Update: this deal is valid through Friday December 12 11:59:59pm ET!
Today only, The United MileagePlus Portal is offering 12 miles per dollar for United cardholders (and 8 miles per dollar for others). With a little extra work, you can increase this deal to as much as 29 miles per dollar.
Sears 12X:
(thanks to several readers for verifying this!)
5X Credit card earnings
Through the end of this year, both the Chase Freedom card and Discover It card earn 5X this quarter at Sears.com (among other places). Keep in mind, though, that both cards limit 5X earnings to $1500 in spend per quarter.
Double dip with gift cards
Sears is unusual among online merchants in that they explicitly allow portal earnings from both buying gift cards and using them. This makes it very easy to double dip: go through the portal once to buy gift cards and go through again to use them. NOTE: Do not buy physical (by mail) gift cards with your Freedom card as it will be unlikely to earn the 4th quarter 5X bonus (since physical gift cards are sold by Kmart). A better option is to buy e-gift cards, or reload an existing gift card (either e-gift card or physical gift card).
Add it up
- Go through portal (12X for United cardholders)
- Buy gift cards and pay with your Chase Freedom or Discover card (5X)
- Go through portal again to use gift cards and buy merchandise (12X for United cardholders)
- Total: 29X
Notes
- You do not have to pay with your United card to get 12 miles per dollar
- You cannot buy gift cards with gift cards at Sears.com
For more details please read the following posts from a similar deal:
Gift card order verification
Sears often verifies gift card orders through an online verification process in which they ask you questions from public records about where you’ve lived, what cards you’ve owned, etc. If that doesn’t happen, you’ll be in a queue for a verification phone call instead. You can expedite the process by calling Sears first. Have your order number(s) handy and call this number:
1-888-396-5299
Be prepared to answer a number of questions to prove your identity.
Only 15 gift cards per order
Sears.com will accept no more than 15 gift cards per order when using gift cards to buy merchandise.
Do not buy from the gift card center
When shopping for gift cards at Sears.com, you may see an ad for their gift card center, like this:
This link will take you out of Sears.com to Gift Card Mall instead. You will not earn portal points if you buy from Gift Card Mall.
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[…] even be able to be sold, 3) we’ll be able to use multiple cards in one transaction (you can use up to 15 gift cards per […]
Sigh … Mileage plus support has confirmed that Sears has not approved the miles yet. They claim a merchant can deny miles on a transaction even after making you wait until any return period is over. Terrible.
Hm… got some gift cards and used those to purchase some work out stuff. The GC transaction has not shown up yet on mileageplus shopping, but the purchase using the GCs did. Should I be worried?
Received all my points this morning!
Hey linda, did you also receive your points from buying egift cards?
Reloaded my physical Sears card. Only thing that I bought.
I have all of my points from United shopping portal.
got portal confirmation pending for the merchandise but not the E-gift card. Could it be that they finally fixed it or should I ask for an investigation?
Wait at least 4 weeks from the purchase date before opening a ticket.
@Greg The Frequent Miler, I’m in the same boat as @Oliver. Why do you recommend waiting at least four weeks?
P.S. Thanks for writing your blog, I love it!
Because I’ve had Sears gift card purchases in the past take 4 weeks for the miles to post
OK…Maybe I’m wrong, it doesn’t show in the rewards summary but when I expand the purchase in the statement activity it shows there…pending I guess
My Freedom statement just posted from last month and the 1k that I spent on reloading 2 gift cards from Sears does not show a 5x bonus….Thoughts?
Successfully placed an order yesterday….saw the charge came on Freedom instantly but still nothing appears on the Mileage Plus account – as in if a purchase is in progress or completed etc. Although it does show the recent visited pages but not even an email from the program that a purchase was made.
Any idea how long it takes to even populate in the account or even get an acknowledgement of purchase?
Thx
Unfortunately it can take anywhere from days to weeks to show up
Has anyone purchased visa gift cards with seats GC lately?
Yes.
But no one shops at Sears anymore!!!! Only good on Sears Gift Cards??
[…] I published “Up to 29X at Sears!” and incorrectly stated that the deal was one day only. From a MileagePlus Shopping email I […]
FM- Noob question: I just received the Freedom card, went into Sears and bought some $200 Visa GCs.
This purchase would count as a normal Sears purchase and qualify for the 5% bonus I assume?
Yes, it should
Any idea how long it takes for it to show up in transaction history on United’s side? I’m curious if it took the order or not.
Usually at least a few days, but it can take much longer
Usually at least a few days, but it can take much longer
As of 10am eastern it’s still live (at least for me).
How can you tell when these end — “today only”?
I was actually going to comment yesterday….Mommy Points had a screen shot showing this deal was through 12-12…
Good catch. I was wrong about how long it would last. I received an email today from MileagePlus shopping with more info. I’ve updated the post accordingly.
Holy crap sears has a piece of $h!t website. No matter which browser, signed in or signed out, as soon as I start the “verification process” it kicks me out saying there’s nothing in the cart. No wonder this company will be extinct within 12 months