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It’s August and that means it’s time for the “back to school” sales, deals and promotions and American Airlines, United Airlines, Alaska Airlines, and Southwest are all offering bonus points for hitting spending targets through their shopping portals – Delta doesn’t appear to be offering such a deal.
Here’s what each of the airlines is offering:
Alaska Airlines
Offer valid through 11 August 2019.
With a maximum of 1,500 bonus miles on offer, this isn’t the most generous of promotions from a mileage perspective but, with Alaska miles generally considered to be one of the more valuable US airline currencies, this isn’t a deal to ignore.
American Airlines
Offer valid through 18 August 2019.
I value American Airlines miles at 1.25 cents each so the 2,000 bonus points available in this promotion (for spending a minimum of $500) is an effective rebate of up to 5%.
Looked at from that point of view this isn’t exactly a fantastic deal but, if you’re doing some shopping anyway, these are effectively free bonus miles that American Airlines is offering…so why not pick them up?
Southwest
Offer valid through 18 August 2019.
Southwest ties the value of its points to the cash fares its offering so, as I can generally get around 1.5 cents of value out of each Southwest point, this deal is offering an effective rebate of $30…but the minimum spend required to earn the best rebate is slightly higher than for Alaska or American ($550).
United Airlines
Offer valid through 18 August 2019.
United’s shopping portal is offering the highest number of miles out of any of these deals and, at a value of 1.4 cents/mile, the maximum rebate on offer here is $28.
This doesn’t, however, tell the full story as United’s shopping portal has also set the highest threshold for its top spending target ($600) so make sure you take that into account when working out which portal is offering you the better deal.
Bottom Line
It’s important to remember that while it’s useful to value each bonus on offer to see which portal is offering you the better deal, the values of the bonuses shouldn’t affect whether you use the portal or not.
While in everyday cases its always worth checking to see what the various cashback sites are offering for each dollar you spend through them (and compare that to what the airline portal are offering), the cashback sites generally don’t offer an added bonus for hitting spending targets….and that’s what makes these portal deals interesting.
If you need to do some shopping anyway (and who doesn’t?) you may as well collect the bonus miles these airline shopping portals are offering. As long as you’re not spending more than you may otherwise have done, these portal bonuses are genuinely free.
