Earn Shopping Miles (and More Shopping Miles) From American

If you're not earning miles for shopping at the airlines' mileage malls, you're leaving money on the table. And miles.

These offers from American provide both a bonus for signing up to use their eShopping mall, and a bonus for making purchases at eShopping merchants.

Offer Details

AAdvantage members who create a new AAdvantage eShopping account and opt to receive promotional eShopping emails by May 13 will receive 500 bonus miles.

After signing up, new eShopping account holders can earn an additional 500 bonus miles by watching an online video.

Again, the bonuses are only for new account holders—"This offer is not valid for existing AAdvantage eShopping members."

If you're not eligible for the 1,000-mile sign-up bonuses—and even if you are—there's a separate AAdvantage shopping miles promotion that awards members for actually making purchases.

Also through May 13, AAdvantage members can earn 500 bonus miles for spending $75 or more with any eShopping mall retailer or at participating retail store or catalog.

Assuming you spend exactly the required $75, the bonus amounts to getting an extra 6.67 miles per dollar spent.

Deal or No Deal

American's eShopping network encompasses many of the largest online merchants, as well as a host of smaller e-retailers. So if you shop online, even occasionally, there are miles to be earned. And since there's no extra cost to earn them, those miles are effectively free.

In other words, shopping miles are a good thing.

If shopping miles are good, signing up to earn them must also be good; and earning a bonus to do so is even better.

As for the 500 miles for spending $75, that's icing on the cake. And since it applies to purchases at any eShopping retailer, it should be easy to earn.

Reader Reality Check

Are shopping miles a priority in your mileage-earning strategy?

If not, why not?

Other Posts of Interest

• The Comeback: 100,000 Miles for British Airways' Credit Cards
• Need 250 United Miles? There's an App for That
• Earn United Miles Plus a Discount at Groupon

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Transfer Membership Rewards Points to Reach Delta Elite Status

American Express issues cards linked to its own Membership Rewards program, as well as the credit cards affiliated with Delta's SkyMiles program. Which explains both the special relationship American Express enjoys with Delta, and the especially generous terms of this promotion for converting Membership Rewards points into Delta miles.

Offer Details

Through May 31, Delta SkyMiles members will earn a 50 percent bonus when transferring American Express Membership Rewards points into their accounts, plus 25,000 Medallion elite-qualifying miles for transferring 50,000 or more points.

The offer is only available to SkyMiles members who have never before made a transfer from Membership Rewards.

Membership Rewards points transfer 1:1 for Delta miles. As always, there's a fee for transfers: $0.0006 per point, with a maximum fee of $99. So the fee to transfer 50,000 points—enough to earn the elite-mile bonus—would be $30.

Registration is required.

Deal or No Deal

If you're a Delta partisan with Membership Rewards points to burn, the opportunity to add to your account balance at an accelerated rate shouldn't be missed. And if you have enough Membership Rewards points to qualify for the elite bonus as well, that would make a good deal a great one.

The question for non-partisans concerns the value of Delta miles, which turns largely on the availability of awards. I still hear complaints about the lack of award seats in the lowest of Delta's three award tiers. While such anecdotal reports fall short of hard evidence of a systemic problem, the element of uncertainty does call into question the value of miles earned in Delta's program.

Reader Reality Check

Got Membership Rewards points? Want Delta miles?

More generally, how successful have you been in redeeming Delta miles for awards?

20,000 Miles for American, British Air Flights (Mind the Asterisk)

Flying across the Pond between now and the end of June?

A new promotion from American and British Airways could make your trip a lucrative one, mileage-wise.

But mind the asterisk.

Offer Details

Through June 30, AAdvantage members will earn 20,000 bonus miles for every round-trip transatlantic flight booked in full-fare coach, business, or first class, on American, British Airways, or Iberia.

There's a parallel offer in effect from British Airways, for members of their Executive Club program.

Since the fare type is critical to earning the bonus miles, here are the codes for the qualifying fares: F, A, J, R, D, I, Y, B, or H on American; F, A, J, R, C, D, I, W, E, T, Y, B, or H on British Airways; J, C, D, R, I, or Y on Iberia.

Registration is required.

