My Saturday afternoons are just too exciting...

Booo. I wish I could have done the Suntrust deal. Kind of hard living in Phoenix.

Best blog post EVER!

Wait so you are earning 25000X10 SkyPesos?

@Erik didn't need to live near a Suntrust, Frugal Travel Guy had things set up with a local Suntrust for out of town blog readers to open accounts...

@Alex that's almost enough for lucky to fly TPA-ATL roundtrip! (in coach)

How did you get 10 cards for Suntrust? Did you open 2 business accounts? I thought the limit was 5 cards per account.

This is really crazy!!!:-)

Loved the read, Ben... nice job!

Ben: correct me if I'm wrong, but don't the T&C's of the SunTrust offer state that the 25K bonus miles come after the first purchase you have to sign for (rather than any purchase at all)?

Hilarious post. I sure hope I'm wrong.

@ Erik -- As Gary says, you can open an account regardless of where you live through Gary's contacts at the Hilton Head Island SunTrust branch.

@ Gary -- ROFL!!!! Actually *hoping* for one trip in V Australia business class and one roundtrip to London in Delta's new(ish) product... or maybe a trip on the AF A380 in business class out of IAD next summer, where there's plenty of space, as much as I hate AF.

@ Double D -- Yes, two business accounts.

@ Matthew -- Hmm, hope I got this right. It is the first signature based purchase, though isn't a signature based purchase any purchase where you don't enter your PIN number? In other words, any purchase where you choose "credit" as opposed to "debit" on the machine? Or did I get that wrong?

@Lucky: That's a great question and I have no idea what the answer is.

Anyone else have some thoughts on this?

For those debit card transaction requirement, you could try supermarkets or C_V.Ss with self-checking machines. With ten bananas or ten cans of light and fat-free chicken broth you are done.

@ lucky

Wait... $20 for 250,000 miles? I thought there was a $55 fee per card, so wouldn't it be $570?

Wow! All of this and the privilege of 3,000 extra calories! Seems like a smart trade.

Keep this up and you'll look like Gary Leff! No wonder so many people whine about sitting in economy class . .. they're just too damn large.

I thought with the new banking legislation that merchants can now have a minimum purchase requirement? Not sure about that....

You should post a calorie count too. 😉

Mark I think you are correct. I remember seeing something where they can have a min. of $10.

@Robb: Get a life...

A debit card transaction can theoretically clear as a "credit" transaction or as a "debit" transaction. Purchases submitted as a "credit" transaction should satisfy your "signature" requirement, even though a physical signature isn't required in many states for small purchases (the amount varies by state and/or the merchant's processor).

Did the cashiers ask you "credit or debit?" If not, I'd suggest you check to see how the transactions went through, since in most cases merchants default to "debit" as the processing fees are lower. I've always thought that as long as you didn't enter a PIN, it processed as a "credit" transaction, but now I'm not sure.

@mark - you're correct, the recent banking overhaul allows merchants to impose a minimum purchase requirement, I believe it's $10. Not sure the provision is in effect yet.

Ben, you're just incredible!

Haha, great post.

How were you able to sign up for 10 cards? Or are they not all in your name?

I'm a D E L T A cabin crew member and I must say, this is a creative way to get miles to "non-rev" !

~~Shanna in the ATL

"and I spent maybe $20 on the debit cards to earn a total of 250,000 miles."

You meant 25,000 miles?

@Craig

I recently saw a merchant that had a sign that said "Minimum Purchase to use MasterCard/Visa is $5."

I E-mailed VISA with the contact info of the merchant, stating it was a violation of it's merchant agreement; here is their reply:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you for contacting Visa. We value your business and appreciate your writing to clarify merchant practices.

Visa has certain regulations that all merchants which accept Visa cards must follow. Visa merchants are not permitted to:

•Minimum/Maximum – Debit
Visa merchants in the U.S. are not permitted to establish minimum or maximum transaction amounts on debit card transactions, even on sale items.

•Minimum/Maximum – Credit
A new U.S. law (effective July 21, 2010) has gone into effect, which now allows retailers to establish a minimum purchase amount on credit card transactions. The minimum purchase amount must not exceed $10. This minimum purchase amount does not apply to transactions made with a debit card.

•Visa merchants are not permitted to establish maximum transaction amounts on credit card transactions. However, some government agencies and institutions of higher education may establish a maximum purchase requirement on a credit card transaction.

•Dishonored Check
Visa merchants in the U.S. are not permitted to submit a Visa sales draft for a dishonored check.

•Check Out Fees (Surcharges)
In general, Visa merchants in the U.S. are not permitted to pass on the merchant's transaction fee to the cardholder as a Visa "service charge," "service fee," or surcharge," even on sale items. A merchant may offer a discount for cash, check, and, effective July 21, 2010, debit, credit or prepaid. However, the cardholder must be made aware of this prior to entering into the transaction.

