US Dividend Miles Buy/Gift Miles 100% bonus - Cheap way for F/J *A Awards

[Shanye2233]

Toolbar: free
audience rewards: free
DM shopping mall: $1.20
thanks Again: free
skymall:* $11.49.*
OfficeMax: $8.80
Biscoff $17.95
Vinesse $12.95
Dining reward: $.80c
Shuttlebus : $6.20

 

[lovetravellingoz]

Totally understand if you include all promotions such as D!ck Smith and Hotel Club but these type of promotions are down to individual spending patterns and not credit card earn.

The two are intimately linked.

What matters is your total earn. If you are making comparisons then what is important is the $$ spent for benefit obtained.

The original comparison used assumed credit card spend from pure $spend and not promotions and not everyone has a Platinum card.

Someone may spend $10,000/year on hotels through HotelClub but that is individual preference, circumstances, hotel choice and number of nights spent away from home.

I think we are on different wavelengths.

As a Points Runner I structure my spend and cards strategically to earn the maximum amount of points. Points from many source all go into the aggregate earn. For example my Citibank Visa recently had a promo of spend $1500 in a set period to gain 4000 bonus points. So I prepaida few bills on it to ensure the 4000 extra points were gained.

I am not blind to just getting points though. I used the 10 point MR bonus for Hotel Club Bookings for some bookings for example, but also say forgo them to book an apartment in Paris with the owner direct, or booked an amazingly cheap hotel in Washington via Wotif. $100 a night for what most other sites had at $370+.

With each spend I calculate whether it goes on Amex, Citibank..or other cards. Sometimes still I earn QFF points too as despite now mainly flying *A as the value is much better normally, individual deals pop up to grab QFF points.

For myself, and for my circumstances, it is meaningless to make comparisons based on a Plat earn of 1.5 as my reality is that I earn more than that. Last year for every $20 K spent on Amex I earnt enough points for a J return to Europe. due to this even though I read this thread with great interest, it has meant that I have not bought any points. If i was only earning at 1.5 then I would have been.

 

[Flashback]

Toolbar: free
audience rewards: free
DM shopping mall: $1.20
thanks Again: free
skymall:* $11.49.*
OfficeMax: $8.80
Biscoff $17.95
Vinesse $12.95
Dining reward: $.80c
Shuttlebus : $6.20

What about the car rental and hotel stays mentioned?

 

[Shanye2233]

The car rentals and hotel stays are for my account only . I will also add hotel points transfers . This account I'm going for 28 hits . The other accounts just 25k 16 hits .

Also people that recently brought miles from the last bonus sale paid approx $1400 to buy 100k those same miles today would cost nearly $4,000. Maybe it's not much for some peoPle but for a family of four it adds up to nearly $10,000 Saving which is massive .

 

[MEL_Traveller]

The car rentals and hotel stays are for my account only . I will also add hotel points transfers . This account I'm going for 28 hits . The other accounts just 25k 16 hits .

Also people that recently brought miles from the last bonus sale paid approx $1400 to buy 100k those same miles today would cost nearly $4,000. Maybe it's not much for some peoPle but for a family of four it adds up to nearly $10,000 Saving which is massive .

thanks for posting the info about the grand slam.

not sure however about your maths on the buy miles

under the previous promo the 50k (and get 50k) would have cost $1375 (before the 7.5% tax), today that is $1750 (assuming there will be another 100% promo). That's only a $375 difference... which for family of 4 is $1200. Still a big saving though!

 

[Shanye2233]

Today there is no bonus so purchasing them outright . Yes I brought my at half price I also brought mine around 1.04 . Today dollar is what 0.97US and the miles are 35.00 per 1,000 compared to 13.75 per 1,000. I'm saying if I purchased the same
Miles TODAY it would save me heaps. Maths yeah not y
Strong suit

 

[Alanslegal]

