Earn 3,500 Bonus Miles With AA And Southwest – Which Is Best?

Shopping portals are a great way to earn bonus miles and points by just making a single stop on your way to an online retailer. As an even extra bonus, both American Airlines and Southwest are giving up to an additional 3,500 miles by hitting the different spending thresholds.

Earn 3,500 Bonus Miles With American Airlines

– American Airlines Shopping Portal Bonus Link

The American Airlines shopping portal is giving extra bonus miles depending on what you spend through them over the next $1,000. One of the nice things about this bonus is that it is cumulative and does not have to be at one store. So, if you shop at 10 stores and spend the $1,000 across those stores before the expiration date, you will get the 3,500 bonus miles (on top of the miles that you have earned through the portal anyway).

The details are:

• Spend $125, earn 500 bonus miles
• Spend $500, earn 1,250 bonus miles
• Spend $1,000, earn 3,500 bonus miles
• Spending must be done between 7/14 – 8/14

The full terms can be found here.

Earn 3,500 Bonus Points With Southwest

– Southwest Shopping Portal Bonus Link

Southwest’s Rapid Rewards program has the same promo going on now. If you spend a total of $1,000 through the Southwest portal across the various stores, you can earn 3,500 bonus points. Like above, these points are in addition to any points you would earn otherwise.

The details are:

• Spend $125, earn 500 bonus miles
• Spend $500, earn 1,250 bonus miles
• Spend $1,000, earn 3,500 bonus miles
• Spending must be done between 7/15 – 8/16

The full terms can be found here.

Which One To Choose?

There are a couple of things to look at if you want to decide which portal to do your spending at. With American Airlines, 3,500 miles will not get you anything by itself. With Southwest, 3,500 points can get you a one way ticket by itself.

Another thing to consider is which stores you will be shopping at. If the stores have different miles that they will award, then choose the portal that has the better bonus.

Finally, consider the difficulty in accruing the miles. AA miles are more difficult to accumulate than Southwest points (thanks to the ability to transfer Ultimate Reward points to Southwest).

Actually, one more – if you can swing the spending, why choose? Use both!