Free Tools to Earn More Rewards Points on Online Shopping, Dining, and Rideshares

Summary

Podcast Episode Summary

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Podcast: NerdWallet’s Smart Money Podcast (Special: Smart Travel)

Episode: Free Tools to Earn More Rewards Points on Online Shopping, Dining, and Rideshares
Hosts: Megan Coyle & Sally French
Date: July 2, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode deep-dives into how everyday purchases—whether you’re shopping online, dining out, booking hotels, or taking rideshares—can earn you the maximum possible reward points and miles toward free travel and other perks. Practical tips, real-world examples, and a few nerdy hot takes await as Megan and Sally break down shopping portals, browser extensions, dining programs, travel portals, and strategies for stacking rewards from multiple sources.

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Key Topics & Insights

1. What Are Shopping Portals? [01:39–04:03]

• Definition & How They Work:
  • Portals are websites, apps, or browser extensions that act as a middleman between you and retailers, offering you a share of their affiliate commission via cash back or points/miles when you make purchases.
  • “You are literally paying the same price...that you would have if you had just gone directly to the website.” – Megan [03:44]

2. Rakuten: The Baseline Portal for Maximizing Rewards [04:03–09:14]

• The Power of Rakuten:
  • Highly recommended by Megan; works especially well for those collecting Amex Membership Rewards or Bilt points.
  • “Rakuten will give you your cash back in the form of Amex points... at basically a one to one [rate].” – Megan [05:00]
  • Impressive bonuses during promos; Megan scored 17 points/dollar on a Viator tour leveraging Rakuten. [05:36]
  • Choice of rewards currency (Amex, Bilt, gift cards, PayPal, etc.).
  • Caveat: For Bilt, need Bilt elite status for optimal conversion (1¢ = 1 point), otherwise it’s halved. [08:33]
• Pro Tip:
  • Pick your payout preference before quarterly payout dates: Feb 15, May 15, Aug 15, Nov 15. [10:44]
• Quote:
  • “If you do have Bilt and Amex...and you have Bilt Blue status, you’re probably better off getting your Rakuten points sent to your Amex account.” – Sally [08:44]

3. Airline Shopping Portals: Earning Extra Miles and Elite Status [11:26–15:19]

• How They Work:
  • Each airline (AA, United, Delta, Southwest) runs its own portal with unique retailer deals and browser extensions.
• Special Perks:
  • American Airlines portal provides both bonus miles and loyalty points, critical for earning elite status.
  • “The reason I am able to earn elite status is because I shop through the (AA) shopping portal.” – Megan [13:16]
• Strategy:
  • Use for sizable, unavoidable online purchases (e.g., contact lenses, electronics).
  • Watch for “spend $X, get Y extra loyalty points” promos around shopping holidays.

4. Airline Dining Rewards Programs: Set-and-Forget Points for Eating Out [15:26–19:57]

• How They Work:
  • Link a credit/debit card via programs like American AAdvantage Dining, Delta SkyMiles Dining, and more. No extra effort required—just pay at a participating restaurant.
  • “It’s just sort of a nice surprise...you earn six points per dollar... Amazing.” – Megan [16:30]
• Limitations:
  • Fewer participating restaurants versus online shopping portals; mostly local spots are included.
• Extra Perks:
  • Small sign-up bonuses for first-time diners. Extra points if you accept marketing emails (at the cost of spam).
• Hot Tip for Points Expiry:
  • Dining programs are a hack to keep miles from expiring in programs with inactivity rules (e.g., American’s 24-month expiration). [19:03]
  • “That keeps my account active. So if you have airline miles...this is a smart way to make sure that your miles don’t expire.” – Sally [19:57]

5. Hotel Booking and Shopping Portals [20:09–24:11]

• Gondola:
  • Metasearch tool for hotels that shows cash and points prices across major brands, lets you book directly (keeps elite night credit and perks) and earns extra “Gondola Cash.” [20:31]
  • “Gondola stacks your rewards so you actually earn another type of currency…” – Megan [21:28]
• Airline-Hotel Portals:
  • Example: AA’s AAdvantage Hotels—even cash bookings earn miles + loyalty points.
  • “That got me almost 10,000 loyalty points from a weekend in Vegas.” – Megan [23:00]

6. Capital One Shopping [24:11–25:54]

• Key Features:
  • No need to be a Capital One customer.
  • Finds coupon codes and offers cash back as gift cards.
• Caveats:
  • Rewards in gift cards, not cash.
  • Sally finds browser pop-ups and gift card rewards annoying/not worth it:
    • “I hate pop up browser extensions. I actually did download Capital One Shopping for a hot second and then immediately deactivated it…” – Sally [25:12]

7. The New Kid: Rove Miles [28:54–31:03]

• What It Is:
  • Standalone loyalty program with its own shopping and travel portals.
  • Points (Rove Miles) are transferable to several airlines and hotels (with unique partners like Finnair, Japan Airlines).
• Unique Value:
  • Stack with existing credit card points to reach redemption thresholds.
  • “Rove Miles also has transfer bonuses just like some of the credit card programs…” – Megan [29:59]

8. Finding the Best Portal: Cashback Monitor [31:03–35:23]

• How It Works:
  • Free aggregator tracks and displays current earning rates across all major portals for every eligible retailer (even obscure ones).
  • “You can type in the store...and it’ll literally show you side by side.” – Megan [31:42]
• Bonus:
  • Best rate history charts help time big purchases.
  • You can’t activate multiple portals at once—must choose the best offer. [33:55]

9. Hidden Rewards: Rideshares and Everyday Brands [35:31–38:58]

• Earning Points Without Shopping Portals:
  • Link Delta to Uber for bonus miles on rides and Uber Eats.
  • Starbucks and Delta: reload Starbucks card for SkyMiles.
  • Lyft links to United, Bilt, Hilton, or Atmos. You must pick one at a time per Lyft account. [37:49]
• Reciprocal Rewards:
  • Some partnerships offer perks both ways (e.g., Delta + Starbucks doubles Starbucks stars).
    • “That is the reciprocal rewards part of these partnerships...” – Megan [36:48]
• Tip:
  • Review linked programs annually, as partnerships and rates change.

