The complete guide to the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan shopping portal

The Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles are the most valuable airline miles. Alaska doesn't partner with any major points currencies other than Marriott Bonvoy so it's difficult to earn mileage plan miles.

If you're trying to top up your account balance and have already exhausted all the easy ways to earn Alaska Airlines miles, you should use the carrier's online shopping portal.

We're going to take a look at everything you need to know to double or even triple- dip when shopping online with the Alaska Mileage Plan shopping portal.

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Fundamentals of online shopping portals

Double dipping and earning extra miles on purchases you already planned to make is easy with online shopping portals. It's simple to use. You'll earn bonus miles when you shop with eligible retailers if you start your trip at the portal's website.

Depending on the store, the amount you earn will be different. There is a fixed number of miles for signing up for a newspaper subscription. The bonus is 2x per dollar and 3x per dollar. Major shopping portals offer bonus points when certain spending thresholds are met.

When it's time for me to get a new phone, I'll wait until the 10x miles per dollar at Apple bonus becomes available. I will not pay anything more for shopping through a portal, so all the extra miles I earn are just icing on the cake.

There is a guide to airline shopping portals.

How to get started with the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan shopping portal

You need to log in with your Mileage Plan account to use the Alaska Airlines shopping portal. If you don't currently have a frequent flyer account with Alaska Airlines but would like to earn mileage plan miles, you will need to make an account.

There is a good chance that you can earn bonus miles through this portal if you shop online with the Mileage Plan.

After you've browsed through the offers and decided where you want to shop, click the "shop now" button and you're done. A new tab will be opened for that merchant. You go to the store and check out as usual. If you close out of the tab for any reason, you will need to restart the process again or your miles will not post correctly.

It can take a while to get used to checking for portal offers. I encourage you to add the browser extension for your favorite portals so you always get a friendly reminder and don't leave extra miles on the table.

When I open up the staple.com website on my computer, I see popups from three different portals whose browser extensions I have installed. I can compare offers and click on the portal with the highest rate of return.

Extra discounts can be found with the merchants you're shopping at if you use a shopping portal. Several coupon codes and sales were available when we searched through the Mileage Plan website. If I click on the Mileage Plan shopping button on adidas.com, I can see the discounts in a different way.

There are ways to maximize redemptions with the Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan.

Shopping portal tips and reminders

Even though shopping portal technology has gotten better over the last couple of years, you still need to be careful not to lose your bonus miles by clicking on the wrong button. There are a few things to remember.

• If using the plug-in browser button, you must “activate” the points when alerted by the pop-up. Otherwise, you will miss out on the points completely, which would be a real shame because you were so close.
• If using the shopping portal site, you must click through the link on the site and then make a purchase from the page that pops up. Don’t navigate away and come back later, as the bonus will no longer be activated. This means you can't close the tab out, but sometimes even switching to other tabs can trip up the portal. My way around this is to shop and browse as much as I want, and then once I've added everything to my cart and am ready to check out, I go back and activate the plug-in browser button. That way, I just need to complete the quick checkout process without changing any tabs.
• You must make sure that you have cookies enabled in your browser for the retailer’s site. This is what allows the portal to “track” your purchases and award bonuses accordingly.
• Only use promotions or promo codes found on the portal; if you use others, the purchase may become ineligible for bonus points/miles.
• You cannot stack multiple shopping portals together, so don't bother trying or you may lose out on both sets of bonus points.
• Consider using a shopping portal aggregator like CashBack Monitor or EVReward. The site allows you to pull up a specific retailer and see the earning rate you’d get across all applicable shopping portals. This includes all of the above types of portals, allowing you to quickly compare earning rates and determine which one offers the best return for the individual merchant you are shopping with.

You can earn bonus miles through shopping portals.

Best credit cards to use with online shopping portals

The charge on your credit card statement will still be from Adidas even if you use the Mileage Plan shopping portal. "everyday spending" is a catchall term used to describe merchants who don't fit into any of the credit card bonus categories.

There is a guide to the best cards for everyday spending. The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express and the Chase Freedom Unlimited® are the two credit cards that I find myself using the most.

It's important to keep an eye out for merchants that offer a bonus category such as travel or dining. If you make a large technology purchase, you may want to use a card that offers purchase protection even if it doesn't earn the most bonus points.

The best credit cards for online shopping.

Keep your eyes out for a 'triple dip'

It's already a huge win to earn bonus points from a shopping portal with your credit card. Sometimes it's possible to do even better by stacking an Amex Offer, Chase Offer or other rebates.

When I spent $50 at Winc, I received an Amex Offer on my Blue Business Plus that gave me 15 back for up to three uses. Winc had a new member promo of $20 off your first box, and the Mileage Plan shopping portal had a bonus of 1,400 miles for first-timers.

I bought 75 bottles of wine for only 57 dollars. My net cost was only $17, or $3.40 a bottle and over 75% off the list price, because of the credit I received and the miles I received. The Mileage Plan shopping portal played a big part in this quadruple dip and will do me well during this extended lock down.

Bottom line

It's important to not fall for the marketing and waste money you don't want to spend just to earn more miles. If you already made a purchase at any of the hundreds of popular retailers, the Mileage Plan shopping portal can be a great way to increase your return.

The Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan shopping portal has quickly become one of my favorite places to shop.