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The Southwest and United shopping portals both launched new spending promotions this week which offer up to 3,500 bonus points and 5,000 bonus miles respectively.
The Deal
The Southwest & United shopping portals are offering the following bonuses:
- Southwest
- Spend $100 & earn 500 bonus points
- Spend $500 & earn 1,000 bonus points
- Spend $1,000 & earn 3,500 bonus points
- Direct link to offer.
- United
- Spend $100 & earn 500 bonus miles
- Spend $500 & earn 2,500 bonus miles
- Spend $1,000 & earn 5,000 bonus miles
- Direct link to offer.
Key Terms
(Terms below are for the United offer; Southwest’s offer has similar terms)
- During the “Holiday Bonus” offer, which runs from 11/2/20 through 11/22/20 at 11:59:59 pm ET (the “Bonus Period”), Member will earn a one-time bonus of up to 5,000 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 $100; Tier 2 bonus: 2,500 miles for qualifying purchases of at least $500; or Tier 3 bonus: 5,000 miles for qualifying purchases of $1,000 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 3 bonus provides the maximum number of miles that will be awarded.
Quick Thoughts
The promotion on United’s shopping portal is the superior one in terms of the bonus per dollar as you’ll earn 5x bonus miles per dollar when spending the exact amount at all three different thresholds.
Southwest’s offer is set up strangely. You earn 5x points per dollar when spending $100, but only 2x points per dollar when spending $500 and 3.5x points per dollar when spending $1,000. That offer might still be preferable to some people though depending on how you value Rapid Rewards points versus MileagePlus miles.
Some airline shopping portal promotions only give you a week or so to hit the spending thresholds, so it’s nice that these offers are giving you three weeks to complete the spending. It’s highly likely that the Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta and Upromise shopping portals will offer similar promotions in the next week or so, so it might be worth holding off on non-urgent purchases if you’d rather earn bonus miles/cashback through one of those portals for your holiday shopping.
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[…] Southwest/United Portals: Earn Up To 3,500 Bonus Points / 5,000 Bonus Miles (Expires 11/22/20) […]
[…] aren’t the only shopping portal promotions right now as the United and Southwest portals are offering bonus miles, while the Upromise portal is offering up to $75 bonus […]
The United offer, while decent, isn’t nearly as good as last month’s. I spent $ 17. and earned $ 10,000 miles through the portal. I think these thresholds are high.
That was a United Visa Rewards offer which was only available to United credit cardholders – this shopping portal offer runs differently and is open to anyone.