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My wife recently Tweeted the following question:
Points and Mile blogger wife’s dilemma: Do I get flowers because he loves me or because he gets points buying them?
My answer? “It’s love, of course!” And, silently: “love for you, and for points…” Yeah, maybe I should have kept that to myself…
With Mother’s Day coming up, this may be a good time to express your love if you have a mother, are married to a mother, or for whatever reason care about someone who is (or claims to be) a mother.
With that said, you do of course want to save money and earn miles in the process. Here’s how…
Step 1: Register for the American Express 1800Flowers “Offers For You” promotion
You’ll need an American Express card for this. Log into your account and select “Amex Offers for You”. Look for an offer to get $15 back with a purchase of $50 or more at 1800Flowers. To enroll multiple cards in this offer, please see “Maximizing Amex Sync offers. Part 1: sync multiple cards”.
If you don’t have this offer in your account, you might be able to find the same offer by linking your card to Facebook.
Step 2: Enroll your Amex card with Plink and add 1800Flowers to your Plink Wallet
This step is optional but will lead to earning Plink points which can be redeemed for a gift card.
Step 3: Go through portal to buy 1800Flowers gift card
Currently, the best portal offer is ShopDiscover, which is currently offering 20% cash back. You do need to own a Discover card for access to this portal, but in my experience you do not need to pay with a Discover card to earn cash back. You can find the best current portal rates here.
After clicking through ShopDiscover (or another portal) to 1800Flowers.com, purchase a $50 by mail gift card for yourself and pay with the American Express card you registered in Step 1. It may take about a week to arrive. While its true that ShopDiscover’s terms say that the offer doesn’t apply to gift card orders, in my experience it does anyway.
Step 4: Look for the best offer
There are two ways to save money or earn points when buying from 1800Flowers. One option is to use a promo code at checkout (or click through an offer link which automatically inserts the promo code). Another option is to shop through an online portal. In my experience, you cannot double-dip with these two approaches. Recently, for example, I went to 1800Flowers through the American Airlines shopping portal, which was offering 8 miles per dollar at the time, but during checkout I used a code to get 30 Alaska Airlines miles per dollar. The Alaska miles posted fine and, initially, the AA miles did too, but the AA miles were later reversed out. A few readers have reported similar experiences. So, given that we can only do one or the other, here are the best current offers I know of:
- ShopDiscover portal: 20% cash back
- Southwest Airlines: 1000 points for orders of $29.99 or more. Promo code RR22. For a $50 order, this amounts to 20 points per dollar.
- American Airlines: 15 miles per dollar. Promo code ADDV.
- Alaska Airlines: 15 miles per dollar. Promo code AKA6.
In the past, it has been common to find offers for up to 30 miles per dollar at 1800Flowers before major holidays. I’d recommend waiting until closer to Mother’s Day to see if any of those offers reappear. Click the above links to see the current offers.
Step 5: Consider enrolling in the 1800Flowers Passport program
By enrolling in Passport for $29.99, you’ll get free shipping for a year. I signed up for this service in the days leading up to Valentine’s Day since I found that it saved me money with just two orders.
Step 6: Order $50 worth of gifts at a time
One big downside to 1800Flowers gift cards is that you can only apply one to each order. So, while you can certainly place smaller or larger orders, the ideal order size is $50. When checking out, make sure of the following:
- Make sure to enter your selected promo code. Not all orders are eligible for promo codes. If your selected promo code doesn’t work, it might be worth switching out your order for a similar one that is eligible.
- Enter your gift card number and PIN for payment
- If you bought the Passport service, make sure you are signed in so as to get free shipping and handling.
Why this is a great deal
Let’s assume that you successfully earn $15 cash back from American Express and 20% cash back from ShopDiscover as I’ve done in the past. In that case, your $50 1800Flowers gift cards will cost you a net total of $25. That’s a fantastic discount right off the bat. Next, let’s assume that you have a Passport subscription so that you do not need to pay for shipping and handling. In that case, if you use a 20% cash back portal again for purchasing $50 in flowers or gifts (with your gift card), you’ll get $10 back. In other words, in the end, you’ll be out only $15 (not counting the cost of the Passport subscription) for a $50 order! Or, if those 30 miles per dollar offers return, you could forsake the 20% cash back option and earn miles instead. In that case, with a $50 order, you’ll get 1500 miles. Given that your total spend was $25, that’s like paying 1.67 cents per mile (which is a decent price) and getting flowers or gifts for free! Oh, and with either approach, you should earn $3.50 worth of gift cards from Plink as well.
Notes
In order to take advantage of the above scheme more than once, you’ll need multiple American Express cards, and you’ll have to sign up all of them with the 1800Flowers offer. For details about how to do this, please see “Maximizing Amex Sync offers. Part 1: sync multiple cards.” And, if you do use multiple cards, you may find that setting up more than one card with Plink is difficult or impossible. So, I’d recommend thinking of Plink rewards as a nice-to-have bonus, but not the key ingredient of this deal. Also note that American Express small business cards automatically earn 5% cash back at 1800Flowers via the OPEN Savings program. So, when you use those cards to pay, you can expect an additional $2.50 in savings for each gift card purchased.
