In November, there was a great portal combination that let you earn up to 19X AA miles at Backcountry. I took full advantage of it to earn 25,000 AA miles and profit about $80 by buying and selling Garmin GPS watches and GoPro cameras (they were on sale at the time).
Great Deal: 18X AA Miles At Backcountry [GoPros, Outdoor Gear, & More]
The opportunity to earn 18X AA miles at Backcountry is now here – but this time with no stacking of discounts and no minimum spending! If you are trying to pick up AA miles quickly before the AA devaluation in March, this is a great way to do it.
Gift Cards Or Discount Codes?
This time around, there are no coupons or gift cards available on the GoPros to help in the resale of them but you could still buy any type of gear you need to get some serious miles. There is one coupon that you could take advantage of this time (and it is in the portal as a code as well so no problems using it and getting the miles) – JAN50. It takes 50% off the regular price of items in the outlet.
A 18X AA mile payout is huge, and especially for a place like Backcountry where it is easy to get a variety of gear that you actually will use. If you buy while this is live, you should easily be able to get the miles in the next couple of weeks (as is my typical experience with the AAdvantage portal).
Value Of Portal Payout
I think most people would value AA miles around 1.7 cents per mile so that would make this like getting a 30% rebate on your spending at Backcountry. If you want to rack up miles, you could try reselling some of the stuff that you find at a loss to buy the AA miles at less than the regular cost.
For an example, if you bought $1,000 in items and took a $300 loss on resale, you would earn 18,000 AA miles and be paying just over 1.66 cents per mile, which is pretty good if you plan on redeeming for something great like international first class.
Summary
So, are you going to try this out? I have bought some things so far and checking for some others. Hopefully you can find some things as well, whether it is what you need, gifts, or for possible resale.
Thanks for the tip! Since November I’ve been looking for a pullover, and haven’t seen one that was just right for me. BackCountry.com had a highly rated Patagonia. It wasn’t on sale, but with free shipping and 18 miles per dollar it the best deal I’ve seen.
Any idea how long this 18x offer will be good for?
Till tomorrow I believe.
Hi Charlie
How is Backcountry coded on a credit card statement? Is it a clothing store?
Thanks
Merchandise & Supplies is the way it appeared for me.
Charlie,
Please let us know if you have any suggestions on how best to use a backcountry gift card.
Thanks
Thank you very much for this! I just purchased some camping gear for about $980, pushing my AA balance from 40-55k, just in time for a 1 one biz to Asia 2 🙂 Now I’m considering buying another $833 to push my other 40k AA to 55k too….
Additionally, I was immediately called by a rep from backcountry asking me about my purchase experience; at the same time, I was on chat asking them about their price match. I was able to price match something to the manufacturer’s direct website for $25 less; I was able to price match something else to REI’s site EVEN THOUGH THE ITEM WENT OOS AFTER I ORDERED (which leads me to believe they may dropship =P). The lads over there are great!
Anyways… if you want any of my A3 upgrades etc just let me know, I can’t use them and your blog has been very helpful to me 🙂