How Our Family Earned 60,000 Bonus Miles In 2016 Buying Stuff We Were Going To Buy Anyway
“How do you earn so many miles?”
That’s a big question our family gets all the time.
Miles Husband says it’s time to explain one of his most important, successful techniques to you.
Remember this scene from the movie, “The Graduate?”
In that same spirit, Miles Husband just wants to say one word to you.
Just one word.
“Portals.”
Yes, portals.
It’s how we shop for almost everything.
Online shopping portals.
It’s how you can make your miles multiply like little bunnies in Springtime.
MH explains the benefits of shopping through online portals.
-Free miles on top of the miles you will earn from your favorite miles-earning credit card.
-Often additional discounts that aren’t advertised on a merchant’s website.
-Trigger promotion that allow you to earn bonus miles on top of your normal bonus miles (e.g., Spend $100, get 500 additional bonus miles.)
Okay, already, how do you shop through a portal?
First decide where you want to shop.
Let’s say your kids need new jeans.
You could walk into your local Old Navy and buy them.
Of course, MH would never speak to you again if you did, as you are throwing away a huge miles earning opportunity.
Instead, he would have you go home and log on to a website like CashbackMonitor.com.
Type in, “Old Navy.”
This will take you to a screen like this.
It is showing you the road map to earning bonus miles or cash back if that is more your thing.
Click on the top “Old Navy” line and it will take you to this page:
How about that for a miles candy store?
United, Alaska, American, Hilton, Marriott, Chase, etc.
Which of your caches do you want to add to?
Simply click on that link, which will take you to that company’s website. You login, (you might need to set up a free account first,) go to their shopping section and get to Old Navy from there.
A few extra clicks, yes.
But once you’re there, it’s the same shopping experience as if you’ve gone directly to Old Navy.
You avoid the store and get miles.
Most websites will drop shipping charges if you buy more than $50 of merchandise.
Do the math.
Spend $100 cash inside an Old Navy store = 0 miles.
Spend $100 on a low earning credit card in store = 100 miles.
Spend $100 on that same credit card going through the portal= 100 miles + 300 bonus miles =400 miles.
Starting to get the picture?
That’s just using a low earning credit card.
In a future post, MH will explain how to get those higher earning credit cards.
Meanwhile, I hear the skeptics out there.
“400 miles? Big deal. That won’t get me anywhere!”
No, but do this with almost everything you spend and it really adds up.
MH sent me a screenshot of one of our portal accounts.
Check out the bonus miles our family earned from stuff we were going to buy anyway.
Going to the movies, ordering pizza, Christmas present gift certificates, going to IHOP–these are all things that brought us bonus miles because we took a few seconds to click through some portals to make the purchase or buy a gift card that we cashed in at the restaurant or movie theater.
See how this adds up?
One important tip ***
- Remember to always clear your cookies or simply open up a Private browsing or Incognito window to ensure that the necessary referral link passes through to the merchant’s website. This will preserve the referral link which ensures you’ll be awarded the bonus miles.
If you have any questions about earning or burning your frequent flyer miles, just drop Miles Husband an email.
You can find him at [email protected].
If you’d like to hear more stories about life in this crazy family, you might like my book,
