Arguably, the best use for frequent flyer miles is long haul international flights in business or first class.  This is the only way many of us will ever experience the luxury of flying with lie flat seats, elaborate meals, and top notch service.  I don’t disagree.  Avid point collectors have the means to experience these “once in a lifetime” trips year after year.  That being said, domestic travel is a more common need for most of us, and ticket prices have been rising steadily.  Luckily, as point collectors, we seem to have a glut of great domestic flight options these days.  Here is a round up of some of my favorites…

Citi ThankYou: More than $3,125 worth of travel

Citi has quite a few decent signup bonuses right now that will award you ThankYou points (you can find these on my “Best credit card offers” page):

• CitiBusiness: 50K
• Citi ThankYou Preferred: 40K
• Citi Forward: 30K (via this FlyerTalk trick)
• Citi ThankYou Premier 25K

Citi allows each person to sign up for two Citi cards at a time.  After that, you need to wait approximately 95 days before signing up for more.  A couple could leverage these deals as follows:

• Round 1: Each person sign up for two cards: the CitiBusiness card and the ThankYou Preferred.  Total ThankYou haul: 180K
• Round 2 (95+ days later): One person sign up for the ThankYou Premier and the other sign up for the Citi Forward card. 

After the two signup rounds described above, this couple would have over 235,000 ThankYou points.  The reason for getting the Forward card (besides the sign-up bonus) is that it allows this couple to continue to earn ThankYou points at a rate of 5 points per dollar at restaurants, movie theaters, and bookstores (see “Forward 5X“).  The reason for getting the Premier card is that it allows this couple to book airfare at the rate of 1.33 cents per point.  So, those 235,000 points earned from sign-up bonuses become worth $3,125 of travel!  Even better, flights flown with these points earn airline miles and elite credit.  Of these Citi cards, only the Premier card has an annual fee.  It may be possible for this couple to avoid even that by cancelling the card after a year and then have the other person sign up.  Alternate annually.

ThankYou points can be used equally well for international travel, but you are likely to find better value with other point programs especially if you want to fly business or first class.

Southwest Companion Pass: Up to $3674 worth of travel

Once a person earns 110,000 Southwest RapidRewards points in a calendar year, they are awarded a companion pass that is good for the rest of that year and all of the next. As many other bloggers have pointed out, now is a great time to work toward your 2013 calendar year haul. Here’s how:

• Sign up for two Chase Southwest cards (there are several to choose from. See “Best credit card offers“).
• Each card requires $2K in spend before you will receive the 50K sign-up bonus. Do not complete the $2K spend until early in 2013. That way you can ensure that both 50K bonuses get credited to you in 2013.
• After meeting the spend, you will have 104,000 points. Earn an extra 6000 points through credit card spend, point transfers from hotel programs, or via the Rapid Rewards shopping portal.
• Once you have been credited with 110K points in 2013, you will get a companion pass good for all the rest of 2013 and all of 2014.

When using points to book Southwest flights, each point is worth 1.67 cents towards “Wanna Getaway” fares. So, the 110,000 points you’ve accumulated are worth $1837 worth of flights for one person. However, since you can now fly a companion for free, it is really worth up to double that amount: $3674 worth of flights! Please note, though, that the only way to get $3674 worth of travel with those points is to spend them all during the two years that your companion pass is valid, and to spend them all on “Wanna Getaway” fares. While this is still an amazingly good deal, most people will probably get less than $3674 worth of travel from it.

British Airways Avios: Up to $3,885 worth of travel.

There’s nothing new about this, but it’s worth mentioning that British Airways Avios points offer amazing value for short haul direct flights on BA partner airlines.  Here are some examples:

• Fly Detroit to NYC for only 4,500 points each way on American Airlines.
• Fly Seattle to Honolulu, Hawaii for only 12,500 points each way on Alaska Airlines.
• Fly NYC to Toronto or Montreal for only 4,500 points each way on American Airlines.
• Fly Miami or NYC to Bermuda for only 7,500 points each way on American Airlines.

To see how valuable this is, take the first example above.  Delta and American Airlines currently charge about $700 for round-trip flights from Detroit to NYC (LaGuardia airport).  With Avios, you can take the same American Airlines flight for only 9000 points round trip.  That means you will get 7.77 cents per point value.  In other words, 50K Avios can be worth as much as $3,885 worth of travel! 

