Deal Alert: Get 40x Delta Miles at PetCareRX!!!
Posted by dealswelike on July 23, 2012 | 96 Comments
UPDATE: This deal is dead
PetCareRX is offering 40 Delta miles per dollar spent! While I do not have any pets and believe Delta has de-valued their miles over the year, this can be huge! For those not aware, PetCareRX is an online site to purchase pet items and has extremely reasonable prices (I asked a friend who has a dog!). You will also get free shipping if your total purchase is over $49.99.
Since you have to access the online site through a special webpage, you are not able to double dip by accessing the online site through a different mile/point/cash back earning shopping portal. You are also not able to enter any additional online coupons. Unfortunately you are only able to take advantage of one promotion at a time, but 40x points is still well worth it in mind mind!!
Just make sure to enter your Delta SkyMiles number during the checkout process.
Again, I do not have a dog so I am making guesses here. But if you spend $800 a year on items you can purchase at PetCareRX, you will earn 32,000 Delta miles. That is pretty dam good for items you would have purchased anyways! 32,000 miles is at minimum a free roundtrip domestic flight.
Now I am not sure if there is a 2nd hand market for these items, but I know some of you will make a large purchase just for the miles and then sell the items on ebay/amazon. For example, if you are able to find low-level award availability in business class from the US to Southwest Asia, you can purchase $3,000 worth of pet stuff and earn the 120,000 miles needed. If you are then able to sell these items at about half price, you will earn back half of the amount spent and that business class ticket to Asia will only cost you $1,500! The kicker though is finding low-level award availability! With a little bit of effort, however, I am sure you’d be able to sell these items for much more. If any of you are planning on this strategy or have any luck, please let me know! I will be doing some research as well and will report on my findings.
UPDATE #1: This promotion is capped at earning 20,000 miles, thus a maximum spend of $500 p:er order. However, the representative I spoke to said: “There is not a cap of how many orders you can place.” I am still not sure I 100% believe this, although it was escalated.
Below is a screen shot of the LiveChat conversation. The blue writing is me.
UPDATE #2: It is still unclear on whether or not you will earn Delta SkyMiles if you purchase the deal a day item. When you add this item to your cart it states: “Discounts cannot be combined with Deal of the Day orders.” However, when you go to make the purchase it still allows you to enter your Delta number and tells you that you’ll earn miles on your purchase. The LiveChat representative states that you will not earn miles, however, I have a hunch that the system will actually put it through. If you are purchasing these simply for the miles, I’d steer away from these items.
Keep in mind though that not all products can be returned and you will have to pay shipping costs (if this doesn’t work out in your favor).
Depending on how you use value your miles/points, this could be better then the 36x point promotion from Nordstroms (which is no longer valid)!
Thanks to thetravelloop at MilePoint for sharing this deal!
Frequent Miler said,
Hey, you beat me to it! Just FYI, I first read about this deal here: http://www.thetravelersloophole.com/2012/07/earn-40-delta-skymiles-dollar-pet-supplies-awesome-deal/
Scott said,
wow. big leverage. I need to start looking
infamousdx said,
Nice! Looks like my parents dog will be getting early xmas presents from me! Haha
Kyle Dunst said,
When I go to checkout, I don’t see the Skymiles number option.
Delta Points said,
Nice. Checking it out. Be careful about going all in. Delta limits most vendors to 50,000 points PER SKYMILES account / per year hard and fast now:
http://www.delta.com/help/faqs/skymiles_incentives/index.jsp
If you are going big, check with PetCareRx first!
dealswelike said,
@Kyle – You need to make sure to go to this PetCareRX site: http://www.petcarerx.com/?id=1911
If you just go to petcarerx.com you will not see a place to add your Delta #
Bob McBob said,
What happens with returns? I assume they take the Delta miles back. But worth a shot.
dealswelike said,
@Bob – Most of the time the miles are taken back. There might be a few that slip through the crack, but you probably won’t luck out with this deal. Also, since this is an online store you are not able to return the items for a gift card or such (i.e., like some did with Nordstroms).
dealswelike said,
@DeltaPoints – Thanks for the words of caution. I have been on live chat with them for awhile now and they are now speaking to their main offices in New York to get a final answer for me.
Delta Points said,
@Deaswelike – playing with items like fish pumps etc. They seem to be higher than most but if we can find and item great. Also, even when you add say $5000 to your cart, it seems to be 20,000 points is MAX they are giving out. Still testing….
dealswelike said,
@Delta Points – Just tried to add $1,000 into my cart and I still see only 20,000 miles. I am hoping to hear back from headquarters soon. My Live Chat person probably is going to hate me!
