Skymall is offering 25,000 Delta miles for a purchase of $500 or more (not including tax, shipping) made by September 18.
I admit, I could be tempted with this camera. Though the garden giraffe always seems like such an amusing idea on long flights when my laptop battery dies and I’ve already seen the movie…
(Via Darcie, an editor of Inside Flyer, in this Milepoint thread.)
[…] describes how he used the last Skymall offer of 25,000 Delta miles for a purchase of $500 or more in order to generate 250,000 miles for a net cost of $700 by buying items and then reselling them […]
[…] couple of years ago the story went ’round about Rabbi Binyomin Ginsberg, a Northwest Airlines Platinum elite who apparently complained too much and had his frequent flyer […]
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One of the items for purchase is a $100 Marriott gift card, on which shipping appears to be free. So, if I purchased 5 with my Amex PR, I’d net 25K Delta miles and 500 MR rewards points, then collect 5K Rewards points (or 1K miles) when I used them. I may have to try this!
STOP THE PRESSES YaI thought of that, but the T and C says gift cards won’t get the bonus.
Note that the listing states that the giraffe is for ornamental use only. This could be a real limitation for some.
Good call on the gift cards.
@ MDAccount:
From the T&Cs of the offer:
Terms and Conditions:
Offer valid only for purchases made at http://www.skymall.com/25000. Offer expires Sunday September 18, 2011 at 11:59 PM, MST. Not all merchants participate in discounts or promotions. Excluded items and vendors are noted on the product page. Not valid on previous purchases or purchases made after the expiration day and time. This offer cannot be combined with any other promotion, discount or offer. NOT VALID ON GIFT CARDS. Void where prohibited. SkyMall reserves the right to limit quantities or refuse orders. All discounts and offers are available to customers paying USD (US dollars) only.
Terms and Conditions says “Not valid on gift cards.”
Terms and Conditions:
Offer valid only for purchases made at http://www.skymall.com/25000. Offer expires Sunday September 18, 2011 at 11:59 PM, MST. Not all merchants participate in discounts or promotions. Excluded items and vendors are noted on the product page. Not valid on previous purchases or purchases made after the expiration day and time. This offer cannot be combined with any other promotion, discount or offer. Not valid on gift cards. Void where prohibited. SkyMall reserves the right to limit quantities or refuse orders. All discounts and offers are available to customers paying USD (US dollars) only.
T&C exclude gift cards
Does Skymall have a deal with their suppliers that they won’t carry anything really worth buying so that their ridiculous products look better?
Thanks for saving me, everyone! I’d missed the fine print, which teaches me not to read these things at the end of the day!
We got a DSLR last year. It costs more through SkyMall, but depending on how you value your Pesos, it can be worthwhile.
who wants a giraffe which are a dime a dozen when you can have a YETI???
http://www.skymall.com/shopping/detail.htm?pid=203688525&c=
ps the camera you point out sells for $550+ on ebay, so after tax and delivery you could sell on ebay for around a $100 loss so $100 for 25k skymiles pretty good deal
it seems like the camera resells for about $460 on fleabay… so $140 for 25k skypesos… not that bad… but it’s still skypesos.
What do you value Skymiles at? I know they’re really weak, but for a KLM/Air France trip are they decent? What’s the best value international or domestic flight? (I haven’t done any research obviously)…
@Lantean – That could be a good call. Thoughts?
not worth it
Great find on the giraffe Gary, that solves your pet fee problem on your upcoming trip right there! It’ll look right at home outside the villa…
I’m not convinced that this will work with cameras. The T&C includes (as noted by Mordy above) the phrasing “Not all merchants participate in discounts or promotions. Excluded items and vendors are noted on the product page.”
The product page for all the vaguely interesting electronic items I’ve looked at includes the line: “This item cannot be discounted”. Without an assurance from Skymall to the contrary, I’m guessing these items are also the ones excluded from the DL miles promotion.
Buy something like PS3 that has an easy resale value and sell it on eBay.
This seems only worthwhile for Tom Haverford…
Before Someone Asks who’s Tom Haverford?
http://tinyurl.com/3s9p4wm
Since everything on Sky mall is over priced, any chance you could buy item for like $600.00,collect the miles then with in 30 days use the Skymall price match guarantee to re coupe some of the cost as long as the total remains over $500. Then sell the item on Ebay. I have actually finally sold all my hockey pucks I bought during the AA 83K mile program, and after fee’s pretty close to came out even, and still waiting for my miles to post..
Sep 14 – ‘List everything wrong with Delta’ Day
Sep 15 – ‘How to accumulate Skypesos by spending REAL dollars’ Day.
Sep 16 – Repentance Day for getting sucked into a deal for worthless miles? 😉
S. Binyomin Ginsberg, is a rabbi who lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and frequently travels to lecture and teach.
Ginsberg joined Northwest’s WorldPerks frequent flier program in 1999 and reached Platinum Elite status in 2005.
But in June of 2008, Ginsberg said a Northwest representative called him and told him his status was being revoked “on the ground that he had ‘abused’ the program,” according to court papers.
Ginsberg said the airline also took away the hundreds of thousands of miles accumulated in his account.
“It didn’t make sense. Initially, when they contacted me on the phone I thought it was a prank call,” Ginsberg said.
“When I pushed for a reason and clarification, they told me it was because I was complaining too much.”
———-
Delta is a fine airline, but it refused to reinstate the rabbi’s account. The case is still under litigation.
@Ram Delta miles are NOT worthless. As I’ve repeatedly said,
(1) They are the very best for business class awards to the two toughest award destinations from the US, Australia and French Polynesia
(2) Air France in particular (and at times Kingfisher) among their partners have pretty good availability
(3) Delta tends to offer decent space at the last minute
But Delta
(1) makes awards on their own metal hard to find, it’s often tougher to get domestic seats to an international gateway than to get award space on their partners (so you can get to Europe and even Africa, but can’t add the Delta flight to the North American gateway city)
(2) has an award booking website that is broken beyond belief
(3) call center agents are ridiculously ill-informed.
Do the math. That $500 purchase nets a $100 – $150 product if bought through a ‘normal’ source. The rest is a direct buy of miles. It may be worth it so some, but “Buyer Beware.” -C.
This sure is tempting. But I recall once in the past netting 10,000 Delta Miles playing a free game on a maze, and then my account surged to 50,000 at no cost. Anyone remember that?