How the U.S. Government Helped Frequent Fliers Make a Mint

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crazydave98

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US Government helps frequent flyers make a mint

Possibly the best scam for points/miles I have seen...

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.

Full story here...
U.S. Helps Frequent Fliers Make a Mint - WSJ.com
 
Re: US Government helps frequent flyers make a mint

Old news this one. Massive thread about it on Flyertalk for the past few years.

I'm surprised it took the mint so long to cotton on.

I've met MrPickles when he was here on one trip. He finds *all* the loopholes, exploits them for all their worth, and pretty much travels on his holidays free, in F, and stays at all the best hotels free, in suites.

We're really in the wrong country for any kind of awesome promos (Just don't mention the AmEx fiasco of 2008....)
;)
 
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Re: US Government helps frequent flyers make a mint

I guess the key to this sort of loophole is to be inconspicuous. You'd be less likely to be cut off ordering smaller shipments than say $10 000 shipments at a time. And publicity on sites like FT can't help either!
 
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Re: US Government helps frequent flyers make a mint

WOW.

Still, nice if you can get it.

As a side note, l have always been baffled why AA could let your miles earned on credit cards be also tallied on the same account as your lifetime membership miles.
Others here have noted that people with a large credit spend (eg, through a business) could attain AA Plat or the next level up, buy never setting foot in a AA plane and still get benefits. With QF, you have to fly to get status credits (which determines status) and are different to FFP's.
 
Re: US Government helps frequent flyers make a mint

Wow, that’s a really good one! Also like the Hyatt idea at the end and the fact they don’t mind.
 
Re: US Government helps frequent flyers make a mint

This has been going on for a while, and has been widely discussed at both Fatwallet and Flyertalk.

Originally things were kept in-check by limitations on the "President's" series of coins. However the mint is required to sell a certain number of "Native American" coins too, which collectors aren't as interested in as the President coints.

So everything started unravelling when there was no limit placed on the "Native American" series of coins, and people were able to order huge amounts of them.

It is always amazing how people see these loopholes and start using them. This one was a little harder than most (due to banks being reluctant to accept large deposits of coins, the work involved in getting them to banks and the weight of coins involved), but is a good testament to how people are able to use these kinds of deals to their advantage.
 
Re: US Government helps frequent flyers make a mint

I love the pull quote that was in the article:
When the little guy finds an unintended benefit in the big guy's program, the government spoils it all! Where was the government when the big guys were spinning real estate.
Indeed.

I did hear about this "scheme" when I was at the Star Mega Do. Our government, in their wisdom, of course would never sell coins of any type or mintage date at their face value, much less so with free shipping!
 
Re: US Government helps frequent flyers make a mint

Reading more online about this.. seems so many people ordered recently that there are unfulfilled orders lasting months..

Will be interesting to see if they end up just cancelling the orders.
 
Re: US Government helps frequent flyers make a mint

I am surprised that the CC companies did not treat this as a cash advance and charge accordingly

Dave
 
Re: US Government helps frequent flyers make a mint

well if it is AMEX then they are getting bundles in merchant fees so they would not mind!
Mint would be the real loser in this
 
Re: US Government helps frequent flyers make a mint

I am surprised that the CC companies did not treat this as a cash advance and charge accordingly

The mint also makes collectable coin products (no different to the Australian mint really). So not easy to distinguish between the two types, and probably the IT systems aren't set up to put each one through a different merchant account.

Cyclogenesis -

The mint apparently isn't the loser - they get to keep the difference between what it costs to make the coin and the face value. The real losers are the banks who have to deal with the deposits, and also the Fed Reserve (I think), who has to store the coins that are returned. There is also increased risk that is assigned to the credit card companies as effectively the person has done a "cash advance" on their card.

Note also that Disneyland is trialling handing out $1 coins as change at some of their shops in Disneyland, so some of the coins are going into circulation.
 
Re: US Government helps frequent flyers make a mint

Ahh... Thanks Mal.. good point!

the whole money thing is a funny concept..
 
Re: US Government helps frequent flyers make a mint

I'm surprised it took the mint so long to cotton on.

We're really in the wrong country for any kind of awesome promos (Just don't mention the AmEx fiasco of 2008....);)

Shame that Amex was so quick to cotton on to their fiasco...

I don't see the point of posting photos and showing to what extent you exploit a loophole, etc on a public forum. Just publish the loophole, and let people figure it out for themselves. The more people that see/exploit a loophole, generally the quicker it gets plugged, e.g. Amex, Pudding Guy, Club Live Search, Mistake Fares/Rooms, Accor A-Club vouchers, $1 coins, etc.
 
Re: US Government helps frequent flyers make a mint

I don't see the point of posting photos and showing to what extent you exploit a loophole, etc on a public forum. Just publish the loophole, and let people figure it out for themselves. The more people that see/exploit a loophole, generally the quicker it gets plugged, e.g. Amex, Pudding Guy, Club Live Search, Mistake Fares/Rooms, Accor A-Club vouchers, $1 coins, etc.

People do it because we are fame-chasers. It's a human nature thing.

I see the main arguments as:
  • If there exists such a scheme, it will be eventually plugged independent of how many people are informed in such a manner.
  • The ones who publish the details of the scheme have probably already benefitted from it and/or will be subject to the same repercussions as those already in the scheme or attempting to profit from it. Notwithstanding legal action, the worst that will happen is that they will be square with everyone else (everyone = whether they tried or not), and at best it's just a selfish thing (i.e. they profit from it but others don't, but who really cares). Note that those that complain are those that miss out or have suffered a loss after the scheme gets plugged. You can hardly blame those that published the scheme details for such losses.
  • The people who publish details of a scheme will be naturally the target of vilification irrespective of their actions. Had they not published the scheme, they would be guilty of keeping the scheme to themselves. If they do publish it, the plugging of the scheme accelerates and the publisher will be guilty of accelerating the demise of the scheme through increased exposure. So you can't win.
  • Even if we could assign blame to the plugging of a scheme, people publishing a scheme aren't necessarily those at fault. Remember last year's Amex fiasco? I would propose that it were more the phone calls of naive card holders that rang the bells much, much more than the fact that there was an AFF thread about the fiasco spawning posts faster than rabbits multiplying.
 
Re: US Government helps frequent flyers make a mint

Reminds me of the time decimal currency came in.I would go into banks and get bags of pennies and halfpennies-sort through them and take them back-always to the same branch so i would not just get my sorted coins back.Never did get a 1930 penny but every other rare date or variety.
 
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