Online shopping portals can be a great way to pick up additional points for purchases you’d make anyway. Most of the major airline and hotel programs have shopping portals, and many of them use the same company (Cartera), which essentially white labels the portals for each loyalty program.
Essentially these shopping portals are paid a commission by retailers for the customers they send their way, so of course they want to do everything they can to increase their volume of business. To do this, shopping portals often have promotions for bonus points, though beyond that we’ve seen some other creative additions on their part.
For example, some online shopping portals now offer bonus miles for in-store shopping purchases. The catch is that the process isn’t ideal — you have to specifically register for the store at which you’re going to shop before you go, which isn’t great for spur of the moment shopping.
There’s another really useful addition we’re seeing to some shopping portals.
The AAdvantage eShopping Portal now offers a Chrome extension that lets you earn bonus miles with the push of a button. All you have to do is install the extension, and then you’ll be alerted when you’re on a site where you can earn bonus miles. This allows you to activate mileage earning with one click, see and compare mileage earning offers in your search results, and easily view your earnings.
In general I do everything in my power to avoid cluttering my web browser, given that I’m on it all day and want as few distractions as possible. I have very few extensions installed. However, I installed this and am really digging it.
It’s not at all intrusive, and there’s just a pop-up at the top of my browser when I’m on a website where I could earn bonus miles. That’s a case where I appreciate a pop-up, since sometimes I forget to go through a portal when shopping online.
Once you get to that page you just have to click “Activate Offer,” and then it will refresh the page for you so that you’re logged in with your AAdvantage account information, and will then earn bonus miles.
Now, just because you have this installed doesn’t mean you should automatically choose to earn American miles for a purchase. Personally I’m viewing this as a good reminder that I’m on a site where I should earn bonus miles. Then I go to evreward.com and enter the URL of the site I’m on to compare the earnings rates across programs.
There I see that I could instead choose to earn six Chase Ultimate Rewards points. Not only is that one more point per dollar than I’d earn with American AAdvantage, but I also value Ultimate Rewards points more.
Bottom line
While I usually avoid installing browser extensions, I’m really digging the AAdvantage eShopping Chrome extension. It’s great to get a reminder to always earn bonus miles when shopping online, and the process of activating the portal is easy. Just make sure you still “comparison shop” various portals, because in many cases you can earn more bonus miles with another portal. For what it’s worth, Alaska and Southwest have similar extensions.
What do you make of these shopping portal browser extensions? Are they worth installing, or not worth the information you’re giving them?
lucky - I bet you did not read the whole list and just jumped on the first FF program you had.
You could have credited your miles to Spirit!
:-)
Callum - I am not sure the plugin is released by American and not some outsourced marketing firm. But even if it is American - you are right - they will not mine ethereum using the plugin - but I still do not want a custom ad printed on my boarding pass based on my browsing history...
Rich - Don't be absurd. American airlines aren't going to release an extension that covertly uses your computer for cryptocurrency mining...
would love this but I bet it has been 3 years since I have bought anything online that wasn't from AMZN
Meanwhile your computer will get slow,while chrome eats all your ram space :)
Useful to ... Cambridge Analitica and its elk.
100% of your browsing will now go to the creators of the extension.
NO THANKS!!!!!!
I saw the email from AA eShopping but I have not tried it yet. I already have extensions installed to alert for eBates and iConsumer portals so this would be the third. My browser is going to start looking like one of those sites that bombards you with pop-up ads!
Which of these programs tend to be the most rewarding? I value points from all three airlines mentioned pretty similarly (perhaps SW a little higher given it's basically cash at 1.5cpp) but I know the portals sometimes offer better/worse rates depending on the partner.
@ Sandeep -- There's not one that's consistently most rewarding, as they all pretty consistently fluctuate in terms of the returns they offer. So your best bet is to compare with every purchase.
Good reminder. I was about to order from guitarcenter.com and I wasn't even thinking about portal points. Looks like I can get 4x UR points in the Chase shopping portal. Unfortunately, I'm only buying a $40 stand. Maybe I need to up my purchases. This tip is saving me money already;-)
I'll point out the obvious (to most computer people), extensions can be harmful. On the low end they may simply collect more info on you for ads, etc. or slow down your machine. On the high end, they can be more malicious (crypto mining, placing ads, etc.).
Unless you are collecting a ton of points like this, I don't think it is a worthwhile thing to install. If you have to, then set up a...
I'll point out the obvious (to most computer people), extensions can be harmful. On the low end they may simply collect more info on you for ads, etc. or slow down your machine. On the high end, they can be more malicious (crypto mining, placing ads, etc.).
Unless you are collecting a ton of points like this, I don't think it is a worthwhile thing to install. If you have to, then set up a cheap computer (chromebook) or for the more savy, a virtual machine on your computer, to use for stuff like this .
Too often people spend a lot of time, or take a lot of risk, for what turns out to be worth only $50 or a couple of hundred.
Southwest and Alaska Air also have Chrome extensions.
So lucky shops at saks fifth ave eh
@ anon -- Only when there's also an Amex Offer. ;)
https://onemileatatime.com/american-express-platinum-card-review/
I agree totally on tha AADVANTAGE extension. It’s alerted me to vendors I would not have dreamed would be mileage partners.
Definitely a good extension to have. I should note however that the website cashbackmonitor.com shows more results generally when looking for The best portal to use for a purchase. Highly recommend