Manufactured Spend has been a wonderful way to rack up miles and points. As we go into year end, I wanted to take a closer look at my M.S. for the last two months of the year. Keep in mind that November also included Black Friday which offered many high dollar M.S. opportunities through deal flipping. Here’s the November/December 2022 M.S. breakdown!
How Much did I M.S.?
I was able to do roughly $45,000 in M.S. since November 1. Most of this was deal flipping, but this number is still astounding considering that I did about $130k from January 1 through November 1.
How did I stack up Miles and Points?
American Airlines
I always preach the importance of double or triple stacking to earn even more rewards. During the last two months, I was able to earn over 30,000 American Airlines Miles and Loyalty by double dipping.
First off, I bought Virtual Visa gift cards from Giftcards.com at 5%(maxes out at a $75 discount) discount(including activation fees) which earned me 3 points per dollar spent when using the American Airlines shopping portal. Although I could have used a better earnings card, I purchased these virtual gift cards using my American Airlines Business Credit Card which gives a meager 1x on everyday purchases. I used this card because of my project: Chasing Top Tier American Airlines Status with 0 American Airlines Flights.
As a result, I earned 4 miles per dollar and was able to purchase $1500 of Virtual Visas for about $1460. I was able to make $40 in profit and earn 6,000 American Airlines miles and loyalty points (valued about $70) getting me over $110 in profit. I was then able to use the virtual visas and liquidate at 0 cost. I repeated the process several more times and was able to about $9,000 with this method( giftcards.com code expires or is capped at how many times it can be used)
I also spent another $25,000 flipping some items. This is a much harder method.
Total Spent: $34,000
Total AA Miles Earned: 25,000 + 36,000(gift card method) = 61,000
Total Proft: ~$180
World of Hyatt
I’ve already re-qualified for Hyatt Globalist which I believe is the number 1 hotel elite status in the world. While I would recommend moving your spend away from this card once you’ve hit your goal or milestone, I was actually a few elite nights short of the next reward. I decided to put an extra $10k of spend to earn an additional milestone reward.
To M.S. with my World of Hyatt Credit Card, I opted to flip some large ticket items. I didn’t go to hard with this card as I already maximized World of Hyatt Status for the year.
Amount Spent: $10,000
World of Hyatt Points Earned: 10,000 + 10,000(Milestone Bonus) = 20,000
Chase Ultimate Rewards
Chase Ultimate Rewards is another integral program for my rewards strategy. This year, I struggled to earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points as I focused most of my M.S. efforts on the Citi AA Business Card, World of Hyatt Card, and American Express Hilton Business Card. I also had to meet a signup bonus for my dad’s United Mileage Plus card.
I was finally able to use my Chase Ink Unlimited, Chase Ink Cash, and Chase Freedom in November.
Chase Ink Unlimited
I spent about ~$1500 with this card on a simple M.S. order.
Chase Ink Cash
I was able to rack some Chase points using this card at office supply stores earlier in the year. In November I spent a meager $600 on this card to buy 3 fee-free Visa gift cards with Staples
Chase Freedom
My M.S. on the Chase freedom was rather pathetic as I spent only $144 in November. I earned 5x on this spend as this qualified in the bonus category.
Overall
Starting the year, I had over 250,00 Chase points. Jen and I recently redeemed 115,000, taking advantage of a transfer bonus with Aeroplan to redeem business class flights to Italy on Brussels Airlines next Spring. I didn’t do a great job of replenishing those points, so I hope to do a better job next year.
Amount Spent: $2244
Chase Points Earned: 2,250 + 3,000 + 720 = 5,970
Summary
Amount spent: $10,000 + $34,000 +$2244 for a grand total of about $46,244
Total Points Earned:
Roughly 6,000 Chase Points
Roughly 20,000 World of Hyatt Points
Roughly 61,000 American Airlines Points
Honorable Mention: I also earned about 56,000 American Express Points doing M.S. using Rakuten
Final Thoughts
Manufactured Spending or M.S. is a pretty profitable way to stack up miles and points. In addition to the mentioned rewards earned, I also put about $12,000 of spend on Amazon with my Amazon store card which earns a cool 5% cash back. This net me about $600 in rewards but it did not count under the miles and points category. Overall Black Friday helped me push my numbers up, but I hoped to improve my M.S. next year.