10. Points Haul & Final Hot Takes [38:58–41:56]

• Points Accumulation:
  • Even casual use can yield 100,000+ points over time.
    • “I think I’ve gotten 100,000 extra points from it...” – Megan [39:06]
• Favorite Use Cases:
  • Flowers are often highly discounted via portal deals—always check before sending arrangements!
    • “If you are buying flowers online...check your cashback monitor, check your offers...” – Sally [41:53]

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Shopping Portals:
  “It won’t cost you any extra money…there’s almost no reason not to.” – Megan [03:44]
• On Stacking Rewards:
  “Honestly, I made money from buying you flowers.” – Megan [41:34]
• On Managing Browser Extensions:
  “They don’t bother me anymore…you just almost don’t see online ads as you’re scrolling.” – Megan [39:49]
• Philosophy on Points:
  “Hot take: If you are buying flowers online and you are not using one of these programs, you are subsidizing other people who are getting these points.” – Sally [41:53]
• Recap Advice:
  • “If you collect Amex or Built Points, you need to sign up for Rakuten and set it to earn one of those points.” – Megan [41:56]
  • “If you don’t want that browser extension, maybe bookmark Cashback Monitor.” – Sally [42:42]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [01:39] — What is a shopping portal?
• [04:03] — Deep dive into Rakuten and earning Amex/Bilt points
• [11:26] — Airline shopping portals: how to maximize miles and elite status
• [15:26] — Airline dining rewards: set-and-forget points for dining out
• [20:09] — Hotel booking portals: Gondola & AAdvantage Hotels
• [24:11] — Capital One Shopping: pros and cons
• [28:54] — Rove Miles: new transferable points program
• [31:03] — Cashback Monitor: find the best rates across portals
• [35:31] — Rideshares/brands: earning points via Uber, Lyft, Starbucks etc.
• [38:58] — Points hauls and flowers: stacking rewards in practice
• [41:56] — Recap: top tips for listeners

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Actionable Listener Takeaways

• Install at least one trusted shopping portal (Rakuten for Amex/Bilt fans).
• Check for extra points with every big online purchase—especially on big shopping holidays.
• Leverage dining rewards to keep miles from expiring and get extra points for something you’re already doing.
• Bookmark Cashback Monitor to always get the best offer, pop-up free.
• Link rideshare and food apps to rewards programs—it’s fast, free, and adds up.
• Don’t forget to monitor and update your linked accounts and payout preferences periodically.
• Always check for stackable promos or credit card offers before hitting purchase!

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Hosts’ Final Philosophy:
Earning extra points and miles can be seamless and low-effort—if you set up the right tools. Whether you want to be a maximizer or just scoop up bonus points with minimal effort, these portals and programs help you make every dollar more rewarding.

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If you found this episode valuable, let the Smart Travel team know via comments or reviews!

Transcript

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[Megan Coyle]

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[Sally French]

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[Sally French]

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[Megan Coyle]

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[Sponsor/Host Intro]

Hey everyone. Hope you've got some fun and financially wise plans for the July 4th weekend. We are taking a break to bring you an episode of our sister podcast, Smart Travel with Sally French and Megan Coyle. Be sure to check out the rest of their episode lineup if you like what you hear today, we're back with more smart money in our next step. Meantime, send us your questions, comments, complaints, compliments. You can find [e-mail] or via the comment section on Spotify and YouTube. Happy 4th.

[Megan Coyle]

Welcome to Smart Travel from NerdWallet, a deep dive into the tips, tools and tactics to maximize your travel dollars. I'm Megan Coyle.

[Sally French]

And I'm Sally French.

[Megan Coyle]

And we're the travel nerds ready to help you plan your next big trip. And if you're an online shopper, and who isn't? Because that's kind of the only way to book travel, we're going to show you some overlooked ways to earn more points and miles towards your next trip.

[Sally French]

But first, our disclaimer. And that is that we will talk about a few credit card companies that are nerd rollet partners in this episode that doesn't influence how we discuss them. Benefits terms and fees mentioned were accurate at the time of posting. But of course things can change. Offers may have expired by the time you're listening. For the latest details, follow the links in the episode description.

[Megan Coyle]

All right, Sally, you've been asking for us to do this episode, so we're finally doing it. If you have a credit card and you already spent the points from your signup bonus and feel like you don't have enough points for your next Trip, let me introduce you to your next best friend. And they are shopping portals.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Yo.

[Sally French]

I'm so excited we're finally doing this episode. Selfishly, I need this episode for me. I have been flummoxed by all of these portals and I don't know how I can use my online shopping to earn me more points. So I am very excited that you're going to tell not just listeners, but me.

[Megan Coyle]

I got you, Sally. I got you.

[Sally French]

So let's actually just start by telling all the listeners, what is a shopping portal? For those of us who don't know, you are not ignorant if you don't know, because I also run this travel podcast and I am still learning.

