Update 1/21/2013: The OPEN program is currently under review and may be changing soon.
OfficeMax.com is currently having a special where you can get a $50 Priceline Hotel Cash Card when you spend $175. This card you can use as a $50 credit with a 2 night stay from special Priceline Partner hotels (160,000 of them). This can be a good deal, just make sure to compare the rates on the same hotels with Kayak to make sure the price isn’t higher on their Partner rates. There is a limit of one card per customer.
You can sweeten the deal if you have an Amex Business Card with OPEN savings, such as the SPG Business Amex or the Amex Business Gold Rewards Card like I recently got with a 75,000 bonus. With the OPEN program, you will automatically get a statement credit back for 10% on purchases of $250 or more.
So the way I attacked this was to buy three $100 OfficeMax gift cards which was enough to get both the $50 Hotel Cash Card and 10% back ($30) in a statement credit. So I will end up with $300 in gift cards, a $50 Hotel Cash Card, and 300 Membership Reward Points for $270!
Another way to go would be to use your Chase Ink Bold Card which gives 5 points per dollar back in Ultimate Reward Points for office supply stores and purchase $175 in gift cards. This will give you the $50 Hotel Card plus 875 Ultimate Rewards points.
If you don’t have either of those cards or good enough credit to get a points earning credit card, you could also use the Delta Visa Checkcard (like the one I just got for 30,000 Skymiles) to get 175 Skymiles for the purchase.
Once I get the gift cards, I will try to use them at local OfficeMax stores to purchase either Visa Gift Cards which I can use for day to day spending, or other gift cards that I can sell via PlasticJungle to get my cash back. I have read that some stores don’t allow purchase of gift cards with gift cards so I won’t be buying more until I am sure my local stores allow it.
