Are You Leaving Frequent Flyer Miles on the Table?

You do earn miles by shopping at the airlines' mileage malls, right?

There's no reason not to. The prices are the same. And by making your purchases through the airline's portal, you'll be earning miles—typically between one and 10 miles per $1 spent—that you don't get when dealing direct through the merchant.

Making a good deal even better are the periodic bonus promotions that amp up the mileage-earning. Those promotions generally proliferate around Christmas and other heavy-buying periods. But sometimes, they seem to appear randomly. As with this featured offer…



Offer Details



Through April 29, AAdvantage members can earn up to 2,250 bonus miles for purchases made at the

AAdvantage eShopping mall

, as follows:

• Spend $125-$299 to earn 250 bonus miles
• Spend $300-$699 to earn 1,000 bonus miles
• Spend $700 or more to earn 2,250 bonus miles
  
  
  
  The AAdvantage mall features more than 850 online retailers, including most of those you probably already buy from.
  
  
  
  Deal or No Deal
  
  
  
  At the low end, the bonus can be as little as an extra half mile per $1 spent. But if you spend at least $700, the bonus rises to just over three miles per $1. That, in combination with the base earnings and earnings from your program-affiliated credit card, can make for solid value. And once again, you're not paying more to earn the miles.
  
  Reminder: To shop via an airline's mileage mall, you must first stop at the mall's landing page to log in with your loyalty-program credentials. Thereafter, purchases at any of the mall's hundreds of participating merchants can be tracked and credited to your account.
  
  
  
  Reader Reality Check
  
  
  
  Do you do your online shopping through an airline mileage mall? If not, shouldn't you?
  
  
  
  This article originally appeared on FrequentFlier.com.