Early this morning, I noticed some big portal increases when I saw our daily portal alerts. American, United, Delta, Alaska, and Southwest airlines shopping portals are all advertising increased rates. A number of retailers are offering excellent payouts, and you may even be able to stack some of these with Amex Offers, like the eBags offer we covered this morning.
Example increases
Via CashBackMonitor.com, we can see highly increased rates through American and United airlines shopping portals. Delta, Southwest and Alaska also have some increases, though their rates aren’t very competitive. I would value an Alaska MileagePlan mile more than a mile with American or United — but I still think their payouts are comparatively low. Through each portal, we can see an advertisement for a “Summer Series” promotion featuring increased payout rates. While I haven’t noticed any historical highs, there are a number of stores with higher-than-average returns being offered.
For example, here are the payouts at eBags.com:
As you can see, the United MileagePlus shopping portal is offering 20X at eBags – which would stack perfectly with the Amex offer for $15 back on $75 spend.
Not all of the increased payouts are at stores with Amex Offers, but the payouts are still pretty solid if you have intended purchases to make. For example, here is Lord & Taylor, where you could earn up to 12 miles per dollar.
Or if Saks Fifth Ave is your department store of choice, you can earn a dozen Alaska miles per dollar there:
Bottom Line
Increased payouts are always a nice bonus if you have some summertime shopping to do. While today’s increases are primarily from airline shopping portals, keep your eye out over the coming days if you prefer cash as we could see increases from other portals in response. With Prime Day coming tomorrow, I imagine many retailers will be trying to take your attention away from Amazon — look for deals to stack with some of these increased rates and check the Laboratory for data points on double dips.