Let the game begin! As of January 1st, 2022, American Airlines has moved to a new way for members to earn elite status. The old EQMs and EQDs are gone. Now, we can earn elite status simply by earning lots of Loyalty Points. The exciting thing about this is that Loyalty Points can be earned not just by flying but also through credit card spend, shopping portal rewards, SimplyMiles rewards, and more. Ready to play?
Helpful Tools:
- Cheat sheet (what works, what doesn’t): How to earn American Airlines Loyalty Points without flying.
- Keep score: AA Loyalty Game Scorecard
Why Pursue AA Loyalty Points?
Those who fly American Airlines a fair bit should be stoked by these changes. For those willing to do a combination of flying and spend-related games, it should be easy to earn a higher level of status than ever before, or to get to top tier status more easily. And once you have high level status, you’ll be eligible for more upgrades (even on Basic Economy tickets), free preferred seat selection, better point earnings on flights, etc.
Then there are people like me. I don’t fly AA enough to care much about getting upgrades on AA. I mean, I’d be thrilled to get upgraded if/when I fly AA, but I wouldn’t normally go out of my way to earn status for that potential benefit. That said, there are some benefits that people like me who don’t normally fly AA might value:
- OneWorld Elite Status: If you get AA’s Platinum Pro status or higher, you’ll qualify for OneWorld Emerald status. This means that when flying a OneWorld carrier, you would get access to both first and business class lounges (except for AA’s own lounges if you earn OneWorld Emerald through AA), OneWorld first class check-in, priority boarding, extra free luggage.
- Status Matches: When lucrative elite status matches are available, having high level AA elite status may be your key to getting a great match to an airline that you’ll fly more often.
- Better Basic Economy on AA: Sometimes AA offers amazingly cheap Basic Economy prices. With elite status, there’s less downside to booking these. Yes, they’re still non-changeable and non-refundable, but those flights earn Loyalty Points and with elite status you can select your seat, check bags for free, and qualify for upgrades.
- Elite Perks on Alaska and JetBlue: When flying JetBlue you can get priority check-in, security, and boarding; priority bag delivery; free checked bags; and a status mileage bonus. When flying Alaska, you can get all of the above plus preferred seating, free same-day flight change, complementary Premium Class seats, complementary upgrades to first class (Platinum Pro and higher).
As attractive as the above benefits might be, my real motivation for wanting to earn AA elite status is that I want to play the game. This is my warped idea of fun! I’m betting that there will be many opportunities to stack shopping deals in order to earn AA miles and elite status extremely cheaply. In fact, I already found some promising opportunities (as detailed in the examples later in this post).
The Game
The AA Loyalty Point Game can be played alone or with any number of friends. Each player’s goal is to earn enough Loyalty Points to reach a meaningful level of elite status. In 2022, we have 14 months to earn enough points (January 2022 through February 2023) but in future years we’ll have just 12 months (March through Feb). This goal would be easy to achieve if cost was no object, but I’m adding a key restriction: the value of redeemable miles and Loyalty Points earned must outweigh fees and rewards not earned due to passing up more lucrative options.
How to Win (AKA how to earn AA elite status)
Before starting the game, decide which elite level you’re going for. You win if you reach the targeted level before time is up (before March 1, 2023) and if you control costs appropriately. Here are the target levels to choose from (personally I’m going for Platinum Pro):
| AAdvantage elite status | Gold | Platinum | Platinum Pro | Executive Platinum |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loyalty Points Required | 40K | 75K | 125K | 200K |
| Mileage Bonus | 40% | 60% | 80% | 120% |
| Preferred Seating | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Main Cabin Extra Seating | Upgrade at Check In | Y | Y | Y |
| Domestic First Class Upgrade | 24 hour window | 48 hour window | 72 hour window | 100 hour window |
| Upgrade on Alaska Airlines | N | N | Y | Y |
| Free checked bags | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| OneWorld Status | Ruby: Access to biz class check-in, preferred seating | Sapphire: Access to OneWorld Business Class lounges | Emerald: Access to OneWorld First and Business Class lounges | |
| Loyalty Points Earned | Loyalty Point Rewards |
|---|---|
| 15K | Automatic Benefit: Group 5 Boarding Choose 1: • Priority privileges & Group 4 boarding for a trip • 5 Preferred seat coupons |
| 40K | Automatic Benefit: AAdvantage Gold Status |
| 60K | Automatic Benefits: • 20% Loyalty Point Bonus (AA Vacations, SimplyMiles, AAdvantage eShopping, AAdvantage Dining, and AA Hotels) • Avis Preferred Plus |
| 75K | Automatic Benefit: AAdvantage Platinum Status |
| 100K | Automatic Benefits: • 30% Loyalty Point Bonus (AA Vacations, SimplyMiles, AAdvantage eShopping, AAdvantage Dining, and AA Hotels) • Avis President's Club |
| 125K | Automatic Benefit: AAdvantage Platinum Pro Status |
| 175K | Choose 1: • 2 systemwide upgrades • 20K bonus AA miles (25K w/ AA credit card) • 6 Admirals Club One-Day Passes • $200 Trip Credit ($250 w/ AA credit card) • Carbon offset • $250 donation to select nonprofit organization • 15% award rebate • 2 gifts of AAdvantage Gold status • 35K AA miles towards a Mastercard Priceless Experience |
| 200K | Automatic Benefit: AAdvantage Executive Platinum Status |
| 250K | Choose 2: • 2 systemwide upgrades • 20K bonus AA miles (30K w/ AA credit card) • 6 Admirals Club One-Day Passes • $200 Trip Credit ($250 w/ AA credit card) • Carbon offset • $250 donation to select nonprofit organization • 2 gifts of AAdvantage Gold status • Bang & Olufsen product (requires 2 choices) • 1 Flagship lounge single visit pass (2 passes w/ AA credit card) • 35K AA miles towards a Mastercard Priceless Experience |
| 400K | Choose 2: • 1 systemwide upgrade • 25K bonus AA miles • Admirals Club membership (requires 2 choices) • $200 Trip Credit ($250 w/ AA credit card) • Carbon offset • Gift of AAdvantage Platinum status • Bang & Olufsen product (requires 2 choices) • 1 Flagship First Dining pass • 40K AA miles towards a Mastercard Priceless Experience |
| 550K | Choose 2: • 1 systemwide upgrade • 25K bonus AA miles • Admirals Club membership (requires 2 choices) • $200 Trip Credit ($250 w/ AA credit card) • Carbon offset • Gift of AAdvantage Platinum status • Bang & Olufsen product (requires 2 choices) • 2 Flagship lounge single visit passes • 1 Flagship First Dining pass • 40K AA miles towards a Mastercard Priceless Experience |
| 750K | Choose 2: • 1 systemwide upgrade • 25K bonus AA miles • Admirals Club membership (requires 2 choices) • $200 Trip Credit ($250 w/ AA credit card) • Carbon offset • Gift of AAdvantage Platinum status • Bang & Olufsen product (requires 2 choices) • 2 Flagship lounge single visit passes • 1 Flagship First Dining pass • 40K AA miles towards a Mastercard Priceless Experience |
| 1M | Choose 1: • 4 systemwide upgrades • Carbon offset • Gift of AAdvantage Platinum Pro status • Up to 100K miles back on award redemptions • 150K AA miles towards a Mastercard Priceless Experience |
| 3M | Choose 1: • 6 systemwide upgrades • Carbon offset • Gift of AAdvantage Executive Platinum status • Up to 300K miles back on award redemptions • 350K AA miles towards a Mastercard Priceless Experience |
| 5M | Choose 1: • 10 systemwide upgrades • Carbon offset • Gift of AAdvantage Executive Platinum status • Up to 500K miles back on award redemptions • 550K AA miles towards a Mastercard Priceless Experience |
Accounting for Costs
Most opportunities to earn Loyalty Points without flying require making purchases. So, there are two types of purchases to account for:
- Purchases you would have made anyway: Account for rewards not earned. When buying things you would have bought anyway, the key is to account for the fact that you could have earned cash back (or other rewards) instead. For example, if you pay with an AA card that earns 1 mile per dollar instead of a card that earns 2% cash back, then your cost is 2 cents per mile. Similarly, if you shop through the AA eShopping portal to earn 3 points per dollar instead of a cash back portal that offers 9% cash back, then your cost is 3 cents per mile.
