Earn Bonus Miles for Your Early Holiday Shopping at These Airline Portals
The major airline shopping portals have introduced their early holiday shopping bonuses, and your airline mileage balances will definitely benefit.
As with past promotions, extra miles can be earned when specific spending thresholds are met now through November 18, 2018.
And, as with previous shopping portal bonus promotions, Delta is the lone holdout for offering large chunks of miles. Delta does, however, allow for some extra miles earning, just not at the purchase-inducing levels its competitors are offering. Check Delta’s info below for details.
Here is a listing of each airline’s shopping portal holiday bonus miles promotion. Give them all a look, select your personal favorite and plan your upcoming purchases accordingly.
United MileagePlus
The United MileagePlus Shopping portal is offering up to 5,000 bonus award miles for purchases made between October 29 and November 18.
- Earn 500 bonus miles when you spend $150
- Earn 2,500 bonus miles when you spend $750
- Earn 5,000 bonus miles when you spend $1,500
The one-time bonus will be based on cumulative qualifying purchases made during the Bonus Period (10/29-11/18). Which means, you can make multiple purchases at multiple retailers on the MileagePlus Shopping portal and all of those purchases added together will determine which bonus miles tier you fall into.
United’s MileagePlus Shopping “in-store offers” qualify as purchases, as well. So, if you are an “in-store offers” user, those spend amounts will count towards bonus tier levels. This is an added perk for those earning MileagePlus miles since no other airline shopping portal has the option of in-store purchases counting toward tier awards.
And, of course, there is language that defines “Qualifying Purchases.” The purchase of gift cards stands out as not being a “Qualifying Purchase.” Click the United MileagePlus Shopping portal link above to read all the fine print.
American Airlines AAdvantage eShopping
The American AAdvantage eShopping portal is offering up to 4,000 bonus miles for purchases made between October 29 and November 18.
- Earn 500 bonus miles when you spend $150
- Earn 2,000 bonus miles when you spend $600
- Earn 4,000 bonus miles when you spend $1,200
Just like United, American’s one-time bonus will be based on cumulative qualifying purchases made during the Bonus Period (10/29-11/18).
And also just like United, the “Qualifying Purchases” language mentions gift cards as not being a “Qualifying Purchase.” You can read all the fine print at the AAdvantage eShopping link above.
Southwest Rapid Rewards Shopping
The Southwest Rapid Rewards Shopping portal is offering up to 3,000 bonus points for purchases made between October 29 and November 18.
- Earn 500 bonus points when you spend $150
- Earn 1,000 bonus points when you spend $500
- Earn 3,000 bonus points when you spend $1,000
As with the other airlines, the one-time bonus is based on cumulative qualifying purchases made during the Bonus Period (10/29-11/18), and, once again, gift cards are not considered a “Qualifying Purchase.” Check out the entire fine print blurb at the Southwest link above.
Alaska Mileage Plan Shopping
The Alaska Mileage Plan Shopping portal is offering up to 1,500 bonus miles for purchases made between October 29 and November 18.
- Earn 300 bonus miles when you spend $150
- Earn 750 bonus miles when you spend $300
- Earn 1,500 bonus miles when you spend $500
Alaska Airlines also offers the one-time bonus based on cumulative qualifying purchases made during the Bonus Period (10/29-11/18). Be sure to note the “qualifying purchases” restrictions that can be found in the fine print at the Alaska shopping portal link above. Spoiler alert, they’re the same as all the other airlines’ shopping portals.
Delta SkyMiles Shopping
Delta, as with most things they do (for better or worse), is handling their promotion a little differently. Rather than spending tiers that need to be met to achieve specific bonus mile/point awards, Delta is promoting select stores (retailers) on their shopping portal that will be offering increased bonus miles for purchases at varying periods.
Basically, they want you checking the SkyMiles shopping portal daily for increased spend bonuses that might apply to retailers from whom you want to purchase. I’ll leave it up to you whether you value SkyMiles, and your time, enough to put in that effort.
Here’s a look at a few of Delta’s currently featured stores with extra rewards.
You can view all stores/holiday offers at Delta’s SkyMiles Shopping portal.
Wrap Up
No matter your preferred airline, this is a good way to grab some extra miles/points for doing nothing more than the shopping you likely were already planning.
Simply click through to your preferred airline shopping portal, find the retailer from which you want to shop, click the Shop Now button and you’ll be taken to the retailer’s website just as if you were shopping like normal…all purchases will be registered as coming from a specific portal, and the appropriate purchase amount will be recorded.
It’s always smart to keep track of your purchase amount/date just in case something doesn’t register correctly with the shopping portal, though. If you’re making the effort to shop via a particular portal, you want to get the bonus points you’re due.
And, of course, bonus miles for hitting a specific spending tier are in addition to the typical miles-per-dollar-spent each retailer offers for making a purchase.
One caution when trying to meet bonus miles spending levels…each airline portal exempts shipping and handling and taxes from the amounts that are considered “qualifying purchases.” Only the amount spent on the item(s) purchased will qualify. This could mean the difference between hitting a spending tier level and not should you factor in the amount spent on shipping and taxes.
As you can see, it’s pretty easy to rack up a nice amount of miles/points just by doing your normal shopping via a specific portal.
Which airline’s shopping deal do you plan on taking advantage of?