Given the cost to purchase miles have risen (to US$35 per 1,000 miles) I guess US now realises that the miles were too cheap or that there was too much demand for them, so anyway extrapolating that, I would only guess that US is unlikely to offer any 100% bonus promotions in the near future. [I am more than happy to be wrong on that one though]!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Given the cost to purchase miles have risen (to US$35 per 1,000 miles) I guess US now realises that the miles were too cheap or that there was too much demand for them, so anyway extrapolating that, I would only guess that US is unlikely to offer any 100% bonus promotions in the near future. [I am more than happy to be wrong on that one though]!

or the third option... they just realized they could make a lot more money from it so they are!! I suppose the increase is not far off the 75% bonuses we had earlier this years. swings and round a bouts maybe?

it saves us increasing the redemption charts. and they can always reward their elites with a 25% elite bonus like they did before to soften the blow.

in any event... still great value

 

[Terryi02]

Huh? They haven't changed the award chart. It was 150k for F in 2009 and it's still 150k for F now. 2 x 150k = 300000.

IF you paid 260k for 2 x F SYD <> LON then that was an error on their part. It seems strange number though because if they accidentally charged you for business it would be 240k.

Yes i was expecting to pay 300K!

I must be using the wrong chart because when I checked Aeroplan it is still 205K points??

 

[bcworld]

Yes i was expecting to pay 300K!

I must be using the wrong chart because when I checked Aeroplan it is still 205K points??

The mistake you are making is that the number of points charged by Aeroplan is completely irrelevant when it comes to making a booking using Dividend Miles. Aeroplan is used only for finding availability, not getting mileage quotes for DM awards.

 

[Terryi02]

Yes i was expecting to pay 300K!

I must be using the wrong chart because when I checked Aeroplan it is still 205K points??

Sorry my bad.
it was 300K

 

[neon_crossing]

Toolbar: free
audience rewards: free
DM shopping mall: $1.20
thanks Again: free
skymall:* $11.49.*
OfficeMax: $8.80
Biscoff $17.95
Vinesse $12.95
Dining reward: $.80c
Shuttlebus : $6.20

Hi Shanye2233,

Thanks for the little guide above, I have been following a lot of different blogs/forums about the GS, I have managed about 4-5 hits on 3 family member accounts ea for about $5ea so far. (Thanks Again(restaurant.com), DM Shopping mall (itunes), DM Toolbar, audience rewards, and on my way with e-miles & e-rewards) I plan on getting the skymall, biscoff, officemax, mags for mags, buy miles, share miles hits also.

Aiming for about 12 hits each.

Are you US based? I am keen to find a way to use the Dining Reward bonus being AUS based with AUS based credit card and any other tips you may have.

Cheers,

NC

 

[casanovawa]

You can register for the Grand Slam still can't you?

Was just looking at that list of Shayne's and had a few thoughts running through my head and thought i would pop them down here and people can see if i am making any sense or if i have it all wrong...

I did see the GS offer and was thinking of applying for it before i bought my 100k DM miles, but then when i saw how you had to earn hits and i don't rent cars or stay at hotels and so with most of the ways to gain hits seeming irrelevant to me i didn't bother using my 100k points buy to even gain one free hit from them... But now with the cost of points going up to $35 per 1000 or at best $17.5 per 1000 with another 100% bonus offer if it occurs, different ways to gain points are now more tempting...

If you could open up 5 accounts of family members with US Air/DM and gain 4 hits each in the GS which would each earn 3000 miles and transfer them across to your account (i am needing about another 20k miles over and above my 100k i bought for J to Europe) looking at the 4 cheapest options on Shayne's list that would equate to 5 x $0.80 plus $150 in sharing fees so $154/15k miles... To buy 15k points at the moment is $525 without other taxes that you only get hit with when you actually press buy (not sure if they charge these same taxes when sharing family miles)... At best with a future double points offer that would be $262.50 plus those other taxes and charges... So point value would be 1c per point wth the GS vs 1.75c per point even with a 100% bonus offer... Do i have that maths correct???

If you wanted to simplify a bit and open two accounts and try to get 10,000 miles via 8 hits each and share them (this is not counting your own account off course which wouldn't attract the sharing fee) taking the 8 cheapest options on Shayne's list equals 2 x $28.49 plus a $200 sharing fee for the 20k miles equalling $256.98/20k miles at 1.2c per mile as against the current $700 (or 35c per mile) or a future 100% bonus offering of $350 (or 17.5c per mile) without the taxes and charges...