•No Amount on Sales Draft
Visa merchants in the U.S. are not permitted to require a Visa cardholder to sign a sales draft that does not have a specific amount indicated.

•Supplemental ID or Information
U.S. merchants may not refuse to honor a Visa card simply because the cardholder refuses a request for supplementary information or Identification.

Please notify the disputes area of the financial institution that issued your card of any merchant practices that you feel are inappropriate. Your card issuing bank has access to the appropriate Visa rules and regulations as well as to the Visa complaint forms, which should be used by your bank to document and file merchant complaints. It is not necessary for your bank to be the offending merchant's financial institution in order to file a complaint for you.

As an alternative, to report merchant practices that you feel are inappropriate, you may wish to contact the Visa Global Customer Care Services at 1-800-VISA-911 (1-800-847-2911) or go to our website at www.visa.com. When calling, please advise the representative that you were referred to file a complaint. The staff will be able to initiate a complaint form over the phone.

We hope this information proves helpful and thank you for writing.

Visa Webmaster

Lucky-

Since you probably had a Suntrust MasterCard branded debit card, report 'em here:

http://www.mastercard.com/us/personal/en/contactus/merchantviolations.html

@Matthew - I don't really see how you can argue with how generally unhealthy this "productive" afternoon was . . . typical FlyerTalker sloth.

BUT did you use the mypanera card too? Works differently than most loyalty cards, they keep surprising you with free items, $ off items, etc. I am actually typing this from a Panera right now (as I am in one almost every day) drinking a free coffee...and of course it comes with free refills....and free wifi:-)

Great post Ben. Now we need the corresponding report about redemption of the Pesos.

To prove to your readers that you are the guru we all think you are how about a report on getting 2 business class seats on either Jet ( to india via bru), V Australia to JNB via Syd or Mel, or Korean to anywhere from the US.

For thanksgiving me and the mrs flew Alaska and Korean business SFO-SEA-YVR-ICN-MNL and back for only 120k ea. Korean was very nice and I think this is just about as good as it gets with the pesos.

for debit/credit cards, next time had to the gas station. $1 worth on each card at the pump.... at 10 cards that'd be $10. Also used that technique for the Chase accounts that required 5 purchase/month to waive acct fee (though only one local chain would permit 5 pur in a row w/same card; otherwise it's usually 2 transactions per card, then on to the station next door).

Sounds like more effort than is required! I always make small payments towards my monthly cable bill to reach required transaction limits.

Lucky, I have the Chase Continental debit card that requires 5 purchases per month, so I usually go to a grocery store with a self checkout and make 5 separate purchases to satisfy the requirment, in increments of $2 if possible.

Only 3h to do the tasks. Did that include writing this up?
I would suggest going to a gas station and fill up your car with all your 10 cards. $2 on each and you'll be done in 10 minutes.

According to the Suntrust Ts&Cs, the purchases have to be "signature-based".

@Robb: That part of your post wasn't my concern--it was the attack on Gary and your previous attacks on Ben--come on, you're better than that...

[...] DL miles? I'm going to call the people Gary Leff posed about tomorrow to see if I can still get in. Basically $550 for 250,000 DL miles and a little work. __________________ My Flight Memory CO Lifetime EQM (est. [...]

@Lucky: re: those goodies you got with all those card swipes . . . it looks like you got pi for your grande sweetened ice coffee with non-fat milk. ; )

I assume all of these debit cards are in your business names and an authorized users name as well? There isn't an issue with you personally using them? I'm waiting for my 5 cards currently and need to do the purchases, so I'm curious.

Awesome post, Lucky!

Hey Lucky,

You might have an interesting weekend flying next weekend if you are coming to the Northeast. Friday will have some light snow and Sunday is being forecasted as either a major rainstorm or a Nor'easter snowstorm depending on the storm track. Prime bump conditions!!

You can also split up gas purchases to get multiple transactions (unless you live in NJ and someone else is pumping your gas, because that gets REALLY awkward...)

I generally do the grocery store self-checkout thing.

"Oh, I ain’t never seen one of them before.”

Ha ha.
I am back on Sweet Dilemma this weekend for IC AMS and LON

Well, this was quite a post w/ 40+ comments (I know, I'm just adding to the madness). You have quite the blog followers. You should thank us! 😛

This is most definitely the best blog on Boarding Area (along with Gary's blog - that is also wonderful). It's a shame that the other blogs aren't as good, but then again the addiction to this blog is quite distracting enough (I seem to be checking every hour for a new post or follow-up comments). Keep up the fun posts like this Lucky!

Haha, very nice writeup, i loved it. One quick question though. you had 2 business accounts, with 5 authorized users each to make 10 debit cards. Did you have to provide the ssn and birthdate of the additional users? or did you just use your dogs name and various spelling of your own name, with fake birthdays and 4 random numbers for the ssn?