Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is happening now! Follow us as Greg, Nick, and Stephen compete to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines before November 23rd. Who will complete the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
There is so much going on; I don’t know where to begin!
Sears 10X Points Posted!
Last week I wrote about how it was possible to “buy” 162,000 miles for $500 by double dipping at Sears during the 10X promotion and then selling off what was bought. I ended up not quite going all-in with that, but I did buy $3000 of Sears’ gift cards and just over $2500 of merchandise using gift cards. Well, as the picture above shows, the points posted today! As predicted, I got over 55,000 Ultimate Rewards points in one day! Plus, since I used my Chase Sapphire Preferred account to log in, I will get 7% more points as an end of year bonus!
Small side note: you’ll see a $50 Kohl’s charge above as well. This was for a gift card. This is further proof that, despite Kohl’s terms and conditions, you can usually successfully double dip at Kohl’s (I’ve had one miss where the gift card purchase didn’t take, but the use of gift cards always works).
10 Points per Dollar at Barnes & Noble
Today only, through the Ultimate Rewards Mall, you can get 10 points per dollar at Barnes & Noble. Their usual amount is 8 points per dollar, so this isn’t a huge promotion, but if you need stuff from there you might as well take a look. Don’t forget to search for B&N coupon codes as well. 20% off codes are common. I’ve seen as high as 25% off as well.
If you’re not sure what to get, note that gift card purchases do count! However, purchases made with gift cards do not count. I haven’t tested this yet, but it might be possible to double dip by buying gift cards through Ultimate Rewards and then using them through a different shopping portal. If you try this, check the terms and conditions of the second shopping portal to make sure they don’t prohibit purchases made with gift cards. And, report back your success or failure!
UPDATE (NOON, EST):
I have three B&N purchases to make so I just went to B&N through the Ultimate Rewards mall to buy myself an e-gift card for the full price of all three. Next, my plan is to make three separate purchases using the gift card: I’ll go once through Big Crumbs (9.6% back), once through EBates (8% back), and once through Mr Rebates (6% back). The reason for trying all three is to see if any award cash back on purchases made with gift cards. Of course, I’ll post the results in the future. Note: If I get charged more for shipping by doing this separately I’ll abandon the plan and just go through Big Crumbs. If anyone wants to do something similar, please signup with one of my signup links below (I’ll get referral cash and you’ll get my gratitude!):
UPDATE (12:45 est):
I was sitting here wondering why my B&N gift card hasn’t arrived yet so I logged onto my account and looked at the order status. It has two conflicting messages. One says “This item is emailed immediately.” The other says “Expected ship date: December 19, 2011.” What?!! That’s four days from now! Will it take that long for someone to prepare my e-gift card for shipping? Seriously? That better be a mistake!
UPDATE (1:15 EST):
The e-gift card finally arrived. Luckily the “December 19th ship date” was incorrect.
Up to 70X points at Magazines.com
A reader who goes by the name “LoveToFly” posted in Milepoint that he successfully double dipped with Magazines.com through the Ultimate Rewards Mall. Read the post here for more information. He got full credit (35 points per dollar) for the purchase of a gift card, but only half credit for the purchase using the gift card. Still, he made out with over 50 points per dollar! I plan to try this myself and hope to figure out how to eek out the full 70 points per dollar here. I noticed that they sell books in addition to magazines so I think there are some great gift opportunities here. Imagine buying someone a $75 gift and getting over 5000 points in return! That would be awesome!
UPDATE (12:45 EST): I decided to give this a try right away. I ordered $40 worth of books with free shipping by doing the double-dip (buy e-gift card, then use e-gift card). I’ll report back in the future with the results.
UPDATE (7:30 PM EST): Well, I ordered some books, but then a helpful Milepointer pointed out to me that the terms and conditions specifically say that books are excluded! Oh well, now all I can do is hope that they make a mistake!
The OfficeMax Perpetual Point Machine
OK, so a kind reader tipped me off to this, but I haven’t yet had the time to fully research it. Anyway, it appears that if you belong to OfficeMax’s rewards program, you can get in on regular deals in which you buy stuff and get 100% back in the form of OfficeMax rewards. Those rewards can then be used to buy more stuff for 100% back. Rinse and repeat. You can even start by buying a gift card that gives you a bonus gift card on top of that! If each purchase goes through an online mall, you can essentially earn points and office junk merchandise forever, after a single initial outlay of money. I don’t plan to jump on this until I understand it better, so try at your own risk. Here is a link to SlickDeals with more details: http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3694256
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[…] card through other portals (Big Crumbs, Mr. Rebates, and EBates). You can read the full story here. Well, the results are in! And, despite the title of this post, it didn’t really […]
Wish I had remembered to give a heads up a few weeks back (right after the Staples post) when OfficeMax had some very nice 100% rewards… A 2 cf digital fire safe was the highlight as it normally was over $400! Thing to keep in mind with OfficeMax is that sometimes their 100% rewards run dry for periods… At the beginning of last year there about a 3 month lull that ran up against rewards expiration dates for everyone. In that scenario, it’s good to always have a purchase available that you are comfortable with if rewards must be used.. For example, they carry laptops, printers, cameras, furniture, Keurig coffee machines etc. You can then keep or sell these items, and all of the other items you got with the 100% rewards are free more or less. Keeping record of your purchases like Anita mentions is very helpful too… Hope this helps explain the gist of this a bit more (not counting the points aspect of it!)
