Update 7/29/19: An American Airlines offer has been added.
Contents
The Offer
See below for direct links
- American Airlines is offering up to 2,000 bonus miles:
- Spend $150 and get 500 bonus miles
- Spend $350 and get 1,500 bonus miles
- Spend $600 and get 2,500 bonus miles
- United is offering up to 2,500 bonus miles.
- Spend $150 and get 500 bonus miles
- Spend $350 and get 1,500 bonus miles
- Spend $600 and get 2,500 bonus miles
- Alaska is offering up to 1,500 bonus miles.
- Spend $150 and get 300 bonus miles
- Spend $300 and get 750 bonus miles
- Spend $500 and get 1,500 bonus miles
- Southwest is offering up to 2,000 bonus miles
- Spend $125 and get 250 bonus miles
- Spend $300 and get 900 bonus miles
- Spend $550 and get 2,000 bonus miles
Our Verdict
As always make sure you compare portal rates using something like cashbackmonitor.
How many have success with VGC through GCC using these portals? Seems every time I try, I get the initial email that the purchase was tracked, but within a few days the activity disappears from my portal account.
I’ve had successful payouts on VGC from giftcards.com with AA shopping. Great way to hit these bonuses.
Southwest is running a 25% bonus on min 10,000 points earned. I was on the fence about putting spend on a SW card, with this think I will go for it.
That’s still a bad deal. Assume you do the first 550 for 2000 points, then you still have to spend $9450 to get an additional 11,950 points, which is only a 1.8% return on spend, in a deflating, expirable currency. You’d be better off with even just a 2% cashback card.
The AA numbers are off. Looks like you copy/pasted UA’s.
$350 should be $300
$600 should be $500
1500 should be 1000
2500 should be 2000
These portals are also currently offering up to 8X/miles on Apple (happens every so often) – excellent rebate if you need a new computer or phone.
Alaska is * $500 for 1500 miles
Fixed, thanks!
Does buying gift cards generally count for these portals?
Base earnings and bonuses, from non-GC merchants: no.
Base earnings from GC merchants (e.g. Raise): of course.
Not sure about bonuses from GC merchants.
I bought a $500 VGC from GCC through AA shopping during the “Summer Bonus” a month or so ago and they sent me an email notifying me that I’ve spent enough for bonus miles through the summer bonus.
The 506 miles for the spend posted, the bonus 500 miles haven’t posted yet but they’ve got a couple weeks left before their self-given deadline.
These portals all seem to use the same backend so I will tentatively say that yes GCs will count for these bonuses.