Anatomy of Maximizing an Amazon Purchase

 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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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+.
4. $1 digital Amazon credit which I then use on movies I'd like to own.
5. A small donation from Amazon to a charity of my choice.