Kyle Dunst said,
@dealswelike – Even when going through that link, my only options for Promotions & Discounts are Scratch & Win, Coupon Code, and Apply Points.
Kyle Dunst said,
Ah never mind I found it. Sorry
dealswelike said,
@Kyle – Glad you found it!
Delta Points said,
The way I think we can play this, if, search everyone, we can find a single non-food or drug product that we can resell and get near break even and get the 20,000 points per order this could be big. Not finding anything like that but maybe someone better than me can find that one product and we go for it!
Kyle Dunst said,
@Delta Points – What about Frontline Plus for Dogs? Looks like we could get pretty close to break even.
jcmitchell21 said,
can you not resell the food or drug items? like frontline?
dealswelike said,
@jcmitchell21 – You absolutely can. I really just do not know anything about pet products!
Pet Friend said,
Awesome Deal! @DeltaPoints thanks for the heads up on the 20,000 point cap. Thanks!
mike said,
I see Frontline being much cheaper at Amazon
jcmitchell21 said,
I was just using it as an example
Kyle Dunst said,
Just placed an order and was quoted 11,000 miles! Now I’ll have enough for my flight for Le Bourget next year! Customer Service says miles will be posted 20 days after the order ships.
dealswelike said,
@Kyle – That’s great! And were these items you needed anyways?
Kyle Dunst said,
@dealswelike – No, it looks like the items I ordered I can pretty much break even or just lose a little on eBay. Not bad for tens of thousands of miles.
Mordy said,
Do you think this is just as good as the 25,000 points per $500 on Skymall last year?
It also says straight out on Delta.com that vendors can only distribute a maximum of 50,000 per year.
Delta Points said,
@Kyle – feel free to share with the rest of the class!
Food Wine and Miles said,
Looks like it’s time to buy cat food for the rest of the year!
dealswelike said,
@Mordy – I think if you need the items, this is 100 times better. Skymall has horrible inflated prices, where these prices are great deals without the 40x miles. However, if you are thinking of resale value, I am not sure. With Skymall you could purchase a big ticket item (i.e., Samsung Galaxy) and sell in one shot.
Kyle Dunst said,
@Delta Points. I bought a load of Frontline Plus For Dogs 89-132 Lb and plan to resell it on eBay
Delta Points said,
@Kyle – great txs. Still wish we could find a non food or med one that could work as well! – Rene
Dave Golden said,
Important quote from chat support at PetCareRX: “Yes, the limit to receive delta skymiles is $500.”
dealswelike said,
@Dave – That is correct. However, I was also told from PetXCareRX that you can do multiple orders and there is no cap. But I’d tread lightly.
Scott said,
food is not a bad buy here is you buy smaller bags. I played around and adding 2 15lb bags ships free, ad a third bag and shipping jumps to $24.
HansGolden said,
@deals: Do you have a screenshot of that chat that you could post?
dealswelike said,
@HansGolden – I posted the screen shot.
Rayn said,
Is their website screwed?
Kevin F said,
We use frontline plus, but the price mark-up is about 33% compared to Amazon so the cost per mile is a little higher due to that. For 3 years of frontline, I’m paying about $107 more than Amazon prices for almost 17.5k miles and this is a product I would actually use.
Has anyone found anything to resell on Amazon that is comparable in price to bring the true cost of the miles down? I’d rather do something that breaks closer to even or buys 1k miles for $2.50 when all is said and done. I’ll be checking tonight after work and post my findings here if there is anything good!
carwag25 said,
Just curious why meds/food may not be ideal? Expiration dates? I have found something that would be ideal for this…
Mariana said,
how about buying today’s deal? i placed an order for a pain medication, which is selling at 50% discount when compared to amazon. I bought 3 of those (Arthogen Plus MSM for Dogs) and it showed i was going to earn 2640 delta miles.
Scott said,
carwag25 said,
Just curious why meds/food may not be ideal? Expiration dates? I have found something that would be ideal for this…
care to share?
Scott said,
anyone know what the expiration date on frontline plus product are. Are the good indefinately or do they lose effectivness after 2 years shelflife?
I have small dogs. The markup on frontline over amazon is not insignificant, so I am looking at maybe buying the large dog dose, then getting a medicine vial, and a syringe for drawing the correct dose and administering it. I could also do that with the amazon one, but this would effectively spread the usage out over 3 years or so and make the difference in price more palatable to me.
