Those who do not read the blog and learn how to redeem Skymiles at low level, can spend a TON of points to get a seat.

But wait. Just what would it cost me to buy a ticket to fly from the NYC area to LAX? in coach?

A layman may say that the cost for the ticket is almost $400 so the redemption at 1 cent per mile is not all that bad. We know better. We do know that redeeming for 25,000 Skymiles would be a good value redemption. But then we have this.

Delta asks us to Shop Your Heart out:

“Miles can be used for more than just travel. Now you can shop luxury gifts, Broadway tickets, exclusive auction items and more using miles. So next time you find an item you just can’t live without, put away your wallet and bring it home with miles.“

Well gee whiz kids that just sounds like such a great deal! A way to use my Skymiles for something other than flying. But wait, who can use these Super Neat-O redemptions?

Ah. Well this must be a great deal since it is only open to some of the best of the best who support Delta Air Lines right? You would be very wrong. Years ago there was some good value. You could get a $100 AMEX gift card for example for 11,000 Skymiles. Look what that costs now!

OK that is a gift card. What else? How about this. The Chicago Seminars this year is OCT 11-13. Say you want to spend Skymiles to book a hotel. Let’s take a look.

So you could stay at a Best Western for just 14,976. Now since you can, if you have a Delta AMEX card, any day redeem ONE Skymile for ONE cent when buying a ticket. So, are two nights $149.76?

Ah. $118 plus tax. So, not such a great deal. Once we add Chicago tax it gets a little better but still not full value. Then let’s forget about the hotel, how about a rental car so I can get around Chicago?

So, we can get a car for 17,685 points. Is that a good deal? Is $176.85 a good deal vs. just renting the car and paying for it less or more?

Oh. $118.98 plus tax. So again here we are not getting full value for our Skymiles for renting a car either. Since you have to be one of those Delta LOVES, should these deals not be a GREAT deal? These are, at a stretch, almost equal to “Pay with Miles” remediation. Skymiles marketplace is not a value to those who qualify.

OK that is just cars & hotels. There are many other things like being able to catch a show. Look at this

Hey, in Chicago we could go and catch a show if we come in early or stay a day after the Chicago Seminars. Is this a good deal? Let’s take a look.

So to redeem points it would cost 17,200 Skymiles. That does seem like a lot, $172.00 for a ticket. Maybe this is just an expensive show. Lets look.

YIKES! Seats for $64-$84 can be had. So, once again, redeeming Delta Skymiles for a show would be a HUGE mistake. These three redemptions would cost you almost 50,000 Skymiles. To me, I would rather redeem 45,000 Skymiles and fly in 1st class to Chicago and spend my own money on the hotel, car & catch a show.

Most of us are already well aware that the Skymiles Marketplace is 99.99% of the time NOT a good way to spend our Skymiles, but a review is always good now and then. – René
 

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HT to my fellow BoardingArea blogger Deals We Like! In fact, rather than rehash what is already posted, just jump over to Deals blog and check out the post HERE!

EDIT: as reader Jen commented – ENDS TODAY!

(DEAL IS DEAD NOW)

It is open to MC users. You may have just got a Freedom MC card or an INK BOLD MC you have spend to meet on and 50% off is just too good to not post about! – René

PS – on a side note – I TEXT ALERTED this post. Let me know if you did NOT get it! The feedback is appreciated as some are getting the texts some are not and some got 2x in the past. Still tweaking it.

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December 1st last year was a fun and crazy time for the young Delta Points blog. The first day of the blog I had a few hundred visits. Then, Delta Points was announced as the official outlet for the launch and information regarding the promotion of the 25,000 Skymiles deal for spending $500 at Skymall. That day the views of the blog almost hit 10,000! To say there was interest in the little promotion does not even come close to what happened. Skymall had run the deal twice already, once in 2011, and once in 2010. I can tell you Skymall did not fully expect what “we” would bring to the table in terms of how “huge” this would be. We opened their eyes to the power of frequent flyer points enthusiasts and just what we can do as a group.

So now to the question I have been getting almost every day now; will the promotion be back this year?  No! There were unique circumstances surrounding the promotion that I doubt will ever be recreated again. Will there be some kind of promotion this year from Skymall? [edit: wait and see?]. I can also tell you if any other promotion from another vendor comes out, don’t expect to get more than 50,000 points total out of it in one year. Even if the promo says otherwise, I doubt you will see more than 50,000 per Skymiles account again!