Steelsnow: Thanks!
[…] 55000 points, 10x shopping, 70x shopping, and a PPM […]
hey thanks for the advice. in this scenario is it better to transfer the points out and play dumb if they try to take the points out later?
steve: I wouldn’t recommend that. It might work, but seriously, Chase/UR mall is incredibly generous as it is, so I wouldn’t try to hide points from them. Plus, part of the reason UR points are worth so much is how flexible they are. If you transfer out, you lose that flexibility.
Sears posted my purchase 12/10 even though I purchased on the 9th, so I have received zero points. Also when talking to Chase they told me that using the gift cards to purchase items does not count it has to be on their cards. I know that is not correct but I don’t know the best way to work with them to get the points. I had $2500 buying gift cards and $1700 using the cards so I am looking for 42,000 points. What should I do?
Anita: thanks for the Office Max tips!
Erik: Awesome!
Rick: Yikes. I’ve never seen purchases post on the wrong day before. However, even if you did make purchases on the 10th, you should get at least 6 extra points per $ since that is the usual Sears rate. I’ve heard other examples of Chase reps not understanding the rules and giving wrong info. I think that’s what happened here. My advice? Wait a few days and see if the points post after all. I bet they will (as long as you remembered to go through the UR mall for your purchases!). Good luck.
My points posted today also! 25,000 points for the gift card purchases and another 24,998 for purchases made with the gift cards. I’ll be thrilled if Chase doesn’t make any adjustments to my points awarded, as they cancelled one of my purchases a few days after. Thanks again for pointing out this great deal!
MAJOR CHANGE with Office Max program! The gravy train is over.
I just checked my rewards balance from the last round of purchases and noticed I did not get full Rewards credit for my last purchase. Last purchase was paid $19.99 Rewards, $38.78 Visa. I got $38.78 in Rewards bucks and see that there is now a note that says in part
“Purchased paid with Max Perks Rewards do not count toward qualifying spend requirements.”
I’ve been buying a lot of free batteries and printer paper at Office Max, and also getting points for the purchases!
Be careful with Office Max, and document your transactions as their customer service is not fantastic. Take screen shots of your deals and track and count your orders.
In my first round of purchasing paper, I made a purchase on the day BEFORE the deal officially went live because a computer glitch on Office Max’s part showed both the current week and the next week’s deal at once. (current week, (pay $39.99, get $19.99 in Max rewards, next week, pay $39.99, get $39.98.) Despite the fact that I had the screen shot showing that both offers were up at once, they refused to honor the $39.99 and a truly nasty CSR was quite rude. I ultimately was given a $10 Office Max gift card to partially make up for my trouble.
I had another order cancel with no notice, but the MaxRewards $$ were not automatically returned to my account and I had to call and request that it be researched. After my call, the funds were replaced within 24 hours.
Overall, a great deal for those with the energy to track it!
Ratz – think before you click – if I had started at my eBates link ( FM fee free to insert your eBates referral link here rather than mine – http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=fi85YXGVRYXjUHS9P8hoXA%3D%3D ) I would have been PAID $2.00 for the order. I will from now on and check this often and keep churning it. Great thanks!
I am no online shopper but I do buy my office supplies at Office max and have had a OM Rewards account for a long time. Thanks for the reminder, I do have about $35 in rewards expiring soon! I should do these freebies makes sense, especially the batteries. But I would skip the Labor posters:-) Can this offer be combined with a shopping portal, i.e. ebates, etc.? Do you know?
I am skipping the rest of the online shopping, just don’t need the stuff. Years ago, there was an amazing promo with valumags.com That was worth the hassle for me:-) The rest of the online shopping is just way past my threshold of pain. I am the guy who buys clothes from Tom James because they…come to me so I avoid going to the mall. I think I go to the mall once a year, go to Macy’s buy a bunch of stuff as quick as I can and get the hell out asap before I pass out:-)
Steve: that’s awesome. Don’t be surprised, though, if the points get pulled away later.
Ryan: Only certain Chase cards work. The ones I’m sure of are the Sapphire Preferred and the Ink Bold. Magazineline is 20 pts per $ at UR
Deltagoldflyer: Great!
gpapadop: Welcome back! Where have you been? I can’t believe you weighed in on a shopping discussion, but not on the fair trading prices of points!
♥The Office Max Perpetual Point Machine♥
Sweet. I needed a new backpack for skiing and had $120 in officemax credit. I got one and will get it 100%. Great tip and will think of you when I ski! – Rene
I, unfortunately, don’t have access to Ultimate Rewards shopping mall yet…just out of curiosity, can I do it with any chase card, or do i have to have sapphire (i have SW and CO cards with Chase). Anyway, wanted you to check and see if Ultimate Rewards has Magazineline.com…right now, SW shopping has it at 15 points per $1…since Ultimate Rewards post a LOT faster than anything run by Cartera, maybe you can try what i’ve tried with SW and see if it works. I’ve been waiting for over a week for the points, but i’m sure it will be a month or so before I know what may happen.
yea i got my points pending. but are you ready for the kicker!!!! i had a purchase for 9500 gift card that was cancelled by them ( long story but i reordered ltr) and 95000 pts are pending!