[Megan Coyle]

Basically. Basically, a shopping portal is a website or a browser extension or an app that sits between you and the retailer you're shopping at. So when you click through to that website, you'll see a bunch of different retailers listed. Let's say Nike or Macy's. And you go, oh, actually I need a new workout top. So I'm going to go to Nike. And then it takes you directly to Nike's website. It looks exact same as it normally does. And you find your workout top, you add it to your cart and. And once you hit checkout, the portal earns an affiliate commission from that retailer, from Nike. And here's the magic. The portal actually passes a piece of that commission back to you in the form of cash back or points or miles.

[Sally French]

Basically, you're getting these bonus rewards, cash back, points or miles, just for making an extra click. And then that is something that you can stack on top of your regular credit card rewards, which I'm sure you all know about.

[Megan Coyle]

And it won't cost you any extra money. You are literally paying the same price for that workout top that you would have if you had just gone directly to the website without clicking through the portal. The price you pay is identical. So this is why it is really great. It's easy, it's free to sign up for these and so there's almost no reason not to.

[Sally French]

Well, I do wanna know because it does feel like there is some headache involved. I gotta install a browser extension. I did install the Rakuten browser extension and now it's always on my little browser and I can't get rid of it and it's very annoying. So I do want to talk about the cost in terms of just the headache of managing these things. So let's start by actually talking about Rakuten. Tell me, do you like it? Should I keep this browser extension installed?

[Megan Coyle]

Sally, you should definitely keep Rakuten installed. That is the bare minimum, I would say, if you want to use a shopping portal, because Rakuten is one of the biggest and most popular shopping portals out there. And it is especially important if you collect each other either American Express Membership Rewards points or Built points. And Sally, I know you have an AMEX card.

[Sally French]

I collect both. I got a built card.

[Megan Coyle]

You have a built card as well. This is going to be the hard part is choosing which kind of points you want to earn.

[Sally French]

Okay, I synced it to my Amex card.

[Megan Coyle]

Okay, that's great. And you know what? That was actually really smart, Sally, because Rakuten will give you your cash back in the form of Amex points, which is what you selected as your rewards currency. And the great thing is that the Rakuten conversion rate to Amex points is basically one to one. So one cent of cash back is going to equal one AMEX point. And the best part about this is you're not getting like, you know, 2% cash back or something like that. Rakuten has some incredible increased rates at different promotional periods. 2 or 3 points per dollar back is small potatoes. I have gotten 17 points per dollar on a recent Viator transaction I made. You know, Viator, it's like the tour company. I bought a day tour for my mom and I because we're going to Norway this summer. And I was able to get 17 points per dollar back on that purchase. And, you know, it's a tour, so it's a couple hundred dollars for each of us. And. And I think I'm going to get 10,000AmEx points from that. And that is enough. If you transfer it to some of your transfer partners, for example, I could transfer it to Virgin Atlantic and possibly get a flight from London to LA for 10,000 points for a purchase I just was going to make anyways. Right.

[Sally French]

Sometimes I see on Rakuten that they'll be like, Nike is 1 point per dollar spent. And then Lululemon will be like 10 points per dollar spend. It's always random. I'm just making that up. Do you then decide I'm a shop at Lululemon because they're giving me more points?

[Megan Coyle]

Yeah, kind of. They have an app that makes it really easy to sort of see which retailers have the higher rewards rate during that day. And sometimes there are promotions for a week. So, you know, honestly, I don't track it that hard. I just let that browser extension honestly pop up. When I do happen to come onto a website that does Have a deal with rakuten. And I just see, oh, okay, it says three points per dollar. Okay. That's nothing crazy, But I'm going to make this purchase today anyway. So I'm going to activate my rakuten cash back and get the points for it. We will talk about in a second how you can kind of compare a lot of the rates across a lot of shopping portals because travelers have options. Rakuten's for sure, not the only one. And then I wanted to get back to built real quick because, you know, bilt is an option to get your rewards from rakuten. And the great thing about bilt is that some people like their transfer partners a little bit more than amex. We've talked about some of these before, like world of hyatt, alaska and hawaiian airlines, atmos rewards program, southwest, united. Those are transfer partners that are not on amex. So if you actually prefer to get built points, you could choose bilt as your rewards currency on rakuten. But there is a catch, which is that it is not necessarily pay everyone out at the same $0.01 equals one point rate that they do for amex. So you actually have to have bill elite status, which you might actually have. Sally?

[Sally French]

I do. I got gold status.

[Megan Coyle]

Perfect. So you're all good. You could get the 1 cent equals 1 point from Rakuten. But I would just advise everyone to definitely look at that because that rate actually just changed on May 15th. So if you had changed to bill built, and maybe you don't have built elite status yet, you might want to go back to amex. If you have an eligible amex card or, you know, you can choose any of the other rewards options as well. There's gift cards, there's paypal. Do what works for you.

[Sally French]

But if you don't have built status, you don't get one point.

[Megan Coyle]

No, you actually get half of that. So. Ooh, yeah, it's not a great.

[Sally French]

If you're a basic blue member, basically, you get a half a point per dollar.

[Megan Coyle]

Yes.

[Sally French]

So if you do have bilt and amex, and I know many of the listeners have them all, if you have built blue status, you're probably better off getting your rakuten points sent to your amex account.

[Megan Coyle]

If you have an eligible amex card.

[Sally French]

Oh, my gosh. So you have to have an eligible card. Not all amex cards do this right,

[Megan Coyle]

But I would say a lot of the popular travel cards do. So the amex platinum and the amex gold, for example, I can tell you

[Sally French]

for a fact that platinum does. Yeah, y' all just get the platinum people. That's what we're telling you.

[Megan Coyle]

Listen to our episode about all the platinum changes, and you'll see why. Maybe you should consider the platinum.

