Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

A few weeks ago, I was talking about some of the shopping portal bonuses that various companies were offering as part of the week surrounding Black Friday.

american-shopping-portal-2015

Those deals are expired now (though there are a few shopping portal bonuses this week!), but at the time, I walked through a plan where I was planning to earn 51,000 points from taking advantage of all of the portal bonuses

Total rewards:

  • 23,725 Ultimate Rewards
  • 8,770 United MileagePlus miles
  • 7,400 American AAdvantage miles
  • 8,540 Southwest Rapid Rewards
  • 2,780 Delta Skymiles

Do gift cards track in shopping portals

My plan was mostly to buy discounted Gap / Old Navy gift cards at Staples in order to meet the bonus targets.  All of the Ultimate Rewards came from the 5x using my Chase Ink card.  I was aware that Visa gift cards and Mastercard gift cards did not track through shopping portals, but I thought that buying merchant gift cards tracked for shopping portals.

In any case, I thought I’d give it a shot, and at the very least, the 20% off deals that Staples was offering would let me at the very worst break even reselling the gift cards

Checking portal bonuses to see if gift cards track in shopping portals

Let’s fast forward a few months and check my portal accounts.  Here’s my American shopping portal account

american-shopping-account

Just has one transaction that I made on Office Depot on Black Friday, and none of my merchant gift cards at Staples.  Let’s check United

united-shopping-portal-account

Nope, nothin.  So it seems pretty clear that the answer to the question if merchant gift cards track in shopping portals is a resounding no.  This might be old news to some people, but I just thought I would throw my data point out there as well.

Happy shopping to everyone!


Points With a Crew has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Points With a Crew and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers and that compensation may impact on how and where card products appear on the site. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own, and have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by my advertising partners and I do not include all card companies, or all available card offers. Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers and other offers and benefits listed on this page. Other links on this page may also pay me a commission - as always, thanks for your support if you use them

User Generated Content Disclosure: Points With a Crew encourages constructive discussions, comments, and questions. Responses are not provided by or commissioned by any bank advertisers. These responses have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the responsibility of the bank advertiser to respond to comments.

BoardingArea