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Maximize Your Points and Miles This Holiday Shopping Season

Brian Kelly
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Brian Kelly is the CEO of The Points Guy. Need I say more?
Nov. 21, 2011
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3 min read
Maximize Your Points and Miles This Holiday Shopping Season
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Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.

One of the easiest ways to rack up a ton of points is by shopping online. Airline and credit card shopping portals make it very easy - all you have to do is click their simple link to your retailers website and they'll automatically kick you back a certain number of points (usually based on how much you spend).

Why do they do this? Well retailers want to increase their sales so they will give commissions to anyone (including me through my marketing company) for any business they send their way. The amount ranges, but I've seen offers generally in the 6-10% range. So basically, airline shopping malls probably buy miles for about a cent a piece or less, so they give you 1-3 cents usually for every 6-10 cents you make them. Not a bad deal, huh?

So basically, when you go directly to a retailers website to shop you are throwing points (aka money) in the trash. Always click through a shopping portal or cashback link when they are available!

Here are the main mileage/point shopping portals and some of their sweet upcoming deals:
I will do almost all of my shopping at the Chase Ultimate Rewards Shopping Mall (you must be a Sapphire Preferred or Ink Bold card holder):
November 21: 10 points per dollar spent at Kohls.com
November 22: 20 points per dollar spent at shoes.com
November 23: 10 points per dollar spent at HSN.com
November 24: 10 points per dollar spent at toysrus.com
November 25: 10 points per dollar spent at BestBuy.com
November 26: 10 points per dollar spent at Macys.com
November 27: 5 points per dollar spent at OfficeMax.com
November 28: 10 points per dollar spent at apple.com (I'm finally breaking down and getting an iPad!)
November 29-Dec 15: Tons of offers, including 10 points per dollar at Target.com on December 5.

Nov 29- Dec 15 Chase Offering

Air Canada: Aeroplan EStore: 2 miles per dollar spent on ebay.ca, miles per dollar at gap.com and oldnavy.com.
American: AAdvantageEshopping.com: They are giving 500 bonus miles for spending $500-$999 or 1,000 for spending over $1,000 by December 31, 2011, registration required. 7 points per dollar at Perfumania.com.
American Express: Bonus Points Mall. 6 points per dollar at target.com and bloomingdales.com.
Delta: Skymilesshopping.com. 7 miles per dollar at groupon.com and 8 miles per dollar at jcrew.com.
Priority Club Shopping: Spend $400+ and get 1,000 bonus points. 8 points per dollar at LandsEnd.com
Southwest: Rapid Rewards Shopping. 25 points per dollar at magazines.com.
US Airways: Dividend Miles Storefront. (I think they have the least lucrative shopping offers). 5 miles per dollar at Omaha Steaks, 6 miles per dollar at godaddy.com.
United: Mileageplusshopping.com. 1,000 point bonus when you spend $250 or more with selected retailers. 8 miles per dollar spent on groupon.com.

Please let me know if I've missed any good offers and I'll update this post. Happy shopping!
[card card-name='Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card' card-id='22125056' type='javascript' bullet-id='1']

Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.