Maximizing Holiday Online Shopping

Posted by Noob Master on Dec 11, 2012 in AAdvantage, Dividends Miles, Freedom, Mileage Plus, Miles, Shopping, Ultimate Rewards, Uncategorized | 6 comments

I instantly think of traffic, long lines, and irate customers when I hear the words “holiday shopping.” Fortunately, for us noobers, we can do it all online – all while earning major miles and points. So, let’s take a look at some of those opportunities that stood out, and those that didn’t.

Southwest Rapid Rewards

If you’re a Southwest Rapid Rewards Credit Cardmember, I would suggest purchasing something from Rapid Rewards Shopping. Your first purchase through the Southwest storefront earns you a bonus 500 points. No minimum purchase required and they post 6-8 weeks after to your account. This offer expires December 31st.

Nordstrom is offering free shipping and you earn 3x by purchasing through Rapid Rewards Shopping. Shoes.com is at 7x and eBags is at 6x. Both are excellent stores for getting something for yourself or another travel noob! I appreciate the straight-forward attitude of the deal and not requiring any minimum purchases.

United MileagePlus

The MilagePlus bonus offer this holiday season is for a max bonus of 2,500 MileagePlus miles. The offer expires on December 31st, and is pretty simple: for every $250 you spend, you earn 500 miles. The extra shopping offers pale in comparison to other stores (Origins products are 6x here, and 12x at US Airways), however United does max your bonus more than all the others. So, it really just depends on your shopping needs.

AAdvantage e-Shopping

The AAdvantage holiday promotion ends on December 17th (so get your shopping in soon).  You earn 500 AAdvantage miles for every $250 spent, and max out at 2,000 bonus miles. Teleflora, through the American Airlines storefront, has a 9x special right now. It’s pretty easy to spend $40 or more there, and at $40 you could earn a bonus 360 AAdvantage miles. Cool.

I do like that they have VistaPrint listed in their online brands for 5x. Maybe Jordan and I will actually send out holidays card this year.

Also, VistaPrint has some excellent specials – like 50% off. We’ll order about 250 cards similar to the layout above. That one was priced at $92.49 for 250 cards. At 5x, that gets me 460 bonus AAdvantage miles. It’s a really great deal, too, since that was also listed at half off. Score.

US Airways Dividend Miles Storefront

Their holiday promotion is a little different. Their holiday bonus gets you up to 1,000 Dividend miles. The promotion ends December 31st. You can also still earn triple points on some of the brands online.

FTD.com has a 25x offer, which is pretty good for anyone getting flowers delivered to their out-of-town family and friends. If you’re planning on traveling to South America in 2013 and want to learn to speak Spanish fluently – check out Rosetta Stone. At the US Airways storefront, you can grab it for $399 at 12x. 12x is over double what other storefronts are getting you for getting Rosetta Stone.  Add that up with Sears at 6x and spend an easy $100 on gifts there, PLUS the 1,000 bonus promo miles (because you spent $500): you earn a total of 6,400 miles.

Ultimate Rewards Mall

My favorite and go-to online portal is the Ultimate Rewards portal. Before I do ANY shopping I always check to see what the Ultimate Rewards bonus is, if any.

You must hold an Ink Bold® Business Card, Ink Plus® Business Card, or Chase Sapphire Preferred^SM to have access to Chase’s Ultimate Rewards portal. Plus bonuses can differ between the Ink and Sapphire Preferred portals, so check both.

The Ultimate Rewards mall has a couple of online stores giving pretty decent bonuses this month. Every traveler I know owns some sort of North Face product, and their Ultimate Rewards points are 8x.

Kohl’s has an even better offer, giving you 10x Ultimate Rewards points. Doesn’t end there. One of the Chase Freedom® MasterCard or Chase Freedom® Visa card’s bonus category this quarter is Kohls, which means you will net an additional 5x Ultimate Rewards points. So, you technically get 15x! Perfect. I think this little offer is a winner because of the variety of merch you can get at Kohls. Everything from jewelry to clothes to home goods. Basically, you can knock out a lot of gifts through this store. And since Ultimate Rewards are the best, and the Chase Freedom is an awesome card – I’ll be taking advantage.

