April 1st kicks off with a cruel joke from Chase.  Many of the big bonus point offers in the Ultimate Rewards Mall have dropped precipitously.  Below are some of my findings this morning when logged in with my old Ink Bold and my Sapphire Preferred (note that you may see different results with a Chase Freedom).

First, the good news:

• Office Depot: 10X Ink Bold; only 4X Sapphire Preferred
• Kohl’s: Still at 10X for both cards
• Nordstrom: 10X Sapphire Preferred (only for 3 days)
• Drugstore.com: 10X Sapphire Preferred; only 5X with Ink Bold

The exciting news here is the Office Depot 10X opportunity.  Since the New Ink Bold offers 5X automatically when used in office supply stores, you will get a total of 15X when making Office Depot purchases with your Ink card through the UR mall!  Last I checked, though, there were no merchant or bank gift cards available online (also the T&C says “not eligible on purchases of gift cards”).  If they begin to offer free after rebate products, though, this could be a big win.  It might even be worth filling out rebate cards for 15X!

And now the bad news (very bad):

• Staples: down to 2X (from 4X).  Noooooooo!!!!!  The perfect PPM may still be perfect, but for fewer points.  And for those of you who have been buying gift cards with your Ink card for a total of 9X, the total is now down to 7X.  Nooooooo!!!!
• Barnes & Noble: down to 2X (from 10X).  No longer can you buy ultimate rewards points for less than a penny.  Nooooooo!!!!
• Home Depot: down to 4X (from 10X).
• Magazines.com: down to 25X (from 40X).
• Sears: down to 4X (from 5X on the Ink).
• Lands End: down to 2X (from 5 or 6X)

Stay informed:
Follow me on Twitter / Like me on Facebook / Join the Club

If you’re new to Frequent Miler, please start here

Through a special triple dip with the Chase Ink Bold credit card, you can earn 20 points per dollar at Kohl’s and Sears!

In a previous post, I wrote about how to get 10 points per dollar using the Chase Ink Bold credit card (for more about this card, please see Preparing for Miles).  In this post, I’ll show how to turn that trick into a triple dip worth 20 points per dollar!

Step 1: Log into the Ultimate Rewards Mall and shop at Staples.com

By going through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to Staples you will earn 5 points per dollar from the mall and another 5 points per dollar when using your Chase Ink Bold credit card at Staples!

Step 2: Buy Gift Cards

If your goal is to shop at Kohl’s, then buy Kohl’s gift cards.  If your goal is to shop at Sears, then buy Lands End gift cards (which work at Sears).  With the exception of Visa gift cards, Staples does not charge any service fees or shipping charges for gift cards.  Use your Ink Bold for these purchases.  As described above, you will earn 10 points per dollar for this transaction! 

If you do not have an Ink Bold, another option is to use the Chase Sapphire Preferred.  You will get 5 points from the mall, plus 1 base point from the credit card, plus a 7% annual bonus.  In total, you will get 6.42 points per dollar using this card.

If you have both the Ink Bold and the Sapphire Preferred, then log into the Ultimate Rewards Mall with your Sapphire account, but make your purchases with the Ink Bold.  In this way, 5 of the bonus points will count towards your annual 7% bonus and you will increase your points per dollar to 10.35!

Step 3: Spend your gift cards online via an appropriate portal

Kohl’s currently offers 10 points per dollar through the Ultimate Rewards Mall.  So, when shopping for Kohl’s merchandise, go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to Kohl’s and then use your gift cards to make your purchases.

Sears currently offers 10 points per dollar through the Aadvantage eShopping Mall.  So, when shopping for Sears’ merchandise, go through the AA mall to Sears and then use your Lands’ End gift cards to make the purchase.

With either of the above steps you will earn an extra 10 points (or miles) per dollar, for a total of 20 Points Per Dollar!

Win a Nook!

Reminder: Until Feb 14th, you can win a Barnes & Noble Nook Color simply by adding a comment to our ever growing story. Visit this page to participate!

For those of you who love to get stuff from Land’s End, here’s an outstanding deal.  If you shop Land’s End online by going first through the Mr. Rebates shopping portal, you can get 30% off the highest regular priced item, free shipping, AND 5% cash back.  But it gets even better (much better):  If you have a Chase rewards card with access to Chase’s Ultimate Rewards Mall, you can get an additional 12.5% back (in travel rewards).  Then, you can get another 1% back through Sears’ Shop Your Way rewards!  That means, if you purchase a single regular priced item, you will get back 30% + 5% (of 70%) + 12.5% (of 70%) + 1% (of 70%) = 42.95%!

