This the third in a series (posts one and two) of posts on getting started earning, managing, and redeeming points and miles. Everyone shops online and it’s one of the best ways to earn
incremental points and miles. Most
airlines (United, American, Southwest, etc…) have shopping portals that enable
you to earn points by clicking through their affiliate links. Many Chase issued cards also have their own
shopping portal through Chase Ultimate Rewards called the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall.
Sample United Shopping Offers |
It’s really simple…click through one of the links above, login using your AA/United/Southwest/Chase credentials,
find a retailer, click through to their website and shop as you normally would
online. During an especially big
promotion earlier this year, we spent a few hundred dollars at eBags when they
were offering 35 miles for each dollar spent.
We earned over 10,000 miles in about ten minutes buying Christmas
presents and a new suitcase for Emily.
Holiday Shopping yielded a ton of AA miles |
In some cases you can “double dip” to really maximize the
points earned. I’ve been able to go through
a shopping portal to buy a gift card earning 4x points. Then I used that gift card to pay for
something I was going to buy anyway through the same portal earning another 4x
points. Everyone has a different
“valuation” for how much their miles are worth.
I value most of my airline miles at $.02 each. So earning an incremental 8 miles per dollar
spent is like getting 16% off your purchase for a few minutes of work.