Welcome to the Best Point Earning for the Runner series. This is intended to help the runner obtain the best prices on gear while maximizing the points they can earn. I will cover many different sites and the best cards to use for which purchases as well as some of the best deals on gear.
Best Point Earning for the Runner – Shoemall.com
Shoemall.com is actually not the best of running stores to use (I much prefer running-centric stores for most of my specialized running gear purchases) but they had a coupon on their website today for purchases made through April 9. There are three different codes available depending on the purchase amount you are making (and of course, there are brand exclusions). More often than not, if an online store has a publicly available coupon code posted on their website, it is not going to be the best coupon ever. You can normally find certain coupons for other stores that have a better offer than what the website makes publicly available. However, I do enjoy homepage coupons as this is one way that you know you are not going to disqualify potential point earning. Shopping portals often exclude coupons (or coupons of a certain percentage) from being used in conjunction with portal point earning. If it is a homepage coupon, you are (99% of the time) fine with using that when going through shopping portals.
So, let’s look at the codes and then which portals are best to use!
Shoemall.com Coupon Codes
As I said, these are incremental spend coupons and here are the codes:
- $10 off of $30 or more – TAKE10
- $20 off of $60 or more – TAKE20
- $30 off of $90 or more – TAKE30
- Expires April 9 at 11:59PM CST
- Exclusions and details can be found here
Best Point Earning for the Runner
I personally find the Ultimate Rewards to be the best points for this store. Even if it weren’t the highest point earner, I personally value Ultimate Rewards points higher than the other points available. Remember, to be eligible to access the Ultimate Rewards Mall and earn and transfer these valuable points, you need to have one of the following cards (which offer incredible sign-up bonuses as well – I do not receive a commission for these cards)
Chase Sapphire Preferred Card – 40,000 Points after $3,000 in 3 months – application link (I do not receive a commission for this link
Chase INK Bold Card – 50,000 Points after $5,000 in 3 months – application link (I do not receive a commission for this link)
Chase INK Plus Card – 50,000 Points after $5,000 in 3 months – application link (I do not receive a commission for this link)
- American Airlines (7 miles per dollar)
- Delta Airlines (4 miles per dollar)
- Hawaiian Airlines (7.5 miles per dollar – HA miles convert to Hilton Hhonors at 2:1, so this would be 15 Hilton points per dollar)
- Ultimate Rewards (8 points per dollar – can be transferred to Hyatt, Marriott, Southwest, and United)
- US Airways (4 miles per dollar)
Point Scenario
My running shoes are Asics Kayano and I looked them up. With the promo code, they are $119 – higher than I normally want to spend and a few dollars higher than some of the lowest places (Kellys Running Warehouse and Holabird Sports). However, if you were to purchase this particular shoe (and you do not live in Wisconsin or Virginia where they charge sales tax), and you went through the Ultimate Rewards Mall, you would end up with 952 Ultimate Reward points, just shy of the 1,000 point mark. 1,000 Ultimate Rewards is worth $10, but the points are worth more like $20 to me, so that is like getting the shoes for $109 or $99 if you purchase them through Shoemall during this coupon period.
I would count this as a very decent opportunity to find your shoes at a potentially very low price while earning points at the same time.
Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by American Express. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of American Express, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by American Express. This site may be compensated through American Express Affiliate Program.
