Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
Online flower delivery stores frequently offer eye popping deals to earn miles when shopping. “30 miles per dollar!” sounds fantastic… until you dig until the details. Once you add shipping and handling fees, and sales tax, to your $35 order, you’ll likely find that the total charge is closer to $60. And, since miles aren’t earned on the shipping & handling & tax portion of an order, the actual miles per dollar earned is much less. Given the huge shipping & handling fees, It takes a really special deal to make ordering flowers just for miles worthwhile (ironically, we reported one deal that may be worth paying shipping & handling just yesterday: Earn 60x Delta SkyMiles On FTD Purchases).
1-800-Flowers used to be an exception. They offer an annual subscription to Celebrations Passport for about $30 (but it is usually available for less). Celebrations Passport gives you free shipping and handling. Celebrations Passport free shipping used to be stackable with promo codes offering lots of airline miles. And, at times the deals were so good that it was worth buying stuff just to get miles. Sadly, many readers have written in to inform me that this is no longer the case. You can no longer combine promo codes with Celebrations Passport free shipping.
Celebrations Passport is now dead to me.
Easier Extreme Stacking (forget miles, go for cash back)
Stacking deals with 1-800-Flowers and it’s associated brands (Harry & David, Wolferman’s, Stock Yards, etc.) used to be quite profitable under certain circumstances, but it was complicated. You had to decide whether you wanted to use a promo code or a shopping portal. That then informed which option to use for free shipping. And the promo code route drastically cut down on your shopping options since many items are not available for purchase with most promo codes.
Now, there’s only one reasonable path towards extreme stacking 1-800-Flowers:
- Sign up for free shipping through ShopRunner via Amex, World Mastercard, or Paypal.
- Enroll your credit card in a cash back offer for 1-800-Flowers (such as the current Amex Offer: Spend $50, Get $15)
- Find the portal offering the best rate (use CashBackMonitor). eBates is currently offering 30% cash back!
- Buy stuff. Keep in mind that when you click through to 1-800-Flowers from a portal, you can still buy things from other tabs on the same site: Wolferman’s, Harry & David, etc.
Example: With the current deals, it’s possible to save up to 60%
- Shop through eBates for 30% cash back
- Buy exactly $50 worth of stuff with a credit card enrolled in the Spend $50, Get $15 Amex Offer
- If delivery is to a state with no sales tax for the type of merchandise purchased, then you would get $30 back for your $50 purchase. That’s 60% off advertised prices.
Is it worth it?
You can always save much more money by buying locally. But, if you need gifts delivered, this could be a good way to save some money.
See also:
- 1800Flowers Extreme Stacking promo codes, portals, gift cards, and more
- Earn 60x Delta SkyMiles On FTD Purchases
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Has 1-800 Flowers stopped awarding miles on orders partly paid for with GCs? I have a $50 GC which I haven’t used in almost a year, if they aren’t giving miles on any of these orders I’ll just sell it rather than buy some overpriced garbage…
Last I tested, if you use a promo code with a fixed number of miles (RR22, for example), then as long as a small part of the charge is paid with a credit card you’ll get miles.
I’ve been waiting 4 weeks for my miles, I called in today and they said on the phone that I need to wait up to 8 weeks. I e-mailed them and got this response:
I have reviewed your order and found that your Celebrations Passport membership was used. I’m sorry but you are not eligible for miles/points on this order.
I used a celebrations passport and the SW44 promo code (and their website accepted it no problem) and I was counting on these last 7000 miles to finalize the companion pass… I read on tons and tons of travel sites that this was perfectly fine. Am I screwed???
Yes probably. Sorry.
A follow up to my earlier post. 1800flowers has just refunded the full amount for the annual Celebrations Passport fee. As I previously mentioned I sent them a message explaining that they had changed the terms of our contract and thus had voided it.
[…] 1-800-Flowers kills cheap miles. by Frequent Miler. Booo! […]
[…] 1-800-Flowers kills cheap miles. by Frequent Miler. Booo! […]
“But, if you need gifts delivered, this could be a good way to save some money.”