Harlan Vaughn said,
Thanks! Just bought a ton of stuff. My dog is set for the YEAR lol
carwag25 said,
One to make a small amount of money: Nemex Tab Large Dogs, 50 Tablets
One to lose a small amount of money: Dasuquin for Dogs With MSM, Small/Medium Dogs, 150 Tablets
With 2 Nemex, and 1 Dasuquin, order total is $500.97
carwag25 said,
forgot to mention, compared the pricing with Amazon.
dealswelike said,
@carwag25 – my only concern with this item is that there are currently no reviews on amazon, is this a popular item?
carwag25 said,
@dealswelike, I wondered that too…
Dasuquin is #6,200 in Pet Supplies
Nemex is #107,511 in Pet Supplies
Neither are popular. I might check out some of the top 100 in pet supplies on Amazon.
Erik said,
@ Mariana – I’d be careful with using the deal of the day… When you add the item to your shopping cart, it says “Discounts cannot be applied with deal of the day orders.” If you notice the screenshot DWL posted above, it lists the Delta promo under discounts, so you could very well end up with dog meds and no miles for the purchase.
Scott said,
checking it out on ebay the later looks like it would lose ~$20 on a bottle. The first has buy it now price that is higher than the PetRx price so that could make a bit assuming people are buying this. no biding on this product so hard to tel what the demand is.
dealswelike said,
@Scott – I agree. This would be a little bit easier if you could definitely return products without a hassle.
Rayn said,
The dasquin is actually not too bad.
The ranking in pet supply is low, but there are a lot things are pet supply.
Both dasquin with/without MSM for small & large dogs are actually within top 20 on Amazon as pet supplement.
Rayn said,
Can I make a conclusion that most points/miles enthusiasts are not pet owners?
Delta Points said,
@Erik – you are 100% correct. DO NOT buy the DEAL OF THE DAY item. If you do no Skymiles!
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/deltapoints/files/2012/07/pet-deal-of-the-day-no-skymiles.jpg
Carwag25 said,
@rayn, for us having a pet is too hard finding room/board when traveling. I would imagine other travel junkies are similar.
Cd said,
Donate to an animal shelter in need if u only want the miles. There are several that are literally running out of food.
Delta Points said,
@CD – Love your idea. You can do that and get free S&H and get the Skymiles deal:
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/deltapoints/files/2012/07/pet-rx-chat-skmiles-2.png
and
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/deltapoints/files/2012/07/donate-stuff.jpg
Kadence said,
Thanks for posting, this is a great deal.
I am on the advisory board of a non-profit animal advocacy group in Northern New Jersey and there are tons of people who cannot afford to feed their pets. If you want to donate food, we can arrange to have it picked up.
http://www.companionanimaladvocates.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6&Itemid=10
Thanks
Kathy
Frequent Miler said,
Quick calculation: Assuming you donate pet food to charity and take a tax write off, and assuming 30% effective tax rate, you would be buying miles for 1.75 cents each. Without the tax write-off, the cost is 2.5 cents each. Neither is cheap enough for me to buy prospectively, but if you have a specific redemption you want to get miles for, it is cheaper than buying directly from Delta.
Scott said,
I have dogs so this works out well for me, though I had to really stretch to find things that my dogs actually NEED. I ended up making a purchase for $500.57. That gets me 20K points.
Now I would like to get 20K for my wife, but that’s where it gets difficult. if I buy more flea meds or food they will probably expire before we can use them. The rates on PetCareRX are all over market prices, so even though I overpaid by about $50-60 vs what I could have bought the items for on other sites I can actually use them so I am essentially paying $50-60 for 20K miles. To get the same thing for my wife I have to be able to use the stuff. On the other hand I could buy and sell. I am not finding anything that looks like I could buy and turn over at a small loss, and I can’t find anything else we need.
Maybe I can talk a friend or neighbor into letting me buy food and flea meds for them and have them pay me what they normally pay.
THEsocalledfan said,
Just a note:
I bought the deal of the day today and that purchase along with the rest I bought to get to $503 stated I would get 20,000 miles. I am betting the warning was for other cash discounts, not miles, but YMMV. I’ll let Delta Points know what happens.
dealswelike said,
@THEsocalledfan – Please keep us posted. I also believe that you will earn the miles with deal of the day purchases, but we will soon find out.
dealswelike said,
@Scott – Glad you got stuff you need! 20,000 miles for $50ish is great! I haven’t found anything either to buy and sell.
Kyle Dunst said,
So what do y’all think the chances are of actually getting the miles when placing two separate $500 orders?
dealswelike said,
@Kyle – I am not sure. Although they said yes, I’d say 50/50. Per Delta’s terms, the most Delta miles a merchant can give out is 50,000 per account. So you might be okay for 2 orders since that will give you 40,000 points.
HansGolden said,
Is the DSM 50k/yr cap new since I raked in 1mm in the SkyMall promo? Because if it was there before that (last December), then it’s obviously toothless.
dealswelike said,
@HansGolden – I am not 100% sure, nor am I sure from personal experience if it is adhered to, but just wanted to put those words of caution out there. I personally think that one will absolutely be able to get 50,000 from this promotion. After that, I am not 100% sure.
