Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
Recently, I published a couple of unsubstantiated, wishful thinking posts:
In those posts I talked about the possibility of big new signup bonuses, new manufactured spend opportunities, and more. I didn’t think we would see much of interest in online shopping portals, though, until the end of the year. I’ve already been proven wrong…
Amex gift cards
Buying Amex gift cards through portals has long been a good way to reduce the cost of manufactured spend and/or to increase your rebate for all 1X spend (in other words, use these cards anywhere your other credit cards do not get a category bonus). Recently, though, the portal payouts for Amex gift cards have gone to all time highs. Check out these recent Frequent Miler Quick Deals posts:
- Jan 29: BigCrumbs increases Amex gift card rebate to 2.1%
- Feb 3: TopCashBack increases Amex gift card rebate to 3%
- Feb 3: Up to 4 miles per dollar for Amex gift cards!
Four miles per dollar is an amazing rebate. That one requires the Arrival World MasterCard to access the portal. And, the “miles” earned are Arrival miles. These miles can be redeemed for travel at a rate of 1 cent each, but then you get a 10% rebate on your miles. So, your total portal rebate is worth 4.4% cash back towards travel. Plus, you’ll earn credit card rewards on the purchase of the Amex gift cards in the first place, so if you pay with your Arrival card (the one that earns 2X everywhere), you’ll get a total of 6 miles per dollar, which is equivalent to 6.6% cash back towards travel!
Ultimate Rewards Mall
The news here is where I’m most excited. To understand why, it’s necessary to look back a couple of years. If my memory serves, In late 2011 and most of 2012, Chase ran monthly specials in the Ultimate Rewards Mall. On the first of every month I would excitedly log in to see which stores had the big payouts (Staples? Sears? Sony?). I would publish my findings, along with my thoughts on how best to maximize each promotion.
One interesting twist was that the portal payout rates often varied depending upon what type of account you logged in with. For example, they would run a big Sears promotion (10X!) for Freedom cardholders, and an office supply promotion (Office Depot 10X!) for Ink cardholders. It became important for point chasers to make sure that they had one of each type of card in the family: Freedom, Sapphire, and Ink.
I think it was late 2012 when the monthly promotions stopped appearing. Around the same time, the Ultimate Rewards Mall began to show (mostly) the same payout rates regardless of which card you logged in with. Since then, while the Ultimate Rewards Mall has continued to be a reliable source of points for many types of purchases, it has lost the excitement of the monthly big scores.
Now, however, there are signs that the monthly promotions may be returning! Mommy Points discovered that the portal is once again showing different rates depending upon how you log in! While none of the current specials are amazing, there are a few good ones. Here is the list of payouts, as reported by Mommy Points, that currently differ by card…
Sapphire Preferred specials:
- Anthropologie 6x
- Banana Republic 4x
- Drugstore.com 6x
- DSW 8x
- Lowe’s 5x
- Macy’s 5x
- Magazines.com 30x
- OfficeMax.com 5x
- Saks.com 8x
Freedom specials:
- Famous Footwear 10x
- Gap.com 5x
- Hotels.com 5x
- IHG Hotels 5x
- Marriot 5x
- Shoebuy.com 15x
Ink specials:
(see the list under Sapphire Preferred, as they are the same)
Of the specials shown above, here are the ones I find interesting:
OfficeMax 5X: Log in with your Sapphire Preferred or Ink account, but make sure to pay with your Ink card in order to earn an additional 5X for a total of 10 points per dollar at OfficeMax. Note that if you log in with your Sapphire Preferred account, the bonus points earned from the portal will be part of your annual Sapphire Preferred 7% dividend. So, if you log in with the Sapphire Preferred account, but pay with an Ink card, your total earning will really be 5 x 1.07 + 5 = 10.35 points per dollar.
