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Tip: Triple Dip Your Mileage Earnings With MileagePlus X and Shopping Portals

Brendan Dorsey
Brendan Dorsey
Contributor
Born and raised in Northern California, schooled in our Nation's capital, and currently working in the greatest city in the world - NYC. I was instantly hooked to traveling the second I stepped foot in Europe. The addiction only grew once I found out I could do it for free, all on points and miles. I could also eat bagels for every meal.
Feb. 18, 2017
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2 min read
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Tip: Triple Dip Your Mileage Earnings With MileagePlus X and Shopping Portals
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We've talked about how the MileagePlus X app is a great tool to earn extra United miles. Working somewhat like a traditional shopping portal, you buy electronic gift cards from retailers and get 1 to 5 bonus miles for each dollar spent on a gift card (occasionally, the bonus can be as high as 10 miles per dollar). Plus, you'll receive a 25% bonus if you're a United MileagePlus Explorer Card holder.

Earn 5 miles per dollar at Nike through the MileagePlus X app.

But what many don't know is that you can actually do some significant triple dipping by using the MileagePlus X app in conjunction with a shopping portal. For example, you can buy a Nike gift card through the app and receive 5 miles per dollar spent.

The second dip is the miles you'll get from using your credit card to buy the e-gift card. The third dip is by using your e-gift card to shop at Nike.com through an online shopping portal, therefore earning you even more miles.

Earn two miles per dollar at Nike through United Mileage Plus Shopping.

Potentially, if you wanted to make a $100 purchase at Nike today, a triple dip would look something like this:

  1. Dip 1: 625 United miles through MileagePlus X (5x plus 25% bonus )
  2. Dip 2: 100 miles for the purchase of the e-gift card with your credit card (1x)
  3. Dip 3: 200 United miles through the United MileagePlus Shopping portal (2x)

So, on a $100 purchase, you could earn 925 miles. And if you wait, many shopping portals have big bonuses, like a couple of weeks ago you could earn 15 miles per dollar at Nike and many other retailers. With triple dipping, you could have earned 2,225 miles on a $100 purchase! Make sure to use a shopping portal aggregator to find which portal has the biggest bonus.

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