Hilton HHonors Shop-to-Earn

Nothing too special about the HHonors mall offers. They have specials that are up to 29x. Those specials are mostly good because they are the typical gift-variety: toys, games, perfumes, colognes…and even luggage.

Nothing seemed worthwhile to me, but check for yourself.

Put A Bow On It

In the end, there are many online shopping storefronts where you can rack up some miles and save some $$$. Chase’s Ultimate Rewards portal is always my go to, because I’m all about the the Ultimate Rewards points. It’s a sickness.

Don’t forget to check the many online portals to compare prices and bonuses while you’re shopping online this holiday season. You can also compare online portals through Evreward. 

— Noob Master

Receive 1,000 United Miles with Shopping Assistant Toolbar

Posted by Noob Master on Oct 19, 2012 in Deals, Mileage Plus, Miles, Shopping, Uncategorized, United Airlines | 6 comments

Yep, you will receive 1,000 United MileagePlus miles when you download their Shopping Assistant toolbar.

What’s a Shopping Assistant toolbar? Great question. It sounds like a device my wife would use to hit me with when I’m on my iPhone while we’re shopping. Well, it isn’t. It’s pretty much a search application that is added to the top of your internet browser.

You will earn miles for searches and purchases made through the toolbar. These toolbars are usually an eye sore, so I always end up deleting them once I get my bonus miles, but you can nickel and dime yourself some United miles by using it. You will receive 1 United mile for every 3 searches. Ehhh.

Also, special United offers will pop up from time to time during your searches… not sure how “special” these offers really are.

But all you have to do to receive the 1,000 United miles is download the Shopping Assistant toolbar and perform 1 search. Easy.

Shopping Assistant

The T&Cs are:

• bonus is valid for initial install and download of Shopping Assistant
• offer expires October 31, 2012
• you must be signed into your United account to download & install Shopping Assistant
• System browser requirement are: E 7+, Firefox 5+, Google Chrome 11+ and Safari 5.x+ on Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP and Mac OS X

In the end, this is an EASY 1,000 United miles. I cherish my United miles, because they are my preferred currency to get over to Europe. Also, since United is a transfer partner of Ultimate Rewards, I can top off my United account with my Ink Bold® Charge Card and Chase Sapphire Preferred.

I’ve also recently added to my United stash by signing up for Netflix (again) for another 4,000 miles. I’m in straight replenish mode since I just burned a wad of United miles on a trip to Europe last month and an upcoming trip to Thailand. Every mile counts!

— Noob Master

Do you love your Mom? Earn 30 MileagePlus Miles per $1 on flowers.

Posted by Noob Master on May 8, 2012 in AAdvantage, Mileage Plus, Miles, Rapid Rewards, Shopping, Uncategorized | 0 comments

Moms. We love em’, and they deserve to be showered with flowers on their day of appreciation. Right? Well, even if you had a crappy mom (mine rocks), send her flowers because with this deal, you’ll get appreciated in return. Here is some motivation: For every dollar spent on FTD flowers through the MileagePlus shopping mall, you will earn 30 very valuable United MileagePlus miles! My mom will definitely be getting some flowers this Mothers Day…hell, even the Mother-in-Law (she’s great too).

This works perfectly for me because it even offers same day delivery! FTD also has an option where you can pay with miles, if you choose to go that route. I would never suggest this, unless you are money broke and miles rich. I will be earning my 30x $1 United MileagePlus miles on this one. I love earning miles for things I am already going to buy, especially when there’s a nice bonus attached to it.

Now go buy your mom flowers. (She doesn’t have to know about the miles.)

Here is the link to take advantage of this deal with United &FTD.

You can also earn 30 AAdvantage miles per $1 with FTD 

Southwest is also running a promo of 1,500 Rapid Reward per order with Teleflora 

— Noob Master