The Secret Way To Collect Points/Miles While Stuck At Home

While you are staying at home, you can dream of your next big trip AND rack up the miles/points needed to get there. So if you are not flying, how can you collect points/miles?

It's easy and a habit you should get into all the time. Otherwise, you are leaving lots of miles/points on the table instead of using them to go on fabulous trips. 

The Secret: online shopping portals 

Yep, online shopping portals. Southwest, American, United and Jet Blue offer shopping portals. Chase and Citi also offer them. There are a few cashback ones too, but I am going to focus on points/miles here. 

But what are shopping portals? Online shopping portals are a collection of merchants like Home Depot, Target, Walmart, Blue Apron, Old Navy and more that offer extra points/miles for your purchase if you access them through the airlines' marketplace. By using the portal when you make your purchase, you earn points/miles plus if you use a point-earning credit card to make the purchase you can double dip. If you want to get really crazy, look for American Express offers and you can triple dip. Fun! 

So how do shopping portals work exactly?

For example, you want to buy a new outfit at Macys.com. I always check cashbackmonitor.com to compare the offers from the different portals. You may want to stick with one airline or you may just want to go with the best offer. That will depend on your travel goals.  

Find the portal you want to use, login to your frequent flier account, click on marketplace or shopping, find the retailer you want to shop with and click on it. The website will tell you that your purchases are being tracked. When you are ready to make your purchase, be sure you did not accidentally open another window and kill the tracking. It will take about 4-6 weeks for your points to post to your account. 

Bam! Easy! 

Double Points With The Wyndham Shopping Portal

Wyndham is offering 2x points when you shop through its shopping portal. Now I didn't even know Wyndham had a shopping portal and I love shopping portals. 

But I'm glad they do because shopping portals are a great way to build miles and points on airlines and hotels or earn cash back or FREE products. 

I tend to use the shopping portals from Southwest, American Airlines, United Airlines, Ebates now known as Rakuten (If you use my referral link, you will get a bonus discount) and the Marketplace. 

Shopping portals all work the same way, though the cash back or points/miles that you earn from each retailer can vary from portal to portal. You can use cashbackmonitor.com to quickly check rates for a specific retailer. You can see above that through the Wyndham shopping portal, Macy's is offering 1 point per dollar with the bonus. It usually offers .5 points per dollar.

Services are also included in shopping portals with big points/mile bonuses. 

To use a shopping portal:

• Log in to your membership account 
• Find the retailer you want to shop with 
• Click on that retailer, you will be redirected to the retailer's website
• Shop normally and purchase 

Note, you must make your purchase on that redirected website for the tracking to work so you get the points. If you think you lost the tracking by clicking on another website, leave your items in the cart and go back to the shopping portal and repeat the original steps. 

Your items will still be in the cart and the tracking will be turned back on. 

It takes about 1-2 weeks for you to get an email alerting you that you earned points. 

And a few weeks after that for the points/cash back/miles to post. 

How To Earn The Most Points and Miles on Black Friday and Cyber Monday

One of our first FREE trips was to Thailand and Japan. It was an amazing one-month adventure rich with culture and new experiences. It was especially sweet because not only was it FREE, we actually made money on the trip. I vowed never to pay for travel again. 

One of my tricks during the holiday shopping season is to lean heavily on online shopping portals and then use the right credit card to double or even triple dip on points and miles. 

As we head into Black Friday and Cyber Monday, I am going to show you how to do it too. 

Before pressing the place order button, check cashbackmonitor.com to see if the online retailer is listed on any shopping portal. Most major retailers are listed on shopping portals as part of their marketing strategies. All the major airlines and some hotels offer shopping portals plus there are cashback portals and flexible point portals like Chase Ultimate Rewards, Barclays, and Capital One.

Once you see where the retailer is listed, you can compare the points and miles offers. 

For example, I type in Best Buy and bam, it's listed all over the place from cashback to Southwest to Chase Ultimate Rewards.

Depending on your strategy, you may pick one portal over another. 

• if you need to top off an account
• you have points that are expiring and you need some activity
• you are trying to earn enough points for a specific trip 

There are a lot of reasons to pick one portal over another. 

My go-to portal is the Chase Ultimate Rewards since I can transfer those points to dozens of different airlines, hotels, use them in the travel center or pay myself back. Points earned in the Southwest shopping portal count towards the Companion Pass. 

Sometimes the portals will offer bonus points too so if I saw a great bonus offer in another portal, I would head there. 

