Peter
Airlines, hotels, and banks have whats known as affiliate relationships with many major retailers. This means they’ve got special links to their partners websites. When me and you click on these links, and make purchases, the banks, hotels, and airlines make money. Whats in it for us, then? The answer is bonus miles, of course!
Tonight while researching for an upcoming podcast I came across an offer that I couldn’t refuse. For just $2 + tax, I could earn 1,000 AAdvantage miles! The lowest sum of miles that you can buy with American Airlines is 2,000 and that’ll run you $29. Thus, the baseline valuation for these 1,000 miles is $29.50. Not bad given the low level of effort.
How I got the miles
Head on over to AAdvantage.shopping.com to follow along. Once you’re there, search for “Wall Street Journal” in the search box, and click on the name.
Once you’re on the WSJ page you’ll be presented with a link to “Shop Now”. Clicking on this link is imperative, and if you don’t click it, you will not earn the bonus points. This is the mechanism by which AA can track your purchase on the WSJ website. Thus giving them the affiliate revenue, as well as you the bonus points.
Once you click “Shop Now” you’ll be taken to an intermediary page which issues some fine print. The highlight is that you must maintain an active subscription for 45 days. We’re paying $2 for a 2 month subscription, and since 60 > 45, we’re all set. Sit tight and you’ll be taken to the WSJ website.
From there you’ll go through a rather typical checkout process. You’ll be charged $1 + tax today, and another $1 + tax in a month. So long as you cancel after 45 but before 60 days those are all the charges you will incur.
A short while after completing your order you should receive an email from the shopping portal. This is to confirm that you’ve made the purchase correctly and that your order is slated to be reviewed. The review process usually takes 3-5 at which point you’ll get another email to confirm your miles.
All in all, this is an easy way to pick up 1,000 AAdvantage miles basically for free.
Will you take advantage?
