Free Money Hack: United MileagePlus + Visa Checkout + Starbucks = 135% return

A lot of companies are running pretty desperate promotions to attract customer traffic, and I stumbled upon a confluence of 3 interlinked promotions that was good for some free money. I was checking my United MileagePlus statement today and saw this teaser:

According to NerdWallet, 500 bonus miles is worth approximately $8.50, which is enough for me to bother bending over to pick it up. (Sorry $0.31, I'll get you next time!) It asked me to sign up for Visa Checkout and spend $5 within 15 days with one of their partners. I entered the info and looked at their store directory and zeroed in on the one retailer where I had the best shot of spending exactly $5:

I went straight to their gift card section, and found another promotion waiting for me:

So let me get this straight. . . you're telling me that if I spend $10 on a Starbucks gift card, which is essentially cash, I'll get $5 in Starbucks bucks AND $8.50 in United miles? Shut up and take my money! It seemed a little too good to be true, but I went ahead and bought the $10 gift card and sent it to myself, and this is what I got:

So at this point the "return" on my investment is 50%, and if those 500 bonus miles post to my account, then I'll have 135% return. Not bad for doing almost no work and a little pre-paid spending. I'll concede that Starbucks essentially "won" in this transaction because I ended up spending $10 instead of the original target of $5, but I consider that an acceptable loss. So. . . if you have a United Mileage Plus account, any kind of Visa card, and think you'll spend any money at Starbucks in the future, go get some free money!

P.S. On a trading floor, the rule of thumb is that you get 3 words to order something from Starbucks - usually size, temperature, and descriptor. "Venti Ice Coffee", "Tall Hot Cappuccino", "Grande Soy Latte" are all perfectly acceptable. "Double-shot low-fat pumpkin spice frappaccino with whipped cream and cinnamon" would get you laughed off the floor.