You can click on the portal out of cashback monitor and log in from there. Some of the portals require a separate login from your regular airline mile account. 

Then make your purchase just like you would normally. The portal will track your purchase and a few days later you will get an email letting you know that your purchase is being tracked. 

Now one more thing before you push the button to make that purchase and after you click through to a shopping portal, be sure you use the right credit card. If you have a Chase FREEDOM or FREEDOM UNLIMITED or FLEX card, then check your bonus categories. If the store you are making a purchase from is listed, then use that credit card to get the bonus on top of the portal bonus. For example, Q4 2021 bonus categories are Walmart and Paypal. Can you use Paypal to pay for this purchase? Many retailers offer the option, then do it and collect 5x bonus points on top of the portal points. 

If not, is the retailer an office supply store? If so, use your Chase Ink credit card to earn 5x points and so on. Amazing!

If you don't have a Chase FREEDOM card or Southwest Credit Card, consider using my referral links so we can continue helping you get the best deals in travel. 

That's how we do it here at almostfreefamilytravel.com. Happy holidays! 

 cashback monitor 

Chase and use the Chase Reserve Credit Card 

Rack Up Miles Fast By Shopping Online

Hopefully, you are not running around to all the stores like we used to right now to find the items you need. Instead, you are discovering the joys of online shopping. You can peruse the aisles of the store from the comfort of your home and slippers. Use coupons. Just push the button and a few days later, your purchase arrives on your doorstep. Amazing! 

Rack Up Miles Fast By Shopping Online 

Now, in case you are new to online shopping or even if you are a seasoned internet shopper, there are some ways to maximize your savings. The most important is to use a shopping portal when you shop online. Why? You ask. Because you want to squeeze every last mile/point or cashback you could be getting with each purchase. It's like going to a store and not using a coupon. Yikes! 

One day, travel will go back to the way it was and you want to be ready with lots of points/miles. 

Let's run down the list of available shopping portals to choose from depending on your goals. A good habit is to check cashbackmonitor.com before you purchase online. You just enter a retailer and this website will show you which portals it is listed on and how much each one is offering in points/miles or cash back. There can be a huge variation between online portals so don't skip this step unless you are loyal to one airline. 

All the major airlines have online shopping portals; United, Southwest, American, Delta, and Jet Blue. Plus Wyndham Hotels and Chase Ultimate Rewards offer portals. And then there are the cashback portals from companies like Rakuten. If you use my referral link, you will get $10 FREE cash back on your first purchase. 

Rack Up Miles Fast By Shopping Online 

It's easy to use a portal. Login to the portal using your airline, hotel or regular information, then find the store you want to shop at and click shop now. You will be shown a cashback percentage or points/miles awarded per dollar spent and then be taken to the retailer website. Shop just like you normally would and the portal will keep track of how much you spend. It takes about 6-8 weeks for the points/miles or cash back to post to your account. You can even double dip and use a credit card that gives you miles/points or cashback too. 

Look for bonus points/miles offers from the portals as well. 

This a good way to top off an airline loyalty account or keep those points/miles from expiring. 

Double and Even Triple Dip On Your Back To School Shopping

 

You can earn points by flying OR you can earn points by using your credit card to buy the things you purchase everyday. Are you going to the grocery store? Yep, earn points. Are you going to fill your car with gas? Yep, earn points. See how easy it is. 

Now it gets even more fun when you get leverage that spending two or maybe three times like when you shop for school or college dorms. 

I use the website cashbackmonitor.com before I buy anything. This site lists hundreds of stores and how many points they are offering on a variety of credit cards or through the shopping portals. 

If you click on a specific store, then you can see exactly how many points each shopping portal is offering. Shopping portals are a marketplace of retailers hosted by a a specific credit card, hotel or airline. For example, let's look at walmart.com. If you shop through the United Shopping portal with a United credit card, you can earn 1 mile per dollar, without a United card, you will earn .5 miles per dollar. In the American Airlines Shopping portal though you can earn 1 mile per dollar and use whatever credit card you want. 

This could work to your advantage IF you have an Amex offer or another discount. You can check your Amex offers by logging into your online account. 

Here's where it gets even more fun. The Chase FREEDOM, FREEDOM Unlimited and FREEDOM Flex cards earn 5x points on rotating quarterly categories. This quarter the categories are gas, car rentals and streaming. Probably can't double or triple dip on those, but sometimes the categories include home improvement stores and those are super easy to stack. You can earn up to 10x points on those purchases if you play your credit cards right. Here are the airlines that have shopping portals. 

