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Sears is once again offering 9 points per dollar through the Southwest Rapid Rewards Shopping Portal.
Interestingly, the terms and conditions now explicitly allow earning points for the purchase of gift cards! (hat tip to Big Habitat for discovering that Cartera run portals now allow this). This means that you can go through the portal to buy Sears e-gift cards to get 9X points and then go through the portal again to buy merchandise with those gift cards for another 9X! Plus, you’ll earn points from your credit card for the initial gift card purchase.
Points earned through the shopping portal do count towards the Southwest Companion Pass (which requires earning 110,000 points per calendar year). So, if you are close to earning enough points for the companion pass, deals like this can be a great way to bridge the gap. Keep in mind, though, that the points can take a couple of months to fully post and won’t count towards the Companion Pass until then.
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Anyone have miles post to SW portal yet?
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Spent $6k in gift cards and used them on merchandise to get the Companion Pass again (already have some qualifying points, so this is enough for me), but only two of the smaller, later GC transactions have posted to the Rapid Rewards portal. I’ll keep an eye on it and have faith that everything else will show up, but out of curiosity, what happens if some of the transactions don’t post? Is there a process to file for review?
BTW, thanks for posting this offer — I’ve had the Companion Pass for years and get a TON of use out of it, but I was planning to wait to get it again until this deal came along. Kudos.
Do you resell most of the merchandise and how much do you recoup? Just wondering if it’s worth the cost of the loss to get the Companion Pass.
Also, appears it’s dropped back to 2 points now.
Why not got through the portal with the GC and buy another Gift card? Rinse,Lather,Repeat?
Sears doesn’t allow buying gift cards with gift cards online
Wow, this has turned into a thing… 48 hours later still no e-gift cards, anyone else? I can’t tell you how many executive levels of people I’ve been through, they all say.. 5 to 7 days to process. Since when?
Yikes. Still no e-gift cards? Anyone else having this problem?
YES — just ruined my fathers’ day dealing with this MESS. (which explains my lack of good humor) I really appreciate you drew this to our attention, and so many of the other deals you’ve described have “panned out.” But this one…. what a nightmare. I signed up via the SW portal last night for a simple test of a $100 gift card…. Hey, I wanted to buy some of those BBQ accessories and then some. 🙂 I got a receipt, with the indication they’d be doing checking, but I would hear soon. Resisted calling in the middle of the night. But then I did get a call early this morning from a friendly voice who did the security check — all seemed to go well, and she assured me that I would have the e-gift card from them within the hour. Six hours later, no card…. So I did call the security verification number you alerted us to — and again, another friendly rep who was apologetic, and US based…. She assured me that YES, the security check was, the processing was approved hours before…. BUT, she then said she’d need to refer me to another department….. for “processing” check….. Sigh, that’s where the hell began. I get this high pitched, rapid speaking asian (Filipino?) voice at the other end…. Her english was “good,” but she we weren’t communicating at all. After each long paragraph speech, she’d then ask me if she had my permission to initiate the processing of an inquiry…. which had me thinking, why the “l” do I need to give them permission to process the dmn’d gift card!!!??? But she couldn’t get off the script….. so finally I agreed to her “process.” So I asked her does this mean I’ll now get my gift card? She said the process would take up to 24 hours…. !!!! (this after being told by two previous state-side, American-english speakers that it would be less than an hour!!) Now, I’m furious, so I call back that security # you gave us….. and this time, the person there is deeply apologetic and added this tid-bit — that they were having severe problems with that overseas “processing” unit…. (and she too used the word “Filipino” — has me wondering if they have the same contractor that IHG uses) But she wasn’t going to leave it there, and she transferred me over to an “onlinesolutions” unit for Sears, based in Tuscon, AZ….. That rep. was very friendly, stunned at what I’d gone through, but not entirely surprised…. To my astonishment, she ended up telling me that because of the various levels of encryption at works, she couldn’t tell me exactly what was happening…. She knew there was a problem, she was reporting it, but she could neither see, nor resolve it. Even more alarmingly, she did mention they recently have had several serious … “glitches” in the system, wherein orders actually never do get processes, or get stuck in some infernal loop….. She told me that if I didn’t see a hard charge on my card by now, I should call them back in the case-management department and request a cancellation of the …. order. (or as Mike H put it, this “Thing”)
I DID confirm that my credit card has a temporary authorization for a purchase of the $100….. But I still have no gift card. And no father’s day self presents….. Grrrrrr….. Wahoo-wa.,
Couple questions:
Can I buy egift cards and then double dip for physical gift cards? (18x)
Can I use egift cards at a sears b&m store just like a physical gift card?
