Randy,

I am new to the FF business and now looking for ways to maximize my miles. One question I have for you is something you might call "double dipping" miles. Here's the scenario.

Let's say that I have a AmEx Delta Skymiles Gold card as well as a Coninental OnePass Platinum card. The Continental card offers free checks that are good wherever checks are accepted. If I do almost all of my purchases on the AmEx card I get Delta SkyMiles for every dollar I spend, let's say $1000 this month. Therefore I earn 1000 SkyMiles on Delta. Are you with me? Then I would pay off my AmEx balance with a check from my Continental Platinum card because I would normally send a check to them right? So I send a check for $1000 from the Continental Platinum card to pay off the AmEx balance. Therefore I earn another 1000 miles to be deposited into my OnePass account for using their card. If this works then I just earned 1000 SkyMiles and 1000 OnePass miles just by spending only $1000. Has anyone tried this before and has it worked? I would be very curious to know.

Anthony

I'm not familiar with the Continental card, but credit card "convenience checks" generally do not earn mileage and incur finance charges immediately (often at a higher "cash advance" interest rate). Different terms may apply to balance transfers, however; in some exceptional cases you can "double dip."

That was what I was wondering about, if those checks would accrue miles. I'll give them a call and see if it works. Do you know of any exceptional cases of double dipping? I guess I'm obsessed right now with accruing miles.

Anthony

When I had a United Mileage Plus Visa, they sent out a special check (maybe more than one, but I seem to remember a single check) that earned *double* miles for the amount on it within a certain timeframe and possibly a certain limit. (I got I think 12-13000 miles, so the limit was high if there was one.) Otherwise, standard checks, transfers and cash advances (generally seen as all the same thing by the card people) didn't earn miles. I suspect this non-earning is the case with most of these cards, though maybe these special checks have been seen with other cards as well.

In addition to accruing finance chrages immediately, these checks usually have a transaction fee of 2-3%.

Oh well, I thought I might have had a good idea going. I guess I gotta earn them the hard way.

Anthony