- Purchases you make only for the Loyalty Points: Sometimes there are deals that are so good that it’s worth paying for something even if you don’t want it. For example, it’s not unusual for people to sign up for something like LifeLock just for the rewards (and then to cancel their subscription soon afterwards). In those cases, you can simply account for your costs directly. If you pay $100 and get 5,000 miles then your cost is $100/5000 = $0.02 (2 cents per mile).
How much should you pay for Loyalty Points and redeemable miles? In many cases, the number of Loyalty Points and redeemable miles you earn will be the same. For example, if shopping through the AA eShopping Portal for an offer that advertises 1,500 points, you should get both 1,500 Loyalty Points and 1,500 redeemable miles. However, when the same portal also offers a special promotion for bonus miles (e.g. 300 bonus miles with $100 spend across all portal purchases), those will most likely only be redeemable miles.
LoyaltyMiles: When you earn both Loyalty Points and redeemable miles at the same rate (which is the norm), let’s call those LoyaltyMiles (I made that up).
How much are LoyaltyMiles worth to you? Before playing this game, it’s important to decide how much LoyaltyMiles are worth to you. One rough way to do this is to add together the amount you would pay per mile to buy AA redeemable miles plus the amount you would pay for Loyalty Points (if you could buy them). For example, maybe you know that you can always get significantly more than 1 cent per point value from your AA miles, so you would pay 1 cent per mile to buy redeemable miles. Plus, lets say your target elite status is Executive Platinum (requiring 200K Loyalty Points) and you would be willing to buy that level of status for $1,000 (a made-up number). In that case, you would be willing to pay $1,000 / 200K = half a cent per Loyalty Point. Taken together, LoyaltyMiles then are worth 1.5 cents each to you. In other words, you would be fine with paying 1.5 cents per LoyaltyMile earned.
In my case, since AA status isn’t very meaningful to me and since I already have over a million AA miles, I’ll pay no more than half a cent per Loyalty Point and half a cent per redeemable mile. In other words, I don’t want to pay more than 1 cent per LoyaltyMile. This means that, unless an AA credit card is offering a big promotion, I shouldn’t ever put spend on an AA card. With my Bank of America Premium Rewards card I earn 2.62% cash back on all spend and so using an AA credit card that earns only 1 LoyaltyMile per dollar is like paying 2.62 cents per LoyaltyMile (because I could have earned 2.62% cash back instead of earning 1 LoyaltyMile). That’s way above my budget of 1 cent per LoyaltyMile.
Tools for Earning Loyalty Points
As we reported separately, the following non-flight activities earn Loyalty Points:
- AA credit card spend (In most cases, earn one Loyalty Point per dollar even if earning more than 1x due to a category bonus or promo)
- General Shopping and dining: AAdvantage eShopping, SimplyMiles, AAdvantage Dining
- Merchant specific shopping: FTD, NRG Energy, Reliant Energy, Shell Fuel Rewards, Vinesse, Vivid Seats, WeWork, Xoom
- Miscellaneous: Miles for Opinions
- Hotel Bookings: Rocketmiles, BookAAHotels.com, Hyatt (including miles earned through the AA/Hyatt partnership), Marriott, IHG, Marriott Vacations
- Rental Cars: You can book rentals through American Airlines, or book through most of the major rental car companies and credit rewards to your American Airlines account.
- Vacations and cruises: aavacations.com, bookaacruises.com
One Mile at a Time reports that the following DO NOT earn Loyalty points:
- Buying, gifting, or transferring miles
- Government taxes, fees, and other charges associated with buying airline tickets
- Conversion of another program currency to AAdvantage miles
- AAdvantage credit card welcome bonuses don’t qualify, and neither do accelerators such as extra miles for category bonuses
- Miles earned with Bask Bank
Getting Started
- Choose an elite level target (e.g. Exec Platinum for 200,000 points, Platinum Pro for 125,000 points, Platinum for 75,000 points, or Gold for 30,000 points)
- Decide how much you’re willing to “pay” (see Accounting for Costs, above) for LoyaltyMiles (Loyalty Points + Redeemable miles). As a very rough rule of thumb I’d suggest the following:
- 1 cent per LoyaltyMile: You’re just doing this for fun and don’t really care that much about earning elite status or AA miles
- 1.5 cents per LoyaltyMile: You value AA miles more than 1 cent each and you do expect to get good value out of AA elite status.
- 2 cents per LoyaltyMile: You value AA miles AND you very highly value AA elite status. You plan to earn Platinum Pro or Executive Platinum status. And, you expect to fly 30 or more AA segments per year so that you’ll also earn Choice Rewards Benefits (such as Systemwide Upgrades).
- Look for deals and stacking opportunities among the tools for earning loyalty points. For example, in some cases merchants available through AAdvantage eShopping are also available through SimplyMiles, and in most cases those offers will stack together to earn many more LoyaltyMiles per purchase.
Update: Please see our game cheat sheet here: How to earn American Airlines Loyalty Points without flying.
Examples
A couple of days ago I searched for examples of deal stacking opportunities that would let me buy LoyaltyMiles for less than 1 cent each. Here are a couple of deals I found…
Byte (Earn miles and a profit)
Byte sells teeth straightening kits. You start by buying an Impression Kit and then can sign up for a much more expensive program for straitening your teeth. Byte got my attention initially through SimplyMiles where I had an offer on my account for 4,650 miles on a purchase of $100 or more:
There was also an offer to get 2,500 miles through the eShopping portal. This should stack with the SimplyMiles offer:
What really sealed the deal for me, though, was that I found the same merchant on Citi Merchant Offers for my Citi Double Cash card. I don’t yet know if the SimplyMiles offer and the Citi Merchant Offer will stack together (both are card-linked offers where the payout is triggered by charges appearing on the card), but both are so good that the deal would be worth pursuing if either one pays out on a $100 purchase.
I enrolled my Double Cash card in the offer both within SimplyMiles and Citi Merchant Offers and then went to click through from the AA portal. First, though, I checked CashBackMonitor to see if there was a better portal offer than AA’s 2,500 miles. Sure enough, TopCashBack was offering $45 back:
Since the portal choice is between earning $45 or 2,500 miles, it would cost me $45/2500 = 1.8 cents per LoyaltyMile to use the AA portal. That’s way above my 1 cent per point threshold so I went with TopCashBack.
After clicking through the portal to Byte, I was confronted with a problem. I couldn’t immediately find a way to spend $100 (which is necessary for triggering the card-linked offers). The impression kit was on sale for only $14.95 and that seemed like the only option for an initial purchase:
Since $14.95 wouldn’t be enough to trigger the card-linked offers from SimplyMiles or Citi, I added the Impression Kit to my cart and then removed the discount code at check out. This increased the price to $95. After Michigan sales tax was applied, the total price came to $100.70. Perfect! Do note, though, that the card linked offer terms state “Offer excludes taxes.” That said, the card-linked programs can’t usually tell the difference between the primary purchase and the sales tax portion and so it is likely to work anyway.
If everything pays out, then I should earn the following on my $100.70 in spend:
- $145 cash back ($100 from Citi Merchant Offers and $45 from TopCashBack)
- $2.01 back from my Citi Double Cash card.
- 4,650 AA miles from SimplyMiles
- Overall, I’ll earn a small profit (about $46) and I’ll be 4,650 / 125K = 4% of the way to Platinum Pro status!
Early on, TopCashBack reported that the purchase has tracked, but it was too soon to hear from the card-linked programs.
What if Citi Merchant Offers and AA SimplyMiles don’t stack?
- I should earn $45 from TopCashBack regardless, so my net cost would be $55.70
- If I earn 4,650 AA miles, but not the $100 from Citi, then that’s like buying miles for $55.70 / 4,650 = 1.2 cents each. That’s more than I wanted to spend, but not horrible.
- If I earn the $100 from Citi, but not the 4,650 AA miles, then I’ll have earned a small profit, but no AA miles.
As I write this, my Citi Double Cash card shows the $100.70 purchase pending. Until it moves to an actual charge, the card-linked offers won’t be triggered. Even then, I might not know immediately if they both worked. I’ll update this post once I learn either way.
Update 3/1/2022: The SimplyMiles offer never paid out (but I do have a support ticket in to them so there’s still some hope). Fortunately, almost 3 months after the purchase, the Citi $100 offer finally paid out. Combined with $45 paid out from TopCashBack, this was a small money maker for me even though it hasn’t yet resulted in any AA miles or loyalty points.
Update 3/2/2022: SimplyMiles emailed to say that my miles tracked and will post soon! This means that all components of the deal worked! Amazing!
