbucks.
Just searched evrewards.com and I particularly like the 4 ThankYou points per dollar on giftcertificates.com . Stack it up with 3 TY points on your Citi Platinum AMEX and you're getting 7:1. I get about 1.5 cent on them so that's 10.5% off your everyday purchases^

aa.com's shopping portal allows you to earn miles with on-line purchases at Home Depot. You can get miles when redeeming a gift card, but you cannot get miles when buying one. Though, IIRC, last year they ran a special for a short time allowing miles when buying gift cards.
Some sites will allow you to use a gift card and another form of payment, i.e. CC, at the same time. This is important in case your purchase is for more $$ than are on the gift card. Physical Home Depot gift cards are bar-coded, and they keep the balance on a server. So if after using it at the shopping portal you have a little bit remaining, you can use it later either online or at a store.

Be aware that some online merchants do not give miles when you are using gift cards for the purchase. Read the exculsions always. And read them every time because rules change. E.g., in 2006 Home Depot changed its rules. Before then they gave miles when purchasing gift cards and it was a wonderful double-dip opportunity, not to mention the ability to get miles for in-store purchases. I got miles for my new deck!

FYI: REI charges 3% off your dividend if you use a non-REI (i.e., miles) card for your purhase at a store. But it does not deduct this 3% if you buy a gift card there. So a very helpful checkout person there suggested that instead of paying for my large purchase with my miles card, buy a gift card for the same amount, then use the gift card to make the purchase. I still get my 10% membership dividend, and do not get the 3% deducted from it.

Now, I wonder if you can use something like a giftcertificates.com gift card to buy an REI gift card...

I recall reading somewhere that when purchasing American Express gift cards with an Amex Card you don't receive bonus miles? Or is it miles at all? Now my local grocery store now sells American Express gift cards and with the Delta Platinum Amex I automatically receive double miles with all grocery store purchases. I'm going to have to test this.

Typically when buying American Express, Mastercard or VISA gift cards you pay above face value, and this negates the point or mileage benefits. Look at the package for a disclosure of the fee.