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The United MileagePlus Shopping portal is offering increased payouts of 10 miles per dollar right now at many stores, including Staples, Kohl’s, Macy’s , Bloomingdale’s, Sephora, Neiman Marcus, and many more. That might stack really well with the Kohl’s “mystery coupons” worth 20-40% off (it’s easy to get a 40% code). Unfortunately, portal miles on Staples gift card purchases have been clawed back recently, so this offer won’t be exciting for that purpose.
The Deal
- Get 10x United miles per dollar at many stores
- Direct link to MileagePlus Shopping
Key Terms
- See key terms on individual store pages
Quick Thoughts
Staples looks interesting on the surface because of past successes with some gift card purchases through airline portals, but recent reports (and experience by the Frequent Miler team) indicate that those miles are now being clawed back in most instances. However, if you need to buy something at Staples today, stacking 10x United miles with 5x Ultimate Rewards via the Chase Ink Cash card (or old Ink Plus card) is an excellent return.
Kohl’s stands out to me because they have emailed out “mystery coupons” this morning good for 20-40% off. The coupon that came in my email was good for 30% off, but it’s easy to get a 40% off code. In years past, I’ve had no trouble trading a $5 Amazon gift card for a 40% off code in the Slickdeals thread dedicated to the mystery coupon. Prices have surely increased since the Black Friday / Cyber Monday craziness, but I’ve had good luck in scoring big deals with these 40% off codes in the past, often finding profitable resale items. If you can do that and also score 10x miles, Happy Wednesday to you.
There are plenty of other stores offering 10x miles today that may be of interest (see the screen shot above). If you find a great deal at any of those stores, share it with us in the comments.
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Was excited at first about Kohl’s but since you don’t earn Kohl’s Cash today, that more than completely offsets it (I’d estimate that Kohl’s cash is worth at least 8x miles). And last I checked, they say that portals don’t pay when using coupons greater than 20% (not sure if that actually happens though).
I haven’t ordered at Kohl’s in quite a while now, but I always used to get miles with a 40% off code.
But Kohl’s cash isn’t worth nearly so much to me. See the strange economics of Kohl’s cash:
https://frequentmiler.com/the-strange-economics-of-kohls-cash/
I used to get the miles too (with the 40% off code). I think I may have gotten them since they officially started excluding coupons above 20%, but I’m not positive.
It’s been awhile but I typically value Kohl’s cash at about 80-85% of its face value (and yes, you need to know all of the rules).
My general “flow” was:
1) Buy coupon-eligible items (basically non-electronics) with a coupon (and discounted gift card) when it’s a Kohl’s cash earning period (particularly when you can get a 40% off coupon and/or there are large portal bonuses).
2) Buy electronics with the Kohl’s cash.
Whatever you can net selling the electronics is thus the value of the Kohl’s cash. There are some items that sell on Amazon for more or less the same price that Kohl’s sells them for. Thus the only thing you lose are the Amazon fees. Some of these items have a commission as low as 8%, so with the other fees you can do ask well as netting 87 cents for every dollar of Kohl’s cash, and thus you should value Kohl’s cash at 87% of its face value.
Even if the item has a commission of 15% and the Amazon selling price is 10% under the Kohl’s price, you’re still taking home about 73% of the Kohl’s price – I think that should be the absolute floor of what you value Kohl’s cash at.
Any claw backs with OD for purchasing the Happy cards?..
OD doesn’t sell those online as far as I know. No clawbacks on buying them in person…