Earn Bonus United Miles for Online Shopping

It used to be that if you wanted to earn extra miles for online shopping, you had to wait for promotions keyed to traditional shopping periods: Christmas, Mother’s Day, back-to-school, and the like.

Recently, however, shopping bonuses have been appearing much more frequently, and oftentimes with no link to any specific shopping-related events. While their randomness makes them harder to anticipate, their increased frequency means that you won’t have to wait long for the next promotion.

Here’s the latest from United.

Offer Details

Between June 9 and June 23, MileagePlus members can earn bonus miles when making purchases through the MileagePlus Shopping portal, as follows:

• 500 bonus miles after spending at least $150
• 1,500 bonus miles after spending at least $350

Deal or No Deal

This is neither the most nor the least generous shopping bonus in recent memory. It’s certainly better than no bonus at all.

More generally, if you’re not earning miles by shopping at the airlines’ mileage malls, you should be. There’s no reason not to; the prices are the same. And by making your purchases through the airline’s portal, you’ll be earning miles — typically between one and 10 miles per $1 spent — that you don’t get when dealing direct through the merchant.

Making a good deal even better are the periodic bonus promotions, like this one, that amp up the mileage-earning. So, if you’re going to be shopping online anyway, it always makes sense to do so through an airline’s mileage portal, to earn miles for the purchases. And when there are extra bonuses in place, it makes even more sense.

As always, when shopping via an airline’s mileage mall, you must first stop at the mall’s landing page to log in with your loyalty-program credentials. Thereafter, purchases at any of the mall’s hundreds of participating merchants can be tracked and credited to your account.

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After 20 years working in the travel industry, and 15 years writing about it, Tim Winship knows a thing or two about travel. Follow him on Twitter @twinship.