December Ultimate Reward Bonuses Released

It’s the last month of the year, and for many it is time to shop for holiday presents!  Of course for miles and points junkies, that means there is an opportunity to do a bunch of online shopping through portals to earn extra points for the money we are going to spend anyway.  Sadly, this year didn’t bring us the one-day mega Ultimate Rewards bonuses that we saw last year (such as 10x for Apple, Best Buy, and more).  However, it is still possible to earn thousands of extra Ultimate Reward points while shopping for everyday items and special holiday purchases…you just have to try a little harder.

I’m not seeing very substantial changes in the Ultimate Rewards shopping portal from November to December.  Most stores held steady at the previous rates, but there were a few adjustments in both directions.  Remember, which Ultimate Rewards earning credit card you log in with will potentially alter the points payouts you see for various stores.  Some months the variability between the different credit cards is larger than others, but this month didn’t seem to bring very many differences that I was able to easily spot.  Since there weren’t very many changes this month (at least so far), the majority of example points payouts listed below are the same as from November.

Chase Sapphire Preferred:

Pottery Barn Kids/Pottery Barn Teen 5x

Pottery Barn 3x

Famous Footwear 10x

Shoebuy 10x

Crabtree & Evelyn 10x

Gap 3x

Jcrew 5x

FAO Schwartz 4x

Home Depot 5x

Holiday Inn/Intercontinental Hotels 8x

1-800-Contacts 5x

Drugstore.com 7x

Walmart 1x

Lowes 5x

Kohls 10x

Toys R Us 3x

Chase Freedom:

JC Penney 6x

Kohls 10x (that stacks to 15x when using Chase Freedom Q4 5x bonus)

Pottery Barn Kids/Pottery Barn Teen 5x

FAO Schwartz 4x

Drugstore.com 7x

Famous Footwear 10x

Best Buy 1x

ToysR Us 3x

Ugg Australia 10x

Anthropologie 5x

Ink Plus and Ink Bold Business Card:

Kohls 10x

Apple 1x

Office Depot 5x

Sears 5x

Staples 2x

Lowes 5x

Famous Footwear 10x

Neiman Marcus 4x

Macys 5x

Holiday Inn/Intercontinental Hotels 8x

Around Black Friday I was finding some higher payouts for some popular companies like Macys, Home Depot, Sears, Best Buy, and Overstock.com via some of the airline portals like United MileagePlus Shopping.  Some of those payouts at those portals have gone back down a bit after Black Friday madness ended, but keep an eye on those other portals right now as sometimes they have the upper hand on Ultimate Rewards in terms of payout levels.  For example, I just saw J. Crew at 9x via the US Airways portal – and that is almost double what the UR portal is paying.  The airline portals also have some additional bonuses going on listed below.  Of course, the customer service I have received from the UR portal is hard to beat, and not all points have the same value.

United MileagePlus Shopping: Get 500 bonus miles for every $250 you spend through 12/31 up to 2,500 bonus miles

US Airways DividendMiles Storefront: Get 300 bonus miles for spending $150, 500 bonus miles for spending $250, and 1,000 bonus miles for spending $500 through 12/31.  Max number of bonus miles is 1,000.

American Airlines AAdvantage e-Shopping: Get 500 bonus miles for every $250 you spend from November 18, 2012 to December 17, 2012.  Max number of bonus miles is 2,000.

Let me know if you spot some new Ultimate Reward shopping bonuses that I have overlooked, and I will get the post updated!  Also keep an eye on HikerT’s helpful site as I bet the payouts will be updated there in the near future.  Frequent Miler will also likely share his thoughts on this month’s payouts and how to maximize their value, so stay tuned to those sites as well.

Happy Holiday Shopping…even without the one day megabonuses.

Disclosure: I do receive a commission if you are approved for a credit card using one of my affiliate links. As always, thanks for your support.