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Many blogs have written about this month’s AAdvantage eShopping portal promotion. A lot of people received seemingly targeted emails offering 2,000 bonus miles after spending $35 or more through the portal.
I was a bit frustrated because I hadn’t received this email and the offer was unclear whether or not it was available to everyone. What I was sure of, was that I could view the offer easily enough through this link: www.aadvantageeshopping.com/p/promo2.htm. But the Terms and Conditions were a bit concerning (bolding is mine):
Terms and conditions: Now through 9/30/13 11:59 PM EST receive an additional one-time bonus of 2,000 miles when you shop through this email and spend a cumulative amount of $35 or more online in the AAdvantage eShoppingSM mall. Returns, shipping, taxes, gift card purchases, and certain products are not eligible for bonus; please see site details on any coupon code details or usage restrictions. Please allow 8-10 weeks from end of promotional period for bonus miles to post to your account. Void where prohibited by law.
Since I was unsure whether or not the promotion would work for me, I sent a message to the portal’s customer service team. I told them that I hadn’t received the email, but wondered if I qualified anyway? They responded as follows (bolding is mine):
I understand your concern and I will be happy to assist you. Please be advised that being that you are already a registered member for the AAdvantage eShopping mall, to earn the 2,000 bonus miles all you must do is spend $35 or more at any of your favorite stores that participates in our program. Please note, it does not matter if you received the promotional email.
Please be mindful that shopping miles and bonus miles are posted separately. Eligible members will be credited the miles for the promotion 8-10 weeks after the promotion end date (09/30/13).
So, that’s great! It looks like anyone who is registered for an account with the AAdvantage eShopping portal qualifies for this offer! My only hesitation is the knowledge that sometimes (often?) customer service personnel are wrong. I’m sure they always intend to give accurate information, but sometimes things that they have been taught are not the same as the way systems like these actually work. So, we’ll see.
Ensuring bonus points
I doubt it really matters, but to be (pretty) sure of getting your bonus points, I recommend the following:
- If you did receive the email, then start your shopping from the email itself. Click through from there to the shopping portal.
- If you didn’t receive the email, then start here: www.aadvantageeshopping.com/p/promo2.htm, and click the “Shop Now” button under the offer.
What to buy?
It should be pretty easy to find stuff you need that adds up to $35 or more. If not, here are a few options for maximizing point earnings by buying gift cards:
- Triple dip with the AAdvantage portal and Plink. See details here: Plinking Sears. Make sure to add Kmart to your Plink wallet and buy a $50 physical gift card from Sears. At the time of this writing, the portal is offering 4 bonus miles per dollar at Sears, so your $50 purchase should result in 200 standard bonus miles + 2000 promotional bonus miles + $6 worth of Plink points.
- Triple dip through Staples. Click through the AAdvantage portal to Staples (2X) and buy a $50 e-gift card. Staples’ sells gift cards to stores such as The Home Depot, Lowes, Southwest, Sears, and more. Pay for the purchase with a Chase Ink card (5X) or Amex SimplyCash (5%). Your purchase should result in 100 standard bonus miles + 2000 promotional bonus miles + 250 Ultimate Rewards points (if you pay with a Chase Ink card). 2350 points for a $50 gift card purchase is pretty good! 47X!
- Other store gift cards. Most merchants offer gift cards for sale, but not all gift card purchases result in earning portal points. Check out the Frequent Miler Laboratory to see which merchants offer portal points for gift card purchases.
Note that I wouldn’t worry too much about the fact that other portals may have higher regular payouts for the same store. If you keep your purchase total to between $35 and $50, then you will earn at least 40 miles per dollar from the promotion regardless of the standard bonus points! For example, let’s say you want to spend $40 at Kohl’s and you need to decide between the AAdvantage eShopping portal which offers only 2X for Kohl’s or the Ultimate Rewards Mall which offers 10X for Kohl’s. In that case, you’re still better off with the AAdvantage portal. Thanks to the 2000 bonus points, your $40 Kohl’s purchase would earn 2080 miles (52X) which is obviously much better than 400 points (10X) earned from the Ultimate Rewards Mall.
