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New year, new airline shopping portal promotions. Those have kicked off today with dual promos from the American Airlines and United shopping portals. They’re both offering the same number of bonus miles, but the spending thresholds are different.
The Deals
- American Airlines portal
- Spend $200 & get 500 bonus miles
- Spend $400 & get 1,000 bonus miles
- Direct link to offer.
- Expires January 19, 2023.
- United portal
- Spend $150 & get 500 bonus miles
- Spend $300 & get 1,000 bonus miles
- Direct link to offer.
- Expires January 18, 2023.
Key Terms
Terms below are for the United shopping portal. Terms are similar for the American Airlines portal except for the expiry date and the fact that the AA portal doesn’t have an in-store card-linked offer program
- During the “New Year’s Bonus” offer, which runs from 1/9/2023 through 1/18/2023 at 11:59:59 pm ET (the “Bonus Period”), Member will earn a one-time bonus of up to 1,000 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: 500 miles for qualifying purchases of at least $150; or Tier 2 bonus: 1,000 miles for qualifying purchases of at least $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 10 weeks after the Bonus Period for bonus award miles to post to your MileagePlus Shopping account.
- The Tier 2 bonus provides the maximum number of miles that will be awarded.
Quick Thoughts
If hitting the exact spending thresholds for these promotions, the American Airlines portal is giving an effective 2.5x bonus, while the United portal is giving an effective 3.33x bonus. Those bonus miles are good to have, but be sure to compare rates on Cashback Monitor first in case other shopping portals are offering more generous returns even after taking into account these bonuses.
With the American Airlines portal, note that even though you earn Loyalty Points towards status with your base spend, the bonus 500 or 1,000 miles you earn won’t earn a corresponding number of Loyalty Points.
As for the United shopping portal, its spending thresholds are easier to hit not just because they’re lower, but because you can also hit that spend through in-store purchases at eligible retailers when paying with linked cards.
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At $400, AA offers about a 5% return on spend, am taking it, thx!