United Airlines credit card, would this work?

[ginseng 0]

I just thought of this last night. Say you had an airline rewards credit card. For every dollar you spend you get 1 mile. Now why not just take a cash advance to the cards limit and then pay it off the next day. Say the limit was $10,000. If you did this ten times in a few weeks, you'd quickly have 100,000 miles. Is this possible? Is it legal? I was also thinking if cash advances don't earn you miles, just paypal yourself your credit card limit then pay of the card as soon as you receive it. Is there any reason this wouldn't work? It seems like a strangely simple way to get that business class upgrade with ease.

[FatherMojo 2]

I use Citibank Visa for NWA and I can confirm that cash advances do not earn miles.

 

The paypal scam could work if it was done in conjuction with a buddy or 2 or 3. Just charge each other for some type of service and go from there. However, from what I have read about paypal, if your account has large transactions they could hold the funds for a period of time.

 

 

FatherMojo

[jjj 0]

I just thought of this last night. Say you had an airline rewards credit card. For every dollar you spend you get 1 mile. Now why not just take a cash advance to the cards limit and then pay it off the next day. Say the limit was $10,000. If you did this ten times in a few weeks, you'd quickly have 100,000 miles. Is this possible? Is it legal? I was also thinking if cash advances don't earn you miles, just paypal yourself your credit card limit then pay of the card as soon as you receive it. Is there any reason this wouldn't work? It seems like a strangely simple way to get that business class upgrade with ease.

 

 

I actually did this successfully earlier this year - at the rate of 1 mile / $2. There is a 5,000 mile per year limitation on cash advances and you do have to pay the cash advance fee - $75 if I remember correclty.

Edited November 7, 2006 by jjj

[brotherbuzz 3,206]

I just thought of this last night. Say you had an airline rewards credit card. For every dollar you spend you get 1 mile. Now why not just take a cash advance to the cards limit and then pay it off the next day. Say the limit was $10,000. If you did this ten times in a few weeks, you'd quickly have 100,000 miles. Is this possible? Is it legal? I was also thinking if cash advances don't earn you miles, just paypal yourself your credit card limit then pay of the card as soon as you receive it. Is there any reason this wouldn't work? It seems like a strangely simple way to get that business class upgrade with ease.

 

Check http://flyertalk.com/ It's been discussed to death by the worlds foremost miles hounds. Can't give you any solid answers as I didn't delve very far in the threads.

[Tengotodo 52]

I have tried to charge my mortgage payment to my CC for this reason - no luck. I do work in a hotel and oftentimes people pay "cash" when leaving. I take the cash and charge my CC for the stay (get miles) and then pay the CC off immediately. You can also be disciplined and charge all your food and gasoline expenses to your CC and pay that off at the end of the month (no interest charges). However, Cash advances are RARELY able to accumulate mileage. If you find a way, please let me know!