Ever wonder how many miles you can earn on a 36 million dollar tea cup purchase? Good, neither did I. Via Bloomberg: "A Chinese collector who bought an ancient Chinese ceramic cup for a record HK$281 million (US$36 million) at auction in April got an unexpected bonus when he paid for it today: almost 422…
Continue reading: 422 Million American Express Points For Buying Tea Cup
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Strange that he bought it with a CC. He could have definitely saved the processing fee had he paid by transfer...
I think we need some explanation as to how a $36,000,000 purchase earned 421,860,000 points. That is almost 12 points per dollar spent on an Amex?
@ Jonathan
Click the link re: the Honk Kong program. It's a different program. "Every Hong Kong $7.5 Spent = 15 points = 1 Air Mile"
How about a cash back card? "1% on all purchases; 2% on groceries; 3% on multimillion dollar teacup auctions."
I'm impressed they let him use a cc, let alone Amex. I've tried buying cars with my cc, but no one has ever taken more than $5K from a credit card.
Being that rich in Asia, those points will be transferred to his concubines and illigitimate children to use and the wife wont even able to track expenses.
@David
That may be a rich man's very western idea, not an asian one
1
Look at Sanford the governor of South Carolina -
He used points to go see his brazilian girl friend
2
Elliott Spitzer seems to have used points
3
I think if he is that rich he has plenty of money to throw at anyone he likes
I do not think he needs to throw points around
Wives in Asia are less likely to question or get to know about throwing money about
I'd love to know what the highest 12/month average Amex bill is. I'd say 5 million a month would get you into the top 10.
Seems odd but this guy just went down in mile/point history along with the pudding cup guy and the dollar coin folks 🙂
I agree that if I had that kind of money I might not need the points that bad since I wouldn't need them very badly for my fleet of private jets but maybe for hotel rooms?
Loyalty programs are for the thrifty and value-minded. $36 million teacups are not.
He clearly has the luxury of not giving a care in the world to price or value.
I'm sure this guy flies in is own Gulfstream. Who would fly commercial when you have the cash to spend 36 million on a freaking tea cup? I'm sure a much better use would be to buy a bunch of Rolexes to pawn in Macao for a weekend gambling! 😀
Loyalty programs are for the thrifty and value-minded. $36 million teacups are not.
Sure they are. What better investment is there, in terms of mobile wealth, than the highest quality ancient Chinese art?
If he's not going to use those points himself, I'm sure there's some charitable organizations that would be thrilled to receive some of them.
How does he get 421 million membership reward pts? $282 million/7.5 x15=562 million memb rewards pt. Which in turn is =37 million air miles Thus, spending $1usd=1 air miles. Same as our program.
He's going to be kicking himself when he sees Chase Freedom adding "Chinese Teacups" as a 5x category for Q1 2015...