[Sally French]

One last lingering question, Megan. When you booked that Viator tour to Europe and it was getting you 17 points or whatever per dollar, did you book that specifically because it was getting you gangbusters points?

[Megan Coyle]

Sort of, yeah. So I often go through Viator or get your guide or TripAdvisor to book some tours while I'm traveling. And so one great thing is on Rakuten, you can see all of those providers and see the different rates that they offer. So I just looked, and Viator had 17 points per dollar that day. I went with that one.

[Sally French]

What's the most you've seen points per dollar?

[Megan Coyle]

Oh, my gosh. I think, like, 25 sometimes. There's other ones that only see like,

[Sally French]

two or three points per dollar.

[Megan Coyle]

Oh, no, there are huge ones, but some of them are actually not even points per dollar. They're like, you can get 10,000 points or something for signing up for a new cell phone with a certain company or something like that.

[Sally French]

I'm not. I'm not changing my cell phone. I'm not doing that.

[Megan Coyle]

People do it. Or I've seen people buy, like, VP huge chunk of points. And this is actually really.

[Sally French]

And they're like, the points are worth more than the cost of the vpn. So it's worth it.

[Megan Coyle]

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, if you're paying like 50 bucks for a VPN for an entire year or something, and then you're getting 10,000 points, that could be like, several hundred dollars.

[Sally French]

Okay, dude, tell me if you see one of these.

[Megan Coyle]

Yes, I will. Oh, and then one thing I want to mention before we go is that you can switch your payment method on Rakuten. So maybe you want to earn bill points for maybe one quarter because you're working on earning enough Hyatt points for redemption, but maybe the rest of the year you're going to switch back to Amex. You can change your payment method. It just matters what day you get paid out in points. So Rakuten actually pays out your points on a quarterly basis. It's February 15th, May 15th, August 15th, and November 15th. So just keep in mind that if you want to switch the method that you get your rewards in, you should do it before those payout dates.

[Sally French]

Moving right along from Rakuten, because I know that really only applies to my built people at my Amex, people out there. But something that really applies to everybody if you fly and if you listen to this show, you probably fly. And that would be the airline shopping portals. They are very similar but just specific to each airline.

[Megan Coyle]

So the mechanics are exactly the same. You log in with your frequent flyer account, you click through to a retailer and you can earn bonus miles or points with the airline that you are shopping through. And they also have browser extensions. So, Sally, I actually, whenever I go to a retailer, I have four pop ups come up in my browser and it's like rakuten. It's my American Airlines shopping portal. It's my capital one shopping. Oh, I have.

[Sally French]

I'm telling you, there is a price you pay for these things and it's four pop ups every time you're trying to online shop.

[Megan Coyle]

Totally. But would you rather have the points, Sally, or would you rather be annoyed by some pop ups on some retailer sites? I mean, this is mostly major retailers.

[Sally French]

I don't want to be annoyed by the pop ups.

[Megan Coyle]

Okay.

[Sally French]

That's why I get your points. Okay. Okay. So some of these portals there's a advantage E shopping for American Mileage plus shopping for United, there's Delta shopping portal, Southwest Reward shopping. So on whatever airline you're trying to get frequent flower miles in, as long as you can tolerate the pop ups, go to one of these portals. Or really if you're just trying to get the miles in one program, you don't need to be like Megan and download all four. Just maybe just do one. But I guess you want to do all four because they have different stores.

[Megan Coyle]

Right? Right. Which and we will talk about later. But I do want to talk about my preferred airline, which is American Airlines. Everyone who listens to this knows I have elite status with American Airlines. And I have to say the reason I am able to earn elite status is because I shop through the a advantage E shopping portal. Because American Airlines is different in that the extra miles that you earn through their shopping portal also gives you loyalty points towards elite status and it's one for one. So let's say it's like 10 extra miles per dollar on my Home Depot purchase, then I'm also getting 10 loyalty points per dollar on that same purchase. And that is how I'm really able to accumulate a lot of loyalty points to earn elite status.

[Sally French]

Wow. Do you do a lot of online shopping?

[Megan Coyle]

Honestly, not that much.

[Sally French]

Yeah, I don't do much online shopping at all.

[Megan Coyle]

There are some huge multipliers and there are some big purchases that I always make sure to look at my shopping portal for. I can give examples. One that I mentioned before is my contact lenses. That's always a several hundred dollars purchase that there is always an offer from some contact lens retailer out there like 1-800contacts or Target Optical contacts direct. I've done them all. And like I do it because I get so many points from it. You know, I think it's actually really important if you do not, for example, want to deal with all the pop ups. But if you do have a purchase that is going to be more than $100 or $200 that you know, make online, I would look for that.

[Sally French]

Okay. Knock on wood. I don't wear contacts. I got perfect vision.

[Megan Coyle]

And last thing I want to say about this is that the airline shopping portals are pretty regular at hosting limited time promotions. So I just saw one recently that was like earn another 500 loyalty points if you spend $50 in the portal. That's a pretty low spending threshold and sometimes it's even more than that. So I often see these around big shopping periods, you know, like back to school time, Memorial Day, that kind of thing. So that might be another time that like maybe you don't shop online all that often, but you're like, oh, you know, it's about to be Labor Day, I'm going to buy some back to school supplies online and you could go through a shopping portal and earn at least a couple extra miles.

[Sally French]

I'm not a big online shopper, but I got to tell you, my next door neighbor is a package king. He gets four packages a day minimum.

[Megan Coyle]

That's too much.

[Sally French]

Well, he's probably getting a lot of, a lot of airline miles out of these. I hope so. I hope now for our people who are not big online shoppers, you might be a big dine out kind of person. I love food. And there are also airline dining rewards programs. We can get extra airline miles or points or whatever by dining out.

