Have Cash? Get 50,000 Miles from Investment Accounts!

One of the relatively constant mileage deals over the last few years has been the ability to earn bonus miles from investment accounts. With this deal from Fidelity, it’s possible to earn up to 50,000 bonus miles (depending on how much you deposit) in either American, United, or Delta miles. Here’s the breakdown:

  • Deposit $25K+, get 15,000 miles.
  • Deposit $50K+, get 25,000 miles.
  • Deposit $100K+, get 50,000 miles.
Miles from Investment Accounts
The AA offer. The United and Delta offers are identical.

These deals have been around in one form or another for several years. TD Bank used to have one that gave away SPG points, a deal I personally did, but more recently Fidelity has been running the show. The best part about these is that they’re repeatable in the sense that you can get this offer every 12 months and are not taxed.

So if you have some extra cash laying around and would like to earn miles from it every year, this is a great way to do so. To date, these have not been taxed. And according to the main FlyerTalk thread (that was started 5 years ago), the miles have been posting much faster than usual (within about 3 weeks), so you’ll have access to those miles very quickly.

There are a couple of catches:

  • The money added must be “new” money to Fidelity.
  • Your money must stay in the account for 9 months.

At one point it was possible to deposit money, withdraw it, and then deposit the same money back as a way to run up the deposit total. This is NOT true anymore, as you will need to deposit the full amount (over several deposits if necessary) to earn the bonus. No more cycling of money, unfortunately.

People that have pulled money out prior to the 9 month period have earned a lifetime ban from this offer. It’s not worth it to get banned from anything that gives you (almost) free miles, so be sure about it before you start the process. For those who don’t care about the ban, they do let you keep the miles. NOT something I recommend, however.

In my opinion, the American miles are the most valuable, followed by United and then Delta, which I frankly would not even recommend. While these are technically “free” miles, I’m not a financial adviser so be sure to do your due diligence to find out if the opportunity cost of tying up your money is worth it for this deal!

10 thoughts on “Have Cash? Get 50,000 Miles from Investment Accounts!

  1. You said it’s repeatable every 12 months but also that the money has to stay in the account for 9 months. Can I transfer holdings from my Etrade brokerage account to Fidelity and keep it for 9 months, get the miles, transfer it to vanguard for 4 months, then back to Fidelity for another 9 months and a bunch of miles?

  2. You turned me onto this offer a couple years and it worked great for me. I just took advantage of it a second time.

    One thing I’d mention that might not be obvious is that you don’t need to liquidate assets before transferring them to Fidelity. In many cases, you can transfer your securites without liquidating them. For example, I have a Vanguard age-indexed fund and I’ve transferred from Vanguard to Fidelity. Then from Fidelity to TD Ameritrade. Then from TD Ameritrade back to Fidelity. The securites remain the same – even the cost basis transfers along with the shares.

    Check with Fidelity before transferring the specific securites to make sure they can manage them. Their customer support on this process is really good, and in my experience they post the miles within a few weeks of completing the requirements.

    I go for the United miles over American, but that perhaps shows my preference for getting to Europe with miles.

    Great offer! Thanks.

  3. You are in essence paying $0.02/mile for this offer.
    Simple calc:

    $100,000 in a 1% APY savings account for one year will yield $1,000 in interest.
    50,000 points / $1,000 = $0.02/point.

    Of course, you have to pay tax on the interest and that will vary according to your situation. And you can currently find a 1 year CD with a 1.3% APY earning you $1,300 in interest.

    1. It all comes down to opportunity cost… what would you have done if you are not putting it in Fidelity? I am looking to invest anyways, so if it’s either Fidelity or etrade or schwab, may as well go with Fidelity since it gives me miles.

  4. @askmrlee”You are in essence paying $0.02/mile for this offer.
    Simple calc: $100,000 in a 1% APY savings account for one year will yield $1,000 in interest.
    50,000 points / $1,000 = $0.02/point.
    Of course, you have to pay tax on the interest and that will vary according to your situation. And you can currently find a 1 year CD with a 1.3% APY earning you $1,300 in interest.”
    You’re calculation is off. The deal is for 9 months of holding as opposed to 1 year for the 1% savings account (minus the income tax). So, “in essence,” it’s 1 cent per point.

  5. I’ve been shifting Ameritrade account(s) to Fidelity, for 3 years now. I only move enough for the offer and have been leaving the rest with Ameritrade. I’ll have it all in Fidelity after this year. Sadly I was a Delta addict so I was collecting SkyPesos. Burned! This year I’ve seen the light and am recovering.

    Too bad it’s only airlines though. Love to have Starwood points!

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