3:00PM ET UPDATE: The deal is dead. American says the bonus will be honored. Congrats to all who got in on it.
8:00AM ET UPDATE: View From The Wing has confirmed with American Airlines that this deal is real, valid, and ongoing. The ability for eligible Mastercard credit card holders to earn up to 240 miles per dollar with SimplyMiles is arguably too good to pass up (and you may even be able to deduct the charitable donation from your taxes).
In short, if you are targeted for a 40 miles per $1 donation to Conversation International, with this 5x bonus offer, that adds an extra 200 points per dollar, meaning 240 miles per dollar or $0.004 each (not to mention helping a great charity).
My original thoughts are below. While I still have not done it myself and may even be too late, this does seem to be a legitimate deal. It still seems too good to be true to me.
I’m really on the fence…
When something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. When offers include weasel words, it is usually for a reason. I may be missing out on the deal of the lifetime, but I’m simply not going to extend my time and efforts on the latest SimplyMiles promotion from American Airlines.
Hot Deal: American Airlines SimplyMiles Promotion – But Too Good To Be True?
First highlighted by Frequent Miler and also detailed by One Mile At A Time and View From The Wing, the SimplyMiles from American Airlines is a way to earn additional American Airlines miles via an online shopping portal using an eligible MasterCard.
The latest offer is patricianly lucrative:
As a special holiday bonus, through December 27 or while supplies last, earn an additional 5x American Airlines AAdvantage bonus miles on every offer site-wide. For example, if you earn 100 miles on a purchase of $30 or more, then you will actually earn 100 miles + 500 bonus miles for a total of 600 miles.
While each account holder may be targeted for different offers, the possibilities are quite intriguing. For example, many are seeing offers from Conservation International for 40 miles per dollar donated.
With a 5X bonus, this offer should yield 240 miles per dollar, an amazing price of $0.004 per point (I value them conservatively at $0.015 each).
To put that in perspective, that would make a JAL First Class award from New York to Tokyo only $320 (80,000 miles x $0.004/mile = $320). Or an American Airlines business class ticket from Los Angeles to London only $230 (57,500 miles x $0.004/mile = $230).
Frequent Flyer does note that is exactly how bonuses posted in 2019, when we last saw this offer (5x the offer, not just five extra miles per dollar).
“While Supplies Last”
But speaking as someone who has been hurt (bigly) by bait and switch offers in my other business, it seems to me the “while supplies last” language is carte blanche tool to wiggle out of honoring this deal with no transparency.
I may be totally wrong. During a different time in life, I’d be totally willing to roll with this, because who doesn’t like traveling in first class literally for pennies on the dollar?
If you’re about to buy holiday gifts or make charitable donations anyway, you have much less to lose. But even screenshots and scrupulous documentation may not help you if an offer is contingent upon “while supplies last” but it is not spelled out how supply is determined in the first place.
CONCLUSION
We’ll find out soon enough if this deal is real or if it is quickly modified or pulled. When something is almost comically lucrative, I cannot help but to doubt it. While I may be the chump missing out, I’ve chosen to sit this one out…at least for now.
How about you? Will you take advantage of this deal?
image: American Airlines
@ Matthew — Did you partake in Track It Back in 2009?
your life is so sad..you live it so pessimistically. Try to be positive.
sad isn’t the word I would use to describe Matthew’s life. COVID and vaccines aside, seems pretty amazing to me
Agree with your overall assessment, I just can’t imagine they honor this. But I bit anyway. I researched the charity and decided it was a legit and a worthwhile charity I wouldn’t mind supporting, and even at 40x I won’t be crushed if the crazy side of the promo doesn’t happen.
I do hope it’s a lesson to whoever conceived of this promo that they need to better in thinking through the implications and spelling out terms, which are not listed anywhere.
What’s also unfortunate is that there are less stellar deals than the charity promo that I would take advantage of for purchases I would make anyway, but now question what will actually get bonus miles if they suddenly end the promo without notice. I would probably use other cards if the promo is not available, but have no way of knowing if even the +5x miles promos would be honored.
