Earn up to 4 miles per dollar on Apple purchases

Shopping for back to school? If so, now is a good time to buy the Apple products that have been sitting in your shopping cart. Several airlines are offering bonus miles for purchases made on Apple’s website for a limited time.

Here are the elevated earnings you’ll receive on Apple purchases Monday when you click through these online shopping portals:

• American Airlines: Earn up to 4 miles per dollar at Apple (typically 1 mile per dollar)
• Alaska Airlines: Earn up to 4 miles per dollar at Apple (typically 1 mile per dollar)
• Delta Air Lines: Earn up to 4 miles per dollar at Apple (typically 1 mile per dollar)
• United Airlines: Earn up to 4 miles per dollar at Apple (typically 1 mile per dollar)

When you click through the shopping portal, you’ll notice that different Apple products sometimes award different rates. During this promo, however, all eligible purchases get 4 miles per dollar — including iPad, Mac, iPhone and Apple Watch purchases.

Apple Vision Pro, Apple Pro Display XDR, Mac Pro with M2 Ultra, Mac Studio with M2 Max and M2 Ultra, gift wrap, Apple Developer Programs, AppleCare+ monthly subscriptions, and orders purchased with government, veterans or education discounts are among the exclusions from earning shopping portal bonuses from this offer.

Additionally, each customer is eligible only to receive a bonus on up to five units per eligible product — except the iPhone, which is limited to only two units within 30 days.

You should always use a shopping portal aggregator to compare the top earning rates for various retailers before making a big purchase. How you value your miles will affect which offer is best for you overall. These aggregators won’t always list bonuses based on spending thresholds.

Related: Why Apple’s entry-level iPhone 14s are great for travelers

As an example, if you purchase a base-model 15-inch MacBook Air for $1,299 through the AAdvantage Shopping portal Monday, you’ll earn 12,990 AAdvantage miles. Those miles are worth about $230, according to TPG’s valuations. They could be worth even more if you can find the right flight to redeem them on.

Base miles earned through the American shopping portal count as Loyalty Points. So, the purchase would also bring you almost 13,000 Loyalty Points closer to earning (or requalifying for) American elite status. In other words, this single purchase would earn roughly a third of the 40,000 Loyalty Points required for entry-level AAdvantage Gold status.

Surprisingly, the Apple Card isn’t necessarily the best card for making Apple purchases.

Although it offers a decent return, given the high cost of Apple’s devices, you should focus on credit cards with purchase protection and extended warranty benefits instead. Benefits vary from card to card, but you may have success getting compensated if your product is damaged or destroyed during the coverage period. Several TPG staffers have successfully covered their Apple products through credit card protections.

The information for the Apple Card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

If you’re picking up a pricey new phone, it’s good to have a card that will help protect your phone in case of loss or damage beyond those initial few months when purchase protection is in play. The Ink Business Preferred Credit Card is a good option.

You might also consider a card that earns more than 1 point or mile per dollar on all purchases, like the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (see rates and fees) or the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card (see rates and fees). Both cards offer 2 Capital One miles per dollar on all purchases, and you can then redeem these miles at a fixed value toward travel purchases or transfer them to various travel partners.

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Additional reporting by Andrew Kunesh, Summer Hull, Clint Henderson and Kyle Olsen.