Anyone have any success getting points through the thankyounetwork website's online store links, such as Target.com? I bought some stuff the other day and, although I'm not expecting them this soon, am wondering if anyone has any experiences as to how long it generally takes to get credit.

warlord001 said:We all know that the ThankYou points are most valuable when used for flights rather than gift cards or even cash. I'd like to see how the rest of the FWF community accumulate their ThankYou points to have enough at the end of the year to redeem for their airline tickets. I use my mtvU exclusively for restaurants and movie theatres, but they barely add up any points. Are there certain bills/everyday purchases that can give us the 5points per dollar?

really simple spend more on the card. there is no magic way to get a million points or we would all have it.

if you buy visa or mc gift cards at the supermarkets, will you get 5x ty points if your card is eligible for 5x points during the first 12 mos?

if so, has anyone tried buying visa/mc gc's and using them for major expenses like college tuition, orthodontic bills, home repairs, etc?

in my first 11 mos with the citi diamond rewards card i've racked up 85k points. i need to add another 7k points quickly so i can get 2 rt to the big island. can i buy $1,400 worth of gc's and get 7k points?

dodgeman007 said:warlord001 said:We all know that the ThankYou points are most valuable when used for flights rather than gift cards or even cash. I'd like to see how the rest of the FWF community accumulate their ThankYou points to have enough at the end of the year to redeem for their airline tickets. I use my mtvU exclusively for restaurants and movie theatres, but they barely add up any points. Are there certain bills/everyday purchases that can give us the 5points per dollar?

really simple spend more on the card. there is no magic way to get a million points or we would all have it.

Well, to people who haven't heard of it, the 800 points/monthr I earn with my Citi banking products is somewhat magic. I have it fully automatic and I spend 0 minutes a month on it. 9,600 points is at worst $96 to me and at best two or three times that.

Also it doesn't involve spending more as you said.

you can buy store-branded GCs at a grocery store and get 5x back. I've done this for Starbucks, Home Depot, etc. however, if you buy a generic Visa/MC gift card, the fees associated with its purchase and use will exceed 5% and therefore that plan doesn't work.

psychtobe said:you can buy store-branded GCs at a grocery store and get 5x back. I've done this for Starbucks, Home Depot, etc. however, if you buy a generic Visa/MC gift card, the fees associated with its purchase and use will exceed 5% and therefore that plan doesn't work.thank you psychtobe! i knew someone here would know the answer. are there fees for the store-branded gc's?

cali99boy said:
Do ThankYou Merchant points match with Flight Points? I keep getting different answers.

No they do not.

it use to.

so its a 50% devaluation of the TY merchant network.

IMHO, the shopping portal is really weak anyway. points take FOREVER, like 5 months to post, if at all.

OK so I posted in another thread and so this might be an appropriate thread for this experience

I m usually on business travel once a month and the worst part is that I have to use my company CC to book tickets and I cant get points on my Citi PP card

What I did 4 times in last 2 months was:

I usually travel American who serve snacks and beers on board for sale for 5 bucks and they do take credit cards.Even if you buy a headphone for 2 bucks, be a jack @$$ and pay using the Citi PP card.
The next thing you see at the end of your statement after 6 weeks is , you get the miles for that purchase...This seems to me like a loophole but it worked 4 times for me..2 Round trips from LAX-NY and I scored 10k Flight points by spending 20 bucks on snacks which I would usually do on those long flights..
Just my 2 cents and hope you FW ers use this same trick to score free flight points.

When there is a charge it says

AMERICAN0010051xxxxx ONBOARD SALE TX
NAME: Last name / First name
DEPART: 03/07/07
LAX TO EWR : AA: CLASS: Y : STOP:

And this is what the statement said:

TICKET STATEMENT TRAVEL DATE ORIGIN/DESTINATION POINTS
0010051xxx 03/21/2007 03/07/2007 LAX EWR 2,467

The next time I fly, I m going to try to use my PP card twice. One separate for the beer and one for the snack. I m going to be CHEAP. If it makes me free TY points why not. I encourage the FWers to try that out and make use of this opportunity as well

Another one here... if you make any changes to the ticket and they charge you extra for it, you end up getting the flight points again...

anyone know if coolbargains little trick will work on united?