At the beginning of each month, new promotions appear within the Ultimate Rewards Mall. On Monday morning, I’ll provide full coverage of what’s new: both good and bad. Today, I’ll provide some completely baseless guesses as to what we might see on Monday. Keep in mind that I have no inside knowledge whatsoever.
Predictions
- InterContinental Hotels Group (Holiday Inn, etc.) will increase from 4X to 10X
- JCPenney will increase from 6X to 10X
- Buy.com will repeat at 10X
- Sears will take a break from 10X and stick to 4X or 5X
- Kmart, which dropped from 4X to 2X sometime during the month will pop back up to 4X
- Macy’s will drop from 5X to 3X
- L.L. Bean will drop from 5X to 2X
- Best Buy will try to grab some iPhone 5 orders by jumping from 1X to 2X or 3X
- OfficeMax, OfficeDepot, Staples: 2 out of 3 will go to 5X (currently they are 5X, 3X, and 4X)
- Groupon will increase from 5X to 12X
Scoring
Once we see the real outcomes on Monday, we’ll score the guesses as follows:
- Correct guess: 1 point
- Directionally correct guess: half a point (e.g. if JCP increases, but not all the way to 10X, I get half a point)
- Wrong guess: 0 points
Since bonus points vary across cards (Ink, Sapphire, Freedom), we will always look to the highest bonus across all cards to determine results. For example, if JCP is 6X for the Ink and Freedom cards, but 7X for the Sapphire then we’ll use 7X as the correct number, and we’ll count the 10X guess as being directionally correct.
Play along
Feel free to put your own guesses in the comments below. See if you can beat my score!
Use HikerT’s UR Mall Earnings by Portal page to see (mostly) current bonus points across cards.
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
@FM, would this combo work for Sears:
5x from OD gift cards via Chase IB (load onto Amex prepaid card)
5x purchase Sears gift cards using Amex prepaid
5x use Sears gift cards to buy Sears merchandise
TOTAL: 15x
I have a large purchase of about $1500 coming up at Sears so am wondering if triple dipping would work. I wouldn’t mind getting ~22500 points for it.
@SW
“I need to print a list of stores and tack it on my wall.”
http://lakebagger.com/ur/
This is too funny. Netspend is advertising on your site. That makes my day.
Sears.com 5X for Oct’12 – Freedom & Sapphire card holders :/
I completely forgot that groupon was on the ultimate rewards site. I just bought one yesterday.RRRRR. I need to print a list of stores and tack it on my wall.
I agree with amodja.
Also, for those who are VIP Gold with Sears Shop Your Way rewards, tomorrow is a bonus 10% rewards day. since tomorrow is the last ast day of 10% with Chase Freedom, you can triple dip (10% with GC, 10% buying through UR portal, and 10% SYW Rewards bonus.)
Anita
Anita: Thanks, great suggestion!
More fun if wrongbguesses are negative 1
hope you are right on groupon. i buy at least once or twice per week
Would love to see groupon offer increase
Are these “educated” guesses that are based on past bonuses? Would love to see a 10x Intercontinental bonus.
George: the Intercontinental is pretty much the only educated guess. I found a post I wrote last October in which Intercontinental was 10X.
Gift cards will be active @ OM’s online portal at 10X
🙂 we can only wish