United Months of Miles
Aug 21, 2011, 8:00 pm
#256
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 1,259
Looks like the Sam's club gift cards can be used at Sam's gas stations as well. So a $60 fill up (6x$10 cards) nets 3000 miles for those with the 2x/1000 bonus. This assumes sam's club reports the transaction to e-mall, which then reports it to UA, as 6 separate $10 gift card transactions. Is this risky?
Last edited by bangkokiscool; Aug 21, 2011 at 8:22 pm
Aug 21, 2011, 9:02 pm
#257
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: So Cal
Programs: UA Gold/0.744MM, WN AL, Hyatt Diamond, MR Scum, Hertz PC, National Exec, Avis PC
Posts: 5,563
Another interesting one:
1) Buy Petsmart.com e-gift cards (no shipping charge, $10 available)
2) Get 4 points/$ for the purchase
3) Use the e-gift card to purchase regular gift cards ($25 minimum, $1 shipping)
4) Get 4 points/$ for the purchase (again)
5) Take regular gift cards to brick and mortar Petsmart to buy your pet supplies or buy your stuff online and incur the shipping charge for yet another transaction at 4 points/$
So, if you're willing to incur two shipping charges, you could get a triple dip I think. With only $1 shipping per $25 you can double dip.
Aug 21, 2011, 9:34 pm
#258
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: BOS
Programs: UA 2P
Posts: 33
Two things to add... your assumptions don't factor in the shipping cost for the $10 gift cards. I haven't poured through the site yet to verify, but I've read it's something like $2.95/each if you do separate $10 transactions. This would put a big dent in the return, though it would still be worthwhile, if accurate. It appears, however, that $25 e-gift-cards are free. That would also reduce the return, but wouldn't involve any fees.
Aug 21, 2011, 9:54 pm
#259
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: So Cal
Programs: UA Gold/0.744MM, WN AL, Hyatt Diamond, MR Scum, Hertz PC, National Exec, Avis PC
Posts: 5,563
Another interesting one:
1) Buy Petsmart.com e-gift cards (no shipping charge, $10 available)
2) Get 4 points/$ for the purchase
3) Use the e-gift card to purchase regular gift cards ($25 minimum, $1 shipping)
4) Get 4 points/$ for the purchase (again)
5) Take regular gift cards to brick and mortar Petsmart to buy your pet supplies or buy your stuff online and incur the shipping charge for yet another transaction at 4 points/$
So, if you're willing to incur two shipping charges, you could get a triple dip I think. With only $1 shipping per $25 you can double dip.
You can purchase 39 $10 e-gift certificates. Those can be turned into 15 $25 physical gift cards ($375 in value, meaning 96.15% of value preserved after 15 $1 shipping charges). With 4x pts, the purchases are worth 3120 pts. The 54 separate transactions are worth 27,000 pts in the promotion (assuming 2 for 1k offer).
So, 30,120 pts all together. And since you would only do this if you were actually going to spend money at Petsmart anyway, the cost is only the $15 lost on shipping the physical gift cards, which works out to 0.000498 $/mile (as in 0.0498 cpm).
Aug 22, 2011, 7:00 am
#261
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: AA Gold/Million Miler,DL dirt,UA1K/Million Miler;Honors Silver,Marriott Gold;Avis Preferred,Hertz Prez Circle, Nat'l Exec Elite
Posts: 1,428
Looks like the Sam's club gift cards can be used at Sam's gas stations as well. So a $60 fill up (6x$10 cards) nets 3000 miles for those with the 2x/1000 bonus. This assumes sam's club reports the transaction to e-mall, which then reports it to UA, as 6 separate $10 gift card transactions. Is this risky?
Aug 22, 2011, 7:32 am
#262
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: BOS
Programs: SPG
Posts: 25
Looks like you have to be a Sam's member to buy the gift cards, unless you want to pay 10% more
Aug 22, 2011, 7:41 am
#263
Join Date: Jul 2010
Programs: AmexPlat,SPG,CitiAA,One pass,
Posts: 397
if it doesn't say gift cards not allowed it should be fine, in my opinion at least
Aug 22, 2011, 8:30 am
#264
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Chicago, IL
Programs: UA, SPG
Posts: 87
Any idea if iTunes gift cards will work for this promo?
Aug 22, 2011, 8:59 am
#265
Join Date: Oct 2010
Programs: aa, spg
Posts: 69
Hi all, how long should it take for transactions to show up under Recent Purchases on the Milage Plus shopping site?
Aug 22, 2011, 11:46 am
#266
Join Date: Jul 2009
Posts: 847
With their weekly discount codes (vary between 40% to 80% off), the cost of the $25 cert (usually costs $10) would be $6 down to $2. Current code is "SCHOOL" for 60% off ($25 cert for $4). Just be careful you are getting maximum value out of it because if you are using the discount codes you'll need to buy more than 1 to meet the $10 threshold.
"Please refrain from the use of any promotional code or coupon not listed on the MileagePlus Shopping site as it will negate the indicated reward. Orders placed through another loyalty program or search engine are not eligible for reward."
Aug 22, 2011, 12:06 pm
#267
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: MRY
Posts: 430
The MP Shopping website states that use of coupons not found on their site invalidates the earning of reward miles. I have not found the restaurant.com coupon codes on the MP website. Does anyone have experience with earning miles when using a coupon?
"Please refrain from the use of any promotional code or coupon not listed on the MileagePlus Shopping site as it will negate the indicated reward. Orders placed through another loyalty program or search engine are not eligible for reward."
"Please refrain from the use of any promotional code or coupon not listed on the MileagePlus Shopping site as it will negate the indicated reward. Orders placed through another loyalty program or search engine are not eligible for reward."
Having said that, I don't believe I have ever purchased from Restaurant.com on MP Shopping. I know I have on the Marriott site and probably others, but never in bulk.
Aug 22, 2011, 12:07 pm
#268
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Texas
Programs: HHonorsDiamond
Posts: 665
Depends...some show up in a few days...some take a month....but some don't show up AT ALL and you have to spend months exchanging emails tracking them down.....Home Depot and Sears are always vendors I have problems with....
Aug 22, 2011, 12:42 pm
#269
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: CMH
Posts: 891
Be careful ordering anything from Sears.com. My orders for regular merchandise never show up and I always have to wait months and months to get the miles...this after many email exchanges and research...so you might have to fight hard to not only get the points PLUS have those purchases included in the bonus.
But, with other stores, say Staples, for the transaction to count, do you have to go through giftcertificates.com to buy giftcards (with S&H)? Or can you buy directly from the store?
Aug 22, 2011, 1:42 pm
#270
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: So Cal
Programs: UA Gold/0.744MM, WN AL, Hyatt Diamond, MR Scum, Hertz PC, National Exec, Avis PC
Posts: 5,563
Of course the Gift Cards links takes you to giftcertificates.com.
Conversely, for Target MP Shopping specifically says that gift card purchases are not eligible for points. There is no giftcertificates.com option.
The term I think is the most interesting is on Home Depot. They don't disallow gift cards for points, but do disallow points for transactions "in which a gift card is used to purchase another gift card". So no infinite gift card churn on Home Depot apparently.
I wonder if there are other places that do allow infinite churn??