Delta Points said,
@HansGolden – I can tell you it is NOT “toothless”! YMMV and I can tell you if I jump on this I will NOT go for more than 50k! – René
Food Wine and Miles said,
Trigger pulled. I’m in for $400 worth of cat food!
HansGolden said,
@Rene: So when was that clause added? Before or after SkyMall’s latest?
Furthermore, what reason do we have to believe that SkyMall or PetCareRX is even using that publicly available contract? There’s no reason that they couldn’t have negotiated their own contract totally separate from that publicly available, small business program.
Furthermore, given the info PetCareRX has given, they have clearly stated “no limits”. So they’re obligated to give us >50k miles even if DL doesn’t let them.
Tracy said,
@Food Wine and Miles – I am thinking about $400 worth of cat food as well. It equals out to 10 20lb bags. Is there an expiration date for dry cat food?
Food Wine and Miles said,
@Tracy – most of my purchase was canned (though I did get a couple big bags of dry as well). We buy Wellness brand, and their website guideline is 1yr for dry, 3yrs for wet (from date of manufacture): http://www.wellnesspetfood.com/faq.aspx
Delta Points said,
@HansGolden – do what you will. Personally I will stay under 50k if I do this at all (plan to for about $200 for my next cat).
Scott said,
3yrs on canned. that is useful info, maybe my wife can go buy some more food after all! I hope this thing last till next week when I can try to buy some things for friends who get back in town then
Kyle Dunst said,
Is the promotion over already? I don’t see it on the homepage of the site like it was before.
dealswelike said,
@Kyel – The promotion is still there, you just need to ensure to go through this specific link: http://www.petcarerx.com/?id=1911
Justin said,
I placed an order just fine yesterday (site allowed me to enter my SkyMiles number during checkout). Today, the Discounts box has disappeared. I still see the ’40 miles per dollar’ banner, but no Discounts box. LiveChat was wrong – they said I need to place my order at delta.com.
Anyone else having the same problem? Cleared my cache and rebooted – still no luck.
D said,
just got word from customer rep that they got an email this morning – deal is done. sux.
IrishTiger said,
This promo has ended. Bummer…had a $400 pet med order to put in for July anyway.
rilys said,
This offer is officially dead!
dealswelike said,
Bummer! Congrats to all that took advantage!
Tracy said,
Conversation with my Husband,
Me: “Baby I bought $430 worth of Cat food today”
Husband: “You did what!?!?!”
Me: “We got 17,000 point for it”
Husband: “What are we going to do with 200 pounds of Cat food”
He has so much patience for my point hoarding!
dealswelike said,
@tracy – that’s great!
Scott said,
my 20K points just posted today less than a week from ordering.
dealswelike said,
@Scott – Wow, that’s quick! Great to hear.
christine said,
Ordered just what I needed for my dog on July 23. I have not received the order but my points posted today. 4362 thanks for the great info as always!
Kyle Dunst said,
My 17,000 points just posted!
Justin said,
Mine did too! Holy cow.
THEsocalledfan said,
Deal of the day stuff worked! Got my 20K…..
Tracy said,
My 17,080 points just posted! Now I have 200 lbs of cat food for my cats to finish!
KT said,
I was told my skymiles number was not recorded in my order, so I gave it to them and am patiently waiting for a response…
KT said,
I was told that I would not received the 20,000 miles. I am having a supervisor call me back. Not too happy with them right now.
gbert said,
@KT
I too am having to fight with them about the fact that my skymiles number ‘was not recorded’ in one of my three orders. The supervisor even lied to me and said that there was no Delta number on any of the orders, even though two of them already posted several weeks ago. Did you have any luck getting them over the phone?
KT said,
@Gbert
Yes! My 20k of miles just posted! Keep on them, they can give the miles to you.
Good luck
KT said,
Just wanted to follow up with my results.
PetcareRX Order
Dasuquin Soft Chews for Dogs
Small/Medium Dogs under 60lbs – 84ct
Quantity: 8
$62.99
Order Total
$503.92
Amazon
Sold for $54.99 + $4.99 = $59.98 – $9.74 Amazon fees = $50.24
6 x $50.24 = $301.44
sold for $55.99 + $4.99 -$9.89 Amazon Fees = $51.09
2 x $51.09 = $102.18
PetcareRX Total = $503.92
Amazon Total = $403.62
USPS re-Shipping costs $36
Out of Pocket Cost $136.30
$136.30 / 20,000 miles = .006815 $/mile
dealswelike said,
@KT – Congrats!
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