Ask any frequent flier, especially those trying to maintain elite status, and they’ll tell you anything is fair game when it comes to earning miles.
End of the year mileage runs, use of mileage earing credit cards for every penny spent, and taking advantage of every bonus offer including miles.
But one inventive fellow came up with an idea that got him nearly 4 million FF miles.
Brad Wilson, author of the new book, “Do More, Spend Less,” saw, a few years ago, that the U.S. Mint was trying to get one dollar coins in circulation. To do so, they were offering to sell coins direct to consumers at face value, include free shipping and accept credit cards.
Wilson starting buying coins using his American Express Rewards Card that gave him one bonus point for every dollar spent. He would buy the coins, deposit them in his bank account, and then pay his credit card bill with the money deposited in that account. He was essentially using the coins he bought to pay off his credit card bill for the coins.
Over the course of eight months, he bought $3 million dollars in coins earning him 3 million points. He then transferred those points into his airline FF account. AMEX converted each point into 1.25 FF. So, he now had just 3.75 million FF miles.
I’m only sorry I didn’t think of it. By the way, in case you were thinking of trying it, the dollar coin circulation program is no longer offered.
For the full story, and more money making ideas from Brad Wilson, check out this article in Daily Finance.
(Full disclosure: If you purchase his book from the link above, this website gets a small commission but there is no extra cost to you.)