Welcome to the official scoreboard for the 2014 manufactured spend tournament known as #milemadness. For an overview of the tournament, please see:
- The Manufactured Spending Tournament.
- The next mad challenge
- Manufactured Spend Tournament FAQ Post and Thread
- #milemadness Manufactured Spending Tournament meet the Players
- Let the #milemadness Commence!
And now, on to the scores….
Overall Winner
For this tournament, we picked a single overall winner. Congratulations go to…
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The Miles Professor! |
The Miles Professor had the most overall earnings, tied for the most Artistry points, had the best earnings per hour ratio, and more. At the MileMadness celebration event, The Miles Professor was presented with a nice little engraved trophy. That said, all of the contestants had excellent showings. Even those who didn’t show up on the scoreboards often taught us a bit about what is possible and what is not.
Below are the leaderboards for the milemadness tournament as a whole:
Top Earners |
Earnings are calculated as:
Value of points is calculated as:
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Artistry Winners |
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Efficacy Winners |
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Top Per Hour Earnings |
Earnings per hour were calculated as total earnings divided by total estimated hours of “work”. |
Most Bank Points Earned |
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Most Airline Miles Earned |
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Most Hotel Points Earned |
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Prior weeks’ scoreboards after the break:
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Last Updated 4/10/2014:
Combined total points and miles earned to-date across all contestants: 1,458,398
The following results are for week 4.
Results from weeks 1 through 3 can be found at the bottom of this page
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Earnings Leaderboard |
Earnings Per Hour Leaderboard |
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1) Miles, Points & Mai Tais $9832) The Miles Professor: $955 3) Bengali Miles Guru: $711 |
1) The Miles Professor: $4372) Bengali Miles Guru: $237 3) Miles, Points & Mai Tais: $158 |
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Bank points Leaderboard |
Airline Miles Leaderboard |
Hotel Points Leaderboard |
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1) The Miles Professor: 42,866 Citi ThankYou points2) Bengali Miles Guru: 16,556 Chase Ultimate Rewards points 3) Miles, Points and Mai Tais: 15,521 Chase Ultimate Rewards points |
1) Bengali Miles Guru: 18,254 Alaska Airlines miles2) Bengali Miles Guru: 9,857 US Airways miles 3) Giddy for Points: 8,012 United miles |
No hotel point earnings were reported this week |
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Artistry Leaderboard |
Efficacy Leaderboard |
| 1) The Miles Professor: 1 point | 1) Giddy for Points: 1 point |
Earnings notes:
Earnings are calculated as:
Cash back earned – Fees + [combined value of all points and credits earned]
Value of points is calculated as:
- Fair Trade Value, or if no Fair Trade Value exists:
- Arrival points: 1.1 cents each; Avianca miles: 1.5 cents each
- Merchant gift cards / credit valued at best resale price shown on GiftCardGranny.com
- Fuel Points: assume 15 gallon fill up and subtract 10%
Artistry notes:
(Points earned or subtracted due to judgment of originality and ethics)
- The Miles Professor earned 1 point for liquidating PayPal money cards via the PayPal business debit card. By sending the money to a relative via Square Cash, she earned 1% cash back from the debit card.
Efficacy notes:
(Points earned or subtracted due to scalability, efficiency, and replicability)
- Giddy for Points earned 1 point for using a money order (earned from manufacturing spend) to fund a new Chase checking account to get a new account bonus.
All contestants, week 4 earnings and scores:
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Earnings: $711 Hours: 3 Artistry: 0 Efficacy: 0 |
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Earnings: $211 Hours: 2.85 Artistry: 0 Efficacy: 0 |
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Earnings: $10 Hours: .75 Artistry: 0 Efficacy: 0 |
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Earnings: $104 Hours: 1.5 Artistry: 0 Efficacy: 0 |
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Earnings: $234 Hours: 3.5 Artistry: 0 Efficacy: 1 |
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Earnings: $242 Hours: 1.25 Artistry: 0 Efficacy: 0 |
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Earnings: $0 Hours: N/A Artistry: 0 Efficacy: 0 |
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Earnings: $983 Hours: 6 Artistry: 0 Efficacy: 0 |
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Earnings: $955 Hours: 2.75 Artistry: 1 Efficacy: 0 |
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Earnings: $430 Hours: 3 Artistry: 0 Efficacy: 0 |
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Week 3
Last updated 3/23/2014
The following results are for week 3.
