If you’re new to the points and miles arena, you probably started with credit cards and wondered which one to open. Which welcome bonus is best? Which card earns the most at restaurants? Understanding how to maximize your points and miles is essential.
Those questions are important, but they skip right over one of the easiest ways to earn points and miles: check the portal before you buy anything online.
Before diving into specific cards, it’s crucial to know how to use points and miles effectively. This knowledge can significantly enhance your earning potential.
Most beginners don’t know what they don’t know.
You don’t need to buy more; you need to stop checking out on autopilot.
The first question should (normally) not be “where can I earn the most points today?”
The better question is: what was I already going to buy today, and how can I maximize the points and miles I earn from that purchase?
A camera. Skincare. Contact lenses. Pet food. A laptop. A hotel stay. Dinner out. A gift.
Once you identify the purchase, you can build the stack around it.
By assessing your purchases in terms of points and miles, you can turn routine spending into substantial rewards.
That is what I did last week with a Sony camera that I wanted to buy so I can start recording videos for you, the Sony ZV-E10.
Most people would open Amazon, search for the model, compare shipping, and check out. I did that. But then I also did something else. I looked at the purchase as a points-and-miles-earning opportunity.
The order was simple:
Before I checked the portal, I checked the card offers that could help me maximize my points and miles.
This is where CardPointers.com came in.
Each of these purchases can contribute to my overall points and miles balance.
This mindset shift is crucial to maximizing your points and miles.
CardPointers helps users pick the right credit card for category bonuses and adds offers from Amex, Chase, Bank of America, Citi, Wells Fargo, and U.S. Bank without sharing your bank logins. For me, the main feature is that I can add card-linked offers across almost all of my cards, and I don’t have to click through each one by hand. And it adds all available offers to each card on which they are available, which is important with Amex offers (use at your own risk).
For my camera purchase, the card side mattered because I was using it to earn points and miles effectively.
Finding the best strategy to earn points and miles can lead to significant rewards.
The current Business Platinum Dell benefit is up to $150 in statement credits on U.S. purchases directly with Dell Technologies, plus an added $1,000 statement credit after $5,000 or more in qualifying Dell purchases per calendar year. Amex and Dell both state that the $150 limit is per enrolled Card Account, and employee card spend on the same Card Account counts toward that account’s cap.
Dell sells the Sony camera for the same price as Amazon and Best Buy, and its checkout can split a payment across up to three cards online. That’s critical when each card has its own credit.
I had a targeted Amex Offer for Dell Technologies: 5% back, up to $500, on qualifying online purchases at dell.com/smallbusiness by June 30, 2026. I also had Dell credits from my last Amex-fueled purchase.
My 5% Dell offer stacks with the Business Platinum Dell credit and shopping portal rewards. That was the exact kind of deal I was looking for.
At that point, the card side was already paying for itself.
The next question was not “which portal do I usually use?”
The question was: Which portal is best for Dell today?
That is why I use a website called Savewise (Referral link). Savewise compares rates across 29 shopping portals, including cash-back, airline and hotel, and bank and card portals. It also surfaces card-linked offers from programs such as Amex, Chase, Citi, and SimplyMiles. I originally used Savewise to activate offers on my Tom Thumb/Albertsons account. Now I use it to compare shopping portal rates and find card-linked offer stacks without leaving the store’s site.
On the Dell portal screen, Savewise showed 26 portal choices: 9 cash-back options, 11 mileage options, and 6 points options.
British Airways was at the top with 7x Avios. Kudos was at 7% cash back. Price.com was at 6% cash back. JetBlue was at 4x miles. Chase Freedom was listed at 4x points with a Savewise value of 6 cents per dollar. Rove Miles was at 2.6x miles with a Savewise value of 3.64 cents per dollar. Rakuten (referral link) Amex/Bilt was only 2x points.
Rakuten is the gold standard of portals. Users rarely have issues receiving their Rakuten rewards when they follow the steps to make a purchase. Rakuten Group, Inc. owns Rakuten Rewards, while Berkshire Hathaway is the largest institutional shareholder of American Express. The two companies do not share corporate ownership, although they work together.
Note the value column in the screenshot above. A 4x points rate is not always equivalent to 4% cash back. A 7x airline portal rate is not always equivalent to 7% cash back. Savewise tries to translate the options into cents per dollar so you can compare them on one screen.
For this purchase, Savewise valued the British Airways 7x rate at 7.7 cents per dollar. My own Avios are valued at 1.25 cents each, so 7 Avios per dollar were 8.75 cents per dollar to me. Since my number was higher, I used my own value for the final math. This extra value is why we collect points and miles instead of cash back.