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[…] today is Amazon Prime Day, retailers from A to Z are doing their best to steal your attention away (see what I did there?). […]
Anyone else not receive their gift card(s)? I placed two GC orders on April 18 and have not received either. Tracking numbers provided are invalid. 1800Flowers CS said they will schedule redelivery for 5/14, which is a bit late…
[…] This part requires being on the lookout for special deals. In my recent Quick Deal, I reported on a current Amazon Local deal where you can get $30 gift cards for half price or less. In other posts, I’ve shown how it is possible to use the occasional American Express “Offers for You” deals combined with a cash back portal to buy $50 gift cards for half price or less (see, for example, “Preparing for Mother’s Day Miles”). […]
I just got an email from amtrak that you can earn 25 points per dollar at 1800flowers.com. they say, “remember to use your amtrak guest rewards member number and promo code AMT26 with your order”
through may 17
Thanks!
Maybe I’m not reading this carefully, but why does the scheme require multiple Amex cards?
You can only get the statement credit once per Amex card
Worth noting as well Shop Your Way, the wonderfully difficult Sears bonus program, awards between 20 and 30% for using a registered Visa. This can be the same registered Visa as used at Plink. Obviously, that won’t stack with the Amex discount, but is another route to go should you shop at Sears or Kmart and not get the Amex offer.
Also, 1800Flowers sells snacks, berries, cookies, burgers, steaks, other meats and cheeses, so if you have sent everybody you know flowers, you can buy yourself some food.
Thanks!
You keep pushing the Discover-free ShopDiscover option, so I tried it a few times.
Yep, I got cash back. Hooray, I thought. It works every time.
Next statement, it got the big ol’ clawback. Oh no, I thought. Can’t complain since I violated their T&Cs.
Am I the only one to whom such as this has happened?
Usually, when you get a clawback it is driven by the retailer not by Discover (at least, that’s my impression). What merchant was it?
I prefer to just buy flowers from a local florist or grocery store. The cost is about 1/3 to 1/4, which more than compensates for the complicated portal game.
Yep, that works when the recipient lives nearby.
hey Greg, I just got a promo flyer from pnc bank which says if you use your pnc debit card to purchase 1800flowers, and the code “PNC10” you get a 20% discount. However the promo code applies before you pay, so you get the discount regardless of what card you use (though they may reverse it, I havent tried). Maybe worth trying to stack this with shopdiscover.
Thanks Jonathan. It’s worth a try, but my bet is that they won’t stack. Still, please let me know!
I’ve had 3 bad experiences with Teleflora in a row, is 1800flowers different? Each experience, the flowers were bad to a degree where I felt embarrassed to have given something so sorry looking, and felt ripped off. Maybe its my local florists.
The first time, half the flowers looked like they were dead, and the other half… Roses pictured on the website, but carnations in the sent bouquet. That was after the delivery guy was 8 hours late.
The second time I upgraded to a bigger arrangement. The flowers were alive this time, but where the picture showed like 15 flowers, I got 7. They were wilted. My girlfriend said yeah, well I really love the vase!! (That was good, since the vase was a different shape and color than the pictured one).
The third time my girlfriend sent flowers to her Aunt in the hospital in a different state. My girlfriend ordered the biggest arrangement she could. Her aunt got out of her hospital bed just to take a picture of the flowers to send us with a message the equivalent of did you mean to send 4 dead flowers to me?
Each time, Discounts were given after I complained; the third time, they sent out a new bouquet promised to be exquisite. They sent out a second bad arrangement.
You’re tempting me with this post! Maybe I’ll send flowers to myself, and if they look good, I’ll give them to my mom.
I don’t have any reason to think that 1800Flowers is better, but note that some items are delivered by local florists rather than being shipped in a box. My bet is that local florists will more often deliver something nice. And, if not, 1800Flowers will refund the money.
Is it just my area? It always seems like getting flowers from a local florist is less than half the cost…which makes up for the lack of portal bonus.
That’s definitely true, but not everyone has their mom nearby. Also, depending upon how much you value the miles earned, you could do much better with 30X when it is available
You can also buy 1800Flowers gift cards thru Gift Card Granny and get up to 12% discount (http://www.giftcardgranny.com/store/1800-flowers/).
No 1800flowers offer for me in any of my Amex accounts. I do have an offer, however, from 1800PetMeds. Perhaps I need to send mom a bouquet of rawhide chews??
LOL
Agreed!
I don’t have the 1800flowers offer on any of my cards, or on Facebook, or on my husband’s cards. 🙁 I signed up for it last time and I used one of my husband’s cards to get the discount last time, but none of mine.
Dear Universe (or a fellow Frequent Miler reader), please reveal the magic formula for getting this offer on your card. I promise to use it to buy my mother (and myself) flowers.
If she has to ask, it is not because you love her.