When most people think about earning loyalty points, they think they have to travel numerous times throughout the year on the same airline. When I hear my friends say things like “I don’t fly that much. I can’t possibly earn enough points for a free flight” I just want to shake them! Say it with me: flying is not the only way to earn reward points! While credit cards are one of the biggest and easiest way to earn frequent flyer miles, my favorite ways are by earning bonus miles for the things I’m doing anyway.
Enter: online shopping portals.
What are online shopping portals?
All of the major airline carriers partner with hundreds, if not thousands, of online stores to give you bonus miles or points when you online shop through their portal, rather than the retailer’s site directly. Meaning, as long as you have a frequent flyer account with the airlines (if you don’t – sign up for every one. They’re free!), you can earn bonus miles just for shopping online for things you were going to buy anyway!
There’s no gimmicks here. It’s not earning miles when you purchase this specific air fryer, or only if you hit a minimum spend… nothing like that. Every single dollar you spend can earn you 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, and sometimes MORE on many of your favorite airline loyalty programs.
How to find your airline’s shopping portal
Below are direct links to the major portals for easy reference:
- AAdvantage
- Alaska Mileage Plan
- British Airways Avios
- Delta SkyMiles
- Flying Blue (KLM/AirFrance)
- jetBlue True Blue
- Southwest Rapid Rewards
- United MileagePlus
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
If your airline isn’t listed above, a simple Google search of “[Airline] shopping portal” will give you a quick response.
Typically, this is the best route to take if you are loyal to one specific airline/alliance, or you want to be strategic about earning miles. For example, I was looking to use miles to go to Hawaii and when I looked up the flights I wanted to take, I realized I was just a few thousand points shy of having enough to cover the entire flight. Rather than pay cash and have my points sit and collect dust, I was strategic about my earning. I took every opportunity to earn bonus miles on Hawaiian Airlines, even if it was as small as 1x/$ and I could have gotten 4x or 5x on other carriers. I used this online shopping as a way to achieve my goal of getting a free flight- and it worked!
How to find the best reward for each store
If you’re shopping online and you just want to get the absolute best bang for your buck that you can, taking one extra (super easy and quick) step can help to maximize your rewards! There are plenty of online websites and resources that can clearly lay out the best options for each store through each of the shopping portals to give you rewards. My personal favorite is Evreward. They have recently redesigned their site and it’s now even more user friendly than before!
From their homepage, simply type the store you are shopping at into the search bar at the top and they will instantly pull up all the offers for each loyalty program that partners with that store! Let’s take Anthropologie for example:
It clearly lays out every loyalty program that partners with Anthropologie and shows the current bonus for each. While it may appear that Flying Blue is far superior offering 15x, make sure you read carefully… that’s for every $10 spent, meaning it’s only 1.5x/$. British Airways is the best deal in this scenario, offering 4x Avios/$!
What I like about Evreward is that it’s so clearly laid out and easy to read. I can quickly pick out my top airlines and compare top offers. Personally, since I don’t fly British Airways frequently enough to have a solid base of points, I’d opt to go with jetBlue or AAdvantage. Pick the offer that is most suitable to you and your needs!
Once you find the deal you want, simply click on the button, log in to that airline’s loyalty program, and it will direct you straight to the shop’s website where you can browse and check out like normal. So easy!
Maximize your online shopping
Ah, the art of double dipping. My favorite! While the above can earn you some serious reward points, that is only the beginning for maximizing your takeaways!
Don’t forget: using a travel rewards credit card will also earn you points on this purchase on top of the bonus miles through the portals. Most of the time, these categories won’t fall into the bonus ones through a credit card, so it’s important to find an everyday card to help you maximize. The Capital One Venture card earns you 2x miles on every purchase, and is ideal for purchasing merchandise and goods (a category rarely touched by other cards).
Let’s pretend you’re looking to buy a new Apple laptop for $1,000. Your first step would be to check Evreward for the maximum bonus. At time of writing, jetBlue offers 3x/$ on Apple… score! You click through the portal and use your Capital One Venture card to pay for it. Without even trying, you just earned 5,000 miles.
$1,000 x 3 points/$ with shopping portal = 3,000 points
$1,000 x 2 points/$ with credit card = 2,000 points
Tips to keep in mind
- Make sure you enable cookies. While it may be instinct to always click away from that pop up, it’s important to enable them as this is what links your purchase to your frequent flier account.
- Don’t click away and come back. Sometimes it works, other times it doesn’t. Don’t risk it and try to complete your shopping in one session. If that’s not possible, click back through the portal when you return.
- Read the fine print. Typically gift cards are excluded from earning bonus miles. When in doubt, take the couple of minutes and skim through the fine print.
- Be patient. Point deposits are not instant. It varies by each portal, but sometimes you’ll find yourself waiting for the next “cycle” for your points to deposit into your account. Sometimes it’s as quick as a day, other times it’s a month. Be patient and plan accordingly.
- Check rewards each time. Deals change, and sometimes loyalty programs offer limited time promotions that can increase your bonus. Just because it’s 3x/$ one day, doesn’t mean that will always be the case or the best deal. Check each time before you shop.
- Subtotals only. Your total points and bonuses will only be on the subtotal of your purchase. This will exclude taxes and any shipping charges associated.
Bottom line
Say it with me, scream it out loud, tattoo it onto your forehead… whatever you do, just promise me this:
I will always buy through online shopping portals.
Traveling soon? Check out my Travel Tips page to help you score good deals on flights, packing tips, tools to help you plan, and more!
No Comments