[Megan Coyle]

That's right. So again they have all different names. A Advantage Dining for American, Delta Sky Miles Dining United Mileage Plus Dining at most Rewards Dining. Even Bilt has one like a dining program. So these ones are a little bit different and you don't actually have to shop online. You just link a debit or credit card to your profile and then anytime you eat out at a participating restaurant and pay with that linked card, you automatically earn extra points or miles. It's literally like a set and forget it type of thing. What I do is there is one credit card that I use for all of my dining purchases and I link that one to my dining program and that's it. I honestly, I don't even look and see if any of the restaurants I'm going to are in these dining programs. It's just sort of a nice surprise that I will be like, oh, I'm eating here. And then I come back and I see an email and it's like, oh, you earn six points per dollar on your dining. And I was like, oh, great, Amazing.

[Sally French]

So I have actually signed up for these one day I was completely procrastinating from work and I did link my credit card to these dining programs and I will share that many restaurants are not on these programs. I think there are more online stores on the online shopping portals than restaurants that are on the dining programs. It does feel very random, but every once in a while I'll go dine out and then I'll get an email from American Airlines because that's who I've synced my dining program to. And they're like, you got four points per dollar at Uno Dos Tacos, which is nice. So I definitely don't go out of my way. But that one time I go to Uno Dos Tacos and then I get the points is a really nice benefit. I do like as you said, it is set it and forget it. You can though check I've seen on these dining portals websites where they'll have special offers and they'll say today Uno Dos Tacos is doing 10 points a dollar. And you might, if you really don't care where you go out to eat, that could be incentive to eat at that specific restaurant. I though, like you just appreciate the random surprise because I don't want to spend a ton of time thinking about where I'm going to eat and optimizing it based on what has the most points. So I do appreciate the set it and forget it kind of option.

[Megan Coyle]

I appreciate that they also have worked to add some local restaurants to some of these dining programs.

[Sally French]

It's mostly local restaurants actually that I

[Megan Coyle]

like because I like supporting local businesses and sometimes that feels harder to do with the online shopping portals.

[Sally French]

Yes.

[Megan Coyle]

There's also another incentive to sign up for these, which is that there is a sign up bonus for dining programs oftentimes and it is usually kind of small. Like maybe for example, spend $30 at a restaurant within the first 30 days of signing up and then you'll earn an extra 1,000 miles just for doing that. That is something I did when I first joined the American Airlines dining program and I got those bonus miles and then Sometimes there are tasks that can get you extra miles per dollar and they don't require a ton more work. But again, there is a cost for it being annoying. For example, for the American one, there is a way to earn extra miles per dollar on dining if you sign up for their marketing emails. And of course, I just like ignore

[Sally French]

doesn't want to pop up. I definitely don't want a marketing email,

[Megan Coyle]

but extra 2 miles per dollar, Sally. So, you know, if you're okay with it, just filter it to go right

[Sally French]

to trash, right to the span.

[Megan Coyle]

Yeah.

[Sally French]

So, Megan, do you want to know why I chose American Airlines as my dining program of choice?

[Megan Coyle]

Because I thought that was odd. Because you're a United flyer.

[Sally French]

I know I rarely fly American. I used to American quite a lot when I went to college in Missouri because they served a lot of routes out there, but they don't serve a ton of routes in San Francisco. I rarely fly American, but I do have American miles to my name. Did you know American Airlines miles expire after 24 months of account inactivity? And I've definitely gone two years without taking American Airlines flight. But the reason why I sync it to my dining account is because I go to Uno Dos Tacos once a year and I get my like 12 points from my taco from happy hour, and that keeps my account active. So if you have airline miles from a program that you don't fly that airline every two years, this is actually a smart way to make sure that your miles don't expire.

[Megan Coyle]

Great way to keep your miles active because then you don't have to like, buy a flight or, you know, do something way more drastic. Again, set and forget it. Which is what we love to do.

[Sally French]

Okay, that was airlines. Let's talk hotels. There are two distinct things here. One is hotel booking portals, like Gondola. And then I do want to sort of acknowledge the hotel shopping portals. We can earn miles when you click through to book a hotel stay. Let's talk about Gondola. I know a lot of readers have written in to ask us about this. I know you love Gondola, Megan, so please tell us more.

[Megan Coyle]

So Gondola is a free hotel booking and award search tool. The thing that makes it special is you can say, hey, I am going to San Francisco for a weekend in August. And when you look at the dates, when you run that search, it's going to show you all these different hotels you could book. Right? And not only does it show you the cash price, it'll also show you the Points price and across all these different brands, you know how usually you have to go to, you know, Marriott and look up San Francisco hotels, then you go to Hilton, look up San Francisco hotels. This really makes it very simple because you can do all of that in one step. And the cool thing about this is that let's say you book a stay with cash. You know, you go, actually I can't afford any of these on point, so I'm just going to book on cash through Gondola. The great thing is that Gondola actually facilitates a direct booking, which not a lot of travel booking portals do. And so that means you get to earn hotel points. Let's say you did end up booking a Marriott, you can earn Marriott points on that stay. You can also earn your Elite night credits for that Marriott stay. And let's say you have Marriott Elite status, you can earn your status perks. That's something that you don't often get unless you're booking direct. But the reason that you might want to book through a hotel booking portal like this is that Gondola stacks your rewards so you actually earn another type of currency. Theirs is called Gondola Cash. It's their own rewards currency and you can use that cash towards future hotel booking.

[Sally French]

I feel like the usual way that people book hotels is they compare either through Google Hotels or something like Expedia. And then they can, rather than going to Marriott site and Hyatt site and Hilton site, I always just kind of compare based on I use Google Hotels but you're telling me I should use Gondola instead to compare because I do like that they show the points prices as well. And I do not believe that Expedia or Google Hotels can do that.