If I had gone straight to Rakuten out of habit, I would have taken 2x Amex Membership Rewards points instead of 7x Avios.
Once you’re at the point where you have enough miles to comfortably book a trip multiple ways (from multiple sources), earning the most miles per transaction becomes more important than trying to earn a single point or miles currency.
A shopping portal usually tracks the click. A card-linked offer usually tracks the payment card and merchant.
Those are different signals, so they can often stack.
In this case, I had the portal click through British Airways, the Amex Offer on the enrolled Business Platinum cards, the Dell credits, and normal card earning.
That gave me four earning layers on one purchase.
Here is the final math showing how my points and miles are stacking up.
The total was $811.86. The subtotal used for portal earnings was $749.99.
| Amex Business Platinum Dell credits | $150 × 3 = $450 |
| Dell Amex Offer | 5% back on $811.86 = $40.59 |
| British Airways portal | 7x Avios on $749.99 = 5,250 Avios |
| Base Amex earning | 1x on $811.86 = 812 Membership Rewards points |
Cash back and credits: $450 + $40.59 = $490.59
Avios earned: $749.99 × 7 = 5,250 Avios
Avios value at 1.25 cents each: 5,250 × 1.25 cents = $65.63
Total value before counting the 812 Membership Rewards points: $490.59 + $65.63 = $556.22
Effective net cost: $811.86 minus $556.22 = $255.64
If I also value the 812 Membership Rewards points at 1.25 cents each, that adds $10.15, bringing the effective net cost closer to $245.49.
So, a camera that rang up at $811.86 effectively cost me about $256 after accounting for the base Membership Rewards points.
Same camera. Same merchant. Very different result. But keep in mind I pay a hefty annual fee on each card, so it’s important to use as many of the card’s benefits as I can on things I would already buy if I want to recoup that fee.
A 5,250 Avios balance will not book a lie-flat long-haul flight by itself, and that’s okay. It can top off an account. It can move you closer to a short-haul Avios award. It can also give you more flexibility inside the British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Finnair, and Qatar Avios systems, depending on route, program, award space, date, and fees.
British Airways loyalty members can collect Avios through online shopping with hundreds of online retailers. British Airways’ Reward Flights require Avios plus taxes, fees, and carrier charges, and its own current examples show that pricing depends on date, destination, cabin, and partner. In other words, do not treat 5,000 Avios as a promised flight. Treat it as a useful building block.
For this example, I did not need the Avios to book a full trip on their own. I only needed them to outpace the 2% Rakuten rate I skipped.
At 1.25 cents each, they did.
A shopping portal is a tracking site.
You start at the portal, search for the store, click through, shop on the store’s site, and earn the portal reward if the purchase is tracked and qualifies.
The expert part isn’t using a portal; it’s picking the right portal and waiting for the right rate.
That is why a comparison tool like Savewise is so important. One day, Rakuten wins. Another day, British Airways wins. Another day, Chase, Rove, Alaska, or American’s portal wins.
The rate changes, and the best choice changes with it.
Eligible Rakuten users with a U.S. Amex Membership Rewards card can choose Membership Rewards as the payout method. Rakuten also states the conversion plainly: 10% cash back equals 10x Membership Rewards points.
That is a big earning opportunity for beginners.
A cash-back shopper sees 10%. A points-and-miles travel hacker sees 10x Membership Rewards.
When Rakuten is at 10%, 15%, or 20%, and your account is set to earn Membership Rewards, it can become one of the best ways to earn transferable points without opening a new credit card.
The catch: you need a qualifying Amex Membership Rewards card. American Express corporate cards and the Rakuten American Express Card are not eligible for linking Rakuten to Membership Rewards on their own.
And that brings us to the Rakuten Amex Card.
The U.S. Rakuten American Express Card is not a normal Amex-issued Membership Rewards card.
The card has no annual fee and earns extra cash back on Rakuten purchases, including 10% back at Rakuten partner restaurants. It’s issued by First Electronic Bank, and the card is powered by Imprint Payments.
The earning rates are strong:
| Qualifying Rakuten purchases | Extra 4% cash back on the first $7,000 per calendar year, then 1% |
| Eligible Rakuten Dining purchases | 10% cash back |
| Eligible grocery and restaurant purchases | 2% cash back |
| Other eligible purchases | 1% cash back |
Rakuten Dining spend does not count toward the $7,000 Rakuten purchase threshold. Card rewards are paid through your chosen Rakuten payment method. If the user has another qualifying Amex Membership Rewards card and has selected Membership Rewards as the Rakuten payout method, Rakuten says it is possible to receive Membership Rewards points from Rakuten Card rewards.