Can I use plink in anyway for this deal?
I’m planning on buying 5k this morning
No, you can’t buy gift cards with gift cards online. Yes, you can use e-gift cards at Sears in-store. No, Plink no longer offers rewards for Sears.
I ordered e-GCs last night, at 7pm. Called security at 10pm. Still haven’t received the e-gift card after 3 calls into CS. What the deuce! Anyone else’s slow to arrive?
If i don’t get them in time to do the double dip, for my new dishwasher, I’m gonna spit hot fire.
Purchase a Sears E-GC for $300 last night as a test. Did not receive GC in one hour as stated. Woke up this morning w/ an e-mail to call for a security verification. Had to jump through a load of hoops to get approved. Asked if I needed to do the security if I bought more GC’s and was told yes. Will buy some more today so I can use on-line before Sunday. Used Club Carlson 5X points CC, so $300 GC should get me 5400 SW miles, 1500 Carlson points and some Sears points. Have the SW companion pass so I consider the SW miles to be worth two times what I receive from these purchases.
The last time I bought eGC from Sears through a portal I had to fight with United because Sears did the security call. I even called them for the first one and they said I wouldn’t have to call again, but they called me the next day anyways which screwed up cashback. I had 10 total orders and had to submit order info for 9 of them. So be prepared.
I went ahead and ordered one. I didn’t see any tracking number in the url or anything so I’m guessing they do it with cookies? Never used the portal before. When I bought the gc, at payment time it had space to use a gc as payment so for a moment I thought I could roll over one gc a thousand times and get rich but alas Sears doesn’t allow buying a gc with a gc, even though it’s southwest’s money being spread around. Still I’m happy with 18+1x points on a pressure washer I needed. Since sw points are roughly equivalent to 1/70th of a dollar, it still amounts to a very nice 26% back or so
Anyways to answer an earlier comment question I got the regular spam promo email from southwest for the month just now and 9x at Sears lasts through June 15
Thanks. Just, FYI, Sears has to pay Southwest for the points.
My purchase on my credit card for e-gc shown as pending like :
06/12/2014 Pending KMART.COM 7840
06/12/2014 Pending SEARS.COM 9300
It registered differently even it was all e-gc. I am wondering whether I could earn 9x on all of it.
You should still earn 9X for all of it. That’s very strange though. I’ve never seen an e-gift card purchase show up as Kmart.com. Did you pick different designs?
If you combine this with the grill accessory points back, this gets even better.
Are you sure the second purchase using the gift cards also earns 9x? Is the reward linked to the portal, or linked to my southwest cc in which case only the first purchase of the gift card would count? Has anyone successfully gotten 18x?
The 9X points are a function of shopping through the portal. You do not have to pay with the Southwest credit card to get those points. So, yes, I’m sure that you’ll earn points when paying with a gift card.
I purchased $3250 worth of e-gift cards this morning because I’m planning to buy a new TV. I still have not received the codes, and I just got an e-mail from Sears saying:
Thank you for your recent order on sears.com.
We are processing your order, and will email you when processing is complete.
We also will contact you should we need more information.
Thanks again. We’ll be in touch soon.”
My credit card has been authorized, so this seems a bit fishy. I have replied with a request for information, but I have not heard back. Thoughts?
This is common. They have to verify that you are who you say you are. Call this number to expedite: 1-888-396-5299
Can you use a sears eGC to buy a Sears physical GC online?
No
could it be worth it to purchase around $12000 worth of Sears gcs and resell to Cardpool for 85%? You’re losing 15% there, but also gaining a ton of RR points (as well as the companion pass!). any thoughts are appreciated. thanks!
Could be worth it if you know you’ll get a lot of use from the companion pass. Trying to sell that much to Cardpool is risky though. You might want to contact them ahead of time to setup a bulk sale
oh yeah, I already have a bulk sales account set up from a similar scenario in 2012 🙂
just saw your post on the main blog, and I see you said doing the buy and sale of gcs would “cost” $1956. but aren’t you also earning 110,000 points, valued at around $1500 in SW travel (actually a little more from my experience)? even if you don’t use the CP much, you’re getting it for under $500.
Or (and this is likely), am I missing something here?
That’s correct. I just think that when buying and selling, you are doing a lot of work and taking on a lot of risk, so the payoff should be higher. If you’re OK with the risk/reward ratio, go for it.