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The American Airlines Shopping Portal is tripling its normal payout on GiftCards.com to 3 miles/points per dollar on up to $2000 in spend (per month). There is an additional, stackable bonus of 500 miles on $100 in purchases through the portal or 1,000 miles on purchases of $300+. The bonus 500/1000 will not create loyalty points towards elite status, but the 3x miles/dollar will…a nice haul for the those of us in the AA Loyalty Point Games.
The Deal
- American Airlines shopping portal offering 3x miles on Giftcards.com purchases.
- Stackable with 500 miles bonus on $100 purchase through the AAdvantage eShopping Portal or 1,000 miles on $300+ in purchases. (3/7/2022 – 3/14/2022)
- Direct link to offer (3x at giftcards.com)
- Direct link to offer (500/1000 mile bonus)
Key Terms
- If using Safari 12, go to your browser settings and disable the ‘Prevent Cross-Site Tracking’ setting before clicking through the portal for proper tracking to occur.
- Orders over $2,000.00 max per month per customer are not eligible.
- Not eligible on purchases made with coupon or discount codes that are not found on this site.
- 500/1000 miles bonus expires 3/14.
Quick Thoughts
3x is an excellent rate for giftcards.com through the AA portal, but always compare to Cashback Monitor to make sure that it’s the best rate out there.
The largest Visa Gift Card that can be purchased through GiftCards.com is $250 and there is a listed activation fee of $4.95 per card. Note that during the most recent sale, the activation fee was billing out at $5.95 per card. Shipping is $8 per order.
Although the terms of the 500/1000 mile bonus offer exclude gift card purchases, that doesn’t usually apply to Giftcards.com, so you should get the bonus with a giftcard purchase. The cards are issued by Metabank and liquidation has become trickier for many with these cards, so take that into account when deciding whether or not to pull the trigger and how much to buy.
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SPRINGVIP – use the code to get 5% off the purchase of Virtual Visa® Accounts, good deal and can get up to 3 $250 cards
If you want the 4.95 fee just order a 249.99 GC. They never fixed the $5.95 free from the the time you could order $500 GC and the $5.95 fee kicked in at $250.
Great to know! I had no idea!
Hi, this is probably a really dumb question but I am new to the gift card thing. Can you just deposit these gift cards into a checking account? If not, how do you liquidate them, besides purchasing things? I’d like to purchase using cards that earn points of course. Many thanks for any help you can offer. : >
Not a dumb question at all. No, you can’t deposit them directly into checking accounts. The easiest way is to use them to buy money orders and deposit those money order into a checking/savings account. However, this is VERY location and regionally specific. Check out this post for more details.
Thanks for the info!
I’ve placed 4 orders with different payment cards, for physical and ecards, and all have been cancelled. Any tips on not getting cancelled?
I’ve been having the same problem. I’ve always been able to place orders before (never going over $2000) and suddenly they all are getting cancelled. I went through support and ended up talking with a rep over the phone that said there’s no reason it should be happening. He made some changes, said to try again today and it was immediately cancelled.
This has been in issue with giftcards.com in the past, and it seems to have gotten worse again.
Missed the bonus 1000 miles by one day as I ordered yesterday… I was able to get MasterCard virtual cards. I have also placed these into SimplyMiles and beleive they are like debit cards and will trigger SM bonuses. Is that a correct thought?
I’m assuming they would? I haven’t heard anything about GC’s being excluded from SM, but I haven’t tried it personally.
I have been having major difficulty buying the virtual gift cards (Visa or MC). The orders constantly get cancelled. Even buying just a single $250 card gets cancelled most of the time, forget about trying to get multiple in 1 order. One day I was able to buy 2 of them (2 separate orders), but all other days, I get either 1 or 0 before every order starts getting cancelled. Very frustrating.
I am actually using them for normal spending which is why I am ok with the virtual cards instead of hard cards, and can skip the shipping. Any other DPs on what the rules are, because CS reps don’t give you any idea on what’s causing it.
My only successful orders have been for the physical/mailed cards.
I am still waiting posted AA points from February’s order.
Still no points for me from February as well. Plus there have been some recent DP‘s from Reddit about unexplained clawbacks
Both my cards posted from Feb. No claw back yet. Taking another swing on the 3x.
I’ve never been able to successfully complete an order for more than one or two virtual gift cards at a time. My orders for physical cards sail right on through.
i tried 3 separate orders all auto cancel. and i had bought 250 gc in the past with no issue. bought 3x at once back in july of 2020. chat with csr via online chat and they said to escalate it. waiting on results.
Has anyone had issues buying gift cards through this website not activating or something along those lines? I don’t mind going to OD or Staples but am a bit nervous about buying gift cards through a website
I’ve never had issues and haven’t heard of anything (outside of the usual foibles common to all VGC/MC). They are Metabank cards, but if you’re used to liquidating from OD or Staples, then you’ll be able to use these in the same way.
Is there any way to combine these small $250 cards into one large $2000 card after purchase? I’d like to pay $2000 to the IRS but not in 8 separate payments.
That’s the PIA with these small denomination cards. You can easily turn them into $500 VGC, but then you have to pay another activation fee. There are several “debit apps” that you can load via card and then withdraw, but none that allow more than 3-4 changes, as far as I know.
Also, I believe that IRS still limits it to 2 separate payments per year/quarter, depending on how you file.
+1 to this question. I have taxes to pay but it’s hard to do that with a bunch of $250 gift cards.
Tim, can you tell me where I stand with my “Platinum for Life” that I earned years ago when that was the top level? I am a 3 million miler, but am not likely to get any loyalty points. Will my Platinum level stay but lose any benefits?
My wife has Gold for life if that even exists anymore or whether it gives any benefits or not. We still have tons of miles.
Hey Frank, you guys will still get the Lifetime Platinum and Gold benefits. The big differences will be that 1) you’ll both be auto-added to every flight for complimentary upgrades without having to request them using 500-mile stickers and 2) by Fall/Winter, she’ll be be eligible for complimentary upgrades on flights where you guys are on the same reservation, again without using stickers…which is good because her upgrade priority will be below the “earned” Golds.
Hm, sounds good, though our 10 500-mile uogrades are going away, but I guess we may not need them. Never used them because we have always flown Bus Class on long trips.
Thanks.
Is the $2000 limit calculated per calendar month? I bought some gift cards on February 26, and I’m wondering if I can buy more now.
It’s by calendar month. I’m about ready to re-up this month myself 🙂
@tim have you attempted to pair these with another shopping offer on the portal? I needed a new grill so I bought HD gift cards and bought the grill through the shopping portal. It says on the portal that purchases made with gift cards ‘may’ not be eligible…guess we will see!