Example: Spot & Tango (buy miles very cheaply)
Spot & Tango is a meal delivery subscription service for dogs. I saw this first on the AA eShopping portal where they were offering 2,500 miles for a purchase. I then also found Spot & Tango on SimplyMiles where they offered 930 miles, and on Citi Merchant Offers where they offered $20 back. Each of the latter two offers required a purchase of $25 or more.
After determining that the AA eShopping portal really was the best deal, I clicked through from there and ran into a problem: It was hard to find a subscription plan where the first purchase cost less than $55. Finally, I stumbled upon the solution: I changed my fictional dog’s weight down to 10 pounds. I played around with different options until I found an order that came to $24.25. After Michigan sales tax, the total came to $25.71.
Another problem I faced is that this order required signing up for recurring dogfood deliveries that I didn’t want. So, immediately after placing the order, I went into my account and changed the next delivery to be 3 months away. That will give me plenty of time to cancel the subscription after the rebates post. I also set a reminder to myself for a couple of weeks from now to cancel the subscription.
So far (updated 1/6/22), all of the “stacks” have posted!
- The AA eShopping portal tracked the purchase and shows 2,500 miles pending (I have no idea why it thinks the eligible amount was only $15.16, but the portal didn’t have a minimum spend requirement so that should be OK).
- SimplyMiles tracked the purchase and shows 930 miles pending.
- Citibank Merchant Offers tracked the purchase and shows $20 pending.
Assuming each of the pending rewards go through and pay out, then I should earn the following from my $25.71 in spend:
- $20 cash back from Citi Merchant Offers
- 51 cents back from my Citi Double Cash card
- 3,430 AA miles (2,500 miles from the AA eShopping Portal + 930 from SimplyMiles)
- Overall, my cost will be $5.20 / 3430 = 0.15 cents per LoyaltyMile. That’s excellent!
Update 1/10/22: All 3,430 AA miles have posted to my AA account. All are shown as “base miles”. I take that as confirmation that they will count as Loyalty Points.
Update 3/1/22: All components of the deal ($20 back from Citi + 2,500 miles from AA eShopping + 930 miles from SimplyMiles) have paid out. Solid deal!
Fulton Fish Market
This is a deal that I decided not to pursue, but it might be of interest to those who want to sign up for fish delivery. Through SimplyMiles, I found a two similar offers for Fulton Fish, each offering 1,500 miles on a purchase of $100 or more. I was able to activate both offers, so would I get 3,000 miles on a $100 purchase if I met the terms of each? I don’t know. I also found $30 back on a purchase of $100 or more through Citi Merchant Offers. So, if it is possible to make a $100 purchase, the following might be possible:
- Get $30 back from Citi Merchant Offers (net cost: $100 – $30 = $70)
- Earn either 1,500 or 3,000 miles from SimplyMiles
- LoyaltyMile price either:
- $70 / 1500 = 4.7 cents per LoyaltyMile
- $70 / 3000 = 2.33 cents per LoyaltyMile
Even if it all works, 2.33 cents is more than I’m willing to pay per LoyaltyMile. You can do a little better by starting with a portal, but I didn’t see any amazing portal rates so they wouldn’t make a huge difference. Overall, this deal is only worthwhile if you want to order fish anyway.
Warning
Play this game only if you are comfortable with the risks…
Things can and will go wrong. Some purchases may not track correctly. Assumptions about what deals will stack may be wrong. You might forget to use a credit card linked to SimplyMiles (for example) when making a purchase. You may forget to cancel an ongoing subscription and therefore pay way more for your miles than intended.
What works? What doesn’t?
This section will be updated regularly based on my own experiment results and info from readers…
What works (confirmed)
- Two similar SimplyMiles offers. Sometimes you’ll see multiple offers on SimplyMiles for the same merchant but with slightly different terms. If you can meet the terms of both offers with one purchase, you’ll get both bonuses. People have reported success with this with Best Buy.
What works (pending)
The following appear to work based on pending payouts. I’ll update once they move from pending to actual payouts:
- Stack SimplyMiles card linked offer with Citi Merchant Offers for same merchant.
- Stack AA eShopping portal with SimplyMiles (and with Citi Merchant Offers).
- Meet SimplyMiles spend requirement with sales tax even if terms say no to taxes. Tested successfully with the following merchants: Spot & Tango
What doesn’t work
This section will be filled in once we have relevant datapoints.
Play Along
If you’re interested in playing the game described above, please do the following:
- Subscribe to the comments of this post. That way, you’ll receive an email when people report useful information.
- Search for your own deals!
- In the comments below, report any great deals you’ve found
- In the comments below, report your success (or lack of success) in stacking deals. In the future, I intend to add a section to this post with info about which deals stack and which do not, as well as when terms like “excludes taxes” are enforced and when they are not.
Who’s ready to play?
Update: Please see our game cheat sheet here: How to earn American Airlines Loyalty Points without flying.
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FYI on AA portal cases that get resolved after a new loyalty points year starts:
-Miles from a purchase will back-date to the date of purchase/shipment (which may be strange if it changes your status level or loyalty choice thresholds after the choice deadline passes).
-Miles for completing a SPENDING BONUS RELATED TO that purchase will have to be manually input and WILL COUNT AS BOTH REDEEMABLE MILES AND LOYALTY POINTS IN THE NEW LOYALTY YEAR!
Sorry for caps, but it needs to be emphasized. In my example I had a GC.com order from November that has been taking forever to get resolved. I didn’t want to wait to get to EP 200K level so did other offers. Ended the year with ~205k LPs. Last week I contacted them again (replying to the email of the prior response), and within a few days my 2022 (prior year) LPs had increased to ~210k LPs. This didn’t affect my ability to choose any benefits but I imagine it could be a real mess/headache for some to argue with AA over. The more interesting news for me follows…
This purchase also triggered a 4000 mile bonus threshold for spending $x amount during a certain time period. When they fixed the aforementioned issue, they had to manually enter these 4000 miles for the now long-elapsed bonus period. When they did this they posted as BOTH redeemable miles AND ALSO LPs for the current year 2023!
Therefore, in the future it may be worth waiting until the new LP year to submit a ticket for a missing purchase that would complete a bonus threshold, if you’ve already met your goal for that year. In my case I got a bonus 4000 LPs toward 2023 that wouldn’t otherwise exist.
Shall we keep this thread going for 2023 or create a 2023 post that scrapes up the best/still relevant information from this thread?
I have a number of booking.com and other spend that I booked in AAs 2022 year and on the first few, I did not cancel and rebook as I made EP status for 2022. Yesterday, I just cancelled and rebooked a 5 night stay (luckily it was still avaiable after cancelling). All these gymnastics for ensuring booking date occurs in the year you want the loyality bonus.
You example of the manual piece is interesting, but it is a small corner case based on disputes of earned miles/cases with Cartera.
I wish the process was based on EARNED date as opposed to BOOK date. Would make the accounting so much easier. But I guess if ANYONE next year or last year was missing getting to their AA level, a BOOKING in the past would increase loyality in a previous year.
For me however, I went 22K over 200K based on this challenge as I was not aware of it going back to previous year. Prudent planning for 2023 will be in order, where I will create a ton of bookings in Feb 2024 and take some of them but account for them in AA’s 2023.
Executive Platinum – maintain status or let it expire and re-earn in 2024?
I’ve been enjoying status perks, and am thinking it may be best to let my EP status lapse on 4/1/24 instead of re-qualifying this year and then again in 2024. Is this crazy or does it make sense?
I have been pretty pleased with the upgrades I have received both on Alaska and American. If I can do an Alaska Status match after July I will let it lapse. I have done so many of the one time offers it may be more difficult, as well, the offers don’t seem as robust right now. But if I keep an eye out there are sometimes some good Rocketmiles finds in Vegas.
I think that makes sense
Hi can I still apply AARP discounts when booking through AAHotels or RocketMiles? Or don’t they stack?
Hi everyone, are we going to reinvigorate this thread when the new Loyalty Point year starts again on March 1? I got to platinum last year with everyone’s great suggestions!
I signed up for DirecTV Stream when it had a 5000 mile bonus. Now it has a 6000 mile bonus. I’m still in the free trial period so haven’t charged yet. If I knew it would track, I would cancel and re-order again today. Anybody tried something like this before?
I’ve been using the AA shopping portal to buy virtual Visa GCs from giftcards.com to pay my property taxes — as they’ve been offering 3x points and 5% off for several weeks. I was concerned that my early August purchases tracked but didn’t get processed for payment, but today I finally received notification that my points have been earned. I kept to the $2K monthly limit, and I still need to buy 3 more $250 cards (I didn’t rush to buy all the cards I needed over the Labor Day weekend, because I was concerned by my missing payouts). But now I see that they’re only paying out 1x. Any reason to believe the increased payout and 5% discount will return this month?
