50,000 Easy AA, Delta, or United Miles with Fidelity…if you have 100K sitting around

by Adam

The Fidelity promos for AA, DL, and UA have been around for some time and offer an easy way to earn up to 50,000 bonus miles for depositing $100,000 in a new or existing account each year. Back in 2010/2011, the promos were extremely lucrative as you could double-dip by signing up for more than one partner promo per year and you were even able to cycle your money into and out of your account to reach the “100,000″ requirement. However, in recent years Fidelity has placed more scrutiny on both the rolling 12 month limitation and the cycling of funds to reach the 100k threshold (some still report this working but others have been warned). One positive change is that all three offers are now open to existing account holders and no longer limited to new customers (though there were ways around this requirement as well).  I followed the rules on this promo and signed up for the AA promotion in December 2011 and received 50,000 miles after maintaining 100k in the account for six months. I then pulled the funds and redeposited them in December 2012 to take advantage of the UA promotion. While the miles took almost eight weeks to post in 2012, in 2013 they posted to my United account after only 5 1/2 weeks. Back in December, I repeated the process again but went back to the AA offer (it had been well over the 12 month mark since my last December 2011 AA offer).  Though it’s rare for Fidelity to try to pull the miles back, I’m maintaining the funds in the account until the nine month mark as I want to be able to take advantage of the promo again next year. Yes, for 2014 Fidelity has changed the T&Cs to require that you keep the funds in your account for 9 months instead of the former 6 month requirement. They may clawback the miles if you do not meet the new terms. Note that there is still no requirement to actually engage in the purchase or trading of any stocks.

Remember, the bonus limitations are based on your social security number, so you can withdraw the funds, sign your spouse or significant other up for the promo, and then redeposit those same funds to qualify them for the bonus. An Apple $500 gift card offer is also available.

AA Offer 
DL Offer
UA Offer
Apple Gift Card

Questions? Check out this flyertalk thread for further details.

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The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

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8 comments

Tyler March 28, 2014 - 10:22 am

“Easy” miles????? This is a perfect example of how BA bloggers are becoming further and further removed from their audience. Not many of us can simply drop 100,000 dollars into an account based on some promotion.

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AA March 28, 2014 - 10:23 am

Adam – did you actually sign up for this deal?

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J March 28, 2014 - 10:50 am

So, if you already have the $ in Fidelity, you can withdraw the $, then re-deposit it and get the bonus?

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Tom March 28, 2014 - 12:31 pm

Hmmm, it seems a high-rate savings account might actually be a better way to park $100k for 9 months.

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CJ March 28, 2014 - 12:59 pm

Ally has a money market account paying ~0.85% right now. $100k * 0.85% * 9/12 months = $637.5. Seems like a slightly better use of the funds (investing in something, even a CD, would produce even higher income).

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Paul March 28, 2014 - 10:39 pm

Interest will be taxed while miles aren’t, so net effective value of cash is much lower depending on your tax bracket.

If using for premium travel you can get 5-10-20cpp value.

Ironically, the higher bracket you are in, the more it makes sense to use miles rather than cash. I wouldn’t dream of paying ~$26K for the r/t tickets in F on Cathay (in my case, equivalent to nearly $40K pretax) that I recently used. The 250K AA miles it required cost a tiny fraction of that (it was actually negative net cost thanks to various cash back methods).

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Paul March 28, 2014 - 10:28 pm

Been 9 month requirement since at least mid 2012. But they seem to be horrible at tracking. I kept my mid 2012 $ for 14 months. When I deposited second $ in December they tried to tell me I hadn’t met the 9 month timeframe in my first offer but as a “courtesy” they’d give me the points. I was irritated at that comment and told CSR to have correct facts before making such incorrect assertions. Reminded me why I moved my $ to Ameritrade many moons ago.

50K AA is worth significantly more than what you can earn in most interest bearing accounts if you use for premium travel.

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brent July 28, 2015 - 8:11 pm

Unfortunately, Fidelity also has the issue of managing to NOT record your account when you sign up for the offer, so they DON’T have to honor (ok, the absolutely refuse) the miles.

But if I put another $100 K in the account, they “might” give me the miles. How generous.

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