The bonus is loosely tied to the Miles Millionaire Contest. After registering and completing a qualifying round-trip, you'll receive an email with instructions on entering the contest. The prizes: 1 million miles for each of two winning AAdvantage members, and 1 million miles for each of two winning Executive Club members.

While there's no requirement that you participate in the contest, and your odds of winning are miniscule, there's no reason not to. And 1 million frequent flyer miles is hardly a trifle.

Deal or No Deal

Since a round-trip to London from New York would normally net just under 7,000 miles, the 20,000 miles amounts to earning close to triple miles as a bonus.

To put it in a different light, with the bonus, any qualifying round-trip to Europe will net enough miles for a free domestic coach flight.

Worth a look, certainly.

What will make this a no-go for many travelers, however, is the premium fares requirement.

A quick search on AA.com showed qualifying B fares (Economy Flexible) priced two to three times higher than non-qualifying O fares (Economy Super Saver). So cost-conscious coach travelers would pay a significant premium to earn the bonus.

On the other hand, for flyers already planning to travel in full coach, business, or first, the bonus is effectively free and well worth signing up for.

Reader Reality Check

This promotion is clearly targeted at travelers purchasing the most expensive tickets. Are you a member of this select group?

If you generally travel on discounted coach fares—as most flyers do—would you consider paying more for a ticket that qualified for the bonus miles?

Other Posts of Interest

• Flying to Europe? Choose Your Airline Alliance
• American Miles for British Air Flights to London - Finally!
• What Would You Do With 100,000 British Air Frequent Flyer Miles?
• Q&A: How Could a British Airways Award Ticket Cost More Than $500?
• Foreign Transaction Fees Are an Endangered Species
• The World's Richest Credit Card Sign-Up Bonus: 110,000 Miles

(For more news like this, sign up to receive our free weekly newsletter. You can follow us on Twitter, too.)

The Comeback: 100,000 Miles for British Airways' Credit Cards

Still kicking yourself for missing last year's much-heralded bonus for new British Airways Visa cardholders—100,000 miles after charging $2,000 in the first three months?

Stop kicking and start clicking.

British Airways and Chase, the card issuer, have reprised the promotion, more or less in its original form. Yes, including that eye-popping 100,000-mile bonus.

This time, though, the offer is better in at least one key respect. Unlike its first appearance—during which the offer appeared and disappeared, seemingly at random, leaving consumers wondering whether they'd earned the bonus or not—the new promotion is displayed prominently on British Airways' website, complete with a published end date.

Offer Details

Through May 5, new customers for the British Airways Visa Signature card can earn up to 100,000 bonus Executive Club miles, as follows:

• 50,000 miles after the first purchase charged to the card
• 50,000 more miles after charging $2,500 during the first three months

Card Details

• Annual fee: $95
• Annual percentage rate: variable, Prime Rate plus 10.99 percent, currently 14.24 percent
• Cardholders earn 2.5 Executive Club miles for every $1 spent on British Airways purchases, 1.25 miles for every $1 spent on other purchases.
• Cardholders receive a free companion award ticket every year (calendar year, that is) they charge $30,000 to the card.
• No foreign transaction fees

Deal or No Deal

At the time, I called the original the most lucrative credit card offer ever. While similar in most respects, the new promotion is marginally less generous.

Where the latest promotion requires $2,500, the initial version delivered the second 50,000 miles after spending just $2,000 in the first three months, so the spend hurdle here is slightly higher. But anyone who can qualify for the first promotion can probably qualify for this one as well.

The annual fee for the card has increased as well, from $75 to $95.

And since the first British Airways promotion, there have been other developments in the credit card space. Capital One, for example, upped the promotional ante with their just-ended 110,000-mile bonus for new Venture cards.

The chief negative of this and any promotion that features Executive Club miles is British Airways' policy of imposing outsized fuel surcharges for award travel on its own flights. Paying several hundred dollars for an award flight to London significantly undermines the value of Executive Club miles, versus miles in a competing program where such surcharges are more modest or, better, non-existent.

But there are ways around the surcharges, including, somewhat ironically, avoiding British Airways' own flights for award travel. (After the last promotion, readers weighed in with their suggestions for redeeming British Airways miles.)

