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The American Airlines shopping portal launched a new promotion yesterday that’s offering 500 bonus miles when spending $75 or more in a single transaction. This can be done four times for a total of 2,000 bonus miles.
While the $75 spend requirement is a little frustrating compared to their normal promotions, it has the benefit of enabling you to earn 7.67x AAdvantage miles per dollar on third party gift cards.
The Deal
- Spend $75 or more in a single transaction through the American Airlines shopping portal and earn 500 bonus miles, with a limit of 2,000 bonus miles.
- Direct link to registration.
Key Terms
- Expires September 16, 2019 at 11:59:59pm ET.
- Member must register for the bonus in order to be eligible to qualify for a bonus award.
- This one-time bonus award will be determined based on the number of individual “qualifying purchases” of $75 or more during the Bonus Period using one of the following Tiers:
- Tier 1 bonus: 500 miles for 1 individual qualifying purchase of $75 or more;
- Tier 2 bonus: 1,000 miles for 2 individual qualifying purchases of $75 or more;
- Tier 3 bonus: 1,500 miles for 3 individual qualifying purchases of $75 or more;
- Tier 4 bonus: 2,000 miles for 4 or more individual qualifying purchases of $75 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 AAdvantage eShopping mall site for details on product eligibility and other restrictions.
- Please allow up to 10 weeks after the Bonus Period for bonus miles to post to your AAdvantage eShopping account.
- The Tier 4 bonus provides the maximum number of miles that will be awarded per member.
Quick Thoughts
Airline shopping portal bonus promotions tend to be based on cumulative spend when meeting a spending threshold, so usually you could spend $3 in 25 different transactions in order to qualify for a $75 threshold bonus. I was therefore a little underwhelmed initially when seeing that the terms of this promotion require $75 or more be spent in a single transaction in order to earn the 500 bonus miles.
When thinking more about it though, I realized that it provided a rewarding opportunity if you need to buy any third party gift cards. GiftCards.com is one of the sites available through the American Airlines shopping portal and it sells a wide range of gift cards for brands like Lowe’s, Target, Home Depot, Best Buy, eBay, Airbnb, Uber, etc. The AA portal is currently offering 1 mile per dollar spent at GiftCards.com which is better than nothing, but not spectacular considering you can earn cashback of 2% or more through a number of other shopping portals.
This promotion makes the math far more interesting though. If you buy a $75 third party gift card, you’ll earn 75 miles at the 1x rate plus 500 bonus miles for a total of 575 miles. That’s a return of 7.67 miles per dollar which isn’t at all shabby when added to the points/miles earned from whatever credit card you use to pay for the order.
If you plan to take advantage of this offer – whether to buy gift cards or something else – be sure to register for the promotion first. I don’t remember ever seeing an airline shopping portal bonus that you specifically had to register for, so it’ll be easy to overlook that requirement if you’re not careful.
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[…] good thing about this 6x offer is that it’ll stack with several others. First, the AA portal is offering 500 bonus miles when spending $75 or more in a single transaction. That bonus can be earned up to four times, so it […]
[…] from the American Airlines portal, spend $75 on gift cards and trigger the 500 bonus miles from their latest promotion. If you do that, the actual amount you spend will need to be $75, rather than the value of the gift […]
Just to clarify – I’d have to make 4 separate $75+ purchases/checkouts to maximize this deal, right?
Also, does it matter if its e-gift card or physical?
Yes, you’d need to place four different orders to max out the deal – one order of $300 would only trigger one bonus of 500 miles.
It shouldn’t matter whether you buy physical or digital gift cards.
[…] Miler: American Airlines Shopping Portal Bonus: Spend $75+ & Get 500 Bonus Miles (Limit 4) (Sept. 10, […]
Do you think an egift card at Walmart will work?
That’s unlikely – I’m not aware of eGift card purchases from Walmart tracking through portals.
Are we sure buying $75 gift cards at giftcards.com will work? The terms specifically say that gift cards are not eligible for bonus miles.
Was wondering the same thing…
@Stephen – Thanks for the Hat Tip!!! I’m using this promo at GC.com with a slightly different technique but along the same lines as you suggest.
@Captain Greg & @Jules – Based on my experience, yes, you will earn AA miles including promotional bonus miles at GC.com when using AAdvantage eShopping.
~Craig
As Craig noted, this should work. I think the gift card exclusion wording is just standard wording they insert seeing as gift card purchases at stores don’t usually earn bonus miles.
In the specific case of GiftCards.com though, you earn miles because the only thing they sell is gift cards, so it should trigger the 500 bonus miles.
Thanks! Seems like a pretty good deal then since we’re easily getting more than 10% back when you consider the value of AA miles.