If i have those sums right each seems cheaper, and the first options looks cheaper per mile but more fiddly than the second, and assuming US Air wouldn't get their audit depts panties in a knot at seeing 2 or 5 family members accounts suddenly open, earn and then transfer points to just one person's account, does trying to earn and transfer points during the Grand Slam work out at much better rates than buying the points now or in the future???

 

[bcworld]

If you could open up 5 family accounts with US Air/DM and gain 4 hits each in the GS which would each earn 3000 miles and transfer them across to your account (i am needing about another 20k miles over and above my 100k i bought for J to Europe) looking at the 4 cheapest options on Shayne's list that would equate to 5 x $0.80 plus $150 in sharing fees so $154/15k miles... To buy 15k points at the moment is $525 without other taxes that you only get hit with when you actually press buy (not sure if they charge these same taxes when sharing family miles)... At best with a future double points offer that would be $262.50 plus those other taxes and charges... So point value would be 1c per point now vs 1.75c per point even with a 100% bonus offer... Do i have that maths correct???

Not quite.

The cost to share miles is 3000 * $0.01 PLUS $30 processing fee per transaction. So sharing fees of $300, not $150. The 7.5% tax may also come into play.

 

[casanovawa]

Hmmm, i thought there must be something... So obviously it would be best to go for the fewer but larger family member accounts, so let me do the sums again...

Using the 2 account figure its $256.98 + $60/20k = $316.98 or 1.58c per mile vs a future 100% bonus offer of 1.75c per mile... still works out cheaper in that example but only slightly less so... Although if the 7.5% tax didn't come into play that would swing it back to looking more tempting to justify the effort...

Also getting a little more complicated but if you opened a couple of family accounts for this GS and earnt 10k miles and then waited for next years and earnt another 10k before transferring the 20k to your accounts it would effectively halve the processing fee by doing fewer but larger transfers..

 

[Shanye2233]

Im aiming for 28 hits in my account and 16 hits in each family members accounts . Those hits listed aren't the cheapest there are a few
Free ones like the toolbar hit. Also if you have points you can transfer from hotel stays. SPG has a promo now if your stay in their hotel for the first time you earn 2000 star points that's enough for a transfer plus a hit for the stay.
I'm going to start doing some more car rentals , track-it-back and a few other expensive ones to get the 65k bonus. Also if you transfer miles into other family accounts that counts as a hit as well so make sure you do it thru the correct links .

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I have just come off an asiana flight with supposedly angled lie flats... I can confirm they are no where near lie flat!! the recline is only about 35 degrees for the backrest, and the same for the foot rest.... meaning at best you have a Z shaped seating arrangement.

this is more similar to the B777-300s on Thai...

the service was beautiful, the video system, not on demand, was a pain... you have to flick up and down from channel 1 to 40 to fond what you want, and there is a three second delay before it shows you what is on that channel... so no quick flick to your preferred program...

now this was on the A330... not sure if the 777 will be any different... will find out in a couple hours.

 

[Shanye2233]

Is that in J is there any different in F? What routing is that on why didn't you try To go for the QS seats on OZ Do they offer them from SYD ?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Is that in J is there any different in F? What routing is that on why didn't you try To go for the QS seats on OZ Do they offer them from SYD ?

shanye shanye!!! stop asking if the quadra seats are out of sydney!!!! you know they are not and plenty of people have told you!!! enough now!!!! and in less time than it takes you to type the question again you could go to the page on asiana and see for yourself!

it was an intra Asia flight, no choice. F is massively different.

 

[Alanslegal]

shanye shanye!!! stop asking if the quadra seats are out of sydney!!!! you know they are not and plenty of people have told you!!! enough now!!!! and in less time than it takes you to type the question again you could go to the page on asiana and see for yourself!

it was an intra Asia flight, no choice. F is massively different.

Those 35degrees seats must have done something to you

Hope you are enjoying your second flight as I post this.