The Rakuten Amex Card can add rewards. It does not, by itself, make your Rakuten account eligible for Membership Rewards payouts. You still need a separate eligible Amex Membership Rewards card connected to Rakuten.
Shopping portals are only part of the earning system, the online/in-store part.
Dining programs are like the offline version.
Rewards Network, which powers most hotel and airline dining portals, says members can find a participating restaurant, dine, pay with a linked credit or debit card, and earn rewards on the full bill, including tax and tip. Rewards Network has 20,000 restaurants and 25 million members nationwide.
The rule that matters: the same card generally cannot sit in multiple Rewards Network dining programs at the same time.
AAdvantage Dining allows each credit or debit card to be enrolled in only one Rewards Network program at a time. If you add the same card to another Rewards Network program, it is removed from AAdvantage Dining.
That does not mean you only use one dining program.
It means you split your cards between dining programs.
| Card A | AAdvantage Dining |
| Card B | MileagePlus Dining |
| Card C | SkyMiles Dining |
| Card D | Rakuten Dining |
That way, you are not moving one card back and forth and wondering why a meal didn’t post.
Rakuten Dining is one of the cleanest beginner dining stacks.
Rakuten says Dining cash back is based on the full bill, including tax, tips, and drinks. Rakuten also says Dining can stack with credit card rewards, but it recommends using a separate card for other dining rewards, as another dining program may override Rakuten Dining rewards. Rakuten Dining is for dine-in transactions, not delivery or takeout.
With the Rakuten Amex Card, eligible Rakuten Dining purchases earn 10% cash back.
That is a very strong rate for dinner.
The setup is simple:
That is why I check dining before I eat, not after.
SimplyMiles is an AAdvantage program and is separate from Rewards Network dining and from the AAdvantage shopping portal.
American Airlines lists SimplyMiles as an eligible partner for certain Loyalty Point Rewards bonuses, and you earn one Loyalty Point for every eligible AAdvantage mile at select merchants when using a registered Mastercard.
That means SimplyMiles can be yet another layer!
Before buying from a merchant, I check:
For food, restaurants, meal kits, delivery brands, and other dining-adjacent merchants, I also check SimplyMiles. It’s not the same as a dining network, but it often offers merchants that can overlap with how people spend on food.
Read the terms each time. Some offers say they cannot be combined with other programs. Some still track with portals in practice, but I don’t treat that as guaranteed.
You won’t remember every portal rate. You won’t check every store every morning. That’s why alerts are important.
Savewise’s Pro plan includes offer alerts and offer history, which can notify you when a store’s rate meets your criteria.
I use Loyalty Point Hunters for that.
Loyalty Point Hunters provides search tools for earning miles and points through everyday purchases, including a merchant earning search, text and email alerts, and earning tracking. This is how we shop at stores like Ulta.
My wife puts items into a shopping list. We wait until the portal rate crosses our line. If Ulta goes to 10x or better through a program we want, that’s our “buy” signal.
You shouldn’t spend more; you should change when you shop.
A normal shopper buys when the item pops into their head. A portal shopper buys when the rate makes sense.
The Dell example is the normal stack.
The Kate Spade 250x Avios deal is the wild one.
In January 2026, the British Airways shopping portal in the U.S. showed 250 Avios per dollar at Kate Spade. The rate had been pending for me for months, and in March it showed as posted.
I took advantage of their mistake. What should have been a generous 25x, I believe, was posted at 250x. My alarms were triggered, and I received SMS and email alerts.
I didn’t expect BA to honor the mistake rate. Amy and I decided to buy a couple of things, a picture frame and a little necklace. My spend was $168. If they didn’t honor the 250x, we would be okay. If they did, it would be enough Avios for a one-way lie-flat seat in business class to Europe.
The rate was 250x Avios.
$168 × 250 = 42,000 Avios
At 1.25 cents per Avios, that is:
42,000 × 1.25 cents = $525 in Avios value
Another way to read the same deal:
$168 ÷ 42,000 Avios = 0.4 cents per Avios
That is absurd. It’s not normal. It’s not the benchmark.
But it proves why alerts matter.
Most shoppers never saw it. They weren’t checking British Airways Avios Shopping. They weren’t using alerts. They weren’t ready to act. I posted about it on social media and sent alerts to my people.
Rove.com is one of the more interesting newer portal currencies because it offers more than cash back.
Rove members can earn miles through hotels, flights, and shopping, including bonus miles at more than 13,000 stores on top of normal credit or debit card rewards. All airline partners transfer at 1:1, Accor transfers at 1.5 Rove Miles to 1 Accor point, and the program has access to 18 global partners across all three major airline alliances and one hotel program.
