Over 200,000 points and a free Southwest companion pass? Sure, why not?

The more you dig and get involved in the miles and points game, the more great opportunities present themselves.  Yesterday, the Southwest Rapid Rewards Shopping Mall was having a promotion with Sears.com where they were giving 5 times the normal amount of Rapid Rewards points, or 15 points per dollar spent.  Sears is one of the few merchants where they allow “Double Dipping” when means you can get points both on the purchase of gift cards as well as the use of gift cards.  When you combine that technique with the promotion, you can go through the portal to buy gift cards, earning 15X points on your gift card amount, then go back through the shopping portal a second time, but this time using the gift cards you just bought and earning an additional 15X points. The amount the mall is currently offering has dropped to 12X but the process is the same.

If you aren’t familiar with the technique, let me give you an example:

  1. Go to the Southwest Rapid Rewards Shopping Mall
  2. Login and Click on the Sears logo with the 12X points
  3. Add a $500 eGift card to your cart and check out using your miles earning credit card to pay.
  4. Click back through the Rapid Rewards Mall a second time and click on the Sears logo
  5. Add $500 worth of merchandise to your cart and check out again
  6. If it is merchandise that you need, then you are done.  If you are buying for resale on eBay or craigslist, then sell your items.

Using this technique (with the current 12X offer and the $500 example), you would end up with 6,000 Rapid Reward points for such a purchase plus whatever rewards you received from your credit card.  Sears also has a free program called Shop Your Way Rewards that is a hidden gem in this whole process.  Due to my previous purchases during promotions at Sears, I have Platinum status at SYWR and since it is my birthday month, I received 15X SYWR points which gets credited to my SYWR account and can be used for future Sears purchases.

I also had received an offer last month on my British Airways Visa for 2.5 Avios per $1 spent up to $4,000, and used my SPG Business Amex card as well for an additional $5,000.  So the math in my case (at 15X) works like this on this incredible offer.

  • $4,000 in gift cards bought with my British Airways Visa which nets 10,000 Avios and 60,000 Rapid Rewards points
  • $5,000 in gift cards bought with my SPG Business Amex which nets 5,000 SPG Points and 75,000 Rapid Rewards Points
  • $9,000 in Electronics bought for resale which nets 135,000 Rapid Reward Points and $1350 in SYWR Credit

So a grand total of 10,000 Avios, 5,000 SPG Points, 270,000 Rapid Reward Points, and $1350 in credit towards a future Sears purchase.  It isn’t all profit however, because there will still be costs associated with the resale of the electronics. I am anticipating around $1575 in loss on the electronics, possibly a bit more if I use ebay instead of Craigslist.  However if I buy additional electronics for sale with the SYWR credit then I can cover almost all of the loss and end up with all the points for less than a couple of hundred out of pocket.

And I haven’t even mentioned the best part!  The Rapid Reward points I get from this should be enough to get the Southwest Companion Pass which lets you take a companion with you on any Southwest flight, whether paid or award, for the remainder of this year and all of next year.

This is a rewards mall that I haven’t used before so I am not counting my miles before they post, but this looks like it might be my most lucrative miles venture so far.  I hope some of you get in on it as well.  Even at 12X and without the SYWR, it is still a great deal and a way to acquire miles for a very low cost per mile.

Author: John Butler

I live in Miami Beach but love travelling all over the world.