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Last week, Sears offered 12 to 16 miles per dollar through the United MileagePlus Shopping portal and then 12 miles per dollar through the AAdvantage eShopping portal. Many of us jumped in and bought gift cards, e-gift cards, and merchandise.
In many ways, many purchases were a leap of faith. For example, e-gift cards at Sears haven’t worked for earning portal points for quite a while, but at the beginning of these promotions the Sears’ T&C stated that gift cards were now allowed. Then, that terminology went away. Then, a new statement appeared and excluded gift cards. All of this led to increasing confusion about whether or not points would be awarded. For the full story, please see “Sears gift cards and the mysterious case of changing terms and conditions.”
Confusing terms and conditions also led people to wonder whether their merchandise purchases would really result in miles earned. Are tire purchases considered excluded auto services? Are marketplace items allowed or not? What about Kenmore or Craftsman items? I believe that all of these items qualify as long as you can “Add to cart” while still on Sears.com, but the Terms & Conditions make it unclear. Similarly, physical gift cards are sold and shipped by Kmart so it looks like those are excluded even though many past experiments have proven otherwise. Take a look at the latest T&C, for examples. I’ve bolded some of the relevant parts:
Please note these terms & conditions: Not eligible on purchases made with coupon or discount codes that are not found on this site. Only products with “Add to Cart” button are eligible. Not eligible on Home Delivery Charges, Auto Services, PA and Installation, Master Protection Agreements, Take With, Protection Plans, Sears auctions, Landsend.com, PartsDirect, Sears Canada, Portrait, Craftsman, Kenmore or Outlet purchases. Sears Marketplace products with “Go to Site” button are not eligible. Not eligible on Sold by Kmart items or any other licensed partners. Any return, exchange or other adjustment made at a physical store location for an on-line purchase may result in your purchase being deemed ineligible. Not eligible on gift cards, gift certificates or any other similar cash equivalents.
Regardless of the specific wording of the terms and conditions, what really matters is how Sears has implemented their systems. If they report your purchases back to the portals, those purchases will qualify for miles. In my experience from the past, other than e-gift cards, any item with an “Add to Cart” button while still on Sears.com does in fact result in points.
Points start to post
On Saturday evening, many United MileagePlus Shopping purchases started to post within the portal. To see for yourself, log into the portal and click “My Shopping Account”. In my case, all of my merchandise purchases posted along with two of my gift card purchases: one small e-gift card and one small physical gift card. This is good news because it means that gift card purchases most likely will post for those who bought them.
Waiting for the rest
Not everyone has seen all of their miles post yet. In my case, there are many e-gift cards and physical gift cards that have not yet shown up. Many readers have reported the same for gift cards or for large merchandise orders. This is normal. In many past deals, we have seen the same portal behavior. Small purchases post quickly. Larger purchases take much longer to appear. It’s not unusual to have to wait about three weeks for portal points to post for purchases of $500 or more.
In my case, many of my e-gift card orders were quite small ($50), so they should have posted quickly. But, when I made those purchases I had to call Sears’ verification department to get the orders to go through. At that point, they were all verified at once. My guess is that my batch of e-gift card orders are being treated as one large purchase with respect to how long it will take for Sears to report the transactions to the portal. At least, that is my hope.
The waiting is the hardest part
There’s no doubt that it’s nerve racking waiting for portal points to post. But, that’s all we can do right now: wait and hope. Good luck everyone. And, please comment below to let us know whether your United or AA miles have posted.
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[…] Waiting and watching for points to post: Last year, Sears ran a fantastic promotion through the MileagePlus Shopping portal where they offered up to 16 miles per dollar. Most people eventually received all of the miles they expected, but for many it took weeks for the miles to appear. […]
I’m also still waiting on miles and debating how much longer to wait. It was a TV so I’m concerned something went wrong with the tracking between the order, verification, and delivery process. It has been over a month since delivery now. These portals can be a pain.
So officially been a month since this post, 5 weeks since purchases and I’m sitting at 7 out of 11 tracked for eGC purchases, so short 3200 miles. Debating when the proper time is to raise a stink about it, seeing as how 7 of them posted.
@Ken – I’ll wait a couple more weeks before picking up the phone. FM suggested 3 wks, so we’re still a bit under that threshold. But if you call then make sure to post back with your experience.
I bought 3 $500 e-gift cards. To date (almost 3 weeks out), MileagePlus Shopping Portal does not indicate any activity.
…waiting…anxiously.
@DrewBird – Neither do my 12 $50 GC purchases. I’m not holding my breath. I wonder if there’s any use contacting the portal to inquire about the missing points.
Following up on my earlier posts:
11x $50 eGC purchased with CF on 10/ = received miles for 7 transactions, plink points for all
$550+ tire purchased with 99% eGC + 1% CF (used promo codes outside of list) = received miles on total order
So I’m still waiting on 4 of the 11 eGC transactions (how weird of a number when 10 were purchased/released at the same time, 1 straggler the next morning)
I did the e-giftcard and received my plink points but not from united.
Also wanted to add a data point. I bought 9 $50 Print gift cards from Sears through the United portal on 10/9 and have received the Plink points but nothing through United. I used those gift cards for a Sears purchase through the AA portal on 10/13 and got 12x points for them … although only on half of my purchase amount. Not sure what happened there.
@Rita – I did 10 Print GCs and didn’t receive United points OR Plink points. Nothing for 12 $55 GCs.
@RP – I never expected it to be “profitable”…just thought of it as buying miles VERY cheap. I sold them for $261+shipping. Ate about $45 per tablet. I did the same last year with the GEN1 version of the Nexus 7 and the only problem I had was some dude claiming that he received a bad unit, and refused to ship it back because “he’s in China”. Clearly a scam. Other than that, I made about 130k UR points from the Sears 10x promotion last fall. That’s why I jumped on this promo this time.
Just to let you know that I have purchased $ 1000 in physical gift cards and the points posted today. 16000 miles + 1000 from United card =D
I bought $5,000 in physical gift cards. One transaction, 10 $500 cards. Points posted today. Just a data point.
@Gabriel – Great work. How much did you sell the Nexus 7 for? I tried to come up with a selling plan for the same product, but it was not profitable. You may have the hassle with the returned items due to Amazon return policy.
Updating from my earlier post – I had ordered 21 separate batches of $50 e-GCs and 16 of them stopped showing as pending transactions on my CC. The charges did end up finally posting last week. Still waiting on Plink points for those, but I’m sure those will come through. Unfortunately, a grand total of zero United miles have posted through the portal so far, so I’m getting a bit discouraged, especially after seeing everyone else’s having already posted above.
@Matt – Don’t worry, you’re not alone. I had 12 $50-$55 purchases and none of them have showed up on Plink or the Mileage Shopping site.
I bought 2 gift cards ($500 each) on 10/9 and just saw the points (16K) posted on the UA shopping portal!!
Update for 10/20. ALL transactions have posted. This includes $1500 in e-gift cards, as well as 2 transactions for Google Nexus 7 tablets (5 total). Also positive is that I’ve already sold and shipped all 5 Nexus 7″ tablets through Amazon…thus I’m DONE. Final tally = 53,100 points for $238 in losses. 0.448 cents/pt. I can also think of it as a one way business class ticket on United for $238. Not too shabby, huh?
Still nothing for me. 12 $50 orders and not one posted to Plink or Mileage Shopping. When should I be calling/emailing both portals?
Gabriel awesome job!!!