To see if Avios will work for you, it’s a good idea to check first for direct flights on BA partner airlines from your local airport.  An easy way to do that is to search Wikipedia for your airport and look for “Airlines and destinations”.  Look for flights from One World partners such as American Airlines, LAN, and Cathay Pacific; and BA partners such as Alaska Airlines and Aer Lingus.  Then, use Wandering Aramean’s Avios Redemption Calculator to figure out how many points those flights would require.  Note that the partner airline has to have saver level award seats available for you to be able to book with Avios.

Since Avios points can be transferred from Chase’s Ultimate Rewards program or from American Express’ Membership Rewards program, getting Avios is easy.  Here are some examples of how to get 50K Avios with a single credit card sign-up:

• Chase British Airways Visa: 50K points after $1K spend
• Chase Ink Bold or Ink Plus: Currently 50K points after $5K spend.  Then transfer to Avios.
• American Express: Offers between 50K and 100K come and go.  Watch my “Best credit card offers” page and keep an eye out for good targeted offers in your mail.  One great thing about Amex is that they frequently offer 30% or higher transfer bonuses to British Airways.

Which to choose?

The deals shown above vary greatly, so which is best for you will depend heavily on your personal situation.  Here is a brief overview of each:

• Citi ThankYou: Most flexible opportunity.  Fly any airline any time.  Earn airline miles and elite credit for flights.  Requires the most credit card sign-ups (6 cards total: 3 per person).
• Southwest Companion Pass: Companion pass can be used on any Southwest flight in which seats are available.  Can be used for paid flights or award redemptions.  This deal is obviously limited to Southwest flights, which means domestic flights only.  Requires one person to do two credit card sign-ups.
• British Airways Avios: Avios are the least flexible of these options since they can be used only on BA and BA partner flights.  BA flights are almost useless because BA charges huge fuel surcharges when booking awards on their metal.  Further, you’ll only get good value for relatively short, direct flights.  That being said, often those short, direct flights are quite expensive so Avios can be a huge win if you can use them.  Requires only one credit card sign-up to get 50,000 points.  Of course, you can get even more value through multiple sign-ups.

What about Ultimate Rewards?

More often than not, I write about ways to earn Ultimate Rewards points.  Why not here?  As always, Ultimate Rewards are amazingly valuable and can be used for domestic flights.  Here are some examples:

• Book through Ultimate Rewards to get 1.25 cents per point value (and earn airline miles and elite credit for flights).
• Transfer points to Southwest and use points for “Wanna Get Away” fares.  That way, you’ll get 1.67 cents per point value.  Note that points transferred in this way do not count towards a companion pass.
• Transfer points to British Airways and use for short haul, direct flights on AA or Alaska Airlines.
• Transfer points to United Airlines and use for domestic awards.  If you redeem 25K miles for a $500 flight, you will get 2 cents per point value.

That being said, I personally like to keep my Ultimate Rewards points for luxury travel.  For example, transfer to United Airlines and use for international business or first class Star Alliance flights.  Or, transfer to Hyatt to stay at hotels that would otherwise cost $500 or more per night.

Caution

The deals described above require signing up for various credit card offers.  If you always pay off your credit card bills in full each month, then these are terrific opportunites.  If you tend to run a balance, then do not do this.  The best rewards cards tend to also have the highest interest fees.  If you run a balance and pay interest you will not come out ahead.

Every 3 months, the Chase Freedom card offers 5X on spend within different categories of merchants.  This quarter (October through December), the 5X categories are hotels, airlines, Best Buy and Kohl’s. 

Here are some terrific ways to spend within those 5X categories:

Buy miles for .8 cents (Wyndham)

Loyalty Traveler summarizes the current bonus opportunities from Wyndham.  The gist is that its possible to book cheap hotel rooms (without showing up to check-in) and earn bonus points, then transfer the points to airline miles.  I really enjoyed this part of Loyalty Traveler’s post:

I found it interesting that Deals We Like linked to View from the Wing today who linked to Deals We Like  August post where she linked Travel by Points and Hack My Trip who linked Travel by Points who in his August post linked Loyalty Traveler for a blog post about the 16,000 points Wyndham Rewards promotion. It is like a genealogy chart of credits.

Maybe now I get get into his next genealogy chart?

Regarding the Freedom card:  Use it to pay for these stays. This way you’ll earn 5 points per dollar while buying miles (or hotel points) very cheaply!  Also, go through BigCrumbs to Wyndham to book your stay for a (possible) additional 2.1% cash back.

UPDATE: According to a post on FlyerTalk, Wyndham may not honor this deal after all.  For details, please see this post from View from the Wing.