Results from weeks 1 and 2 can be found at the bottom of this page
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Earnings Leaderboard |
Earnings Per Hour Leaderboard |
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1) The Miles Professor: $1,177 2) Bengali Miles Guru: $1,112 3) Big Habitat: $962 |
1) Bengali Miles Guru: $3172) The Miles Professor: $261 3) Big Habitat: $221 |
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Bank points Leaderboard |
Airline Miles Leaderboard |
Hotel Points Leaderboard |
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1) The Miles Professor: 93,336 Citi ThankYou points2) Bengali Miles Guru: 35,181 Chase Ultimate Rewards points 3) Big Habitat: 17,365 Chase Ultimate Rewards points |
1) Bengali Miles Guru: 41,611 Alaska Airlines miles2) Miles, Points and Mai Tais: 7,373 Delta SkyMiles | 1) Milenomics: 4,032 SPG points2) Freequent Flyer Book: 2,520 Club Carlson points |
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Artistry Leaderboard |
Efficacy Leaderboard |
| 1) Big Habitat: 1 point | 1) Giddy for Points: 1 point |
Earnings notes:
Earnings are calculated as:
Cash back earned – Fees + [combined value of all points and credits earned]
Value of points is calculated as:
- Fair Trade Value, or if no Fair Trade Value exists:
- Arrival points: 1.1 cents each; Avianca miles: 1.5 cents each
- Merchant gift cards / credit valued at best resale price shown on GiftCardGranny.com
- Fuel Points: assume 15 gallon fill up and subtract 10%
Artistry notes:
(Points earned or subtracted due to judgment of originality and ethics)
- Big Habitat earned 1 point for a creative approach to buying Staples’ gift cards: Buy Home Improvement gift card at Speedway with Premier Rewards Gold card to get 2X Membership Rewards plus 2% in Speedway points, take Home Improvement card to Lowes to buy Staples gift cards. I wouldn’t say this is the most rewarding or efficient approach, but it’s certainly creative!
Efficacy notes:
(Points earned or subtracted due to scalability, efficiency, and replicability)
- Giddy for Points earned 1 point for finding a place to buy $500 Visa gift cards with only a $2 fee
All contestants, week 3 earnings and scores:
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Earnings: $1,111 Hours: 3.5 Artistry: 0 Efficacy: 0 |
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Earnings: $962 Hours: 4.3 Artistry: 1 Efficacy: 0 |
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Earnings: $33 Hours: .5 Artistry: 0 Efficacy: 0 |
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Earnings: $99.10 Hours: 4 Artistry: 0 Efficacy: 0 |
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Earnings: $91 Hours: 2.5 Artistry: 0 Efficacy: 1 |
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Earnings: $309 Hours: 3 Artistry: 0 Efficacy: 0 |
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Earnings: $94 Hours: 1.5 Artistry: 0 Efficacy: 0 |
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Earnings: $492 Hours: 6 Artistry: 0 Efficacy: 0 |
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Earnings: $1177 Hours: 4.5 Artistry: 0 Efficacy: 0 |
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Earnings: $143 Hours: 3 Artistry: 0 Efficacy: 0 |
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Prior weeks’ scoreboards after the break:
Week 2
Last Updated 3/16/2014:
The following results are for week 2 only. Results are not cumulative with week 1.
