Obtaining points and miles is simpler than you think. Often, free miles are sitting directly in front of you but they can easily be overlooked.
I hear, almost on a daily basis, “well, with my schedule, I don’t get to travel so it’s hard for me to earn miles.”
“You don’t have to travel to earn miles. In fact, you don’t even have to have one of those fancy schmansy reward credit cards to earn miles either” is my typical response.
THE BASICS
When you visit a website, you’ll often see advertisements and links to other businesses. When you click on those advertisements, the original website is often rewarded for sending business to the advertiser.
A great example is if an airline sends you from their website to the Apple website. The airline will make a commission for the referral and after you make a purchase at the Apple website, the airline will reward you with extra bonus miles just for simply clicking on that link. Everyone wins!
APPLE PRODUCTS ANYONE?
If you’re in the market for Apple products, today may be the ideal day for that purchase.
For today only, many airline shopping portals have inflated the amount of miles you will receive for Apple purchases. Rather than receiving the standard 1 or 2 miles per dollar spent at Apple, you may be able to obtain as many as 10 miles per dollar spent at Apple. In other words, if you were in the market to buy the new iPhone 11 Pro Max which costs ~$1000, you’d earn 10,000 airline miles.
If you consider that American Airlines charged 10,000 miles for a roundtrip ticket from the US to New Zealand, it’s not hard to see why this opportunity can be lucrative.
Additionally, if you do have a fancy schmansy credit card, you’d also earn credit card points for the transaction.
SO HOW DOES THIS WORK?
Airline shopping portals are the key here. Here are the bonus miles being offered…
10 miles / $1 – American Airline Miles
8 miles / $1 – United MileagePlus Miles
8 miles / $1 – Alaska MileagePlan Miles
6 miles / $1 – Delta SkyMiles
4 miles / $1 – Southwest Rapid Reward Miles
4 miles / $1 – British Airways Avios
2 miles / $1 – Virgin Atlantic Miles
You can, literally, earn thousands of airline miles without leaving the comfort of your home.
It’s also worth noting that airline shopping portals award bonuses to a variety of stores, however, the increased rates change all the time. For example, Hotels.com frequently offers up to 12X on many airlines shopping portals. In other words, you’d be getting 12 airline miles per dollar for purchasing a hotel that you were going to purchase anyway. Sounds like a win to me!
PORTAL DIRECTIONS
There is one step that has to be done before completing your shopping on the portal… sign up for the airline frequently flyer program of the airline that you want to obtain miles on. For example, if you want American miles, sign up for the AA frequent flyer program because you will need your number to sign into the shopping portal.
- Click on the airline portals (above) where you want to obtain miles
- Sign in using your frequent flyer number. This is a very important step. The airline website uses a tracking link and tells the airline how many miles they owe you.
- Search for the retailer (e.g. Apple in this case) where you’re going to make a purchase. Click on their link and you will be redirected to their website.
- Make a purchase
- Wait for your bonus miles to appear in your frequent flyer account.
Note: In general, it can take some time for your miles to appear, just in case someone tries to refund or cancel an order, so don’t expect them quickly. I’ve never had any challenges but I also take screenshots of every step just in case I need to provide proof that I followed the steps correctly.
FINAL STAMP
I encourage you to read the terms and conditions because there are some exclusions. However, purchase an item that I was already going to purchase
…get 10X airline miles (aka a free airline ticket)
…and get additional credit card points for my purchase
…for simply clicking on a website link? I’m in!
This is as close to “free miles” as you’re going to get since you’re not paying anything to acquire the miles.
And just think… your friends just spent gas money driving across town to the Apple store, bought the same item that you purchased and did not get a free flight.
You qualify as a saavy shopper!
So who is taking advantage of the shopping portal bonuses?
1TattedPassport 