Marriott & Southwest

Marriott has a terrific ongoing promotion in which you can earn 12 Southwest points per dollar when buying Marriott gift cards.  Go to www.marriottvacationcardoffer.com/southwest to purchase up to $1000 worth of Marriott gift cards.  If you use those Southwest points for “Wanna Get Away?” fares, then each point is worth 1.67 cents.  In other words, this is like a 20% rebate on Marriott gift cards.  Alternatively, you can trade in those points to get more Marriot gift cards (at a value of 1 cent per point).

Use your Freedom card to buy the Marriott gift cards and you’ll earn 5X on the purchase this quarter!  Thanks goes to Greek2Me who has confirmed that this purchase shows up on the Freedom statement as a hotel 5X purchase.

You can take this further by using your Marriott gift cards to qualify for Marriott’s Megabonus promotion.  Go to Marriott.com to sign up.  Different people are offered different promotions, but most people are offered a free category 1 to 4 night after every two Marriott stays.  You can take it even further by doing a Marriott Platinum Challenge at the same time!  See “Pursuing Platinum @ Marriott” for details.

Radisson Buy One Get One

Radisson has been running yet another great promotion (not as good as their incredible point-earning promotions, but still…) where one stay at any Radisson hotel will result in a voucher for a free night at any Radisson in the US, Canada, or Caribbean.  Unlike the Wyndham promotion, you do need to show up and check in.  Read “Hotel Promo Worthy of a Mattress Run: Radisson Buy One Night, Get One Night” for details.  Pay with your Freedom card for 5X!

Kohl’s 25X triple dip

While this has worked for me in the past, there is no guarantee that this will work every time, but it’s worth a shot.  Here’s how to get 25 points per dollar at Kohl’s:

1. Go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall to Kohl’s.  Kohl’s currently offers 10 bonus points per dollar through the mall.  Buy Kohl’s gift cards for yourself.  Pay for the gift cards with your Freedom card.
2. Go through the Ultimate Rewards Mall again to Kohl’s to buy merchandise.  Use the Kohl’s gift card to pay.

If points post for all of the above, you should get 25 points per dollar!  To save even more (potentially, a lot more), check out the tips in this old (but still relevant) post: “Fantastic points and savings at Kohl’s.”

UPDATE: A reader has reported that the double-dip did not work.  They got points for using a Kohl’s gift card, but not for buying one.  You can still get 15X simply by going through the UR mall to Kohl’s to buy items and pay with your Freedom card (10X from the Ultimate Rewards Mall + 5X from the Freedom card this quarter)

Best Buy / Kohl’s gift cards

Both Best Buy and Kohl’s sell gift cards to other merchants (in-store only).  Merchant gift cards come with no taxes or fees, so using your Freedom card to buy gift cards to restaurants, department stores, etc. is a great way to max out your $1500 quarterly 5X spend.  At Best Buy, you can get Amazon Kindle gift cards which can be used for all Amazon purchases (but not for the Amazon Payments service).  Best Buy also sells Visa gift cards, but they charge $5.95 for $200 cards.  This amounts to a 3% fee.  If you don’t think you can otherwise max out your Freedom 5X category, this can be worthwhile (since 5X is worth more than 3%), but I wouldn’t recommend it otherwise.  (Hat Tip to GrahamCC)

Notes

In order to receive 5X for Freedom purchases, you do need to activate the 5X bonus before the end of the quarter. And, don’t forget that the 5X bonus is limited to $1500 of spend per quarter.

Wow, that’s a nice sight!  My Southwest Airlines points posted today.  Based on one day of online shopping, it looks like I’ve met the criteria for a free Southwest Airlines companion pass that will be good for the rest of this year and all of 2013!

Interestingly, some people who previously reported disappearing points have received those points anyway.  So, check your Rapid Rewards point balance and let us know how you fared.

I’ve met only one out of two goals, but have managed to rake in over 1 million points and miles anyway…  

In January, I wrote about “my strategy to buy Platinum and a million miles.”  The  basic idea is to put a huge amount of spend on my Delta Reserve and Delta Platinum credit cards in order to earn 50,000 MQMs (medallion qualifying miles).  Combined with roll-over miles and actual flying, that will be enough to get me to the 75,000 MQMs required for me to maintain high level Delta Platinum status.  For details of why I want to do this and how this can be pulled off, see my recent post “Mileage running, from home.”

