Goldpoints: LL Bean: 100 miles/ dollar???
Aug 22, 2003, 1:35 pm
#61
Moderator: Coupon Connection & S.P.A.M
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Louisville, KY
Programs: Destination Unknown, TSA Disparager Diamond (LTDD)
Posts: 57,953
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Analise:
Oh well. I have a Gold Points card from Food Emporium. Is that the same Gold Points?</font>
Oh well. I have a Gold Points card from Food Emporium. Is that the same Gold Points?</font>
Aug 22, 2003, 3:05 pm
#62
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Hyderabad
Posts: 4,843
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Spiff:
Yes. Purchase $100 worth of peanut butter, $100 worth of jelly, and $100 worth of bread, get 1 mile per dollar if you use your Citibank AAdvantage card. Easy 300 miles!!! Hurry!
</font>
Yes. Purchase $100 worth of peanut butter, $100 worth of jelly, and $100 worth of bread, get 1 mile per dollar if you use your Citibank AAdvantage card. Easy 300 miles!!! Hurry!
</font>
Aug 23, 2003, 10:19 am
#63
Join Date: Dec 1999
Location: Davis, California
Posts: 253
I’m amazed by how relatively little “Buzz” this discovery generated. Call it the L.L. Bean Dip, the Roe Bug Deal, whatever, this was certainly the best frequent “fly”er promotions ever.
Purchase of a $1.25 fly earned 2,000 GoldPoints, or 1,600 GP/$. Recall how excited everyone got over GoldPoints' ValuMags promotion in 2000? That one earned 450 GP/$. Yes, this produced 3.5 times more GoldPoints than the ValueMags deal.
Sure, GoldPoints has changed the rules since 2000 to limit and devalue direct transfers of GP to miles, but it was still a great bargain. $625 of fly purchases could have been used for a quick 125,000 miles on Air Canada, American, America West, Asiana, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Continental, Delta, EL AL, Gulf Air, Icelandair, GlobalPass, Mexicana, Midwest Express, Northwest, United, or US Airways. That’s $0.005/mile or 200 miles/$. For comparison, in the ValueMags era, the net was only 112 miles/$. Plus, fishing flies are a lot easier to sell on e-bay. With the range of airlines included, this was a great top-out strategy.
Taking the indirect route to transfer GoldPoints to Diner’s Club Rewards to British Airways under the current 1-to-1 transfer promotion (or the next one?) effectively eliminated the limit on the number of miles that could’ve been earned in a year, and was even a slightly better bargain (even after taking into account the DC $0.95 assessment per 1,000 miles). It works out to about 206 BA miles/$. Thus, unlimited trips in ClubWorld from the US to Europe for $485. [I know, I know, it would have been much better before BA changed the rules (e.g., $728 for SFO-LHR-BKK-SYD-SIN-LHR-SFO in First), but you used to be able to buy a Hershey Bar for a penny, too…]
As neophyte noted, the Radisson hotel stays are also a great value. Lots of relatively nice hotel stays to be had for as low as $10.94/night (35,000 GPs for a 2-night weekend at a Tier 1 property).
With the transfer options from GoldPoints to Diner Club Rewards, many other options were possible that might have been equally appealing (e.g., onward transfers to Starwood Perferred Guest or Amtrak, etc.).
As for the time and hassle of placing the orders, that’s somewhat true. However, I have it on good account that 80 orders per hour were easily possible, even by skilled 8-year olds with DSL connections. That’s 25,000 miles/hour. As for the difficulty in getting the GoldPoints to post, I don’t doubt there will be some of that, too. But for some, the points have already posted. The rest should receive them eventually…
Props to zrs70, neophyte, and kempis for working this all out. It sounds like Duckman was way ahead of the pack, though.
Purchase of a $1.25 fly earned 2,000 GoldPoints, or 1,600 GP/$. Recall how excited everyone got over GoldPoints' ValuMags promotion in 2000? That one earned 450 GP/$. Yes, this produced 3.5 times more GoldPoints than the ValueMags deal.
