I just took advantage of an incredible deal on a pretty big scale, and thought I would share my thought process, given the risk, uncertainty, etc.
I bought AAdvantage for 0.42 cents each.
The SimplyMiles promotion is available right now. There is a promotion that offers 5x AAdvantage bonus miles for purchases with select retailers. Make sure you know what you are doing and read all the SimplyMiles terms and conditions.
There is one option that stands out, and it is not offered by all retailers. 40 AAdvantage miles per dollar spent is offered by donations to the organization. You can earn an additional 5x AAdvantage bonus miles per dollar spent, so you have a total of 240 AAdvantage miles per dollar spent.
That is a cost of 0.42 cents per AAdvantage mile, which is an incredible deal. I bought the miles at just 28% of what I value them, because I value AAdvantage miles at 1.5 cents each. I bought millions of miles because I took a "go big or go home" approach. I made donations with the hope of getting millions of miles when all is said and done.
A business class award from the United States to the Middle East is currently worth 70,000 miles. It costs under $300 for a ticket at 0.42 cents per mile.
I might just declare residency in Qsuites with all these miles.
I decided to go big on this offer.
Over the years, the miles and points world has seen some incredible offers. Sometimes they have been honored and sometimes they have not. I don't bother taking advantage of these offers since they aren't worth the risk or hassle.
This time was different. Why? The cause of Conservation International is awesome. The promotion and the bonus miles are not the responsibility of Conservation International, but rather SimplyMiles, Mastercard, AAdvantage, etc.
I would have serious concerns about this offer being honored, but in this case I feel as confident as I could possibly feel with an offer like this.
Emails to SimplyMiles members were explicit about the intention of the bonus, which is to offer 5x additional bonus miles, for a total of 6x the number of miles one would ordinarily earn.
The offer is as described by an American Airlines spokesman.
I think it would be unreasonable to promote the offer if bonus miles aren't available, because there's a theoretical clause in the terms stating that the offer is "subject to availability of bonus miles."
The first part of the offer is working as expected, since I received an email confirmation that I was earning the standard 40 AAdvantage miles per dollar spent.
It has been an entire day, and the offer hasn't been pulled; a lot more people were just targeted for this offer in recent hours.
I took pictures of everything.
There is a general concept of exchanging cold hard cash for miles, which could be worth less at any time.
Even if AAdvantage miles were worth less than what I value them, they would still be an amazing value.
I am leaving with a significant amount of cash, but at the same time this seems to me like a reasonable investment, if Hyatt or Marriott sold gift cards and offered a 100% bonus, I would.
I recommend always playing by the rules, as I am sure some mileage brokers will take advantage of this offer and have their accounts shut down after selling miles, and if that happens they deserve that; only buy as many miles as you can.
A miles per dollar spent? Yes, please!
Is this promotion going to be honored?
I think SimplyMiles can honor this promotion even after a business day because American has confirmed that this was the intention of the promotion. If this were only possible for a few hours over a weekend, it would be something.
That's what it's being said.
I don't know who is paying for this promotion, which will likely determine how this plays out, is SimplyMiles, Mastercard, AAdvantage, or a combination of all three?
I would make a small donation to conserve international if this were to happen, but I would expect a full refund in the event that this wasn't honored.
I think that the various parties will come together to turn this into something positive, even if the intent wasn't to honor this, given that this money is going to a great cause.
There is a thrill in participating in these promotions. I decided I couldn't say no after putting some thought into it, since it was the first time I've participated in an offer like this in years.
I can already taste the American Airlines turkey sandwiches.
The bottom line.
Over the years, the miles & points world has seen a number of "too good to be true" deals. In some cases they are airline or hotel mistake fares, and in other cases they are offered with airline and hotel partners. Sometimes they are honored and sometimes they are not.
I am not sure what more could be done in terms of due diligence, since the offer seems too good to be true. The promotion is still available even after a business day, even though the airline has confirmed that it is being offered as intended. This seemed like it would be worth a try, because the money is going to a good cause.
If you decide to take advantage of this offer, make sure you study the terms carefully, realize what you're getting yourself into, and don't spend money that would have a material impact on your situation.
Hopefully all OMAAT readers will get a bit of entertainment out of this, I will report back on how this works out.
Did you take advantage of the offer? Would you have taken advantage of this offer if you weren't eligible?