Nothing here yet for either Aug or Sep
So you got an email showing your giftcards.com purchases tracked, but no confirmation of the miles? That’s what happened to me for my August purchases (until it “cleared” today), except for one purchase I made of a single $250 Visa gift card. That was confirmed quickly. I’m thinking that there may be some sort of manual review done before awarding more than 1000 miles for a single purchase?
Just wanted to add that this is also what has happened to me for multiple Giftcards.com purchases over the last couple of months. Took a long time (even opened a ticket) but they did always track so far. Ticket follow-up from Cartera was great too, though they didn’t give any indication why its taking longer but I think it eventually would have posted even without my inquiry. So now, as long as the purchases tracked (showed amount in the Recent Store Visits tab), I just wait. I haven’t done any with less than 1000 miles so you may be on to something – perhaps I’ll try breaking down the purchases into smaller ones next time there is a bonus.
Also, to answer your original question, I haven’t kept track but I bet GC guru Stephen Pepper (or Greg/Nick) may have. But my impression is that the 5% discount is not as frequent, only around holiday sales, but the 3x AA payout is quite common and was there for most of this year if memory serves me. So there’s a better chance of that coming back though you can of course, never be sure.
Thanks. I went ahead and successfully applied for the Citi Aadvantage card (it had been a few years) just in case I don’t want to keep playing the AA Loyalty Game this fall. The $3000 sign up spend on the card will put me over 30K (Gold is all I’m looking for), and I could use the 60K “regular” miles to redeem for rewards (as many ticket prices are no longer so cheap)..I find Gold on AA to be quite valuable for me, as I fly AA roundtrip about once a month. I can almost always game it for free Main Cabin Extra seating even on basic economy or award seats, which is good enough for me and my family.
All of my purchases get cancelled from giftcards.com. So frustrating. i have tried different amounts. Different credit cards. Buying as my wife. Different email and postal addresses. All get cancelled in a matter of second to hours. Any advice? Frustrating to give up to 3 miles per $1 on about $1500 in gift cards but no idea what else I can try!
Anyone have a data point on whether multiple Citi offers will apply on a single purchase. Right now, I have 2 separate offers for $50 off $100 purchase for Allstate Identity protection which would be nice since there is a 2325 mile Simply Miles offer for the same. It might be a mistake though since my wife has only one such Citi offer on her account.
Depends on offers. Multiple Uber offers stacked. AT&T offers stacked. There was some shopping offer earlier this year with two varieties and people reported that they weren’t stacking.
thank so much for all of the help here. Looking to get to Platinum by the end of the year and couldn’t have done it without some of the recommendations here…
Platinum 2 months ago. No flights. Working towards Exec Plat by Feb. THANK YOU ALL.
Has anyone else noted clawbacks from Sam’s Club on Eshopping? My wife and I have had 5 transactions since April where we earned miles through the portal and all have been taken back this past week. I’ve submitted tickets for all of these. Hopefully it’s just an error.
Yes, they went and clawed back the food point earnings for me (but the LPs stayed). It looks like they finally coded up the portal to exclude items which were never supposed to earn points, but also did so retroactively
We just had a 6th purchase from Sam’s Club reversed. I’ve asked for explanations but haven’t really got a good one except for Eshopping rep saying that Sam’s Club changed their mind about what kind of purchases would qualify and wouldn’t give any explanation why. I did save all the screenshots from my last purchase so I am better equipped to make an argument but not expecting a different outcome. Weirdly enough, Sam’s is choosing to let me keep like 20-30 points per order instead of removing all the points, like a token to keep the peasants from revolting. Well, I’m revolting. No more Sam’s Club purchases for me.
Just got 2000 for Gobble after spending $20.
Thanks for posting about the increased payout in the AA Portal. Looks like it had been at 2.5K miles for a day according to Cash Back Monitor. I had to spend $36 but hopefully the meals will be good.
I received my first box this week,paid $36.I have made two steak and one salmon dinner. Everything was easy to prepare and very good. Hope you enjoy your meals.
this is a subscription only — no a la carte purchases? Thanks for the heads up, any other details that you think are important are appreciated!
I have done quite a few meal kits. After I place my first weeks order I immediately “skip” the next few shipments. Sometimes the deal gives me credits for future orders that are worth using even if there isn’t aa loyalty points. After the first week I either cancel or put my next order in. It’s best to cancel so you don’t forget and get shipments you don’t expect. If I have credits for future orders I will look to see if any of my cards have cash back offers I can use.
And Simply Miles often reloads offers for meal kits and wine clubs that work on repeat purchases so you can use those for subsequent orders after the initial sign-up.
Verizon business at 14,900 miles, 45 day requirement….
Homer annual subscription is now down to 50% off at $59.99 for annual subscription — $40 with TopCashBack, $15 Citi offer, and 700 Simply Miles
Several new Simply Miles offers today, including Macy’s Wine Shop, Wine Insiders, Total Wine, and GoPuff. The first 2 also have Citi offers. The GoPuff offer is for first time customers and a maximum of 200 miles but the Chase monthly credit could make it reasonable.
Redeemed Macy’s Wine Shop, Wine Insiders offers. They posted on SimplyMiles, but haven’t posted in my AA account. It’s been over a week. An Uber offer posted on SimplyMiles after and has already posted to my AA account. Anyone else having these issues?
Good value with Discovery+ subscription today. They’re offering 600 miles on AA shopping portal for the $4.99/mo subscription. I combined with a Chase offer for $3 off any purchase of $2.99 or more, so 600 miles for $1.99. Not bad!
Great find Nick!! Thanks
Not such a good deal when other portals (like SB) are giving $15 for the same
I got the Discovery+ but it didn’t track. In fact I got a few things with my linked master card this month and simply miles hasn’t provided a receipt or points. This happen to anyone else? I sent customer service a message and awaiting their reply.
My Discovery+ didn’t track either but my wife’s did. Customer service wanted me to provide an order number (which doesn’t exist) so I had to provide correspondence with Discovery+ to show that there was no order number. Still waiting for resolution.
Didn’t track for me either. CS ghosted me multiple times then asked to provide the information I already provided then ghosted me again then awarded half the points I was supposed to get then ghosted me again.
Thanks to meal kits, wine clubs, and 6pts/$1 at Neiman Marcus (buying stuff I would buy anyway) I’m almost Platinum. Now I have a MasterCard and Simply Miles is an option. I actually like some of these meal kits. I despise Motley Fool but the points are crazy high. Would it work for me to change the email address I am using, create new accounts and do these again through Simply Miles? I know the stacking options between the AA shopping Portal and Simply Miles probably isn’t an option. Or will my name and mailing address be a giveaway?
4 days ago, went for the 7400 mile Motley Fool offer on Eshopping stacked with the 2325 mile offer on Simply Miles. The Eshopping miles have posted but not the Simply Miles yet. Pretty nice stack (about 1 cent per mile) if it works. Will update if the Simply Miles offer works.
I posted elsewhere I beleive, but the quadruple stack worked and has all posted: AA portal & Simplymiles & Citi Merchant offer & Caesars card linked.
FWIW, did stitch fix and even though the styling fee gets waived for the first order, AA portal still tracks it as $20 purchase and trigger the 500 miles
Just a warning — my wife did Stitch Fix about 5 years ago, impossible to cancel. It took her almost 2 months. Hopefully that is not the case any longer.
Babylist re-posted as pending as of yesterday (originally posted and clawed back). I filed a ticket with the portal after it was taken away.
Edit: Still going back and forth with portal support re: JustForDogs
So you’re saying you’re taking candy from a baby?
First time to your board, I think. Some interesting insights. I appreciate your analysis. I learned a few things. I was wondering,does the discussion need the condescending overtones? OK, you are smarter than I, intellectually superior. I capitulate. Can’t you just say, “this is what I do based on my needs and value system”. And “this is why I think it’s the best route”? I’m not a blogger, so maybe there are required dogmas.
If I wrote anything with condescending overtones, I apologize. That’s far from my intent.
So my loyalty points posted March 1. This will apply to me earning status up until Feb 28th 2023, then come March 1 2023, I will need to start earning LP again to maintain the status that I have earned in 2022 (and Jan/Feb of 2023)? Right? I am just trying to make sure I understand the statement that the LP earned in Jan/Feb count towards 2022 and 2023 status.