Many of the shopping portals offer bonus points too if you spend a certain amount during a specific time frame. These bonus offers happen during holidays or back to school shopping periods. 

Happy shopping and earning FREE travel at the same time! 

Save Money Using Portals On Black Friday

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the biggest shopping days of the year. Most of the popular retailers will offer some sort of deal to get you to open your wallet. And the shopping portals are not going to be left out. Good news for you because you can double dip! Actually triple dip if you use the right credit card for your purchases. 

How does this work?

This morning, we checked Ebates.com, one of my favorite cash back shopping portals and they have already listed a few Pre-Black Friday deals like 5% cash back on Amazon devices bought through Amazon.com, 10% back at JC Penney and more. They are also featuring promo codes and Black Friday ads from stores. 

So how does it work? It's easy. 

1. Sign up for a FREE account through this referral link. You will get a FREE $10 for using my referral link. 

2. Then find the retailer where you want to make your purchase 

3. You will see the cashback offer for Ebates.com members 

4. Click on the shop now button 

3% might not seem like much, but if you use shopping portals every time you shop, it starts to add up. And when Ebates.com sends you your "big fat check", it's time to celebrate. 

So remember shopping portals this holiday season and let us know how it goes. 

Two Shopping Portal Promotions End This Week

 

Two shopping portal promotions ending this week, one from American Airlines and one from United Airlines. If you need a few miles to top off your account or if you need some activity on your American Airlines account, then you might want to take a look. 

United Airlines miles never expire, however, American Airlines miles expire after just 18 months of no activity. Shopping portals are a great way to show activity on your account and reset your expiration date. 

Two Shopping Portal Promotions End This Week

Right now, both promotions are the same. Spend $150 and get 500 miles, spend $300 and get 1,000 miles. You do not have to spend the entire amount on one purchase. You just need to spend the total by the promotion end date. 

If you don't know how shopping portals work, check out this post. Shopping portals are a great way to earn airline miles and points without actually flying. Many of your favorite retailers are listed on the marketplace and may have different offers on each portal. I use cashbackmonitor.com to see the offers in one place. Stacking offers can make shopping portals even more lucrative. 

The American Airlines promotion ends Jan. 20th. 

The United Airlines promotion ends Jan. 19th. 

How You And A Friend Can Each Get $30 FREE For Online Shopping

If you follow my blog at all, you know how much I love online shopping portals. These are just FREE money and yep, I love FREE money. You can check out my last post on how to rack up miles fast with online shopping. 

But did you know that besides racking up miles fast, you can also get cashback?

Yep, that's right. Think couponing meets the internet. Stop looking for discount codes and promo codes, just shop the right way and get rewarded. 

Starting April 20th, one of my favorite cash back shopping portals, Rakuten.com (formerly Ebates), is offering $30 to new customers and $30 to the person who referred the new customer. What a win-win! 

How do shopping portals work?

Here's a visual for you about how shopping portals work. I sent flowers to a friend last week for her birthday. Instead of clicking straight to a flower delivery website, I logged into my Rakuten.com account.  There are about 2,500 retailers associated with this marketplace so you should find what you are looking for from Target to Home Depot. I looked at all the flower delivery companies and chose one that offered 48% cashback, yep, you read that right. When I clicked on the link, Rakuten.com took me to the flower company website and I proceeded to make my purchase. Rakuten tracks my purchase and credits me back 48%. Wow! 

You do need to make sure you don't disrupt the tracking by clicking on other windows etc. 

It takes a few days or weeks to see the cashback and then every 3 months, Rakuten will send you a "big fat check." 

This new promotion is only good for two weeks, it ends on May 1st so tell lots of your friends. There is no limit on how many people you can refer. And if you are new to Rakuten, use our link to join and then share your referral link with your friends. 

The Ultimate Guide to Maximizing Miles Through Shopping Portals!

 

The Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales are already popping up! So if you have your eye on something, now might be the best time to press that purchase button to get the best deal. 

But be sure that you are getting the most points and miles for each purchase. 

Not only can you get the points for the purchase, but you can also get bonus points. 

We have put together the ultimate guide to maximizing miles through shopping portals to help you get that next trip for free. 