So, is this a king's comeback, or an also-ran rerun? Without getting into a hair-splitting debate about the relative value of Executive Club miles versus Capital One miles, this remains one of the best offers ever for a travel-rewards credit card.

Reader Reality Check

Did you take advantage of this promotion the first time? If so, please share any tips for redeeming the miles you earned.

If you missed the first promotion, will you sign up this time? Any plans for using the miles you'll earn?

Other Posts of Interest

• What Would You Do With 100,000 British Air Frequent Flyer Miles?
• Q&A: How Could a British Airways Award Ticket Cost More Than $500?
• The World's Richest Credit Card Sign-Up Bonus: 110,000 Miles
• Foreign Transaction Fees Are an Endangered Species
• British Air Card Now Offers 50,000 Bonus Miles, No Foreign Transaction Fees
• Is Hyatt's New Credit Card a Game-Changer?

(For more news like this, sign up to receive our free weekly newsletter. You can follow us on Twitter, too.)

How Fast Can You Give Away 1 Billion Frequent Flyer Miles?

When Capital One announced its Match My Miles promotion on March 10, I called it the richest credit card offer I'd ever seen, with a potential payout of 110,000 miles for new cardholders who could show they'd earned at least 100,000 miles in an airline mileage program.

I also prompted readers to act quickly since the offer would only remain in effect until May 13, or until Capital One had given away 1 billion miles through the promotion. My guess was that the miles would be gone long before the end date was reached.

And indeed they were. I received an email from a Capital One rep last night alerting me to the fact that they'd depleted the promised allotment of miles and would be terminating the offer.

One Billion Miles, Gone

As it turned out, they gave away 1 billion miles in about 25 days, or 40 million miles a day.

Capital One wouldn't comment on the number of new cards issued, or the average number of miles matched. But it's likely that the new cardholders were disproportionately travelers with 100,000 miles or more in their airline mileage accounts, since they had the most to gain from the mileage match. If they all had 100,000-mile balances, then the promotion would have generated 10,000 new customers for Capital One.

Not bad for a 25-day campaign.

If You Applied ...

If you applied before the promotion ended and haven't yet had your miles matched, you're not out of luck. According to the Capital One rep: "Rest assured that cardholders who were approved during the promotion period will still have 45 days from when they opened their account to register their miles and qualify for the match (which means we'll actually be going above and beyond one billion)."

And if you didn't apply while the bonus was still in effect, well, don't say I didn't warn you.

Reader Reality Check

Did you take advantage of this promotion?

How do you plan to use the miles you earned?

Other Posts of Interest

• The World's Richest Credit Card Sign-Up Bonus: 110,000 Miles
• Foreign Transaction Fees Are an Endangered Species
• British Air Card Now Offers 50,000 Bonus Miles, No Foreign Transaction Fees
• Is Hyatt's New Credit Card a Game-Changer?

(For more news like this, sign up to receive our free weekly newsletter. You can follow us on Twitter, too.)

American Express Adds Value to Pricey Charge Cards

There's an increasingly mad scramble among credit card issuers to get their cards into consumers' wallets, and to increase the spending of consumers who already use their cards. Luckily for travelers, that scramble has revolved most fiercely around travel-rewards cards.

The most visible activity has been focused on acquiring new cardholders, with average sign-up bonuses reaching historic highs. The 100,000-mile bonus from British Airways and the 110,000-mile bonus from Capital One are the most recent examples.

Such outsized bonuses are nice for nabbing a short-term windfall. But perhaps of more interest—and certainly of more value in the long term—have been the additional perks issuers have been bundling with their cards. Among them:

• Access to discounted awards for Citi AAdvantage MasterCard holders
• Waived foreign-transaction fees for a growing number of rewards cards
• Baggage-fee waivers from several airline cards
• Elite-qualifying miles for some Delta- and United-affiliated cards

Such perks not only add value to the cards themselves; they make the programs they're linked to more valuable as well.

New From American Express

The latest value-add is from American Express. Rather, the latest are from American Express. There are two new benefits, both linked to the Platinum and Centurion charge cards.

Priority Pass Select Membership

Priority Pass Select is a lounge program that affords members access to 600 airport lounges at around 325 airports.

Normal price for unlimited lounge visits: $399.