[Megan Coyle]

That's right. And that is what I'm talking about when I'm saying some people go to all these different sites. If you have transferable points like from Chase or Amex and you know, you could possibly transfer your points to different hotel programs, you might want to look across a bunch of different hotel programs to see if you should book on points. And I feel like Gondola makes it very simple to do that.

[Sally French]

Okay, I'm going to search for hotels through Gondola next time. I'm so glad you told me because I never do that.

[Megan Coyle]

Okay, and then one last one I want to mention. There are some airline branded hotel portals that let you earn extra miles on hotel stays that you pay for in cash. One that I use, I know I keep talking about American, but it's just the one I'm most familiar with they have one called A Advantage Hotels and again, this one lets you earn both a Advantage miles and loyalty points towards elite status on your hotel stays. And Sally, you might remember that story, that trip I took in the end of February and I went to Vegas on a whim. I literally went to Vegas the next day and I did that because I was doing a mileage run and I actually didn't earn a ton of miles from flying to Vegas because it was a sort of cheap flight. Yeah, it's not that far, but I booked a hotel through A Advantage Hotels and that got me almost 10,000 loyalty points from a weekend in Vegas. And that was just the amount that I needed to be able to get the next level of elite status. So I seriously recommend, if you are pursuing Elite status, especially with American, to look at some of these hotel platforms because it might just be one stay or two stays that you're going to take anyway.

[Sally French]

I was so impressed that you got Elite status that way. I'm telling you, I'm trying to get my airline elite status and you really are inspiring me.

[Megan Coyle]

You can do it, Sally. I believe.

[Sally French]

Okay, last one we should talk about. This one's interesting is Capital One Shopping. And you don't actually have to have a Capital One card or be any sort of Capital One customer to participate in Capital One Shopping.

[Megan Coyle]

We love these ones that don't have a ton of requirements for signing up. Capital One Shopping is totally free and like you said, you don't need a Capital One credit card to use it. So again, this one is a browser extension with the pop ups. When you go to a retailer, you'll see that it automatically finds coupons to help you maybe save a little bit of money on your purchase and then it'll also give you cash back at some of these retailers. The thing to know here is that Capital One Shopping rewards are not paid out as points like Capital One Miles or something like that. It's actually paid out as gift cards. So it's not actual cash either. You are earning a currency that can only be spent at specific retailers, but you get to choose where you get the gift card to.

[Sally French]

So we did say on a recent episode I hate gift cards. And then as you've gathered over this past show, I hate pop up browser extensions. I actually did download Capital One Shopping for a hot second and then immediately deactivated it because I'm sorry, I thought it was too annoying and not worth it.

[Megan Coyle]

I hear you. If you are the kind of person that doesn't mind the gift cards that this can actually be super, super valuable. We actually had a writer talk about his experience where he was able to get 30% back in the form of gift card rewards on a hotel stay and then could get a gift card towards a hotel. So he had this whole system where he was using capital one shopping to save on travel and it was actually pretty incredible. So we'll link to that story in the episode description.

[Sally French]

Okay, I gotta do better. I gotta try harder. Coming up next, we are gonna talk about the new kid on the block. This is the program that everybody is talking about, Rove Miles. We will be discussing that after this.

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[Sally French]

Quints.com smartmoney and we're back discussing Rove Miles. This is a standalone loyalty program. It is not tied to any bank nor any credit card. It does have transferable points. Megan, tell me how you earn these things and what you do with them.

[Megan Coyle]

Okay, so Rove Miles actually has a travel portal similar to what we talked about with Gondola, where you can book flights and hotels through Rove. It also has a shopping portal like all the shopping portals we've been talking about, where it has a browser extension or you could go through their website and you visit a store, it activates and then you earn Rove Miles on your online shopping purchases. So it's kind of combining all the things we've been talking about.

[Sally French]

Now you can transfer these to a bunch of different airline and hotel loyalty programs. Most of them are at a one to one ratio. Of course, some exceptions. The partner list is interesting because it includes programs that are not typical transfer partners of the big bank currencies. I'm looking at you, Finnair.

[Megan Coyle]

Yeah, and some that people might not have access to if they don't have a very certain type of point. I'm thinking about Japan Airlines. They had a huge transfer bonus for those. Oh, I should mention that that Rove Miles also has transfer bonuses just like some of the credit card programs that we know. So this is a great way to earn transferable points. And the reason these are so valuable is because it's it applies to a bunch of different brands that you could transfer to. For example, if you're trying to book a flight and you cannot find a flight for less than 50,000 miles on one program, then if you have transferable points, you just transfer your points to another program that might offer a better rewards rate. That's why we love collecting transferable points. And I think Rove is particularly valuable because it can really add on to your credit card strategy. So maybe you have Amex points and you just barely don't have enough to transfer to Virgin, for example. Then you could use the miles from Rove and also transfer those to Virgin. And now together you have enough points for the flight you were trying to book.

[Sally French]

Okay, so my top concern is we have been talking about all of these different programs. I really don't want to install 12 browser extensions and I kind of feel like I have to. I don't do a lot of online shopping, but when I do, I want to know where I can get the most points. So, you know, every once in a while I'm shopping on the disney store.com I'm buying my latest Duffy Bear plush. I want to know, can I get bonus points on my Disney Store purchase? It might not pop up as my one singular Rakuten plugin, but I want to still get points from somewhere, somehow. I'll take any points I can get. It sounds like there is a solution for me. Tell me what that is.

