40 Miles per Dollar at SpaFinder, plus 10% off

Pretty amazing deal, especially if you are going to a spa that's on the list anyway. You save 10% and you get miles cheaper than you would by buying them directly from Delta.

See the blog post from The Points Guy:

http://thepointsguy.com/2011/05/amazing-deal-40-skymiles-per-dollar-spent-at-spafinder-com/

It is a great deal! Thanks for the post

Somehow, I would not have guessed that DeltaExpert is a spa-user, although I suspect that Deltalina is.

This also works for AA, although it doesn't show up until the checkout page. Just follow the links for the Delta offer and at checkout you have an option to choose Delta or AA. The dropdown boxes let you enter either your Delta or AA membership number.

AA - that's huge! But do you know if it's 40 per dollar with AA?

I just emailed customer service to ask.

ETA: Oops! They replied:

"This special is only offered for Delta SkyMiles. Currently there are no Specials for AAdvantage."

Deltalina might have been the nudger of TPG

Well, then, thank you.

And, my wife thanks you.

My wife thanked me as well.

By the way, it turns out you get 1 AA mile per dollar with Spafinders.

Granted, AA miles are worth a lot more to me than Delta, but 1:40 - I'll take Delta.

OK - two updates:

1 - I emailed, and they confirmed that you can use the 10% off code SBCG along with the 40 miles per dollar offer.

2 - There is a rewards program (perfect for this crowd, right?) that gives you effectively 5% more off, in certain increments. If you spend $1000 (BEFORE discount) then you get 1000 points, and therefore a $50 gift card (not sure how shipping works on that, if purchased separately and not via email).

Further, there is a referral program for the rewards, so PLEASE sign up as a referral from me!

http://spafinder.tellapal.com/a/clk/XqNYp

Thanks!

I think so. Very nice.

Ignoring anything about the IRS, (cause what's the fun in that?) how about this:

Buy 23 $50 gift cards with 10% code for $1035
Get 1 $50 gift card with 1000 spafinder rewards points.
Sell 24 $50 gift cards at $42 on ebay. Net $35 after ebay and paypal fees for a total of $840
That puts your cost at $195 for 41,400 SkyMiles. Less than half a cent per mile.
And you get another 1,035 miles for your credit card spend.

And you could keep going, until you have a whole business of selling gift cards and traveling the world.

I'm just dreaming. But this really is a killer deal. Even for SkyMiles.

I thought of this, too, but I don't want to spend the time it would take to manage the eBay and PayPal transactions, meanwhile hoping I could sell them all, and in a reasonable period of time. On the other hand, maybe I'll buy a couple just to see how it goes!

Absolutely, and there are even more ways to leverage the offer (for example, a 12% coupon code). I've compiled every detail and trick I could gather about this one and I've posted them here on FT, in their thread dedicated to the offer.

Every time I check eBay, I see more and more, which means the price goes down. I think $42 on a $50 GC is a little unrealistic, especially considering that anyone savvy enough to look on eBay is savvy enough to find the 10% or 12% discount code for buying direct.

The price should drop much more, as we're able to stack several discounts and rewards and essentially buy these for the value of the Skymiles alone. I won't be shocked to see a $100 Spafinder cert selling for $60 soon.

I hope it stays that high - I feel like I'm already paying less than that.

OK - so the deal is dead, at that level anyway. They are now offering 10 miles per dollar.

In some ways, I'm glad to see that they pulled it. It means they realize how ridiculous it was financially, and they intend to remain a viable company. I got in with one batch, and I'm assuming I'll be made whole on all counts (and I have emails and screenshots if I need them).

Anyone remember the company years ago online that promised everything was free after rebate? It was an interesting idea - pay now, and file for a full rebate that came back within a few months. So, sure, they could count on some breakage (just as Spafinders can) but everyone knew that it would fail sooner or later - the question always was, would if fail before I got my rebate? Or, would it fail too long after the charge for me to protest it on my Visa?

So based on that metric, I'm glad Spafinders came to reason on this one. I guess that's pretty selfish - I got mine, and now I'm glad that they'll likely be able to honor it.

And . . . it's back:

http://www.spafinder.com/delta/terms.htm

On the main page, they just say "miles" without a number, but in the terms they specify 40.

I guess they are reluctantly honoring their original offer, but trying to lower its visibility. Good luck on that - with the forums and blogs on board, I doubt this will change the use rate.

By the way, I don't see the 12% code here. It's NYC12.

The deal is still alive. I suspect they might pull it (they have every right to do so) before May 31st, maybe even later today, but at the moment it is still alive. Screen shot and document, and order away!

I detailed all of the steps you can take to best leverage this offer, including the use of that discount code, here.

I'm not sure I'd go as far as complaining to an attorney general on this one, but why do they have the right to pull the offer? They've advertised a special with a specific end date.

This works out well for me - I get reimbursed 80% on massages up to $300 per calendar year as part of the benefits package.

Doing the math, it comes out to: $300 face amount less 12% discount = $264 spent. I'll get reimbursed for $300*0.8 = $240. So I end up paying 264 - 240 = $24 for 10,560 SkyMiles. Which works out to 0.2 cpm. Plus I'll get 264 Amex MR points from the CC.

Lotsa kinda weird stuff going down over there. Every order seems to necessitate a phone call, and clearly PayPal orders don't get Delta numbers attached automatically, although they seem to be happy to fix that.

Response times are slowing and their website is showing errors. I think the infrastructure over there is breaking down a bit due to the extra traffic and, probably, larger than normal average order size.

They're all very nice and happy to help. I just hope this all gets straightened out and works as we planned.