When I am planning to make a purchase on Amazon, here's an example of the steps I'll likely take:
- Load Ralphs 4x fuel points offer onto my Ralphs Rewards card.
- Go to Ralphs and purchase a $250 Amazon gift card using my Amex Hilton Surpass (Referral link can be found here if interested).
- Load the Amazon gift card to my account.
- Make the purchase on smile.amazon.com.
- Choose non-expedited delivery if the option is available.
From those steps I derive the following benefits:
- 6x Hilton points per $1 spent. I can usually redeem these for at least 1 cent per point, but have redeemed as high as 4 cents per point. This means I can get a return as high as 24 cents of value per dollar spent.
- 1000 fuel points. This is good for $1 off each gallon of gas at Shell for a full tank fill up. Using the Surpass I also gain 6x Hilton points per dollar spent on gas.
- Progress towards my $15k annual spend on Amex Hilton Surpass which will currently earn me a free night at any Hilton in the world. I've claimed free nights worth $2600+.
- $1 digital Amazon credit which I then use on movies I'd like to own.
- A small donation from Amazon to a charity of my choice.