Skymall does still have their 5x promo on shopping at their site starting at THIS link for Delta flyers and if you pay with a DELTA AMEX CARD you are talking 6x points for the purchase. They still offer their PRICE MATCH guarantee so you can go check the best price at a major retailer, do all sorts of screen prints, then email them and get the price difference. You need to be careful with free S&H codes etc if you want to go this route as they can sometimes invalidate this offer. But, 6x Skymiles can be a nice deal for the item.

Another total devaluation of a perk of Skymiles was being able to exchange Skymiles for AMEX gift cards. In September of 2011 anyone could exchange 11,000 Skymiles for a $100 AMEX gift card. A good value as you could, rather than pay with points, get gift cards and then just buy a ticket and earn Skymiles. As you can see from the screen print above, the price has gone up by a whopping 95% in just over a year. Not only that, you must either have a Delta AMEX or be a GM+ to even access the Skymiles shopping place now. Hotels and cars have sometimes been a decent value for redeeming Skymiles, but these prices have gone up so much that I rarely ever even check anymore to see if I want to cash out some points this way.

These are truly unique times in the points game. Delta is selling everything it can, as I am sure you have seen on the website and on flights, and continues to make spending your Skymiles harder and harder. The big plus for us who are willing to do the work is we can still enjoy the seats no one can find. (btw I will be going step by step about just how to do this on this week’s Rookie Wednesday). For me, I still see the best way to score the max miles each year is by churning cards and looking for normal ways to meet spend. I will review all my churn results this year later this week and what worked and where I really failed! – Rene

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So as you read this, I am just about done with this round of mileage run! I have flown twice coast-to-coast and have been bumped once in LAX, scored one of my only upgrade due to this, and now have an ETV to pay for my repositioning flight for my LAST MR of the year. I have spent one week at GOLD Medallion as between my 15,000 MQM’s from my AMEX card and this last run, when I land I will be back to Platinum Medallion with Delta again. I plan to post a long recap of what I think of Silver, Gold and Platinum next month. I will want some input from Diamonds as I have never been there and don’t plan to with my 30-40,000 MQM rollover this year.

But on to the topic of the day – what to do when you are on a ridiculously long mileage run to keep yourself entertained. What I do is this. First GoGoAir! Get unlimited GoGo for a month so you can have access no matter where you are. Next, get Skyclub access, I do mine with my AMEX Reserve card so I can shower, have snacks and drinks between flights & again, get free WiFi. Next, if you are GM+, make use of SDC ( same day confirm ) for free if you want to spend more time in one town or another like I did in SLC to have lunch with my pal Steve.

There are the basics anyway. So what did I do after lunch in SLC, I did what anyone who had been to hear my friend Greg the Frequent Miler speak at the various “DO’s” this year, I went on a “field trip”. Not just any field trip, but one to our favorite store in any state. Steve and I were on the hunt of a now elusive “OTHER office supplies”. However, at the location nearest the airport we found only this:

The rep seemed most put off by us looking at this part of the gift card rack and said that they disappear just as fast as they could restock them. (too bad he could not do just that, but ah well). Was our field trip ruined? Nope, there was another location just a few miles away so we set off again. But alas, the same empty rack stared back at us there as well.

Now if you have been living under a very large rock, you have not found out about the amount of Ultimate Rewards points that can be had with these gems. But, as I said, like the fabled “snipe” of many a childhood camping trip, these “OTHER office supplies” are becoming more and more of an endangered spices.

So does that mean the INK BOLD and INK PLUS are no longer worthy cards to churn? No way. These cards pay 5x points on Cell and Cable bills so I try to always pay them with my BOLD.  As soon as I get done flying back and forth across this land I intend to add the PLUS to my wallet. I may, after reading recent posts from the aforementioned mastermind Greg, try to add a 2nd BOLD as well. At 50,000 points per card, that is over $600 in value per card. Love it! Between a few of these cards for Lisa & I, we will be able to nicely reload my balance (even if I can not find any elusive “OTHER office supplies”)!

This one has been long run and I will, over the next few weeks, share some ideas I have picked up as well as some thoughts on the perfect run. I have taken two bumps and even said NO to some. I have new insight on “the mind of Delta” right now and what we should expect over this next year. It has been a fun ride with 6 of my 13 segments in 1st class, but few were thanks to my GOLD status. Stay tuned with more to come! – Rene

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Now before I get myself into another blog fight with Gary, or start a new one with Greg, I understand there are ways to get way more points by using your Chase cards to earn Ultimate Rewards points for shopping at Sears.com. But, we are all about Skymiles!