That is my understanding. Just hit Gold with these silly maneuvers, and my account shows “Valid through Mar 31, 2024″
Yes that’s correct.
Has anyone incorporated a column for cancellation info into their excel sheet? I thought ai had a handle on it but went a bit of a crazy buying spree for a new business and only tracked cancellation info on the first 10 items. Also – as most are on Aviator Ref/Citi double cash back (both mastercards) – isn’t there a way on mastercard that you can cancel monthly subscriptions?
I did along with info regarding cancellation window, and with sending a scheduled email to myself with gmail for another reminder. Also take screenshots of the cancellation confirmation/save those emails as well.
Just had Dell orders from January & February clawed back on the AA Portal today. We’ll see if it claws back loyalty points or not I guess since they already posted. Wasn’t a ton of volume even, under $2k/mo at Dell. This is looking more like we’ll have to fight for every point…even if we eventually do win it’s a lot of work that I wouldn’t justify for the average person.
Also a heads up – Just Food For Dogs tried to autoship me more pumpkin treats that never paid out, despite not having it set to autoship. I was able to catch it in time to cancel (all emails for it went to junk mail). May wanna double check your Just Food For Dogs accounts.
Great call! Just checked mine and it was set to auto ship next week even though I did not sign up for that…
Was there a justified reason for the reversals? In other words, was it a legitimate purchase or were the items cancelled/returned later?
The argument could be made for reselling, but I paid tax and it’s very few units/dollar amount, so it seems silly. I’ll file tickets to try and ‘unreverse’ them.
I had a few thousand dollars in Dell purchases (purchased on 1/6, reversed on 3/2) reversed as well. I’m going to open tickets as well. Not sure what caused this as they were legitimate purchases.
What a roller coaster! My loyalty points just posted to my AAdvantage account as a “promotion bonus”, and they include everything that has since been clawed back in AAdvantage eShopping (Verizon, Babylist, Bespoke Post, Pimsleur). So I have the loyalty points for those, but not the redeemable miles. Maybe this is a compromise between AA and Cartera/mechants (so they don’t have to pay for the RDMs), or maybe it’s just a one-time adjustment which didn’t properly account for the clawbacks. Either way, I’m now only 13k miles away from platinum, so I hope it sticks.
I’m not expecting this to stick. I expect the negatives to come through at some point to reflect clawback activity.
I thought I had escaped for some reason but Primsleur was clawed back this week, although back dated to 2/25/22.
Update 2 regarding the Byte offer: Overnight, I (and many others) received an email from SimplyMiles saying that our Byte purchase tracked and:
This is amazing. Between this and the $100 from Citi finally posting for many, Byte went from being the biggest dud of a deal to the best deal yet for the AA Loyalty Game!
I suspect that Byte somehow got the card-linked offer people to wait until the Byte offer expired before posting results. That way, they avoided a flood of people taking advantage of the deal after hearing about other’s success.
Same stack available for P2’s account thru 3/31, and it doesn’t appear that the offer terms have changed.
All my missing Verizon miles and loyalty points magically appeared yesterday (3/2). I bought 3 separate SIM cards in early January. None of them ever appeared in the portal as part of my tracked offers, and no loyalty points. Yesterday, I logged in to check on an itinerary and saw 18600 miles more than the day before. The loyalty points posted as well. The miles for the purchase are backdated to 1/18, while the loyalty points were dated as 3/2. Go figure. Now I am 5k from Gold status without having flown yet this year. 🙂
Edit: Sorry – did not mean to reply to the Byte thread. I thought I was creating my own.
NO WAY! Did you submit something to aadvantage shopping or anything or did they just magically post? I bought 5 on 1/18 but checked my account and nothing has posted, nor have they ever tracked in the portal, just as as ‘recently visited store’. Its super great for you that they loyalty points are dated 3/2 as well, since AA does a rolling 12 mo status of the points! Awesome!
Hi,
I did nothing at all. I completely forgot about it after I saw people complaining about the deal not tracking. It was all magic!
That certainly gives me hope! I have 3 still have not posted. I opened a case soon as it let me but still no resolution.
I saw it’s back up to 6200 in the portal but I’m hesitant to do anything given how Verizon seemed to be actively cancelling miles that were completely within the terms
Hi Chris, I’m curious if you used the SIMs in a phone at all and let the accounts go dormant after a month. And were they assigned to 3 separate email addresses? Maybe Verizon changed their mind about buying just a couple phone lines
Hi,
I did not activate the SIMs. They are still sitting in their FedEx envelopes on my desk (as a matter of fact, what am I going to do with them?) in my office. 2 of them were assigned to the same email address, with one to another email.
I got super lucky with Verizon too. I placed my order then about an hour or two later got an email from Verizon saying my purchase did not go through and I was never charged . At that point I said forgot it. Somehow, a few days later, the points posted anyway and we’re never clawed back.
HA ! I spoke too soon … the miles were clawed back.
Two (and the only two) transactions in Jan was clawed back on Feb 28. A new user to use this merchant and not exceed $2000 monthly limit on AA portal. Order is purchasing the third party gift card. I remember there is another similar DP somewhere around…
it is giftcards.com
Someone at Cartera must have decided gift card purchases are ineligible and is zeroing them out for giftcards.com. I don’t think AA realizes what they got themselves into with LP.
Just looking at the AA app today. I have 0 loyalty points even though I did the Spot and Tango offer and had a couple of flights in Jan. Was wondering what everyone else is seeing
I have a paid flight and its still showing I have zero loyalty points so I am guessing the tracker is not accurate yet.
Same here. Zero points and have done several of the AA Portal and SimplyMiles offers including Byte, Wall Street journal, Tango, etc.
it seems only folks that have had at least 1 flight have posted. I’ve spent enough to reach EXP so hoping it comes in soon
My LPs are visible, and I didn’t fly. AA says this will update throughout the week.
Update regarding the Byte offer: Out of the blue, Citi finally paid out the $100, and the $45 from TopCashBack became payable. So while I didn’t earn any AA loyalty points, I did earn a small profit.
I finally got $100 from Citi as well, after chat reps did nothing I spoke to someone who seems to have got it done. The 2500 AA portal also worked fine from the start, but 4650 SimplyMiles still nowhere to be found. SM tickets take months.
Citi finally paid – $100, required at least 2 chats over time
TopCashBack – nothing yet, despite multiple cases submitted
Holy Cow — Simply Miles paid out for Byte — 4650! Again, I submitted cases to them at least 2-3 times
SunBasket – 3700 paid out, after submitting case to AA
Aside from the Citi, all were email alerts within the last 48 hrs
Just got the Byte 4650 mail as well, when it rains it pours!
This is unbelievable! Citi paid $100 automatically, without me to write/call to ask.
After a day, SM also paid, without me even asking.
So after all, ended up with a big profit due to a refund from Byte. Now, really tempted to repeat.
i ordered some flowers through ftd with a link from the aa.com page. why would these be posting as “Bonus Miles” instead of award miles? there was nothing to alert me that these miles were “bonus miles”
I don’t know. That’s strange
I had the same thing happen. Used the AA.com link for 30x at FTD and all miles posted as bonus.
Same here. All miles posted as bonus and zero loyalty points. FTD should be placed in “doesn’t work” category. Their website also suggest that miles do not count towards elite status. I probably paid triple for flowers that only lasted 3 days. I’ll definitely avoid them in the future
AA Portal is offering 2,500 miles for Green Chef today. I also have a Chase Offer for 15% cash back. With the first time customer offer code (which automatically populates when you click through from the portal), 3 weekly meals for 2 people is just over $40. Not the best price for miles but cheap enough food. I only hope the food is good.
Bespoke Post – I skipped the initial box and the Feb 1 box, and then went to cancel today via email and they emailed back offering first box for $10 with free shipping. I took it – seems quite fair and this way there shouldn’t be a clawback ever.
Note – the BespokePost terms now offer 500 miles on first PURCHASE, not on subscription sign up. Therefore, I clicked thru the AA portal to make my $10 purchase and will report back on if I get credit for it. To do the $10 offer you add the item to your cart (after clicking thru portal link) and then email them and they update the price in your cart right away. FREE SHIPPING too, forgot to mention.
I’ve been a member of Bespoke for years. I assume this is still only for new customers. I wonder if it would trigger for a full price box purchase for an existing member, since it would be my “first” purchase through the portal.
