If you’re an online shopper and a collector of American AAdvantage miles, you’ll want to check out the latest limited-time shopping bonus from AAdvantage.
Offer Details
Through April 30, members of American’s AAdvantage program can earn a 500-mile bonus after spending at least $200 at any of the 850 online merchants participating in the AAdvantage eShopping portal.
Deal or No Deal
This isn’t among the most lucrative shopping bonuses in recent memory, and there will probably be better deals on offer in the coming months. But if your shopping needs are immediate, the bonus miles are a nice plus.
More generally, if you’re not earning miles by shopping at the airlines’ mileage malls, you should be. There’s no reason not to; the prices are the same. And by making your purchases through the airline’s portal, you’ll be earning miles — typically between one and 10 miles per $1 spent — that you don’t get when dealing direct through the merchant.
Making a good deal even better are the periodic bonus promotions, like these, that amp up the mileage-earning. Such offers generally proliferate around Christmas and other heavy buying periods, although recently the airlines have used back-to-school shopping and other recurring events as the hook to hang their promotions on.
RELATED: Use Your AAdvantage Credit Card to Book Discounted Award Flights
So, if you’re going to be shopping online anyway, it always makes sense to do so through an airline’s mileage portal, to earn miles for the purchases. And when there are extra bonuses in place, it makes even more sense.
As always, when shopping via an airline’s mileage mall, you must first stop at the mall’s landing page to log in with your loyalty-program credentials. Thereafter, purchases at any of the mall’s hundreds of participating merchants can be tracked and credited to your account.
Reader Reality Check
You are earning miles for online shopping, aren’t you?
After 20 years working in the travel industry, and almost that long writing about it, Tim Winship knows a thing or two about travel. Follow him on Twitter @twinship.
This article first appeared on SmarterTravel.com, where Tim is Editor-at-Large.
