Lucky Hand
U/djmistral: “Some cruises will reward you for booking with onboard credit, sometimes easily $100/person. Being a family of four, that’s $400 that you can only apply to purchases onboard in the overpriced stores, restaurant upsells…The kicker also was the places limited you to how much you can buy with credit, for example in order to apply $40 onboard credit, you had to purchase something at least $120.
The loophole occurs because the credit is on your cabin’s spending account. Onboard, everything is charged to your cabin, including…casino loans/markers! I went to the onboard casino, asked for a $400 marker (which is charged to your room and deducted from the credit), played a few $10 hands and cashed out. The bonus was I didn’t lose many hands and had a win streak at the blackjack table. Ended turning my $400 onboard credit into $750 cash.”
Doubling Up
U/fuzzlor: “The one I use at Coles when I do my shopping is: Before you go in buy gift cards to the value you are expecting to spend. You will then receive FlyBuy points for that purchase. Then when you go through the checkout you will receive FlyBuy points again on your shopping as the payment method is not taken into consideration. Doubling your FlyBuy points over the course of an entire year can mean you have saved up several hundred $$ by Christmas.
For an additional bonus, you can then cash your FlyBuy points in occasionally by turning them into Velocity points when they offer a 2 for 1 point exchange or whatever. When I used my Velocity points I bought 2 plane tickets for my daughter and my grandson for 1/4 of the price I would have paid booking them through traditional routes.”