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Please find an updated version of this post here: Extreme Stacking Amazon.com [New]
It’s possible to earn up to 11X rewards with a 15% discount, or up to 4X rewards with a 32% discount at Amazon.com. Here’s how…
I don’t know about you, but I shop with Amazon all the time. It’s just so darn convenient. Until recently, though, not much was happening with Amazon and online shopping portals. Sure, many cash back portals advertise that you can get cash back by shopping through their portal to Amazon.com, but when you read the details you find that you’ll only earn cash back on very specific categories of purchases. Worse, those categories change regularly. Personally, every time I’ve checked for portal opportunities before making a purchase, I’ve found that what I intended to buy wouldn’t qualify. As a result, I long ago stopped checking.
Fortunately, JetBlue now makes it easy to earn bonus points for all Amazon purchases. As long as you start your Amazon shopping from the JetBlue site, you’ll earn 3 points per dollar.
UPDATE 4/2/2017: JetBlue no longer awards points when buying Amazon.com gift cards.
And, amazingly, it seems that both buying and using Amazon gift cards triggers the bonus.
Minimum 7X on All Purchases
UPDATE 4/2/2017: Now that JetBlue no longer awards points when buying Amazon.com gift cards, this section is no longer accurate.
Given that both buying and using Amazon gift cards triggers the JetBlue 3X bonus, it should be possible to earn at least 7 points per dollar on all Amazon purchases. The trick is simply to buy and then use Amazon gift cards as follows:
- Click through from JetBlue to Amazon and buy an Amazon e-gift card. You should earn 3X from JetBlue and at least 1X rewards from your credit card.
- Load the e-gift card to your Amazon account
- Click through from JetBlue to Amazon again and use your gift card credit to buy whatever you need.
It’s even possible to buy 3rd party gift cards (Starbucks, Whole Foods, etc.) this way. When checking out, look for the option on the final payment screen to change payment type. Select Amazon credit.
9X to 11X on all purchases with certain credit cards
UPDATE 4/2/2017: Now that JetBlue no longer awards points when buying Amazon.com gift cards, this section is no longer accurate.
If you follow the steps listed above, but buy the Amazon gift cards with a credit card that earns more than 1 point per dollar, then you can do better than 7X. A few examples are:
- Citi AT&T Access More card earns 3X ThankYou points for online retail purchases. This card is no longer available for new signups, but you may be able to product change from another Citibank card to this one.
NOTE: There are mixed reports as to whether or not this still works. See Doctor of Credit’s Payment Workshop. - Amazon.com Store Card earns 5% cash back for Prime members
- Chase Freedom often offers 5X at Amazon.com as one of their quarterly 5X categories.
- Discover It often offers 5% cash back at Amazon.com as one of their quarterly 5% categories.
If you start with a card that earns 3X at Amazon.com, and double dip through JetBlue, you should earn 3X from your credit card, plus 3X from JetBlue when buying a gift card, plus another 3X from JetBlue for buying merchandise. This results in a total of 9 points per dollar. Similarly, if your card earns 5X at Amazon.com, you’ll net 11 points per dollar.
8X Alternative
If you don’t have a card that directly earns bonus points at Amazon.com, it is often possible to earn 8 points per dollar instead. The trick is to find a way to earn 5X when buying gift cards…
If you have a Chase Ink Plus or Ink Cash card, or the SimplyCash Plus Business card, you’ll earn 5X rewards at office supply stores. Many office supply stores carry Amazon gift cards. So, the trick is to buy these gift cards at office supply stores with one of these cards in order to earn 5X rewards. After applying the gift card credit to your Amazon account, you can then start your shopping from the JetBlue site in order to earn another 3X points, for a total of 8 points per dollar.
Similar tricks can be done with cards that offer 5X rewards in rotating categories. Examples of these include Chase Freedom and Discover It. By buying Amazon.com gift cards in a store that fits the current 5X categories for either of these cards, you can earn 5X buying Amazon.com gift cards and another 3X when using them (via JetBlue).
20% off + 3X rewards
An even better option than those described above, when available, is to enroll your American Express cards in Amex Offers that can be triggered by purchasing Amazon.com gift cards in-store. While the exact details of these offers vary, it is often possible to get 20% back for gift cards. For example, when Amex has an offer to Spend $50, get $10 back at Lowes, it’s worth visiting Lowes to buy a $50 gift card. $10 back on a $50 gift card is 20% back.
Even better, if you have multiple cards eligible for such an offer, you can enroll each card (see Complete Guide to Amex Offers for details) and show up at Lowes with a handful of cards. Then, buy gift cards by charging $50 to each of your enrolled Amex cards.
This trick isn’t limited to Lowes stores, of course. Anytime there’s a similar Amex offer for stores that carry Amazon gift cards, it should be possible to do the same. This includes stores such as Home Depot, Staples, Office Depot, and more.
Of course, once you’ve bought your Amazon gift cards (and receive 20% back from Amex) you can then load the gift card credit to your Amazon account and then shop at Amazon via the JetBlue site to get 3X additional rewards.
Coupons Too
On top of the stacking options described above, it is sometimes possible to apply a coupon to reduce your costs. One of the best we’ve seen is the possibility of getting a coupon for 10% to 15% off everything at Amazon (Hat Tip: Doctor of Credit). To get the coupon, you need to register a change of address (if your move is temporary, you can specify dates for the change of address to begin and end).
- Start your change of address at My Move
- Click “Change of Address” on the top menu. This will redirect you to USPS.
- Complete the change of address at USPS.com
- You should then be invited to click to return to My Move to claim valuable deals.