So, for today only(04OCT2012) DEAL IS NOW OVER, you can get 5x points by starting at skymilesshopping.com. You all know I am no big fan of the Delta shopping portal so please make screen prints of everything so if you do not get the points in 6-8 weeks you can email them proof of the purchases. Also, if you use your Delta AMEX card, you are talking 6x net for any buys!

PS – don’t forget to enter for a chance to WIN a seat for the
MegaDO with Randy!
and
If you are going to the Chicago DO,
check out my host hotel room giveaway!

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The Skymiles shopping portal is having a 5×60,000 Skymiles giveaway. I did enter ONCE by just putting in my Skymiles number and you can too HERE. However, I did NOT download and install the shopping toolbar for “10 Extra” chances to win or the other little tasks, as you can see in the photo clip above, for extra chances to win. Why not?

Both Gary, from a View from the Wing, and myself, were interviewed by NerdWallet for an article regarding Skymiles shopping. In it I said about the toolbar:

René’s take on the Shopping Assistant Toolbar:

“When you click on “I agree,” you are giving up so much control and privacy. Not to mention the fact that there are many times that you are, as talked about already, better off NOT shopping from the Skymiles portal. You do not need a tool bar trying to fight you when you are attempting to earn points from another portal link.”

Now most of the time we, as dedicated captive Delta flyers, do try to earn as many Skymiles from every source we can. This is one of those times I recommend you think twice.  So enjoy the contest as someone has to win the five 60,000 Skymiles grand prizes, just think twice about the toolbar please! – René

PS – don’t forget to please VOTE for your pick for the
best new Delta “UP” slogan from readers.
The poll is in the top right hand part of the blog.
It is a tight race to see who wins!

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 (above deal from DEC2011)

Oh we all fondly remember the 25,000 point Skymall deal from last December. We all, refreshingly I might add, found out just how great Skymall customer service was and is. From price match to help on getting points posted, their folks were there for us and made sure we were happy when all was said and done.

But that begs the question, do we reward this by continuing to check them out now and then and not missing out on deals? What am I going on about? We should keep in mind they can still give you 5x Delta points for starting at their Delta shopping link: www.skymall.com/delta

Now I know that the prices at Skymall are just about always higher than any other place on the planet. But, do we remember their outstanding price match guarantee?

They will match just about any of the “majors” out there. Let’s just take one item for example. Say you want to buy this Garmin Nuvi 50LM from Skymall HERE.  Now if we go to Best Buy we see it much much cheaper HERE.

So just buy it at Skymall and submit a claim ASAP to customerservice@skymall.com and then include “Price Match” and your Order Number in the Subject Line and you are all set.

If you pay with your DELTA AMEX card you get 5x for starting at the Delta link and another 1x for the purchase from AMEX. You get the item at the same price you would at Best Buy and earn a bunch of Skymiles.

I also know their inventory is not massive. There will be few chances where you can take advantage of this deal. But why not take just 2 or 3 seconds and check if the item you are about to buy is ALSO for sale at Skymall for some bonus Skymiles to get you to that reward ticket you are saving for! – René
 

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One of my fellow BA bloggers “New Girl in the Air“, and a reader via email (thank you), talked about the 250 bonus skymiles if you spend $250 at their shopping portal by 25AUG2012  – YAWN!

But then today I login and see they are offering 500 bonus (notice additional) Skymiles if you spend $250! If you find something resalable at breakeven btw you can max out at 5000 bonus miles.

And, on top of that, for shopping at Walmart they upped the miles  to  2 .  Also  4  Skymiles at JC Penny’s and 6 Sears. Now this deal is in no way “Text Alert” worthy (I hope you all got the one yesterday btw) and is not even FM worthy to say “lets go spend $10,000!”

This little deal is just to rack up some extra Skymiles on stuff you are going to buy for the kids or whatever going back to school. Rather than just walking into one of these stores, look at what you are going to buy online, start at the shopping portal, spend the money, have it set for IN STORE PICKUP (almost always FREE), then just go pick up your order! Simple. Plus, for Walmart, many things like electronics etc. don’t seem to be excluded from this deal unlike the higher paying links from sites like Big Crumbs etc.

