The New One Card To Rule Them All
For those of you who live in a state with medical marijuana, which should be all of you, Points Envy has uncovered a new method for manufacturing points that, to state it bluntly, puts everything Frequent Miler has ever written to shame. 2013 ICECDIAC’s here we come!
The plan is almost too easy:
1) Obtain a prescription for medical marijuana*
2) Find a dispensary that accepts credit cards
3) Purchase large quantities of medical marijuana using any credit card, gift card, or prepaid card
4) Sell the medical marijuana for cash
20) Use the cash to pay off your credit card bill
For those of you who need a little hand-holding, we explain each of the steps in further detail below.
Step 1: Obtain a Medical Marijuana Prescription
Finding a marijuana-prescribing doctor is almost as easy as finding a credit card affiliate link on a points blog. Simply pick up any free local paper and look through the ads near the back to find a doctor near you. Schedule an appointment, show up, and explain to the doctor that you have anxiety due to your low points balances and inability to find Vanilla Reload cards. Or you can mention back pain, nausea, idiocy, or just about any other ailment. Remember, if it’s an ailment, marijuana can cure it. Your cost for this prescription will likely be around $40, provided that you shop around and look for subtle keywords like, “GET YOUR CARD NOW – WE’LL BEAT ANY PRICE!”
Typical marijuana doctor advertisement
The Points Lord Giveth and the Points Lord Taketh Away
Today we mourn the loss of an integral member of our community, the Chase Sapphire Preferred 50,000 point sign-up bonus. Rest in peace old friend, you have earned it.
Fear not, the offer is now in heaven with the sexy British Airways 100,000 miles deal.
But before we don our finest black cashmere and officially begin to sit shiva, we thought we would point out several of the more positive happenings in the points world over the last couple days.
- Although the Sapphire Preferred bonus lost 10,000 Ultimate Rewards points, Chase, like some magical points surgeon, appears to have merely transplanted those points into the Freedom card, whose bonus rose from 20,000 to 30,000 Ultimate Rewards points, as noted by Mommy Points. A direct link to the 30,000 point application is here.
- Per Million Mile Secrets, Chase released an updated version of its United MileagePlus card that includes a $50 statement credit. Moreover, many have received targeted offers of 1.5x miles for every dollar spent on this card for a limited time. Our offer began March 1 and ends April 31, but Chase appears to be rolling this out gradually, so pay close attention to your mail. This is a superb way to rack up Star Alliance miles on your non-category bonus spending, like large liquor store purchases and yachting accessories. We earned more than 1500 miles just for buying a little overnight bag!
- In other encouraging news, Citibank tweaked its AAdvantage card offerings. A full report is available via View from the Wing, but we agree that the primary benefit is a 10% rebate on miles redemptions, capped at 10,000 miles a year. In related news, Chase and Amex still offer better cards than Citi.
So fear not friends! While it is inevitable that the corpses of card offerings and fallen human comrades will litter the arduous path to true points glory, we know there are new offerings just over the horizon. Though we will miss the 50,000 Sapphire Preferred bonus, we remain optimistic and will continue to see the glass of bubbly as half full. If you remain in need of further encouragement, please see here.
Citi ThankYou Points May or May Not Be Valuable in the Future
At Points Envy, we have in the past redeemed Citi ThankYou points exclusively for steakhouse gift cards. After consuming more than $30,000 worth of steak and fine wine in the last two years, we were just as excited as the rest of the frequent flyer community when Dan’s Deals reported earlier this week that ThankYou points would, starting April 1, transfer to British Airways and Singapore Airlines at a 1:1 ratio. Of course, that rate is before Citi’s vicious tax on points, which effectively reduces the ratio to -3:1. Still, the possibility of redeeming ThankYou points for airline miles was intriguing, and the announcement was met with great celebration here in the office.
The following morning, we were greeted with champagne hangovers and the distressing news that Citi representatives had asked Dan to remove the story from his blog. It has since become clear that there is confusion even within Citi as to whether the points will be transferable to BA and Singapore, with Citi’s PR team denying any transferability while sales representatives continue to tell customers that the points will turn into anything the customers want them to.
If you ask us, we think it is clear that Citi has not been receiving enough applications for its ThankYou Premier card and decided to make up for it by playing an April Fool’s joke on people’s credit. We respect their cunning but will not succumb to their bait-and-switch. Maybe one day ThankYou points will get us a suite on a Singapore Airlines A380, but until then you can find us in the VIP section of our local Ruth’s Chris.
April Fools!
Points Envy 