| Update: It has now been confirmed that this deal has ended, as there was always the clause about the deal being subject to “availability of bonus miles.” American Airlines has also stated the following about this offer: “The SimplyMiles 5X promotion has reached its cap due to an overwhelming customer response. We are in discussions with Mastercard to ensure our customers receive all the promotional miles offered.” It has also been confirmed that this deal will be honored, which is great news. |
It seems that this promotion is legitimate, or at least as legitimate as a promotion this lucrative can be. You can potentially earn up to 240 AAdvantage miles per dollar spent while donating to charity, which is the equivalent of acquiring AAdvantage miles for ~0.42 cents each.
In this post:
SimplyMiles offering 5x bonus AAdvantage miles
I’ve written in the past about the American AAdvantage SimplyMiles program. This is essentially an opportunity to earn bonus miles with select retails when using your eligible Mastercard. You can browse the offers available on the SimplyMiles website, then you can activate the offers, and then when you make a purchase with your linked card, you’ll automatically earn bonus miles according to the offer you registered for.
Think of it kind of like an online shopping portal, except it’s based on using a linked credit card, rather than shopping through a specific link.
As noted by Frequent Miler, at the moment SimplyMiles has a special promotion (you’ll see this after logging into your account) — through December 27, 2021, you can earn an additional 5x American AAdvantage bonus miles on every purchase with participating merchants. The terms also state that this is available “for a limited time and is subject to availability of bonus miles,” which is open to interpretation.
With this promotion, you’re not earning an additional five AAdvantage miles per dollar spent, but rather you’re earning an additional 5x as many AAdvantage miles as you’d usually earn (for a total of 6x miles). This interpretation is also supported by the emails that many members are receiving, which state:
As a special holiday bonus, through December 27 or while supplies last, earn an additional 5x American Airlines AAdvantage bonus miles on every offer site-wide. For example, if you earn 100 miles on a purchase of $30 or more, then you will actually earn 100 miles + 500 bonus miles for a total of 600 miles.
How good of a deal is this?
Looking at the list of SimplyMiles retailers, there are some interesting options (though let me note that all of these offers are targeted, so not everyone will be eligible for each offer — it seems new members aren’t being targeted for the best offers):
- Movie Club is offering 23 miles per dollar spent, so with 5x miles you should earn 138 AAdvantage miles per dollar spent
- Best Buy is offering 1,500 miles on a purchase of $200+, so with 5x miles you should earn 9,000 AAdvantage miles
- Conservation International is offering 40 miles per dollar spent, so with 5x miles you should earn 240 AAdvantage miles per dollar spent
Those are just a few examples. You’ll of course want to check that this is what you see at the time that you make your purchase, make sure you understand how SimplyMiles works, and also be sure that the promotion still shows as active on the SimplyMiles website. I’d also recommend taking screenshots.
American confirms this promotion is legitimate
View from the Wing confirmed with American that “the offer is as described,” and isn’t a mistake. He was told that “this is an offer from Mastercard and it will run until Dec. 27 subject to availability,” and they’re checking on how they will “inform members if the promotion ends before Dec. 27.”
So while there’s admittedly some risk, there has been about as much confirmation of the legitimacy of this offer as we could hope for.
Is this offer worth it?
Would acquiring American AAdvantage miles for 0.42 cents be worth it? Of course it would, at least in my opinion. But admittedly there’s some risk here. On the one hand, this promotion is straightforward and explicit about what the intention is. We’re interpreting this promotion exactly as it’s presented, and American has confirmed that.
At the same time, earning 240 AAdvantage miles per dollar spent probably sounds too good to be true, and I suppose there’s some risk that SimplyMiles argues that “supplies” are no longer available. However, I don’t think that argument could reasonably be made while the offer continues to be promoted on the SimplyMiles website.
Personally I’m giving this a try. I just made a donation to Conservation International. It’s a fantastic cause regardless, and I took lots of screenshots. I’ll report back on my experience (though presumably the offer will be pulled soon, so I’m not sure how valuable my data point will be for those considering this).
Everyone will have to make up their own mind as to what they want to do with this…
Bottom line
SimplyMiles has a promotion offering 5x bonus AAdvantage miles for purchases through December 27, 2021, or for as long as “supplies last.” Given that you can earn up to 40x AAdvantage miles per dollar spent, in theory this means you should be able to earn up to 240 AAdvantage miles per dollar spent.
That certainly sounds too good to be true, but American has confirmed that the offer is as intended. Everyone has to decide for themselves what to do with this offer.
Will you be taking advantage of this SimplyMiles promotion?
Anyone's miles not post? Ive tried contacting simply Miles several times through the website with no reply. I'm about to do a charge back to the card.
Mine never posted. I have contacted Simplymiles and no reply also. This sucks!