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Earnings Leaderboard |
Earnings Per Hour Leaderboard |
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1) The Miles Professor: $1,488.03 2) Miles Abound: $1,358.04 3) Milenomics: $529.92 |
1) The Miles Professor: $425.15!2) Milenomics: $235.52 3) Giddy for Points: $174.89 |
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Bank points Leaderboard |
Airline Miles Leaderboard |
Hotel Points Leaderboard |
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1) The Miles Professor: 123,633 Citi ThankYou points2) Miles Abound: 115,228 Citi ThankYou points 3) Bengali Miles Guru: 32,965 Chase Ultimate Rewards points |
1) Bengali Miles Guru: 4,500 US Airways miles2) Miles, Points, and Mai Tais: 3,506 US Airways miles 3) Miles, Points, and Mai Tais: 3,506 Alaska Airlines miles |
1) Milenomics: 8,659 SPG points2) Freequent Flyer Book: 1,512 Hilton points |
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Artistry Leaderboard |
Efficacy Leaderboard |
| 1) The Miles Professor: 2 points2) Chasing the Points: 1 point |
1) Miles Abound: 3 points2) Milenomics: 1 point 3) Quick City Visits: 1 point |
Earnings notes:
Earnings are calculated as:
Cash back earned – Fees + [combined value of all points and credits earned]
Value of points is calculated as:
- Fair Trade Value, or if no Fair Trade Value exists:
- Arrival points: 1.1 cents each; Avianca miles: 1.5 cents each
- Merchant gift cards / credit valued at best resale price shown on GiftCardGranny.com
- Fuel Points: assume 15 gallon fill up and subtract 10%
Artistry notes:
(Points earned or subtracted due to judgment of originality and ethics)
- The Miles Professor earned two points for demonstrating a clever little perpetual point machine (yes, they do exist!).
- Chasing the Points earned a point by hiring a programmer to build a tool which gathers up point earning rebate opportunities (I think). It didn’t end up providing any great opportunities this week, but it was certainly an interesting gamble that may yet pay off in the future.
Efficacy notes:
(Points earned or subtracted due to scalability, efficiency, and replicability)
- MilesAbound earned 3 points for finding a scalable, easy, and free way to liquidate registered debit cards.
- Milenomics earned a point by getting free cash from Great Bridge for spending he was doing anyway.
- Quick City Visits earned a point by managing to do a little bit of manufactured spend (via online shopping portal) while on vacation in Thailand.
Week 1
Last Updated 3/10/2014:
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Earnings Leaderboard |
Artistry Leaderboard |
Efficacy Leaderboard |
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1) Miles Abound: $1,383.902) Bengali Miles Guru: $1,276.74 3) The Miles Professor: $1,158.92 |
1) Big Habitat: 2 pointsAll others earned 1 point or less |
1) Bengali Miles Guru: 2 pointsTie for 2nd: 2) The Miles Professor: 1 point 2) Quick City Visits: 1 point 2) Giddy for Points: 1 point |
Earnings notes:
Earnings are calculated as:
Cash back earned – Fees + [combined value of all points and credits earned]
Value of points is calculated as:
- Fair Trade Value, or if no Fair Trade Value exists:
- Arrival points: 1.1 cents each; Avianca miles: 1.5 cents each
- Merchant gift cards / credit valued at best resale price shown on GiftCardGranny.com
- Fuel Points: assume 15 gallon fill up and subtract 10%
Artistry notes:
(Points earned or subtracted due to judgment of originality and ethics)
- Big Habitat earned point by finding extremely low price for tablets for resale by price matching to not just one, but four different stores
- Both Big Habitat and Bengali Miles Guru earned a point by discovering that OfficeMax did not limit rebates to 2 per transaction as was implied by their ad.
- Miles Abound earned point through a complicated gift card “churn” that earned rewards very specific to his own needs (see also lost point under efficiency)
- Freequent Flyer Book earned point by showing mastery of very large number of techniques (even though those techniques did not result in as much profit as some others)
- Giddy for points earned point by triple dip purchase of Hyatt gift cards: MilePoint Premium 10% off, 3% cash back via SimplyCash card, and 5% cash back via OPEN Savings
- Miles, Points, and Mai Tais earned point through double dip: cash back from buying Amex gift cards + fuel points earned when using Amex gift card to buy Visa/MC gift cards
- Milenomics earned point by earning both grocery fuel points and fuel rewards at the same time when buying gift cards.
- Milenomics earned point by finding way to buy and liquidate certain cards fee-free.
