As the holiday gift-giving season looms, consider shopping online to add to your frequent-flier account.
Purchasing online is an easy way to increase your miles or points and there’s plenty of variety in vendors, including department stores, electronics chains and home improvement stores.
Each airline has an online mall where you can earn miles or points while making purchases with major retailers. You’ll earn at least one credit for each dollar spent, and some retailers offer more.
To earn these miles or points, go to the airline’s online shopping mall and log in with your frequent-flier number. Make sure to look for special offers. Discounts on select items and free shipping are regularly offered.
Neiman Marcus is offering 10 American AAdvantage miles for each dollar spent; normally you earn 7 miles per dollar. The deal also includes free shipping. Southwest Rapid Rewards members can earn 10 points per dollar on select purchases at Saks Fifth Avenue and Saks Off 5th.
If you’re planning a home improvement project or need new appliances, you can rack up the miles. By shopping at Home Depot, you can earn 2 miles or points per dollar with American and Southwest and 1 mile with Delta or United. Lowe’s offers 3 miles per dollar on American, two points per dollar on Southwest and 2 miles per dollar on Delta or United. If you’re purchasing a $1,000 refrigerator, you could earn 1,000 to 3,000 miles or points.
The airline shopping malls are an easy way to keep your miles or points active. Many frequent-flier points and miles expire after 18 months if there hasn’t been any activity on the account. You can easily prevent miles from expiring by making a purchase through an online shopping mall.
If you like to send flowers, you can earn several miles per dollar. For example, American offers 20 miles per dollar spent and Delta offers 25 miles per dollar spent at FTD. Alaska is offering 20 miles per dollar spent and Southwest is offering 1,000 points for purchases of $29.99 or more at 1-800-Flowers.
As we get closer to the holidays, we will likely see some airlines offer bonuses based on the total amount spent at the online shopping mall. For example, last year American offered 350 bonus miles for every $175 spent at its online shopping mall. We also have seen this type of offer for Valentine’s Day, spring shopping and back-to-school shopping.
You can also increase your earnings by using an airline affinity credit card to make your purchases.
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(Tom Parsons is CEO of www.bestfares.com. Email him at media@bestfares.com.)
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