Preserve expiring frequent flyer miles with online shopping, and get bonus miles to boot

Posted by George Hobica on Sunday, January 2, 2011

by George Hobica

In addition to making frequent flyer miles harder to spend, airlines are expiring miles, if there's no activity in your account, faster than ever.

But one easy and painless way to make sure there's activity in your account is to do some online shopping using the airlines' "shopping malls." Even if you merely buy a 99-cent iTune you'll keep your miles safe for at least another year. And in addition, if you're buying a big ticket item, such as a computer, you can add some serious miles to your account.

For example if Continental offers four miles for every dollar spent with the Apple Store, one of their shopping partners and you buy a $2500 iMac computer, you get 10,000 miles. That's a huge bonus. And there are often bonus offers on top of the bonus miles. United might offer an additional 2,000 miles if you spend over a certain amount.

Generally, these online shopping partners offer at least one mile per dollar spent, but sometimes they award 10 miles or more. And if you use your airline affiliated credit card, you get an extra mile, but the credit card miles pale in comparison to the shopping miles you can earn.

Scores of well known retailers participate in these airline malls, including Brooks Brothers, Circuit City, The Container Store, Dell Computer, Drugstore.com, Sears, Target, and Walmart, to name but a few.

Keep in mind that although the airline shopping sites listed below work with many of the same retailers, American might be offering 4 miles with a particular retailer while Delta could be offering just half that, so you've got to shop around while you're shopping around.

Links to airline shopping malls

Airtran

American

British Airways

Delta (Delta SkyMiles, for now, no longer expire, but you can still earn miles this way)

Hawaiian Airlines

JetBlue (only flights or the use of a JB Amex card keep miles active, but you can still earn miles)

And you may also find these shopping sites useful:

Marriott Rewards

Amtrak

Travel Points

by Bill on Sunday, December 18, 2011

Can corporate/business accounts do this?

by sandiegan on Sunday, December 18, 2011

thanks to shere with me this kind of stuff really nice post thanks a lot.... regards, chanti

by yumedeals: online shopping india on Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Thanks for the tips - might get a "free" ticket yet!

by uncommonsensesc on Friday, November 11, 2011

Deena, yes: http://usairways.skymal dot com/site/usairways/results?mallid=1037&cat_id=9&cat_name=Computers&module_iid=2039&category_title=Computers

by airfarewatchdog on Friday, November 11, 2011

apple available for USAir?

by deena on Friday, November 11, 2011

Nice blog !! thanks for sharing with us.

by educational toys on Monday, September 26, 2011

Thanks for this post ...

by Show Coupon Codes on Thursday, September 22, 2011

Awesome post ...

by Coupons All on Thursday, September 22, 2011

good post...

by Deals Monkey on Thursday, September 22, 2011

Thank you for the details. I've been looking for this info quite a while.I hope this airlines offer great discount for any flights.

by <a href="http://cheapbarcodescanner.org/">Emil</a> on Saturday, August 13, 2011

no comment

by ellen d on Wednesday, August 03, 2011

Try using AwardWallet, It lists the miles you have by airline - updates whenever you wish - and gives expiration dates. Very handy -

by Hollander on Wednesday, August 03, 2011

I have frequent flier miles with 2 airlines that I don't use anymore (United and US Airways). Is there any way to cash these out? Donate them for a tax deduction? Basically anything but having to fly on either of these miserable airlines again??? Any advice appreciated. Thanks in advance.

by RWF on Tuesday, August 02, 2011

You know what would be great?! If there were a "bank" acount somewhere online - thru Facebook or whatever - where people could deposit a few extra miles that were going to expire and that couldn't get used first. If you have say 90 FFMs and you get credit for eating out or whatever at 100 FFMs, can you use what you have and then pay the rest? I don't think so; so why not have a depository for those 90 FFMs if they're about to expire and someone else can bid on them or something similar to acquire the unused miles. I'm sure the airlines wouldn't like it much, but those willing to participate could get positive publicity & warm & fuzzy feelings toward those taking part. There would be a few restrictions of course like registering and there would have to be a lot of oversight, etc. OR maybe travelers could deposit their miles and potential passengers could bid on them, thus benefitting the depositor as well. There's got to be SOME WAY to make all of this work. I am a very charitable person myself and I wouldn't want to deprive any organization from receiving the miles. Usually, there is a limited number you can deposit, right? For example, if you have 110 FFMs and a charity will take them in 100 FFM increments, then the other 10 get wasted. I know I've lost miles and I bet the majority of other account holders have too. What a waste!! Any bright ideas on how this could work? AFWD?? :)

by pammyd13 on Friday, July 29, 2011

My miles never seem to get posted when I shop using the airlines online malls. I believe you need to clear the cookies on your computer then go straight to the airline mall and know what exactly you want to purchase already instead of shuffling around through too many pages otherwise the tracking gets lost somewhere. Also, no other discount codes at checkout. I think signing in to the store as a previous customer might prevent it from giving you credit also. Some airlines will keep your miles active if you make a small purchase with some of your miles, like for a magazine subscription.

by Vegas_Tiff on Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Some frequent flier programs award points for donations to specified charities. I have lost enough friends to cancer, so when I discovered that I could make one of my routine donations to the cause (i.e. the Susan Komen charity) AND keep my AAdvantage points from expiring, it was a no-brainer. :-)

by Great Lakes Lover on Tuesday, July 20, 2010

FYI

by freds on Thursday, March 18, 2010

Beware of expiring Amtrak miles. No matter how many miles you earn via their credit card or mileage mall, you *MUST* physically ride on an Amtrak train once every three years or else kiss your miles goodbye. Word to the wise.

