I’ve talked before about online shopping portals, and how they’re a pretty easy way to boost your mileage totals (or even better, make sure that your hard-earned miles don’t expire).
(Almost?) all of the miles and points places have a portal, and United is no different. I use a site like Cashback Monitor to determine which portal has the most lucrative bonus for the given site I want to use, and then use that portal.
The rates change all the time, and in addition, the portals themselves often offer up bonuses. Currently, United has one.
I
2000 bonus miles if you spend $500 between now and August 31st. Not an overwhelming deal, but it works out to 4 extra miles / $1 spent, which isn’t bad.
Try it at Sears
United is currently paying out 2 miles / dollar at Sears, and (I believe) does also pay out on gift cards. So one scenario might be:
- Go through MileagePlus portal, buy $250 or Sears gift cards, earn 500 points from the portal and 250 more from the actual purchase
- Go through MileagePlus portal again, buy $250 of Sears merchandise, earn 500 points from the portal.
- Plus the 2000 bonus miles
- Total – 3250 miles earned on $250 of spend, or 13x spend. It’s been better (even recently) but that’s still not bad.
What do you think? Is it worth it? Are you going to take advantage of this deal?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
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