The plan I wrote about in January was to pump up spending by taking advantage of shopping portal mega-offers: buy merchandise in order to get lots of points, then sell the merchandise for as close to the original buy price as possible.  By doing this well, it’s possible to maximize points earned and pump up credit card spend, while minimizing my out of pocket costs.  At the time, I didn’t know what shopping portal bonuses might be offered nor did I know if there would really be enough to make this plan viable.

Results so far: shopping portals

So far this year, I’ve only taken advantage of two shopping portal mega-offers: Nordstrom 36X through the British Airways shopping portal, and Sears 15X through the Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Shopping portal.  See “Weekend Update” and “Sears 15X: Frequent Miler’s almost final results for details.  My Southwest points still haven’t moved from pending to available, but I’ll assume that they will soon.  In total, these two shopping sprees led to a combined 269,000 points.  In order to reach 1 million points over a year, I would need almost twice than number of points in 6 months so I’m pretty far off from that target.

Results so far: credit card spend

Across both Delta credit cards, I need to spend $110,000 this calendar year in order to get all 50K MQMs.  So far I’ve spent $56,000, so I’m right on target!  Except for the shopping portal mega-offers described above, most of this was achieved through 1X spending: Kiva loans, gift card churning (buying gift cards at a discount and selling for little or no loss), and personal spend.

Beyond 1 Million

Even though I haven’t earned a half million points so far via shopping portals, I have already earned slightly over 1 million points and miles this year.  Thanks to Club Carlson’s generous promotions, a few credit card sign-ups, Ink Bold 5X spend, and other tricks, the points and miles keep rolling in.

Reader goals and results

Do you have mile earning goals?  Elite status goals?  What are they, and how well are you doing so far?  Do you have any great success stories to share?

Last month, for two days only, the Southwest Airlines shopping portal (Rapid Rewards Shopping) offered 15 points per dollar when shopping at Sears.com.  In the post “Sears 15X: Leveraging the deal” I showed a number of ways one could capitalize on the opportunity.  And, in the post “Sears 15X: Shopping for 110,000 points” I showed how one could earn 110,000 Southwest points by double-dipping: buy gift cards for 15X and then use them to buy merchandise for another 15X.

Initial results from this adventure varied widely from person to person.  Some people reported big problems right from the start (see, for example, “When the deal goes awry”) while others had great apparent success (“Sears 15X: Frequent Miler’s almost final results”).  For some, though, initial success may have been illusory…

Disappearing points

On June 21, in the comments of the post “Sears 15X: Frequent Miler’s almost final results,” a reader named Dustin reported that points initially pending to his account had been subtracted out.  He had bought e-gift cards (for 15X) and then used the gift cards (to get another 15X).  The points awarded to him for the use of the gift cards had been removed (see comment 48 of that post).

After Dustin’s initial comment, 3 more readers commented with the same issue, and another reader reported this issue to me via email.  What’s going on?  It’s understandable to have points removed if items are returned, but Dustin and others deny having done that.  It would also be understandable if purchases made with gift cards were not allowed to earn points, but there is no such exclusion in the T&C (see “Sears 15X: do gift cards count?” for more information).

Is there a common thread among those who lost points?  Dustin double-dipped, but I did too and haven’t lost any points yet.  One reader, Wndstr, reported having done a price adjustment.  Is that the issue?  Was it the purchase or the use of your gift cards that was subtracted out?  If you’ve had points removed, please comment below and let us know which of the above factors apply to your situation.  Any other ideas of the cause?

Contact them

If your points have been subtracted out, I’d recommend that you fill out the “contact us” form right away.  The more people that do this, the more likely (I hope) it is that someone will figure out what has gone wrong.  After you log into your Rapid Rewards Shopping account, click the “contact us” link at the bottom of the page, or go directly to that page via this link.

Last month, for two days only, the Southwest Airlines shopping portal (Rapid Rewards Shopping) offered 15 points per dollar when shopping at Sears.com.  In the post “Sears 15X: Leveraging the deal” I showed a number of ways one could capitalize on the opportunity.  In the post “Sears 15X: Free Southwest Companion Pass” I showed how one could earn a Southwest companion pass by buying and selling gift cards.  And, in the post “Sears 15X: Shopping for 110,000 points” I showed how one could earn 110,000 Southwest points by double-dipping: buy gift cards for 15X and then use them to buy merchandise for another 15X.

Frequent Miler’s Plan

I used the double dip technique to earn 30 points per dollar for my purchases.  In order to get to 110,000 Southwest points (so that I could earn a companion pass), I bought almost $3400 worth of tablet computers for resale and I bought some items for myself to make up the difference.  In the rest of this post I’ll give the details of what I bought for resale and the results so far.