Hotels.com 5X: In my October post “Miles for non-chain stays” I showed how one could save money and earn lots of points by clicking through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to Travelocity (2X at the time) when booking non-chain hotel stays. Readers pointed out that it was often possible to do even better via Hotels.com, which was 5X in the Ultimate Rewards Mall at the time. Shortly afterwards, the payout dropped, so I lost interest in Hotels.com. Now, though, its great to see Hotels.com back to 5X even if its only for Freedom cardholders.
Marriott 5X: Marriott may not have the best rewards program of all the chains, but it consistently has the best triple and quadruple dip opportunities. There are often great ways to get points or discounts when buying Marriott gift cards. And, you can use the Ultimate Rewards Mall to earn extra points on your stay (beyond points automatically awarded for stays). And, Marriott often runs its “MegaBonus” promotion. Usually the MegaBonus means that two stays result in one free night. So, yes, 5X at Marriott is very welcome indeed.
Shoebuy 15X: Checkout Shoebuy in the Frequent Miler Laboratory to see why this is of interest. Please note, though, that discount coupons reportedly do not work when applying gift cards to orders.
Next month
Will we see new and exciting specials next month? I certainly hope so!
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Do you know if Shoebuy still works for GC purchases? The T&C state: Not eligible on gift cards, gift certificates or any other similar cash equivalents. Is this new language or has it just never enforced? Thanks for the help, have my eye on some Allen Edmonds and would really like to get 31pts/$ on them!
I would guess so, but I don’t have recent input about that. I would guess that the T&C restriction was always there, but I’m not 100% sure.
Is anyone else having issue with AMEX GC? I had my order cancelled and they said they can’t verify my information? I have order from them before, so I know my card works with them and I entered the right information.
That happens to me frequently. I keep trying and eventually it goes through. The tough part is that the pending charge stays for a few days and reduces your credit limit until it falls off
Why don’t you cover Shop Discover? It runs specials all the time, e.g. Macy’s 10%. Yes, that’s not travel related but you can purchase Macy’s gift cards at OD with CIB for 5x, purchase via SD with any card then leverage your cash back bonus on travel Partner gift cards, e.g. Alamo: $20 = $40; Best Western: $45 = $50; Carnival: $40 = $80 or $60 = $120; Celeberty: same as Carnival; Enterprise: $20 = $40; Holand American same as Carnival; Hyatt: $40 = $50; National: $20 = $40; Norwegian: same as Carnival; Princess: same as Carnival; Royal Caribbean same as Carnival; Sandals: $20 = $40, $40 = 80.
Yep, ShopDiscover is great. It often has the best cash back rates, and it has some terrific redemption options. I covered some here:
https://frequentmiler.com/2013/07/24/maximizing-discover-rewards-real-value-from-merchant-gift-cards/
Seems buying the Marriott gift cards at Staples or Office Depot is the same as the portal? Am I missing something?
Yes, if you have an Ink card (not everyone does, believe it or not), you can get 5X on any gift card you buy at Staples or OD. Even better, go through a portal to Staples to buy the gift card and pay with your Ink card. That way you can get 5% cash back (uPromise, for example) and 5X.
Any experience if Shoebuy lets you buy their gift cards while paying with their own gift cards?
Seems unlikely, but I’d be interested to hear if anyone has tried it
Do you get that 5 + 5 for online gift card purchases from OfficeMax?
No, unfortunately, Office Max doesn’t pay out when you buy gift cards from them through a portal. See: Frequent Miler Laboratory
Does the purchase of Marriott e-gift cards work for earning UR points through the freedom portal? Also can you use e-gift cards to pay for your stay? I’m staying in a Marriott for work and would like to earn the extra portal points.
Yes, people have reported success with that. See: Frequent Miler Laboratory
Are you going to bring back that webpage you had which compared the UR rate differences for all the cards?
I wish I could. The author of that page doesn’t want to maintain it going forward.
I thought the Sapphire Preferred annual dividend was 7%, not 6%. Am I wrong?
Oops! Thanks for the correction. Fixed.
What about Olympic promos? Is there historic data to indicate what might be coming?