You can think of a shopping portal like a marketplace. All of the retailers are listed on one website and when you access the retailer through the marketplace, you are rewarded with extra points or miles. These are IN ADDITION to the points you get for the purchase. We call this "stacking"

1. Before you buy anything, check cashbackmonitor.com. This website lists every retail store and which portals it is listed on so you can choose the best option for you. You click through to the portal from cashbackmonitor.com

Depending on your strategy, you may pick one portal over another. 

• if you need to top off an account
• you have points that are expiring and you need some activity
• you are trying to earn enough points for a specific trip 

There are a lot of reasons to pick one portal over another. 

My go-to portal is the Chase Ultimate Rewards since I can transfer those points to dozens of different airlines, hotels, use them in the travel center or pay myself back. Points earned in the Southwest shopping portal count towards the Companion Pass. 

Sometimes the portals will offer bonus points too so if I saw a great bonus offer in another portal, I would head there. 

You can click on the portal out of cashback monitor and log in from there. Some of the portals require a separate login from your regular airline mile account. 

Then make your purchase just like you would normally. The portal will track your purchase and a few days later you will get an email letting you know that your purchase is being tracked. 

Now one more thing before you push the button to make that purchase and after you click through to a shopping portal, be sure you use the right credit card. If you have a Chase FREEDOM FLEX card, then check your bonus categories. If the store you are making a purchase from is listed, then use that credit card to get the bonus on top of the portal bonus. For example, Q4 2023 bonus categories include Paypal. Can you use Paypal to pay for this purchase? Many retailers offer the option, then do it and collect 5x bonus points on top of the portal points. 

If not, is the retailer an office supply store? If so, use your Chase Ink credit card to earn 5x points and so on. Amazing and happy shopping! 

How To Get The Most Points From Shopping Portals

 

Dreaming of traveling to faraway places? Of course, you are. One of the best ways to get there for FREE is to use shopping portals for your everyday purchases. You can read about how to use the portals in general here. However, today, the portals launched their Halloween special offers which means increased points on your purchases. 

But the rates are not the same on all the portals. Now sometimes it has to do with the value of the points in that rewards program. But for you, it may mean the difference between a free ticket and not quite being there. 

So we have to be very intentional about which portal we use for what purchases. 

So let me show you! 

Take a look at this offer I got this morning in an email from the American Airlines shopping portal. If I go thru the portal and sign up for the Motley Fool newsletter, I get 7,500 American miles. Pretty sweet. If I sign up with Blue Apron through the portal, I get 2,000 American miles. 

Now at the exact same time, I got an email from United Airlines Mileage Shopping with these offers. 

If I sign up for Motley Fool through United, I get 4,000 United miles and if I sign up for Blue Apron, I get 1,000 miles. Now if you need United miles to top your account or you only fly United, then you should go through this portal. 

But if you fly both American and United, you may want to make your purchase through the American Airlines shopping portal. 

We value American miles at 1 cent and United miles at 1.1 cent. 

I always check cashbackmonitor.com to see which portal has the best offer before I make a purchase. 

Good luck! 

Get Bonus Points When You Send Valentine's Day Flowers

If you have followed my blog for at least a few weeks, you know how much I LOVE shopping portals! Shopping portals are like icing on a cake. It's really FREE money. 

Whenever you shop online, you get bonus points/cashback or loyalty shopping dollars if you click through a portal to get to the retailer website. Make sense?

It's one extra click for you and could mean thousands of bonus miles/points or cashback. 

For Valentine's Day, the shopping portals are sweetening the deal. 

Here are the current deals:

• Southwest Airlines is offering a bonus of 1,750 points if you use their portal to access 1-800-Flowers. 
• United Airlines is offering 400 bonus points when you spend $200 total at any retailers by February 16th. 
• American Airlines is offering 400 bonus points when you spend $200 total at any retailers by February 17th

So if you have any online shopping to do this week, look at the portals before you hit place order and you will be one step closer to your next FREE trip. 

How To Max Out Points and Miles during Black Friday Shopping

 

This week marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season and specifically the Black Friday sales. Now this year is going to look very different with so many people just trying to make ends meet and retailers trying to save a dismal year. 

So whether you will be taking advantage of the sales a lot or a little, make each purchase count. One day, we will be traveling again, and why not, travel for FREE. 

