Using AA e-shopping portal / Cartera to renew AA miles
 

Hi All,
1. I am looking for suggestions for a low-cost and useful purchase using the AA portal to keep my miles active.
I tried to order some stuff on target but there are a lot of restrictions in the terms and conditions (no household essentials or baby care stuff). So thought I would ask more experienced people if they had any ideas.

2. My miles expire in 2 weeks. Would making a purchase through the portal work?
AA rep told me that my miles might expire but would be restored as soon as they received my purchase information. As long as the purchase date is before expiry date, it's okay. Was wondering if anyone else has done this?

Thank you!

Welcome to FlyerTalk.

Good news: ANY activity that changes your miles total will preserve your miles another 18 months.

Further good news: it’s the transactiondate that counts, not the posting date.

The shopping portal is indeed a good way to extend and add miles. The cheapest way is probably buying iTune music.

The easiest way to earn some miles (3 per $1.00 spent, including tip and taxes) is probably to sign up for AAdvantage Dining if you’re in the USA, enroll your credit card and go drink or / and dine at a restaurant near you. See AAdvantage Dining by Rewards Network.

There are two existing related threads you might be interested in reading. In particular, the Wikiposts at the top of the page have lots of good information shared by members.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...an-flying.html

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...rs-issues.html

Great, I'll check these out. Thank you!

I've extended miles by buying a cup of coffee at the right Burger King, or by buying a $3 box of cookies at Walmart.com.

Personally I'd avoid the shopping portal. It can take up to 60+ days for them to credit the miles, if they ever do. In the meantime, your miles will expire.
At least that's what happened to my roomate.
Ended up having to pay the reinstatement fee.
Far faster/better to either buy the smallest amount of miles, or if you have an AA credit card, make some sort of small charge $1.00 Amazon GC reload or something.

Oh no. that's not good! I just purchased something and am afraid of this exact thing!

Would love to hear anyone else's personal experience with this.

Thank you!

Sign up for AAdvantage Dining and buy a cup of coffee at the local coffee shop.

You can read a ton of members’ experiences here: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...rs-issues.html.

I typically purchase a gift certificate from Home Depot for my kids' accounts. Shipping is free, $10 certificate is $10 and I can always use it for something.

The purchase date should is the date the miles are posted for. That should reinstate the miles automatically.
If it didn't, then your roommate had a valid complaint with AA. Did the purchase date not show when the miles were finally credited?

I put a reminder on my Outlook calendar 2 months before miles expire. I don't have an issue with AA but the reminder just popped up yesterday for United. So I bought the $3 box of cookies at Walmart. I could also convert 1000 Chase points to miles, since I have several hundred thousand Chase points and the main thing I'm saving them for is to transfer to United.

I don't like the privacy policy for the dining, so I use the shopping portal.

My favorite is Lowe's home improvement. You can do "Free in store pickup" on even small orders, so a $2 pack of light bulbs earns 4 miles and 18 months on the calendar :) Home Depot might also have the same but I don't know.

AAdvantageshopping.com says that miles may take 8 weeks to process. And if there is an issue and you have to wait to get it resolved, you might need longer. So I would recommend moving that reminder to 3 months :)

Yes, but the miles should be dated from the time of the transaction and not the date they are processed, right?

I used iTunes to keep some US Airways miles, which later became AA miles, active for years. Good cheap solution. Never cut it close to the deadline though.