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?
Sometimes its possible to stack multiple deals towards great value. We refer to that as “extreme stacking”. Fortunately, for those of you who need to ship a list minute holiday gift, Harry & David has you covered. And I’ll show you how to stack the snot out of it…
Here are the components you’ll need for the ultimate Harry & David stack:
Free shipping from ShopRunner
- Enroll in ShopRunner for free with any Amex card (found here).
- Enroll in ShopRunner for free with any World Mastercard or World Elite Mastercard (found here).
- Enroll for 2 years free via PayPal (found here).
Amex Offers: Spend $75, Get $20; and Get 10% Back
Log into your Amex account to see if you have a card that has both of the targeted offers shown above. It’s possible that the 10% back offer is only available on business cards, so begin your search on a business card if you have one. Once you find a card with both offers, load both to your account.
Dosh 10% Back
Dosh is an app that lets you earn cash back at certain merchants automatically just by linking your credit cards. And Dosh happens to be offering 10% back at Harry & David at the moment!
It used to be necessary to click through from Dosh for online offers like this one, but that’s no longer the case. See: Dosh — Now stack card-linked offers with portals.
Make sure to install Dosh on your smartphone and link your Amex credit card before making any purchases at Harry & David. If you haven’t yet installed Dosh, here’s my referral link (thanks!).
Portal $10 per purchase or 20% Back
Most portals don’t offer much for Harry & David purchases, but they tend to offer quite a bit more for 1-800-Flowers, which is a partner site. All of the above stacks will work if you click through to 1-800-Flowers rather than to Harry & David. Once, there, you can click the Harry & David tab if you prefer their products. But, actually, you can buy from any of the 1-800-Flowers associated stores such as Harry & David, Cheryl’s, Wolferman’s, etc. (see image for the full list):
At the time of this writing, the two best portal options for 1-800-Flowers are TopCashBack and Ebates (both are offering 20% cash back) and the investment site, Acorns, which offers $10 back per purchase when you click through from their “Found Money” section. If you plan to spend more than $50 per order, then you’re better off with 20% back from either portal (but always check CashBackMonitor first to see current portal rates). If you plan to spend less than $50 per order, then go with Acorns. Here are my referral links to each of these:
Add Up the Stack
With the Spend $75, Get $20 Amex offer, you’ll increase your savings by spending as little above $75 as possible. Here are two examples in which you spend $80 total. Note that sales tax is not considered in the calculated savings…
Scenario 1: One $80 purchase for $28 after rebates
- $20 Back from Amex for the Spend $75, Get $20 offer
- $8 Back from Amex for the 10% back offer
- $8 Back from Dosh (10% back)
- $16 back from from TopCashBack or Ebates (20% of $80)
- Total rebate: $52
- Total cost after rebate: $80 – $52 = $28
Scenario 2: Two separate $40 purchases for $24 after rebates
- $20 Back from Amex for the Spend $75, Get $20 offer
- $8 Back from Amex for the 10% back offer
- $8 Back from Dosh (10% back)
- $20 back from Acorns as long as you click through separately for each order
- Total rebate: $56
- Total cost after rebate: $80 – $56 = $24
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
[…] A mighty stack for last minute gifts […]
You guys amaze me. Thank you for all of the info in 2018.
Is there a good reason why I should avoid 30 UA miles instead of 20% cash back? Would doing that invalidate anything else, or did the example just use cash to make the math easier to understand? I am fairly certain most of us would value UA miles at well above 0.67 cents/mile.
Yes, the UA 30 miles per dollar deal is via a promo code which won’t work with free shipping. Depending upon how much the item is that you’re buying, shipping and handling can equal 50% of the total. In that case, you’d really be earning about 15 miles per dollar. You might still prefer that over 20% back though. I just think the whole thing is easier to understand when talking only about cash back, but if you value the miles more, go for it.
I think most of the sites in the banner should qualify for the Amex offer, per the terms:
Offer valid at corporate.1800flowers.com, 1800flowers.com, cheryls.com, thepopcornfactory.com, 1800baskets.com, fruitbouquets.com, harryanddavid.com, wolfermans.com, stockyards.com, Personalization.com and SimplyChocolate.com
They should. The key here is that the shopping portal payouts for 1800Flowers are highest, so you’ll want to click through a shopping portal to 1800Flowers first, then choose the brand you want once you’ve clicked through to activate the 1800Flowers tracking cookie.
Boy the support system on this blog is unreal how could even a Newbie Fail..
Merry Xmas
Thanks! Great having you around 🙂
I got the 10% offer on my PRG so definitely not business cards only.
Nice stack 🙂
How overpriced does Harry and David tend to be?
Hi Greg, Beginner stacker here. I’ve done a couple of stacks, but not like your above. I wanted to try it, so I joined the Dosh from your referral, etc.
So I’ve tried to start from the ebates portal and go through 1800 flowers to the Harry and David and I can’t find a way to pull them up on 1800 flowers to get a order started.
I’m assuming from there the Dosh and the amex offers and shop runner will all link to my amex cc.
See the banner image in the post with all the brand names? That comes from the 1800Flowers home page. When you click through eBates and get to 1800Flowers.com, you’ll see that banner at the top of the 1800Flowers website. Just click Harry & David there and place your order.
Yes, Dosh and the Amex Offer link to your CC (assuming you added the Amex Offers in your Amex login already). You may have to sign in for Shoprunner. When you’re on your cart page or checkout page (I can’t remember which), there is a link in small print above the item(s) you’re buying that says something like, “Shoprunner eligible items are in your cart. Sign in.” You have to sign in to Shoprunner there one time. If you place multiple orders in the same browser, you shouldn’t have to sign into it again.
Thanks for your help Nick, I wasn’t able to get the Shop runner free shipping through the Ebates portal, so I did get the free shipping using the UA.