When Getting Miles for Shopping is a Bad Deal

Bad Deal – Miles for Shopping Flowers

One of the things that we advocate here at LVA Travel is to get points whenever you can. Whether it’s flying, dining or shopping, there always seems to be an opportunity to rack up the miles. For instance, airlines offer miles if you make purchases through their shopping portals. Go to an airline’s site, find the area where you can earn miles for shopping and access your favorite store through the link. They’ll give you miles based on how much you spend.

But just because you’re getting a few, or even more than a few, points doesn’t a deal make. I’m going to use flowers as an example, since they’re a common purchase, but the advice below can also apply to other purchases.

Comparing Offers – Miles for Shopping Flowers

With Mother’s Day coming up, a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of miles. Um, flowers, I mean, flowers. Fortunately, many of the airlines offer you a way to get both. Simply access a carrier’s shopping portal on their website and they’ll give you a bonus for buying flowers through their site. To keep it even, I’ll compare the FTD offers from the various airlines.

Want Delta SkyMiles? They’ll give you 20 miles per dollar spent at FTD.

It’s even better at United and American, each of whom will give you 30 miles for every dollar that you fork over.

I value miles at anywhere from a penny to 1.5 cents each so, depending on which deal you take, you’ll be getting anywhere from a 20% – 45% rebate, right? Well, it’s not necessarily as great as it sounds.

What You See May Not be What You Get

Every picture of flowers for sale on a website is beautiful. They’ve been staged that way. But will they actually look that way?

Maybe, maybe not. I’ve ordered flowers online that turned out to be great, while I’ve ordered others that came looking like overgrown weeds. Sure, you can always complain and get another bunch, but who wants to go through that? Visit your local florist and pick out the ones you like.

You Won’t Earn Miles on Every Penny

The bill for an online flower order looks a lot like one from a rental car. There will be a smallish line item for the actual purchase. Then another one for taxes. And another one for delivery. And one for service fees. And so on. But you’ll only get miles for the flowers.

What about purchase qualifications? Buying flowers under $20? Using a gift card? Getting add-ons like a vase? Those purchases are excluded.

In other words, read the Terms and Conditions.

You’ll Probably Get the Worst Flowers

As you probably know, the internet flower companies don’t have stores set up around the world. Rather, they contract with local florists to manage their orders. In return, the local florist gives them a hefty commission, as much as 50%.

Let’s assume that you’re a local florist. You have a few busy times of the year which are make or break for you, e.g., Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Arbor Day, etc. If you don’t make money during these holidays, you won’t survive the slow seasons.

So if half of your orders are from walk-ins and/or regulars, while the other half are from an online florist, who are you going to give the best ones to, the anonymous person from an internet site which takes half your revenue, or the local customer who will come back to you if they like your product? Exactly.

Remember, Get Value for Your Dollars

It may sound strange that we are writing a site about points and miles and telling you specifically not to earn them for a particular purchase, but it shouldn’t. Rewards currency is about value.