Quick, Easy, Nearly Free 25K Mileage Plus Miles!
 

I'm sure I'm not the first on this one [but I couldn't find a similar recent posting], but I received an offer with my latest UA Mileage Plus statement for an almost "gimmie" 25K Mileage Plus miles. Here are the details.

Open a no load account [any account except for retirement] with Fidelity Investments; maintain the account for 6 months; and earn FREE UA Mileage Plus miles - from 5K-25K Mileage Plus miles depending upon opening deposit [5K miles for deposits from $2.5K-$10K; 15K miles for deposits from $10K-$50K; and, 25K miles for deposits over $50K.

This promotion even works on MONEY MARKET accounts so if you've got the cash to park for six months, to me this looks like a no brainer [and if you want a higher return than the current .77%, Fidelity's GNMA Fund is currently returning 4.28%].

Details are at http:www.united.com/fidelity or call (800) 544-3719.

Again apologize if this subject has already been posted but if not, good luck!

[This message has been edited by smarten (edited Feb 16, 2004).]

Obviously this is a good deal if Fidelity is the right investment for you. In other words, if by chance you were already about to choose a Fidelity fund because you felt it was the best fund for your needs, these are free miles.

But like any financial deal with miles involved - whether it's banking, mortgage, brokerage, or credit - there is an opportunity cost involved. Sometimes a BIG one (particularly in the case of mortgages!). Make sure you don't overrate the value of 25,000 United miles and let that guide you into making a suboptimal investment.

(Nothing against Fidelity Investments: I have held several of their funds for many years.)

It was posted a few days ago at: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum1/HTML/009970.html

Be forewarned that some brokerage firm charge quite a bit to close & transfer an active account (range from $20-$60) so be sure you understand the Rates first before playing.

Thx
Jamester

I parked $15,000 in a Money Market account with Ameritrade and got 25,000 Hilton points back when they had a similar promotion. Agreed, though, that it has to make sense given your overall cash position. Ameritrade didn't levy any charges when I closed the account, but that's worth investigating.

I wish I had $50K lying around that I could shhuffle over to Fidelity. That would actually be an interesting FT demographics survey, e.g. what percent of FT members just have $50K they can shuffle over to Fidelity really without thinking about it. Don't get me wrong, I wish I had that $50K in the bank http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif.

You don't need cash in the bank to do this deal. $50K of securities in another brokerage account will do. Just ask Fidelity to transfer those securities to a Fidelity brokerage account.

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Free Frequent Flyer Miles

Park fifty thousand dollars with Fidelity for six months and get 25,000 mileage plus miles.

Fly twice to London, have a blast in London, at a cost of $600 or so in the winter/spring and earn just short of 30,000 miles.

Not much of a decision here, even if I had 50k laying around.

But,,,,,why not do BOTH ?!? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Best wishes, Dave

If you value miles at somewhere between 1 and 2 cents each, then this promotion gives you an extra 1-2% (annualized) return on your $50K (assuming you put in $50K and keep it there 6 months). 1-2% on a money market account is pretty decent these days, so it sounds fine for money market money, but I would not re-orient one's investment strategy just for that 1-2%.

[edited for missing "not"]

[This message has been edited by pynchonesque (edited Feb 24, 2004).]

Nothing really new about this deal, except that United and E*Trade used to be partners in such things for a few years, and now instead of E*Trade, it's Fidelity.


Kathy

In my view, going from E*Trade to Fidelity is a big upgrade.