I’m curious what you like about it. I got the impression it’s overpriced for what you get but it sounds like you’re pretty happy with the deliveries
I skip most of the boxes, but I get one about once, maybe twice per year. The ones I’ve gotten I’ve been happy with them and the value, but you have to pick and choose. Usually you can find the same item (if it’s not their house brand) online and it is cheaper on Bespoke when it’s in one of the monthly boxes. Now that they have raised the price of the box, I am less likely to get one. The last one I got was probably sometime in the summer of 2021.
I’ve been exchanging e-mails with AA Shopping re: the Babylist offer that was clawed back. They have finally resorted (after I sent info on the registry) to asking for the e-mail from Babylist indicating the registry was created(??). I apparently deleted the e-mail and it has been more than 30 days, so it has been cleared out and I have nothing to send. But they know it was created (they have the link) and when (when they initially credited my account). Lame
I have 4 Verizon prepaid orders (1x 3700 and 3x 6200) now pending clawed back on the AA eShopping portal. Is this happening to anyone else?
Pimsleur clawed back. I canceled before the trial period ended so did not pay any fee with the subscription.
Data point: I let Pimsleur charge me for the first month after the trial, and I have not seen a clawback on my 1000 points yet.
mine clawed back too, i cancelled before the trial ended
Success w/ Topcashback on the Byte $100 spend. After opening a ticket and 2 “nudges”, Topcashback responded this morning with adding $45 to my account immediately payable. Finally some traction. I have an open ticket w/ Citi on the Merchant Offer. Citi is processing the $100 rebate manually but still waiting to see that.
Citi manual credit posted. Earned $145 total with Citi Merchant Offer and Topcashback. Simplymiles did NOT track/post.
is there anyway to link through from top cashback to aa shopping (or vice versa)?
You can’t earn from both portals on one purchase if that’s what you mean.
Grove Collaborative subscription is at 1000.Household cleaning products and body care products.Order needs to be over $20 to trigger miles.Nice selection.And looks easy to cancel?. I added 1bottle of Dr Bonners 32oz soap for $18.19 and 1bar of myers soap $3.89 plus tax.Ordered on 2/2 points posted as pending 2/3.
Follow up,Grove Collabrative 1000 miles posted 2/9
Motley Fool is at 7400 points, by the way.
Not ideal at 1.3 cents per point as the offers probably won’t stack with amex or citi offers as updated here: https://frequentmiler.com/the-motley-fool-save-50-with-amex-or-citi-offer-earn-7200-aadvantage-miles-loyalty-points-more/
I see my Babylist transaction just got clawed back…anyone else see that yet? Originally completed mine on January 12 and just clawed back on January 31.
same here!!! from 1/12
mine were clawed back Jan 31st – 6 player mode! All of them!
same
Yep.
Me too. Registered on Jan 18, 1,000 pts posted to my AA account, and they were just reversed yesterday. What a scam!
My 1000 miles for Babylist were mercilessly clawed back this morning 🙁
Ditto, Bummer!
Same. Not even sure why, since I think the T&C were relatively clear that you just needed to sign up, not purchase anything (but correct me if I’m wrong), and they seem to have delisted themselves off the shopping portal anyway lol. You’d think they’d just take the L and move on, but whatever.
Weird. Why? Wasn’t Babylist just about creating an account?
Lost babylist as well. Followed thru on the registry setup.
Same here. I wonder if AA will hold them to it if we all file claims for missing miles on the transaction.
Same, lost mine today too unexplicably.
Same, also shown as pending point deduction on my account
Mine gone
mine too. This is getting annoying to have these companies go back a month later and claw back points! LMK if anyone has success in getting them reinstated
Same thing. Signed up on 1/12/22 and removed on 1/31/22. Haven’t left my Aadvantage account yet though, but I am sure that is coming soon.
Mine got clawed back as well. It was confirmed.
Did any one try Bespokepost? Mine is clawed back. Didn’t order anything though. Also, I ordered $15 kit from Byte. I have not mailed them back the kit yet. But it seems that it’s showing eligible amount to be 0 now.
Byte posted with just the kit order. Been ignoring their phone calls and trashed the kit when I got it.
Same. Byte shows up as $0 even though i paid $15 but the 2.5k points posted.
I can confirm that Bespoke Post was clawed back for me as well. I also did the $15 kit from Byte via AA Shopping on January 24 only and it has not tracked for me yet (not even pending).
Most people had luck with 2500 byte but not CMO or SM stack
When did it get clawed back?
Looks like same day (January 24) for me.
Just saw a 1000 point “bonus” for $50 Groupon purchases. I can come up with $50 of useful Groupons but the word “bonus” made me think maybe these aren’t loyalty points. Thoughts?
Definitely not LPs
I ordered 2 books from Barnes & Noble each under $30. One of the books won’t ship until February and the card won’t be charged for the second book until then. For Simply Miles and the Citi Mer. offer, will a second transaction (e-GC) trigger the offer if I total over $30?
I don’t believe I was credited simply miles on a target order that was split into two and shipped different days. Not 100% sure on Citi MO but I’m doubtful. Could probably hit up support but may not be worthwhile.
In the future I recommend buying a $30 gift card then using that for your B&N purchase, since I’ve verified egiftcards trigger both offers.
Thanks, that is helpful. So often gift cards are excluded from terms I thought I was being safe-LOL.
Minor Byte update. I finally received an indication that SimplyMiles support exists. I had submitted a support ticket, and finally just got this:
Dear Customer,
Thank you for contacting the SimplyMiles Support Team.
We have received your email and we will respond shortly.
The unique reference number for your email is XXXXXXXX.
Regards,
Customer Service Team
ACS SimplyMiles
To be clear, I’m not confident that anything will come of this, but it’s good to see that my support request triggered something to happen.
Same here
I received the same this morning. Fingers crossed. I also have one in to topcashback and they say they are waiting on Byte
Also received email today nearly 2 weeks after submitting
Complained about the late arrival of the Impression Kit, and received an email from Byte notifying a refund of ~$84. Haven’t posted on CC. AA portal 2500 miles confirmed. After tax, not as good as the $15 signup, but better than the $100+ if no CMO.
received such an email after submitting missing miles from best buy for the 5x promotion back in December, its been a month now and no resolution. After two follow up emails i got the same response ” we have submitted your request to tier 2 team and will get back to you”. Mentally i have given up on those miles
Last year it took 2 months and 2 or 3 emails, but they eventually did credit some missing miles. I’d give them benefit of the doubt and a long timeframe with the massively larger volume that team must be slogging through.
I’ve heard back from SimplyMiles CS twice so far this week about Byte. A few days ago they asked for copies of the receipt, and then again this morning they asked for confirmation of which card I used to make the purchase (I have like 3 or 4 cards linked to SimplyMiles). Hopefully this means they’ll give me the miles soon.
Same here. I thought the copy of the receipt would tank the deal since a portion is sales tax but was encouraged when they later asked which card I used.
has anyone tried SM Vitality Society?Any luck with miles posting?
AVOID Vitality Society.I put in my my cc info for free month and then $29.99
a month,that went to the payment page of $299.00 for the year.Got out before I got in.
Has anyone had issues with Bright Cellars posting? Nothing posted for me and I was told that I didn’t meet the terms of the offer
I had the same thing happen and cannot figure out why the miles did not post.
Haven’t had mine post yet either but it’s only been a few days
Mine posted pretty quickly. I didn’t do anything special so not sure where things went awry. Is it showing that it tracked?
Did Bright Cellars post for you yet?
Mine posted quickly without a problem. Did you use a browser with an adblocker?
My only purchases that didn’t award points are Wall Street Journal, Just for Dogs and Green Chef. Did any of these payout for people? Do you think WSJ waits until I’ve been subscribed a sufficient amount of time?
RE Naked Wines. I was incorrect, I did get those points. All I did was click through the link, buy like 8 bottles of super-cheap wine for future cooking wine, and a pay with my Amex offer card. The order did imply that making that purchase alone made me an angel. I’ve since gone in and made an angel deposit I intend to take back.
I got mine for Green Chef
WSJ posted for me after a week
Green Chef paid out 2200 for me (but it was in Dec. 2021)
Has anyone received their points from the Collinson card linked programs (i.e. Caesars, Choice Privileges, Emirates, JetBlue) for Sunbasket purchases?
So what’s the proper play with Naked Wines? Let the $40 angel deposit process and then look to get that refunded at some point?
My NakedWine miles have not been clawed back (yet?). I think because I did not use the copy-paste of the AMEX link as others may have. I did use the same AMEX card to pay for two explorist offer orders on two separate NakedWine accounts. The $40 angel contribution hasn’t been made yet because it has not yet been a month.
