Delta is late to the party in offering us their holiday shopping bonus miles deal. But better late than never! If you like to shop and like to earn miles and points when you shop, then this is the sweet spot time of year! With the holidays upon us, take advantage of this shopping sweet spot and use airline shopping portals to earn miles and points for shopping you’ll do anyway. Here’s Delta’s bonus promotion, as well as reminders from the other airlines offering holiday bonus miles. 

How to Use a Portal

Just in case using an online shopping portal is new for you, start by going through the shopping portal first (in this case Delta’s) to search for the online merchant.  From there you’ll be directed to that merchant’s online website. Now you can shop as if you’d started with the merchant’s website, rather than the airline portal. It takes an extra minute to use a portal but you will earn points or miles.

All of these shopping portal bonuses are good through November 18th. So shop early, and get miles for shopping through these portals. Remember, these airlines bonuses come on top of whatever you would accrue from each retailer as well.

Delta SkyMiles – Up to 1,000 Bonus Miles

For purchases through November 18, 2018:

• Spend $150, earn 500 bonus miles
• Spend $300, earn 1,000 bonus miles

Delta’s offer is a tiered one. The bonus is for cumulative spend and doesn’t need to be in a single transaction. So if you have $300 of purchases to make online over the next two weeks at retailers Delta partners with, you can earn an extra 1,000 Delta miles on top of the miles you’d earn for your purchase. Here is a link to the promotion on Delta SkyMiles shopping.

Southwest Rapid Rewards: Up to 3000 Bonus Miles

• Spend $150, earn 500 points (3.33x miles)
• Spend $500, earn 1,000 points (2x miles)
• Spend $1,000, earn 3,000 points (3x miles)

At 1-1.5 cents per Rapid Reward, you’re looking at a maximum value of $45 for the top bonus. Here’s the link to the promotion on Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Shopping. The top bonus of 3000 points may not get you very far, but with Southwest EVENTUALLY adding service to Hawaii, increasing our stash of SWA points is a good thing.

United Airlines MileagePlus: Up to 5000 Bonus Miles

• Spend $150, earn 500 bonus miles (3.33x bonus miles)
• Spend $750, earn 2,500 bonus miles (3.33x bonus miles)
• Spend $1,500, earn 5,000 bonus miles (3.33x bonus miles)

This bonus is not tiered based on spending. Each level is worth 3.33 additional miles per dollar spent. Here’s the link to the promotion on United MileagePlus shopping.

American Airlines AAdvantage Miles: Up to 4000 Bonus Miles

• Spend $150, earn 500 bonus miles (3.33x bonus miles)
• Spend $600, earn 2,000 bonus miles (3.33x bonus miles)
• Spend $1,200, earn 4,000 bonus miles (3.33x bonus miles)

For American Airlines, every bonus level is worth 3.33 miles. Here’s the link to the promotion on the American online shopping portal.

Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan: Up to 1500 Bonus Miles

• Spend $150, earn 300 bonus miles (2x bonus miles)
• Spend $300, earn 750 bonus miles (2.5x bonus miles)
• Spend $500, earn 1,500 bonus miles (3x bonus miles)

For a total spend of $500, you can earn up to 1,500 bonus Mileage Plan miles. Here’s a link to the promotion on Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Shopping.

Bottom Line

Five airlines, five holiday bonuses. Always note the fine print on these offers. You’ll also spot some “Holiday Bonus” miles from certain retailers giving an added bonus on certain stores. And don’t forget to check Cashback Monitor to compare rates between portals for any retailer.