Priority Pass is in addition to cardholders' access to the airport lounges of American, Continental/United (but only through September 30), Delta, and US Airways.

Free Global Entry

The new Global Entry program "allows expedited clearance for pre-approved, low-risk travelers upon arrival in the United States." (The pre-approval process, it should be noted, is not insignificant, requiring a face-to-face interview with a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent, in addition to the obligatory paperwork.)

The fee: $100, for five years.

Deal or No Deal

These are significant additions to cards that already feature solid benefits. But those benefits come at a price. The annual fee for the Platinum card is $450; and the invitation-only Centurion card costs $2,500 a year, plus a $5,000 initiation fee.

I've pointed out that the fee for the Platinum card can easily be justified by frequent travelers who are in a position to take advantage of the savings available from using the card. For example, cardholders are entitled to use the airport lounges of American, Continental/United, Delta, and US Airways. Purchasing those lounge memberships would normally cost $500, $475, $450, and $450, respectively.

But the perks only have real value if they will actually benefit you, given your real-world travel patterns. And the new benefits are decidedly oriented toward overseas travel.

Priority Pass lounges are disproportionately located at non-U.S. airports, and Global Entry is by definition a program for international travelers. So these new perks are of most interest, and value, to frequent international flyers. And even if you do travel overseas, if you already fly in business or first class, Priority Pass is probably redundant, since many airlines already extend lounge access to those flying on premium-fare tickets.

Still, even for domestic-only travelers, the Platinum card has plenty to offer, including:

• The above-mentioned airline lounge access
• $200 airline fee credit
• 20 percent bonus when using Membership Rewards' Pay with Points
• Free companion airfare when booking a first- or business-class flight on one of 22 airlines

Add it all up, and the value of the perks handily trumps the annual fee—but only if you take advantage of them.

Reader Reality Check

Could you justify paying $450 a year for the Platinum card?

Other Posts of Interest

• Foreign Transaction Fees Are an Endangered Species
• The World's Richest Credit Card Sign-Up Bonus: 110,000 Miles
• British Air Card Now Offers 50,000 Bonus Miles, No Foreign Transaction Fees
• Is Hyatt's New Credit Card a Game-Changer?

(For more news like this, sign up to receive our free weekly newsletter. You can follow us on Twitter, too.)

Need 250 United Miles? There's an App for That

United has apparently set itself the goal of being the market leader in shopping miles.

When the airline launched its revamped Mileage Plus Shopping mall late last year, it boasted the following enhancements over the previous miles-for-shopping feature:

• Members can now register a credit or debit card to earn miles at participating in-store retailers and catalogs.
• Mileage Plus Visa credit cardholders are automatically registered.
• More online retailers.
• Earn miles for dining reservations via OpenTable.
• No need for members to register to shop online anymore—they can just login to Mileage Plus Shopping using a membership number and password.

Taken together, the improvements put United's mileage mall a step ahead of similar offerings from American, Delta, and other airlines.

United has now further bolstered the miles-for-shopping superiority of Mileage Plus with the release of its new shopping toolbar.

Once downloaded and installed, the toolbar lets program members know if they can earn miles when shopping at various vendors, alerts them to special offers, and awards one mile for every three Yahoo searches, up to a maximum of 100 miles per month.

To promote it, United is offering 250 bonus miles to Mileage Plus members who use the toolbar to perform at least one toolbar search or make one toolbar purchase before April 30. The bonus award miles will post to members' Mileage Plus accounts within 10 weeks after the promotion's end date.

Toolbar or No Toolbar?

I make it a point to keep my computer screen as uncluttered as possible, so I'm generally disinclined to install toolbars and other non-essential apps.

While I occasionally earn miles for shopping at online retailers, it's not a high priority.

And really, one mile for every three Yahoo! searches? Yawn.

But it so happens that I need a qualifying transaction to keep my United miles from expiring. And this fits the bill nicely, both for now and for the future.

So I'll download the toolbar and take the 250 bonus miles, thereby extending the life of all the miles in my Mileage Plus account; and thereafter I'll periodically switch from Google to Yahoo! for searches to keep my miles alive.

Your mileage may vary.

Reader Reality Check

Have you used the toolbar? Is it a worthwhile download?

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