I think i’m in the same boat. Clicked thru the portal to pay for 2 $40 orders, did not use the amex code/coupon.
Thanks for the data points Kim. Did you end up getting 2 sets of AA miles post from the other account order?
One set each in mine and spouse’s account. I did not try shopping twice thru the same shopping portal/AA account. The only thing that was the same was the AMEX card #.
In addition to 3700 AA miles, did you also receive an amex offer credit yet (or a notification that it was used)? Thanks.
Yes, I received the $40 credit from AMEX 2-3 days after the second purchase that triggered the necessary amount spent on AMEX.
Similar here. But using the same AA portal with two emails and the same AMEX card. First 3700 miles posted. AMEX email received. Fingers crossed the second set of 3700 miles will show up.
Did your second set post?
Okay, this is what I did, too: Went in with same card for two different NakedWine.com accounts, through two different AA shopping portal accounts. So far, so good.
So 12 bottles of wine and 7400 AA miles (not to mention 415 Amex MR points) for $43 feels like a big win now my question is: When best to cancel? Or is there some other play here?
it seems like let the $40 angel wine process but then ask for a refund at some point?
how could I see the comments?
has anyone had Citi offers disappear/be removed? My Spot/Tango is no where to be found, and I am 99.99% sure of enrolling…noticed while on chat today w Citi Rep to check status
On a hopefully confident note, I have chat documentation that I met criteria for Byte, and the credit will show in “1-2 billing cycles”
I thought the same happened to me. However in the Citi app go to link near the top which says view redeemed offers. Mine was there but missing from the normal list.
If the offer disappears after enrolling, it means that it has been taken off and is no longer available. Enrolling doesn’t “save” it for you.
So the Naked Wines thing is concerning, and Elizabeth & M.A. thank you for posting and sorry to read about your points misfortune. Has anyone else run into a clawback on the Naked opportunity? Just signed up last night, using Vince’s methodology suggested nearly 2 wks ago. Used my Amex, but I’m certain the $40 back there won’t jam me up…impossible for AA’s shopping portal to have visibility into that separate rebate.
Yes, there are other instances of clawbacks, see the two comments posted by myself and JL100 yesterday:
https://frequentmiler.com/aas-loyalty-point-pursuit-game-earn-status-w-out-flying/comment-page-1/#comment-2334825
https://frequentmiler.com/aas-loyalty-point-pursuit-game-earn-status-w-out-flying/comment-page-1/#comment-2334829
Thank you for the additional DPs, CH.
Not sure if this helps anyone but I made a wine order and signed up as an angel then called to delay my order… After the first angel charge I’ll cancel the wine order and see what happens
I did not try the offer but noted the following – which is probably driving their tracking – the Amex offer says you have to go through nakedwines.com/amex – that generated some code on the next screen. Similar thing happens with aa Shopping – but a different code. Likely, that is how they trace with the ability to claw back
Clawback protection (?): If you take your current miles prior to clawbacks, book an award flight (any flight that you intend to cancel down the road) to essentially use up your miles (make your balance zero), can they do a clawback on a zero balance? Your AA account can’t show “-3700 miles”, can it? Then 6 months from now when you need to make a real booking, cancel this ‘fake’ booking, recoup and use the miles.
I wouldn’t count on that. Your mileage balance can definitely go negative, speaking from personal experience (due to credit card returns after redeeming points bringing me close to zero)
just to be a data point I have not had Naked Wines clawed back (yet). Will update if that changes. I did not use the AmEx offer but as others have mentioned that would not have caused the change on the AA side. Maybe there is a difference on whether you bought the more expensive package that qualified for the AmEx offer or something else (I forget exactly what I did as it was two weeks ago but the total was around $40).
My Naked Wines posted on 1/9 and also hasn’t been clawed back. I didn’t use the Amex offer (which requires subscription), and just order 6 bottles of wine (at more expensive price of course) totaling $100+
for the ppl who got clawed back and used the amex offer, did you go to nakedwines.com/amex or just click thru the portal?
I didn’t go to the /amex site, i just clicked thru the portal. we’ll see if they claw mine back or not.
I made two orders for 2 different ppl at $40 thru the portal to get the amex offer to trigger.
As suggested above, my clawback (so far still only shown on the aadvantageeshopping portal and not removed from my AA account yet) may indeed have been caused the use of the amex offer with the link in that offer, following this method suggested in an earlier post:
“click through the Amex offer first you can load a 12 bottle special (with the embedded Amex code) for 79.99 into your cart, close it and then click through the AA portal”
https://frequentmiler.com/aas-loyalty-point-pursuit-game-earn-status-w-out-flying/comment-page-1/#comment-2333243
My Naked Wines got clawed back too. Had just gone in and put the $40 angel deposit down after the fact in hopes it would save it. . Frustrating losing a 3700 point opportunity . I have lost out on some high point earners I can’t figure out how to do over- thrive market, just for dogs and naked wines. I don’t drink so naked wines pretty well filled my cooking wine supply for a while. Think I will slow down and see what works and what gets clawed back. At 26000 now.
I’m hesitate to do thrive and just for dogs. I’m at 26000 myself but naked wines never posted for me even though I kept the angel $40.
Why did your naked wines get clawed back? I did the stack with Amex. No subscription though. Just like 6 wines
Alex, Did you receive miles for your nonsubscription purchase? The portal button says “subscribe now” and the terms say “ By redeeming this offer, you agree to make a $40 monthly contribution to your Naked Wines account (charged until you cancel) that you can use to buy wine. ”.
Here is what I did. I signed up via the portal link. I did not buy anything. I went to my profile and set up an $80 angel contribution. I moved the date forward to the 24th (tomorrow). I used Amex. This should seed the account (meet obligation of the portal) and by doing $80 meets AMEX process (ends in 6 days). lets see if it works.
FYI per their phone reps, the angel charge gets charged in the second month. Ie if your set it to charge tomorrow, the first angel charge will actually occur on Feb 24
So there is no real way to get the current AMEX spend value as it ends in 6 days.
Oops — ignore my previous comment. My naked wines got clawed back too. I did commit to the $40 but also used the Amex offer.
Also my simply miles for Fulton Fish have not posted though I did get the citi merchant offer for it.
I don’t understand on what grounds they clawed back your 3700 if you paid for the subscription and also deposited $40. If I really like Naked Wines what do they want before they let you keep the miles?
Woke up this morning and checked Eshopping to find that my 3700 miles for the Naked Wines offer was clawed back. I reckon this could be due to either of two reasons.
1) The terms state that you have to commit to paying $40 (refundable) into their angel program, but I cancelled the service before I ever did that. Since the terms just state that you have to commit to it, not that you actually have to do it, I feel good about my argument that I should get the points if this is the reason they give for the clawback.
2) They also state in the terms “Not eligible on purchases made with coupon or discount codes that are not found on this site.” I made this purchase on an AmEx card that had a $40 off of $80 AmEx offer on it, so if this is the reason they give then this one might be a strikeout for me, unfortunately.
Did they pull them back from AA or just from the pending in the simply miles site?
They pulled them back from my AA account, too.
I got my 3700 points clawed back from Naked also. I clicked thru the portal then pasted the Amex link in the same browser as suggested by previous comments. Assume that’s why the clawback happened. I haven’t cancelled the Angel $40/mo subscription yet either, but will be going in to do that now.
did anyone send the wines back? what do we do with the wines now that we are clawed back?
I signed up. Leveraged the Amex offer (was about $109 total). Got the $40 back and the points. No issues.
Have you canceled yet?
Any more clawbacks on Naked Wines from folks who DIDNT go through the Amex offer but didn’t go through with the $40 angel contribution? Curious how AA shopping would track whether you make that $40 contribution in the second month and claw back if you cancel before then?
I may be living on borrowed time, but so far the Amex Offer credit has stuck, and so too have the AA miles and the Loyalty Points, even though both P1 and P2 canceled over two weeks ago.
The wine isn’t half bad, either.
Has anyone got Just for Dogs? Going to complain to SM as soon as it’s eligible
Nada
Still nothing on this. I sent something to Simply Miles about this and have received no response.
nothing
I am confused about the offers on the aa shopping portal. There is the main offer like 3700 points for sunbasket. Then on the page where you click through to the company’s site (blue button) there are additional offers . If I click on one of the other offers (gray) does that exclude me from the loyalty mikes offer?
Nope because on the mileage T & C to the left it only precludes “any offers not found on that (AA portal) page.” You’ll be fine using any of those offers.