by Sluggo on Monday, December 07, 2009

One thing to remember when you're on-line shopping through the airline sites - sometimes you don't get the miles if you use any other discount code as you check out. For instance, if you have a code for free shipping or percent off, that disqualifies you from getting miles. You have to read the "fine print" on the airline's site. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. But it's still a great way to rack up miles!

by Mrs.G. on Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Flyer miles is certainly a great concept, however I always seem have problems with mine.

by Ash Auto on Monday, July 27, 2009

always seem have problems with mine

by metin2 on Wednesday, October 21, 2009

I wanted to purchase something like a baby carriage using my air miles (because we have so many) but I don't like the ones continental allows you to get. Is there any other website that has other items you can purchase using air miles. Thanks?!?!

by BOD on Wednesday, April 29, 2009

To make it easier to check when I'm about to buy something online, I've bookmarked the awards miles page for each airline that I have miles with. I collected them all in a "new folder" called "Airline Rewards" and put it in "Favorites" - it's at the top of my list (alphabetical) and easy to compare each program to see how many miles they'll award for the site I'm going to buy from.

by ng on Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Every time you use an airline's reward credit card you extend your expiration period.

by momia on Tuesday, April 28, 2009

I have lost so many flyer miles over the years. Its a pity you couldnt "store" them in the past. I wonder when the european airlines will follow suite, I got a bit with Lufthansa at the moment that will soon be canceled....

by Bilety lotnicze on Friday, July 17, 2009

Glad you guys posted these tips, I can't imagine the poor people who have a lot of miles and then loose them to expiration! I imagine people get pretty upset, it's to the airlines advantage to at least e-mail people before their miles expire so they don't get angry and possible ban that airline from any future purchases.

One note is, even tho I love flying on Spirit, it is difficult keeping any amount of miles with them since you have to keep earning at least 2,000 new miles every 6 months, otherwise they all expire. I could understand 2,000 miles every 18 months or something, but 6 months is too difficult to achieve [especially since I live in Chicago, not FLL, MYR, DTW, or ACY]. Even then, Spirit only credits 50% miles flown for nonrefundable economy tickets. The only real way to keep miles on Spirit is use their credit card.

@Matthew

by matthewsoft on Wednesday, May 20, 2009

A really easy way to add a few miles to refresh your FF account is to join their Dining connection. I've used it to keep my Delta account active. One logs into the FF program, looks for partners and registers a credit card (does not need to be affilitated with the same airline). Then use that card when you eat in a participating restaurant. A $10 sandwich shop can reinstate your miles 18 months at Delta.

by NurseCat on Tuesday, February 24, 2009

I use airmilesshops.ca to collect AIR MILES in Canada. Works great.

by ADK99 on Monday, April 20, 2009

You can often get a magazine subscription through the airline's FFwebsite for a few hundred miles with no cash outlay. Resets the expiration date on the rest of your miles!

by saudisandy on Monday, April 27, 2009

Southwest airlines, you can reinstate an expired credit for $50 within 2 years of expiration. At the point you do this, the reinstated credit is good for one year after reinstatement. The thing I'm not clear on, is if it is $50 per reward or $50 per 2 rewards (so that you have a roundtrip ticket available).

by csslazyboy on Monday, April 27, 2009

If the airline is NW/KLM, go into your worldperks account, go to program info and select worldperks university. There are I believe 5 coarses - each coarse gets you 100 miles BUT best of all it renews your account for another 3 years! I did the first coarse - a few pages of reading and three question test - took all of about 3 minutes and I was done!

by True North on Monday, February 23, 2009

You know what would be genius? A website that tracks your FF miles (these exist) AND NOTIFIES you a month before they are set to vanish.

Is anyone aware if such a magical tool already exists?

by Merivel on Monday, February 23, 2009

How do I receive credit for shopping at a store belonging to an airline's shopping mall if I don't have an airline affiliated credit card?

by Gypsy on Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Just answered my own question:

http://www.mileagemanager.com/forbes.php

by Merivel on Monday, February 23, 2009

Gypsy - You log into your frequent flyers account before you go to the mall.

by PepGiraffe on Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Thanks AFWD, love the site and recommend it often. I was wondering if you'd do a little more reporting on this topic and list the amount of time your account can be inactive before it is emptied according to each airline? Similar to your fees charts, for example. I ask because, motivated by your post, I logged into my accounts and Northwest doesn't post a miles expiration date like United did, so I don't know what kind of time frame I'm up against with them! Thank you!

by Priscilla C. on Monday, October 06, 2008

I agree with Priscilla's post. Any extra information about each individual airline's expiration dates and requirements to keep what we have would be incredibly helpful as they seem to be always changing.

by Penney on Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Northwest miles don't currently expire, although that may change when they merge with Delta. Most of the programs have an 18 month without activity clause for expiration.

by Jason on Sunday, February 22, 2009

Does anyone have advice on how to extend Southwest credits? I keep losing one at a time as they expire a year from when you earn them.

by nesoreus on Monday, February 23, 2009

Another thought: if you don't think you will get enough points for even a short haul flight, but have 5,000+ points (the level varies from plan to plan), you can donate them to charity. Given the choice of allowing the sharks to eat my points or give them to a good choice...is there a choice?!?! If I hadn't gotten points from Delta recently for doing a survey, I would have been in a use it or lose it situation...8,000 into a charity's coffers works for me. Think of the good that your unused points can do!

by Mark S. on Tuesday, July 15, 2008

It's not one of the airlines that you have listed, but I have built up LOTS of miles on the Hawaiian Airlines Miles Mall. It's a way to keep your account active and to build up your balance for those inter-island flights when I'm in Hawaii.

by Bart B. on Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Popular Destinations

Popular Routes

Preserve expiring frequent flyer miles with online shopping, and get bonus miles to boot

Airfarewatchblog