I was shocked we actually got the $50 discount with the MC promotion a couple months ago. They did put a limit on their exposure but seem to have never hit it as we booked near the end of the promotion.
Did anyone have any issues with that promotion that you heard of?
Why is something like this, which all logic suggests could be difficult to have SimplyMiles honor, not worth it? Versus something like getting Swiss to honor a First Class award booking.
Is it just that the Swiss award for your family was worth more, and therefore more worth your time, than a less tangible set of points?
That’s a fair question. But there was no escape clause in the SWISS First booking – not something like your seats are valid “while supplies last.”
I guess I’m considering a $1,000 donation just to try to secure so many miles…but I just find it so implausible I think I am wasting time…not so when SWISS offers first class tickets for the published price (not a mistake fare) and then fails to honor them.
Soooooo… You never posted an update on that situation (AFAIK) and I was just thinking about it the other day…
I did, but you have to read between the lines. I still can’t say more.
When a deal is too good to be true it probably is. But remember the Dollar Coin promotion – for the cost of a few dozen post office boxes you literally had a license to print money.
That is true…
I bought a lot of miles. We’ll see I guess. Limited downside? Prob can cancel the donations (eeeek). As with Ben, I’ll probably cancel and then make a smaller donation.
I also think it’s too good to be true and frankly I don’t “need” the miles but I went in for $300 anyway. It’s a small enough gamble that I won’t mind if it ends up being a charitable donation but large enough to be meaningful if it’s honored at 72K miles.
I waived in $500 worth of donations. If I had a higher degree of confidence this deal would pay out I’d be in the $10k to $20k camp. As others have pointed out, even if there are AA big devaluations, miles at this price point still should offer good/great value.
I don’t see Conservation International. Any trick to getting this offer?
Only BestBuy and Teleflora look decent.
It appears to be a targeted offer.
What is your other business?
I’ve had to bury it. Import/export. Lost it during COVID.
Ugh. Sorry to hear. Same with my uncle, export and lost it.
Because some other bloggers already sitting on millions of miles (cough OMAAT cough) this deal is already dead. Shame on them. Even though some of us didn’t get the targeted offer but we wanted to get a few extra miles on their holiday shopping like we did when this 5x was last offered. Their post about “I just purchased millions of AA miles” just screams bragging “I don’ care about anyone reading this”. I mean, the offer clearly states that the 5x is only there until the miles are used up. Did they think it would last for the rest of us if they’re exploiting it for millions? I really hope it is NOT honored and the charity gets to keep the $$.
Jason- I just made a donation an hour ago and worked fine so I don’t think that this is dead. Yesterday I was not targeted but when I went back into it today, I saw the link and made the donation.
The new banner on SimplyMiles now says that purchases after 12AM ET on the 13th no longer qualify. So by that wording no purchases that were made yesterday the 13th would qualify. The banner still showed the 5X multiplier yesterday when I purchased so it looks like I will have to be fighting for a refund.
Late to the game on this one. As usual, I’m either not targeted or it was removed.
I feel regret for not going for it, but I’m sitting on over 600K AAdvantage miles as is. I’m not going to MS my way to status next year, so I need to pay for my flights. What the heck am I going to do with another 600K miles other than sit on them and wait for them to be devalued. Not to mention the 11 SWUs I have. #FirstWorldProblems
I appreciate the candor, Matthew, and that’s why your blog is my favorite. Yeah, maybe I should have jumped on it too. But I didn’t. And we’ll see if it actually pays out. And I’d have little pity if others got burned on it. Some of your blogging counterparts are smug, insufferable, and pompous (and those are the nice terms) and bragging about buying “millions of miles” does little to endear them.
So….. Did you buy any miles after all?
I got mostly screwed over by this deal. Donated $300 hoping to get 72K miles, but then realized after the fact that my old AAdvantage card was linked to my simply miles account (had to change numbers b/c of fraud). They still credited me 12K miles but I can’t get anyone on the phone or email to discuss the additional bonus miles.