As of 6/1/2026, you can get a 50% bonus miles when you transfer Rove Miles to Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles (through 06/30) or a 25% bonus to Aeroplan (through 06/06). Rove Miles can be earned instantly on non-refundable hotel bookings.
The portal field is getting wider.
You’re no longer comparing only cash back against airline miles. You may be comparing cash back, Membership Rewards via Rakuten, Bilt points via Rakuten, Chase points, Avios, AAdvantage miles, Alaska (Atmos) miles, Rove Miles, hotel points, and card-linked offers.
It’s too much to track by hand.
Use a tool. Compare the value column. Pick based on your own goals.
Use this before any online purchase:
The stack can break.
The most common reasons:
| Mistake | What Breaks |
| You used a coupon not listed by the portal | The purchase may be excluded |
| You bought a gift card | Many portals exclude gift cards |
| You used the app instead of the website | Some portals track only the website |
| You paid with the wrong card | Card-linked offers require the enrolled card |
| You returned part of the order | Rewards can be reduced or clawed back |
| You clicked through one portal, then another | The last click may get credit |
| You waited too long to buy | Portal rates and card offers change |
Points and miles don’t come from chaos. You only get paid if you keep it clean. Take screenshots of the portal rate, the card offer, the order confirmation, and the terms. Portals usually work, but missing rewards claims are much easier when you have proof. Don’t block cookies. Don’t use a VPN. Set up a different profile in Chrome for each portal.
Understanding how to use points and miles can greatly enhance your travel experiences.
The portal isn’t the game. The stack is the game.
A portal adds miles, points, or cash back. A card-linked offer can add a statement credit. A credit card benefit can lower the price. A dining program can make offline spending earn like online shopping. Alerts can tell you when the rate is high enough.
That’s how an $811.86 Dell camera purchase came to about $256 after accounting for the base Membership Rewards points.
That is how $168 at Kate Spade became 42,000 Avios.
That is why my wife keeps lists at stores like Ulta and Sephora and waits for 10x or better.
None of this requires buying things you don’t need; it requires pausing before you check out and considering how you can optimize your points and miles.
There are additional layers that can be stacked to earn even more miles, such as your checkout method, using products such as PayPal Rewards or Paze, which I’ll get into in a future post.
What are points and miles?
Points and miles are rewards currencies used in various loyalty programs. They can help you earn free travel, upgrades, and more.
Are shopping portal rewards in addition to credit card rewards?
Yes, when the purchase tracks and qualifies. The portal reward comes from the portal click. Credit card rewards come from the card transaction.
Can I use two shopping portals at once?
No. In practice, assume one portal gets the click. If you click through Rakuten, then British Airways, then a coupon extension, the last tracked click may be the one that counts. Pick one portal and keep the checkout path clean.
Can I stack a shopping portal with an Amex Offer or Chase Offer?
Often, yes. A portal tracks the click, while a card-linked offer tracks the enrolled card and merchant. Savewise surfaces card-linked offers from Amex, Chase, Citi, and SimplyMiles so users can stack them with portal rewards. Terms still control.
Can I stack a shopping portal with an Amex Offer or Chase Offer?
Often, yes, as points and miles can be earned alongside these offers.
Is the Rakuten Amex Card enough to earn Membership Rewards through Rakuten?
No. Rakuten says the Rakuten American Express Card is not an eligible card for linking Rakuten to Membership Rewards. You need a separate Amex Membership Rewards card to qualify. The Rakuten Amex Card can still earn Rakuten rewards, and those rewards may be paid via your selected Rakuten payment method if you have the required separate MR card set up.
Can the same card be used for both AAdvantage Dining and United Dining?
No, not at the same time if both are Rewards Network programs. AAdvantage Dining says each card can only be enrolled in one Rewards Network program at a time, and adding it to another program removes it from AAdvantage Dining.
Does SimplyMiles earn Loyalty Points? American Airlines lists SimplyMiles among eligible AAdvantage partner channels for certain Loyalty Point bonuses, and American’s FAQ says you earn one Loyalty Point for every eligible AAdvantage mile. Offer terms still matter because some offers may award bonus miles that do not count the same way as base miles.
Should beginners use Rakuten, British Airways, Rove, or cash back?
Use the one that pays the highest value for your goal on that day. My Dell screen showed British Airways as the winner for that purchase. Another day, Rakuten Membership Rewards or Rove could win. The answer changes, so compare before buying.
What is the easiest first habit?
Before you buy anything online, pause and check three things: the card offer, the portal rate, and the payment card. That one habit can turn a normal purchase into a stack, then regularly evaluate how many points and miles you’ve accumulated and what currencies you might still need.
Learn + Earn + Burn + Churn
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