Follow these steps:

1. Browse to the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall and find Sears.  At the time of this writing, purchases from Sears via this portal are rewarded with 10 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar.  With UR points worth at least 1.25 cents each when redeemed for travel, that’s equivalent to a 12.5% rebate.  However,you want to buy from Land’s End, not Sears.  So, go to Sears from this portal and buy an e-gift card in the amount you need at Land’s End.  Sears owns Lands End, so a gift card from Sears will work at Land’s End.  It may take an hour or so to receive your e-gift card.

2. Go to Mr Rebates and log in (if you don’t already have an acount with Mr Rebates, you can do me a huge favor by signing up via this link.  Thanks!).  Find Land’s End, and notice they are offering a 5% rebate.  Also notice, there are some links for special deals.  The best deal, at the time of this writing, is one that says “30% off Highest Regular Priced Item + Free Shipping on $50+ Order”.  Click through that link to shop at Land’s End.  When shopping at Land’s End, make sure to pick a large item that is not on sale in order to get 30% off that item.  Before you checkout, though, read step 3:

3. Make sure you belong to Sears’ Shop Your Way Rewards program.  When checking out of Land’s End, enter your Shop Your Way Rewards number.  You will earn 1% back.  Note: you won’t earn Shop Your Way Rewards for the e-gift card, but you will earn for your final purchase.  Don’t forget to use your e-gift card to make your final purchase.

If you bought just a single regular priced item from Land’s End, you should now have the equivalent of 42.95% off!

To make things clearer, let’s walk through a scenario:

Suppose you see a nice jacket at Land’s End listing at $259.  Here’s what to do:

STEP 1: Figure out how much Sears credit you need.  $259 – 30% = $181.3 + tax.  I don’t think they will let you buy a gift card for exactly that much, so instead, buy one for $200.  By going through the Ultimate

Rewards mall, you have now earned 2000 UR points worth at least $25 in travel.

STEP 2: Via Mr Rebates, click through the 30% off link to get to Land’s End.  Find the jacket and add it to your shopping cart.  Thanks to the 30% discount, you save $77.70 right away.  The checkout amount should be approximately $181.30 (I say “approximately” because tax isn’t accounted for in this example).   Because you went through Mr. Rebates, this purchase will get you 5% cash back ($181.30 * .05 = $9.07 cash back)

STEP 3: Checkout.  Use your Sears e-gift card to pay.  Make sure to enter your Shop Your Way Rewards number to get an additional 1% back ($1.81)

So, let’s look at the final tally:

• You spent $200 to get a gift card
• You received $25 + $9.07 + $1.81 = $35.88 back in cash and travel
• Your total outlay for the $259 jacket is $200 – $35.88 = $164.12
• Depending on how much tax you were charged, you still have some Sears’ credit to spend!

If you have the Chase Sapphire card and are interested in buying anything from Sears, Kmart, or Lands End, consider the following opportunity to earn Chase Sapphire points, cash back, and Sears’ Shop Your Way rewards.  Altogether, you will receive the equivalent of between 16.7% to 18.3% rebate!

1. Browse to the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall and find Sears.  At the time of this writing, purchases from Sears via this portal are rewarded with 10 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar.  With UR points worth at least 1.25 cents each, that’s a 12.5% rebate right off the top.  However,you can do even better.  Rather than buying what you want from Sears, go to Sears from this portal and buy a e-gift card in the amount you need.  Note that it may take an hour or so to receive your e-gift card.

NOTE: AS OF NOVEMBER 2011, SEARS PURCHASE BONUSES HAVE DROPPED TO 6 POINTS PER DOLLAR

2. Go to Big Crumbs and log in (if you don’t already have an acount with Big Crumbs, you can do me a huge favor by signing up via this link.  Thanks!).  Find Sears, Lands End, or Kmart on Big Crumbs and click through to buy what you want.  Currently, Big Crumbs is offering 3.2% cash back for Sears and Lands End, and 4.8% back for KMart.  Let’s say you go with Sears, you now have another 3.2% back for a total of 15.7% rebate!  Before you checkout, though, read step 3:

3. Make sure you belong to Sears’ Shop Your Way Rewards program.  When checking out of any of the 3 stores, enter your Shop Your Way Rewards number.  You will earn 1% back.  Note: you won’t earn Shop Your Way Rewards for the e-gift card, but you will earn for your final purchase.  Don’t forget to use your e-gift card to make your final purchase.  You now have a 16.7% rebate if your final purchase was from Sears or Lands End, or 18.3% rebate from KMart!  This is in addition to any discounts or coupons you use anyway.

Note: if you need to earn a few more airline miles, go to your favorite airline’s shopping portal instead of Big Crumbs in step 2, above.  This could be a great opportunity to earn a US Airways “Hit”.