What I bought

I bought 8 Asus Transformer Tablets for $399.99 each.  They were listed pretty high on Amazon’s best seller list and, at the time, they were selling on Amazon for the same price advertised by Sears.  Most importantly, I tested to see if Amazon would let me list the item as new.  Many brands don’t allow resellers to do that, so finding one that allowed it was a huge plus.

My total cost after 6% taxes came to: $3,386.37

Fulfillment by Amazon

Once I received the tablets, I shipped them to Amazon for their Fulfillment by Amazon program.  This is a great service in which Amazon handles all of the headaches of resale for you.  They take a cut, of course, but it’s well worth it in my opinion.  Usually, they take a 15% cut, but they charge less for electronics, and even less for computers.  Since the tablets were considered computers, I was charged only 6% for each sale.  I listed each tablet at $399 – only 99 cents less than Amazon was charging at the time.  I figured that if these were hot sellers, I had a chance of reselling at retail value.

Pretty much the moment the tablets were scanned in at Amazon, they sold out!  Unfortunately, one guy ordered two of them and then canceled his order.  That’s when Amazon messed up.  They only put one of the two tablets back into my inventory.  The one that was returned to inventory also sold quickly.  The remaining tablet currently shows as “receiving” in my shipping queue, so at least some part of Amazon.com believes I still own one more tablet.  I opened a problem ticket and have since received several messages saying simply that they are still researching the issue.

Ironically, this Amazon mess up is exactly opposite of one that happened to me a while ago.  At that time, Amazon thought I had far more watches in inventory than I had sent.  You can read about that adventure in this post: How Amazon paid me to collect miles.  Amazon still hasn’t attempted to get their money back for that mistake!

Results

Let’s look at the results in two ways: first let’s assume the tablet is a total loss, second I’ll assume the remaining tablet reappears and I manage to sell it for the same price as the others.  In reality, the price for this tablet on Amazon.com has dropped $15 so I may not do that well, but it should be close.

Total points earned: 3386.3 * 30 = 101,589 (remember, I earned additional points for personal items to get to the 110K mark)

Total costs for Sears’ purchase: $3,386.37

Total earnings from Amazon after shipping and fees:

• $2618.86 (without final tablet)
• $2993.92 (if I sell final tablet for $399)

Total loss:

• $767.51 (without final tablet)
• $392.45 (if I sell final tablet)

Cost per point:

• $767.51 / 101,589 points = .76 cents per point (without final tablet)
• $392.45 / 101,589 points = .39 cents per point (if I sell final tablet)

Analysis

Southwest points are worth 1 cent each when used for regular fares and 1.67 cents each when used for “Wanna Get Away?” fares.  Even if I don’t want to fly Southwest at all, I can exchange the points for various gift cards at a value of 1 cent per point.  So, even if I never use the companion pass (which I should get in July), buying Southwest points at .76 cents each was a bargain.  If my tablet reappears and I sell it for a decent price, it’s clear I’ll have made out like a bandit.

What if I sell the final tablet and take full advantage of the companion pass and “Wanna Get Away” fares?  In that case, I can theoretically get $3393 worth of flights for roughly $400 in expenses!

How did you do?

I know others bought and sold items like I did.  How well did it work out for you?  Comment below.

A bit over a week ago, the Southwest Airlines shopping portal (Rapid Rewards Shopping) offered 15 points per dollar when shopping at Sears.com.  In the post “Sears 15X: Leveraging the deal” I showed a number of ways one could capitalize on the opportunity.  And, in the post “Sears 15X: Shopping for 110,000 points” I showed how one could earn 110,000 Southwest points by double-dipping: buy gift cards for 15X and then use them to buy merchandise for another 15X.  It wasn’t easy, but it was possible to find merchandise that could be resold at an acceptable loss.

I went all in with this idea and I now have over 110,000 points pending.  I won’t yet tell you what I bought because I don’t want the unfair advantage of essentially advertising my items here for resale.  Once my items have all sold, though, I’ll write-up my results.

While things are going well so far for me, they’re not going well for everyone.  Here is a cautionary tale from a reader named Phil:

I ordered 3 Nikon D5100s. At the time they were selling for $675 when Amazon had them for $700 and they were selling on ebay for $675 too. So in theory flip them on ebay, pay ebay costs, and I am out at a good price. So as soon as I get the notice the order has shipped I list the 3 on ebay. One of the three sells for $675. Happy days.