So a few things to remember when you are shopping over the holiday season:

1. Use the right credit card - this year has been incredible for increased cashback percentages on certain types of purchases. For example, 

• the new Chase Flex credit card offered new credit cardholders 5% back on groceries for one year or up to $12,000. When you are shopping for that Thanksgiving meal ingredients, that would be the card to use. 
• Chase Southwest credit cards offered a targetted offer of 5x points on Amazon purchases this quarter so this would be the card to use at that retailer. And now there is a more general offer for 5x points on Amazon and groceries, you need to activate the offer with this link.
• Chase quarterly bonus categories on Chase Flex and Chase Freedom offer 5x points at Paypal and Walmart this quarter. 
• Cards like Sapphire Preferred and Reserve offer increased percentages at restaurants, travel and grocery stores. Both cards also offer a cash back program where you can erase purchases at an increased 25% and 50% value. 
• Discover offers 5% this quarter at Amazon, Target and Walmart. 

2. Shopping portals - I love shopping portals, this is FREE money. You can check out my guide to shopping portals here. The bottom line is never make a purchase online without clicking on a shopping portal. It costs you nothing and puts money back in your pocket. And right now, Rakuten will give you $40 FREE when you use this referral link. 

3. Amex and Chase offers - check your AmericanExpress and Chase account to see what offers are available. Honestly, I don't find the best offers here, but once in a while, there is a gem. A few months ago, I found $50 back on any Marriott hotel stay. Pretty sweet! 

4. Open a new credit card and use the purchases to meet your minimum spend and get the bonus. One of the best bonuses and cards is the Sapphire Preferred which is offering a 75,000 Ultimate Rewards bonus and 1.25 point cash back program. 

The bottom line is every time you make a purchase make it count twice or three times towards that FREE trip. I call it leveraged spending and in the future, we will call it FREE travel. Woohoo! 

How To Get Bonus Miles With Shopping Portals

The holiday bonus offers are starting early this year! American Airlines, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines are all offering bonus miles if you use their shopping portals. Shopping portals are online marketplaces that earn you extra miles when you shop. Remember we at almost FREE family travel do NOT support manufactured spend. Instead, let's maximize the power of what you are going to spend anyways.
For example, instead of typing in Old Navy in the search bar and shopping there, type in American Airlines shopping portal, log in with your Advantage membership information and then click on Old Navy in the marketplace. American will reward you with a few miles for each dollar spent. Plus if you spend enough before 11/20, they will give you bonus miles. The prices are the same, you are just harnessing the power or using leveraged spending.

Here are the details of each offer:

American 

Spend $150 for 500 bonus miles 

Spend $600 for 2000 bonus miles 

Spend $1200 for 4000 bonus miles 

United 

Spend $150 for 500 bonus miles 

Spend $750 for 2500 bonus miles 

Spend $1500 for 5000 bonus miles 

Both airlines are offering the bonus for shopping done between 10/30 and 11/19. 

Southwest is also in the game with its new shopping portal. Here are the details of their offer:

Spend $150 for 500 bonus miles 

Spend $500 for 1000 bonus miles 

Spend $1000 for 3000 bonus miles 

The bonus is for shopping done between 10/30 and 11/20. 

So if you are trying to top off your accounts, my recommendation is to pick one airline portal and stick with it. You might buy a few holiday gifts early and earn a few miles on the side. 

That's how we do it at almost free family travel. 

Top 5 Portals To Use For Your Holiday Shopping

One of the best ways to earn airline miles or cash back is with shopping portals. And now as we head into the holiday season, the portals are offering bonus miles so it's easy to earn free plane tickets and hotel rooms. 

Here are my top 5 shopping portals:

1. American Airlines shopping portal - right now, you can earn up to 4,000 bonus miles if you spend $1200 by November 19th. 

2. United Airlines shopping portal - right now you can earn up to 5,000 bonus miles if you spend $1500 by November 19th. 

3. Southwest Airlines shopping portal - right now, you can earn up to 3,000 bonus miles if you spend $1,000 by November 20th. 

4. Dining reward programs where you link your credit card to the dining program offered by an airline like United or Southwest. Any time you dine at a particular restaurant that is in the program, you earn bonus points. 

5. Ebates.com for cash back on purchases. When we went returned home from Europe, ebates.com sent me a check for $54. Nice. 

Remember, always set your credit cards on autopay and pay them off each and every month in full. That's how we do almost FREE family travel. 

Early Black Friday Deal: Cash Back At Amazon!

