Got an email a week or two back letting me know I could link my CC card Rewards account to Amazon. Mentally filed it away under "might come in handy someday" and thought nothing more about it. "Someday" arrived sooner than expected.
Bedroom TV has been cranky for a couple months, losing picture and not responding to the remote. It started as an brief glitch every week or two. Over time, frequency and duration slowly increased until it was happening at least once an hour and lasting for up to a minute. Last night it crapped the bed completely. It would stay on for fifteen or twenty seconds, lose picture for a bit, then spontaneously reboot. No magic smoke but it's definitely a progressive board-level failure of some sort. Can't gripe much, though. I picked it up on an open-box sale more than a decade ago so I got my money's worth.
SWMBO and I were looking at replacements on Best Buy when I recalled the "Shop with Points on Amazon" thing. Ten minutes later a TV and stand are on the way for zero out of pocket. It isn't the most frugal use of points as the $ per point value is noticeably truncated versus things like travel, but it still beats shelling out $450. Even with that, we still have a huge point balance due to intentionally running everything possible through the CC. Nice upgrade, too, as the old TV was only HD, and that by just enough to call it so. Had to get a stand due to the new TV's outboard kickstands being too wide for the space. No biggie as I'd wanted to do that for a while. It'll tidy up the space and leave a perfect spot for the Roku.
Biggest question now is whether or not it will arrive undamaged. We have a local Amazon distribution center which also houses the area delivery group. Hopefully that reduces bounces between transport modes and limits potential for damage.
Brad