The Continental mileage mall is offering 25 miles per dollar plus 100 miles per order for shopping at 1-800-Flowers.com through May 10 (with promo code CNT67.
If you have a Continental Mastercard (even if you don’t pay for the purchase with a Continental Mastercard) you earn double points on shopping through the Continental portal. That makes this offer 50 miles per dollar plus 200 miles.
Meanwhile, FTD.com is offering 30 American Airlines miles per dollar.
Sadly shipping charges don’t earn miles.
Now, these lucrative mileage offers should tell you something. The markup on these flowers is ginormous. But it’s sure easy and convenient to send flowers this way, and if you have any business gifts to give you’re really giving something to a client or prospect and to yourself. Hah!
These offers aren’t as good as the 100 Delta miles per dollar offered by 1-800-Flowers for two days at the end of 2003, or the 70 US Airways miles per dollar you could have earned with FTD during the 2009 Holiday Shopping Big Bonus (if you purchased from 5 different US Airways mall vendors but made no more than 10 purchases total). But they’re still pretty good.
If you have a Continental Mastercard, it’s cheaper to buy Continental miles by sending flowers than it is to buy miles. With American, it’s roughly a break-even proposition. And of course you do get the flowers! Of course miles don’t post as quickly, and buying miles except to top off towards an award is rarely a good value. But considering that I buy miles every day at two cents apiece just by virtue of using a mileage earning credit card rather than a 2% cash back card, I suppose I should be willing to buy miles from Continental via 1-800-Flowers in some quantity. And get flowers thrown in for free.
Can sending flowers to a VA Hospital be considered a tax deduction? Is there any registered charity that willingly accepts flowers?
Oh, and sadly I no longer have a CO card. Chase closed my CO account of their own volition with I applied for a targeted 50K UA card late last year. Not a big deal since we know the CO card will go away eventually but I’m losing out on the double miles mall purchases and that annoyed me during the holidays.
“it’s cheaper to buy Continental miles by sending flowers than it is to buy miles.”
I’m not sure that’s true if you add shipping. The shipping charges are usually ridiculous.
Used this the last time it came up to purchase spafinder gift cards at the $200 and sell for $160-170 on eBay. 10,000 miles for $40 ish. Thanks again Gary.
Too bad they don’t have something you can buy for $1.
@ Sky king which site was that on? there is no giftcard on 1-800-flowers
So where do you buy these spafinder gift cards?
@abcx ~ So where do you buy these spafinder gift cards?
http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=spafinder
“[…] I buy miles every day at two cents apiece just by virtue of using a mileage earning credit card rather than a 2% cash back card […]”
That’s only a valid argument if you need to top up your OnePass miles to some redemption threshold. Otherwise, many of us might consider 2% cash back a better deal.
There and also there are cards that earn more than one mile per dollar. I am sure you know most or all of them, but I’ll list some examples for the benefit of other readers.
The Fidelity cards Visa and AmEx cards earn 1.5 – 2 Aeroplan (Star Alliance) miles per dollar, and offer the option of 1.5-2% cash back instead. Virgin Atlantic AmEx earns 1.5 miles/$. Starwood AmEx effectively earns 1.25 miles/$ across a number of programs, and AmEx Membershp Rewards usually has some redemption special over their usual 1 mile/point rate.
How long does it take for CO mall points to post to OnePass accounts? I have some items going on 8 weeks now from Best Buy and Staples which were my first through CO. Purchases through the United portal always have posted in about 4 weeks for me.
Looks like they arent selling them anymore. They had them in $75 $125 and $200 values. It was easy miles. 🙁 oh well…
Just a thought, but doesn’t this also qualify for 3 mileathon points per purchase if you have them delivered a little early aka April 30th
@ sky king… yes this looks like it went the way of the FTD UA 30/$ + 1500. Re-Posted, people called – dead.
@sky king … be careful on making ebay a business on these. That is all I can say. Getting them for yourself, friends, or associates – ok. Making a business on ebay – hope you declare the income… A word of caution ……..
@Richard – Lol. Thank you.
@Muerl – Yes, up to the limit per partner for mileathon.
@Adam – thanks for the excellent analogy on the value of miles. I too often just ‘go for the miles’ instead of thinking through as clearly as you. Excellent points – best I’ve heard.
I just tried the promotion code but it did not work. I am wondering if the code only works for certain items. Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
I got an answer myself. Thanks.
I’m still waiting for about 7,000 miles I earned with the same deal CO had for Valentines Day.