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I knew going into this that many things are true:
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Cartera blows. Anyone who believes differently is either lying, lucky or doesnt do ANY volume of anything at all. they fail to post and will burn you in your attempts one way or the other.
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That said, I decided I HAD to try this gig… the girl in the ad for the 2k miles was pretty cute so why not. I also ordered something I needed anyway at the time, which was a few home Depot gift cards I bought through the portal at Staples.
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Today marks the last day for my 8-10 weeks, with the very last day of the 10 weeks being my mark. All I see is 100 miles, which now reflect a Sept posting (I never liked it how some airlines such as US and AA like to post things in like an insert to where they should have been but weren’t –until months later). That’s the 2x of the $50 GC e-purchase I got from the store. Did this for my wife’s AA acct too, so she also sees the 100 miles with a Sept post date, matching the paperwork I saved on this issue.
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So now 2k bonuses for either of us. And of course we know the gig states no GC purchase will get the bonus, but some reported it did. Well I figured I would spin the wheel anyway but yeah, it did not.
Well now that everyone is totally PO’d at AA for this shopping debacle they come in and post the miles two months AFTER THE FACT………I just don’t get how some marketing folks can be so clueless at times………whatever buzz they created with the 2k offer they took back with the slow boat to China treatment………since then I can’t count how many times I shopped on Ultimate Rewards and got “almost” instantaneous postings of miles………..And I go on AA site to look at next spring trips to Europe in premium class……….just pathetic routings with horrible layovers and second tier airports……….AA there is a reason you are bankrupt and Delta and UA are blowing by you…………….
Have any one gotten 2000 miles yet?
Any idea if the bonus miles are ‘tracked’ along with the purchase miles? Or do they show up separate? Currently have my ‘tracked’ order from NewEgg showing up as only the points earned from the purchase and not the bonus, which is disappointing.
Nate, I also today just received my miles for the purchase, but no indication of the bonus miles.
Nate: I expected that they would post separately. Give it time.
Anybody not targeted with this offer got the 2k?
Jason: You’re right, I goofed. You get 6% back in Plink points which is $3, not $6 (except when Plink offers double Kmart rewards)
How to get $6 worth of Plink points? Usually one can only get 300 Plink points for a purchase of $50 at Kmart. Is there a doubling event?
[…] fabulous job of breaking down promotions. I was pretty excited when he described the details of 2000 easy AAdvantage miles for everyone? Since our household has an Ink Bold card, it made a lot of sense for us to both use the link for […]
I actually had stuff I needed to buy instead of GC’s. Time to find something to buy for $2.21, better safe than sorry!
Debbie: it depends on whether the merchant reports shipping or taxes to the portal as part of the total sale amount. I believe that most do not, so it’s safer to spend $35 pre tax/delivery
@Debbie There should never be tax on a gift card and the e gift cards from Sierra Papa Alpha Papa Lima Echo Sierra should have no shipping costs………..
Do shipping and taxes count towards the $35?
Beware everyone, the AA mall, like most others, is run by Cartera. They are notorious for botching their own promos, failing to post points for months on end. While I strongly recommend anyone willing to take the risky and frustrating plunge into this at least print EVERYTHING out for every step you take in the shopping mall process, I will warn that if you dont just luckily and seemlessly get this 2k, your situation will make waiting on missing cash back from TCB look like a walk in the park.
The Frequent Miler; the blog all other blogs should aspire to.
Quality post.
@Terri Great question drilling down to specifics………
@Frequent Miler Great answer…….the learning curve never arches in the quest for miles and points……
Is there a reason to buy giftcards at staples.com (2x aadvantage portal) over officemax.com (3x aadvantage portal) ?
terri: Yes, in my experience, buying gift cards from Staples via portals results in getting points whereas buying from OfficeMax does not.