If you do most of your shopping on Amazon, it's hard to find cash back deals on that platform. Amazon does not participate in most of the shopping portals. And as you know, I love shopping portals because it's a great way to double or even triple your miles/cash back from a single purchase. You can check out this past post on how to use shopping portals.
Now Rakuten, formerly Ebates, is offering up to 5% cash back on Amazon.

When you click on the Amazon link from Rakuten, there is a quick list of the cash back offers in different categories. Here's a look at that list and you can see it varies greatly, but it's better than zero which is the norm for Amazon.

If you use my referral link to Rakuten, you will get an additional $10 off your first purchase of at least $25. Happy shopping!

Huge Bonus From The #1 Shopping Portal

 

If you follow me at all, you know how much I love shopping portals. Portals are FREE money and I love that! They are essentially a marketplace of retailers that offer cashback, miles, or points in exchange for being listed on the marketplace. What does this mean for you? I call it leveraged spending, it sounds like a very financial term, but it really just means getting more value out of each purchase. 

Picture this, you need to buy a new toilet from Home Depot. You can buy it straight from homedepot.com, you can walk into the store and buy it OR you can click on a shopping portal to reach homedepot.com and buy it there and get 3%-10% cashback. Woohoo! 

Most of the airlines and Chase offer shopping portals plus there are a few cashback portals including my favorite Rakuten used to be Ebates. 

Stores come and go and the cashback rates change all the time. I use cashbackmonitor.com to check the percentages for retailers. The best part is when you get the email from Rakuten saying you have a big fat check on the way. If you are not a Rakuten member yet, use this link to open your account and you will get $40 when you spend $40. Cha-ching! 

How Your Holiday Shopping Can Earn You A FREE Vacation

Now that Halloween is over, the holiday shopping season is on! And when you do your holiday shopping, you can be earning your next vacation at the same time! It's all about shopping portals. Yes, I know it's an extra step and you have to remember to do it, but you know what, when you book that next vacation for FREE, it will be well worth it. 

How Your Holiday Shopping Can Earn You A FREE Vacation

Here's how it works! The major airlines United, Southwest, Alaska, Delta and American have shopping portals. You can use cashbackmonitor.com to see which airlines are participating. Now they always offer bonus miles for using the portal, but right now, there are bonuses to be earned. Thousands of extra miles in bonuses are up for grabs. 

Like the one in the picture above from United Airlines. When you spend $150, you earn 500 bonus miles. So when you buy that dog food from Petsmart.com or Chewy.com, instead of going to the retailer's website, use the portal. You can even stack bonuses if your credit card has an offer too. 

How Your Holiday Shopping Can Earn You A FREE Vacation

And it's cumulative. So you can spend $50 at Chewy.com and then $100 at Staples.com and bam, 500 FREE bonus miles. The bonus takes about 6-8 weeks to credit to your account. 

Be very careful that you click from the portal to through to the retailer so you get the credit. 

Each airline sets its own criteria for the bonus so be sure to shop around and of course, consider which airline you are trying to collect points for. 

Here are the holiday bonus offers: 

 United Shopping Portal  - Ends November 18th. Spend $150, earn 500 bonus miles. Spend $600, earn 2,000 bonus miles. Spend $1,200, earn 5,000 bonus miles. 

Southwest Shopping Portal - Ends November 21st, Spend $100, earn 500 bonus miles. Spend $500, earn 1,000 bonus miles. Spend $1,000, earn 3,500 bonus miles. 

Alaska Shopping Portal - Ends November 20th, Spend $150, earn 300 bonus miles. Spend $350, earn 750 bonus miles. Spend $650, earn 1,500 bonus miles. 

Delta Shopping Portal -  Ends November 18th, Spend $200, earn 500 bonus miles. Spend $400, earn 1,000 bonus miles. Spend $800, earn 2,000 bonus miles. 

While you are taking advantage of these holiday shopping bonus offers, you should also be working your way towards your minimum spend and bonus offer on your new credit card. 

If you are joining me in earning the Southwest Companion Pass, then we are about to apply for the Southwest credit cards. Don't do it quite yet, but when we are ready here is my referral link if that's your plan. 

If you are not joining me in earning the Southwest Companion Pass, then you should be taking advantage of the increased offer on the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card. This is my favorite card because Chase Ultimate Rewards points are super flexible. You can transfer the points to dozens of airlines and few hotel chains, you can use them in the Chase travel portal and to erase purchases. Now there is an 80,000 bonus offer on this card, that's worth at least $1,200 in travel.