I recently introduced Mrs. Weeklyflyer to the online shopping portals of Chase Ultimate Rewards and AAdvantage shopping. Now, the Mrs. has always been quite a shopper but, I must say that she has taken online shopping to a new level.
I get emails a couple times a day stating that I have earned points through the portals so, I asked her what she was doing to earn all of these points. Here is a snapshot of recent earnings.
- babygap.com 29 extra pts
- babygap.com 48 extra pts
- Groupon 80 extra pts
- Nordstrom.com 453 extra pts
- Groupon 56 extra pts
- Groupon 60 extra pts
- babygap.com 8 extra pts
- Pottery Barn 50 extra pts
- Pottery Barn Kids 51 extra pts
- J.Crew 70 extra pts
- Pottery Barn Kids 84 extra pts
- Groupon 80 extra pts
- Diapers.com 80 extra pts
- Groupon 68 extra pts
- Bloomingdale’s 508 extra pts
- Groupon 72 extra pts
- Pottery Barn Kids 261 extra pts
- Saks.com 64 extra pts
- Shutterfly.com 34 extra pts
- Shutterfly.com 20 extra pts
- drugstore.com 127 extra pts
- Diapers.com 120 extra pts
- Pottery Barn Kids 217 extra pts
- Groupon 80 extra pts
- Diapers.com 116 extra pts
- Shutterfly.com 43 extra pts
- Macys.com 480 extra pts
- Groupon 30 extra pts
- Bloomingdale’s 204 extra pts
- babygap.com 48 extra pts
- Dick’s Sporting Goods 805 extra pts
- babygap.com 20 extra pts
- Staples.com 140 extra pts
Her online strategy for shopping is detailed in this post. Her strategy focuses on maximizing points, savings and virtually eliminating having to drive to the mall.
Strategy
- Sign up for emails from favorite stores so that you know when they are running a good promotion
- Look for emails that offer free shipping or an additional discount on sales
- Go through a shopping portal of your choice (she likes Chase Ultimate Rewards and then uses AAdvantage if Chase doesn’t have the retailer participating.) This will get you extra points for every dollar spent
- Make sure to click through the portal to get to the store and then add items to your basket (if items are already in your basket, you risk not getting your points)
- Use promotion codes for extra percentage off and spend to the limit of free shipping to maximize dollar savings. Many retailers ship for free if you spend $50 or $100. The portals usually have some promos listed as well for each retailer.
- Use whatever credit card has the best deal. Right now Mrs. Weekly Flyer is doing her Christmas shopping online trying to hit our spend threshold on my new Chase Ink Plus Credit Card so that we can get our bonus 50,000 points after meeting the spending threshold.
Bottom Line
With extra points, free shipping, and deep discounts online shopping has its advantages. There is no need to drive to the mall and fight the crowds when you can have the retailers mail you your prize and earn miles at the same time.
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About The Weekly Flyer
The Weekly Flyer writes about travel from a business traveler perspective. He travels the world every week accumulating points and miles along the way.
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Watch AA’s shopping portal. They will screw you out of legit miles owed and blame it on you. I had my own experience and since I’ve read stories of others having the same problem. I would say make sure you document everything, but I had an email confirmation from an order that actually stated ‘you’ve earned X,XXX miles from this transaction’, and they still said I wasn’t owed the miles. Yes, just short of 5k miles they got me for. Just and FYI to beware.
I tried to go through UR Mall to drugstore.com and use a coupon code I found on the web. The page that redirects you to drugstore.com said no other coupons could be used except ones that were noted on the UR Mall page. I am missing points from drugstore.com and have not called Chase yet but I wonder if this was the issue (I used a free shipping + gift card code)
Not eligible on gift cards, gift certificates or any other similar cash equivalents. Not eligible on prescription medication purchases, contact lens purchases, orders made with third-party partners where the customer is leaving the drugstore.com site, or orders using promo codes not found on this site.