Send Flowers and Earn Miles

Do you need to send flowers to that special someone in your life or just one of your family and friends that you feel would appreciate a good bouquet of flowers or gift basket? If you do and are considering using FTD flowers, you might also consider earning some United miles in the process.

Currently, FTD and United are offering you 25 points per $1 spent on flowers and gifts purchased through FTD.

FTD places the number of miles you will earn under each product. For instance, this bouquet earns 1,000 miles:

It is important for me to point out that you may be paying a premium for earning miles for with your purchase. For instance, the same flower arrangement above is only $34.99 when going through FTD.com directly, not through United's link.

In this case, $5 extra for 1000 miles might be worth it. Here is another example, the opening page of FTD shows an offer for roses at $19.99:

Here is the bouquet for $19.99, very nice.

Now here is the opening page through the United FTD link:

And that same bouquet of colored roses is now $39.99:

Is paying $20 more for 1,000 miles worth it? That's a personal choice.  

As you can see, you need to comparison shop when receiving an incentive from flower companies online. In addition, I believe these products are quite more expensive than just the flowers at the store down the street or with your local florist. I have found that the delivery charges are also quite steep. But, if you are doing some comparison shopping of the different vendors and what you are comfortable spending...you might as well check out the options!

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US Airways Grand Slam Lite - My Plan

US Airways bummed many of us by not renewing Grand Slam, last year. In its place, US Airways has offered various bonuses for buying and trading miles, but no real replacement to Grand Slam. That is until last week.

As reported here, here, here, here and many other places, one can earn bonus points by making purchases through US Airways Partners. The amount of bonus points one earns is determined by the number of purchases completed:

Number of purchases	Bonus miles
1 - 3	25%
4 - 6	50%
7 - 9	75%
10 - 12	100%

Let's call each purchase a "hit," because I like to bring up old memories. One can get a "hit" for shopping at the following merchants from April 22, 2013 to June 23, 2013:

• 1800Flowers (25 miles per $1)
• FTD       (25 miles per $1)
• FedEx    (1 mile per $1)
• Teleflora (15 miles per $1)
• Vinesse (2000 miles, when you order 6 bottles of wine)
• Wine Insiders (1000 miles, when you order 12 bottles of wine)
• Dividend Miles StoreFront (varies - must spend $50 to count for hit)
• SkyMall (10 miles per $1)
• DM Dining (varies)

One important part of the deal is that for a Storefront purchase to count towards this promotion it must be a minimum of $50. There are no minimums, at the moment, for the other partners, but that might change. 

My Plan

I have spent the past week thinking about my plan to get to 12 hits. Here is my road map for this promotion:

Hits 1-6 - Dining Rewards

Hit 7 - SkyMall

Hit 8 & 9- FTD/1800 Flowers - Mother's Day Gifts

Hit 10 - Wine Insiders

Hit 11 - Dividend Storefront (Best Buy)

Hit 12 - Dividend Storefront (Kiehl's)

Things might changed on who I use for Dividend Storefront based upon changes to the amount of points per dollar merchants offer. However, I need items from Kiehl's and Best Buy; therefore, it would be wasted money.

My plan is to only spend $100 on wasted items ie things I don't need. We will see if I am able to get 12 hits with only $100 wasted...

Important Steps to Do Now!

First, register for the promotion, here. 

Second, register most of my credit cards for US Airways Dining Rewards.

Finally, create a Google Spreadsheet to track hits.

I will blog about my progress in the next few months .  . .

Happy Batting!!!!

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