If my math is right it works out this way. If you, say, have something to buy at SEARS that will cost you $250, and you pay for it with your Delta AMEX, you will get 500 bonus for the purchase, 250 for using the AMEX card, 6x for the current extra bonus point deal. All in 2250 Skymiles. No “OH MY” kind of deal, but no longer a YAWN ! (TIP – keep in mind this site is run by Cartera Commerce – do SCREEN SHOTS of everything so if/when you don’t get your miles you can complain and get them)

Also, you still have time to “ask Tamara” a TA question by 5PM tonight for a chance to win some DELTA swag. Have a great weekend everyone – René

PS – I have UPDATED my Sunday post about the OPEN savings at OfficeMax. I used my SPG OPEN card and have the charge and credit already posted to my account if you want to check it out!

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All it takes is a spark. A tiny one. Those of us who have the sickness are like a bonfire just waiting for a match to strike. I hope as you read the blog I make you think now and then;

“Wait, what? I can do what and get how many points?”

I blogged a few weeks back (and Sunday as well) about how great the OPEN program is from AMEX. If you do not have, say, the DELTA Reserve Business card, part of OPEN from AMEX, you are just missing out on a bunch of points. Please go back and reread THIS post.

My latest “spark” came from Greg the “Frequent Miler” who I spoke with at the Ann Arbor DO. He said, you could be making many more points each year on NORMAL every day things. (that is all it took – fire was started). For those like me, we tend to go all-in, over the top, if a little is good then a bunch is better (but this can get me in trouble at times)!

So here is what I have done round trip now. I have my Officemax $100 gift cards (two of them)that with OPEN discount cost me just $90 each. I purchased a $200 visa card for only $6.95 in fees. I then paid my electricity bill online with the visa gift card and incurred a $2.95 fee. So you see the math. $9.90 is my all in expense. So net I made $10.10 and earned 200 SKYMILES and helped knock off $200 of my $60,000 spend goal for my Reserve card for the year to get the 30,000 MQM’s from the card (you can get 40,000 total first year btw with new card bonus deal).

For those who say this is just too much work and effort – GROW UP! Seriouly, please GET this! It may seem small, but my yearly bill for just electricity is $1500. Would you not like to be paid $75 per year and earn 1500 Skymiles each year just by paying your electric bill? Is it not worth checking if this is possible with your gas, electric, etc. company in your area?

My SPG 30,000 point Business AMEX is also part of OPEN, so I can use that card also if I want as a second source. I also found my “perfect rental” was charged a lower price than quoted due to the 10% Hertz automatic discount from OPEN (who knew – not me – but I do now)!

More and more I see the need to hold TWO Delta Reserve cards, both the personal and the business and to utilize both real and “fake” spend to reach the goal of $120,000 total on both  to get 60,000 MQM’s toward retaining Platinum status each and every year!

SPARK? – René

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The Frequent Miler is “way up north dar” in Alaska. Sweet! Back here in SBN what did I do today? Well I collected free points and free stuff naturally with a FM feel to them. Here is what I do not just this Sunday but every Sunday. I check out what 100% or almost 100% MaxPerks Rewards rebate items are up for sale this week.

These deals are just unreal. You get many times 90-100% of you money back (in the form of MaxPerk Rewards) that you can re-spend on, yep you guessed it, more stuff that is just the same.

STEP 1) To get stated with this crazy pay Office Max with their money game, it helps to have a DELTA AMEX Reserve Business card (that ANYONE can get btw just click the business owner CLICK HERE on the app page, then leave EIN field/box blank and put SSN# on next page!) that is part of the AMEX OPEN Savings plan. Because, if I spend over $250 I get 10% CASH back as a statement credit. Gotta love cash right.

STEP 2) I look on Ebay for “Buy Now” $30 off ONLINE coupons. I try to buy them under $10 each from reputable sellers.

STEP 3) I start at EBATES to buy stuff at Office Max to get 3% cash back. Why when others pay a little more? I have found Office Max is HORRIBLE at telling the shopping portals about purchases. Ebates, you just email them all the info and you get INSTANT credit!

STEP 4) (TIP only click this AFTER you start at shopping portal to get credit and be sure you signed up for a MaXPerks card as well)  I look at what items I can buy that will run, after coupons and maybe current Max Rewards credits I have, that will keep me over $250 to get the full 10% back from AMEX.

Here is what I got today for FREE (after my coupon and AMEX OPEN money back), shipped FREE, earned Skymiles, worked on my spend to earn free MQM’s! I got, 2 Leather chairs, lots of pens, a case of paper and more!

[EDIT:] As you can see below charge and credit posted
one item was back ordered so happy I spent more than just $250.01! 

Now I do this about once a month as it takes a little time for the MaxPerks Rewards to get posted back to my account. So you tell me, is about $3000 in free stuff and points each year worth a little work on a Sunday? – René

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