The holiday season is here, which often means shopping for lots of folks. One way to earn miles even while not doing anything travel related is to click through shopping portals of your favorite airline. Of course, there aren’t deals for everywhere you might want to shop. But with a little work up front, it shouldn’t be too hard to find a way to earn extra miles or points for shopping you were planning to do anyway.
Here I’ll be discussing using the American Airlines shopping portal. This would also pair nicely with another promotion that Scott discussed previously. As he said, register first, but if your eShopping purchases earn at least 3,000 bonus miles then that will count as one “activity” for the promotion.
An example using shopping portals
I do a lot of shopping at Amazon, and I’ve found most portals don’t offer a partnership with that merchant. But depending on what you need — and where you shop — you could potentially get a nice bonus on your spending. Here is an example from the AA Shopping site:
In the above example, shopping online at Kohl’s earns 4 miles per dollar. So, spend $100, earn 400 AA miles for your purchase. Macy’s is even better, at 6 miles per dollar spent.
Almost every airline has some sort of shopping portal. Why not earn bonus points points for your holiday shopping? Sites like Cashback Monitor and evreward are good options to find the best portal for your online shopping needs.
Say you want to buy an iPad, and headphones. I go to Cashback monitor to look for the best option for getting bonus on my spending:
Places like Best Buy, Amazon, Target, and Staples are all presumably options for. Click through your preferred site, and find a program where you want to earn bonus points. Here are the current offers from Target:
Nothing here is of that much interest to me, but 5% cashback is a good deal. I’ve never used Simply Best Coupons, but for 5% return, it might be worth signing up. Otherwise 2 points/dollar is an option from various travel programs too.
Don’t forget that these bonuses are in addition to any credit card rewards you are earning. Stack up those bonuses.
What about shopping in stores?
Personally, I’m not a fan of shopping in stores if I can help it, especially with the crowds on Black Friday. There are still ways to earn bonuses on your in store shopping. Mileage Plus X is one good example, the link is to James’ thorough review of the app. Plus, many stores offer free in-store delivery, so you can have see what you are getting, then still shop online to get those bonuses, then return to the store to get your item.
Happy Thanksgiving. I hope the day is spent either with family or somewhere that makes you happy.