- Look for an Amazon offer. People have reported offers of 10% to 15% off capped usually at $1,000 in spend, or less. Others did not receive an Amazon offer at all. YMMV.
- You may find other valuable coupons at My Move for Lowes, Home Depot, etc.
Thanks go to Travel with Grant for reminding me about this great option via a personal conversation.
Ultimate Stacking
When all of the stars align, an ultimate stack may look like the following:
- Buy Amazon gift cards for 20% off, earn 1X Amex credit card rewards. Apply gift cards to your account.
- Click through JetBlue for 3X rewards
- Use Movers coupon to save 15%.
In total, it is theoretically possible to earn 4X rewards and save 32% (the 20% and 15% discounts stack, but aren’t additive)
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Does Jet Blue have relationships with any other carrier? Are Jet Blue points convertible into any other currency? We are not currently served by Jet Blue and the likelihood of them coming to where I live is remote so unless I can convert their points into something else that 3% won’t do me a whole lot of good. The post is great info though.
You can use points with the True Blue Shop where you can buy experiences. Unfortunately there’s not much there: thetrueblueshop.jetblue.com. You can also use points to buy magazines. I think that’s about it. JetBlue does have relationships with some other carriers but I don’t think they allow using points for their partners yet.
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Greg,
Thanks for the post. I have never used JetBlue site but do shop at Amazon a lot, may I ask is there a way to redeem its points to cash (can’t find on its website)?
No, I believe that points are best used to buy airfare. I don’t think they have the option (yet) to use points to buy gift cards or merchandise.
Great post and amazing timing as I am about to purchase a $700 camera at Amazon!
Who knows if the JetBlue portal will be an exception to the rule, but Amazon is changing their affiliate program effective March 1, 2017 to no longer pay out for Amazon Gift Card purchases. Currently they pay affiliates 2% for Amazon Gift Card purchases. I recall it used to be 6%. Clearly Amazon is realizing it doesn’t make sense to pay 2x commissions and is plugging these loopholes.
Thanks for that tip. I’ll check JetBlue tomorrow to see if they change their list of exclusions. Currently Amazon gift card purchases are NOT listed on their exclusion list. For the record, here is the JetBlue exclusion list as of Feb 28 2017:
What products are excluded from earning points?
Any product or service sold on a site linked to from the Amazon Site (e.g., a product or service listed through our “Product Ads” program or sold on a site linked to from a banner ad, sponsored link, or other link displayed on the Amazon Site);
Any wireless service plan offered through the Amazon Site and not sold or fulfilled by Amazon;
Any product, including games and other applications, sold through the Amazon Appstore for Android;
Any product sold on fresh.amazon.com;
Restaurant takeout;
Any alcoholic beverage product;
Any digital Kindle product purchased as a subscription (e.g., Kindle newspaper subscriptions, magazine subscriptions, blog subscriptions, etc.);
Any free trial subscription
So far they haven’t changed their list of exclusions. That doesn’t prove anything really, but one would be able to argue that points should be awarded if they’re not.
A month later they have. Oh well, there goes my visions of being the next pudding guy with a PPM that would have worked in theory.
Yikes. Thanks for the heads-up. I’ve updated this post and will publish a new one soon.
Just wonder if anyone get mymove coupon other than 10% off up to $500 recently?
I got 15% off up to $1500 before but only 10% off $500 now.
It may be worth mentioning if you got in on the recent Amex everyday card that you get 10% back in purchases for the 1st 6 months. Unfortunately for me, Amazon just started charging tax in my state.
What is to stop one from buying Amazon gift cards, applying them, then using the credit to buy more Amazon gift cards?
As far as I know you can’t buy Amazon gc with Amazon credit. I’ve never tried though.
Amazon will let you buy 3rd party gift cards with gift card credit, but they won’t let you buy Amazon gift cards that way.
So you buy a Staples (or some other store card) go to Staples buy an Amazon gift card. Rinse and repeat.
Does staples let you purchase 3rd party gift card with a Staples gift card?
You can’t buy gift cards at staples (or almost anywhere else now) with a gift card. There are still a couple places that allow it, but that loophole has beem, or is being, closed in most places
You wrote the below passage which implies committing fraud. I wouldn’t recommend that to your readers if I was you. The USPS clearly warns against this on their website.
“To get the coupon, you need to register a change of address (you can make it temporary or even cancel it immediately afterwards).”
Eric is right. This is actually a federal crime. Don’t forget that USPS is a federal agency and any crimes are considered federal crimes. Just be aware before you mess with USPS.
Very good point. I’ve updated the post.
Can you stack smile.amazon.com donations to charity on top of all this?
Yes. i do it all the time. After you go through jetblue search for amazon smile and click shop through amazon smile
Are you sure that works? I would have guessed that if you switched to Amazon Smile, you wouldn’t get JetBlue points
Any data points on whether double dipping with JetBlue and Amazon Smile works?
These points take forever to post, so I won’t find out for a while
Does moving discount still works for anyone? It seems they stopped issuing this coupon.
At least one person has reported very recent success: http://www.doctorofcredit.com/possible-15-off-amazon-com-1000-can-used-multiple-orders/#comment-360503
Yes tried today. It is still Working.
Thank you! What about Subscribe and Save items that are already in our Amazon accounts? How do we earn JetBlue points with those items?
You can earn points for Subscribe and Save by earning points when buying Amazon gift cards. Everything written in this post about earning (or saving) when buying the gift cards still applies. For example: buy Amazon gift cards at Staples with an Ink card to get 5X rewards, then apply to your account. The Subscribe & Save deliveries should automatically be paid for with your gift card credit.