I’m still waiting for Sunbasket to track at aa eshopping more than a week later. Received my meals today. I only see it as a visit
BYTE-Simply Miles: any data points of the Simply Miles posting? I tried to review all comments and I see ZERO so far. There are positive data points on the AA shopping portal bonus of 2500 however.
I have submitted transaction queries with SM x 2. No response.
Anyone get the Simply Miles? Or are they still licking their wounds from Conservation International?
I’ve had no luck getting either Simply Miles or Citi Merchant Offers to honor the deal. Very frustrating.
If nothing else this situation could be an interesting case-study for how to handle things when things go sideways.
One option would be to file a chargeback with your bank…but it’s questionable if you’d be in the right to do that. Byte could argue you ordered a widget, they sent you said widget, therefore they’ve satisfied their obligations.
Generally I try to reach out to all parties: portal, airline, and merchant. If that doesn’t work, then you can chargeback. After all, the purchase was for the widget+miles. I typically take the merchant to arbitration instead of just charging back (benefit of the bargain and all that) but that’s probably too hardcore for most on here. My hope is that by litigating a few cases, these merchants will think twice before screwing more people over. The main issue with chargebacks is the reversal window: 60 days I believe. https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/in9m7b/guide_to_arbitration/
I’m leaning towards using return protection on the CC, since Byte won’t take a return on a bite kit I imagine.
I love that idea. You’re right that Byte said that they won’t refund my bite kit purchase.
I wish Citi cards still had return protection.
Curious why Citi did not honor the deal?
Has anybody been successful with the ClubFeast offer on SM? I have not tried it yet and was hoping for any pointers/guidance so I don’t mess it up. The offer states new users only, but up to five times so not sure how those don’t cancel each other out. Thanks in advance
I want to use it but it only delivers to NYC and San Francisco Bay Area so not sure how to do.
I just eclipsed 30,000 points too.
Simplymiles Target 465
Citi AA Bus CC spend 315
Simplymiles Spot and Tango 930
AA Shopping Portal Spot and Tango 2500
AA Dining 350 (+1000 non-loyalty counting bonus miles for signing up)
AA Flight 2130 (wait flights, ppl take those?)
AA Shopping Portal Babylist 1000
AA Shopping Portal Sunbasket 3700
AA Shopping Portal Winc Wines 1500
AA Shopping Portal Naked Wines 3700
AA Shopping Portal Bed Bath and Beyond 880 (buying things we needed anyway)
AA Shopping Portal Chewy 172
Simplymiles Winc Wines 1000
AA Shopping Portal Verizon 6200
AA Shopping Portal Blooom 1200
AA Opinions 290 (+250 non-loyalty counting bonus miles for signing up)
AA Shopping Portal Naked Wines 3700 (signed my p2 up)
The Blooom offer, do we have to buy one of their plans or just a simple sign up?
I only connected one retirement account for their “free analysis” and I got my points.
only connected one of my retirement accounts
your naked wines 3700, didn’t get clawed back? what did you do differently?
How were you able to stack Winc with shopping portal and SM? It looks like SM requires a special link for it to trigger?
i don’t think it requires you to go to the portal for simply miles
Does bookaahotels miles count as loyalty points? I have an upcoming stay in Orlando and I can earn 10,000 miles by booking through them. I’m also going for hyatt status so I would lose out on staying at a hyatt instead. With the AA/Hyatt partnership can I book through aahotels at a hyatt and still get an elite night plus the points for booking?
Yes that should count but no you won’t earn hyatt points or nights thru aahotels
It’s still unconfirmed and up in the air if the bonus points will count as loyalty points. Although you will definitely get the 1 lotaly point per dollar spent.
Interesting, the only spot that looks like there may be bonus miles is if you pay a little higher price for “Special offer: More miles” but the regular purchase just says “Earn X,000 miles”. Thanks for the thought though, if they don’t earn loyalty points, it for sure would not be worth it for me.
Correct. The base miles for the booking will count but not any “Special offer: More miles” options that would be selected. Once you purchase and receive the email confirmation, it will show the base miles and bonus “purchased” miles on separate lines.
FT post says everything posted as base miles including ones from the “pay more to get more” option.
You will be able to tell after the purchase on the AA app:
Open app
Click on your name
Click wallet
Click award miles
Click on the specific entry
It will tell you if it was base miles or bonus miles
Anyone else getting nickle and dimed by AA Eshopping? I had an offer for 1,000 bonus points for $300 spend. A few of the purchases tracked completely wrong. I know sometimes certain items don’t count and shipping and tax do not earn miles or count toward spend bonuses, but I’m talking about single items not posting for the value of the item and being off by random amounts, well before tax and shipping. Including one purchase that didn’t track at all, I had to spend over $380 just to get credit for spending $300 to get the bonus.
My Verizon purchase is showing up as $0 so that is enough to keep me under $300. But at least the points posted.
Yep, that happened to me too. This was just a straight purchase of a computer monitor where the price that was credited on AA eshopping is randomly like $24.xx less than the price of the monitor.
Winc DP (posted on the separate Winc post as well): Signed up for Winc back in December for AmEx offer and got the wines. Suspended subscription, then cancelled it online a couple days ago. Next day signed up using this AAshopping deal – same name, address, different email, phone, credit card. Order shipped and miles are already showing as pending in AAshopping.
How long did it take for Winc to track? My purchase arrives today, but the AA portal still has my visit blank instead of showing order details. Did you notice yours was blank for a few days or did the order details show up immediately?
It was within a day or two. Order details were not blank but showed wrong amount (29.95 and not including tax)
Did you stack with Simply Miles?
Yup. Aashopping, simplymiles, and Citi offer all tracked and confirmed.
how long does it usually take to track on SM once it’s tracking on the shopping portal? Sorry for the Newb question!
Anyone get MarketWatch or Barron’s to track in the portal?
Yup. Barron’s pretty quickly.
Thanks other Josh 🙂
Dang – neither of mine with marketwatch and barron’s credited. Really good luck with everything else though.
Did you get the $2 per month and keep for 2 months? Can’t find the $1 for 8 weeks offer.
got MarketWatch, pretty fast as a matter of fact.
2 days waiting on MarketWatch now
Signed up for MarketWatch yesterday, miles tracked in already the next day. Barron’s was only two days also.
Barrons, MarketWatch, WSJ have all been 1500 miles in the past. (History available at cashbackmonitor)
For Marketwatch, do you think that 9.99 will be charged, even if we cancel the membership, the terms and condition sounds doggy
*Your credit card will be charged $1.00 + tax for the first 4 weeks , $9.99 + tax per month for the next 12 months then $19.99 monthly thereafter. You may cancel your subscription at any time. All fees and charges are non-refundable. You will be notified via email of any price increases. For questions about your subscription or to discontinue, please call Customer Service at 1-888-485-2378 or click here. By checking this box, you agree to these terms.
Anyone else try Miles for Opinions here? I signed up just to get the initial 1000 points, and took one survey, back in November. The points show as earned in the Miles account, but they never transferred automatically to my AA account.
I emailed Miles about a week and a half ago, and they’re supposedly escalating the issue elsewhere because they can’t seem to figure out what’s going on. What a hassle.
have been doing it for a while and the miles automatically go into my AA account. since I found out that these count as Loyalty Points, I’ve picked up the survey pace. Over 2,000 for January so far
FYI, miles earned from surveys count as loyalty points but not the enrollment bonus. That posts in the bonus column. (I think mine was 250 not 1000.)
Anyone have Winc post for SM? Still nothing.
Also — how long do CMO take to post? Got Spot & Tango, but still nothing for Byte, Uber or Winc.
Lastly, we all just giving up on the 1200 Just for Dogs? That has still yet to him my AA Portal…
Yes for SM, but no for the AA shopping portal. I purchased on 1/11 and they posted to SM two days ago.
Ok maybe just takes a while
I’m the opposite. AAshopping posted two days later but SM hasn’t posted yet.
I keep losing the green checkmark in the plugin when clicking “Join Verizon” on the prepaid page. Will I still get the bonus?
i did
How long did it take? I did a few yesterday and still no confirmation email from eshopping despite the orders having already shipped
This is my third day waiting. Other deals I have used since the Verizon one have posted. Verizon even shows up in my history with order information….but no bonuses yet.
Looking for DPs on Thrive. Did you only get points on the membership fee or on the purchase as well? Wording makes it sound like it’s only on membership but it’s up to 20 points per dollar currently so ordering some groceries would be worth the $10 monthly membership fee if both.
I bought the membership and groceries at the same time But i