Never again pay for french fries. Free forever!

[JBDivmstr]

@Bricker

My hero for these kinds of stories is the guy who, in 1999, saw that Healthy Choice was running a promo: for every 10 bar codes of their product a person sent in, they’d be awarded 500 air miles on any of the then-major airlines. And there was even a promo-within-the-promo: anyone who redeemed the offer within the first month would get double that – 1000 air miles for buying 10 Healthy Choice products.

And he found single-serve pudding cups on sale for 25 cents apiece. $2.50 for 1000 miles – not a bad deal, yes?

So he drove around buying up every single one of those he could find, and because he didn’t want word to get out, he dropped hints he was stocking up for Y2K. He got so many that he couldn’t physically peel off the bar codes for all of them in time… so he worked out a deal with local food banks: he’d donate the pudding if they’d get volunteers to peel off the barcodes.

He spent $3000 on pudding – but got over a million miles with American Airlines, qualifying him for “Lifetime” Gold-level access. He’s flown with his whole family all over the world for free.

And he got the tax-writeoff for the charitable donation of pudding.

That’s freakin’ AWESOME!

[JBDivmstr]

@drewtwo99

All these scams that stick it to The Man and Big Fries, Big Pudding, and Big Airline industries get the drewtwo99 seal of approval.

I had heard about that mint scam a while back and was so sad that I missed it.

Shagnasty, I think you are my personal hero and I hope someday my credit score is good enough to do that. I recently got an airline credit card that I actually use, but to get any miles from it I had to make like $2000 worth of purchases first (which I did, but immediately paid off so that I never paid a cent of interest). No annual fee either for it, which is nice.

Doesn’t it hurt your credit score to be opening and closing so many new credit card accounts though?

Ditto the ‘personal hero’ accolade.
And +1 on the answer to the credit score question.

[Musicat]

@drewtwo99

Musicat, can you update us on your scheme and/or health? Have you been getting countless free fries since you discovered this method?

I haven’t been at my office during lunch where the latest receipt resides for a few days, but I will be there today. I’ll try the cycle once more and see what the new receipt says.

[Bricker]

@Bricker

He spent $3000 on pudding – but got over a million miles with American Airlines, qualifying him for “Lifetime” Gold-level access. He’s flown with his whole family all over the world for free.

And he got the tax-writeoff for the charitable donation of pudding.

@gaffa

This was a plot element of the 2002 Paul Thomas Anderson film Punch Drunk Love.

Indeed, and with good reason: that aspect of the plot was based on the real-life story of Phillips.

[gigi]

Of course I can’t find it now, but I thought there was the story of a guy who put a multimillion-dollar art auction purchase on his American Express card so he could get a mile per dollar?

[Musicat]

@drewtwo99

Musicat, can you update us on your scheme and/or health? Have you been getting countless free fries since you discovered this method?

Health-wise, I doubt if eating a bag of fries once a week will overly harm me.

Scheme-wise, I took a validated-code receipt with a zero purchase price to a MacDonalds today, and was given a bag of Duper Sized Fries. This will be the 3rd time without paying for it or buying anything else.

And a receipt for $0.00 with a FREE LARGE FRENCH FRY! offer. I went to the web site, filled out the questionnaire, and was given a new validation code.

So I’m set for my next Mac visit.

[drewtwo99]

Wow Musicat. I love the updates, keep 'em coming every time you cash in on your free fries.

[Musicat]

@drewtwo99

Wow Musicat. I love the updates, keep 'em coming every time you cash in on your free fries.

I have to man the office again on Saturday, go I guess that’s another fry day. Maybe I’ll bring a banana and some yogurt from home, just to balance it out. Why should fries have all the fun?

[Snickers]

@Inner_Stickler

Interesting. At the Arby’s I worked at, if the sandwich was from a survey code, it didn’t print out a new receipt. The best you could do was half your sandwiches free.

Huh. I always bought something else too (curly fries with a side of cheddar, sometimes a coke) - maybe that’s it? Because I was spending some money (instead of just leaving with my free sandwich), it overrode the “no receipt” rule, maybe?

Dunno. Fascinating.

I wonder if they made more or less money off me. See, I didn’t pay full price when getting all those Beef-n-Cheddars, but I did go in probably once a week. (Yeah, I had a problem.) Now that they’ve switched to turnovers, I go maybe once every three months. Maybe. (I’m also trying to eat better, so that’s a factor too.)

Interesting.

[Inner_Stickler]

Yep. If you actually spent money, you got a receipt. If all you did was redeem a sandwich code, then you got just the sandwich.

[Musicat]

@Inner_Stickler

Yep. If you actually spent money, you got a receipt. If all you did was redeem a sandwich code, then you got just the sandwich.

This could be a flaw in the system. At one of our two nearby MacDonald’s, which was rebuilt from the ground up a few months ago, you need a “claim ticket” with a big, 3-digit number, to pick up your food. That, coupled with the need to register the coupon request, makes it logical that a receipt/ticket would be printed out for ANY food order. The cash register operators never touch the food, bags, trays, or cups.

I haven’t tried asking for a free cup for some water by itself. Wonder if that will give me a receipt to pick up the cup. With a free fry offer!

[Ellen_Cherry]

@drewtwo99

All these scams that stick it to The Man and … Big Pudding,

Someone with cartooning skills needs to illustrate this statement. Big Pudding!