Alaska Airlines offers its mileage plan members opportunities to earn miles for both shopping online and in-store. I had been using the Alaska Airlines “Shopping Button” for my online purchases. Alaska reminded me that I can also earn shopping miles during in-store purchases. Combine mileage plan shopping with the Alaska Airlines Visa credit card and you have opportunities to double-dip on your mileage earning. In this post, I will review both shopping options to add miles to your Alaska Airline Mileage Plan account.
Online Shopping Using the “Shopping Button”
Like most of the other airlines, Alaska Airlines has an online shopping portal. Before the shopping button, the Alaska Airlines shopping portal was cumbersome to use. You first had to go to the shopping portal website and see what merchants were participating in the program. This list of merchants would also change from month to month. I would print out a list of participating merchants before I made online purchases.
That all changed about two years ago with the shopping button. Most people won’t use a function that is either cumbersome or time-consuming to use. The shopping button fixed that by running in the background as a browser extension. Currently, this browser extension works in Google Chrome and you can find it here. Once the extension is installed, just go out to any online merchant and the shopping button will alert you if that merchant participates in Alaska Airlines shopping. If that merchant participates, the shopping button will show you the current mileage earning rate and any special earning promotions.
Getting rewarded for your online purchases is easy, simple and painless.
Earning Miles For In-Store Purchases
I have to admit it, I can’t believe that I have overlooked this mileage earning opportunity. The Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan will award you miles for making in-store purchases.
This process is different. You will have to find merchants in your area by going to the store-finder webpage. When you find your store, the next step is to add your eligible credit card for that merchant. When these two steps are completed, your in-store purchase will be automatically tracked for credit to your Mileage Plan account. The example below shows the current in-store opportunities today that are closest to my home.
Double Dipping
What can be better than earning a mileage bonus for shopping? Getting two mileage bonuses for the same purchase. This is an easy one-two punch:
- Use the shopping button for online purchases or link your credit card for in-store purchases and
- Pay with your purchases with the Alaska Airlines Visa credit card.
One example of how I use this is Walmart. When I need anything from Walmart, I purchase those items online using the shopping button and pay for that purchase with my Alaska Airlines visa credit card. When I get the email from Walmart that my order is ready, I drive over to the Walmart pickup area and an employee will bring out my purchase. Besides earning miles, this method also saves me time by eliminating the in-store process.
Final Thoughts
Earning those extra miles for everyday purchases is great if the process is easy, fast and not cumbersome. The Alaska Airlines shopping portal has made the shopping bonus a painless process. Earning miles for purchases may seem like small potatoes. Double-dipping makes those small potatoes into larger potatoes. When you repeat the process over and over, you will be surprised how quickly your Mileage Plan account balance will grow.
Get rewarded for making those everyday purchases.