Then the delivery arrives. Box looks kind of small for 3 cameras. Open it up, only one camera delivered. But of course the packing slip says THREE. I can feel my heart sinking at this point. Sears customer service is the only one that is on a par with Cartera. After calling their stereo-typical-couldn’t-care-less-but-have-a-nice-day-i-hope-i-served-your-needs call center India and being bounced around I am eventually told they will open a research item to see what happened. I am now being told that it will be next week (some two weeks after ordering) that they will get back to me. The one smoking gun I have is the UPS tracking showed the shipping weight as 5lbs, which is the shipping weight of one camera. But I expect it to be a while before I get the other 2 cameras

Meanwhile, Amazon dropped their price to $650 and then Sears go and match, plus a 10% one day special, putting it to $582. I put in for price protection – but get this in the meantime the camera sells out!!! Customer service say they can’t verify price because it is no longer available. WTF! Surely they can check their own pricing history? Fortunately I took a screen print but I am not sure it’s going to work.

So now I *know* they don’t have any more of the camera in stock, and they still owe me 2 of them, and the price is dropping faster than a proverbial whores drawers! I cannot see a happy ending to this

I know these deals are not without risk, but this one has been another abject frustration and I am counting myself out of future Sears buy and sell deals because of the difficulties when things go wrong with either Sears or Cartera. Caveat Emptor!!!

Phil, thanks for sharing this.  Many of the schemes I write about have real risks and so it helps to illuminate them.  I hope this somehow works out for you in the end.

Last week the Southwest Airlines shopping portal (Rapid Rewards Shopping) offered 15 points per dollar when shopping at Sears.com.  I wrote a number of posts with ideas for capitalizing on the promotion. The key was to buy gift cards for 15 points per dollar and then to sell the gift cards, or to use the gift cards through the shopping portal to get another 15X.  For many, this appears to have worked well, but some people ran into issues:

• A few people received messages from Sears that the ordered merchandise was out of stock.  These messages arrived too late to get 15X by buying something else.
• Sears outright cancelled some orders without explanation.
• One reader reported trouble from PlasticJungle.  When he tried to sell his gift cards, PlasticJungle canceled the order.

If you find yourself stuck with gift cards that you don’t really want, here are some options you have:

Use gift cards for day to day expenses

First, to get the obvious one out of the way: Sears gift cards can be used at Sears, KMart, Lands’ End, Sears Outlet, MyGopher, Crafstman, etc.  Most Kmart stores carry groceries, pharmaceuticals, and other commonly needed goods.  Simply moving some of your regular spend to these stores can go a long way in lowering expenses you would normally incur at other stores.

Upgrade gift cards to ones you actually want

Many KMart and Sears stores will let you use Sears gift cards to buy gift cards from other merchants.  Use this technique to save at gas stations, restaurants, or even for travel (KMart often carries Marriott and Southwest Airlines gift cards).

Don’t call

It seems to be universally true that when people call Sears or KMart to ask if they can buy gift cards with gift cards, they are told no.  However, it usually works (but not always) when you go ahead and try in person.  I’ve found that it helps to buy just 2 or 3 gift cards at a time.  It also doesn’t hurt to load your cart with other items as well.  I don’t think it’s a glitch that allows you to do this.  Take a look at the Terms & Conditions that you agreed to when you bought the gift cards.  I’ve bolded the important part:

This card is issued by SHC Promotions LLC and is redeemable for goods and services at participating Sears, Roebuck and Co., Lands’ End, The Great Indoors, and Kmart store locations in the U.S., P.R., Guam and U.S.V.I., and at sears.com, kmart.com, landsend.com and Lands’ End catalogs. Not valid for purchase of third party debit or prepaid cards. Not redeemable for restaurant, Olan Mills Portrait Studio transactions or for cash, except where required by law. Cannot be applied to credit accounts. Lost, stolen or damaged gift cards may only be cancelled and replaced with proof of purchase.

Notice that they explicitly exclude 3rd party debit and prepaid cards, but not gift cards.  I’ve seen this myself at the register.  The register has no problem with regular gift cards, but if you try to buy an American Express or Visa card with a Sears gift card, the register won’t allow it.

Upgrade and sell

Some KMart stores carry BP gift cards.  BP cards can usually be sold to gift card resellers for 91 or 92 cents to the dollar.  Currently, Plastic Jungle lists the buy price for BP cards at 91 cents to the dollar.  If you start at TopCashBack before selling to PlasticJungle, you can earn another 4% cash back (4% of 91% = 3.64%).  This amounts to a 5.36% loss.  If you got 15 points per dollar for buying Sears gift cards, then selling your gift cards in this way is equivalent to buying Southwest miles for only .36 cents each.  That’s an incredible bargain!  I will admit, though, that upgrading and selling gift cards can be a slow, painful process, but if you’re stuck with Sears gift cards this may just be the best way to go.

