Ninja Tricks: Macy’s Stacking Deals with Alaska Mileage Plan
It’s almost Veterans Day and that means tons of shopping deals. My mom has been asking me for a Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer for a few years and I thought it might be a good idea to call in the Ninjas. It turns out, we can stack several year-end deals to get an incredible value on this very popular item (also works on many other things at Macy’s).
Here are the Deals We’ll Be Stacking
- Alaska Airlines Visa Signature Spending Offer: Spend $250 in select store categories and receive a $75 flight discount. Details here.
- Note:Â Keep in mind, if you don’t have the Alaska Card or offer, you can also use a 5% cashback card like the Chase Freedom for an extra $15 and still go through one of the airline portals for bonus points.
- Shopping Portal: Macy’s Pay out rates go as high as 10/miles per dollar or 8% cashback.
- Alaska Mileage Plan Shopping Portal Bonus: Spend $300 and get an additional 1,000 Miles
- Macy’s Veterans Day Promotion: Use code VETS for 10-30% off
- Plenti Points
Here’s How it Works
First start out at a site like Cashbackmonitor.com to see who has the highest shopping portal payouts.
United, American and Alaska’s shopping portals are all offering holiday spending bonuses. I choose to go with Alaska because their miles are more valuable than AA or United. Their spending bonus get you an extra 1,000 miles if you spend $300.
Now it’s time to click through the Alaska portal to Macys.com. I search for my Kitchen Aid Mixer and see the price is $319. I then do a quick search to make sure the price is comparable to other sites and sure enough, the price on Amazon is $299. This is good news because there is a promo code that gives you 10% off- so it’ll actually be cheaper than Amazon!
Macy’s Discounts
Macy’s is running a promotion a great promotion right now for Veteran’s Day where you get Macy’s Cash for a future order as well at 10-20% off select merchandise.
After adding the item to my cart, I apply the code and sure enough, $32 comes off and I see that I will receive $40 in Macy’s Money.
Plenti Points
Last step is to add your Plenti Account number. Thea earning rate is low, but it’s just icing on the cake.
So now, the math looks like this:
- Cost: $339.19 (including tax)
- Promo Code: Vets : -$33.92
- Total Cost: $305.27
That looks really good, but it actually gets a lot better. By employing the ninjas you can also get:
- Alaska Miles from Shopping Portal 305.27 x 8 miles = 2442
- 1,000 Bonus Miles from portal for spending $300 = 1000
- Alaska Miles for spending on card = 305
- Macy’s Money = $40
- Alaska Flight Discount for spending $250 at a dept store. = $75
The Final Math
Note: For the purposes of our final calculation, I’m going to assume you’ll be able to make full use of the discount, Macy’s cash and any miles/points earned. We will also be valuing Alaska Miles at 1.8 Cents a point- though your specific value may vary.
Once we add up our savings, the math looks something like this:
- Cost: $339.19
- Promo Code: -$33.92
- Macy’s Cash: -$40
- 3,442 Alaska Miles: Valued at -$67.40
- AK Flight Discount: -$75
- Plenti Points 30 (this is really only worth 30 cents, occasionally they have promos which would make this more worthwhile.)
- Final Theoretical Cost: $122.57
Bonus
If you choose the free shipping to store option, you will receive a 15-20% discount on your next in store purchase.
Conclusion
Even if you are not looking for this product (though, I don’t know a person alive who cooks and doesn’t want one of these Kitchen Aid Stand Mixers) you can order many things from Macy’s to take advantage of this awesome stacking opportunity. Or, perhaps Macy’s isn’t a store you are interested in, it still pays to learn how to think in this way. There are so many ways to stack offers right now. Deals like these represent a great value and if you are willing to be a ninja you can do very very well.
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Isn’t there a high chance that the portal rewards will be on the price post discount code, and pre-tax? I usually find that I don’t get rewards on the tax portion of the cost, and that might put you under the $300 required for the Alaska portal bonus
Bethany, aren’t you risking your portal award by applying a discount code? Or is the code listed on the portal?
This one was advertised on both sites, so it’ll be fine
Thank you for your positive comments btw 🙂
You are falling into the classic trap. The $40 Macy’s Money can’t be subtracted from your cost. You’ve spent the money. You are getting a credit for a future purchase. Big difference.
For example if the offer was spend $100 and get $100 in Macy’s Money, is your cost 100-100=0? Nope – at best you are getting $200 of stuff for $100.
Not sure I agree as long as the accounting is done consistently i.e. you don’t count it as free money towards your next purchase. As always people’s valuation will vary based on their interest in future shopping at Macy’s.
I dont think you understand the math. Spending $100 and getting $100 off is a discount of 100%. Spending $100 and get a $100 credit for future purchase (which incidentally only be used in a 5 day window!) is at best a 50% discount.
Anyone who thinks those are equivalent is a retailers dream! 🙂
Normally I’d agree with you, but For the purposes of this article I made the assumption that you would be able to use these perks at face value.
In situations like this, I don’t buy everything I need and save something that costs around the same cost as the cash I’ll be getting, so that I can get full use of it.
Definitely see your point though
Nice stacking. But, why wouldn’t you get $50 Macy’s cash. Your cost is $287, that would be $50???
That’s a really good question actually. I’ll have to look at the terms and conditions again, strange