[Megan Coyle]

Yeah, you might want to try Cashback Monitor. It is a free aggregator that tracks the earning rates of a bunch of different shopping portals. So you can type in the store you want right on the Cashback Monitor website and it'll literally show you side by side. The American shopping portal will give you this many miles per dollar. The United One will give you this many miles per dollar and you can see it all side by side and choose the one that's going to offer you the best rate. Of course, you have to sign up for all of these programs, so that's kind of like a prerequisite if you're going to choose between them. But I think this tool is super helpful and it's a very quick check. Though. Honestly, my shopping experience is mostly just looking at all the pop ups that come up and choosing the one that has the highest rate.

[Sally French]

I don't want pop ups, I want Cashback Monitor.

[Megan Coyle]

There you go. This one will work for you then.

[Sally French]

So I've heard about Cashback Monitor and this is literally my first time going to their site. It looks kind of like Craigslist. It looks like it was designed in the 90s.

[Megan Coyle]

Built in the 90s.

[Sally French]

Yeah. Yeah. I'm intrigued, But I like it simple. So I just typed in Disney store. That's where. That's where I'm doing my shopping. And they're saying I can get as much as 3% back at Disney store. So most of the big airline programs are 1 mile per dollar spent at the Disney store. So United, American, Delta, these guys are all giving me one mile, but then they're presenting me all these other programs we haven't even talked about. Rebatesme will give me 3% back. Have you ever heard of rebates me?

[Megan Coyle]

Nope. There are a ton of shopping portals out there.

[Sally French]

Rakuten is giving me 2 points per dollar at the Disney store, which is better than the airlines ones.

[Megan Coyle]

Okay. There you go.

[Sponsor Voice (BILT)]

All right.

[Megan Coyle]

We're looking for 10 points per dollar, Sally. So 10 points is not good. Don't get too excited. There is something really cool on cashback monitor, though. It is a best rate history chart for every store, so they can actually show you if there have been higher than usual cashback offers at the store you're looking at. So I really like that for my travel purchases that are really big, I'm like, okay, I could wait, because I know that one does go up to 10 points per dollar occasionally.

[Sally French]

Interesting. I'm seeing Target right now is 10% back. Do you think it works if I do online Target, and then in store pickup?

[Megan Coyle]

Oh, yeah. I think it would totally work.

[Sally French]

Okay.

[Megan Coyle]

All right, I'll try. I'll try. You just have to check out online and make sure it's activated. I think we should say this, like in bright neon flashing lights is. You know, we've talked about this browser extension, and it pops up when you visit a retailer's website, and there's a button that says activate. And it will not give you cash back or rewards of any kind unless you hit that activate button. And also, you cannot activate it on multiple shopping portals at the same time. So you do have to pick one. You can't activate Americans and Rakutens and Capital One Shopping all at the same time. You got to pick one. I'm telling you. Once you get into this, you realize there are certain purchases that just get you so many points. Like, I wasn't kidding about switching your cell phone company.

[Sally French]

Wow. Yeah. I have heard of people do this where they just buy stuff they don't need because the points are worth more than the stuff.

[Megan Coyle]

Yeah. I've also heard about people buying gift cards to certain places. It doesn't Always work. Definitely. Familiarize yourself with the shopping portals and what types of purchases are eligible, because sometimes gift cards are not included. But I've heard about people buying things through some of these shopping portals and getting this super high rewards rate and then being able to use that in other ways. For example, using the gift card that they bought at Staples to buy, you know, the office supplies they need at another time. But they already locked in that huge rewards rate.

[Sally French]

Okay, good to know. Cashback monitor. Wow. I've never heard of this. This is amazing. I'm so excited we're talking about this. They do not sponsor our show. I'm glad you told me about this.

[Megan Coyle]

I'm happy to. Okay, Sally, before we go, are you earning points and miles on things like your ride shares?

[Sally French]

Oh, yes, I do that.

[Megan Coyle]

There are.

[Sally French]

There are many companies that partner with the airline and hotel programs where you can earn bonus points. I am talking about Uber, Lyft, Starbucks, some big brands. And this is completely outside of shopping portals. The way this works is if you a loyalty program account or just generally an account with these companies, you obviously have an Uber account to call an Uber. You can do an extra thing where you just link your Delta SkyMiles account and you can earn miles for your Uber rides and your Uber Eats orders. This is a really seamless way to just again, rack up a few more miles. It's not going to be anything huge, but really good opportunity to get some more miles also to keep that account activity engaged. As I said, I'm not flying America every two years, but if I can link my American account to something like this and get those extra miles when I'm spending money anyway, that's a really, really good way to do this. Some of my favorites are Starbucks and Delta. So you link your sky miles and your Starbucks rewards accounts. You earn miles when you reload your Starbucks gift cards with $25 or more. This is a way to earn some bonus miles. Nothing huge, but if you're buying coffee anyway, you might as well.

[Megan Coyle]

Well, Sally, you know, I love my airport chai latte from Starbucks. So, you know, I'm doing this one. And like you said, this one doesn't earn you a ton of miles with Delta, but again, a way to keep your account active. And also it kind of goes both ways. You also get double stars on your Starbucks purchases. So Starbucks has its own rewards program. So I'm also racking up more stars from my free drink eventually. That is the reciprocal rewards part of these partnerships is also really, really nice.

[Sally French]

And what I Like about this, there is no pop up involved, no shopping port involved. It takes five seconds to link your accounts. So while you're listening to this podcast, just go into your Starbucks app, add your Delta Sky Miles account, vice versa. Other ones I like is Lyft. They have partnerships with United, Build Hilton, Atmos Rewards. Delta also has a partnership with Airbnb. So go in and link your accounts. If any of these brands or companies that you use, just link it, it's a one and done and get those extra miles.