Except almost every flower shop WILL deliver locally. 1800 flowers just farms out your order to them usually. Unless you’re too lazy to Google and call locally 1800 flowers isn’t saving you any money. Plus, since you have no connection to the flowershop or likelihood of repeat business there’s minimal desire to give you a great product.
You can no longer combine promo codes with Celebrations Passport free shipping.
The above statement is false. There are items that will alert you that you cannot use a promo code & Passport in combination. However, there is a very small link that will show up that says “promo code friendly”. Click the link and you can use Passport & promo codes. They still have the $29.99 Peruvian Lilies. I did two orders a few days ago and used a jetBlue code for 1750 points on $29.99.
David:
Nope. Greg [Frequent Miler] knows his sh*t and is correct. He fact checks before making a post.
That message has been there for years, and even if you select the products that you can use a promo code for, you won’t be able to combine Celebrations Passport free shipping.
This is REALLY new change. Like within the past 96 hours.
Try using the current AAdvantage Promo code, like I just did minutes ago, and you get the error showing that “This promotion code cannot be used in combination with the Passport program.”
It was recently working, yes, as of Mid-April. But just a few days ago, 1800Flowers killed it off. Like 4 days ago. Thought it was the site being buggy. Unfortunately, not the case.
Try placing a order today with the same jetBlue promo code, and you’ll get the same error.
It’s definitely dead. 🙁
Max:
Yup! Just enter my code and received the following:
Promotion is successfully applied to the order.1750 PTS PER ORDER SPENT MIN. $29.99
Greg knows I’ve been doing 1800flowers for a long time and he knows I know my sh*t.
David:
Then perhaps since you’re all-knowing that you’d be willing to share with us the Promo Code for 1750 JetBlue Points for orders of $29.99 or more, since the code listed on JetBlue.com of TB20 is dead, like others for other airlines? 🙂
You’ve probably stumbled upon a code that still works— that does not invalidate the fact that Greg was right, that they’ve killed this deal.
Max: I don’t stumble and I’m not “all-knowing”. You assume the codes on airline sites are the only codes available. Do some homework and look back a few months ago on the FM Insider. You will find 16 codes I posted. After you find them, get back to me and tell me again how I stumble.
David:
You’re right. You don’t stumble, and you’re not all knowing, but somehow manage to treat others with kindness and civility.
So which BoardingArea blog of yours has these codes?
Oh. What? You don’t have a BoardingArea blog? Sift through the comments, eh?
I see.
Well, I guess I should do my “homework” rather expect a simple answer, which apparently requires a minute level of human decency. Maybe I’ll also find the post about earning getting miles for having a God-like complex there too.
Max …. thank you for reminding me why I don’t post on public blogs anymore.
Man, this sounds like if you do not get spoon fed or given circles and arrows, you are unhappy. Splashing out “How To Do T his hard earned knowledge here just to make someone he does not know happy. AND to likely kill that deal too. David is right not to post his stuff all over different public blogs and is why deals like this get killed.
I can also confirm that 1800flowers has killed the combination of a CP with promo codes. This essentially is changing a pre-arranged contract, since at the time of signing up, or renewing the CP subscription, the promo codes did work with it. I have submitted a request to 1800F to refund the full amount of the annual subscription due to their changing of the terms and thus voiding the contract. I would encourage everyone else with a CP subscription to do likewise. I will update when/if I hear a response.
Doug: Good suggestion, I will do the same, and also post my reply. After $15,000 worth of business over the past 10 years, they’ve lost my business because of this decision. FTD offers a better quality product, and since now both companies are equal, it will be FTD from now on.
Thanks for the timely post. Shoprunner + ebates + amex offer on a card I’m doing MSR on + mother’s day = winning. Got $50 bouquet for mom, free shipping, for net $20.
Yep…figured out that the celebrations passport free shipping didn’t work with portals yesterday…after I bought it. That sucked. At least I only paid $19.99 for it.
Have you used it yet? If not, they might refund you if you explain. They refunded me about a week after the annual auto-renewal when I contacted them.