There was a time when I first started earning frequent flyer miles in earnest that it made sense to mileage run for elite status. Fares were so cheap, status was based on distance flown, and the elite levels valuable enough that flying around taking extra trips just for the benefits could have made sense. Then airlines started imposing minimum spend requirements for status, and stopped awarding miles based on distance flown. They blew up the system.
However with American’s move to Loyalty Points where most mileage-earning activity counts towards elite status, the quest for elite is fun again. And you can ‘mileage run’ from your computer, without having to get on a plane.
You don’t have to fly at all to earn elite status, even Executive Platinum, though earning ‘choice benefits’ like systemwide upgrades (that start at the 125,000 Loyalty Point level) require at least 30 flights during the year.
Elite status will require:
- Gold: 30,000 points earned
- Platinum: 75,000 pointss earned
- Platinum Pro: 125,000 points earned
- Executive Platinum: 200,000 points earned
Frequent Miler flags two offers available right now that provide great value ‘mileage run from your desk’ opportunities to earn American AAdvantage miles cheaply and generate credit towards elite status at the same time.
Broadly speaking what you want to be looking out for are
- Outsized AAdvantage shopping portal offers, that award a lot of miles per dollar spent or a lot of miles to engage in a single transaction that may be inexpensive (these may be first-time customer bonuses with brands)
- Where you can stack these offers with additional mileage-earning through the SimplyMiles site, linking your credit card and paying with that card to earn more points for the same transaction when you pay for your shopping portal purchase with the card.
- And where you may also be able to take advantage of card-linked offers from an issuer, for instance Citibank has their own offers you can register for that may be valid at the same merchant as the SimplyMiles offer and AAdvantage shopping portal. (If there’s no SimplyMiles offer, which requires paying with a Mastercard, you can look to Amex Offers – but note that there are a handful of Mastercards issued by Chase where looking to Chase Offers can make sense, too.)
Here are the two offers.
- 2500 miles and loyalty points for $10, plus 4 mediocre bottles of wine 1500 miles for signing up with Winc Wines through the AAdvantage shopping portal. There’s an additional 1000 miles you can opt in for via the SimplyMiles portal, paying with a linked Mastercard. That’s 2500 miles and the minimum purchase needs to be $30.
Citibank has a card offer for $20 off $30, opt into that offer and make sure your Citi Mastercard (such as an AAdvantage card) is what’s linked to your SimplyMiles account. You can link 3 Mastercards there.
Then make a $30 purchase, and you’ll generate 2500 miles that count as loyalty points for $10. Then make a purchase, though you do need to be over $30 so if the total package recommended to you is less than that you’ll want to choose your own wine and replace a bottle with something more expensive. And after you’ve made your purchase, go into your account and pause your subscription. Once the miles post, go back and cancel the subscription. Trust me most folks will not want them auto-shipping bad wine.
- 6200 miles and loyalty points starting at $5, plus Prepaid Verizon service The shopping portal is offering 6200 miles for new Verizon service and this works with prepaid service which starts at $40 (you’re not going to want to keep this for more than a month). If you don’t want to spend $40 for the miles and Loyalty Points, Chase and Amex may have your back.
Some people are targeted for a Chase Offer of $30 off $40 for prepaid Verizon spend. Nick at Frequent Miler notes that “the total for a single line on the cheapest plan was initially $39.40, I turned off the autopay to take away that $5 discount and paid $44.40” to trigger the offer and generate a net cost of $14.40.
Even better there’s a targeted Amex Offer on some business cards of $75 back on $75+ spend. And while this is intended to be applicable to Verizon for Business, reports are that regular Verizon charges trigger the credit. Choose the $75 Unlimited Plus plan and you should be out of pocket around $5 in taxes after the rebate.
Here it doesn’t need to be spend on a Mastercard since there’s no applicable SimplyMiles offer at this time to stack with. Notably though 6200 miles is even worth it for the full $40 without a Chase or Amex offer, since that’s still just two-thirds of a cent per mile (and per Loyalty Point). Nick over at Frequent Miler is testing whether this offer can be earned multiple times, which would be interesting to say the least! Update: He reports having successfully used this more than once!!!
- 1000 miles and loyalty points for an email signup Babylist is offering 1000 miles for signing up for a baby registry, which remains private unless you share it, so non-expecting non-parents should be able to earn miles at no cost (“Reward only eligible on the inital registry sign-up.”)
With these three offers you can earn nearly 10,000 miles and loyalty points at a cost of $15 – $70, which is easily worthwhile for many. That’s even one third the way towards Gold elite status, and no AAdvantage Mastercard or flight is even necessary.
Can confirm the 6200 mi with Verizon worked more than once. Thanks for the link!
Are the Wente and Hess in your photo actually available on Winc, or is that just a stock photo? Because both of those would at least be drinkable which is much more than I would have expected from any of the wines through these online deals.
