The Rube Goldberg approach to buying miles and delivering flowers [Update: ShopRunner not stacking with promos]

UPDATE 1:20 PM ET, 1/28/16: It turns out that ShopRunner free deliver does not stack with mile-earning promo codes.  I’m sorry for this mix up!  I will publish an updated post shortly.

UPDATE 2;30 PM ET, 1/28/16: I’ve updated this post to indicate which deals require investing in Celebrations Passport ($29.99 per year).

I can’t help myself.  Every now and then a bunch of deals come together in a wonderful, but ridiculously complicated way.  And, of course, I just have to write about it.  This time, it’s for Valentine’s Day…

The Deals

First, I’ll introduce a bunch of stackable deals.  In the next section, I’ll show how to put them all together.

1) iConsumer portal: 32% cash back (plus shares of stock) at 1-800-Flowers, through Jan 30:

Exceptions

• Use of a coupon code not provided by iConsumer will invalidate the Cash Back rebate.
• Use of a Flash Sale Voucher will invalidate Cash Back rebate.
• 1-800-Baskets.com has a shared cart with 1-800-FLOWERS.com. Please note that purchases from either site will result in Cash Back.
• The store where you began your iConsumer shopping will show in your shopping report.
• No Cash Back rebate on the purchase of Gift Cards.

2) Amex Offer, Spend $50, get $15 back

Log into your Amex account and check to see if you have this offer.  If the offer is available on more than one card, then view each credit card in a different browser tab before loading the offer to your account.  This way, you can add the offer to each eligible card.

Details:  Get a one-time $15 statement credit by using your enrolled Card to spend a minimum of $50+ in one or more transactions online at 1800Flowers.com by 3/25/2016. See terms for exclusions.

3) Amex OPEN Savings: Get 5% back from 1-800-Flowers

If you use an Amex business card to make a purchase from 1-800-Flowers, you’ll automatically get 5% cash back credited to your account.

4) ShopRunner: Free shipping at 1-800-Flowers (and more)

Look for this when shopping:

5) Amex card members get ShopRunner for free

You might as well sign up.  It’s free!

6) Earn miles: 30 AA miles per dollar, or 1000 Southwest Rapid Rewards per order

Rapid Rewards® Members can send luxurious floral arrangements and gourmet gifts with 1-800-Flowers.com® and earn 1,000 Rapid Rewards Points for each order of $29.99 or more.

• Visit www.1800Flowers.com/rapidrewards or call 1-800-Flowers (1-800-356-9377) and mention promotion code RR22 and your Rapid Rewards account number.

7) Celebration Rewards: Earn up to 10% back towards future orders

Stacking the Deals, straight up

Most of the deals shown above can stack together without any special shenanigans.  One big exception is that you can’t directly earn portal cash back (deal 1) and miles (deal 6) from the same order.  At least, every time I tried to do so in the past, the portal initially showed that I had earned cash back, but later the cash back was withdrawn.

So, the straight up approach to stacking the above deals is to choose whether you want cash back or miles, then place your order:

Cash back:

• Go to iConsumer, find 1800Flowers.com and click through
• Add stuff to your cart. Make sure it is ShopRunner eligible
• Try to make one or more orders total to exactly $50
• Pay with an Amex card enrolled in in the Amex Offer for $15 back when you spend $50
• Even better: Pay with a business Amex card enrolled in that same offer

If all goes as planned, with a $50 purchase, you can get back the following:

• $16 from iConsumer + stock
• $15 from the Amex Offer
• $2.50 from Amex OPEN
• 50 Celebration Rewards points
• Total rebate on $50 purchase: $33.50, plus stock, plus 50 Celebration Rewards points

CAUTION: I do not know if portal cash back stacks with ShopRunner free shipping.  There is a chance that the iConsumer cash back will be “clawed back” by 1800Flowers later on.