[Megan Coyle]

And it's important to note that Lyft does not let you link multiple loyalty programs. So you do have to choose between United Built Hilton or Atmos Rewards. And you can also email [e-mail] and tell us which one you think is the most valuable to link to. Because I honestly had a hard time choosing between all of these. I went with Atmos Rewards because I have a Atmos Rewards credit card. So I'm trying to add a little bit more on that front. But yeah, let me know which one. What would you choose, Sally? Or what do you use for Lyft?

[Sally French]

My Lyft is linked to my Hilton only because I set it up so long ago. I do think Built would be a better return, but I, I haven't gotten the the time in my life. Maybe I'll do that after we stop recording to switch it to Built.

[Megan Coyle]

This is a good reminder because these partnerships actually change. Not super frequently, but regularly enough. Like even that Starbucks and Delta partnership we were talking about. The earning rates changed a little bit in the past couple of years. So it is kind of good to maybe yearly look at all of these links to loyalty programs again and just make sure that you are linking the one that's the most valuable to you.

[Sally French]

So Megan, I want to know how many points and miles do you think you've gotten collectively in your lifetime off of all this online shopping and dining and all of this?

[Megan Coyle]

So I'm not even the biggest online shopping portal user and I think I've gotten 100,000 extra points from it.

[Sally French]

Wow.

[Megan Coyle]

And like I said, it's mostly just seeing the pop up come out. I'm really not strategizing to do it on the biggest payout days. Like the 17 points per dollar on the viator purchase was a happenstance. I was just like, oh, I need to book this for my mom and I. And then I went and I was like, 17 points per dollar. I'm checking out right now.

[Sally French]

So tell me, how many browser extensions do you have installed?

[Megan Coyle]

I have four I think four.

[Sally French]

And how does your brain handle this? Like if you're doing research for something else and then all these pop ups happen, what do you do?

[Megan Coyle]

They don't bother me anymore. You know how you just almost don't see online ads as you're scrolling through articles anymore because you're just so used to seeing them. I almost can turn off a part of my brain and when I'm not trying to actually check out and buy something or I just like xxx really quick. But honestly, I don't do a ton of online shopping like I said, and it's only very specific and usually big retailers and so I'm not often shopping at those. I am looking for local businesses, I'm looking for more niche products, that kind of thing. So it honestly doesn't bother me as much as you might think should tell listeners.

[Sally French]

When my mom passed away, you very kindly sent me a bouquet of flowers. And then the first thing I texted you back was, did you buy these from a shopping portal? Because I always feel like 1-800-Flowers is like the number one shopping portal option. 1-800-Flowers. Their flowers are so expensive. But then never like you do pay full price for their flowers, but I see they always have 20% back offers.

[Megan Coyle]

Oh yeah. Again, flowers is one of those categories. Like if you were ever buying flowers to ship to someone, check in all of these portals, see what the flower companies are offering in terms of bonus points. I don't know if you remember Sally, but I did buy you flowers and I did get it from 1-800-Flowers and not only did I use a shopping portal, I also used an offer. I think it was an AMEX offer on my AMEX platform Platinum. And those are the offers that are usually targeted and they show up in your credit card app and you have to add them to your card and it'll be like you get $10 off of $50 purchase at this retailer or whatever it is. So I stacked my rewards when I was buying. Honestly, I made money from buying you flowers.

[Sally French]

Flowers are so expensive. I'm just gonna say it. Hot take. If you are buying flowers online and you are not using one of these programs, you are subsidizing other people who are getting these points. So do you for sure with flowers more than anything. Check your cashback monitor, check your offers because you probably have a really good deal there.

[Megan Coyle]

Wait, Sally, is that your hot takeoff for today?

[Sally French]

That's my hot takeoff.

[Megan Coyle]

I love it. I love it. Okay, wait. Just a quick recap before we close because I know we just gave people a lot of information. My number one tip, if you collect Amex or Built Points, you need to need to need to sign up for Rakuten and set it to earn one of those points because it can really augment the points that you are earning also on your credit cards or through the built loyalty program.

[Sally French]

Then you can always use your airline's own shopping portal. Especially Megan if you are an AA

[Megan Coyle]

flyer, that's right, it'll earn you loyalty points. And also make sure to download the browser extension or app to make it a habit every time you're online shopping. The more you do it, the more familiar you will get with with typical rewards rates and the types of purchases that'll probably get you the most points.

[Sally French]

And if you like me, don't want that browser extension, maybe bookmark cashback monitor.

[Megan Coyle]

By the way, if you wanna figure out how to earn extra points or miles, make sure to follow us Smart Travel on your favorite podcast app. We talk about this all the time. Our podcast is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and iHeartRadio and if you follow us you will automatically download new episodes. If you're listening on Spotify, drop us a comment right in the app. Let us know if you use any of these shopping portals and if you like the show.

[Sally French]

If you want more of the show. If you found Megan's advice on all of these shopping portals to be life changing, then please give us a comment on the show in Apple Podcasts because we want to hear from you and we want those five star reviews as well because that enables us to keep the show going.

[Megan Coyle]

This episode was produced by Tess Viglin and edited by Nick Karismi. Claire Socie and Hilary Georgie helped with

[Sally French]

fact checking and our disclaimer. We are not financial or investment advisors. This info is provided for general educational and entertainment purposes and may not apply to your specific circumstances.

[Megan Coyle]

We hope you're inspired to keep your passport full and your wallet even fuller. We'll see you next time.

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[Megan Coyle]

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[Megan Coyle]

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[Sally French]

See terms.