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Shopping Portals to earn more of your favorite points and miles
If you’re not using a shopping portal to originate your online purchases, you’re seriously missing out on one of the easiest ways to earn bonus points and miles. If you’re unfamiliar, loyalty programs have their own online shopping portals that will code your order to earn points in their program. The purchasing process is exactly the same you just start it via a portal.
It’s a super easy way to earn a boat load of extra points, keep your points alive, and with certain portals ( AA Simply Miles ) earn points that will qualify you for status. All you have to do is log into the mall and then link into the retailers’ normal site. You’ll not only earn your credit card points, but you’ll also earn the points of the portal you’re using.
Personally, I use the Rakuten portal most since it earns
Here’s a list of some of our favorite shopping portals:
Airlines
- Aeromexico
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- Air France Flying Blue
- Alaska Airlines
- ANA
- American Airlines
- American Airlines Simply Miles ( mastercard required )
- British Airways
- Cathay Pacific
- Delta
- Etihad
- Finnair
- Hawaiian
- Japan Airlines
- JetBlue
- KLM
- Lufthansa
- Qantas
- Singapore Airlines
- South African Airwaysf
- Southwest
- United
- Virgin Atlantic
- Virgin Australia
Hotels
Banks
- American Express: Rakuten
- Bank of America
- Barclays
- Capital One
- Chase
- Citi
Cashback
- BeFrugal
- Giving Assistant
- Mr. Rebates
- TopCashback
- Upromise
- Rakuten
- Fluz
- Lemoney
Note… I use Rakuten the most since it has the ability to earn Amex points which I value quite high – referrals range between $30 and $40 after you spend the same amount.
How do you know where the best deal is?
Personally I always reference CashBackMonitor which lists an absolutely massive array of shopping portals telling you which portal is offering what return on your spend. Every person values points a bit differently, so this will hopefully guide your decision making process. For instance, if you’re really trying to hit AA status, you may choose a lower rate of return via Simply Miles than Rakuten.
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.