This deal now appears to be dead for real
Update 3 (9/28 11:22 am EST): Deal appears to be back
MyPoints has put the splash screens back!
Update 2 (9/28 10:01 am EST): Deal appears to be dead
MyPoints has removed the splash screens and most references to OpenSky. I was just about to order stuff too!
MyPoints is currently running a promotion for 150 points per dollar at Open Sky (a site with ridiculously overpriced items). Despite the high prices, this could a great way to buy miles or gift cards at a low price and get some possibly useful junk as well. Gary has the details here, and MileCollector has a bit here.
The problem with this promotion is the confusion caused by this screen:
Most of this is intelligible:
- Limited to $500 in purchases per household
- The 150X offer will go away after 9/30/12 or earlier if too many points have been claimed (they don’t say what “too many” is, though)
- Points will be credited within 30 days
The confusing part is the final statement:
OpenSky points are different from Points earned in the MyPoints program and may not be used for MyPoints rewards
This seems to indicate that the points awarded are OpenSky points (not worth much!) instead of MyPoints which can be reasonably valuable. This has raised a debate on SlickDeals where some people have argued that no, it is MyPoints that are awarded, whereas others have argued the opposite.
My Take
Even though the weight of evidence is on the side of this being truly 150 MyPoints per dollar, this has a feel of “too good to be true” to me. I’m tempted to go for it, but I think I’ll sit out of this deal and wish good luck to everyone who gives it a shot.
Update (9/28 8:26 am EST)
A reader named Michael wrote the following:
I think this is legit, Open sky 150 points for dollar is even listed when you look at all merchants in mypoints.
https://www.mypoints.com/emp/u/shop-all-merchants.vm
This is the page that shows the merchants listed and the amount of points you get per dollar.
They also state
Get an unheard of 150 Points per dollar on your purchase with OpenSky!
Sounds like a Opensky fire sale
Thanks Michael! I agree. Somehow this looks legitimate. I’m going to risk it and go for $500 worth of stuff. As HikerT recommends (in the comments), I’ll use a personal Amex card with return protection just in case things go wrong.
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[…] MyPoints points will become 6,500 miles. I have a pretty large stash of MyPoints sitting around from way back when. I’ll give it a […]
[…] Remember that time when you just missed out on a mistake fare or a deal and you just found about it at 9:00 am. Well that’s because everyone who was at one point or another between 12:00 am and 7 am got in on it, before you could ever wake up. My own theory is that most companies don’t have people on staff during the night to catch their mistakes, meanwhile that’s when most mileage hunters are searching for that one illusive deal. Is this unfair if you’re working a 9-5, sure, but then again you miss out on deals like this. […]
[…] A couple of months ago, an online store called OpenSky ran an incredible promotion through the MyPoints portal. For a brief time, they offered 150 points per dollar for up to $500 in purchases. At the time, there was a lot of confusion over whether the points earned were really MyPoints (which would be good) or OpenSky points (which would be bad). The final conclusion was that the 150X deal was indeed for MyPoints. Once we were convinced of that, many of us jumped in and bought up to $500 worth of overpriced stuff because the value of 150 points per dollar made the purchase basically free. For more information about this prior deal, please see “MyPoints 150 points per dollar! Maybe. (Update 3).” […]
Does anyone know an easy process to convert the points to UA miles? Online it seems like you have to fill out some form with your address? And no MP #, do they mail you a certificate? I wanted to get the points ASAP for an upcoming flight – anyone have any experience on the smoothest way to redeem?
Any blogger (that you FM :)) want to post a nice step by step?
@Tim J Please let us know if they do end up becoming redeemable for you!
@HoKo, I requested the 150x about a week ago and mentioned that I thought it should possibly be 300x. Got the standard response about delays due to the hurricane. So yes I did ask them for the double points, but I’m not sure if that actually mattered.
@Tim J Ok, thanks for the info
75k pending points posted and transfered to United. Another 75k are now showing as pending for double points for new members (!) If those post, this will have been a super-amazing deal.
@HoKo, min remained pending for 2 days. There should be a date listed next to the transaction showing when the points will be posted.
@econjon, rumor has it that MyPoints is suspicious of people signing up for second accounts to take advantage of the double points for new members offer. That said, I personally would contact them for help, and when asked, make it clear that you signed up for a new account because you forgot about your old account, etc. and not because you were trying to game the system.
@Tim J Yep, thanks for the info. My points only took 2 days to vest. I redeemed them today for $500 in Amazon GC’s. Did you have to contact them to ask for the double points as a new member or did those show up automatically?
Looks like I got my points! BUT can’t transfer to UA since apparently I already linked a past (different) mypoints account to UA account. Anyone know a way around this?
Finally got my points today as well. Does anyone know how long they remain in a pending status?
Posted! Did anyone get 300 points per dollar (i.e. new members get double points for the first month)? I “only” got 150 per dollar.
I GOT MY POINTS. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAY
FINALLY GOT MY POINTS TODAY!!
HoKo: same here. No points have posted as pending yet
@Greg: Did you receive an order confirmation email? I never received an order confirmation email but I did receive lots of shipping notification emails as the orders were being sent to me. I wonder if there is a correlation between not having received a confirmation email and not seeing points post automatically…I sent in an inquiry to MyPoints this evening so I guess we’ll see what they have to say.
HoKo: I did get an order confirmation email.
@FM Any sign of the points yet for you Greg? I still don’t have anything in my account (not even pending).
Tim J,
I’m experiencing the same thing. I ordered 11 water bottles for resale from Opensky. The amount was preapproved twice over the course of 10 days because the first hold expires after so long. I got called twice from Opensky asking me the same question….”did you mean to order 11 water bottles?” The items finally shipped last week and are arriving today. No pending points in Mypoints, but also there is no charge on my credit card anymore (pending or approved) for the past 3-4 days.