- Milenomics lost point by returning items for cash
Efficacy notes:
(Points earned or subtracted due to scalability, efficiency, and replicability)
- The Miles Professor earned point by using multiple 5X ThankYou cards in her name (some were as authorized user). This allows her to increase 5X spend with less risk than with just one card.
- Both Miles Abound and Bengali Miles Guru earned a point by splitting purchases in order to maximize Plink rewards.
- Bengali Miles Guru earned point by maximizing ShopKick earnings at Office Depot.
- Miles Abound lost point by earning rewards useful primarily to his own situation.
- Quick City Visits earned point by buying gift cards for 5X and then using those gift card to buy merchandise for resale. This is a highly replicable and scalable approach to earning extra points.
- Giddy for points earned point by triple dip purchase of Hyatt gift cards: MilePoint Premium 10% off, 3% cash back via SimplyCash card, and 5% cash back via OPEN Savings [this technique was awarded a point both for artistry and efficiency]
[…] Please check out the updated MileMadness Scoreboard for full details. […]
[…] us a while to compile the final data. Anyway, the week 4 scores are now, finally, updated on the #milemadness 2014 scoreboard. Congratulations to Miles, Points & Mai Tais for topping the week 4 earnings leaderboard. […]
[…] been working pretty well for me and the official scoreboard is posted on the Frequent Miler blog. Only the last week is at the top and you need to scroll down […]
phone-home,
That’s my guess too. A certain prepaid card with a symbol and a color. For me I didn’t get the full fee refunded though, only $2.95, which is why I think FM says it cost $2.00 in the end. Not as good as the $0 fee cards at the same store, so not sure why you’d bother really. Maybe those aren’t available at his SW?
What am I supposed to gain from this post? This is like watching a sports show where all they tell you is the scores and which games were good without showing highlights. Details please.
Isn’t this the first time someone is getting 3 points?
“MilesAbound earned 3 points for finding a scalable, easy, and free way to liquidate registered debit cards.”
Care to give some insight regarding “free way to liquidate registered debit cards”?
[…] response to feedback, we’ve added two new types of metrics to the #milemadness 2014 scoreboard: time on task, and points & miles earned. For fun, I also added up all of the points and […]
If you are subtracting points for ethics, everyone is well into the negative point range.
…and yet you continue to read their posts and would assume, unless purely for academic research purposes, using the ones you deem “ethical”…which I’m sure others deem unethical.
[…] the upper hand by using a 5x card at grocery stores. Although I don’t think I will be in the Top 3 again for week two, I do have a surefire plan for week three and four. My plan is to give the 5x a […]
[…] current #milemadness tournament has uncovered two nice double/triple dip opportunities that I wasn’t previously aware […]
[…] was pretty surprised to see myself on top of the first #MileMadness leader-board, I guess I managed to sneak in just enough of those gift cards at Office Max to keep up with the […]
Would I be correct in guessing that Milenomics’s creative fee-free method involves buying a certain recently-revamped Reload card that some S***w** stores sell with a CC, and then loading It onto a prepaid card (which conveniently has billpay) that refunds the original Reload card fee?
[…] be sure to check out the #milemadness scoreboard (now live!) and follow @hulagrrl210 on twitter for more action as the game […]
This is interesting but I’m slightly surprised the leader board doesn’t show at least one or two folks north of $2k. Not saying I could personally do better given my geographic situation and day job commitments but seems like 4 rounds of $5k/day spent at OfficeMax on the special gift cards promotion would have netted you nearly $2,000 in profit. Obviously that won’t work beyond last week but still just curious if there is reasoning behind not pursuing that strategy?
I had a one day work trip to Milwaukee last week and easily did about $4k at OM in maybe about 2-2.5 hrs total including WM MOs and depositing in my account.
P.S. Does everyone have to start again with $5k this week or do you get to keep your previous winnings and expand your working capital by the amount you’ve earned?
I think that mostly people were lucky to find $500 worth of gift cards at a time at OfficeMax. And, many (including me) ran into employees and managers that wouldn’t allow ringing up more than $600 at a time. I think that everyone would have happily bought $5K a day if they could have!