In addition to paid travel and credit card sign-up bonuses, another great way to earn points is through shopping portals. For those of you who may not know, shopping portals give you additional points for buying products through them.
(READ MORE: Earning Miles Through Shopping Portals)
(READ MORE: How I earned over 1.6 million points in 2016)
Right now, four shopping portals have bonus points available: Southwest, American, United, and Alaska, all ending soon!
Southwest Airlines Promotion
This bonus ends on November 20th, and is a tiered promotion, meaning:
- Spend $150, get 500 bonus miles
- Spend $500, get 1,000 bonus miles
- Spend $1,000, get 3,000 bonus miles
American Airlines Promotion
This bonus ends on November 19th, and is the tiered bonuses are:
- Spend $150, get 500 bonus miles
- Spend $600, get 2,000 bonus miles
- Spend $1,200, get 4,000 bonus miles
United Airlines Promotion
This bonus ends on November 19th, and is the tiered bonuses are:
- Spend $150, get 500 bonus miles
- Spend $750, get 2,500 bonus miles
- Spend $1,500, get 5,000 bonus miles
Alaska Airlines Promotion
This bonus ends on November 19th, and is the tiered bonuses are:
- Spend $150, get 500 bonus miles
- Spend $300, get 1,000 bonus miles
Delta Air Lines Promotion
This bonus ends on November 19th, and is the tiered bonuses are:
- Spend $150, get 500 bonus miles
- Spend $300, get 1,000 bonus miles
Conclusion
If you’re able to maximize all three of these promotions, you’ll spend $4,300 and earn 14,000 points PLUS all the points you get from shopping through the portals. While you should never buy things just to earn points, if you have holiday expenses (or just expenses in general!), shopping portals can be a great way to earn bonus points.
Will you be earning these bonus points? Do you take advantage of these shopping portal bonuses in general? Let us know below!
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
I usually try to take advantage of shopping portal bonuses but they aren’t always the best deal. For example say a bonus offer is 500 points at United for spending $150 through United’s portal. Not bad but really only a bit over 3 miles per $. So if you go to buy an item for $150 from a store that is 2x miles with United. Great You’ll get 5x miles. But say AA or BA, etc. if offering 6x at that same store. You’re still better off to go that route if the programs are equal to you.
Then there are the odd issues. For example I need to spend more money at AA’s portal right now to hit the 3,000 mile threshold for the AA Holiday Bonus program. Of the issue of what card to use for the purchase. Or can you stack it with a gift card purchase and do better.
And then there is the Trump card. Say you work the system to get 20x miles that are worth 1 cent each. That’s really a 20% rebate. But if you have a coupon or other offer that can’t be used through the portal that is 30% off then that is better because it’s cold hard cash you didn’t have to spend 🙂