Bonushoreri

Någon timme efter att Ica meddelade att de skulle hantera postärenden kontaktades jag av en bekant med frågan hur mycket pengar jag hade att tillgå. Efter att ha fått svaret sade han att han skulle skicka mig ett paket med det beloppet som angivet värde, och att jag sedan skulle skicka tillbaka paketet med samma värde angivet.

Vadan nu denna idé? Jo, Ica-bonus - med Icas enprocentsåterbäring på inköp därifrån kunde vi göra enkla pengar på att slussa tomma paket mellan varandra. Idén föll dock på att Ica vist nog inte räknade bonus på postärenden.

Alla företag är dock inte fullt så förutseende, och som vanligt finner begåvade personer de luckorna - ur Wall Street Journal, via Marginal Revolution:

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.

Och ur kommentarsfältet:

The end of the article mentions another arbitrage opportunity. My friend Charles, who was also quoted in a recent CNN article that Tyler linked to, discusses checking into Hyatt hotels to earn 'faster free nights' room night credits. You can check into a hotel out by, say, Dulles airport on a weekend for $59. Two of those is a free night at any Hyatt in the world (e.g. Park Hyatt Tokyo, Park Hyatt Sydney). What's more, there was a recent promotion that ALSO offered 13,500 United miles for those two one-night stays in addition to the free night anywhere in the world. Fortunately there are some hotels you can book where you don't even have to check into the room!

Även Boing Boing skriver om artikeln - ur deras inlägg:

I love hanging out in airmile hacker forums -- these folks are insane. My favorite is the British Airways "Lisbon Loop." BA wants to court continental passengers, so trips overseas that originate from continental Europe are much cheaper. BA flight hackers claim that they buy a BA ticket that goes Lisbon-London-NYC-London-Lisbon, and a one-way cheap EasyJet ticket to Lisbon so they can board it. On the way home, they just get off in London, saving a bundle (you can't skip the Lisbon-London leg, or BA will cancel your tickets).

Och ur kommentarsfältet:

9 years ago it was pudding. 50 free miles on each 25 cent pudding cup during a 2 for 1 miles period. These people are a particular brand of crazy.
http://www.frequentflier.com/ff022200.htm
"In the end, he was able to buy 12,000 cups of pudding, for $3,000. That translates into more than 1.2 million miles, redeemable for 48 free domestic tickets, worth approximately $20,000. Parlaying $3,000 worth of pudding into $20,000 worth of travel is a nice bit of arbitrage, in anybody's book."