I think I might just do this myself. Having Elite Plus has a few small benefits. With the savings I may also swap up to a LTE version. I did not think I would miss it originally.
On a side note, has anyone ever returned a product at Best Buy and used Reward Zone gift cards to purchase? I was curious if those get refunded as well. I would assume they would.
Yes. They re-issue the rewards certificate with a new expiration date based on the date of the return rather than the original expiration date (a good thing). Essentially, you will have to re-purchase without those immediately available. But that is not all that bad either - particularly if you need the dollars to count to reach $2500 goal this year (The jump to $3500 begins next year.) Using rewards, just as using a gift card, reduces the purchase amount that counts towards the goal, and of course neither generate additional rewards. Gaming the system, I actually saved all my rewards until after I met the $2500, and now have about $125 in rewards to spend before Jan 1.
Recent change, Nov 1...Do not use 0% financing if you can avoid it. While the purchase will count towards the $2500 (or $3500) goal, they removed ALL rewards points eligibility on that purchase, even 1:1.
Not a change, but ongoing policy and something to be aware of...and may release you to shop elsewhere, or other options. Any excess over $2500 does not rollover to count towards the $3500 next year. Jan 1 your account is set to $0 (Feb only reaffirms/adjusts your status level) which I believe is a major marketing blunder. HAving already met the $2500, I am going to pick up a $2599 MacBook Pro retina (0% financing) and use the 45 days to my advantage. With that overage that would be reset to zero, return it and repurchase (card 30 day cycle 100% payoff) and suddenly have that purchase counting for next year.