Thread: Hacking frequent flier programs

Interesting. I remember years back people doing similar things. They would go to AAA buy travelers checks with credit cards then deposit the checks and pay off credit cards collecting miles. One guy was buying 50K a month. Anyone have any other "hacks" they know of?

How Frequent Fliers Exploit A Government Program To Get Free Trips : Planet Money : NPR

i was buying coins, one dollar coins from the mint at face value and then cashing them in at the bank i belong to. Amex didnt care and i was racked up hundreds of thousands of points. win.

edit: actually i just read through the article, its the exact same thing i was doing before I even knew anyone else knew about it lol.

Originally Posted by sybelite

i was buying coins, one dollar coins from the mint at face value and then cashing them in at the bank i belong to. Amex didnt care and i was racked up hundreds of thousands of points. win.

edit: actually i just read through the article, its the exact same thing i was doing before I even knew anyone else knew about it lol.

Yeah, I have a friend who goes through about $30K-$50K in coins and gets 2% back from his Charles Schwab CC.

I thought about doing this when the news of it first broke back 2 years ago. I can't believe it is still going on. I know at least one of my banks has a coin counting machine, plus being rolled, I think my other banks would still except them. Any reason not to start doing this?

Looks like the coins are mostly sold out, and won't ship until 8/3

4 box limit per 10 days....but that is per credit card. I'm thinking 20 amex cards in rotation on something like this lol. Sounds too good to be true. Probably not worth the time unless you go balls in.

Haha its amazing that the credit card companies didnt catch on to this earlier.

Game over.

From the US Mint's site:

Circulating $1 Coin Direct Ship Program

Website Announcement

The United States Mint has eliminated the credit and debit card purchase of $1 Coins through its Direct Ship Program effective July 22, 2011. Customers who wish to purchase $1 coins through the Direct Ship Program can still do so by wire transfer, check, or money order. Customers who wish to purchase the coins by wire transfer may fax their order to: (202) 756-6585. Customers interested in purchasing by check or money order may do so by writing to:

United States Mint
PO Box 71192
Philadelphia, PA 19176-6192
Please download the order form and follow the instructions provided on the form. (Order Form).

The Mint has determined that this policy change is prudent due to ongoing activity by individuals purchasing $1 coins with credit cards, accumulating frequent flyer miles, and then returning coins to local banks. Local banks, in turn, returned coins to the Federal Reserve. While not illegal, this activity was a clear abuse and misuse of the program.

The Mint has undertaken several aggressive internal and external actions to mitigate this issue, including restricting chronic and repeated use of credit cards, contacting customers who frequently placed large numbers of orders to ensure they were using the coins for legitimate business purchases, and other measures. While these measures eliminated a significant amount of misuse in the program, we believe some abuse still exists. Eliminating the credit and debit card purchase of the $1 coin is the next step in our efforts to root out abuse in this program and ensure it is better targeted toward fulfilling its intended purpose—which is to get the $1 Coin into greater circulation.

Thank you for your understanding and your continued support of the $1 coin program.

The United States Mint

22 July 2011/12 pm

bummer

Time to move on to the next hack.........