A quick data point on the Wine.com offer: I went for the 6x 1400 miles with a $100 purchase, buying 6 bottles. They shipped 5 bottles, for about $89 spend. 6 times zero is NOT 8400 miles. So I contacted customer service and first they tried to tell me they don’t have an offer with SM. My screen shot cleared that up. Then there was nothing they could do. Im returning the bottles they bothered to ship, and warning everyone to beware of Wine.com!
This Simply Miles topic was SO hot 48 hours ago, now it's TABU? No one wants to talk? When are we getting our $240,000 AA miles??? Why all so quiet now??
The three elements of a contract are offer, acceptance and compensation. It will be tough for AA to refute that purchases while the banner was displayed don't meet all three of the requirements and hence there is a binding agreement. This would be especially true for those orders that were confirmed by email from AA well before the banner was removed.
Displaying the banner but refusing to honor what was promised also smells of fraud...
The three elements of a contract are offer, acceptance and compensation. It will be tough for AA to refute that purchases while the banner was displayed don't meet all three of the requirements and hence there is a binding agreement. This would be especially true for those orders that were confirmed by email from AA well before the banner was removed.
Displaying the banner but refusing to honor what was promised also smells of fraud in the inducement. If the offer had a limited number of miles they arguably had a duty to remove the banner and stop accepting orders once the limit had been reached.
It's not like this is some podunk company that might try to plead they messed up the implementation due to lack of resources to deal with an onslaught of demand. Not that this would be a successful defense since they all it would take to avoid fraudulently inducing customers or breaching contracts with them would be to manually pull the banner and shut down ordering which only requires the flick of a software switch but certainly one that wouldn't get a sympathetic ear from a small claims court judge.
Hopefully American will realize it's their name on the website, all the information indicates that this was an offer from American Airlines and that it will be a lot cheaper, let alone more honorable, to honor what they offered willingly rather than being forced to do so.
My thoughts exactly. Yesterday they knew perfectly well that some people were spending like $20k in donations and the allocated limit would be reached very quickly. Instead of removing the donation banner or shutting down the website temporarily to sort things out, they did nothing until today midday and people (me included) continued making not only donations, but other purchases (I myself ordered from Best Buy, CVS, Blue Apron and few other merchants).
Well put Steve... I paid my $1000... Now when do we get our 240,000 miles???
AA might honor their contract with you and credit the miles within the time specified in the offer. If they don't you could proceed against them in small claims court.
Assuming you convince the court you have an enforceable contract there would be the matter of setting damages. You could reasonably assert that since the miles you contracted to purchas was enough for a round trip from the west coast to LHR in First that...
AA might honor their contract with you and credit the miles within the time specified in the offer. If they don't you could proceed against them in small claims court.
Assuming you convince the court you have an enforceable contract there would be the matter of setting damages. You could reasonably assert that since the miles you contracted to purchas was enough for a round trip from the west coast to LHR in First that would be $7,917 since that is what AA offers tickets for sale for at.
I've been making inquiries as to lawsuits against companies refusing to honor T&C in terms of giving the member points earned.
I was royally shut down for even suggesting it. In part, most of these companies specifically note that points or miles have no cash value.
In part because the airline/hotel chain can shut your account down for any reason.
You might want to consult someone else. Of course they have value. You paid for them and are entitled to get them. Whatever value they have once they are yours is a separate matter.
i USED IT YESTERDAY (12/13) ATBP.WHEN DID IT ACTUALLY END? MIDNIGHT?
At the very least there should be an offer to undo the transaction for a refund, before needing to resort to chargebacks. I’m SUPER pissed if my money of several thousand is going down the drain. Bad for Ben too if as claimed has put in tens of thousands.
To me it looks like the Conservation International(?) deal ate up all of the miles. That offer was way too generous and there should have been some kind of cap on the donation value.
Banner now reads "Purchases made after 12 AM ET on December 13, 2021 no longer qualify for the 5X bonus."
Would that mean purchases after 11:59 PM on Dec 13 don't qualify or any purchases for all of Dec 13 don't qualify?
I see this too. Are they saying they aren't honoring all the purchases made yesterday and retroactively making the deadline 12am on the 13th? if so that is some SERIOUS bs and I want my $500 back.
Now THAT banner is gone. What in the world?
Some poor intern is gonna get the hose.
So does that mean the 5X deal had already ended yesterday on 12/13 ET?
I guess people made a donation without knowing that yesterday, oh well..
LOL, retroactively denying from 36+ hours ago is looking for serious chargebacks and maybe some empty threats from armchair lawyers.
Sorry Conservation International, I hope you didn't pop the Champagne or planted those trees yet.
The saga continues.
Ridiculous, I'm pretty worried now, having spent $3k......definitely going for a CC chargeback if this BS is pulled.