Sure, GoldPoints has changed the rules since 2000 to limit and devalue direct transfers of GP to miles, but it was still a great bargain. $625 of fly purchases could have been used for a quick 125,000 miles on Air Canada, American, America West, Asiana, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Continental, Delta, EL AL, Gulf Air, Icelandair, GlobalPass, Mexicana, Midwest Express, Northwest, United, or US Airways. That’s $0.005/mile or 200 miles/$. For comparison, in the ValueMags era, the net was only 112 miles/$. Plus, fishing flies are a lot easier to sell on e-bay. With the range of airlines included, this was a great top-out strategy.
Taking the indirect route to transfer GoldPoints to Diner’s Club Rewards to British Airways under the current 1-to-1 transfer promotion (or the next one?) effectively eliminated the limit on the number of miles that could’ve been earned in a year, and was even a slightly better bargain (even after taking into account the DC $0.95 assessment per 1,000 miles). It works out to about 206 BA miles/$. Thus, unlimited trips in ClubWorld from the US to Europe for $485. [I know, I know, it would have been much better before BA changed the rules (e.g., $728 for SFO-LHR-BKK-SYD-SIN-LHR-SFO in First), but you used to be able to buy a Hershey Bar for a penny, too…]
As neophyte noted, the Radisson hotel stays are also a great value. Lots of relatively nice hotel stays to be had for as low as $10.94/night (35,000 GPs for a 2-night weekend at a Tier 1 property).
With the transfer options from GoldPoints to Diner Club Rewards, many other options were possible that might have been equally appealing (e.g., onward transfers to Starwood Perferred Guest or Amtrak, etc.).
As for the time and hassle of placing the orders, that’s somewhat true. However, I have it on good account that 80 orders per hour were easily possible, even by skilled 8-year olds with DSL connections. That’s 25,000 miles/hour. As for the difficulty in getting the GoldPoints to post, I don’t doubt there will be some of that, too. But for some, the points have already posted. The rest should receive them eventually…
Props to zrs70, neophyte, and kempis for working this all out. It sounds like Duckman was way ahead of the pack, though.
Aug 25, 2003, 5:22 pm
#65
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Bay Area
Posts: 367
See - I told you so - Pudding Guy itself backed us up !
Too bad, I was too chicken and too busy to try it on a real scale.
By the way, my second strategy above - "Never pity a fool" seems to be the still alive and well.
Hint: I already received first $3.75 refund for $5 GiftCert, but it could've been $498.75 as well.
GoldPoints are out of picture, but who would prevent us from going through other shopping portals?
For instance, Upromise has an offer (expire 08/27) for $6 back for any LL Bean purchase.
Anyone care to work out this idea tonight? It could be even better then GoldPoints.
Too bad, I was too chicken and too busy to try it on a real scale.
By the way, my second strategy above - "Never pity a fool" seems to be the still alive and well.
Hint: I already received first $3.75 refund for $5 GiftCert, but it could've been $498.75 as well.
GoldPoints are out of picture, but who would prevent us from going through other shopping portals?
For instance, Upromise has an offer (expire 08/27) for $6 back for any LL Bean purchase.
Anyone care to work out this idea tonight? It could be even better then GoldPoints.
Aug 26, 2003, 2:18 am
#67
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Sunny Switzerland
Programs: BD / BA / AF
Posts: 4,388
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Pudding Guy:
I’m amazed by how relatively little “Buzz” this discovery generated. Call it the L.L. Bean Dip, the Roe Bug Deal, whatever, this was certainly the best frequent “fly”er promotions ever.</font>
I’m amazed by how relatively little “Buzz” this discovery generated. Call it the L.L. Bean Dip, the Roe Bug Deal, whatever, this was certainly the best frequent “fly”er promotions ever.</font>
Aug 26, 2003, 8:57 am
#69
Join Date: Dec 1999
Location: Davis, California
Posts: 253
L.L. Bean's marketing department has some interesting approaches. They obviously don't know their own products and policies too well. How else can you explain giving away $6 (or the like in GoldPoints) for someone who makes a $1.25 purchase?