Other ideas?

If you have other ideas for how best to use Sears gift cards, please comment below.

Related Posts and Links

• Sears 15X: Leveraging the deal
• Sears 15X: Free Southwest Companion Pass
• Sears 15X: Shopping for 110,000 points
• Sign up for TopCashBack (referral link)
• Sign up for PlasticJungle (referral link)

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Earlier this week, the Southwest Airlines shopping portal (Rapid Rewards Shopping) offered 15 points per dollar when shopping at Sears.com.  In the post “Sears 15X: Leveraging the deal” I showed a number of ways one could capitalize on the opportunity.  In the post “Sears 15X: Free Southwest Companion Pass” I showed how one could (theoretically) earn a Southwest companion pass by buying and selling gift cards.  And, in the post “Sears 15X: Shopping for 110,000 points” I showed how one could earn 110,000 Southwest points by double-dipping: buy gift cards for 15X and then use them to buy merchandise for another 15X.  It’s not easy, but it is possible to find merchandise that can be resold at an acceptable loss.

The 15X deal is no longer available, but let’s take a look at what we’ve learned so far:

The double dip worked!

A number of people who bought eGift cards and then used them to buy merchandise have reported that their points have already posted within the portal!  My points showed up this morning:

Reports from those who have shopped this portal before suggest that it will be a while before the points become real.  We will likely see these points post to our actual Southwest accounts by early July.

Purchases of physical gift cards worked!

There was some concern that physical gift cards wouldn’t get 15X because of a message that said they were sold and shipped by KMart (not Sears).  At least one reader, though, has reported getting all 15X points from their purchase!

Not all went well

Here are some issues that have been reported by readers:

• A few people received messages from Sears that the ordered merchandise was out of stock.  These messages arrived too late to get 15X by buying something else.
• Sears outright cancelled some orders without explanation.
• One reader reported trouble from PlasticJungle.  When he tried to sell his gift cards, PlasticJungle canceled the order.
• One reader received less than 15X for a part of their order.

As a result of some of the issues listed here, some of you are stuck with lots of Sears’ gift cards.  I’ll follow up later with suggestions for how to get the most out of them.

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Today is our last chance to get 15 points per dollar when shopping at Sears through the Southwest Airlines shopping portal (Rapid Rewards Shopping).  In the post “Sears 15X: Leveraging the deal” I showed a number of ways to capitalize on this promotion.  Today, I will do something a little bit different…

My goal today is to find items at Sears that I can buy and re-sell for minimal loss.  First, I’ll buy eGift cards for 15X Southwest points, and then I’ll double-dip: I’ll use those gift cards to make my purchases.  Overall, I should earn 30 points per dollar for my purchases.  My overall goal is to earn enough points for a companion pass (110,000 points) for as little out of pocket loss as possible. 

I will update this post multiple times today as I make progress.

UPDATE 1 (8:30 AM EST): Currently I’m researching Sears.com to find good deals.  My goal is to find expensive but small and lightweight electronics that can be resold easily and for minimal loss.  From past deals, I still have almost $500 worth of Sears gift cards, so I’m planning to buy $3500 worth of new gift cards and then buy at least $3850 worth of merchandise.  The gift card purchases should net 52,500 Southwest points, and the merchandise purchases should net another 57,750 for a total of 110,250 points. 

UPDATE 2 (9:30 AM EST): Well, BoardingArea is down so I haven’t been able to publish this post, but I’ll keep on plugging away.  So far I’ve found one item that looks like a great candidate for resale.  I’ll keep looking to see if I can find at least one more so that I can minimize my risk through diversification.  From past experience, I know that eGift cards take about an hour to arrive and usually involve a call from Sears’ fraud department so I’ll get started on that part right now…

UPDATE 3 (10:05 AM EST): OK, I bought $3500 worth of eGift cards!  Now it appears that BoardingArea is running again, so I’ll try to publish this, and then I’ll continue to research what to buy.

UPDATE 4 (12:20 PM EST): I now know what I want to buy.  I only found one item that I’m sure I can resell for a reasonable price, so I’ll go with that.  I have about $700 worth of personal purchases to make as well.  In total I’ll buy $3200 worth of the re-sellable item and $700 worth of items to keep.  The only problem?  The gift cards haven’t arrived yet!  I’ve never seen them take longer than an hour before.  I did get an email saying that “additional processing time is needed.”  I’m guessing Sears is getting a lot of gift card orders today.  If mine don’t arrive soon, I’ll call them.