1. Make a list of birthday presents, anniversary presents, graduation presents, wedding presents, baby showers, and Christmas presents you want to give throughout the year.
2. Know what stores on the shopping portal(s) sell these items.
3. Regularly monitor these stores on the shopping portal(s) and wait for a points pop.
4. When there’s a pop, pull the trigger.
You’ll be surprised at the pop in your tier status that you will receive from items you were already going to buy. It just requires a little planning and monitoring. ANYONE can benefit from this.
Pulled a Reno Joe type deal last night – the trick is knowing what things normally sell for. It wasn’t a “steal”, but it was a unique opportunity. Bergdorf Goodman of all places was offering 12 AA miles/$ and BG was offering gift cards on certain items (certain levels trigger certain gift cards, so your ROR varies) – but those items included Manolo Blahnik shoes, including the classics like basic black pumps that NEVER go on sale – it just isn’t done. Yes, they’re $675 a pair, but if you figure two pairs get you a $225 gift card and $260 worth of AA miles plus 17,550 Loyalty points, that’s roughly a 35% discount on the shoes that never go on sale. And a big step toward EXP that I’d never expect to get as I’m just aiming for renewing PlatPro.
sco- they are stock photos, Winc sells their own proprietary labels and cuts out the middleman without passing savings along to you.
There’s also a $100 off $100 Citi offer for Byte. The AA portal is offering 2500 points so if you buy 1 3pack and a single bottle of the BrightByte solution, it’ll cost you $10-15 for 2500.
For the Verizon, is any kind of activation or physical possession of the cell phone required? I.e. can this be an easy throw away/couch deal?
Where do you find $20 off$39 Citi offers, I don’t seen anything in Citi online web site under my login?
If possible I need help with how to do the Verizon deal. I cant understand how to do it. Many thanks
If you don’t have the Chase or Amex offers, then the best deal is the Talk & Text prepaid plan for $35.
I just signed up for SimplyMiles ans linked 2 MasterCards but only populated about 50 offers and none for Winc. Any idea how to get targeted for more odmr refresh? I did get the Winc targeted offer on a CitiCard Dividend but can’t get the SimplyMiles offer to show.
Are other people seeing the Winc miles available on SimplyMiles? I don’t see it there.
so if the Verizon offer works more then once – it would cost $1280 for EXP?
200,000 / 6200 = 32. 32 x 40 = $1,280
Is this right?
Where do you find Citi offers? I’ve looked everywhere on their website and can’t find anything. I have several cards with them, so can’t imagine I don’t have any offers.
After you log in, from the top menu choose Rewards & Offers > Offers for You. From that page, click on the “See Your Offers” button where it mentions Shopping and Merchant Offers.
They’re also available from the Citi app.
@sammy if you are logging in from desktop, what website are you accessing for citi deals?
Thanks!
Answer to question about Citi offers…some people or cards just do not have them.
Answer to question about simply miles…when you first sign up you won’t have many offers but over time you will get more especially if you use them. Some offers are targeted and you won’t get it and some have different offers for different people.
Answer to question about Citi offers…some people or cards just do not have them.
Answer to question about simply miles…when you first sign up you won’t have many offers but over time you will get more especially if you use them. Some offers are targeted and you won’t get it and some have different offers for different people…
@Melinda
citi.com
Hmm no citi “offers” under “offers for you”….. have 3 citi cards also….
I don’t have a shopping and merchants “see your offers” button under “offers for you”. I have the Citi AAdvantage Executive World Elite. My daughter has a Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select without offers. What cards have them?
Maybe I’m reading this wrong, but the AA website states all “base miles” will count for loyalty points and “bonus miles earned from special promotions” would not count. If that is the case, you would only get the miles per dollar added for the verizon deal and not the 6200 bonus.
The Babylist link appears to be dead?
Oh, soooo much fun!!!!! Maybe I’ll grow up to know what Manolo Blahnik shoes are and to covet them for $675! I realize more and more that I am an outlier in this field of bespoke folks who are hunting for bargains. I remember when flying was fun. This is idiocy to the max!
Both are dead now. 🙁
@JH – When your hourly rate exceeds the price of the shoes, you get to wear them. Image must be maintained.
where do I opt in for the $20 off $30 on my Citibank card? I looked at merchant offers and don’t see it.
Verizon offer seems to have been pulled from the site.
and I face weird issue of not being able to add the Citi mastercard to winc account as it keeps saying invalid info while other sites like Amazon and Bestbuy have no issue accepting the card for purchases.
Verizon deal appears to be back.
Babylist is dead for sure. The verizon offer seems to be back but it seems to exclude pre-paid offers, maybe. It’s different that what Nick is showing on FM
Warning – the Verizon deal doesn’t appear to have worked twice (I had both the Chase and Amex offers)