Deal has expired, view more WSJ deals by clicking here.
The Offer
- The United Airlines shopping portal is offering 1,000 bonus miles when you shop through the portal to purchase a $1 2-month Wall Street Journal subscription.
The Fine Print
- The trial subscription purchase must be made between February 4, 2019 at 12:01am Eastern Time through 11:59 pm Eastern Time on February 8, 2019 and must remain active (i.e., may not be cancelled) for at least 45 days.
Our Verdict
Remember you need to keep the account active for 45 days and if you don’t cancel before the two month trial is up you’ll be automatically enrolled into a regular subscription. So just set a remainder to cancel shortly after the 45 day period. All of the other portals only give the bonus with a $12 subscriptions.
Hat tip to readers Leonardo M & Gators5220
Reminder to all who signed up for this deal that we’re in the cancellation period now. 45 days from 2/4 is 3/21, so get on it before your two month trial is over. I was able to cancel online, but I believe CA is the only state that requires offering online cancellation of subscriptions. Much, much better than calling 1-800-JOURNAL.
Mine posted 2 days after the purchase.
Interesting note on cancellation. The sign-up page clearly states “You can cancel anytime”. However under T&C’s, “4. Term; Cancellation and Renewal”
“4.2 NO CANCELLATION POLICY FOR SUBSCRIPTION BUNDLES WHICH INCLUDE A TABLET OR OTHER MOBILE DEVICE (“DEVICE BUNDLE”). THE INITIAL TERM OF SUBSCRIPTIONS TO A DEVICE BUNDLE ARE NON-REFUNDABLE AND NONCANCELLABLE. YOU HAVE AN UNQUALIFIED OBLIGATION TO PAY EACH PAYMENT DUE FOR YOUR SUBSCRIPTION.”
In all caps no less (vs the rest of the T&C’s). WTH!?! Even the “bundles” on the sign-up page clearly state can cancel anytime. And what does UNQUALIFIED even mean in this context. Why do companies not offer clear, concise, non-contradictory terms?
And then on the Purchase page, below the purchase button it says “…charges $1 + tax monthly…” Doesn’t anyone proof read anything anymore? I believe this is supposed to be for the 2 month term, not a dollar per month. Who knows? I don’t want to do deal with a company that has these discrepancies for a measly 1000 points.
Agree.
I back out from the purchase page because
1) it seemingly still stored an email address used to subscribe UNDER NORMAL TERM, at least more than a decade ago – because I got error message telling me the password did not match with the email address, in the Create Account process.
2) The discrepancies found in areas that are critical.
That also reminds me why I did not continue my normal subscription decade ago because at the beginning, no less than 2 supervisors promised me the subscription would not be auto-renewal, that I would always receive an email notification about upcoming renewal – it was even written in the terms.
Guess what? I got a charge on my CC on the renewal out of the blue.
Took me 3 phone calls to get that reversed.
The company is sleazy.
No wonder there are suggestions to use virtual card number or VGC/MGC with just enough balance if people still want to do the deal.
I was able to stack this with the Amex offer $75 off $185 WSJ. I was already a subscriber so this saved me some money.
I can see a “Cancel Online” button if I go through this link: https://customercenter.wsj.com/contact
Doesn’t that work? Anyone tried it before?
“Cancel Online” is available to California folks, or those that change their billing address to California.
Thanks. that explains it.
“those that change their billing address to California”
So is that a trick that works for non-CA folk too?
I used my United Chase credit card last time for this deal (a few months ago). Is it a good idea to use a different credit card this time?
Did it last time and had no issue with over phone cancellation.
Another way to not have to worry about the subsequent charge would be to use a Visa/MC gift card that you subsequently drain so that you cannot be charged again, correct?
Technically this will work, but the problem is they could consider the payment declined and money owing to them. This could cause you to go to collections, in reality I’ve never seen this happen but better to just cancel.
Makes sense – thanks for the reply.
how do these types of purchases show up on your mileage account ? do they show up looking like this/ “ASM ON-LINE PURCHASE MILES” i wanted to know if i got my miles and i see that it came in like this
That should be correct. How long until they showed up for you?
Mine showed up as “MileagePlus Shopping” 2 days after the purchase.
Barrons: $1 for two months, 1000 united miles, 1300 AA, 950 sw and alaska miles
WSJ: The same as Barrons and also 800 delta skymiles (worse, but better with 1000 miles partner bonus if you are targeted.
Barclay Arrival Rewards boost too (1300 points)