One party cannot unilaterally repudiate a contract. They can try, but it's unlikely a judge, say in small claims court, would permit it as a defense.
What the deal ended early? Wasn't it supposed to be until December 27?
This is going to make little Greta mad again. As does Greenpeace, COP26, and various tree hugger groups.
People are donating to this "Conservation International" to plant trees like crazy. How can you dare reject all potential donations.
Oh and VFTW probably killed the deal. Gary broke the cardinal rule on too good to be true deals. Don't contact them about...
What the deal ended early? Wasn't it supposed to be until December 27?
This is going to make little Greta mad again. As does Greenpeace, COP26, and various tree hugger groups.
People are donating to this "Conservation International" to plant trees like crazy. How can you dare reject all potential donations.
Oh and VFTW probably killed the deal. Gary broke the cardinal rule on too good to be true deals. Don't contact them about the deal !!!!!!!!!
If there is an occasion to blame that bloggers killed the deal (with the smoking gun), it's this time. Sorry Gary, even if you're not the only one, you're still one of it.
Damn, I had to wait until payday (today) to make my purchase and now the offer is gone!
Ugh.
If you are living paycheck to paycheck, maybe spending possibly large sums of money on purchasing miles isn't the game for you.
How kind of you to post your comment. For the record, I was to buy a new iPad at Best Buy. Hardly spending a large sum of money…
So...did it work? I don't have any miles but I do see a pending charge on my card.
We’re not going to know for a while. The base miles may post in 3-5 days but bonus miles could take weeks.
I don't see the banner add with the 5x promo on SimplyMiles. I'm signed in, but I don't see anywhere on the page that you get 5x on top of other spend until December 27. Anyone else in the same boat?
@ Ryan -- The offer has indeed been pulled, it seems.
Looks like the 5x promo banner is gone now
Looks like they took simplymiles offline. You can ping it via CMD and it responds but can't access it via browser. It's also on AWS, I highly doubt a bunch of mileage nerds would bring down AWS.
Not a good sign for them honoring the promotion. That's for sure.
You don't have to use Master Card for this... You can still use a Visa card!
Can I use a family members Master card when adding card to simplymiles and still recieve miles on my aa account?
Can you use this *and* a shopping portal, I assume? For instance for the best buy offer.
I got the Conservation International offer. I just spent $300.00 using my AA Mastercard.
anyone have the purchase show up on the simplymiles "transaction history" yet?
Just became available - threw $1k at it.
Still not targeted. My fomo is off the charts.
That being said it would likely be cheaper for Mastercard to cancel all the transactions and just make the donations themselves, no?
Signed up with my United Explorer Card (my only Mastercard) and no good offers on my account
Still not targeted :/
Just donated $835 to charity for 200K miles. Fingers crossed!!
The charity option is gone, but I did the wine offer to get some cheap points and cheap wine.
Well, aside from the charity, Best Buy is offering 1500 miles for $200 spent, x 5 additional would be 9.000 miles for $200 which seems insane. TGTBT, I think.
Is anyone getting a confirmation email from simplymiles? Mine came from AAdvantage shopping?
I've had issues with Simply Miles in the past - they argued I had not activated before purchase (I did), but they eventually paid me.
I also have the Target offer (2X miles for buying over $50), and used that a week ago - haven't seen my Simply Miles post though.
I have the conservation choice; I may donate anyway.
I just donated to Conservation International. Looks like some people are still targeted.
40 miles per dollar donated time 5 comes to 200 miles per dollar donated there? Is this right?
What’s the MAXIMUM we can donate or maximum miles they will give us???
Help restore the Earth’s most vulnerable forests.
Earn 40 AAdvantage® miles for every $1 donated.*
I just donated $500... When do I receive ALL the miles??
In the URL it says minimum is $2 and maximum is $9,999.
To find the charity one (40x) quickly, first make sure the whole list is showing. Keep scrolling until you can scroll no more.
Then hit F3 and type donate. It should find it if it's there somewhere.
I just called mastercard and citibank. i only inquired about my ability to get a refund in the event i am not happy with my donation. i was told that conservation international is a legit charity and that the normal refund process would be in place in the event i choose to ask for a refund. my citibank representative even made a note on my account about the conversation. It would appear that the risk...
I just called mastercard and citibank. i only inquired about my ability to get a refund in the event i am not happy with my donation. i was told that conservation international is a legit charity and that the normal refund process would be in place in the event i choose to ask for a refund. my citibank representative even made a note on my account about the conversation. It would appear that the risk is very very minimal. I just “donated” $20k in three separate transactions and received emails from “mastercard donate” for each one confirming i will receive 40 miles per dollar. Here is the text from one of the emails. it does say non refundable the the citibank representative said that if anything about the offers proves out to be not true then i would be able to file a dispute and get a refund.
