TODAY: Earn up to 4x on Apple purchases through shopping portals (select products)

Shopping through online portals can be a great way to boost a loyalty account balance, save some cash, or to prevent a loyalty balance from expiring. Right now a number of shopping portals are offering improved earnings rates for select purchases made with Apple, so this may be a good time to buy any Apple products you have been considering.

Generally, I use the evreward.com site to check which sites are offering the best earnings rate at whatever store(s) I’m planning to shop at and this is what’s on offer right now:

A maximum of 4x is on offer and you’ll only find the Alaska’s Atmos Rewards and United MileagePlus portals offering that earning rate (so this isn’t one of the better sets of deals that we’ve seen but it matches an increasing number of these boosted promotions), but the 3.5x on offer through AAdvantage and the 3x offered through Avios may work for some.

For the purposes of comparison, Rakuten is currently offering up to 2.0% cash back on a very, very limited number of things that Apple sells, and TopCashBack.com (which evrewards doesn’t cover) is offering just 1.01% cash back and that’s on refurbished items only.

The more important terms

The key thing to be aware of is the fact that only some Apple purchases will trigger enhanced earnings.

Per the terms and conditions (which you’ll find on the individual airline portals) the following items will not earn rewards (per the Atmos Rewards store):

• iPhone 17e
• iPhone 17 Pro
• iPhone 17 Pro Max
• iPhone 17
• iPhone Air
• MacBook Neo
• Studio Display
• Studio Display XDR
• Apple Vision Pro
• All Apple Vision Pro Accessories
• Apple Developer Programs
• AppleCare+
• Orders purchased from government or veteran and military stores
• Shipping, handling and taxes
• Purchases made for resale and bulk orders
• Purchases of gift cards, gift certificates or cash equivalents

So that’s all of the latest products excluded!

On a slightly more positive note, the following items no longer appear on the exclusions list:

• AirPods Pro 3
• Apple Watch SE 3
• Apple Watch Series 11
• Apple Watch Ultra 3

Having said that, there are a few other restrictions you should also know about:

• You may not purchase products for resale.
• Customers will only earn miles on up to 6 units per eligible product in the case of iPhone, Mac, iPad, Watch, Vision, Apple TV, and Homepod.
• Customers will only earn miles on up to 8 units per eligible product in the case of AirTag 4-Pack.
• Customers will only earn miles on up to 32 units per eligible product in the case of AirTag 1-Pack AirTag accessories.
• Customers will only earn miles on up to 10 units per eligible product in the case of AirPods and other eligible accessories.
• Using a coupon or discount code not found on the portal will invalidate the mileage earning.
• Orders placed on the Government or Veterans and Military Stores are not eligible for rewards.
• Purchases made with coupons or discount codes not found on the shopping portal and purchases made using gift cards, gift certificates, or other cash equivalents are not eligible for the promotion.

Make sure you read the full terms and conditions of your chose portal before committing to any purchases.

Keep in mind!

The restrictions on how many items you can buy and still earn bonus miles have been seriously tightened up in recent mons and there are now “lifetime limits” in place.

Your rewards are subject to lifetime limits of:

• 6 units per model in each of the following product categories:
  • iPhone
  • Mac
  • iPad
  • Watch
  • Vision
  • Apple TV HomePod
• 32 units of AirTag 1-pack and AirTag accessories
• 8 units of AirTag 4-pack
• 10 units of AirPods and other eligible accessories.

This lifetime limit applies to any purchase you make from the Apple Store website and app and rewards/boosted earnings will not be issued once you exceed the lifetime limit for a product.

Which credit card to use

By shopping through an online portal you’ll earn the miles that the portal is offering and you can earn more miles, points, or cash back by using a good credit card.

If you’re looking to earn points, the best credit card to use will be the Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express which earns 2 Membership Rewards Points/dollar on eligible business spending (everywhere) up to an annual spending limit of $50,000 (1 point/dollar thereafter – terms apply).

If you’re looking to earn a good rate of cash back, the Citi® Double Cash Card is a good option as it earns 2% cash back on all purchases with no cap on the cash back you can earn (1% cash back when you buy and 1% when you pay for those purchases)

If you happen to hold one of the premium Citi ThankYou credit cards you can convert cash back earned from the Citi® Double Cash Card (review) into ThankYou points at a ratio of 1:1.

Bottom line

These Apple boosted earnings deals have almost never lasted for more than a day, and this remains the case with all the portals that I’ve checked confirming that the deal will be over when today ends.

If you’ve been planning to make an Apple purchase, now may be a good time to buy, but if you can wait, it’s possible that the next promotion will offer a slight better earning rate and it’s possible that more portals will offer at least 4x on Apple purchases (although this is the third such promotion in a row where only two portals have offered 4x).

Note: Amazon often offers good deals on Apple products so make sure you’re not missing out on good savings by shopping with Apple directly via the portals (check Amazon here – affiliate link).