Why I Paid For Gift Cards

I love free stuff. It’s the trait that led to me start a blog. I’m frugal. A penny pincher. Y’know…a cheapo. And while free is always best, sometimes my calculations lead me to spend some actual money. This was one of those times. I debated it, but ended up buying $2000 in Hyatt gift cards for the following reasons:

  • The sale on Hyatt gift cards through the end of the year. 10% off using code GPGIFT.
  • Another 5% back using my Starwood Business card, through the AMEX Open plan.
  • 2% back on my Hyatt bookings through Ebates, or 3% if I give Topcashback another shot.
All in all, it was enough coming back to me. I pulled the trigger and parted with some cash. Never easy, but sometimes necessary.  

A New Way To Upgrade On American

Since American has been so full of shopping mall deals lately, I decided to post this. See how it works, airlines? Just give us a little and we return the favor. But keep taking from us and your mileage program gets named after a certain Mexican currency…

I got an email from American this week. They said I’d have the chance to upgrade by “making an offer.” Basically, I put in a bid and they let me know if the offer gets accepted before my flight. The minimum bid on this particular flight from Maui was a reasonable $150 per ticket. Now, I know this isn’t the greatest brainstorm of all time, but I do think it’s an interesting new option that American is testing. Or maybe I just haven’t seen a decent airline idea in a while.

Tuesday Triple

  • 2% cash back at BigCrumbs and a bunch of promo codes make this a good time to buy American Express gift cards when using your Amex credit card. On BigCrumbs, just search for “American Express gift card.”
  • A bunch of readers got a 50,000 point offer for the Amex Premier Gold card here. You’ll have to enter your information and the offer should show up. The “normal” deal right now is for 25,000 points.
  • Slickdeals is blowing up with free CVS credit for buying Paypal prepaid cards.

Getting The Week Started

  • Some Seattle readers are getting a 100,000 mile Delta card offer here. Check it out and see if it works for you. 
  • Small Business Saturday is back this Saturday. Register all your American Express cards for a free 10 bucks on each.
  • The American Airlines shopping mall continues their hot streak. Get 60 miles per dollar spent at Magazines.com. Spend $250, and you get the 15,000 miles plus these 2,500 more. Nice deal.
  • Also, another bonus for buying American miles. Not as nice a deal.
  • Uber just can’t stop giving away money. I don’t like paying for things and I hate taxis, so this makes me happy. Their new promo code for a free $50 is the biggest I’ve seen. I updated Wednesday’s post with the new steps. New members only, so I’d keep using different email addresses and phone numbers to take advantage as long as they keep giving away credits.

15 Miles Per Dollar At Walgreens

American Airlines continues to offer big bonuses through their shopping mall. Instead of the usual 3x miles from Walgreens, it is currently up to 15x. This follows their recent deals from Nordstrom and ebags (which some of you did VERY well on). Don’t forget to use a credit card that offers a multiplier at drugstores, and go earn some big miles here as well! Way to go, American. I…uh…I have nothing snarky to say about you at the moment…