From the No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Dept..
Enthusiasts of frequent-flier mileage have all kinds of crazy strategies for racking up credits, but few have been as quick and easy as turning coins into miles.
At least several hundred mile-junkies discovered that a free shipping offer on presidential and Native American $1 coins, sold at face value by the U.S. Mint, amounted to printing free frequent-flier miles. Mileage lovers ordered more than $1 million in coins until the Mint started identifying them and cutting them off.
Coin buyers charged the purchases, sold in boxes of 250 coins, to a credit card that offers frequent-flier mile awards, then took the shipments straight to the bank. They then used the coins they deposited to pay their credit-card bills. Their only cost: the car trip to make the deposit.
I love it. One guy claims to have bought $800,000 in coins, earning enough miles to get lifetime platinum-elite status on American Airlines.
I wish I had heard of this before it was shut off. Great scheme!
What about the shipping? A box of 250 coins would weigh how much? I don’t think the govt. paid for that, did they?
@2 – Free shipping. That’s what made it work.
yay for weasels!
The Mint pays shipping, but it’s not insured so it’s hardly a risk-free transaction: This guy entrusted $800,000 cash to USPS in 3200 individual shipments?
And then he had to deal with 800,000 coins.
But yeah, I ordered a pack of 250, just so I could leave tips with a handful of Thomas Jefferson.
I heard about a guy who is giving his 100th pint! of blood this week. Its earned him a little ceremony of undisclosed proportions (i’m assuming friends and family are going to have cake and such).
100 pints over his lifetime, not in one week.
I gotta go get some coins and get flyin!
@6: hahahaha. I read that as his funeral.
That is SO AWESOME! I’ll do anything for miles <3