American Offers Bonus Miles for Online Shopping

It’s that time of the year when, in the run-up to Thanksgiving and Christmas, airlines traditionally offer bonus points for shopping at their mileage malls.

Earlier this week, the first such promotion of this holiday season was rolled out by United: up to 6,000 bonus miles when shopping through MileagePlus Shopping.

Next up: American, with a similar offer.

Offer Details

Through November 26, AAdvantage members can earn up to 5,000 bonus miles when shopping through the AAdvantage eShopping portal, as follows:

• 450 bonus miles for purchases of at least $150
• 2,000 bonus miles for purchases of at least $550
• 5,000 bonus miles for purchases of $1,200 or more

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.

Deal or No Deal

If you’re not earning miles by shopping at the airlines’ mileage malls, you should be.

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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 this one, that amp up the mileage-earning. Those promotions 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.

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.

Reader Reality Check

If you’re not shopping through an airline’s mileage mall, why aren’t you?

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This article originally appeared on FrequentFlier.com.