Going with Points

How to earn more points on your holiday shopping

Thanksgiving is Thursday, which means it's time to think about holiday shopping.

The problem is most online retail stores don't fit into credit cards' traditional bonus categories like transit, dining, groceries, or gas. So, with the holiday shopping season upon us, what can you do?

Before you settle for 1 point per dollar in the name of holiday cheer, I have a solution: It's called online airline shopping portals.

How do shopping portals work?

By doing your shopping through a portal, you can earn more points or miles on top of the points you already earn from using your credit card. You get the points per dollar you earn from your card plus points or miles per dollar earned through the portal.

Here's what you need to know before racking up extra points and miles this holiday season.

Portals partner with an airline to award extra miles specific to that airline.
Only use the promo codes that the portal offers.
It's best to start with an empty cart, just to be safe.
Read the terms and conditions on what types of purchases are eligible. Gift cards are usually excluded, and certain brands may be excluded from earning bonus points at some retailers. Spoiler alert: Apple products often are!
The amount of miles you earn through a shopping portal depends on the portal, the specific retailer, and even the day.

Airline miles shopping portals

Most major US airlines have shopping portals. They are:

Alaska Airlines: Alaska Mileage Plan Shopping
American Airlines: AAdvantage eShopping
Delta Air Lines: SkyMiles Shopping
JetBlue: True Blue Shopping
Southwest Airlines: RapidRewards Shopping
United Airlines: United MileagePlus Shopping

Each helps you earn more airline miles with that specific airline.

You'll need to log in with your frequent flier number to use an airline's shopping portal. This matters because this is how you get the miles credited to your account. You can always create one for free.

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Use Chrome extensions

Many shopping portals have Chrome extensions that you can install to your browser. Go to the Google Chrome Web Store, search the shopping portal you want, and download it for free.

After it's installed, when you visit a retailer's site to make a purchase, you'll see a box appear in the upper right-hand corner displaying the rate of points or miles that you can earn.

Make sure you click "Activate," and then wait for the shopping portal to reload the retailer's site.

Rakuten also has an app that works similarly: You search the retailer in the Rakuten app and tap through to the retailer's site.

Or compare with Cashback Monitor

If you really want to compare the miles you can earn between the airline shopping portals, a site called Cashback Monitor aggregates them all. You search the retailer and the site will show you the amount of miles you can earn through each portal.

I used to do this but abandoned it because I wanted to focus my mileage-earning activity on one airline.

The best cards to use in a shopping portal

If you want to earn more points and miles, then the best card to use with shopping portal purchases is:

A new card you opened. Spending through a shopping portal would count toward earning the card's signup bonus.
An airline card with the same airline whose shopping portal you're using. This lets you stack your mile earnings. Using this card gets you 1 mile per dollar spent, and if you shop through the airline's portal, you can earn additional miles per dollar on the same purchase.
A card that earns a flat 1.5x or 2x points per dollar. Granted, the points earned from this card will be in credit card points, so it won't directly add to your airline miles account.

The cards I'd recommend are:

This $95 card: earns 2x points per dollar
This $395 card: earns 2x points per dollar
This $0 card: earns 1.5x points per dollar

And, for businesses:

This $0 card: earns 2x points per dollar
This $0 card: earns 1.5x points per dollar

Ready to shop? The best points and miles are earned in threes. Or fours. Or fives.

With expert:

Kurt Adams

Kurt is a writer with too many credit cards in his wallet. Before becoming a credit card points pro, he wrote personal finance and small business content. A graduate of Princeton, he lives in New York City.

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