If you’re going to spend money shopping, shop online if you can and start off clicking on merchants through a rewards shopping portal to earn cash back or miles.
Your other alternatives are in-person transactions where you’ve purchased gift cards at a points-premium (eg 5x) or are using a tool like the MileagePlusX app. But with those methods you aren’t buying directly with a credit card and lose credit card purchase protections. Online shopping through a portal preserves that.
I use EV Reward to search which portals offer the best rewards for the store I’m going to buy from. It’s not perfect, always perfectly up to date, and there are other similar sites. But it’s a useful first comparison. I can see all my options for cash or miles in one place and see where I’ll earn the most for my purchases.
One nice thing around holidays and major shopping events is mileage bonuses on top of usual earning. Back to school is a big bonus time. Another is holiday shopping. And the holiday shopping bonuses have begun.
American AAdvantage 4000 Bonus Miles
American AAdvantage’s shopping portal is offering up to 4000 bonus miles.
Through November 19, 2017 you’ll earn miles based on your total cumulative spend through the portal:
- $150 earns 500 bonus miles
- $600 earns 2000 bonus miles
- $1200 earns 4000 bonus miles
No registration required and you’re earning a bit better than 3 bonus miles per dollar spent on top of usual mileage-earning when you hit a threshold exactly.
United MileagePlus 5000 Bonus Miles
United MileagePlus’ shopping portal is offering up to 5000 bonus miles.
Through November 19, 2017 you’ll earn miles based on your total cumulative spend through the portal:
- $150 earns 500 bonus miles
- $750 earns 2500 bonus miles
- $1500 earns 5000 bonus miles
No registration required and you’re earning a bit better than 3 bonus miles per dollar spent on top of usual mileage-earning when you hit a threshold exactly.
Southwest Rapid Rewards 3000 Bonus Miles
Southwest Rapid Rewards is offering up to 3000 bonus miles.
Through November 20, 2017 you’ll earn miles based on your total cumulative spend through the portal:
- $150 earns 500 bonus miles
- $500 earns 1000 bonus miles
- $1000 earns 3000 bonus miles
You can earn each of these bonuses only once, but you can earn each bonus separately. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more holiday shopping portal bonuses such as from Delta or Alaska.
Three years ago I interviewed the CEO of Cartera Commerce which runs many of the online shopping portal websites, just with different names, and he revealed a lot about how these sites work. By varying spending thresholds they’re able to test consumer behavior as well, and also adjust based on their beliefs about the behavior of the member bases of various programs.
Maybe it is just me, but I have noticed (particularly on Office Depot) that when I shop via some of these online portals to get the bonus, the prices are much higher than going to Office Depot directly.
So, I have given up on these deals.
With Office Depot — it’s always the free deals after rebates — do not apply when shopping via southwest portal, etc.
Robert, I have used portals for years and have gotten tons of freebies at OD & Staples. I go shop, put the items in my cart. Close out. Go to shopping portal, sign in, the click on vendor, go to cart, then check out. I triple dip, often getting the freebie after rebate/reward at OD plus OD points on purchase plus portal points (SW, Mypoints.com, AA, etc.) and use a points reward card like Amex, SW biz, etc.
When I click on the United shopping portal it takes me to the Southwest portal…
Can anyone tell me how to access the United portal? Link above keeps taking me to Southwest portal. Thank you.
Global Gal, took a few seconds using Google…:
https://shopping.mileageplus.com/p/holiday-bonus.htm
Thank you!!