(EXPIRED) Alaska/United Shopping Portals: Earn Up To 1,000/1,040 Bonus Miles

The Alaska Airlines and United shopping portals both have promotions running on their shopping portal this week. The Alaska portal is arguably the better offer, but there’s no reason why you can’t take advantage of both before they expire next week.

The Deals

• Alaska Airlines shopping portal
  • Spend $50 & get 500 bonus miles
  • Spend $300 & get 1,000 bonus miles
  • Direct link to offer
• United shopping portal
  • Spend $40 & get 140 bonus miles
  • Spend $100 & get 540 bonus miles
  • Spend $300 & get 1,040 bonus miles
  • Direct link to offer

Key Terms

(Terms are for the United offer, but terms for the Alaska offer are similar other than the expiry date as Alaska’s offer ends May 12, 2021.)

• During the “40^th Anniversary Bonus” offer, which runs from 5/3/21 through 5/17/21 at 11:59:59 pm ET (the “Bonus Period”), Member will earn a one-time bonus of up to 1,040 MileagePlus bonus award miles on qualifying purchases made through the MileagePlus Shopping mall or from purchases made through MileagePlus Shopping in-store offers.
• This one-time bonus award will be based on Member’s cumulative qualifying purchases made during the Bonus Period using one of the following tiers: Tier 1 bonus: 140 miles for qualifying purchases of at least $40; Tier 2 bonus: 540 miles for qualifying purchases of $100 or more; or Tier 3 bonus: 1,040 miles for qualifying purchases of $300 or more.
• “Qualifying purchases” do not include returns, cancellations, shipping and handling, taxes, gift card or other cash equivalent purchases, and certain products that are not eligible for bonus miles.
• Please see the MileagePlus Shopping mall site for details on product eligibility and other restrictions.
• Please allow up to 6-8 weeks after the Bonus Period for bonus award miles to post to your MileagePlus Shopping account.
• The Tier 3 bonus provides the maximum number of miles that will be awarded.

Quick Thoughts

The best return on a per-dollar basis is to spend $50 through the Alaska portal because the 500 bonus miles you’ll earn effectively means you’ll be earning 10x miles per dollar which is an excellent return, especially seeing as Mileage Plan miles are more valuable than other airline miles.

Note that the expiry dates of the two portal offers is different. If you think you’ll be able to max out both offers, it’d likely be best to focus on Alaska’s offer first seeing as that ends on May 12 whereas United’s offer ends five days later on May 17.

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