UPDATE 5 (12:50 PM EST): Ooh, this is interesting!  I finally got a call from Sears’ fraud department (they always call to verify online gift card orders).  The guy asked me if I was buying the gift cards for the Southwest points.  I said yes, and I asked him if he could verify that this order qualifies for points.  He said yes!  Nice!  I asked him if he could verify whether physical gift cards also qualify, but he didn’t know.  He suggested calling customer service.  If you’re thinking of buying the physical cards, consider calling customer service first and let me know how it goes!

UPDATE 6 (2:05 PM EST): I received all $3500 worth of eGift cards and I successfully made two separate orders.  The first order totaled $3386 and was made up entirely of items I expect to sell.  I paid this order entirely with gift cards.  The second order totaled just over $800 and is made up of stuff that I’ll keep.  I paid this order partly with gift cards and partly with my prepaid Amex card with which I’ll earn 5X Ultimate Rewards points (see “One card to rule them all”).

With both orders, I tried to apply the code MAXFREE4, but both times the system said that the code didn’t apply to my order.  I then tried a code I had been sent via email, but that didn’t work either.  I didn’t really need free shipping on these orders (although one item did cost $3 for shipping), but I did want to get 2X ShopYourWay Rewards points.  Oh well.  Did anyone else have success with this code?

A note about ShopYourWay Rewards: I had about $90 in rewards on my account which I was able to apply to the first order.  By the time I placed my second order, I already had additional rewards available from the first order.  This was a great way to save a few bucks!  By default, you earn the equivalent of 1% back in rewards when you make qualifying purchases at Sears, Kmart, etc.  Buying gift cards doesn’t count for these rewards, but using them does.

FINAL UPDATE?  As far as I know, update 6 was the final update for today.  I’ll continue to read and answer comments though.  I’ll also follow-up in future posts with results from this shopping spree.

Background

I’ve done this before.  In February the British Airways shopping portal briefly offered 36 points per dollar when shopping at Nordstrom.  To capitalize on that deal I bought and sold $4000 worth of electronics and raked in over 140,000 BA miles.  You can read about that deal in my posts “How Amazon paid me to collect miles” and “Round trip to Hawaii for $125!”

Similarly, in December, the Ultimate Rewards Mall offered Sears at 10X for one day.  I happened to be doing a mileage run that day, but luckily all of my Delta flights were fully equipped with Wi-Fi.  So, on that day I bought and used gift cards to increase my take to 20X and I purchased over $2000 worth of electronics that I later sold.  On that day I earned close to 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points.  You can read about that deal in my posts “Mileage Run Shopping: Buying 162,000 Miles for $500” and “Mileage Run Shopping Results.”

When buying and selling items as I’ve done, you should generally expect to lose money on the deal.  Unless you’re lucky enough to be in a sales-tax free state, you will have to pay sales tax on each of your purchases; you may have to pay for shipping to your home; you will have to pay for shipping to the buyer; and you will have to pay seller fees if selling through EBay or Amazon.  I’ve been lucky enough to keep my losses to about 20% or less in previous deals, but to be safe I think it’s a good idea to assume you will lose about 25%.  Be careful, though, you could lose even more!

Why is it OK to lose 25%?  The miles earned are what makes it a deal!  The loss due to buying and selling can be thought of as the cost to buy those miles.  With this current deal, if the double dip works, and we successfully earn 30 points per dollar, then a 25% loss will amount to buying miles for .83 cents each.  Southwest points are worth much more than that, so that’s a great deal!

If you’re interested in doing this, read my post “Hunting for deals” to see how I go about finding the best items for re-sale.

Cautions and Risks

Everything written in this post carries some risks. Don’t do this unless you are prepared for the worst. Here are a few obvious risks:

1. You shop through the portal, but don’t get any points. To minimize the chance of this, please see my post “How to ensure your portal points”.
2. Purchases of gift cards don’t receive points. I think this is unlikely, but it is possible since I’ve never tested this portal.
3. When selling merchandise, you may have trouble finding buyers.
4. When selling merchandise you may find merchant fees and other costs to be higher than expected.

Related Posts and Links

• Sears 15X: Leveraging the deal
• Sears 15X: do gift cards count?
• Sears 15X: Free Southwest Companion Pass
• How to ensure your portal points

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