Thank you for your donation of $8000.00 to Conservation International. Your contribution will help restore forests in Earth’s most vulnerable geographies and is part of the Priceless Planet Coalition goal of restoring 100 million trees by 2025. Learn more at PricelessPlanet.org.
Conservation International has charged your card ending in 6293 for the full donation (less any applicable standard card processing fees) and will appear as the merchant of record on your card statement. Conservation International is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Please consult with your tax advisor about any deductibility.
You’ve also earned 40 American Airlines AAdvantage® miles for every 1 dollar donated. Please allow up to eight weeks for the bonus miles to be posted to your AAdvantage account. Donations can only be accepted in U.S. dollars. Donations made in connection with AAdvantage® bonus miles program are not refundable. The receipt of miles may reduce the tax deductibility of your contribution, please seek a financial advisor for tax related questions.
Return to the SimplyMiles Program
If you have any questions, please contact our Customer Support team at 844-475-8335.
Sincerely,
Priceless Planet Coalition, in collaboration with Conservation International
83 offers for me, no Conservation offer :/
I am pretty sure they saw the heavy action on this and pulled it. Those offers were not on three different cards I checked. Too bad I didnt see this earlier
Was going to go for $1000 = $240k miles. (Tax deductible too.) Conservation gone as of Monday am. Too bad.
I was considering $15000 for 3.6M miles. That way, I can also double dip on the status extension.
Maybe I'm lucky the deal is dead.
It's a headache trying to plan 2022 travels. So many award availabilities, so many status extension, so many programs that you can buy your way up, so many status matches.
I have never before, hold so many mid to top elite status at the same time.
That's...
I was considering $15000 for 3.6M miles. That way, I can also double dip on the status extension.
Maybe I'm lucky the deal is dead.
It's a headache trying to plan 2022 travels. So many award availabilities, so many status extension, so many programs that you can buy your way up, so many status matches.
I have never before, hold so many mid to top elite status at the same time.
That's probably the same for everybody else. And if everyone is an elite, then no one is an elite.
I would recommend consulting a tax professional about deducting. Isn't this a quid pro quo donation since you are receiving miles in return (albeit not from the charity itself)?
I don't think this can be quid pro quo as the "tree planters" isn't the one giving me miles.
Maybe a 1099-MISC from Simplymiles, but that's a whole different can of worms.
Took advantage of the Conservation offer and I even found the promotional email in my spam folder with the example of the payout. Fingers crossed...Now we wait and see. I wonder how difficult it would be to cancel the donation if SimplyMiles doesn't honor the promo?
I donated $300 for 72000 miles. If they decide to pull the rug out from under me, I will argue it with my credit card company as fraud/misrepresentation.
I took screenshots all along the way. In other words, they better honor this.
Charity Navigator gives Conservation International a 4* rating. I did multiple screenshots of the offer and the details. And donated $500.
And just I got an email confirmation from Mastercard Donate of the donation, including the 40x per $1.
Same
In for $250 to Conservation International...we'll see what happens!
Willing to bet money that it just means 5x miles based on $ spent, ie $20 donation just gives you extra 100 miles
Just spent $40 on cooking (trash) wine at Winc and should get 6,000 miles - thanks for the heads up. Looks like you may have gotten quite the score. I miss the Iberia #uckup from 2017(?).
I'm wondering if they have an obligation to buy a certain number of points whether they use them or not and they're coming up short. So this is a fire sale to recover what they can rather than get nothing.
Echoes of the US Air Track it Back promo way back when. I got one million miles and redeemed them all into Swiss First LAX-ZRH-BKK r/t
I see 83 offers, and none of them is the conservation option. Good luck to those who are able to get in!
Ditto to seeing 83 offers and conservation not being one of them.
I have some of these like the conservation one but I'll bet it will end up being $1=40x+5x for the bonus so in other words 45x total.
Looks like deal gone? When I signed up, I only see 83 available offers, rather than 152 in your screenshot
The offers are TARGETED (like he says above). So I may only have 45 and you have 83 and Ben has 152, but mine are probably different than yours (lots of restaurants and hotels) and I have less online shopping portals than I've seen others have in the past.
Looks like the donate offer is gone. Anyone else seeing it?
Gone
Cannot use a Canadian issued MasterCard to join SimplyMiles - getting an error message. Tried 3 different Canadian issued MasterCards.
There's gotta be a catch, with conservation international you can get 100,000 miles just by spending $500, that's way too good to be true.
Wouldn’t be the first time some company messed up a promo. Question is will they honor it???
“for a limited time and is subject to availability of bonus miles” IS the catch. No way this will work.
Get screenshots and be ready to claim misrepresentation on your card.