Miles:

• Make sure to enroll in Celebrations Passport first so as to get free shipping.
• Browse to 1800Flowers.com and add stuff to your cart.
• Try to make one or more orders total to exactly $50
• Pay with an Amex card enrolled in in the Amex Offer for $15 back when you spend $50
• Even better: Pay with a business Amex card enrolled in that same offer
• Make sure to use one of the promotion codes shown above when checking out (A54, for AA miles, RR22 for Southwest miles)

If all goes as planned, with a $50 purchase and the selection of AA miles, you can get back the following:

• $15 from the Amex Offer
• $2.50 from Amex OPEN
• $50 x 30 = 1500 miles
• 50 Celebration Rewards points
• Total rebate on $50 purchase: $17.50 plus 1500 miles plus 50 Celebration Rewards points

If you want to collect Southwest miles, you can earn more miles per dollar by placing two $30 orders.  If so, you’ll get back the following:

• $15 from the Amex Offer
• $3 from Amex OPEN
• 2000 Southwest Rapid Rewards points
• 60 Celebration Rewards points
• Total rebate on $60 purchase: $18, plus 2000 Southwest Rapid Rewards points, plus 60 Celebration Rewards points

Sales tax

With deliveries to some states (but not all) you’ll be charged sales tax.  To simplify this post, I’m assuming that no sales tax is charged.  If you are charged sales tax, then some of the assumptions in this post will be incorrect.

Extreme Stacking

What if you want miles and cash back too?  That’s possible, but requires an additional step.  You would need to go through the cash back portal to buy a 1800flowers gift card first.  Note that the portal terms state “No Cash Back rebate on the purchase of Gift Cards,” so this step is risky.  In the past, with other portals, I’ve always received (and kept) cash back when buying these gift cards, so I expect the same to be true here.

As a test, I purchased a $50 gift card from 1800Flowers a few days ago after clicking through from iConsumer and the purchase tracked correctly:

It appears that I will earn $16 cash back from iConsumer for this purchase, but it is certainly possible for 1800Flowers to claw back the rebate (you’ve been warned).  Also note that Amex has already credited my account with $15 back thanks to the Amex Offer I had signed up for.  No word from Amex yet on the additional 5% rebate from Amex OPEN Savings.

Cautions aside, here are the steps for buying each gift card:

Buy gift card

• Go to iConsumer, find 1800Flowers.com and click through
• Find their gift cards (look at the tiny links at the bottom, right side of the page)
• Buy one $50 gift card
• Pay with an Amex card enrolled in in the Amex Offer for $15 back when you spend $50
• Even better: Pay with a business Amex card enrolled in that same offer

If all goes as planned you can get back the following from the purchase of the gift card:

• $16 from iConsumer + stock
• $15 from the Amex Offer
• $2.50 from Amex OPEN
• Total rebate on $50 gift card purchase: $33.50, plus stock
• 50 Celebration Rewards points
• Total gift card cost (not counting value of iConsumer stock or Celebration Rewards points): $16.50

Buy miles (and flowers)

Now that you’ve bought a $50 gift card for around $16.50, you can buy flowers or other gifts and get miles.  Here’s an example:

• Make sure to enroll in Celebrations Passport first so as to get free shipping.
• Browse to 1800Flowers.com and add stuff to your cart.
• Try to make one or more orders total to exactly $50
• When checking out, apply promo code A54 to get 30 AA miles per dollar
• Pay with your gift card

If all goes as planned, you’ll earn 1500 miles for a total cost of $16.50 (not counting the cost of enrolling in Celebrations Passport).  That comes to just 1.1 cents per mile.  Oh, and you get flowers or other gifts too!

With Southwest, using code RR22, it’s a bit more complicated since the sweet spot in miles per dollar is with $30 orders (you get 1000 miles per order, for orders of $29.99 or more).  While there are more advanced ways to approach this, let’s keep it simple and assume that you place two $30 orders.  In the first order, you pay entirely with your gift card.  In the second order, you pay $20 with your gift card and $10 with your credit card.

If you place two $30 orders, as described above, using code RR22, you’ll earn 2000 Southwest Rapid Rewards points for a total cost of $26.50.  That comes to 1.3 cents per point.  Since Southwest points are generally worth about 1.5 cents each towards Wanna Get Away fares, that’s not bad at all!  Plus, in the past, points earned from this promotion (RR22) have counted towards Southwest Companion Pass eligibility.

More gift card caveats

• 1800Flowers does not currently offer egift cards so you need to order soon to get the gift cards in time for Valentine’s Day orders
• 1800Flowers only allows one gift card per order when orders are placed online.
• If you buy too many gift cards, you may have your Celebration Rewards account suspended.  I ordered $1000 worth of gift cards during a similar opportunity last year and they froze my rewards account.  Every time I call they say they’ll expedite releasing the account, but that has yet to happen.
• As mentioned above, you might not earn portal rewards when buying gift cards since portal terms state that gift card purchases do not qualify for rebates.

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