The Upromise thing isn't my sort of deal (which is maybe why I'm miles-rich and cash-poor). I'll be interested to hear how that one turns out, though. Upromise seems to have T&Cs that would allow them to reverse any "contributions" (as they put it) that they decide were based on abuse of their program. Given that, and the extremely long time they suggest it takes for one to actually receive the funds, it seems a little dicey.
Back to Goldpoints and martino, the best values now seem to be using the points for hotel stays.
The Upromise thing isn't my sort of deal (which is maybe why I'm miles-rich and cash-poor). I'll be interested to hear how that one turns out, though. Upromise seems to have T&Cs that would allow them to reverse any "contributions" (as they put it) that they decide were based on abuse of their program. Given that, and the extremely long time they suggest it takes for one to actually receive the funds, it seems a little dicey.
Back to Goldpoints and martino, the best values now seem to be using the points for hotel stays.
Aug 26, 2003, 12:37 pm
#70
Suspended
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: USA
Programs: HH Diamond, SPG Gold, PC Platinum Ambassador, Marriott Silver
Posts: 15,249
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Pudding Guy:
Upromise seems to have T&Cs that would allow them to reverse any "contributions" (as they put it) that they decide were based on abuse of their program. Given that, and the extremely long time they suggest it takes for one to actually receive the funds, it seems a little dicey.</font>
Upromise seems to have T&Cs that would allow them to reverse any "contributions" (as they put it) that they decide were based on abuse of their program. Given that, and the extremely long time they suggest it takes for one to actually receive the funds, it seems a little dicey.</font>
Sep 5, 2003, 8:24 pm
#72
Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 130
Made just one purchase of those roe bugs. Never got the second e-mail from LLBean confirming the delivery. E-mailed them with the request to resend me a copy of that e-mail. Not even an attempt to answer. No points from Goldpoints either so far.
Sep 12, 2003, 10:33 pm
#73
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: New York City USA
Posts: 31
None of mine have posted either, but the rules say 4-6 weeks after the item was shipped so i guess they still have more time. I called them but they won't do anythign until 6 weeks pass. My guess is that after the 6 weeks, we are going to have to fight for the points.
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by kawoh:
None of these purchases of roe bugs which have been charged and delivered, have gone through on goldpoints, has anyone else had their points post?
</font>
None of these purchases of roe bugs which have been charged and delivered, have gone through on goldpoints, has anyone else had their points post?
</font>
Sep 12, 2003, 11:07 pm
#74
Join Date: Dec 1999
Location: Davis, California
Posts: 253
This big fish got away.
I've heard that L.L. Bean isn't going to pay GoldPoints for any of these purchases. As a result, GoldPoints isn't planning to post any points. Those that have posted already will likely be taken away.
GoldPoints' position is understandable. L.L. Bean is the problem.
L.L. Bean's Loss Prevention group apparently doesn't have a sense of humor.
I've heard that L.L. Bean isn't going to pay GoldPoints for any of these purchases. As a result, GoldPoints isn't planning to post any points. Those that have posted already will likely be taken away.
GoldPoints' position is understandable. L.L. Bean is the problem.
L.L. Bean's Loss Prevention group apparently doesn't have a sense of humor.
Sep 13, 2003, 12:45 am
#75
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Bay Area
Posts: 367
You break my heart, Pudding Guy. Are you trying to tell me that I'm out $10 (they've refunded unused balance of every GC with a check, can you believe that ?) 
Anyway, are they going to rescind the transactions and return the money then - I hardly believe it, it will cost them less just to grant the d*a*m*n points. If not we're going to haunt them with our multicolored collections of fishing hooks until all the fishing ponds of hell freeze over
Seriously, I don't think anyone had the time to do a serious spree here, at least no one is bragging here.
[This message has been edited by neophyte (edited 09-13-2003).]
Anyway, are they going to rescind the transactions and return the money then - I hardly believe it, it will cost them less just to grant the d*a*m*n points. If not we're going to haunt them with our multicolored collections of fishing hooks until all the fishing ponds of hell freeze over
Seriously, I don't think anyone had the time to do a serious spree here, at least no one is bragging here.
[This message has been edited by neophyte (edited 09-13-2003).]