Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
The triple mile promotion is just the beginning of the story. Read on for ways to maximize points and savings…
This week, the AAdvantage eShopping portal is offering triple miles for a few merchants:
- LivingSocial 9X (was 3X)
- JC Penney 12X (was 4X)
- Charles Tyrwhitt 12X (was 4X)
And a couple of double mile deals:
- Nordstrom 8X (was 4X)
- Bose 6X (was 3X)
How to maximize points and savings
Here’s a 5 part guide to maximizing points and savings for shopping at these or any merchants:
- Compare portals to find the best rates
- Look for discount gift cards
- Look for the best online coupons
- See whether purchases made with gift cards earn points (or cash back)
- Shop!
1. Compare Portals
There is no single best portal finder, but I find it is a good idea to check both cashbackholic.com (for cash back rates) and evreward.com (for miles & points) to find the best options for any particular merchant. For example, with JC Penney, I checked both portal finders and discovered that the AA portal at 12X was in fact the best option for earning points. For cash back, the ShopDiscover portal currently offers 10% back.
2. Look for discount gift cards
Go to GiftCardGranny.com to search for gift cards for the merchant where you want to shop. For example, I looked up JC Penney and found gift cards discounted as much as 20%:
If you’re in a hurry to buy something, then look for e-gift cards which are typically delivered in a few hours or overnight:
Once you find a vendor to buy gift cards from, check cashbackholic again to see if you can get extra cash back for buying from that vendor. For example, here I searched for the gift card vendor “Raise”:
You can find sign up links for most cash back sites in my “Sign-Up Links” page. In some cases you’ll get a $5 bonus for using my links.
3. Look for the best online coupons
Normally I would simply do a Google search for something like “JCP coupons”. In this case, the site EvReward automatically showed some decent coupons:
Typically coupons found on sites like Ev’Reward will work fine with shopping portals.
4. See whether purchases made with gift cards earn points (or cash back)
In some rare cases, merchants won’t give you points (or cash back) for going through a portal if you make your purchase with gift cards. Visit the Frequent Miler Laboratory to see if data exists one way or another. For example, I went to the Laboratory and searched for “JCP”:
As you can see, attempts to use gift cards to buy merchandise and to get portal points or cash back were all successful. The only failures were the attempts to use JCP gift cards to buy other gift cards.
5. Shop!
Given the work done above, here is how I would maximize points and savings when shopping at JC Penney:
- Go through BeFrugal or TopCashBack to Raise to buy JCP e-gift cards for 18% off. By doing this, you would get an additional 2% back from BeFrugal or TopCashBack.
- Go through the AAdvantage eShopping portal to JC Penney and pick out merchandise.
- Apply coupons (e.g. 10% off).
- Pay with gift cards.
Through the above techniques you could save approximately 30% off anything at JC Penney and earn 12 miles per dollar!
Note that by using gift cards you do not get automatic warranties or price protection that are often automatically provided by your credit card company so in some cases you might do better to pay directly.
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Do not use TopCashBack. I bought and sold 25+ tablets (each worth $1000) with the expectation of getting about $750 in cashback. At first the transactions were getting recorded properly and after a few weeks, the earlier purchases were ready for a payout. I requested a Paypal transfer and surprise, surprise…they withheld the payment for an undisclosed reason. Then, some transactions weren’t recorded properly and today when I tried to log in, my account was closed without any apparent reason. As a matter of public service, you should have an entry to warn people to stay away from TopCashBack and to only work with cashback sites that actually payout.
agree Cartera is the cheapest , greediest, sloppiest, slackest piece of garbage company in the business, you can’t pay me to shop in any of their online shopping portals, they post offer they have no intention of honoring, have no customer service and will rip you off sooner than later…If you want headaches instead of points buy something from a Cartera run portal…including AA shopping mall
I’ve made JCP purchases before using partial gift card and partial credit card and the entire purchase has posted fine at every portal I’ve used (AA, Chase, Mr Rebates, Ebates)
If you are a big buyer of JCP, this might make sense. But for reselling, nacht.
However, I suspect the demographic who shops at JCP isn’t likely to have reward cards or take many vacations.
[…] Frequent Miler posted about triple points in the AA mall, but since the AA mall does me little good for my overall earning style I decided to check out his tools to see how much I can save since I was in the middle of an online purchase anyway. […]
Also, price compare before committing. I just bought a new gas grill so I checked the various UR portals. Lowes and KMart both had good point deals with Lowes being a bit better, but KMart had a better overall price on the type of grill I wanted so I saved even more money.
@marathon man. ++++. Cartera is evil
Do not get fooled by anything coming from an airline mall. Remember that cartera runs these and your miles may not post.
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I wouldnt touch this offer if paid to do so. Sorry
Karen –
I have received points on my Kohls GC orders. My most recent purchase was on May 20 and I could see them post in my account on May 24. Usually the points post a day or two after they have been shipped. I’ve done 4 GC orders within the past 2 weeks and all have posted.
Great post FM, too bad I don’t have any shopping to do this weekend.
Sorry – I meant to specify JCP purchases. Thanks, FM
How long does it take for the miles to get posted?
Can you double dip (ie buy gift cards from jcp.com and then log back in and use the gift cards for 12x + 12x). Thanks
Aaroncw: I don’t know (no one has tried it for the Lab). In general, I’d take the safer bet of buying gift cards for about 20% off rather than the risky bet of trying to get some miles when buying the gift cards.
I have not gotten points from ultimate mall buying using kohls GC for my last three orders. Has Anyone had the same experience. I used to always get it within 5 days.
any recommendation for merchandise to buy and resell?
Kevin G: No. In the past I’ve had a hard time finding good resale deals with JCP. I haven’t looked lately.